Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan/Series 1/Volume 2/The Games and Sports of Japanese Children
THE GAMES AND SPORTS OF JAPANESE
CHILDREN.
BY
PROFESSOR W. E. GRIFFIS.
Read before the Asiatic Society of Japan,
on the 18th March, 1874.
———o———
The aim of the Asiatic Society of Japan is, as I understand it, to endeavour to attain any and all knowledge of the Japanese country and people. Nothing that will help us to understand them is foreign to the objects of this Society. While language, literature, art, religion, the drama, household superstition, etc., furnish us with objects worthy of study, the games and sports of the children deserve our notice. For, as we believe, their amusements reflect the more serious affairs and actions of mature life. They are the foretastes and the prophecies of adult life which children see continually; not always understanding, but ever ready to imitate it. Hence in the toy-shops of Japan one may see the microcosm of Japanese life. In the children’s sports is enacted the miniature drama of the serious life of the parents. Among a nation of players such as the Japanese may be said to have been, it is not always easy to draw the line of demarcation between the diversions of children proper and those of a larger growth. Indeed, it might be said that during the last two centuries and a half, previous to the coming of foreigners, the main business of this nation was play. One of the happiest phrases in Mr. Alcock’s book is that “Japan is a Paradise of Babies;” he might have added that it was also a very congenial abode for all who love play. The contrast between the Chinese and Japanese character in this respect is radical. It is laid down in one of the very last sentences in the Trimetrical Classic, the primer of every school in the Flowery Land, that play is unprofitable! The whole character, manners, and even the dress of the sedate and dignified Chinamen, seem to be in keeping with that aversion to rational amusement and athletic excercises that characterize that adult population.
In Japan, on the contrary, one sees that the children of a larger growth enjoy with equal zest games which are the same, or nearly the same, as those of lesser size and fewer years. Certain it is that the adults do all in their power to provide for the children their full quota of play and harmless sports. We frequently see full-grown and able-bodied natives indulging in amusements which the men of the west lay aside with their pinafores, or when their curls are cut. If we, in the conceited pride of our superior civilization, look down upon this as childish, we must remember that the Celestial, from the pinnacle of his lofty, and to him immeasurably elevated, civilization, looks down upon our manly sports with contempt, thinking it a condescension even to notice them.
A very noticeable change has passed over the Japanese people since the modern advent of foreigners, in respect to their love of amusements. Their sports are by no means as numerous or elaborate as formerly, and they do not enter into them with the enthusiasm that formerly characterized them. The children’s festivals and sports are rapidly losing their importance, and some are now rarely seen. Formerly the holidays were almost as numerous as saints’ days in the calendar. Apprentice-boys had a liberal quota of holidays stipulated in their indentures, and as the children counted the days before each great holiday on their fingers, we may believe that a great deal of digital arithemetic was being continually done. We do not know of any country in the world in which there are so many toy-shops, or so many fairs for the sale of the things which delight children. Not only are the streets of every city abundantly supplied with shops, filled as full as a Christmas stocking with gaudy toys, but in small towns and villages one or more children’s bazaars may be found. The most gorgeous display of all things pleasing to the eye of a Japanese child is found in the courts or streets leading to celebrated temples. On a matsuri, or festival day, the toysellers and itinerant showmen throng with their most attractive wares or sights in front of the shrine or temple. On the walls and in conspicuous places near the churches and cathedrals in Europe and America, the visitor is usually regaled with the sight of undertaker’s signs and gravedigger’s advertisements. How differently the Japanese act in these respects, let any one see by visiting Asakusa, Kanda, Miôjin, or one of the numerous Inari shrines on some great festival day.
We have not space in this paper to name or describe the numerous street-shows and showmen who are supposed to be interested mainly in entertaining children; though in reality adults form a part, often the major part, of their audiences. Any one desirous of seeing these in full glory must ramble down Yanagi Chô from Sujikai in Tokio, on some fair day, and especially on a general holiday.
