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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, Working Women of Japan, by Sidney Lewis Gulick
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: Working Women of Japan
+
+
+Author: Sidney Lewis Gulick
+
+
+
+Release Date: March 7, 2011  [eBook #35511]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WORKING WOMEN OF JAPAN***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Meredith Bach, Delphine Lettau, Ernest Schaal, and the
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+
+
+WORKING WOMEN OF JAPAN
+
+      *      *      *      *      *      *
+
+[Illustration: LIBRARY OF CHRISTIAN PROGRESS]
+
+_Volumes Issued_
+
+The Church a Community Force. _By Worth M. Tippy_
+The Church at the Center. _By Warren H. Wilson_
+The Making of a Country Parish. _By Harlow S. Mills_
+Working Women of Japan. _By Sidney L. Gulick_
+Social Evangelism. _By Harry F. Ward_
+
+_Cloth, 50 Cents, Prepaid_
+
+
+ADDITIONAL VOLUMES TO BE ISSUED
+
+      *      *      *      *      *      *
+
+[Illustration: A FARMER'S HOME]
+
+
+WORKING WOMEN OF JAPAN
+
+by
+
+SIDNEY L. GULICK
+
+Twenty-five years a missionary in Japan, Professor in
+Doshisha University, Late Lecturer in the
+Imperial University of Kyoto
+
+Author of
+_Growth of the Kingdom of God; Evolution of the Japanese;
+The White Peril in the Far East; The American
+Japanese Problem; The Fight for Peace_
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+1915
+Missionary Education Movement of the
+United States and Canada
+New York
+
+Copyright, 1915, by
+Missionary Education Movement of the
+United States and Canada
+
+
+
+
+                               Dedicated
+                                   to
+                             SHINJIRO OMOTO
+                  in appreciation of more than a decade
+                          of untiring service
+                                for the
+                         Working Women of Japan
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+    CHAPTER                                                     PAGE
+
+            PREFACE                                               ix
+
+         I  SOCIAL CLASSES IN JAPAN, OLD AND NEW                   1
+
+        II  FARMERS' WIVES AND DAUGHTERS                           8
+
+       III  DOMESTIC INDUSTRIES IN FARMING FAMILIES               24
+
+        IV  SILK WORKERS                                          32
+
+         V  WIVES AND DAUGHTERS OF ARTIZANS AND MERCHANTS         36
+
+        VI  _KOMORI_ (BABY-TENDERS)                               42
+
+       VII  HOUSEHOLD DOMESTICS                                   48
+
+      VIII  HOTEL AND TEA-HOUSE GIRLS                             52
+
+        IX  FACTORY GIRLS AND WOMEN                               61
+
+         X  GEISHA (_HETÆRÆ_)                                     87
+
+        XI  _SHOGI_ (LICENSED PROSTITUTES)                       104
+
+       XII  AMELIORATIVE EFFORTS                                 118
+
+      XIII  THE MATSUYAMA WORKING GIRLS' HOME                    137
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+                                                                PAGE
+
+    A FARMER'S HOME                           _Frontispiece_
+
+    SEPARATING THE WHEAT HEADS FROM THE STRAW                     16
+
+    AT THE LOOM                                                   16
+
+    A FAMILY AT WORK IN A RICE-FIELD                              28
+
+    TRANSPLANTING YOUNG RICE PLANTS                               28
+
+    SPINNING COTTON THREAD FOR WEAVING                            32
+
+    AT WORK IN A KITCHEN                                          32
+
+    CARRYING FAGOTS                                               44
+
+    BABY-TENDERS                                                  44
+
+    AT WORK IN A SILK FACTORY                                     82
+
+    O HAMAYU (GEISHA)                                             92
+
+    MATSUYAMA WORKING GIRLS' HOME                                156
+
+    GIRLS IN THE MATSUYAMA HOME                                  156
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+Japan is rapidly swinging into the current of an industrial civilization
+imported from the West. How is this movement modifying her ancient
+civilization? And, especially, what effect is it having on her homes and
+on the character of her manhood and womanhood? These are questions of
+profound interest to students of national and social evolution.
+
+While many works on Japan consider these questions more or less fully,
+they do so almost exclusively from the standpoint of the effect on men.
+So far as is known, no work studies the problem from the standpoint of
+the effect on women, who, it may be incidentally remarked, constitute
+one half of the population.
+
+One book, indeed, that by Miss Alice M. Bacon, on _Japanese Girls and
+Women_, describes the homes, lives, and characteristics of Japanese
+women. This important work should not be overlooked by any who wish to
+know Japan thoroughly. Yet Miss Bacon's study is largely confined to the
+higher and upper middle classes, who, though important, constitute but
+one section of the women of Japan. To understand Japan it is also
+needful to know the lives and characteristics of the working classes.
+Especially important in the eyes of those who study social development
+is the transformation that is taking place in the Japanese home because
+of the influx of Occidental industrialism.
+
+The purpose of this book is to give some information as to conditions
+prevailing among working women, which conditions have called for the
+establishment of institutions whose specific aim is the amelioration of
+the industrial and moral situation. Two classes of workers have not been
+considered--school-teachers and nurses.
+
+The reader will naturally ask what the native religions have done to
+help women meet the modern situation. The answer is short; practically
+nothing. They are seriously belated in every respect. For ages the
+native religions have served by doctrine and practise to hold women down
+rather than to elevate them. The doctrine of the "triple obedience" to
+father, to husband, and when old to son, has had wide-reaching and
+disastrous consequences. It has even been utilized for the support of
+the brothel system. Popular Buddhism, especially during the feudal era,
+has emphasized the inherent sinfulness of woman; some have even taught
+that her lightest sins are worse than the heaviest sins of man. The
+brothel system flourishes in certain districts where Buddhism is most
+strongly entrenched. Brothels abound in the immediate vicinity of famous
+and popular temples. I have yet to hear of a Buddhist anti-brothel
+movement or a Buddhist rescue home for prostitutes. Japanese
+philanthropy, under the impulse of Buddhism, did indeed start early and
+attain striking development at the hands of Imperial and princely
+personages. Men and women of lowly origin also attained high rank in
+the annals of Buddhist philanthropy. With the decay of Buddhism in
+recent centuries, however, little philanthropic activity has survived.
+With the revival of Buddhism Buddhists have again undertaken
+philanthropic work; they have established orphan asylums, schools,
+ex-convict homes, and various benevolent enterprises for the poor, the
+old, and invalids; but not yet do they seem to appreciate the moral and
+industrial situation, or undertake anything commensurate with their
+numbers and resources. The conception of private enterprise for the
+amelioration of industrial difficulties and moral need is still the
+almost exclusive possession of Christians.
+
+The closing chapter describes one institution in which the Christian
+ideal is applied to the moral and industrial situation in one small
+town. It serves as an illustration of what is being done by Christians
+in other places and along many other lines as well. Christianity is
+being accepted in Japan, not so much because of its doctrine, as
+because of its practical methods of inspiring and uplifting manhood and
+womanhood. While the purpose of this book is, as stated, to describe the
+industrial condition and the characteristics of Japanese working women,
+back of this purpose is the desire to show how the Christian gospel,
+when concretely expressed, takes hold of Japanese working women in
+exactly these conditions and becomes to them "the power of God unto
+salvation."
+
+The problems of life are substantially the same the world around, for
+human nature is one; and the heart with its needs, desires, temptations,
+defeats, and victories is essentially the same, East or West. The
+problems created by industrialism do not differ, whether in Germany,
+England, and America or in Japan and China. And their fundamental
+solution likewise is the same.
+
+Let not the reader assume that the discussions of this volume give
+adequate acquaintance with the working women of Japan. It deals with
+only a few specific classes and inadequately even with them. A more
+comprehensive treatment would doubtless be enlightening. Limitations,
+however, of time and space forbid a more adequate discussion.
+
+And let the reader be wary of generalizing certain criticisms herein
+made and applying them universally to all classes of women. Many years
+of life in Japan have led the writer to a high estimation of the
+character as well as the culture of Japanese women.
+
+Especial thanks are due to Colonel Yamamuro for valued criticisms and
+suggestions in the preparation of this work. The responsibility,
+however, for its statements rests upon the writer. The limitations of
+this book none can feel more than he.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+SOCIAL CLASSES IN JAPAN, OLD AND NEW
+
+
+In old Japan, next to the Imperial family and court nobles, came the
+feudal lords (_Daimio_), upheld by the warrior class (_Samurai_), below
+whom in turn were ranked the three chief working classes,--farmers,
+artizans, and tradesmen. These three classes produced and distributed
+the nation's wealth and paid taxes to their respective feudal lords by
+whom the warriors were supported. Below all were day laborers and
+palanquin bearers,--in those days a large and important though a
+despised class, for they lived entirely by bare, brute strength, lacking
+all special skill. Still lower were the _eta_ or pariah class, excluded
+from towns and villages, except when they entered to do the foulest
+work, such as digging the graves of criminals and the slaughtering of
+animals, and curing their skins. And lowest of all were _hi-nin_,
+literally translated "non-humans." These were beggars and criminals, who
+would not or could not work. The name, popularly given, well indicates
+how they were regarded.
+
+With the fall of the feudal system, in the early seventies, society was
+reorganized. Those above the Samurai were divided in 1886 into five
+grades, not counting the Imperial princes, namely: prince, marquis,
+count, viscount, and baron. These constitute to-day the hereditary peers
+of Japan, and possess considerable wealth and, of course, overwhelming
+prestige.
+
+They numbered, in 1903, 1,784 families. Besides the 1,784 heads of these
+families, there were 1,786 male and 2,485 female members of these
+families of rank. The number of these peers is constantly being
+increased by Imperial favor, the conferring of rank being the customary
+method of rewarding distinguished service. According to the _Japan Year
+Book_ for 1914, the number of peers in 1911 was 919, there being 17
+princes, 37 marquises, 101 counts, 378 viscounts, and 386 barons.
+Promotion from one rank to another causes constant change in the numbers
+of the various ranks.
+
+The _Samurai_, deprived of their swords and military privileges, were
+given the name _shizoku_ (Samurai families) and were paid off in lump
+sums, thereafter being thrown on their own resources. There are 439,154
+shizoku families, numbering altogether 2,169,018 individuals. The
+remaining classes were designated as _heimin_ (common people).
+Statistics show that they number 8,471,610 families, totaling 44,558,025
+individuals. The eta were elevated, hence popularly called _shin-heimin_
+(new common people) and allowed to live anywhere and take up any
+desirable calling. The hi-nin also were classed along with the rest of
+humankind. As a matter of fact, the eta and hi-nin were but a small
+fringe of the whole population, the descendants of the former being now
+estimated at something less than one million, and those of the latter
+amounting to about 35,000.
+
+With the national reorganization it was inevitable that the new
+executive offices from the highest to the lowest should be given to men
+of experience. At first, therefore, the reorganization amounted to
+little more than a great shuffle of names and titles. Peers took the
+highest governmental positions, while Samurai and their sons as a rule
+filled the lower posts. Many Samurai, however, received no appointments
+and had to go to work. In time, as education has progressed, sons of
+farmers and merchants have become qualified and have been appointed to
+government offices. The new departments, such as the educational, the
+postal and telegraph offices, the railroads, and especially the army and
+navy, call for large numbers of efficient men. These posts are filled
+almost entirely on the basis of fitness. While ancestry is not entirely
+ignored in the making of appointments, nevertheless old class
+distinctions are gradually being obliterated.
+
+The fortunes of the women have naturally followed those of the men. All
+families that lost their hereditary income had to go to work; this was
+true chiefly of the Samurai. Where the men were fortunate, the women
+could maintain the old customs, limiting themselves to their familiar
+domestic work, with a servant or two to help, but tens of thousands of
+Samurai families found themselves reduced to the direst poverty; women
+having generations of genteel ancestry were forced to enter the ranks of
+the workers.
+
+Let us define what we mean by a working woman. Women whose husbands or
+parents provide the support of the family are not to be included in this
+term. These women may, and indeed doubtless do, labor abundantly and
+fruitfully in the home; their time is fully occupied. Probably no
+working women toil more diligently or for longer hours than do these
+wives and mothers in hundreds of thousands of homes, in most of which
+there are no servants. All the cooking, sewing, and housecleaning is
+done by them, so that they are indeed workers. But they are not
+"working women." They are the true gentlewomen of Japan, whose culture,
+graces, and charms are not easily described.
+
+By "working women" we mean only those women who, in addition to the
+regular duties of the home, must share in the labor of earning the daily
+bread. In Japan the number of such is exceptionally large, if compared
+with that of some countries of the West. They may be divided into eleven
+classes, according to the nature of their occupations, namely:
+school-teachers, nurses, clerks and office girls, farmers, home
+industrial workers, factory hands, domestics, baby-tenders, hotel and
+tea-house girls, geisha, and prostitutes. Omitting the teachers and
+nurses, these are the classes whose conditions, numbers, education, and
+character we are now to study. Taken as a whole we do not hesitate to
+say that the working women of Japan, while probably lower in point of
+moral and physical energy and personal initiative than corresponding
+classes of the West, are not inferior to them in point of personal
+culture. And if civilization is defined, as it should be, in terms of
+personal culture rather than in those of mechanical contrivances and
+improvements, then Japan will surely take her place among the highly
+civilized nations of the world.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+FARMERS' WIVES AND DAUGHTERS
+
+
+Japan has three leading wealth-earning occupations: agriculture,
+sericulture, and factory work. In each of these women take an important
+part. In the cultivation of the soil farmers' wives and daughters share
+equally with men the toil of planting and reaping the crops. For
+instance, in the cultivation of rice, the most important and the hardest
+work of the farmer, it is often the women who plant it spear by spear in
+regular rows, and it is they who "puddle" the paddy-fields with their
+hands four or five times in the course of the season. In some districts,
+however, men and women do this work together. The toil and the weariness
+involved cannot be appreciated by one who has not actually shared it.
+Fancy, if you can, the fatigue of standing more than ankle deep in mud,
+stooping all day long as you set out the tiny rice plants in regular
+lines! And at short intervals of a few days each you must repeatedly
+puddle the whole paddy-field: that is, stir up the mud with your hands
+in order to destroy the sprouting weeds and prevent the soil from caking
+and hardening around the tender rice roots, preventing their best
+growth. And remember that you must do all this regardless of the
+broiling summer sun, or the pelting rain, for the planting must be done
+at exactly the right time, and the successive puddlings must follow in
+due order. So severe is the strain that, after the planting and each
+puddling, the whole village takes a rest. My gardener, an ex-farmer,
+speaking of those summer days of toil in the rice-fields, expatiates on
+the extreme fatigue and the joy of the rest days, and as women take the
+brunt of the stooping-work, theirs is the lion's share of the weariness.
+He says that, during the rice-planting season, the women are so
+important that those days are called the "women's daimio days," and
+adds that we must not forget how during that time the regular work of
+the women must also go on, for they must cook the food and care for the
+children. For this, indeed, young girls and grandmothers are pressed
+into service as far as possible, but the responsibility and care rest
+nevertheless on the wives and mothers.
