1,294,904

1,692,744

1,051,052

4,001.84

1,046,519

1,540.30

Fukui

1,621.50

655,701

739,608

814,876

568,265

721,402

Of this total, 23,600,931 were males and 23,131,207 females. The numerical strength of the various classes was as follows: nobles, 5055; knights or gentry, 2,167,389; common people, 44,551,830, including 17,783 Ainos in Hokkaido. At the end of 1906 the population was estimated at 48,608,943. The annual increase per cent. has been as follows: 1872, 0.57; 1881, 0.94; 1886, 0.84; 1891, 0.66; 1896, 1.04; 1900, 1.25; 1901, 1.39; 1902, 1.29; 1903, 1.54; 1904, 1.32; 1905, 1.32; 1906, 1.32.

Since the centralization of modern industries there has been a large concentration of population in the cities and towns. The following table shows the number of communes of each class, and the aggregate population in each class of communes, according to the censuses of 1898 and 1903:

These prefectures are further divided into gun and kori, or districts, of which there were 638 at the end of 1904, 60 shi or cities, 1125 rural towns, and 12,304 villages ranked as cho and son. The prefecture of Hokkaido or Yezo is similarly subdivided into 88 gun, 3 shi, 19 rural towns, and 456 villages. The capital of the country is Tokio (q.v.). The pre-Restoration capital was Kioto.

POPULATION. The first really reliable census of the whole country was taken in 1872. This showed 7,107,841 houses, and a total population of 33,110,825-less than that of the main island at the present time. At the end of 1898 the number of houses (including a slight gain through the annexation of the Loo-choo Islands in 1879) had increased to 8,281,708, and the population to 43,763,153, of whom 22,073,896 were males and 21,689,357 females. Of this total number the nobility claimed 4551, the gentry 2,105,696, and the common people 41,050,568. On December 31, 1903, the number of Japanese proper (that is, exclusive of the natives of Formosa and the Pescadores), at home and abroad, divided according to the six statistical divisions, was as follows:

Total.

EDUCATION.

14,262 45,403,041 13,294 48,542,736

Since Japan was opened to foreigners much attention has been given to education, and for a time foreign teachers and advisers were in demand, both by the Government and by private persons. The present Department of Education was established in 1871, but much organizing had been done before that time. The advisers were mostly from the United States, and as regards the public school system which the Government had determined to establish, United States models were largely followed. Later German influences prevailed, and the system now in vogue is largely patterned after German models. It includes the following grades:

(1) Kindergarten work or infant schools, which originated first in 1876 in connection with the normal school, but has since been extended. The age is from three to six. In 1904 there were 282 such schools, employing 753 women, with 25,876 infants in attendance.

(2) Elementary schools, attendance at which is compulsory, as far as the lower division called "ordinary schools" is concerned. It is for children from six years to ten; the school year is 32 weeks long, and the children are taught morals, reading, writing, composition, and arithmetic, and

sometimes gymnastics, drawing, and music are provided. The higher grade is optional for children between ten and fourteen. The course of instruction includes geography, history, English, agriculture, and commerce.

(3) Middle schools, in two grades, ordinary and higher. The ordinary covers a course of five years, and includes ethics, Japanese language, English (then French or German), agriculture, geography, history, mathematics, natural history, physics, chemistry, etc. In the higher grade the course covers two years of Latin, zoology, botany, geology, mineralogy, dynamics, surveying, philosophy, etc.

(4) The university crowns the whole. There are also normal schools and special schools. Instruction is not gratuitous, and the local school boards, which are elected by the people, have to provide for those too poor to pay. The school age is from six to fourteen. In 1904 the number of children of school age was 7,416,930. In 1904 the public and private primary schools numbered 27,139, with 108,360 teachers, and 5,084,099 pupils in attendance. In 1880 the rate of attendance per 100 children of school age was 41.06; in 1903 it was 92.23. A notable fact is the spread of female education. In 1880 the rate of attendance per 100 children of school age was 57.60 for boys and 23.51 for girls; in 1903 the rate for boys was 96.59 and for girls 89.58.