Among the most common are the street theatricals, in which two, three or four trained boys and girls do some very creditable acting, chiefly in comedy. Rarce shows in which the looker-on sees the inside splendors of a daimio’s yashiki or the fascinating scenes of the Yoshiwara, or some famous natural scenery, are very common. The showman, as he pulls the wires that change the scenes, entertains the spectators with songs. The outside of his box is usually adorned with pictures of famous actors or prostitutes, nine-tailed foxes, devils, of all colors, dropsical badgers and wrathful husbands butchering faithless wives and their paramours, or some such staple horror in which the normal Japanese so delights. Story tellers, posturers, dancers, actors of charades, conjurers, flute-players, song-singers are found on these streets, but those who specially delight the children are the men who, by dint of breath and fingers, work a paste made of wheat-gluten, into all sorts of curious and gaily-smeared toys such as flowers, trees, noblemen, fair ladies, various utensils, the foreigner, the jin-riki-sha, &c. Nearly every itinerant seller of candy, starch-cakes, sugared peas, and sweetened beans has several methods of lottery by which he adds to the attractions on his stall. A disk having a revolving arrow, whirled round by the hand of a child, or a number of strings which are connected with the faces of imps, goddesses, devils or heroes, lends the excitement of chance, and when a lucky pull or whirl occurs, occasions the subsequent addition to the small fraction of a cent’s worth to be bought. Men or women itinerates, carrying a small charcoal brazier under a copper griddle, with batter, spoons, cups and shoyu sauce to hire out for the price of a cash each to the little urchins who spend an afternoon of bliss, making their own griddle-cakes and eating them. The seller of sugar-jolly exhibits a devil, taps a drum and dances for the benefit of his baby-customers. The seller of mochi does the same with the addition of gymnastics and skilful tricks with balls of dough. In every Japanese city, there are scores, if not hundreds, of men and women who obtain a livelihood by amusing the children.
Some of the games of Japanese children are of a national character and are indulged in by all classes. Others are purely local or exclusive. Among the former are those which belong to the special days, or matsuri, which in the old calendars enjoyed vastly more importance than under the new one. Beginning with the first of the year, there are a number of games and sports peculiar to this time. The girls, dressed in their best robes and girdles, with their faces powdered and their lips painted, until they resemble the peculiar colors seen on a beetle’s wings, and their hair arranged in the most attractive coiffure, are out upon the street playing battledore and shuttle-cock. They play not only in twos and threes, but also in circles. The shuttlecock is a small seed, often gilded, stuck round with feathers arranged like the petals of a flower. The battledore is a wooden bat; one side of which is of bare wood, while the other has the raised effigy of some popular actor, hero of romance, or singing girl in the most ultra Japanese style of beauty. The girls evidently highly appreciate this game, as it gives abundant opportunity to the display of personal beauty, figure and dress. Those who fail in the game often have their faces marked with ink, or a circle drawn round their eyes. The boys sing a song that the wind will blow, the girls sing that it may be calm so that their shuttlecocks may fly straight. The little girls at this time play with a ball made of cotton cord, covered elaborately with many strands of bright vari-coloured silk. Inside the house they have games suited not only for the daytime, but for the evenings. Many foreigners have wondered what the Japanese do at night, and how the long winter evenings are spent. On fair and especially moonlight nights, most of the people are out of doors, and many of the children with them. Markets and fairs are held regularly at night in Tokio, and in the other large cities. The foreigner living in a Japanese city, even if he were blind, could tell by stepping out of doors, whether the weather were clear and fine or disagreeable. On dark and stormy nights the stillness of a great city like Tokio is unbroken and very impressive; but on a fair and moonlight night the hum and bustle tell one that the people are out in throngs, and make one feel that it is a city that he lives in. In most of the castle towns in Japan, it was formerly the custom of the people, especially of the younger, to assemble on moonlight nights in the streets or open spaces near the castle gates, and dance a sort of subdued dance, moving round in circles and clapping their hands. These dances often continued during the entire night, the following day being largely consumed in sleep. In the winter evenings in Japanese households the children amuse themselves with their sports, or are amused by their elders, who tell them entertaining stories. The samurai father relates to his son Japanese history and heroic lore, to fire him with enthusiasm and a love of those achievements which every samurai youth hopes at some day to perform. Then there are numerous social entertainments, at which the children above a certain age are allowed to be present. But the games relied on as standard means of amusement, and seen especially about New Year, are those of cards. In one of these, a large square sheet of paper is laid on the floor. On this card are the names and pictures of the fifty-three post-stations between Yedo and Kiôto. At the place Kiôto are put a few coins, or a pile of cakes, or some such prizes, and the games is played with dice. Each throw advances the player towards the goal, and the one arriving first obtains the prize. At this time of the year also, the games of cards called respectively Iroha Garuta, Hiyaku Nin Isshiu Guruta, Kokin Garuca, Genji and Shi Garuta are played a great deal. The Iroha Garuta are small cards each containing a proverb. The proverb is printed on one card, and the picture illustrating it upon another. Each proverb begins with a certain one of the 50 Japanese letters, i, ro, ha, &c., and so on through the syllabary. The children range themselves in a circle and the cards are shuffled and dealt. One is appointed to be reader. Looking at his cards he reads the proverb. The player who has the picture corresponding to the proverb calls out, and the match is made. Those who are rid of their cards first, win the game. The one holding the last card is the loser. If he be a boy, he has his face marked curiously with ink. If a girl, she has a paper or wisp of straw stuck in her hair.
