That wall was a perfect
picture: every fan-holder seemed to be exactly in its right place, and it
looked as if the alteration of a single one would affect and disintegrate
the whole scheme. I accepted the lesson with due humility, and remained
more than ever convinced that the Japanese are what they have justly
claimed to be--an essentially artistic people, instinct with living art."
CHAPTER IV
THE JAPANESE BOY
A Japanese boy is the monarch of the household. Japan is thoroughly Eastern
in the position which it gives to women. The boy, and afterwards the man,
holds absolute rule over sister or wife. It is true that the upper classes
in Japan are beginning to take a wider view of such matters. Women of
wealthy families are well educated, wear Western dress, and copy Western
manners. They sit at table with their husbands, enter a room or a carriage
before them, and are treated as English women are treated by English men.
But in the middle and lower classes the old state of affairs still remains:
the woman is a servant pure and simple. It is said that even among the
greatest families the old customs are still observed in private. The great
lady who is treated in her Western dress just as her Western sister is
treated takes pride in waiting on her husband when they return to kimono
and obi, just as her grandmother did.
The importance of the male in Japan arises from the religious customs of
the country. The chief of the latter is ancestor-worship.
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