+
+ [Illustration: SEPARATING THE WHEAT HEADS FROM THE STRAW AT THE LOOM]
+
+Also in the harvesting and threshing of the rice, barley, wheat, and
+millet, women take an important part. But it is needless to enter into
+details. Enough to say that, in general farming, women share with
+husbands and brothers the heavy toil and fatigue of agriculture. It
+should be added that this is not because men shirk heavy work, but only
+because Japanese agriculture is so largely done by hand that every
+possible worker is pressed into service. As a fact, men do the heaviest
+part of the work, preparing the soil for the successive crops and
+carrying the heavy loads.
+
+So varied are the modes of agriculture in different parts of Japan that
+general statements are dangerous, but I know that in some districts the
+weariness and drudgery of rice-planting and puddling are relieved by the
+singing or chanting of old folk-songs. The chorus leader intones a
+descriptive phrase, oftentimes improvising his own story, and is
+answered with a refrain from a dozen or a score of women. A story slowly
+evolves as the hours pass, and thus the work is lightened and the time
+beguiled.
+
+In spite of fatigue, rice-planting has its charm for those who have been
+reared in farmers' homes. It is a time of hope, of social intercourse,
+of rest days and festivals, so that even the drudgery of the farmer has
+its compensations. Miss Denton, of the Doshisha Girls' School, says it
+is interesting to note how country girls get restless at rice-planting
+time, and for one reason or another usually succeed in getting excused
+from school work, to be off to the homes and share in the toils and joys
+of the season.
+
+Tea-picking is probably the pleasantest form of toil undertaken by
+farmers' wives and daughters. The labor comes in the spring and early
+summer, when the temperature is delightful. It gives opportunity for
+social intercourse that is highly appreciated. Rice-planting and
+tea-picking constitute the two extremes of laborious and delightful toil
+engaged in by Japan's agricultural women.
+
+How many are the women engaged in agriculture? The _Japan Year Book_ for
+1914 says that in 1912 there were 5,438,051 farming families,
+constituting about 58 per cent. of the entire nation. According to the
+_Résumé Statistique_ for 1914 the total number of females in Japan
+proper, in 1908, was 24,542,383. Omitting those under fifteen years of
+age, 8,364,000, and those over sixty years of age, 2,216,000, we have
+13,962,000 as the number of able-bodied women, of whom 58 per cent., or
+8,077,000, are the farmers' wives and daughters.
+
+In regard to their education it may be said that until the most recent
+times they have had practically none. In recent decades, however,
+farmers' children have begun to go to school. Until 1908 the elementary
+course (compulsory) covered four years, but the results were so poor
+that the period has now been extended to six. Four years' schooling does
+not give ability to read easily even a simple daily paper, much less an
+ordinary book. Our cook, an intelligent and able farming woman, when she
+came to us twelve years ago, could not read even the simplest Japanese
+characters, and thinks that at present relatively few farmers' wives
+have enough education to read papers or write letters. Whether or not
+six years' schooling will give this ability remains to be seen. It is
+safe to say that to-day Japanese adult farming women, as a whole, lack
+book education and have received little, if any, systematic training.
+They are accordingly largely controlled by tradition, and it goes
+without saying that their level of mental, moral, and spiritual life is
+low. The Shinto and Buddhist religions, as they exist among the farmers,
+are largely lacking in ethical content; they are rituals rather for
+burying the dead and through the use of charms and magic rites they
+promise future happiness and present, temporal blessings. Priests, as a
+rule, do not seek to cultivate the minds of the people, to strengthen
+their wills for moral life, or to elevate their personalities.
+
+Yet it must not be inferred that farming women are without mental
+ability or common sense. They are indeed not inferior to the men with
+whom they share the burdens and toil of life. As a rule they are a
+sturdy, intelligent, self-respecting folk, having ideals of conduct
+which include cleanliness, gentleness, and politeness, and in comparison
+with the peasant classes of Europe are much to be commended. The women
+not seldom appear to better advantage than their husbands in point of
+intelligence and common sense, which I have thought might be due to the
+greater variety of their daily occupation.
+
+In her excellent work on _Japanese Girls and Women_ Miss Bacon writing
+of this class says: "There seems no doubt at all that among the
+peasantry of Japan one finds the women who have the most freedom and
+independence. Among this class, all through the country, the women,
+though hard-worked and possessing few comforts, lead lives of
+intelligent, independent labor, and have in the family positions as
+respected and honored as those held by women in America. Their lives are
+fuller and happier than those of the women of the higher classes, for
+they are themselves breadwinners, contributing an important part of the
+family revenue, and are obeyed and respected accordingly. The Japanese
+lady, at her marriage, lays aside her independent existence to become
+the subordinate and servant of her husband and parents-in-law, and her
+face, as the years go by, shows how much she has given up, how
+completely she has sacrificed herself to those about her. The Japanese
+peasant woman, when she marries, works side by side with her husband,
+finds life full of interest outside of the simple household work, and,
+as the years go by, her face shows more individuality, more pleasure in
+life, less suffering and disappointment than that of her wealthier and
+less hard-working sister."[1]
+
+    [1] Pp. 260, 261.
+
+The home of the average tenant farmer is a small, single-storied,
+thatch-roofed building, having usually two or three small rooms
+separated by sliding paper screens, and a kitchen with earthen floor.
+The smoke escapes as it can, passing through the roof or pervading the
+whole house. No privacy of any kind is possible, nor is any need of it
+felt. The house is free of furniture, save for one or two chests of
+drawers. A closet or two affords a place for the _futon_ (bedding) by
+day, and for the little extra clothing. Of course no books are found in
+such homes. The main room often has a board floor, with a fire box in
+the center, over which is a kettle suspended from the roof. Here the
+family eat, and friends gather to chat after the day's work is over. The
+food is of the poorest grade in the empire, though usually adequate in
+amount. Of course there are well-to-do farmers, not a few, who own
+their farms, employ fellow farmers, and cultivate large areas. Their
+homes are larger and better, but still in arrangement and structure they
+are practically the same. Their sons attend the middle schools and books
+and the daily paper are familiar objects.
+
+The economic condition of the farming class may be judged from the fact
+that the land cultivated by each family averages three and one-third
+acres, which must provide food and clothing for five or six persons. The
+great majority of farmers live in little, compact villages, having
+populations ranging from 500 to 5,000. There are 12,706 villages under
+5,000, and only 1,311 villages, towns, and cities over 5,000. These
+facts suggest the nature of the social conditions of the farming
+population. They live under the severest limitations of every kind,
+physical, intellectual, and spiritual. Yet during the recent era of
+Meiji (enlightened rule), from 1868 to 1912, the economic condition of
+the agricultural classes made great improvement. My gardener, a man of
+sixty, who remembers Japan before the reformation, 1868, says that
+farmers now live in luxury. The taxes they pay to-day are slight
+compared with what was required of them in former times, when, in his
+section, farmers had to give to their Daimio about five twelfth of the
+rice crop, while taxes to-day require but one fifth or less. He adds
+that families owning three and one third acres of land are well-to-do,
+seeing many families have to make their entire living from only one
+acre!
+
+Of course, farmers, without education or social demands, require little
+beyond the simplest food and shelter. The clothing needed by their
+families is the cheapest cotton, with cotton wadding added in the winter
+for warmth. The heat of the summer renders much clothing a burden. A
+farmer is adequately dressed for the field or his own home if he has on
+his loin-cloth. His wife or grown-up daughter, when in the house with
+only the immediate members of the family or most intimate acquaintances
+present, is satisfied with the _koshimaki_--a strip of cloth some two
+feet wide tied around the waist and covering the lower part of the body.
+But on the street both men and women conform to the national customs and
+wear the kimono.
+
+The Japanese household and bathing customs have served to prevent the
+development of that particular type of modesty characteristic of Western
+lands. It is difficult for Occidentals to understand this feature of
+Japanese civilization, but such an understanding is essential if one
+would do justice to the moral life of this people. We may not apply to
+them Occidental standards in matters of modesty or dress. They have
+standards of their own, to understand and appreciate which requires no
+little study.
+
+At this point, I venture a second quotation from Miss Bacon, for she has
+studied carefully this subject, which all foreigners seeking to estimate
+the nature of Japanese civilization and moral character should not fail
+to master. "As one travels," she writes, "through rural Japan in summer,
+and sees the half-naked men, women, and children that pour out from
+every village on one's route, surrounding the _kuruma_ (wheeled vehicle)
+at every stopping place, one sometimes wonders whether there is in the
+country any real civilization, whether these half-naked people are not
+more savage than civilized. But when one finds everywhere good hotels,
+scrupulous cleanliness in all the appointments of toilet and table,
+polite and careful servants, honest and willing performance of labor
+bargained for, together with the gentlest and pleasantest of manners,
+one is forced to reconsider the judgment formed only upon one
+peculiarity of the national life, and to conclude that there is
+certainly a high type of civilization in Japan, though differing in many
+particulars from our own. A careful study of Japanese ideas of decency,
+and frequent conversation with refined and intelligent Japanese ladies
+upon this subject, has led me to the following conclusion. According to
+the Japanese standard, any exposure of the person that is merely
+incidental to health, cleanliness, or convenience in doing necessary
+work is perfectly modest and allowable; but an exposure, no matter how
+slight, that is simply for show, is in the highest degree indelicate. In
+illustration of the first part of this conclusion, I would refer to the
+open bath-houses, the naked laborers, the exposure of the lower limbs in
+wet weather by the turning up of the kimono, the entirely nude condition
+of the country children in summer, and the very slight clothing that
+some adults regard as necessary about the house or in the country during
+the hot season. In illustration of the last point, I would mention the
+horror with which many Japanese ladies regard that style of foreign
+dress which, while covering the figure completely, reveals every detail
+of the form above the waist, and, as we say, shows off to advantage a
+pretty figure. To the Japanese mind, it is immodest to want to show off
+a pretty figure. As for the ballroom costumes, where neck and arms are
+frequently exposed to the gaze of multitudes, the Japanese woman who
+would with entire composure take her bath in the presence of others,
+would be in an agony of shame at the thought of appearing in public in a
+costume so indecent as that worn by many respectable American and
+European women."[2]
+
+    [2] _Japanese Girls and Women_, 257-260.
+
+This completes our study of the homes and characteristics of five
+eighths of Japan. Here the brawn of the nation is reared. Hence come the
+sturdy, docile, patient, and courageous soldiers. Here are raised boys
+and girls by the hundreds of thousands who must at an early age begin to
+earn a living. This is the hunting-ground of those who seek for builders
+of railroads, factory hands, domestics, hotel girls, baby-tenders, and
+occasionally geishas, concubines, and prostitutes. Considering the
+severe economic conditions under which Japan's agricultural classes
+live, who can fail to admire their courage and grit, their personal
+culture, their even temper and cheerful faces, their innate habits of
+courtesy and good breeding, their mutual patience and forbearance, and
+their simple artistic tastes and pleasures! Do they not compare well
+with the peasant classes of any other nation?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+DOMESTIC INDUSTRIES IN FARMING FAMILIES
+
+
+Before passing on to study the various classes of workers constantly
+recruited in no small numbers from the homes of farmers, we should first
+consider the high development of industrial occupations within these
+homes themselves. To appreciate both the opportunity and the need for
+this, we turn to the official statistics of marriage and education.
+Until 1908 compulsory education, as has been already stated, covered
+four years from the age of six to ten. According to governmental
+statistics (1912) 98.8 per cent. of the boys and 97.5 per cent. of the
+girls were actually fulfilling the requirement. This percentage seems
+high to American statistical students, but investigations show that,
+while Japanese rules for the attendance of pupils and methods of
+counting the same differ in some respects from those that prevail in
+the United States and Canada, yet, as a matter of fact, in school
+attendance Japan compares well with other lands. It should be
+remembered, however, that the nature of the Japanese written language is
+such that even six years of elementary education is probably not equal
+to four years of similar schooling in Western lands. American children,
+at the close of their elementary education, possess a mastery of the
+tools of civilization and a degree of general intelligence considerably
+in advance of Japanese children who have enjoyed the same number of
+years of school life. As we have already seen, this amount of compulsory
+education is insufficient to give children ability to read and write
+with freedom.
+
+The question for us however is as to the number of girls above school
+age and still unmarried who, because of family poverty, must find some
+form of wage-earning occupation. Turning to the vital statistics
+provided by the government (1914), we find that in 1908 there were
+2,496,142 girls between ten and fifteen years of age, and 2,180,408
+young women between fifteen and twenty years of age. But how many of
+these are married? Again relying on government statistics for the same
+year, we learn that only 199 girls under fifteen had been married,
+whereas 193,978 had married under twenty years of age. In view of the
+fact that 709,021 marriages took place between twenty and twenty-five
+years of age, it is altogether probable that, of those married under
+twenty, a large majority were married in their nineteenth year.
+Remembering that many do not marry until the twenty-third or
+twenty-fourth year, we can confidently assert that there are over
+4,000,000 unmarried girls and young women between the ages of ten and
+twenty-five; and, as 58 per cent. belong to the farming class, we have
+in the vicinity of 3,000,000 girls who belong to families of such
+economic state that they, no less than the boys, must contrive in some
+way to earn a share at least of their own living. Girls of fifteen and
+upwards in farmers' families help their fathers in the lighter forms of
+agriculture, planting the rice, as we have seen, and reaping and
+threshing the crops. But the small acreage to each family barely
+provides work enough for the man, much less for the half-grown boys and
+girls, hence the need of finding something besides the agricultural work
+for the growing family. The younger children (under fifteen) are pressed
+into lighter farming, and such household duties as are within their
+strength and ability, as cooking and caring for the still younger
+children; while the older children and the mother help the father, or
+take up some domestic industry, such as the rearing of silkworms,
+reeling of silk, spinning of thread, and weaving of silk and cotton
+fabrics, or similar work which can be easily and profitably done in the
+house in spare hours. Hence has come the widespread practise of
+household industries, by which the female members supplement the family
+income. There were, in 1907, 1,628,000 members of farming families who
+were earning a part of their living in this way. This condition has
+prevailed for many generations, and is the secret of the wonderful
+development of the arts and home industries in Japan.