The Hiaku Nin Isshiu Garuta game consists of two hundred cards, on which are inscribed the one hundred stanzas or poems so celebrated and known in every household. A stanza of Japanese poetry usually consists of two parts, a first and second, or upper and lower clause. The manner of playing the game is as follows. The reader reads half the stanza on his card, and the player, having the card on which the other half is written, calls out, and makes a match. Some children become so familiar with these poems that they do not need to hear the entire half of the stanza read, but frequently only the first word.
The Kokin Garuta, or the game of Ancient Odes, the Genji Garuta, named after the celebrated Genji (Minamoto) family of the middle ages, and the Shi Garuta are all card-games of a similar nature, but can be thoroughly enjoyed only by well-educated Chinese scholars, as the references and quotations are written in Chinese and require a good knowledge of the Chinese and Japanese classics to play them well. To boys who are eager to become proficient in Chinese, it often acts as an incentive to be told that they will enjoy these games after certain attainments in scholarship have been made. Having made these attainments they play the game frequently, especially during vacation, to impress on their minds what they have already learned. The same benefit to the memory accrues from the Iroha and Hiakunin Isshiu Garuta.
Two other games are played which may be said to have an educational value. They are the Chiye no Ita, and the Chiye no Wa, or the “Wisdom Boards” and the “Ring of Wisdom.” The former consists of a number of flat thin pieces of wood, cut in many geometrical shapes. Certain possible figures are printed on paper as models, and the boy tries to form them out of the pieces given him. In some cases much time and thinking are required to form the figure. The Chiye no Wa is a ring-puzzle, made of rings of bamboo or iron on a bar. Boys having a talent for mathematics, or those who have a natural capacity to distinguish size and form, succeed very well at these games and enjoy them. The game of Checkers is played on a raised stand or table about six inches in height. The number of go or checkers, including black and white, is 360. In the Sho-gi, or game of chess, the pieces number 40 in all. Back-gammon is also a favorite play, and there are several forms of it. About the time of the old New Year’s when the winds of February and March are favorable to the sport, kites are flown, and there are few sports in which Japanese boys, from the infant on the back to the full-grown, and the over-grown, boy, take more delight. I have never observed, however, as foreign books so often tell us, old men flying kites and boys merely looking on. The Japanese kites are made of tough paper pasted on a frame of bamboo sticks and are usually of a rectangular shape. Some of them, however, are made to represent children or men, several kinds of birds and animals, fans, etc. On the rectangular kites are pictures of ancient heroes or beautiful women, dragons, horses, monsters of various kinds, or huge Chinese characters. Among the faces most frequently seen on these kities are those of Yoshitsune, Kintaro, Yoritamo, Benkei, Daruma, Tomoye, and Hangaku. Some of the kites are six feet square. Many of them have a thin tense ribbon of whalebone at the top of the kite which vibrates in the wind, making a loud humming noise. The boys frequently name their kites Genji or Peike, and each contestant endeavours to destroy that of his rival. For this purpose the string for ten or twenty feet near the kite end is first covered with glue, and then dipped into pounded glass, by which the string becomes covered with tiny blades, each able to cut quickly and deeply. By getting the kite in proper position and suddenly sawing the string of his antagonist, the severed kite falls, to be reclaimed by the victor.