In 1904 there were 270 middle schools, with 4841 instructors, and 98,681 pupils; 64 normal schools, with 1235 instructors, and 20,702 students; 1668 special and technical schools, with 5610 teachers, and 122,705 students; 92 superior schools for girls, with 1389 teachers, and 26,251 pupils; 2006 miscellaneous schools, with 6002 teachers, and 115,720 pupils.

There were six special medical schools with 2325 students in 1903, 15 law schools with about 10,000 students, 107 special agricultural schools with 11,442 students in 1904, 28 industrial schools with 2997 students in 1904, 52 commercial schools with 12,821 students in 1904, 4 nautical schools with 1216 students in 1904, 42 fishery schools with 1782 students in 1904, besides special schools for the fine arts, languages, etc. The 86 libraries had 993,000 volumes. The Imperial University at Tokio was founded in 1869 by the consolidation of two schoolsthe Kai-sei-gakko and the Sho-heiko, and later other colleges were added. In 1905 it had 15 foreign and 261 Japanese professors and instructors, and 4084 students. The University of Kioto was opened in 1899 with one foreign and 69 native professors, and 360 students; in 1905 it had 127 professors and 1140 students. There are besides two universities maintained from private funds-the Keiogijuku University, founded in 1865, and the Waseda University, founded in 1882 and converted into a university institution in 1902. In 1904 there were published 24,296 books (largely mere pamphlets) and 1499 periodicals.

RELIGION. Japan has really three religionsShinto, Buddhism and Christianity. Under the new Constitution of 1889 absolute freedom of speech and freedom of religious opinion and belief are guaranteed. Shinto, the way of the gods,' is a purely native cult. It has no creed, no doctrinal system, no moral code, no priests, and no images in its 163,871 temples and shrines, though it has nearly 14,000 gods,

before whom, or some of whom, certain offerings are made from time to time; to whom certain prayers are addressed on such occasions, and before whom certain ceremonious dances are performed in a very punctilious and decorous way. It appears to be a mild kind of ancestor and hero worship which has come down from primitive times. The chief deity is Amaterasu, the 'sungoddess,' from whom the mikados are descended. It exerts no particular influence for good on the people, though it does them no harm. From the ninth century onward it became much tinged and corrupted with Buddhism, indeed was practically absorbed by it, Kobo Daishi (q.v.) having apparently convinced everybody that the Shinto gods were merely manifestations or transmigrations of Buddhist deities. It is stated that 12 sects of Shinto now exist.

Buddhism entered Japan by way of Korea in 552 along with the arts, sciences, and letters of China. Its gilded images and its gorgeous temples and ritual appealed to the Japanese mind, and the new religion became popular. It gained both the favor and the patronage of the Imperial Court, and in 621 it was by edict proclaimed to be the established religion. Priests went to China, or were sent there by the Government to study, and these on their return brought with them new scriptures, new sects, and new ideas which soon began to blossom out into other new sects in Japan. Kobo Daishi in 816 founded the Shingon (q.v.) or the sect with the form of 'true words;' the Zen or 'contemplative' sect was introduced in 1202; the Jodo or 'pure-land' sect (see TS'ING-TU and SUKHAVATI) in 1211; the Shin-shiu or 'new sect,' an offshoot of the preceding, in 1262; the Nichiren in 1282; and many others. Now there are 70 sects and subsects, all based on or developments of the Mahayana or 'Northern School of Buddhism in which Sakyamuni, the historical Buddha, has little or no place. The most important of these as far as influencing the people is concerned are the Jodo, which finds Nirvana too hard to attain to, and provides instead a 'Paradise in the West,' presided over by Amida Buddha, where the faithful may enjoy a blissful existence through untold ages, and whence, if they have to be reborn, it will be easy to reach the Nirvana state. The Shin-shiu, an offshoot from Jodo, has been called the 'Protestantism of Japan.' It teaches that salvation may be obtained merely by faith in the mercy of Amida-the chief of the Buddhas

This

and his ability to save, without works of any kind. No change of heart or conduct is necessary and nothing is required beyond loving one another, keeping orderly, and observing the laws of the Government. Its priests may marry, and they are free to eat both flesh and fish. is the most powerful of the Japanese sects; its temples are large and magnificent, are found in the most crowded parts of the cities, and are thronged day and night with silent worshipers. In 1899 its temples numbered 19,213. Buddhism was disestablished in 1871, and disendowed in 1874, and there is now no State religion. The great majority of the people are Buddhists, but there are no organized bodies of church members as there are in Christendom. Among the upper classes agnosticism prevails.