+
+            [Illustration: A FAMILY AT WORK IN A RICE-FIELD
+                    TRANSPLANTING YOUNG RICE PLANTS]
+
+From of old Japan's industrial system, like that of other lands, has
+been domestic--carried on in the house. There have been families and
+gilds which have made their entire livelihood by these manual
+industries. There have also been hundreds of thousands of farming
+families which have supplemented their meager income from their farms by
+taking up some of these domestic industries, and those who have
+displayed or developed special aptitude for such work have naturally
+drifted into this wholly industrial life. This has doubtless been the
+origin of industrial families and gilds. But the point to be especially
+noted is that this wide development of domestic industries is due to the
+skill and diligence of Japan's working _women_. Japanese men have
+produced the food by which the nation has been fed; her women have
+produced industries by which the nation has been clothed, as indeed is
+the case of all great civilized nations. Their long-continued drill,
+from generation to generation, in home industrial occupations, has
+produced a high degree of manual dexterity; the eye and hand
+instinctively move accurately and rapidly in the work, and the result is
+that Japan's leading industries to this day are dependent on female
+labor. "Sericulture, silk-reeling, cotton spinning, _habutae_ (a
+particular variety of silk fabric), and other woven goods, tea-picking,
+straw and chip braids, etc., are practically dependent on female labor,"
+says the _Japanese Year Book_ for 1910. "But an industry depending on
+female labor has this peculiarity, namely: it is not compatible with the
+factory system, but thrives best on the domestic plan. Generally
+speaking it is in industries which admit of being carried on
+independently at separate homes by housewives and mothers that skilled
+female labor is seen to the best advantage. As operatives of family
+industries Japanese women show an efficiency rarely reached by their
+foreign sisters." But in this connection we may remind ourselves of the
+great skill and industry of our grandmothers and preceding generations
+of women, who lived before the great factory system made their home
+industrial occupations unnecessary. Japan is merely several decades
+behind Western lands in her industrial development.
+
+           [Illustration: SPINNING COTTON THREAD FOR WEAVING
+                         AT WORK IN A KITCHEN]
+
+We are to understand, then, that a large portion of these 3,000,000
+unmarried Japanese women and girls are engaged more or less continuously
+in some sort of industrial work, either in their own homes or in small
+groups in their immediate vicinity. The introduction into Japan of
+Occidental mechanical civilization, with its great machinery run by
+steam power, and the great factory system, taking girls and young women
+away from their home industries, home restraints, and home training, is
+producing mighty changes in Japan's traditional civilization. The real
+consequences of these new modes of life and labor are still little
+appreciated. There is taking place a rapid readjustment of population,
+which indeed is easily seen, but the disastrous results to the mental,
+moral, and religious life of the people, even to the maintenance of the
+ideals and standards that controlled the older arts and industries, are
+yet little realized, for the great changes have only begun within the
+past two decades. A generation or two must pass before we can see
+clearly what it all really means. Meanwhile it is for those who foresee
+coming evils to sound aloud the call, and, as prophets, to do that which
+in them lies to meet the threatened disasters, and turn new conditions
+into blessings. Japan has the advantage of a century of European
+experience from which to learn wisdom. It is to be hoped that she will
+avoid many of the perils and evils into which the West has fallen, but
+the signs of the times are not altogether reassuring. There are, as we
+shall see later on, ominous clouds on Japan's industrial horizon.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+SILK WORKERS
+
+
+The chief wealth-earning domestic industry carried on by farmers' wives
+and daughters is the rearing of silkworms and the reeling, spinning, and
+weaving of the silk. Japan supplies about 28 per cent. of the total silk
+of the world and 60 per cent. of that used in the United States. The
+value of the silk exported in 1913 was $63,000,000. Women are the chief
+workers, contributing 90 per cent. of the labor. Here again the toil is
+taxing beyond belief.
+
+The brunt of the work consists first in filling the mouths of the worms,
+which must be fed at regular intervals night and day for about three
+weeks, during the last few days of which they eat continuously and
+voraciously. It has been found that the rearing of worms can best be
+done only on a small scale, where minute attention can be given to
+each tray, almost to each worm. This means that worms are reared in the
+homes of the people, rather than in large establishments. During the
+silkworm season everything else must give way; the house is filled with
+trays of ravenous worms; rest, recreation, and sleep, for old and young
+alike, are neglected in order that the precious worms may get their
+fill. Men and boys bring in the mulberry leaves from the hills and
+fields, while women and girls strip the branches, chop the leaves and
+feed them to the magic creatures that transform worthless green leaves
+into costly silk. The leaves must not be damp, nor old, and every
+condition of weather and temperature must be watched with the closest
+care. Otherwise there is loss. This heavy work comes twice each year, in
+some places three times. That is to say, there are two or three crops of
+silkworms.
+
+Then, after the cocoons have been formed, comes the reeling off of the
+silk, as much as possible before the sleeping grub wakens and eats its
+way out, destroying the silk it has spun for its nest. So again there is
+pressure, and again women do the work--I never heard of a man reeling
+silk. It takes the deft hand and quick eye of a girl to catch the thread
+in the boiling water, connect it with the wheel, and unroll without
+breaking the almost invisible thread so wonderfully wound up by the
+worm. This work is often done in the homes, but increasingly now,
+because more profitably, in factories where the girls can be closely
+watched by inspectors and paid according to the skill and the amount of
+their work.
+
+The number of families engaged exclusively in raising silk in the nine
+principal districts is reported (1911) at 370,332. In addition however
+there are many tens of thousands of families which make this only a
+secondary business. Many merely raise the worms, selling the cocoons to
+the factories, and in such cases the work and strain are over in a few
+weeks. The value of the cocoons raised in 1911 was estimated at
+$89,001,988, which gives some idea of the great importance of this
+industry to the families engaged in it. But it must be remembered that
+the industry demands heavy expense and the most taxing of toil while it
+lasts.
+
+As this industry is carried on chiefly in the homes, the personal
+conditions of the workers are relatively favorable, as favorable as
+those of the homes. This requires therefore no special consideration.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+WIVES AND DAUGHTERS OF ARTIZANS AND MERCHANTS
+
+
+In old Japan, among the workers the highest rank was held by farmers,
+next by artizans, and last came the merchants, for they were regarded as
+resorting to means somewhat degrading for making their living. In fact
+they were not producers of positive wealth, but lived by cunning wit on
+what others had made.
+
+Artizans, such as carpenters, masons, and professional weavers, as well
+as merchants, naturally live in towns and cities. The first work of the
+wife is of course in the home, but when the husband's work is of such a
+nature that it is possible the wife naturally helps him. Merchants'
+wives and daughters, for instance, keep the shops while the husbands
+peddle the goods or secure fresh supplies. Weavers' wives and daughters
+aid directly, the whole family sharing in the work and acquiring skill.
+Carpentry and masonry however are trades in which women take no part, so
+women of these classes also seek some suitable domestic industry. In the
+smaller towns especially, in recent years, rearing of silkworms is a
+common occupation for all classes of moderate means, but in the cities
+it is impossible to secure the necessary mulberry leaves, so straw
+braiding, the making of fans, embroidery, and similar occupations are
+here sought; and there are produced the thousand and one articles used
+by the middle and wealthy classes and for export. As a means of
+increasing the income the wives of artizans often open their front rooms
+as shops and carry on a small retail business.
+
+In times of prosperity these classes flourish and grow luxurious, but
+hard times occasionally come, when they are reduced to dire poverty and
+even to the verge of starvation; for, living away from the land, they
+are more dependent than farmers on the continuous success of their
+labors and secondary industries.
+
+The school education of the women of these classes is in general the
+same as that of the farming class. But inasmuch as they live, for the
+most part, in the larger villages, towns, and cities, they enjoy many
+advantages over their farming sisters. Along with their husbands they
+have more need of ability to read and write, and, becoming quick-witted
+through the stimulus of city life, they learn more easily. In recent
+decades, especially the last, many of their children, naturally those of
+the more successful families, are pressing up into the higher schools of
+learning. As a body, therefore, from the standpoint of mere intellect
+and wit, this class surpasses the farming class. From the standpoint
+however of moral character, of conjugal fidelity, of industry, and of
+trustworthiness in all relations the farming class, along with the
+shizoku, surpasses all others, and probably even the peers themselves.
+But in these higher classes we must distinguish between the men and the
+women; for while the wives are, as a rule, beyond praise in the matter
+of conjugal fidelity, the same may not be said of the husbands.
+
+Among the many classes of working women named on a previous page are the
+"clerks." This is a new feature of Japanese life worthy of note,
+although the class is still small. Under this name we include ticket
+sellers in railway stations, assistant barbers, and saleswomen and
+shopgirls. Members of this class have of course enjoyed a relatively
+large amount of education, and are therefore above the average in
+general intelligence and ability. These girls are recruited from the
+families of city artizans and merchants.
+
+The descendants of palanquin bearers, day laborers, eta, and hi-nin form
+to-day the lowest stratum of society, dwelling on the outskirts of large
+cities, in wretchedness, filth, and poverty, getting their living from
+day to day and breeding criminals, geisha, and prostitutes. The
+stone-breakers, gravel gatherers, coolies, and most irregular of city
+day laborers come from this class. Many of these men have illustrious
+pedigrees. Some fell to this estate through wanton lust and reckless
+expenditure of inherited wealth; some are descendants of disinherited
+sons; the ancestors of some have met political reverses and found refuge
+and safety only among the "non-humans," where they could live
+unrecognized and unknown. Thus all grades of blood course through the
+veins of this, the lowest class in Japan. The wives and daughters of
+these men share their fate and fortune, living from hand to mouth. Their
+life is so low and uncertain that it is absurd to speak of secondary
+occupations--they lack even a primary occupation; and their homes, which
+constitute the slums of the cities, are no places in which to carry on
+any domestic industry.
+
+With the coming to Japan however of modern industrialism and the
+building of large factories in or near the cities, the wives and
+daughters of this class have opportunity for regular work, earning
+enough and more than enough to support themselves while actually at
+work. But when attacked by laziness, fickleness, or disease, they easily
+slump back into the same economic pit. From this lowest class comes one
+of the serious dangers threatening the better life of modern Japan. The
+insufficiency of these laborers, their unreliable character, and the
+inferior quality of their work, have forced the factories to search
+elsewhere for hands. These they have found in the relatively workless,
+but industrious and comparatively moral farming class. These farmers'
+girls have been brought to the cities and thrown into intimate relations
+with the lowest, most dissolute, despised, and really despicable
+classes, and the results have naturally been disastrous in many ways, as
+we shall see in a later chapter.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+_KOMORI_ (BABY-TENDERS)
+
+
+The great poverty of the majority of the people renders necessary, as
+already noted, not only the utmost economy in the home, but also a high
+degree of industry, and the beginning of productive labor at an early
+age. As soon as the child has completed the elementary education, and,
+in cases of exceptional poverty, even before that, he or she must begin
+to do something of value and earn a living, at least in part. In the
+case of farming families, younger children care for the youngest and
+share in the household duties, thus relieving the mother and elder
+children, enabling them to aid the husband and father in the field. But
+the positive agricultural or industrial work which girls of from ten to
+fifteen can do is insignificant, yet they eat as much as a grown
+person, and hence comes the search for suitable openings for such
+workers. This is found for many of the younger girls in the homes of the
+middle and upper classes, where they go as _komori_ (baby-tenders).
+
+Girls even as young as ten leave their homes and go out to service. They
+receive food and lodging, in some cases a garment in summer and one in
+winter, and sometimes in addition a small cash stipend. A komori thus is
+usually the daughter of a poor family who goes into a well-to-do family
+to aid the mother in the care of her infant. Her chief duty is to carry
+the infant, sleeping or waking, on her back for many consecutive hours
+during the day. In addition to this she aids a little in the household
+work, washing dishes and cleaning the house, her hours of service being
+unlimited. In some families she may be called on at any hour of the
+night to carry the baby, if it is restless or fretful and needs to be
+"jiggled" to sleep! A komori is employed by the year, but usually
+without specific contract, her parents sometimes receiving a few yen[3]
+when she enters upon service. Her time is entirely at the disposal of
+her mistress and she goes to no school, receives no regular instruction,
+and no training other than that which comes incidentally from
+association with members of the family. Long hours each day are spent on
+the street with an infant on her back, playing hop-scotch and other
+games with other komori.
+
+    [3] A yen has the value of forty-nine cents.
+
+In a few places efforts are being made, I am told, to provide these
+baby-tenders with educational advantages, but the movement is as yet
+small. Buddhists are said to be particularly active in this matter.
+
+              [Illustration: CARRYING FAGOTS BABY-TENDERS]
+
+A blind man in Matsuyama, a Christian of my acquaintance, put out one of
+his daughters to service as a komori. After two years of such life,
+poverty-stricken though the family was, he brought her home again, for
+the child of fourteen, so far from learning anything good, was learning
+many things bad on the street, and was being dwarfed in mind by the
+long hours when she was wholly without mental stimulus. The life of a
+komori will of course vary much with the nature of the family by which
+she is employed, but at best the service cannot fail to stunt the growth
+of both body and mind.
+
+I heard not long since of a boy who became a komori. His father had died
+a drunkard, leaving the family ruined financially. The mother and
+children were accordingly distributed among the creditors to work off
+his debts. The little boy of eight went with his mother, and, so long as
+she lived--some three years--life was endurable for him, but after her
+death he was made increasingly miserable. Long hours by day and many
+interrupted nights, unkind words, and unutterable loneliness vexed his
+orphaned spirit, until he could endure it no longer, and planned to run
+away. The stern master however discovered him doing up his bundle, and,
+to prevent his escape, ordered his few possessions, even his clothing,
+to be taken away. In spite of this he slipped out one night in the
+darkness and hid in a barn in a neighboring village until morning, when
+he was taken pity on by some children who shared a kimono or two with
+him, and so he got away. With increasing years he led a wild, roving
+life; at eighteen he became a murderer and was imprisoned for life,
+escaping the death penalty on account of being a minor. In prison he
+first heard the Christian gospel of God's forgiving love, of peace and
+hope and joy. This "good news" he accepted, and learned to read, that he
+might read the New Testament, which he committed to memory. Upon the
+death of the Empress Dowager, in 1896, his penalty, with that of many
+other prisoners, was remitted, and now for fourteen years he has been
+living a life remarkably fruitful in Christian service.
+
+But, to return to our subject, we note that not all komori are children.
+Superannuated old women who have neither strength nor brains for
+anything else also act in this capacity, their conditions of service
+and wages being the same as those of girls. I have tried to get some
+idea as to the number of komori in Japan, but have been able to find no
+statistics. One gentleman assures me that at least one family in five of
+the middle and upper classes employs a komori. As the number of families
+in Japan, exclusive of farmers, is 3,981,940 (1912), this would make
+about 796,000 komori; but many well-to-do farming families also employ
+komori, so the total number in Japan would be not far from 1,000,000. A
+lady however assures me that this estimate is altogether too high, and
+thinks that not more than one family in twenty has the means to employ a
+komori. If this is true, then the number is in the vicinity of 250,000.
+In either case, the system and its nature are clear, and the numbers of
+children sent out to service at a tender age is not inconsiderable. The
+attention of educators and parents is being directed to the dangers to
+infants of this komori system, to say nothing of the harm it does to the
+girls themselves.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+HOUSEHOLD DOMESTICS
+
+
+By the time a girl is fifteen or sixteen she is regarded as sufficiently
+large, strong, and mature to enter on more responsible work. Among the
+several fields open to her is that of _gejo_, or domestic service, of
+which we may distinguish two varieties: those who serve in private
+families and those who become maids in hotels and tea-houses. A komori
+may gradually work into the position of a domestic; indeed, in the
+majority of homes a komori not only tends the baby but aids the mother
+in her household work. It is only in the homes of the well-to-do that
+both gejo and komori are to be found. The work of a gejo consists in
+taking the brunt of the cooking, housecleaning, and washing, serving
+from daybreak, that is, from five or six in the morning, till ten or
+eleven at night. Her status is somewhat better than that of the komori.