The Japanese tops are of several kinds, some are made of univalve shells, filled with wax. Those intended for contests are made of hard wood, and are iron-clad by having a heavy iron ring round as a sort of tire. The boys wind and throw them in a manner somewhat different from ours. The object of the player is to damage his adversary’s top or to make it cease spinning. The whipping top is also known and used. Besides the athletic sports of leaping, running, wrestling, slinging, the Japanese boys play at blind-man’s buff, hiding-whoop, and with stilts, pop-guns, and blow-guns. On stilts they play various games and run races. In the northern and western coast provinces, where the snow falls to the depth of many feet and remains long on the ground, it forms the material of the children’s playings, and the theatre of many of their sports. Besides sliding on the ice, coasting with sleds, building snow-forts and fighting mimic battles with snow-balls, they make many kinds of images and imitations of what they see and know. In America the boy’s snowman is a Paddy with a damaged hat, clay pipe in mouth, and the shillelah in his hand. In Japan the snowman is an image of Daruma. Daruma was one of the followers of Shaka (Buddha) who by long meditation in a squatting position, lost his legs from paralysis and sheer decay. The images of Daruma are found by the hundreds in toy-shops, as tobacconists’ signs and as the snowmen of the boys. Occasionally the figure of Geiho, the sage, with a forehead and skull so high that a ladder was required to reach his pate, or huge cats and the peculiar-shaped dogs seen in the toy-shops, take the place of Daruma. Many of the amusements of the children indoors are mere imitations of the serious affairs of adult life. Boys who have been to the theatre come home to imitate the celebrated actors, and to extemporize mimic theatricals for themselves. Feigned sickness and “playing the doctor,” imitating with ludicious exactness the pomp and solemnity of the real man of pills and powders, and the misery of the patient, are the diversions of very young children. Dinners, tea-parties, and even weddings and funerals, are imitated in Japanese children’s plays. Among the ghostly games intended to test the courage of, or perhaps to frighten, children, are two plays called respectively Hiyaku Monogatari and Kon dameshi or the “One Hundred Stories” and “Soul-examination.” In the former play a company of boys and girls assemble round the hibachi, while they, or an adult, an aged person or a servant usually, relate ghost stories, or tales calculated to straighten the hair and make the blood crawl. In a distant dark room, a lamp, (the usual dish of oil,) with a wick of one hundred strands or piths, is set. At the conclusion of each story, the children in turn must go to the dark room and remove a strand of the wick. As the lamp burns down low the room becomes gloomy and dark, and the last boy, it is said, always sees a demon, a huge face, or something terrible. In the Kon-demashi or “Soul-examination,” a number of boys, during the day plant some flags in different parts of a graveyard, under a lonely tree, or by a haunted hill-side. At night, they meet together, and tell stories about ghosts, goblins, devils, &c., and at the conclusion of each tale, when the imagination is wrought up, the boys, one at a time, must go out in the dark and bring back the flags, until all are brought in.
On the third day of the third month is held the Hina matsuri. This is the day especially devoted to the girls, and to them it is the greatest day in the year. It has been called in some foreign works on Japan, the “Feast of Dolls.” Several days before the matsuri, the shops are gay with the images bought for this occasion and which are on sale only at this time of year. Every respectable family have a number of these splendidly dressed images, which are from four inches to a foot in height, and which accumulate from generation to generation. When a daughter is born in the house during the previous year, a pair of hina or images are purchased for the little girl, which she plays with until grown up. When she is married her hina are taken with her to her husband’s house, and she gives them to her children, adding to the stock as her family increases. The images are made of wood, or enamelled clay. They represent the Mikado and his wife; the kuge or old Kioto nobles, their wives and daughters, the court minstrels and various personages in Japanese mythology and history. A great many other toys, representing all the articles in use in a Japanese lady’s chamber, the service of the eating table, the utensils of the kitchen, travelling apparatus &c. some of them very elaborate and costly, are also exhibited and played with on this day. The girls make offerings of sake and dried rice &c. to the effigies of the emperor and empress, and then spend the day with toys, mimicking the whole round of Japanese female life, as that of child, maiden, wife, mother and grandmother. In some old Japanese families in which I have visited, the display of dolls and images was very large and extremely beautiful.