If Shinto can be called a religion, then Christianity comes third. All its churches are enrolled by the Government, and are protected by law. In

1900 there were 723 Protestant missionaries, 570 native preachers, 416 churches, 42,273 enrolled members, and 14 schools with 5011 students. The Roman Catholics had 106 European missionaries, 117 church edifices, 251 congregations, and 54,602 adherents. The Greek Church had 438 native workers, 297 churches, 25,698 followers, and schools with 19,055 pupils.

In 1903 there were 72,208 Buddhist temples and monasteries, with 116,857 priests and preachers, and 9379 students. The Shinto temples numbered 163,871, in charge of 16,093 kannushi or temple-keepers, not priests. The Roman Catholic, Greek, and Protestant churches and preaching stations numbered 1142.

ETHNOLOGY. The modern Japanese are a very mixed people. The largest factor in the production of the Japanese is to be traced back to the Mongolian race of the adjacent continent, a view confirmed by the physical characteristics of a considerable portion of the population at the present time. Some, indeed, group Japanese and Koreans together as being ancestrally very closely akin, by physical characters as well as by speech. But among the Japanese, as among the Koreans, and in certain parts of China, there are recognizable three physical types-an Aino type, chiefly characteristic of Northern Japan; a Manchu-Korean, in the regions nearest Korea; and a MalayoMongolic, in the centre and east. The KoreanManchu type seems to go back, like the primitive Chinese, to a Mongolian ancestry with a strain of proto-Caucasian blood, while the Ainos (see AINO) are perhaps allied to the most primitive Caucasians; but such opinions must be accepted with caution. The best authorities agree in distinguishing a 'fine' and a 'coarse' type among the modern Japanese. The former is taller, more slenderly and gracefully built, longer faced and longer headed, with better-shaped nose, and, generally, less distinctively Mongolic in form and features, with lighter skin, etc. This is the dominant type of the aristocracy and upper classes, and is found in those parts of the Empire nearest Korea, whence the original representatives of this type probably immigrated into Japan. The 'finer' type may be considered to be the descendants of the Japanese immigrants from the continent, who conquered and intermingled with the original inhabitants, or Ainos. This 'fine' type has now become the Japanese ideal. The 'coarse' type is characterized by shorter stature and thick-set body, broader skull and face, more prominent cheek-bones, somewhat oblique eyes, large lips, wide mouth, more powerful jaw, flattish nose and wide nostrils, darker skin, and generally more of the Mongolian in form and feature. Many of the women of the upper classes seem to belong more to the 'coarse' type, which may be accounted for by the process of conquest and the practice of polygamy. Both the 'fine' and the 'coarse' types are mixed, and in the north, from intermingling with the Ainos, another mixed type has been and is still being produced. The population of Japan may thus be considered to consist of a prehistoric proto-Aino and later historic Aino element, upon which the Sibiric ancestors of the Japanese proper imposed themselves by slow degrees until they ultimately became the dominant factor. There has been added, perhaps at several different periods, a Malay or Polynesian element, which is noticeable in Central and Eastern Japan, where it is thought

to have modified considerably both physical and social characters. Traces of ancient Negrito influence have been seen in Japan by some authorities, but others attach no importance to these alleged proofs of the former existence of a black race in Japan.

Physically the Japanese are not a strongly developed people, but they are capable of great exertion and endurance. A number of somatic peculiarities have been noted in the Japanese, such as the divided molar bone (os japonicum), the low, broad upper jaw, without canine fossa, and the so-called 'Japanese knee' (due to the practice of sitting so much). In their general physical conformation many of the Japanese males of the better classes have a decidedly feminine, or even child-like, cast, a character thought by some authorities to belong more or less to the Mongolian race in general.