+Her hours of service however are long and taxing. Her time for rest is
+after the family has retired for the night and before they rise in the
+morning. Frequently her private room is the front hall, or entrance
+room; she accordingly is the last person to retire and the first to
+rise. It is to be noted however that in the houses of the middle classes
+in the large cities there is usually now a small room for the
+servant-girl. The gejo draws the water from the well, washes the rice,
+lights the fires, cooks and lives in the dingy and usually smoky
+kitchen, washes the clothes, aids in the sewing, and has no relaxation
+but an occasional festival. Her lot is truly pitiful.
+
+Besides her living (eating what is left from the family meal), she
+usually receives some two to three yen per month. Recently however some
+have been receiving even as much as five yen. The drudgery and monotony
+of the life are usually such that the opportunity to become a factory
+hand is quickly taken, especially as the cash earnings are relatively
+large. I am told by Japanese ladies that the problem of securing
+domestics in the cities or in the vicinities of factories is becoming
+serious.
+
+Of course the average domestic has no opportunity nor desire for mental
+improvement. Having enjoyed no education to speak of, she can read
+neither papers nor books, nor may she attend meetings fitted to
+cultivate the mind or promote her higher life. Thus she is controlled by
+the culture and mental and moral traditions of the home in which she was
+reared.
+
+Household domestics are recruited from farming and industrial families.
+They earn their living for from four to six years, until their parents
+or guardians find them husbands; for in Japan the girl has practically
+nothing to say as to whom she marries. Marriage is based, not on mutual
+acquaintance, much less on mutual attraction, but wholly on the judgment
+of parents or go-betweens, and is from first to last--if it is
+proper--a utilitarian affair.
+
+It thus comes to pass that in Japan domestics are, as a rule, young
+unmarried women. A domestic in her thirties, or over, is rare, and is
+almost certain to be a widow or a divorced woman.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+HOTEL AND TEA-HOUSE GIRLS
+
+
+A distinct class of domestics is that which serves in hotels,
+tea-houses, and restaurants. Here the hours of labor are longer,--from
+four or five in the morning till midnight, or later. My attention was
+early called to their hard lot by observing that the poor girl who was
+serving rice for my meal, sitting before me as I ate, often fell into a
+sleep, from which I had to awaken her to get my rice. Inquiry would show
+that she had risen at four o'clock that morning, and further questioning
+would bring the information that she had retired the previous night at
+midnight or later, sometimes even not till two o'clock! Rarely do these
+girls get five hours of rest; frequently there are not more than three.
+They must open all the _amado_ (sliding wooden shutters which protect
+the paper "windows"), and get the general cleaning done before the first
+guest rises, and must continue their service until late into the night,
+answering the calls of the guests, till the last one has retired. In
+addition to the usual cleaning of the rooms, which is really not much of
+an undertaking, these girls carry all the meals of all the guests from
+the kitchen on the ground floor to their rooms on the second or third
+floors, serve them while they eat, and carry away the trays when the
+meal is completed. In preparation for the night the girls bring out the
+heavy _futon_ (quilts) and make the "beds" on the floor; and in the
+morning remove, fold, and lay them all away in closets. The work of a
+Japanese hotel is relatively heavy for the number of guests, but that
+which is most taxing is the long hours of service and the insufficient
+time for rest. As in the poorer homes, so in the poorer and smaller
+hotels, the girls have no private rooms, but sleep in entryways and
+reception-rooms. Of course they have neither time nor opportunity for
+personal culture, nor even for recreation; and from the nature of their
+occupation, is it strange if they sometimes yield to the solicitations
+of guests?
+
+These girls are of course neither professional prostitutes nor geisha.
+Yet I was assured by a provincial chief of police, some years ago when
+making investigations, that, in the eyes of the police, three fourths or
+four fifths of the girls in hotels and tea-houses are virtually
+prostitutes, though of course they have no licenses and are subject to
+no medical inspection. Occasionally they are arrested for illegal
+prostitution, at the instance however of brothel keepers. Hotels and
+tea-houses take pains to secure pretty girls for servants, in order to
+make their service attractive. It is a dreadful statement to make, but,
+if I am justified in judging from such facts as have come to my
+knowledge, it would appear that few traveling men in Japan feel any
+special hesitation in taking advantage--with financial compensation of
+course--of such opportunities as are afforded them. Hotels give the
+girls their food, perhaps two gowns yearly, and generally a small
+payment in cash, but their principal earnings come from tips. This makes
+them attentive to the wants of the guests.
+
+There are many first-class hotels throughout the country, but chiefly in
+the principal cities, to which geisha are not admitted, but in those
+hotels to which they are admitted the green country girls soon learn
+from them the brazen ways and licentious talk that are evidently
+pleasing to many of the guests. All in all the life and lot of the hotel
+and tea-house girl are deplorable indeed. She does differ from the
+geisha and licensed prostitute, however, in that she can leave her place
+and retire to her country home at any time, being held by no contract or
+debt. Hotel and tea-house girls are recruited largely from the families
+of artizans and small tradespeople, living in interior towns and
+villages; they do not often come from farming families, since they would
+lack the regular features and light complexion desired by hotels. Their
+family pedigree explains in part this easy virtue. They are saved from
+more disaster than they actually meet, because geisha and prostitutes
+abound and are more attractive.
+
+I remember, one summer at a little country hotel, a girl rushed into my
+room from a neighbor's in order to escape from the urgency of a guest.
+She told me the following day quite freely of her troubles, of the
+horrid men that came to the hotel, and of the fact that most of the
+girls did not mind what she found unendurable. She had been there but a
+few weeks and was resolved to go home as soon as possible, claiming it
+was better to starve than to lead such a hard and especially such a
+disgusting life. Realizing that I had an exceptional opportunity for
+sociological study, I improved the occasion and asked many questions.
+When asked for her reasons for not responding to the solicitations of
+the men, she replied that it was the fear of being laughed at should
+she have a child. I could not learn that she had ever been taught to
+regard loose sexual relations before marriage as immoral or as
+intrinsically wrong. In her mind the question had no connection with
+religion, so far as I could discover. Her refusal was based wholly on
+utilitarian grounds.
+
+At another hotel where I often stopped I noticed on one of my tours that
+an especially attractive girl of eighteen or nineteen, who usually
+waited on me, was no longer there. On asking her substitute what had
+become of her, I was told she had become a regular prostitute, having
+found she could earn much more money that way than at the hotel. I asked
+if the parents had not opposed. "O no!" replied the girl, "the parents
+were the ones who proposed it and arranged for it." I asked the
+substitute if she herself did not regard the business as shameful and
+immoral. She looked at me with apparent surprise, hardly understanding
+what I meant, evidently regarding the matter entirely as a financial
+one.
+
+Here is another case. A number of Young Men's Christian Association
+secretaries, tramping in the Japanese Alps, were convinced by the noises
+one night at the hot springs that the five or six guides and porters
+were indulging in licentiousness. The next night it came out around the
+camp-fire that these guides and porters had paid the hotel girls five
+sen[4] (two and one-half cents) each.
+
+    [4] A sen has the value of one-hundredth of a yen, or almost
+        half a cent.
+
+Of course one may not generalize from three cases. But three such cases,
+together with the statement of the chief of police, and the experience,
+closely corresponding with my own, of many missionaries who have
+traveled in all parts of Japan, are strong evidence. I myself do not
+think that guests often solicit the girls, nor that hotel girls commonly
+yield to the requests of guests, but there can be no doubt that it
+occasionally happens, and is not regarded in any such way by either the
+men or the women as an Occidental would expect. As said above, there
+are many hotels in the cities from which geisha are rigidly excluded,
+and where without doubt the relations of guests with hotel girls are
+above criticism.
+
+It is an impressive fact of Japanese civilization that the "greenest"
+country girls can in but a few short weeks of hotel service become so
+graceful and attractive. That in their lives which to the Occidental is
+so deep a sin is nothing to them. Their calm, innocent eyes, winning
+ways, and gentle conversation can hardly fail to impress the foreigner.
+But compared with the girls in their homes they have lost that air of
+modesty and reserve which is so important an element in the charm of
+Japanese womanhood. The hotel and tea-house girl belongs rather to the
+geisha class, whose loud, harsh voices and artificial, coarse laughter
+are distinguishing characteristics. Girls of both these classes however
+have an advantage enjoyed by no other women in Japan, namely: that of
+meeting large numbers of men of various occupations and interests. They
+hear varied conversation and thus become somewhat acquainted with the
+affairs of the outside world, which makes them more intelligent than the
+average Japanese woman, so that it is possible to carry on some sort of
+a conversation with them--a thing practically impossible with the
+average young woman of Japan.
+
+In regard to the numbers of hotel domestics, I have found no statistics,
+but have no hesitation in venturing an estimate of many tens of
+thousands.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+FACTORY GIRLS AND WOMEN
+
+
+As already stated, many girls prefer factory work to that of domestic
+service, either in private families or in hotels. From ancient times
+there have been small industrial enterprises, employing each a few hands
+in various lines of work, such as the reeling and spinning of silk and
+cotton thread and the weaving of cloth; but since the war with China
+there have arisen enormous factories, after the fashion of Western
+lands, which have introduced great changes in the industrial situation
+and in the condition of the working classes.
+
+The government report for 1912 shows that there were 863,447 individuals
+employed in 15,119 factories having ten or more hands each. Of these,
+348,230 were men and 515,217 were girls and women. In addition it
+reports 427,636 weaving houses, having 733,039 looms and employing
+697,698 operators. No statement is made as to the proportion of the
+sexes. Remembering that the government statistics take no account of
+industrial enterprises employing less than ten hands, it is probably
+safe to estimate the number of women employed in exclusively
+non-domestic occupations at not less than a million.
+
+We are not concerned however with the industries themselves, but rather
+with the conditions under which the operatives work and the effect of
+the work on their lives and characters. To begin with the more pleasant
+side of the question, there are factories which come well up toward the
+ideal. The terms of employment, the wages paid, the provisions for ill
+health, for accident, for long service and old age; the rooms for
+sleeping, eating, and recreation; the bathing establishments; the
+education given to those who need it; the public lectures and religious
+and ethical instruction given at fixed times in the public halls of the
+factories, Buddhist and Christian teachers being impartially invited;
+the provisions for marriage of employees and arrangements that each
+couple have a separate suite of rooms, and that the infants are cared
+for while the mother is in the mill; these and other provisions show
+that the best in Japan is up to a high level of excellence. Such is the
+policy of the Kanegafuchi Company, which owns a score of mills in
+different parts of Japan, and whose success moreover is so great that it
+is now buying up less successful competitors.
+
+For several years this company has set aside annually 20,000 yen
+($10,000) for its relief and pension fund for operatives. In June, 1913,
+in addition to its regular appropriation, it voted an extra $50,000 for
+a "welfare promotion fund."
+
+The president of the Fuji Cotton Spinning Company was given in 1913 a
+retiring grant of $50,000, inasmuch as the great success of this company
+had been due to his skill and energy. He however presented the entire
+amount to the "employers' relief fund, and it was decided to make this
+gift the nucleus of a permanent endowment fund."
+
+               [Illustration: AT WORK IN A SILK FACTORY]
+
+There is a silk factory in Ayabe, the Gunze Seishi Kwaisha, whose record
+is the most wonderful of all. It is managed by a Christian, who runs it
+entirely with a view to the benefit of the workers and the district. No
+girls of that district go elsewhere for work. Once enrolled as members
+of the working force they are regularly instructed, both in general
+education and in their particular duties; they earn good wages, keep
+good health, receive Christian instruction, have their regular rest
+days, remain the full number of years, help support the family and earn
+enough besides to set themselves up in married life, and are now
+beginning to send their daughters to the same factory. This Christian
+factory is Christianizing the district. The rising moral and religious
+life is transforming even the agricultural and other interests of the
+region. So high is the grade of silk thread produced, and so uniform
+and reliable is the quality, that it alone of all the factories in Japan
+is able to export its product direct to the purchasing firm in the
+United States, which buys the entire output at an annual cost of about
+$500,000, and without intermediate inspection at Yokohama. Here we have
+a splendid illustration of the way in which Christian character is
+solving the problem arising from the low moral and economic ideals of
+the masses of Japan's working classes. As a rule the modern industrial
+worker does not put moral character into his work; and a wide complaint
+of Occidental importers of Japanese products is that goods are not made
+according to contract or sample. This is one of the greatest obstacles
+to the continuous prosperity of any Japanese industry; for as soon as a
+large demand has arisen in foreign lands for any given article, its
+quality, as a rule, has rapidly deteriorated. It is this unreliability
+of Japanese workmen that makes so difficult direct exportation to
+foreign lands without the supervision of Occidental middlemen. The
+Christian Gunze Seishi Kwaisha is one of the splendid exceptions which
+shows what Japanese workmen and manufacturers can do, when controlled by
+high ideals and motives.
+
+Unfortunately however not all factories and their managers have the same
+spirit, aim, or skill. Many factories are the exact opposite in every
+respect to those owned by the Kanegafuchi and Gunze Seishi companies. My
+personal attention was first called to the heartrending condition of
+servitude imposed on vast numbers of girls by reading, a score of years
+ago, of a fire in the dormitory of an Osaka factory. The dormitory was
+in a closed compound, whose doors and gates were carefully locked to
+keep the girls from running away. The result was the death, if I
+remember correctly, of every inmate, of whom there were several score.
+
+My personal knowledge in regard to the conditions of life and work of
+factory operatives was secured in Matsuyama, Shikoku, a small inland
+city of some forty thousand inhabitants, having but a single cotton
+thread spinning factory. It had no dormitories of its own, but sent
+its operatives to certain specified boarding-houses in the town.
+Through a Mr. Omoto, who was at that time working in the factory, and
+whose life story is given in the final chapter, I became intimately
+acquainted with the conditions prevailing in Matsuyama. In 1901, when
+Mr. Omoto began to work in the factory, he was amazed to see how many
+were the children taking their turns in work along with the older
+girls by day and by night. Large numbers ranged from seven to twelve
+years old, the majority, however, being from fifteen to twenty. They
+worked in two shifts of twelve hours each, but as they were required
+to clean up daily they did not get out till six-thirty or seven,
+morning and night. The only holidays for these poor little workers
+came two or three times a month, when the shifts changed; but even
+then there was special cleaning, and the girls who had worked all
+night were kept till nine and even ten in the morning. He was also
+deeply impressed with their wretched condition and immoral life. The
+majority of them could neither read nor write; their popular songs
+were indecent, and they were crowded together in disease-spreading and
+vermin-breeding, immoral boarding-houses, where they were deliberately
+tempted. Some of the landlords were also brothel keepers.