The greatest day in the year for the boys is on the fifth day of the fifth month. On this day is celebrated what has been called the “Feast of Flags.” Previous to the coming of the day the shops display for sale the toys and tokens proper to the occasion. These are all of a kind suited to young Japanese masculinity. They consist of effigies of heroes and warriors, generals and commanders, soldiers on foot and horse, the genii of strength and valor, wrestlers etc. The toys represent the equipments and regalia of a daimio’s procession, all kinds of things used in war, the contents of an arsenal, flags, streamers, banners etc. A set of these toys is bought for every son born in the family. Hence in old Japanese families the display on the fifth day of the fifth month is extensive and brilliant. Besides the display indoors, on a bamboo pole erected outside is hung, by a string to the top of the pole, a representation of a large fish in paper. The paper being hollow, the breeze easily fills out the body of the fish which flaps its tail and fins in a natural manner. One may count hundreds of these floating in the air over the city.
The nobori, as the paper fish is called, is intended to show that a son has been born curing the year, or at least that there are sons in the family. The fish represented is the carp, which is able to swim swiftly against the current and to leap over waterfalls. This act of the carp is a favourite subject with native artists and is also typical of the young man, especially the young samurai, mounting over all difficulties to success and quiet prosperity.
One favorite game, which has how gone out of fashion, was that in which the boys formed themselves into a daimio’s procession, having forerunners, officers, etc. and imitating as far as possible the pomp and circumstance of the old daimio’s train. Another game which was very popular, was called the “Genji and Heiki.” These are the names of the celebrated rival clans or families Mainamoto and Taira. The boys of a town, district or school, ranged themselves into two parties each with flags. Those of the Heiki were white, those of the Genji red. Sometimes every boy had a flag, and the object of the contest which was begun at the tap of a drum, was to seize the flags of the enemy. The party securing the greatest number of flags won the victory. In other cases the flags were fastened on the back of each contestant, who was armed with a bamboo for a sword, and who had fastened on a pad over his head a flat round piece of earthenware, so that a party of them looked not unlike the faculty of a college. Often these parties of boys numbered several hundred and were marshalled in squadrons as in a battle. At the given signal the battle commenced, the object being to break the earthen disc on the head of the enemy. The contest was usually very exciting. Whoever had his earthen disc demolished had to retire from the field. The party having the greatest number of broken discs, indicative of cloven skulls, were declared the losers. This game has been forbidden by the Government as being too severe and cruel. Boys were often injured in it.
There are many other games which we simply mention without describing. There are three games played by the hands, which every observant foreigner long resident in Japan must have seen played, as men and women seem to enjoy them as much as children. One is called Ishiken, in which a stone, a pair of scissors and a wrapping-cloth are represented. The stone signifies the clenched fist, the parted fore and middle finger the scissors, and the curved fore-finger and thumb the cloth. The scissors can cut the cloth, but not the stone, but the cloth can wrap the stone. The two players sit opposite each other at play, throwing out their hands so as to represent either of the three things, and win, lose, or draw, as the case may be.
In the Kitsuneken, the fox, man and gun are the figures. The gun kills the fox, but the fox deceives the man, and the gun is useless without the man. In the Osamaken five or six boys represent the various grades of rank, from the peasant up to the great daimios or Shôgun. By superior address and skill in the game the peasant rises to the highest rank, or the man of highest rank is degraded.
From the nature of the Japanese language in which a single word or sound may have a great many significations, riddles and puns are of extraordinary frequency. I do not know of any published collections of riddles, but every Japanese boy has a good stock of them on hand. There are few Japanese works of light, and perhaps of serious, literature, in which puns do not continually recur. The popular songs and poems are largely plays on words. There are also several puzzles played with sticks, founded upon the shape of certain Chinese characters. As for the short and simple story-books, song-books, nursery-rhymes, lullabys, and what for want of a better name may be styled Mother Goose Literature, they are as plentiful as with us, but they have a very strongly characteristic Japanese flavour both in style and matter.