Intellectually the Japanese have shown a capacity equal to that of any other known people, and their native power is revealed by the fact that while their manners, customs, and certain institutions were modified in ancient times by Chinese culture, and in recent times by European and American civilization, the fundamental traits of their character have not been altered. The mental and moral characters of the Japanese may be summed up as patience and persistence, combined with cheerfulness, a certain versatility and quick-wittedness, enterprise and originality, together with unexcelled powers of imitation, as well as progressiveness, industry, artistic sense, humor, cleanliness, politeness, honor, bravery, kindness, calmness, and ability to conceal the emotions. From the Chinese and some other Mongolian peoples the Japanese differ in the freedom accorded to women from the remotest times down to the present day, their less altruistic ethical system, their high estimation of the warrior and their appreciation of war as a means of national advancement, their national virility, and their power to respond to and accept facts of modern social and historical evolution. The social and moral life of the Japanese offers much that is interesting in the way of evolution. In sexual relations they range from polygamy and concubinage to monogamy.

As compared with China, and perhaps with Korea, the civilization of Japan is comparatively modern, for the coming of the continental Mongoloid ancestors of the Japanese to the island may be fixed at B.C. 2000-1500. Their conquest of the various islands of the great archipelago was slow and apparently difficult, as the Japanese annals themselves record, for the Aino and proto-Aino population was well distributed throughout the group. Relics of Aino origin are found almost everywhere, but naturally in more abundance toward the north. The amount of Aino blood in the modern Japanese is considerably more than hitherto supposed, and the liberal policy of the present authorities toward the Ainos of the extreme north is leading to a recognition of the abilities and intellectuality of this ancient and primitive people, pointing to their ultimate disappearance, not by dying out or extermination, but by absorption into the general population. The question of the Malayan or Polynesian element in Japan is more difficult to elucidate. Twice at least in Japanese annals there is mention of swarthy foreigners from the south who made irruptions into Eastern and Central Japan.

These, according to several authorities, were Malayan or Malayoid tribes, who came by way of Formosa and the Loo-choo Islands, and the physical characteristics of this section of Japan bear testimony to their presence and their nùmbers. Other evidence of a Malayan influence exists, according to some ethnologists, in the structure of the house, the practice of massage, certain dances, luxury, and love of weapons. Some of these resemblances are too general, however, and others too clearly the product of the Japanese environment, to be conclusive evidence. The introduction of Chinese and Korean civilization into Japan dates back for its beginnings to about the first Christian century, and this influence was strengthened after the transference of Buddhism in the sixth century.

MANNERS, CUSTOMS, ETC. The Japanese are a cheerful, contented people, lovers of nature, and always ready for a holiday. Responsibility rests lightly on their shoulders, and employers have always to reckon on absences from time to time on account of 'sickness' when apparently there is none; and a contract is not always sacred. Opium-growing and the importation of it are forbidden, and Government supplies the needs of the medical profession. Courteousness is a distinguishing trait, and their ceremonious politeness is oftentimes most embarrassing to the foreigner, who is not usually given to self-depreciatory remarks, and whose stock of honorifics is small and not always instantly at command. Hand-shaking is not a Japanese custom, and the lowness of the obeisance varies with the rank of the individual, women and the lower classes usually getting down on their knees. Children dress exactly like their elders, and though their foot-gear is clogs held on by a band passing between the big toe and the next one, they romp and run as much and as fast as European or American children. Their socks-when they wear them-have a separate compartment for the big toe. Their toys and indoor amusements are innumerable. In dress the Japanese are not burdened with much underclothing. Their chief outer garment is the loose-sleeved gown known as the kimono, open in front but bound round the waist with a sash. That of the women is a little longer, differs somewhat in the sleeves, and the sash or obi is wide and formed into a bow at the back which varies in style according to age, etc. Married women shave off their eyebrows, and blacken their teeth with the juice of the persimmon-tree. The coiffure is an elaborate construction with 'waterfalls,' plastered down with bandolin and decked with stick-pins.