+
+Mr. Omoto, having opportunity as official "visitor" to become accurately
+acquainted with their life, told me in detail the conditions which have
+been briefly summarized above. The boarding-houses were only for girls
+from out of town. They had to be "recognized" by the factory, and the
+girls had to live in the houses to which they were assigned. Of course
+the purpose of these houses was to make money. The financial, hygienic,
+intellectual, and moral interests of the girls were wholly ignored. They
+were crowded into ill-ventilated, sunless rooms, the two shifts
+occupying the same rooms alternately. Personal extravagance was
+purposely stimulated, for girls in debt to the keepers were compelled to
+stay to work off their debts. Drinking and immoral carousings were their
+only recreation. As might be expected, sickness was common and epidemics
+frequent. Many girls returned to their homes after a few months in the
+"city" ruined not only in health but in character,--premature mothers of
+illegitimate children.
+
+The conditions of the factory girls in Matsuyama were not unique. Miss
+J. M. Holland, a Church of England missionary in Osaka, recently told me
+some of her observations and experiences. She has devoted the larger
+part of her time for fifteen years to work among factory girls, and on
+the whole can report improvement. When she began her visits to the
+factories, the conditions were often appalling. It was not uncommon for
+girls working on the night shift to be kept, on one pretext or another,
+till noon the next day, making eighteen hours of work. The conditions
+of work and life were such that the girls frequently ran away, to
+prevent which the dormitories were virtually prisons within the factory
+compounds. The girls were not allowed to go out on the streets, were
+given no opportunity for recreation, and of course no education. They
+were underfed, overworked, and punished in various ways by their
+overseers, cuffed and sometimes whipped, for disobedience or blunders.
+The daily papers of those days had frequent items reporting oppression
+and ill treatment; to be deprived of wages as punishment was a common
+experience; police occasionally discovered girls working in cellars and
+vaults as punishment for misdeeds; girls sometimes escaped in their
+night clothes, and on a few occasions the girls rebelled and did
+personal violence to the overseers.
+
+But, as already stated, the general conditions are now much better, for
+it was gradually found that such ill-treated labor was not profitable.
+"Most of the superintendents in Osaka are now splendid men, who on the
+whole take good care of the girls and wish to treat them honorably." The
+crying evils of the past have been largely done away. Rest, recreation,
+education, wages, and health are receiving careful consideration at all
+the leading factories. Still, no true parent would send a daughter to
+work in such a place, unless under the stress of dire poverty. There are
+still many small children under ten years of age, whose parents make
+false statements in regard to their ages. The work is from six in the
+morning to six in the evening. This means rising at four-thirty every
+morning for work on the day shift. Some factories have abolished the
+night shift. Fifteen minutes are allowed for rest in the middle of the
+forenoon, thirty minutes for lunch, and fifteen minutes again in the
+afternoon, giving thus eleven hours of steady work per day and the same
+per night. On pay days the girls, after standing eleven hours, have to
+stand in file from one to three hours more, according to their luck, and
+Miss Holland says that such long hours of standing result in serious
+organic difficulties. One half of the girls fail to work out their three
+years' contract, returning to their homes before time for marriage,
+seriously injured, if not completely ruined, physically. So long as this
+system continues, she adds, skilled labor is impossible. While some
+factories take great care that girls are carefully guarded from evil,
+others exercise no control whatever over their goings and doings. One
+factory she named as allowing its girls to be out on the streets till
+two o'clock in the morning. It insists on only two and a half hours of
+sleep! The difficulties connected with private boarding-houses for
+factory girls have proved so great that most of them have been closed.
+
+One of the tragic aspects of factory life in Japan is the large number
+of what would seem to us avoidable accidents, due to the fact that the
+girls know nothing whatever about machinery. Large factories accordingly
+keep surgeons on hand to care for the wounded. Miss Holland says that in
+one Osaka factory where there are a thousand operatives, the
+kind-hearted surgeon told her they had an average of fifty accidents
+daily which needed his attention. The little children especially suffer,
+often losing fingers. Not long since five fingers were clipped off in a
+single day! Miss Holland added that, improved though the conditions are,
+factory life for children is a "murder of the innocents." As a rule the
+food provided in factory dormitories is still inadequate. When asked
+whether corporal punishment is still inflicted, she expressed a doubt,
+having heard of none for a long time.
+
+In her conversation Miss Holland expressly limited her report to the
+factories she knows in Osaka. The question arises whether the conditions
+there may not be peculiar. May not factory conditions in Yokohama and
+Tokyo, where government inspection and control would theoretically be
+most complete, be better than elsewhere? The facts do not seem to
+justify such a surmise. The Kanegafuchi Company and some others have
+good factories everywhere, but there would seem also to be bad ones
+everywhere.
+
+A Japanese book on _Industrial Education_ has recently been published by
+a Mr. R. Uno, who, for fifteen years, has been a devoted student of
+Japan's industrial problems. A summary of the statistics there given
+appeared in May, 1914, in the _Tokyo Advertiser_, from which I cull the
+following facts and figures.
+
+In the cotton thread and spinning factories of Japan, there are 81 girls
+to 19 men. Out of 1,000 girls, 386 are over 20 years of age, 317 are
+from 17 to 20, 191 are from 15 to 16, 73 are from 12 to 14, while 7
+girls out of a thousand are under 12 years of age. The vast majority of
+factory girls live in the factory dormitories, which are of enormous
+size. In the region of Osaka there are more than 30,000 girls working in
+30 factories; in these same factories there are less than 7,000 men.
+Three of these factories employ over 3,000 girls each, while three more
+employ 2,000 and upward. These girls are herded together in enormous
+dormitories, disastrous both to health and morals. Statistics covering a
+number of years show that out of every 1,000 girls, 270 work less than
+six months at the same place; 200 less than one year, 179 less than two
+years; 121 less than three years; 141 less than five years, and only 89
+pass the five-year period. The usual reason for this extraordinary
+fluctuation of workers is that the girls break down in health.
+Government statistics declare that out of every 100 girls to enter upon
+factory work 23 die within one year of their return to their homes, and
+of these 50 per cent. die of tuberculosis. But it is also asserted that
+60 per cent. of the girls who leave home for factory work never return.
+Of the criminal girls arrested in Osaka for a certain period, 49 per
+cent. had been factory hands. As to the education of factory girls it is
+stated that, out of 1,000, the number that had completed the required
+number of years of schooling (six) was 450, while 385 were entirely
+without education. Out of 1,000 girls, 453 were orphans. Of 1,000 girls,
+611 came from farmers' homes, 166 from those of fishermen, and 55 from
+merchant homes, the remaining 168 being scattering. Factory girls earn
+and can save more than almost any other class. The average earnings per
+month are stated to be $4.67. The girl pays $1.20 per month for food,
+which is less than the actual cost, the factory providing the balance,
+namely, $1.30. The average girl sends home fifty cents per month. Three
+out of ten girls spend the balance entirely on clothes, five out of ten
+on cakes and theaters, while two out of ten save it. Such are some of
+the statements made by Mr. Uno in his enlightening book.
+
+In the September, 1910, number of the _Shin Koron_, a monthly magazine
+published in Tokyo, is an article by Professor Kuwada (of the Tokyo
+Imperial University) entitled "The Pitiful Environment of Factory
+Girls." He gives a detailed statement of the conditions of factory
+workers, in which he estimates the number of female laborers in
+factories containing ten or more hands at 700,000, of whom ten per cent.
+are under fourteen years of age. In tobacco factories ten per cent., in
+match factories twenty per cent, and in glass factories thirty per cent.
+of the girls are under ten years of age. He vigorously condemns the
+situation as threatening the future of the working class, whose
+prospective mothers are thus being destroyed. The efforts of the
+government during recent years to enact factory laws have been
+successfully thwarted thus far, says Professor Kuwada, by shortsighted,
+selfish capitalists. The girls are brought in from their country homes
+by false promises. They are told of the beautiful sights to be seen,
+theaters to be visited, the regular Sunday rest, and even of the
+splendid care and education they will receive from the factory. There is
+also stealing of expert workers from one factory by the artful
+stratagems of another. There are factories which resort to devices for
+defrauding helpless operatives. In one town where there are many
+factories, it is customary to work overtime by setting back the hands of
+the clock. To conceal this from the operatives, no factory blows its
+whistles! Some factories do not give time for the girls to rest even
+while they eat, but require them to work with the right hand while they
+eat with the left. Night work in which both male and female operatives
+are engaged together is most demoralizing. Punishment of various kinds
+is administered. In addition to fines, in some places the girls are
+imprisoned in dark rooms, rations are reduced, their arms are bound and
+the lash applied freely, and in extreme cases they are stripped to the
+waist and marched through the factory among young men and girls, bearing
+a red flag tied to the back! Superintendents are invariably men.
+
+So appalling was the statement made by Professor Kuwada that I could
+scarcely believe him in all the details, particularly in regard to the
+use of the lash and the stripping to the waist. I accordingly wrote
+both to him and to Professor Abe of Waseda University, who has made
+special study of the social problems and conditions of industry.
+Professor Kuwada, I learned, has been a careful student of social and
+industrial conditions for nearly twenty years, and is one of the leaders
+in the Society for the Study of Social Politics, composed of one hundred
+and fifty university professors and high government officials. This
+society was organized to aid the government in its efforts to secure
+social and industrial reforms. In reply to my inquiries Professor Kuwada
+says that most of the facts given concerning silk factories he has
+himself observed. Those concerning cotton spinning factories he has
+derived from reliable sources, chiefly from the officers of the
+Department of Agriculture and Commerce, who are especially engaged in
+making investigations in regard to industrial conditions. Much of the
+testimony rests on the statements of the girls themselves. Some of the
+facts come from local police and some from the published reports of the
+Department of Agriculture and Commerce. "The article in the _Shin
+Koron_ may therefore be regarded as semi-official," says Professor Abe.
+Since the appearance of the article referred to above, no reply has been
+made to it by factory owners or managers. As to the stripping of a girl
+to the waist and marching her through the factory filled with
+operatives, male and female, Professor Kuwada was told this by the girl
+herself. Under such circumstances, it is difficult to doubt the
+testimony. Nor is it probable that the cases cited are absolutely
+unique, although I think it highly probable that such extreme
+indignities and punishments are rare,--they are so out of keeping with
+the whole trend of Japanese civilization and culture. Mrs. Binford, a
+missionary in Mito, assures me, however, that altering the hands of the
+clock is a practise known to her. Testimony is widespread that girls are
+secured for factories by all kinds of false statements.
+
+In view of the frightful conditions of industrial labor thus indicated
+by Mr. Uno and Professor Kuwada, it is amazing that the Diet has
+refused on several successive occasions to enact suitable laws. The
+government began to realize in 1898 the need for legislation on these
+matters. A bill which was drafted and presented in 1902 was rejected, as
+were also three subsequent bills. The chief feature of the bill
+presented during the winter of 1910-11 was the provision that no factory
+may employ girls under twelve, and that girls of any age and youth under
+sixteen may not be kept at work for more than twelve hours per day, nor
+be made to do night work without "special reason." While some provisions
+of this bill were enacted and others amended, those considered most
+important by social reformers and by the government were virtually
+rejected. The bill was indeed passed, but with the added provision that
+the important clauses, relative to ages and night work, be inoperative
+for a period of fifteen years (!) in order to give time to the factories
+involved to adjust themselves to the new conditions. Since that time no
+further factory legislation has been enacted. Is it not astounding that
+in a land on the whole so progressive as Japan the difficulty of
+securing reform should be found in the Diet? The administration at this
+point is ahead of the representatives of the people, as it is indeed in
+many other respects. The fact is, as Professor Kuwada points out, that
+the "representatives" in both the lower and upper houses represent the
+financial interests of capitalists, rather than the human interests of
+the masses.
+
+But the reader, in his indignation over the situation of factory workers
+in Japan, should remember that Japan is no exceptional sinner among the
+nations. Christian England and America have had conditions equally bad,
+and possibly worse. Dr. Washington Gladden, in his article on "The
+Reason for the Unions," in the New York _Outlook_ for March, 1911, makes
+the following statements in regard to the condition of labor in England
+in the early part of the nineteenth century. Men and women stood daily
+at their tasks, from twelve to fourteen and fifteen hours; a working
+day of sixteen hours was not an unheard-of thing. Government reports of
+this period show that children of five and six years of age were
+frequently employed in factories. "Nor was this unmeasured abuse of
+child labor confined to the cotton, silk, and wool industries.... The
+report of 1842 is crammed with statements as to the fearful overwork of
+girls and boys in iron and coal mines, which doubtless had been going on
+from the end of the eighteenth century;... Children could get about
+where horses and mules could not. Little girls were forced to carry
+heavy buckets of coal up high ladders, and little girls and boys instead
+of animals dragged the coal bunkers. Women were constantly employed
+underground at the filthiest tasks. Through all this period the wages
+gravitated downward and family income was steadily lowered, while the
+cost of food increased. The homes of the workers were ruined. In a
+certain congested district there lived 26,830 persons in 5,366
+families, three fourths of which possessed but one room each. The rooms
+were without furniture, without everything; two married couples often
+shared the same room. In some cases there was not even a heap of straw
+on which to sleep. In one cellar the pastor found two families and a
+donkey; two of the children had died and the third was dying." And these
+conditions existed, not in days of industrial depression, but in flush
+times; business was booming and wealth accumulating in the hands of
+factory owners and employers.
+
+Many of the conditions of industrial workers even in the United States
+to-day are heartrending in the extreme. Who could read of the strike of
+the shirt-waist makers of New York in the winter of 1909-10 without deep
+indignation over the conditions under which those brave girls worked,
+and against which they rebelled? The National Committee on Child Labor
+reported in the spring of 1911 that there were over 60,000 children in
+the factories of the United States, mostly in the South. Before
+condemning Japan unduly, Occidentals should remember that their own
+record is none too bright.
+
+If comparison is to be made however between Japan and the West, it may
+be made along other lines. The West fell into its industrial
+difficulties with no example from which to learn. But this is not true
+of Japan. She can easily learn the lesson of a century of Western
+experience; but she seems slow to do it. Then again in Japan it is the
+government that is feebly leading, and the official popular
+representatives who are both blind and resisting, whereas in the West
+the great movements for industrial reform are movements of the people
+themselves, backed up and oftentimes led by enlightened humanitarian and
+Christian popular opinion. In the West, the churches are fairly in line
+with forward social movements, whereas in Japan, Shintoism,
+Confucianism, and even Buddhism are apparently wholly indifferent to the
+economic and even ethical condition of the nation's toilers.
+Furthermore, we are seeing to-day in Japan the strange phenomenon of
+one section of the government seeking to ameliorate social and economic
+conditions, and at the same time another, seemingly mortally afraid of
+allowing the people either to discuss these matters or to attempt reform
+movements themselves. Labor unions are strictly forbidden, and any
+person advocating socialism is under strict police surveillance. Strikes
+are illegal and their promoters are liable to criminal punishment.
+Anomalous as it may be, the government seems to be seeking to destroy
+that enlightened popular opinion on which it must rely for the efficient
+enforcement of its own plans for social betterment of the working
+classes.