It is curious that the game of foot-ball seems to have been confined to the courtiers of the Mikado’s court, where there were regular instructors of the game. In the games of “Pussy wants a Corner” and “Prisoner’s Base,” the Oni, or devil, takes the place of Puss or the officer. We have not mentioned all the games and sports of Japanese children, but enough has been said to show their general character. In general they seem to be natural, sensible, and in every sense beneficial. Their immediate or remote effects, next to that of amusement, are either educational or hygienic. Some teach history, some geography, some excellent sentiments or good language, inculcate reverence and obedience to the elder brother or sister, to parents or to the emperor, or stimulate the manly virtues of courage and contempt for pain. The study of the subject leads one to respect more highly, rather than otherwise, the Japanese people for being such affectionate fathers and mothers, and for having such natural and docile children. The character of the children’s plays and their encouragement by the parents has, I think, much to do with that frankness, affection and obedience on the side of the children, and that kindness and sympathy on that of the parents, which are so noticeable in Japan, and which is one of the good points of Japanese life and character.
Mr. Brunton said that an application having been made by the Honorary Secretary to the signal office at Washington for the use of Meteorological Instruments, a reply had been received from Brigadier General Meyer to it, and Dr. Murray, of the Educational Department, and himself had at the last meeting of the Society been appointed as a Committee to consider the matter. Mr. Brunton then read the report agreed upon by the Committee of which the following is the substance:—
General Meyer expresses his willingness to lend the Society instruments on condition the proper observations are made as decided on by the International Convention at Vienna, and that copies of these observations are sent by each mail to Washington. The Society by itself cannot undertake the work of making such observations, nor could a mere amateur be expected to do so. But the assistance of the Japanese Government might be requested so that those departments which now keep or are in a position to keep Metereological returns may be directed to keep them according to the system adopted at Vienna. The Asiatic Society in this way might become an intermedium between the Japanese and Foreign Governments upon a very important scientific matter.
Mr. Brunton then read a letter he had received from Dr. Murray in which he expresses his concurrence with the report, and suggests that the Lighthouse Department is the only one that could efficiently keep such returns. But in regard to this Mr. Brunton said that he knew that the Mining Department kept Meteorological returns, and he believed the Engineering School in Yedo under the Kogakuriyo also kept them. On this point perhaps Mr. Ayrton, who is present and is engaged in this department, might be able to furnish us with some information.
In reply to questions from Sir H. S. Parkes, Mr. Brunton further stated that it would be desirable that the stations should be as widely spread over the country as possible, and suggested Yedo, Kobe and Nagasaki, as suitable places. The observations, which consisted merely of reading the instruments, were not difficult and could be taken by the Lightkeepers at present in the Lighthouse Department.
The Rev. E. W. Syle remarked on the desirability of harmonizing the efforts of scientific observers, especially at the present time when arrangements were not yet finally made in this country. He read a letter from Professor Abbe of Washington, which laid stress on the great advantage of making observations according to the synchronous plan of the Vienna Conference; and which also pointed out the value of the results of these observations to commerce, agriculture, and fishing.
Professor W. E. Ayrton, in reference to Mr. Brunton’s allusion to the Kogakuriyo, said he did not know how far the Japanese Government had decided as to which of the Departments should undertake meteorological observations. As far as he had been able to learn the present feeling seemed to be that purely astronomical observations were to be left to the Naval Department, while the Engineering College was to undertake those of a meteorological character. He agreed with the Rev. Mr. Syle in thinking that the present time would be most opportune for reference to be made to the Government, since the style in which the Kogakuriyo buildings will be finished would necessarily depend on the object for which that part was intended to be employed; so that this fact, combined with the generous offer that had lately been made by General Meyer, might induce the Minister of Public Works, on a representation being made to him by the President and Vice President of the Society, to consider now which branch of that Department should co-operate in that International system of Meteorological observations which had already been of such importance to the people of the United States, and which would probably be of equal importance to the people of Japan. Mr. Ayrton would, however, take the liberty of suggesting that too much weight should not be laid on the observations required by the Washington Signal Board being purely mechanical, since, although in such cases a great deal could be done by a well regulated mechanical mind, a great deal more could be achieved by men whose minds shewed an aptitude for original scientific research. Such men, his experience has shewn him, were to be found among the Japanese.