Japanese houses are usually of one story. There are no cellars. The floor is about 22 or 3 feet from the ground, and is formed of soft, thickly padded mats measuring 6 feet by 3, and on these the family sit (or rather squat on their heels), eat, and sleep. There are no tables, chairs, or bedsteads, thick wadded quilts serving as mattress and blankets. Heat when wanted is provided by a hibachi or brazier filled with burning charcoal. The pillow is a little paper-cov ered cylindrical cushion strapped on a narrow stool, which is placed under the neck so as not to disturb the hair. Foot-gear is left in the porch before stepping on the verandah. A single picture, changed with the season, and a small wall vase containing a single sprig, form the only decoration, apart from that of the shōji or

sliding paper screens which serve as partitions. Passers-by may get a glimpse through the open screens of a tiny garden at the back, with a miniature rivulet, a stone thrown across it as a bridge, a miniature hillock crowned with a dwarfed pine, and a flowering shrub or two, and perhaps a stone-pillar lantern. A necessary feature of every house is the 'god-shelf,' or family altar, where is the little shrine-Shinto or Buddhist-before which the offerings are placed. Cleanliness is next to godliness, and the bathtub at the back, with its little furnace in one end for boiling the water, is patronized by every member of the family in succession, the water being invariably hot (100° to 115° F.).

Food is served on little lacquered stands about a foot high, and is eaten with chop-sticks (both of the same material). Rice, with soup of seaweed, beans, vegetables, or hard-boiled egg cut up into pieces, with a little fish with soy, and the like, daintily served, make the meal, saké (their fermented beverage) when used being heated and served in the tiniest of porcelain cups. Tea is the usual beverage. But there is no meal called 'tea.' Pickled daikon (or radish) is their chief relish.

Married life is usually happy. Of 8537 suicides in 1899, only 212 were due to family quarrels, and 600 were attributable to 'love.' Ceremonial uncleanness arises from contact with the dead in any way, and mourners are ‘unclean.' Those returning from a funeral are sprinkled with salt before reëntering the house. Those who favor the Shinto cult bury their dead in coffins. Cremation was introduced by the Buddhists about A.D. 700. After the Restoration it was forbidden, but a custom of such long standing could not be wiped out with the stroke of a pen. The people, and especially the women, are very superstitious, and are believers in ghosts, demons, fairies, and witchcraft. A handful of green peas thrown at a suspected demon will cause him to scamper off, and when the fox (q.v.) or the badger is suspected by the careful mother with daughters of being around, a flash from her metallic magic mirror will strip Mr. Fox or Mr. Badger of his disguise; and it is a curious fact that the presence or proximity of a serpent should never be pointed out to a woman or mentioned to her. Everybody wears a charm or

charms.

HISTORY.

The Japanese begin their history with a year which corresponds to B.c. 660, when Jimmu Tenno (q.v.), the leader of a band of invaders, settled in Yamato after having conquered several of the tribes who opposed him. Our only source of information in regard to the early history of the dynasty which was founded by him, and which exists to the present day, is found in the Kojiki, the oldest extant book of Japan, in which are found the myths and legends written down in Chinese characters in the years 711-712 by one Yasumaro, from the lips of a person named Hiyeda-no-Are, who possessed a most wonderful memory! These myths and legends, under close analysis, show three streams of legends-the Tsukushi or Kiushiu cycle; the Idzumo legendary cycle, which covers Central and Western Japan: and the Yamato cycle, which covers the central and eastern parts of the main island. The northern and eastern part of the main island was inhabited by the Emishi savages, or Ainos, who had

retired thither before the advancing invaders, leaving their names on rivers, mountains, streams, and other natural landmarks. In the south dwelt aboriginal people, perhaps from the Malay regions. The invaders of the archipelago, whether coming from Tartary or Korea, were without letters or writings, but possessed superior arms, valor, and discipline. They came as immigrants, at various times and to various places, finding people already on the soil, whom they proceeded to put under their control.