+
+I have dwelt at considerable length on the conditions of factory
+workers, for later on I shall describe a sociological experiment among
+this class.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+GEISHA (HETÆRÆ)
+
+
+The word _geisha_ means an "accomplished person." A geisha is invariably
+a young woman who has had years of training fitting her to provide
+social entertainment for men. The _gei_ acquired are skill in playing
+the samisen (a three-stringed guitar), singing catching ditties, taking
+part in conversation and repartee, and in "dancing," which is to the
+Western mind rather a highly conventional posturing, with deft
+manipulations of the inevitable fan. Years of exacting and diligent work
+are required for proficiency in these "gei,"--the Geisha School in Kyoto
+provides a course of six or seven years.
+
+                    [Illustration: O HAMAYU (GEISHA)
+                       Most celebrated in Tokyo]
+
+According to the Japanese ideal, geisha singing must be shrill, and to
+secure this quality the voice is purposely strained till it is
+"cracked." Girls eight to ten years old are sometimes given their
+"singing lessons" in the frosty air of winter mornings before sunrise,
+or late at night, in order that they may take cold in the throat and
+then, by persistent, vigorous use, the voice is "broken" for life.
+Training in dancing and samisen playing is also prolonged and severe,
+for no pains are spared in efforts to excel. These efforts however are
+due, not to the will or desire of the _maiko_, the poor little girl who
+is being trained, but to the persistence of her owner.
+
+Only daughters of the very poor are secured for this outwardly beautiful
+and attractive, but inwardly repulsive, soul-destroying life.
+Practically speaking, geisha are the property of the old women who
+support and educate them through the years of their childhood, and who
+rent them out by the hour for the entertainment of men at social
+functions. Such functions would, indeed, be inane without geisha to
+serve the meals in their dainty ways, to fill the sake[5] cups for
+guests, to share in conversation by adding the spice, to provoke
+laughter, themselves laughing loudly and often, and at the proper time,
+to present their music, their singing, and their dancing. Dressed in
+faultless style, in richest silks and brilliant colors, geisha are
+moving pictures which have charmed generations of Japanese men and, in
+recent decades, many foreigners. Japanese political party dinners and
+consultations are often held in restaurants, where geisha make the fun
+and pour the wine. If foreign guests are to be entertained by wealthy
+individuals, by companies, or even by cities, the inevitable geisha is
+there, and is presented as a characteristic product of Japan--which she
+truly is. But while there is about her a certain charm of manner and
+dress, to one who watches her face, looking for traces of a soul, the
+story is all too plain--behind the harsh laugh and stoical face it is
+impossible not to recognize that there is an empty and often a bleeding
+heart.
+
+    [5] Sake (pronounced sah'-ke) is the fermented liquor of Japan,
+        made from rice.
+
+The lives of these girls are pitiful in the extreme. Chosen from among
+the families of the poor on the basis of their prospective good looks
+and ability to learn, they leave their homes at an early age and are
+subjected to the severe drill already outlined. They go through their
+lessons with rigid, mechanical accuracy. In public they appear in
+gorgeous robes, their faces painted and powdered, artificiality
+dominating everything about them,--clothing, manners, and smiles. As a
+rule nothing is done to develop their minds, and of course the
+cultivation of personal character is not even thought of. They are
+instructed in flippant conversation and pungent retort, that they may
+converse interestingly with the men, for whose entertainment they are
+alone designed. The songs learned, some of the dances performed, and the
+conversational repertoire acquired are commonly reported to be highly
+licentious, but these are the gei that best please the men, to whom
+they are open for private engagements from the time they are eighteen
+years of age. If, however, a geisha is exceptionally beautiful, her
+owner does not allow her to enter on such duties, for experience has
+shown that her beauty is soon lost in this way, and with it her highest
+earning capacity.
+
+Many geisha undoubtedly develop considerable personal ability. The
+severe drill undergone could hardly fail to call forth their powers of
+mind, and intimate association with educated and quasi-cultured men
+serves further to stimulate their mental faculties. In native ability
+too they are not lacking, though drawn from the lowest classes of
+society, for, as will soon be more fully explained, they sometimes
+possess strains of high lineage. The national custom, which represses
+the normal intellectual development and social instincts of cultured,
+respectable women, is removed from this one class, which is favored by
+many circumstances. They are not subjected to the debauching excesses
+usual with the ordinary prostitute, nor to humiliating medical
+inspection. They are not conscious of popular disapproval, but on the
+contrary are the beauties of the town, their photographs for sale on
+every street. Indeed one well-informed gentleman told me that probably
+ten per cent. of the geisha enter the calling by their own choice. No
+wonder that from time to time the tale is told of some Japanese man of
+social position falling under the spell of an accomplished geisha, whom
+he prefers to any of the silent, passive, timid, incompetent girls
+selected for him, who in all probability have never talked with any man
+except immediate relatives or tradesmen. The national custom which
+predetermines the social incompetence of the majority of cultured women
+compensates for the loss by providing this geisha class. Not until
+Japanese ladies can hold their own in social life will the vocation of
+the geisha be ended.
+
+Among the surprises one meets in studying the geisha question is the
+fact that not a few of the girls have features which indicate
+distinguished ancestry. My explanation for this fact is the further fact
+that for ages the standards of moral life in Japan have allowed large
+freedom of sexual relations. The result is that in the lowest classes,
+from which geisha are recruited, there run strains of gentle blood. It
+thus comes to pass that now in the midst of coarse surroundings and in
+deep poverty there are born of parents manifestly belonging to the
+lowest class, children of exceptional beauty, fitted, so far as
+individual appearance indicates, to belong to the highest ranks of
+society. Whether or not this suggested explanation is correct as a
+matter of historic fact I am not able to say, but I offer it as the most
+plausible that has occurred to me.
+
+Parents in this class of society much prefer daughters to sons, for they
+are likely to become valuable sources of income. At eight or nine, those
+destined for the "accomplished" calling are put into the care of some
+experienced geisha and a mutual contract is given for a specific period
+(five or six years), during which the child is termed a _maiko_
+(dancing girl). As a rule the parents receive a small sum at the
+beginning of this first period. The owner undertakes to support and
+train the girl, and expects to profit by her earnings. By the time the
+girl is fifteen or sixteen she has finished her apprenticeship, when, if
+she has exceptional graces and charms likely to win her a place in the
+highest social gatherings, she will secure quite a competency (many
+hundreds of yen, and in some cases even a few thousand) for the keeper
+and parents. On the expiration of the first contract a new one is made,
+and so on, until the girl has passed her prime and is no longer sought
+for entertainments. If in the interval she has not become the concubine
+of some rich man, she then either returns to her poor home or, what is
+more usual, becomes a servant in a hotel or tea-house. If her ability is
+exceptional, she may set up as geisha keeper, train other maiko, employ
+younger geisha, and so make her living.
+
+The great ambition of a geisha is to "catch" some wealthy man of rank
+with her charms and become his concubine. My informant estimates that
+this is what happens to perhaps one half of the geisha. In such cases
+the man pays down a handsome sum to the owner, who sends part of it to
+the parents. Thus he buys his concubine, whom he usually keeps in a
+villa, not his home. I have asked if geisha ever become true, legal
+wives and am told "only very rarely." But, if they do, are they
+cordially received by the man's kindred? "Oh, no! that is not possible,"
+is the repeated answer. The effects of her training can never be
+obliterated, and the new relatives cannot forget the despicable class
+from which she comes, and the calling by which she has gained her
+husband. She may become indeed refined and altogether correct in manner,
+but the taint of her origin as a rule adheres to her. Then too the years
+of immoral life before she won her husband make it a rare thing for a
+geisha to have children, and childless wives in Japan are not at a
+premium, for the prime purpose of marriage is the maintenance of the
+family line.
+
+Foreigners commonly say that geisha are not prostitutes. It is true they
+are not licensed, that is to say, professional, prostitutes in the eye
+of the law, nor are they procurable, as are regular prostitutes, by the
+average man, for the expense is too great. But the chief of police
+already referred to, and many Japanese of whom I have inquired, insist
+that a large proportion of geisha are corrupt--two geisha keepers have
+estimated the proportion as high as ninety per cent. Geisha who decline
+engagements leading to immorality are rare indeed, and for that very
+reason are unpopular.
+
+But better than generalized statements is the story of an actual life.
+There lives to-day in Hyogo a paralytic whose influence through her
+words, newspaper articles, and books is widely felt throughout central
+Japan. She is one of the few girls who, though trained as a geisha,
+refused to follow the calling. The story of her life is worthy of more
+than passing mention.
+
+Her father died in her infancy, and shortly after the death of her
+mother, who had married, her stepfather likewise married again. These
+stepparents, deciding to have her become a geisha, expended much time
+and money on her training.
+
+When she was prepared at sixteen years of age, she was entrusted to a
+woman whose business it was to find employment for geisha in hotels and
+tea-houses. This woman took her to a house in Osaka, where there were
+already many geisha and regular prostitutes. Learning the nature of the
+duties expected of her, she positively refused to comply. In spite of
+the fact that it was twenty miles to her home and that there were but
+two sen in her pocket, she escaped from the hotel, spent one sen on
+bridge toll, one sen on a lunch, and succeeded in walking all that
+distance alone, reaching home after midnight, the home from which she
+had been sent out with hopes that she should win for her stepparents an
+ample support. The reception accorded her can be fancied. She held
+firmly however to her resolve, preferring poverty and hard toil to
+luxury and fine clothing along with that service on which these were
+conditioned. Work was found for her in a factory, then as a family
+servant, and finally at a small tea-house, where during the winter she
+was especially exposed to the cold. An attack of rheumatism developed
+into paralysis. With no hope of recovery she longed for death, for her
+stepparents, considering the case hopeless, neglected to care for her
+properly, although she was so helpless. She could not feed herself, nor
+even crawl to the well in which she wished to drown herself,--the final
+resource of many a despairing Japanese woman. But, by a strange series
+of circumstances, or should we not say by a merciful Providence? a
+Christian man discovered and befriended her, told the story of Jesus,
+and revealed the Savior. Her faith soon became so strong and her words
+proved so thoughtful and helpful to those Christian friends who came to
+see her, that her influence began to spread. She found she could manage
+to write with her crippled hand, and as what she wrote was like her
+spoken words, simple and strong, it soon found its way into print. She
+was finally led to write the story of her life, and this book, with
+other articles written by her, has afforded a small income, which with
+additional help from friends has secured a comfortable home for herself
+and the family of which she is now the center. Her name is Zako Aiko,
+and she lives in Hyogo.
+
+A few geisha, coming under Christian influences, have been converted,
+and so far as I know, such persons leave the calling altogether, as
+incompatible with Christian principles. But condemnation of the whole
+geisha system is not confined to Christians. Many Japanese, entirely
+outside our Christian circles, regard it as a disgrace to the country,
+and wish the whole business, along with licensed prostitution, concealed
+from public view. For instance, a man of high official rank, president
+of a large institution, tells me he regrets that there is no first-class
+Japanese hotel in Kyoto at which he may entertain foreign guests in
+Japanese style, except where geisha serve the meals. Rather than
+countenance the geisha system, he prefers to take his guests to a hotel
+where the service is not so perfect but where the women employed are
+above suspicion. He deplored the fact one day that all foreigners coming
+to Kyoto in the spring visit the _Miyako odori_, commonly known in
+English as the "Cherry Dance." I myself have seen this performance more
+than once, and found nothing objectionable in either the so-called
+dancing, its setting, or its accompaniments. It nevertheless affords
+opportunity for the display of something like eighty or ninety geisha,
+and helps to maintain the business and the system. As indicating the
+status of geisha in the best Japanese society, it is significant that
+all geisha are rigidly excluded from every entertainment where any
+member of the Imperial household is present.
+
+It is often said by foreigners that geisha and prostitutes not
+infrequently make happy matches, and by legal marriage escape from their
+unhappy lives of shame. This is one of those pretty fables one would
+like to believe, but the facts do not seem to support the theory. There
+are, no doubt, rare instances where such has been the case. I have known
+two women who had been geisha and who married men of some position. In
+one case the man was a physician. When I knew the family the ex-geisha
+had been in the home a number of years and was a lovely, modest, capable
+woman, a regular member of my wife's cooking class. But it was
+noticeable that she always took a "back seat" among the ladies; she was
+tolerated by them and treated not unkindly, but it was clear that they
+looked down on her. The man's kindred never favored the match, and would
+not let him marry the woman legally, so she lived in his house, took
+excellent care of his first wife's children, and was to them all that a
+stepmother could be, yet, so far as I know, she has never gained her
+full position in the home of her husband nor among his relatives.
+
+The other case I knew but slightly, as she died but a few weeks after I
+made her acquaintance, but she must have been a woman of exceptional
+character. She was a Christian and highly respected in the church.
+
+Such cases, however, are rare. A geisha may be in high favor during the
+decade or more when at the height of her physical charms, though even
+then her inner life is empty and loveless; but when no longer attractive
+she is cast aside as a faded flower, to spend the rest of her life
+forlorn, unloved, and uncared for. Truly, the way of the geisha is hard!
+
+    Geisha naru mi to;
+    Michi tobu tori wa
+    Doko no idzuko de
+    Hateru yara,
+
+is a popular ditty regarding the final disappearance of geisha from
+sight. It may be roughly translated: "What becomes of geisha, do you
+ask? I ask in turn, where end their lives the birds that fly along the
+road?"
+
+In regard to the number of geisha, Mr. Murphy's statistics show that
+from 1887 to 1897 they increased throughout Japan from 10,326 to 26,536,
+and since then the increase has been relatively small, the number being
+now in the vicinity of 30,000.
+
+So far as is known to me, no regular Christian or philanthropic work is
+done for this class.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+_SHOGI_ (LICENSED PROSTITUTES)
+
+
+It may seem strange to class prostitutes among working women, but the
+facts require such classification, for, not only so far as the parents
+and brothel keepers are concerned, but also so far as the girls
+themselves are concerned, it is entirely a matter of money. If the
+business did not pay splendidly, the keepers would not erect their
+handsome buildings, pay the heavy license fees, nor buy the girls from
+the parents at considerable cost. And on the other hand, if the parents
+did not receive what they regard as large sums for their daughters, the
+latter would not be sold to such lives of shame and disease. And so far
+as the poor victims are concerned, there is abundant evidence that they
+often go into the wretched business solely at the command of their
+parents, for among the lowest class the noble doctrine of obedience to
+parents is shamefully perverted to this vile end. Children are taught
+that obedience is a child's first duty, regardless of the question
+whether the thing required by parents is right or wrong. The girl goes
+to the brothel in obedience to her parents, who send her there to earn a
+living for herself and to help them out of special financial
+difficulties. Thus from first to last, so far as the girls, the parents,
+and the keepers are concerned, the question is economic.