Professor Ayrton regretted to see that, in the list rend by Mr. Brunton of the apparatus offered to the Society, there was no mention of any instrument for measuring atmospheric electricity. In the meteorological reports drawn up by Mr. Knipping and published in the proceedings of “German Asiatic Society,” there was a column headed “Electrische Erscheinungen” but that was confined to observations of lightning, thunder, meteoric stones, and shooting stars, although why the two latter were included under the head of electrical phenomena he did not know. Probably Mr. Knipping had not, therefore, at his disposal any apparatus such as was employed at Kew and Greenwich for the systematic measurement of atmospheric electricity. The importance of such measurements was not yet commonly understood, probably from their not having yet been of any practical use. This was not to be wondered at if it be considered in how few places, and for how short a time they had been made. That earthquakes were preceded by strong natural electrical currents in telegraph lines had been suspected from instances that had been observed in India and in Ireland. In a country like Japan, visited so frequently by earthquakes, it would be possible by proper observations to draw a satisfactory conclusion with reference to this, at present doubtful, connection of phenomena. In England, too, Sir W. Thomson had shewn that certain electrical states of the atmosphere were followed by rain, others by fair weather. We were at present in the infancy of this branch of science, and it was impossible to foretell what important results might occur from its being systematically studied. Mr. Ayrton, therefore, would propose that either the Washington Signal Board be asked to add to the list of apparatus that they had so generously placed at the Society’s disposal, suitable instruments for the measurement of atmospheric electricity; or, what might perhaps be better, that the President and the Vice-Presidents; in bringing the matter before the notice of the Japanese Government, should endeavour to induce them, in case they saw fit, to accept the apparatus now offered them, to render it complete by supplementing it with the necessary electrical instruments.
On the motion of Mr. Syle, the following resolution, seconded by Professor Griffis, was carried;—“That the President and two Vice Presidents of the Society be requested to address the Japanese Government in accordance with the suggestions of the Report just made by the special Committee.”
The foregoing Paper was then read by Proffessor W. E. Griffis on “The Games and Sports of Japanese children;” at the conclusion of which
Mrs. Chaplin-Ayrton remarked that Professor Griffis’ paper was most interesting. With reference to his description of children’s amusements she would add that some of the simple scientific toys were curious, such as a lantern in which the heated air in its ascent turned a wheel of prettily coloured paper, or another, a toy on the principle of the Cartesian Diver, which, being of glass was doubtless originally imported, still had taken root here, and the low price at which the little ingenious contrivance was at present sold in the streets of Tokei, showed that now at any rate it was manufactured in Japan. The small pieces of curled up paper which when floated in water expanded into various graceful forms might perhaps also be included in the category of toys. With regard to tops, the most curious was one with a splendid hum, cut roughly from a piece of bamboo, so simple indeed and yet so successful that it seemed the very parent of the humming tops of all countries. She had observed occasionally in toy shops a most ghastly mask,—a blanched face with the blood trickling from a wound. The masks used professionally by adult maskers were generally of better quality, and of wood, whilst those to which she referred were made of paper and sold for a few “hiakus,” She wished to know whether these masks were used by children in those games of a weird nature to which Mr. Griffis had referred. In reference to Japan having been called the “Paradise of Children” it must, she said, have occurred to every one, on observing the apparent happiness of all the young folks, to ask what was the reason of their being happier than children of other nations. She thought the principle causes were four:—
1.—The style of clothing, loose and yet warm, was far more comfortable than the dress of our children.
2.—Japanese children were much out in the open air and sunshine. The advantages so derived were not even counter-balanced by the poisonous gases coming from the hibachis, since crouching over a charcoal fire was quite contrary to child nature.
3.—The absence of furniture and, therefore, the absence of repeatedly given instructions “not to touch.” For the complaints so often heard amongst foreigners of the destructive tendencies of children must, she thought, be unknown in Japanese households, possessing, as they did, so little that a child could spoil. The soft thick matting, forming at once the carpet and the beds of all Japanese houses; and the raised lintel on to which the child night clamber as it grew strong, constituted the very beau-ideal of an infant’s play ground.
4.—Fourthly, and chiefly, children were spoilt. This might sound to some of the ladies present a highly undesirable state of things. But she proceeded to define spoilt as meaning that a child was much petted without being capriciously thwarted. She had never observed a child cuffed one moment and indulged the next, as was too frequently seen at home. It was these causes, she thought, which, obviating as they did many of the little troubles that worried our children, led to that good temper and contentment that foreigners so admire in Japanese boys and girls.