There are thus early discerned with clearness, in the morning of the history of Japan, race struggles among various tribes of differing customs and languages, and two types of men, whom we now call Japanese and Ainos, the former living south, the latter north of the thirty-eighth parallel. Gradually the Tsukushi and the Idzumo people became subordinate to the Yamato house or tribe. The conquerors intermarried with the subjugated, and the pacified chiefs were awarded rank and honor, while the power of the Mikado or Yamato chief was consolidated by making the primitive cult, now called Shinto, or Kami-no-michi, a political engine. The whole country was put under a rude feudal system, the conquered or subordinated holding their lands in loyalty to the Yamato chieftain or Mikado. Civilization gradually drifted in from Korea, through teachers, artificers, and men of learning. There are indications that a century or two before the great flood of civilizing influences was borne on the waves of Buddhism, considerable knowledge of Chinese letters, writing, and ethical notions had penetrated to the Yamato Court, and among some of the chiefs of the southwest. The Nihongi (another historical work compiled in A.D. 720) states that in the year 405 a Korean scholar was appointed tutor in China to one of the Imperial princes, and that about the year 430 historiographers were appointed.' As yet, however, there was no such thing as a settled capital, the Mikado and his household moving from place to place in Central Japan. After the death of the Mikado-chief, his successor, with a horror of the place of the dead, moved on and built a new palace. There have been thus no fewer than sixty capitals. Today the provinces of Yamato, Yamashiro, Kawachi, and Settsu "are dotted with places, now mere villages, sometimes indeed empty names, but once in the proud position of capitals of the Empire."

The line between legend and true history is made clear upon the arrival in A.D. 552 of Buddhist missionaries from Korea, who brought with them not only the sutras and images of their cult-the Mahayana northern form of Buddhism -but also letters, writing, calendars, and methods of keeping time. Buddhism took root, and became so popular with both Court and people that in 621 it was proclaimed by edict to be the established religion of the land. From this time forth we have something like a coherent account of things, and can trace with some clearness, through many rebellions and oppositions, the rise to paramountcy of the Yamato House. Nara, in Yamato, became the fixed capital, and remained so for seven reigns between the years 709 and 784. One decade later Kioto was made the Imperial residence, and, with few interruptions, continued to be so until 1868. At the opening of the seventh century Chinese civilization

had so far been accepted that in 603 the form of government was changed from feudalism to monarchy; eight boards or departments of State were established, in imitation of the Chinese system, and a new order of nobility, in nine ranks, was created. A great council, called the Dai-jo-Kwan, which had also been established, superintended the eight boards, and ruled the Empire by means of local governors appointed and sent out from the capital.

The practical enforcement of this new centralized system of rule from Kioto was not acceptable, and was in many places long and stoutly resisted. Gradually a military class was formed, which became separate from the agricultural, the latter comprising the farmers and those who permanently tilled the soil. By parallel development the men at arms became professional soldiers. Other great lines of movement may be summarized in the increasing centralization of government, and the withdrawal of the Mikado from active service in the field, or even in the affairs of government, and his comparative seclusion. Under the pretext of religion, or a desire to lay aside the cares of government, committing the actual work of administration to his subordinates in order to seek retirement, he became in the national life rather an abstraction than a person.

The

By means of the superior valor, force, and skill of its soldiers, the Empire was extended north, south, east, and west until all Kiushiu and Shikoku were subdued and the arms of Japan extended to the far east and north. Meantime, in the capital and palace, the Fujiwara family, who had come into position and power about the year 670, had developed a bureaucracy, so that they gradually monopolized most of the offices in and about the Court and the administrative boards. In other civilian families, the particular administration of sacred rites or the cultivation of learning became the specialty or monopoly. The military commands were always given to the rival clans of the Taira and Minamoto. Taira warriors, fighting under the white crest or banner, gained renown and power in the southwest. The Minamoto, under the red banner or crest, won victory and held power in the east and north; but when once the activities of the field were comparatively things of the past, both clans lusted for power nearer the throne. Then began a struggle in the capital. The Fujiwara, who had formed a ring around the Emperor, and by their own henchmen blocked most of the ways of approach by nepotism, were ousted by the Taira, whose star was now in the ascendent. This naturally excited the jealousy of the Minamoto, and in the year 1159 the two rival military clans came to blows. Then began that famous period of the wars of 'Genji and Heiké,' which have since colored all Japanese history, literature, and art, and which in later times, even to this day, have given the standard and motives for games of skill and chance. Kiyomori, the Taira chief, became Premier in 1167. He not only redistributed the offices, civil and military, among his own clansmen, but by marrying his daughter to the Emperor controlled the throne itself. The Minamoto men, their leaders beheaded or banished, were scattered, one line becoming rulers of far-off Loo-choo. In 1181, after Kiyomori's death, Yoritomo led the Minamoto in an uprising, and under the generalship of Yoshitsuné, his