+
+Among the working women of Japan prostitutes surely are the most pitiful
+of all. They give the most and get the least. They receive no training,
+like the geisha; have no liberty; to prevent their running away, are
+imprisoned in brothels, or if diseased or ill, in hospitals; and have no
+friends except possibly other prostitutes. Most of them soon loathe the
+business, but are helpless, hopeless prisoners,--for the keepers who
+paid their parents a few score or hundreds of yen and loaded them with
+beautiful clothes, charge all these items to their account, so that they
+are under a heavy debt which must be paid before they can leave. This
+debt the laws of the land theoretically ignore but practically
+recognize, for the "keeper" keeps the books as well as the brothel, and
+the police and officials are often on his side. In this way licentiously
+inclined officials, merchants, and travelers provide for the easy,
+economical, and legal satisfaction of their desires.
+
+I do not propose here to give a detailed account of this distressful and
+disgusting "business." Those who desire more information should procure
+_The Social Evil in Japan_, by the Rev. U. G. Murphy. Some years ago Mr.
+Murphy, by grit and pluck, carried certain test cases through the courts
+and secured legal opportunity for girls to quit the business if they
+wished. The Salvation Army and some of the daily papers took pains to
+let the brothel girls know their legal rights, and in a short period
+over twelve thousand, at that time over one third of the whole number,
+left the brothels, so that for a while the business was prostrated in
+many quarters. This single fact shows the spirit and attitude of a large
+number of the girls. Since then the wily keepers and all interested in
+maintaining this lucrative trade have succeeded in modifying the
+administration of the regulations, so that the girls are again closely
+controlled.
+
+There is however a rising public conscience and an abolition movement is
+gathering strength. The virtual slavery of the girls; the fact that they
+are openly bought and sold, and that, too, under governmental
+supervision and sanction; the cruelty inflicted on many girls by their
+keepers; the fraud practised in connection with their accounts, whereby
+a girl is kept hopelessly in debt, so that, however faithful she may be,
+release is impossible, and indeed the more faithful the more profitable
+she is to her keeper--all these facts are becoming widely known and are
+beginning to arouse public indignation. The government is openly
+charged with protecting slavery, and that of the worst kind. High
+government officials are being condemned for licentiousness.
+
+As signs of the times, I give a few facts. In the summer of 1909 the
+wealthiest and most centrally located prostitute quarter in Osaka was
+completely wiped out by a great fire. Before the flames were fully out,
+the anti-brothel forces realized their opportunity and under the
+leadership of the Young Men's Christian Association and Young Women's
+Christian Union began to agitate for refusal to allow the rebuilding of
+the business in that region of the city. A petition was prepared and
+signed by one hundred thousand people. Large numbers of Osaka's best
+citizens allied themselves with the movement. The result was that the
+authorities in charge saw fit to yield to the pressure and arranged that
+the new buildings for prostitution should be erected on the outskirts of
+the city.
+
+In the winter of 1911, the city of Tokyo suffered from a great
+conflagration which completely destroyed the section of the city known
+as "Yoshiwara,"[6] which for three hundred years has been assigned to
+prostitution. This center of the social evil had become enormously
+wealthy, and such magnificent buildings had been erected for the
+business that it had become one of the famous sights of Tokyo. Before
+the fire was fairly over, the anti-brothel forces began to organize
+their campaign, which continued for months. A magazine called _Purity_
+(_Kaku Sei_) was started. In this case, however, success did not crown
+their efforts.
+
+    [6] Foreigners commonly, but mistakenly, suppose that "Yoshiwara"
+        means "Prostitute Quarter."
+
+Not long since an army division was located in the vicinity of Wakayama,
+a city of considerable importance, not far from Osaka, in which there
+have never been any prostitute houses. This led to the suggestion that
+it would be well to open there a regular prostitute quarter. The matter
+was keenly discussed and the proposition carried through the city
+council and authorized by all the lower officials, but when it came
+finally before the prefectural governor for signature, it was vetoed,
+and the veto message is worthy of preservation and careful consideration
+by those who are interested in these matters.
+
+The governor says in his message: "I was early convinced that the
+establishment of licensed quarters in the city was harmful to the public
+interest. It has been a subject of discussion in Wakayama now for many
+years, and I have investigated the question thoroughly from the
+standpoint of public morals, health, and economics, at places with and
+without licensed quarters, and find that the existence of such
+institutions is distinctly harmful. The standard of morals is lowered,
+the public health impaired, disease made rampant, the young are sent
+into wrong channels, homes are broken up, and extravagance is
+encouraged. The state of affairs in Shingu, in this prefecture of
+Wakayama, where licensed houses have been established, clearly shows
+that the existence of such places is extremely harmful to public
+interest. The majority representation to the authorities urged the
+establishment of licensed quarters on the ground that the quarters would
+promote the prosperity of that section of the city in which they were
+situated. It is true they may benefit a section of the city in one way,
+but the benefit so obtained would be offset by many other evils. The
+military authorities are strongly opposed to the establishment of
+licensed quarters, and their views are very reasonable. For these
+reasons I have decided to refuse permission for the establishment of
+licensed quarters in Wakayama city."[7]
+
+    [7] As translated by the _Japan Chronicle_, May 13, 1911.
+
+In passing, it is worthy of record that the prefecture of Joshu has for
+over thirty years, by ceaseless vigilance, prevented government sanction
+of prostitution. Repeatedly has the battle been fought and repeatedly
+have the anti-brothel forces won. In this respect Joshu stands alone
+among the forty-eight prefectures of the Japanese empire.
+
+As illustrating the low moral ideals prevailing among a certain class of
+men, Professor Abe of Waseda University, in a recent brothel-abolition
+speech, told of a certain politician who, though a fast liver, was
+praised because he never debauched the wives and daughters of his
+friends, but always confined himself to those women whose services he
+fully paid for in hard cash! Colonel Yamamuro, the highest Japanese
+officer in the Salvation Army, on the same evening, speaking of the low
+moral ideals of the classes from which prostitutes are drawn, said that
+in connection with the Salvation Army he had had opportunity to know of
+twelve hundred girls who had been aided in the two rescue homes of the
+Army. Of these twelve hundred about one half had been prostitutes. The
+reasons given by them for leaving were various, such as ill health,
+cruelty, lovers, but not one said she left the business because it was
+wrong. The evidence is full and convincing that a considerable section
+of the Japanese people do not regard loose sexual relations as
+particularly immoral.
+
+In regard to the statistics of prostitutes, the figures given by Mr.
+Murphy are probably the most accurate available, and are substantially
+official. Between 1887 and 1897 the number of prostitutes increased from
+27,559 to 47,055, reaching their maximum in 1899, when there were
+52,410. Then, following up the work of Mr. Murphy and the Salvation
+Army, came the "cessation movement," reducing the number to 40,195 in
+1901, and the following year to 38,676. Since that date the number has
+grown. In two years four thousand fresh girls were bought up, and a
+thousand more the following year. The latest statistics are those for
+1906, when the number of prostitutes was reported as 44,542. It is safe
+to say that at the present time the number is near, if it has not
+passed, the fifty thousand mark.
+
+It would be natural to suppose that recruits for the geisha and shogi
+occupations would be found largely among the poorest farmers, but both
+my outdoor man and also my cook assert that such is not the fact.
+"Farmers would never sell their daughters for such vile purposes,
+however poor they might become. Parents who do such things are only the
+degenerate creatures who live in cities," is the scornful remark of my
+gardener. My cook asserts the same thing, and adds that farmers'
+daughters have not the genteel features and figures nor the light
+complexion essential to girls seeking such occupations. Other
+investigations confirm these assertions. The great cities of Nagoya and
+Niigata, and indeed the whole of Echigo, are famous for the supply of
+girls they send to the brothels of Tokyo. A poor man with several
+daughters has a pretty good investment, and rejoices more at the birth
+of a girl than of a boy, because it means an early and definite income.
+
+I found at one time in Matsuyama that all the girls of sixteen to
+eighteen years of age in a certain poor quarter had, in the course of
+one year, been sold off to the brothels. About that time a man came to
+me with a pitiful story of poverty; he had five children, but
+unfortunately they were all boys; had they been girls, he said, he might
+have sold some of them and so not have needed to ask my aid!
+
+The word used in connection with both geisha and prostitutes is
+perfectly frank; no effort is made to conceal by terms the nature of
+the transaction. The girls are "bought" and "sold." They employ the
+same words as those used in buying and selling animals, food,
+clothing--anything. Their purchase and sale is a regular business in
+which men and women openly engage, traveling the country over in search
+of girls, and conducting them in small groups to the keepers of
+brothels, who pay so much a head. And this takes place in civilized
+Japan! Moreover, in spite of the fact that girls may thus be bought, it
+is true that they are also occasionally stolen. I have known of a
+pitiful instance where the girl, a member of a respectable family, was
+boxed and shipped on a steamer as freight, to elude the police, and
+taken to Siam. In five years she has succeeded in getting one letter to
+her home, but the parents dare not put the matter into the hands of
+Japanese officials, as that would make the situation hopeless.
+
+But Occidentals may not forget how terrible a scourge is commercialized
+vice in civilized and so-called "Christian" Europe, and who has not
+heard of the "white slavery" of America, with its stealing of girls and
+young women for purposes of prostitution? The institution of comparisons
+between nations and individuals is alike odious,--but unavoidable. A
+fair comparison would seem to be that, whereas in the West the moral
+sense of a large proportion of the people is very strongly against the
+social evil and seeks to abolish it, in Japan the moral sense of the
+mass of the population acquiesces in the situation, so that the
+government and a vast majority of the influential people of the land
+unite to make the business safe, legal, and remunerative; and that,
+while in Occidental Christian lands no girl can voluntarily enter this
+sphere of life without being conscious of its shame and immorality, many
+of the girls of Japan may have no adequate knowledge of these inevitable
+consequences until their fate has been sealed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+AMELIORATIVE EFFORTS
+
+
+The reader will desire to know what, if any, have been the efforts to
+ameliorate the evils described in preceding pages. They are of two
+kinds: first, governmental in origin, general in scope, legal and
+educative in method; and second, private in origin, both general and
+specific in scope, personal, educative, ethical, and religious in
+method.
+
+The general educational policy of the government is not to be regarded
+as a philanthropic or ameliorative effort to meet the conditions already
+described. This policy however does have a powerful elevating influence
+on the lives and character of the entire people. As we have seen, over
+ninety-seven per cent. of the girls of school age are in attendance,
+according to the reports. Though we allow a discount on these figures
+(and some may perhaps be necessary), we can still say that, if the
+present policy of six years of compulsory education is carried out, the
+rising generation of boys and girls will be able to read fairly well the
+daily paper and simple books. To millions of women this means the
+opening of doors of knowledge and opportunity which in ages past have
+been closed to them.
+
+The government has also been the chief initiative force in all recent
+movements to improve the economic and industrial conditions of the
+people. Railroads in Japan owe their existence to the government, as
+also do many forms of modern industry. Agriculture and fruit and stock
+raising owe much to the government, which has imported Western seed,
+Western fruit trees, and new breeds of horses and cattle. All these
+efforts have done much to improve the economic conditions, thus
+elevating the scale of living. People eat better food and more of it,
+live in better houses, and wear better clothes than they did fifty or
+more years ago, and--an important item--they pay less taxes in
+proportion to their income. A general uplifting process is modifying
+their life and thought, and this is profoundly affecting Japan's working
+classes, and, of course, her women.
+
+In regard to the specific evils introduced by Western industrialism, we
+have already seen how the government has sought to remedy the
+difficulties, so far as laws can go, but hitherto its efforts have
+largely been thwarted by capitalists.
+
+Among the notable efforts of the government to promote wise social
+reform movements have been the large gatherings, at considerable
+government expense, of leaders of philanthropic and benevolent
+institutions for instruction in the most recent and approved
+sociological principles. Competent specialists from all over the country
+have been employed to instruct these leaders, and thus the whole country
+is given the benefit of the special knowledge of the few. The government
+has also, during the past four years, distributed some forty thousand
+yen annually among those eleemosynary institutions which it regards as
+models of efficiency.
+
+Furthermore, opportunity for the higher education of women, first given
+on a wide scale during the past decade, while not yet affecting working
+women to any appreciable extent, cannot fail to do so as time passes,
+for it proclaims the intrinsic ability of woman and gives her a standing
+of intellectual equality with man, in sharp contrast to the humiliating
+position assigned to her by popular Buddhism, which has taught that
+women must be reborn as men before they can be saved. Indeed, they are
+born women because of their sins. A Japanese proverb has it that one
+must never trust a woman, even if she has borne you seven children! This
+long-believed doctrine as to the inherent incapacity and essential
+depravity of woman has no doubt been a powerful cause of her social
+degradation. Under the present system of general education, however,
+these doctrines and beliefs will soon be completely overthrown, thus
+making room for and producing great changes in the social and industrial
+conditions of all women.
+
+But the government is not the sole worker for the social amelioration of
+industrial conditions. Through private effort forces are being
+introduced which are more potent than any the government knows or can
+control. I refer to the gospel of Jesus Christ. This has already
+introduced such a leaven into Japanese society that nothing can now
+prevent its transforming the whole mass in time.
+
+Should the entire foreign body of 624 Protestant and 371 Roman Catholic
+missionaries be withdrawn from Japan, there would still remain (January,
+1914) 728 ordained and 713 unordained Japanese Protestant pastors and
+trained evangelists, and 331 Bible women. Among the 815 organized
+churches, 182 are wholly self-supporting. In addition to the 90,000
+Protestant communicants, 67,000 Roman Catholic people, and 32,000 Greek
+Christians among the Japanese, it is estimated by Christian pastors that
+there are many hundreds of thousands of the people who are conducting
+their lives according to the principles and with the spirit of Jesus.
+
+Furthermore, a careful study of modern Japanese civilization shows that
+the Christian conception of man as having intrinsic and inherent worth
+has been embodied in the constitution and laws of the land and is being
+put into wide practise. The rights of children, women, and inferiors and
+the duties of parents, husbands, and superiors are new notes in Japan,
+and are sounding forth a richer music than has ever before been heard in
+the Orient.
+
+Of course there are still discordant notes, as we have seen when
+considering the subject of the buying and selling of geisha and
+prostitutes; but so there are even in so-called Christian lands.
+Nevertheless, the conception of the value of the individual and of his
+rights is inspiring a hope among the lowly and hitherto downtrodden and
+oppressed sections of the nation which cannot be extinguished, and will
+in due time powerfully transform the traditional civilization, giving to
+woman a place of equality along with man in the estimation of all.
+
+The general education of girls, and especially their higher education,
+is signal proof of a wide acceptance of Christian conceptions. According
+to the _Résumé Statistique_ (1914), there were, in 1911-12, 250 girls'
+high schools, public and private, whose pupils numbered 64,809. In
+addition, the number of women in normal schools preparing to become
+elementary school-teachers was 8,271, and in the higher normal schools,
+570. The number of female teachers is reported at 42,739. These girls'
+high and normal schools, through the ability they give their graduates
+to converse with men on a basis of intellectual equality in regard to
+topics of current interest while retaining their modesty and personal
+character, are so transforming the reticent habits and unsocial customs
+of Japanese ladies that ere long scant room will be left for the
+old-time geisha.