Professor W. E. Ayrton remarked that there were two points in connection with the amusements of Japanese children which had puzzled him, and which Professor Griffis could, perhaps, throw some light on. The first had reference to those street-stalls at which a lottery formed a prominent feature. The piece of sweetmeat given to each child seemed, as far as Mr. Ayrton could judge, to have no reference to the lottery. Could Mr. Griffis inform them whether seeing the wheel of chance turning round was merely an attraction to the buyers, or whether the place at which the wheel stopped in any way determined the amount of sweets given to each of the children who had previously deposited their ju mons?
The next question referred to the varied stock in trade displayed at different times at each of the toy-shops in Tokei. At the present time the principal of these shops contained only one kind of toy which resembled more than anything else a fender for a fire-place, but made of wood. But quite recently dolls and nothing else were to be seen in the same shops. Before that, battledores alone were to be found, and so on through a long series. Where he would ask was this immense stock in trade kept? The masks of the Japanese mummers were excellent, they formed for the time part of the actor. Was this due solely to the goodness of the acting, or to the expression of countenance in the masks given to them in their manufacture, or to the cloth which the Japanese street actors tied over their heads and which concealed the edge of the mask, or to the fact that the faces of the common Japanese were themselves so comic that a mask, which in another country would be ridiculous and extravagant, was out here but a slight exaggeration of the type of the men’s faces amongst the lower classes. Professor Ayrton also remarked that he had been told by a Japanese that as in England sweets were considered almost exclusively for children, so in Japan the pleasures of eating fruit were left to the juveniles.
In reply to Mrs. Ayrton, Mr. Griffis said that the scientific toys referred to were made by the Japanese, but the particular toy called “The Cartesian Diver,” though made by the native glass blowers, was imitated from a foreign model. The bloody masks on which were red stripes and representations of ghastly wounds, such as children played with, were not used by boys in the weird games of “Hiyaku Monogatari” and “Kondame-shi” (“One Hundred Tales” and “Soul Examination”) but were worn in imitation of actors, simply for amusement. The game with leaden counters (often played with real coins by boys), was a game in which one player tried to knock the other’s counter (or coin) out of a ring drawn on the ground. The players win or lose as in a game of marbles. With regard to the questions of Professor Ayrton, he said that the street processions of boys in which they carried representations of shrines and jostled against each other, were evidently imitations of the popular matsuris and street processions, when the local gods were carried out to be aired and were returned again to their original sanctums. The jostling of the boys against each other was probably in imitation of the crowds of spectators brushing against each other, or jostling even the procession, as might be seen on the occasions of great processions in Tokio. In regard to the means of lottery displayed on the boards of itinerant candy-sellers, it was a matter of fact that, while no result of the revolution or drawing decreased the amount given for a certain price, a favourable turn or drawing might add a little to the normal amount. With reference to the ever-changing stock in Japanese toy shops, battledores making way for kites, and kites for tops, &c., all well-to-do toy-sellers kept supplies of toys in season, and when out of season these toys were placed in their godowns, and were on sale only at certain seasons. The stock in the godown of a native toy-seller was always far larger than that displayed in his shop.
At the close of the evening, Professor Ayrton apologising for detaining the meeting, remarked that he would like to ask the Secretary whether it might not be advisable that a printed notice containing the name of the paper to be read and the author, or at any rate the former, should be sent to all the members of the Society a few days before each meeting. He was aware, that this information was given in the Yokohama newspapers, but as their delivery in Tokei was frequently very irregular, the members resident in that city often up to the hour of meeting, did not know the subject to be discussed. As an instance he would mention that he himself was not aware that the paper for that evening was on “The Toys and Games of Japanese children” until he heard Mr. Griffis read the title on commencing his paper. The great importance of papers read at such Societies as the Asiatic was the discussion to which they gave rise. This had been so fully realised by the “Institution of Civil Engineers” and the “Society of Telegraph Engineers” of London that they frequently distributed to all the members likely to be present printed copies in full of the papers that were going to be read, in order that preparations might be made for the discussion, this of course, might be out of place in so young a Society as this, still he thought acquainting all members with the business of the evening would tend to make the discussions more valuable, and would also tend, perhaps, to increase the attendance of members residing at a distance. The extra labour incurred by carrying out his suggestion would, he considered, be trifling if a stock of envelopes bearing printed on them each member’s name and address were kept ready for the enclosure of a small printed notice.
This matter having been referred to the Council the Meeting terminated.