+
+The change Christianity is silently bringing to the home life of Japan,
+adding to its sweetness, purity, and conscious unity, and contributing a
+mighty uplift to both head and heart, few as yet have either eyes to see
+or ears to hear. The influence already exerted by Christian ideas and
+ideals on the traditional conceptions of Japan in regard to home life,
+marriage, childhood, the poor and lowly, the orphan, the blind, the
+leper, and the diseased generally,--in a word on the value of the
+individual and his inalienable, God-given rights,--is so widespread and
+so beneficent that it receives little specific comment and no
+opposition.
+
+There were no doubt in old Japan certain influences predisposing many to
+the new ideals and practises introduced from the West. It is difficult,
+perhaps impossible, at this stage in Japan's development to reckon
+accurately how much of Japan's new life is due to new factors introduced
+from Christendom, and how much to ideals already operative in the
+feudal system. No one can doubt, however, that Christian ideals have
+been the most important factors in the West to give woman her present
+status. Nor can we doubt that Christian ideals and practises are playing
+an important rôle in the modern emancipation of women in Japan.
+
+Those who criticize missionaries as forcing the Christian religion upon
+unwilling peoples know not whereof they speak. The Christian faith would
+make no progress whatever in Japan were it not found by Japanese
+themselves to be ennobling and satisfying. It is welcomed because it
+brings hope and peace and power to those who were hopeless and restless
+and powerless.
+
+But he is very shortsighted who thinks that the main forces
+Christianizing Japan are wielded by the foreign missionary. The
+missionary doubtless is an essential agent, but of far more importance
+is the work of Japanese Christians themselves; and in addition to these
+is the general though vague influence exerted by Western civilization
+as a whole, and particularly by the English language and literature. In
+that important work, _Fifty Years of New Japan_, are many remarkable
+chapters, but especially noteworthy are those entitled "Social Changes
+of New Japan," and "Influence of the West upon Japan," from the pens of
+competent, wide-awake Japanese scholars.
+
+Consider what Professor Nitobe says: "The greatest influence of the West
+is, after all, the spiritual.... Christianity has influenced the thought
+and lives of many individuals in Japan, and will influence many more,
+eventually affecting the nation through the altered view-point and
+personnel of the citizen and the administrator. The character-changing
+power of the religion of Jesus I believe to be only just now making
+itself appreciably evident in our midst." Somewhat further on, referring
+to the English language, he writes: "The effect of the acquisition of
+the English tongue on the mental habits--I had almost said on the
+unconscious cerebrations of our people--is incalculable.... The moral
+influence of some of its simple text-books used in our schools cannot be
+overrated.... They have been instrumental in opening new vistas of
+thought and vast domains of enterprise and interest to young minds."
+
+No student of Japan's new life, resulting from the influence of Western
+and Christian ideas and ideals, should fail to familiarize himself with
+the eighth issue (1910) of _The Christian Movement in Japan_, which
+gives a series of remarkable addresses delivered by Japanese and
+foreigners at the semicentennial celebration of the beginning of
+Protestant missions in Japan. Especial attention should be paid to the
+section treating of the "Influence of Christianity on Japanese Thought
+and Life."
+
+It will be obvious to any thoughtful person that changes so wide and
+deep, affecting all the fundamental conceptions of life, of manhood and
+womanhood, of the state, of law and justice, of right and duty, are not
+confined to those whose privilege it is to study Western books and
+acquire the higher education. In ten thousand ways the whole national
+life is being transformed, slowly it may be and silently, yet surely and
+steadily. And the benefits are accruing to the most lowly and least
+educated no less than to those at the top. All the working women of
+Japan have already received in some degree, and in the future will more
+and more receive, the blessings and the uplift which are coming to the
+nation through its contact with the Christian conceptions and standards
+embedded in Western civilization and literature.
+
+A volume--nay, many volumes--would be needed to tell in detail the story
+of how the Christian message has been and is being conveyed to the
+people of Japan. We should make known the story of Joseph Hardy Neesima,
+of the Kumamoto Band, of Dr. Clark and Dr. Hepburn, of Young Men's
+Christian Association teachers of English in government schools, of
+faithful, self-sacrificing pastors, evangelists, Bible women, and
+missionaries. We should recount the deeds of heroic lay Christians in
+all the walks of life, and above all in their homes, too often hostile,
+commending their new-found faith by their new spirit and life. We should
+tell of the work of Christian teachers of ethics in the prisons, and the
+remarkable results secured. We should relate the experiences of those
+who have struggled for the rights of prostitutes, of Salvation Army
+officers, of matrons of reform homes, of managers of ex-convicts' homes,
+of founders of orphan asylums, of supporters of private charity
+hospitals. We should tell the story of the scores of Christian
+institutions the central aim of which is to express in concrete life the
+Christian's faith and hope and love.
+
+But in addition to the narrative of direct Christian work, full heed
+should be given to the evidences of the wide acceptance by the nation of
+the best Christian ideals in matters of philanthropy. To meet the needs
+of the famine sufferers in north Japan during the winter and spring of
+1914, and of those who were deprived of their all by the terrific
+volcanic explosion of the island of Sakurajima in January, 1914, more
+than a million yen ($500,000) of private gifts flowed into the hands of
+the relieving committees. For the earthquake sufferers the Diet voted
+622,883 yen ($311,441).
+
+The late Emperor, shortly before his death, was so moved by the medical
+needs of the poor that he contributed a fund of a million yen for the
+systematic undertaking of medical work in all parts of Japan. This
+started a movement among the wealthy which has resulted in the
+establishment of a Medical Relief Association (Saiseikwai), having a
+fund of $5,000,000 already paid in and pledges for $8,000,000 more.
+
+Men of wealth in Japan are following the example set by the best
+Christian life in the West. In recent years several large gifts have
+been made for education. At the close of 1913 one of the most wealthy
+and always generous families of Japan, Sumitomo of Osaka, announced
+their decision to establish an industrial school for the poor, at an
+expense of $200,000. And in the same year Mr. O'Hara, one of the
+wealthiest and most philanthropic men of Okayama, announced his plan of
+opening a high-grade agricultural school for poor boys of that
+prefecture. The amount of the gift is not stated, but in addition to the
+large sum needed for buildings and equipment, he donates as permanent
+endowment some 250 acres of rice land whose value, roughly estimated,
+may be about $50,000.
+
+There are in Japan of all denominations and religions the following
+institutions for the uplift and regeneration of the downtrodden and for
+the help of the poor:
+
+    Orphan asylums.......................... 100
+    Rescue work.............................  92
+    Dispensaries............................  45
+    Reformatories...........................  47
+    Homes for ex-prisoners..................  37
+    Homes for old people....................  22
+    Poor farms..............................  11
+                                            ____
+                                             354
+
+Of these institutions, the compiler of the statistics states that for
+one Shinto and three Buddhist, there are five Christian institutions.
+The leaders and inspirers in all the forms of philanthropic work are
+Christians, as from the nature of the case might be expected.
+
+"In the matter of Christian Social Service," writes A. D. Hail, in the
+_Japan Evangelist_,[8] "the Federated Missions have been represented by
+two Committees whose fields of endeavor are quite distinct. The one is
+the excellent Eleemosynary Committee. It deals with the delinquents,
+defectives, and dependents of society....
+
+    [8] January, 1915.
+
+"The Industrial Welfare Committee seeks to Christianize the industrial
+classes, and to encourage the development of dealing upon Christian
+principles with the complicated questions growing out of the relations
+of capital and labor. By the industrial classes we mean the
+non-capitalistic laborers and bread-winners. It includes men, women,
+and many thousands of children. They do not own the machinery they
+handle, and have no voice in the control of the industries with which
+they are connected. Being without any say in the control of factories,
+machines, and raw material, they can be discharged at any moment by
+employers for reasons satisfactory alone to themselves. Their bodies,
+their minds, and oftentime their morals, become subservient to foremen
+and managers. The unskilled laborers in particular have no margin of
+either wages or time for wholesome recreations, for accidents, old age,
+widowhood, and unemployment. Besides these there is another large class
+in Japan, of small traders who rent their shops and eke out earnings by
+the sweating process, or by renting rooms for doubtful purposes. To
+these are to be added fishermen who do not own tackle, tenant farmers
+and their employees, and the main body of school-teachers; also an army
+engaged in transportation, together with postal clerks, postmen, and
+others. Incidental to this are the districts of large cities and mining
+camps, where there are congested populations of unskilled laborers
+subjected to diseases occasioned by bad drainage, inadequate housing,
+and all the consequent evils. As these do not earn sufficient wages to
+entitle them to vote, they have no voice whatever in the betterment of
+their surroundings....
+
+"There is a growing tendency toward the fixedness of a gulf between
+laborers and their employers, so much so that Japan's great danger in
+this direction is that she may fail to realize that she has a labor
+problem on hand, and one that can be solved here, as elsewhere, only on
+the basis of Christian principles of common fair dealing."
+
+In spite, however, of abundant evidence that Christian ethical and
+philanthropic ideals are receiving wide acceptance in Japan, far wider
+than would be suggested by the statistics of membership in the Christian
+churches, it is also true that the evils of Occidental industrialism and
+materialism are sweeping in like a flood.
+
+Turning now from general statements as to the ethico-industrial
+conditions of the working women of Japan, in the next chapter I give the
+story of a single institution.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+THE MATSUYAMA WORKING GIRLS' HOME
+
+
+The origin and history of the Matsuyama Working Girls' Home cannot be
+told apart from the story of the man who has been its heart and life,
+Mr. Shinjiro Omoto. Born in 1872 and graduating from the common school
+at fourteen, he at once went into business, first as an apprentice and
+later with his father. At nineteen he opened a sugar store, which
+flourished and before long overshadowed the father's business. Money
+came in so easily that he soon entered on a life of licentiousness, and
+for several years he was as famous for his drunken carousals as he had
+been for his phenomenal business success. His parents cut him off,
+refused him admittance to the house, and for years he did not even speak
+to his father.
+
+              [Illustration: MATSUYAMA WORKING GIRLS' HOME
+                      GIRLS IN THE MATSUYAMA HOME]
+
+In 1899, we held a preaching service in a theater. Mr. Omoto happened to
+be drinking in the saloon opposite. Hearing of our gathering, with some
+rowdy comrades, he thought he would break it up, with the result that we
+experienced persistent opposition throughout the meeting. But the
+sermons on Pessimism and the New Life, and my statement of the reasons
+that had brought me to Japan attracted his attention, and the next day I
+received an anonymous letter asking for tracts. These seem to have
+produced a profound impression, particularly the tract entitled "Two
+Young Men." It told of two hardened prisoners who had been transformed
+by the gospel and became highly useful and well-known members of
+society. Mr. Omoto thereupon set himself definitely to learn about
+Christianity, but privately, unwilling to make public his new hope. He
+bought and read through, quite by himself, the entire New Testament.
+Though he gained some idea of the gospel, he soon found he had lost none
+of his passion for drink. After a while he went to Kobe and joined a
+temperance society; but soon finding that the society had members who
+broke their pledges, he began to break his. In despair he went to
+Okayama and tried to join himself to Mr. Ishii, head of the well-known
+Christian orphanage, asking to be made a Christian, but he was told to
+return to Matsuyama and join the church there in his old home; only so
+could he be saved. Greatly disappointed, he returned and called on me
+early in June, 1901, but without telling fully about himself. He also
+called on Mr. Nishimura, an earnest Christian worker, who prayed with
+him, telling him that to be saved he must receive the Holy Spirit.
+
+That summer, quite exceptionally, I returned in the middle of the
+vacation. Mr. Omoto appeared at the prayer-meeting for the first time
+and was evidently in a state of great excitement, so much so that only
+with difficulty could we understand his remarks and his prayer. The gist
+was that he had that day received the Holy Spirit, that he was now
+saved, and that his joy was too great for utterance. Tears rolled down
+his cheeks as he talked and prayed. After the meeting I had a few words
+with him, and urged him to ally himself with our experienced workers. He
+was so excited that I feared for him, and wondered whether this might
+not be a tornado of emotion due to drink and to the nervous condition
+incident to his riotous life, an emotion which he mistook for the gift
+of the Holy Spirit. I urged him to begin at once to live the Christian
+life, cutting loose from all bad companions and bad habits.
+
+To gain an honest living he entered the Matsuyama Cotton Thread Spinning
+Factory. This required twelve hours of work daily, sometimes by day and
+sometimes by night, a hard pull for one who had done no steady work for
+years. He attended Christian services faithfully, so far as his hours of
+work allowed, and became quite intimate with two or three of our best
+Christians. Before long he began to talk about the wretched conditions
+and immoral life of the factory girls, telling us of the situation
+already described in Chapter IX.[9] His first thought was to give these
+tired children wholesome recreation. He secured the use of our preaching
+place in the vicinity of the factory and invited the girls to attend
+what he called the Dojokwai (Sympathy Society). He soon persuaded the
+girls to add a little reading and writing to their play, and later also,
+sewing. These meetings had of course to be held after the twelve or more
+hours of work in the factory had been completed. Care had also to be
+taken that the studies and the fun should not absorb time needed for
+sleep. Membership in the Sympathy Society rose rapidly and soon numbered
+seventy girls.
+
+    [9] See pages 67-69. (Transcriber's note: See starting at "In
+        1901, when Mr. Omoto began to work in the factory, he was
+        amazed to see how many were the children taking their turns
+        in work along with the older girls by day and by night.")
+
+At first meetings were held only in the evening three times a week, and
+lasted but an hour. But as the educational element of the society
+developed, others were induced to help and every evening save Sunday
+was occupied. In order that girls on the night shift might continue
+their studies similar classes were also held from seven to nine o'clock
+in the morning. Before six months had passed the play aspect of the
+society was largely superseded by the educational.
+
+But opposition of Buddhists now began to show itself. A few parents
+refused to let their girls attend. The most determined opposition
+however came from the manager in the factory who had charge of one of
+the shifts. Members of that shift were so treated that gradually they
+dropped out of the Dojokwai, and new members from that shift could not
+be secured. The hostile manager was however himself dropped some months
+later, and all opposition to the work from within the factory ceased.
+
+In a previous chapter we have noted the facts discovered by Mr. Omoto as
+he went the rounds of the boarding-houses in which the girls were
+required to live.[10] As these conditions became clearer and more
+appallingly impressive, he began to say with increasing frequency and
+insistence that the Sympathy Society, however successful, could not do
+what was needed. Only a Christian home would answer. Not only do the
+girls need to learn to read and write and sew, but even more than these
+do they need a home free from temptation, clean and pure and helpful,
+and elevating morally and religiously. The difficulties however in the
+way of such an enterprise seemed insuperable. To say nothing of the
+financial problem, a still greater obstacle, it was felt, was the
+securing of "recognition" from the factory, for Buddhist influence in
+the factory was at that time still dominant. During these months the
+Sympathy Society was winning its way among the girls and their parents,
+and Mr. Omoto himself was learning valuable lessons.
+
+    [10] See pages 68, 69. (Transcriber's note: See starting at
+         "they were crowded together in disease-spreading and
+         vermin-breeding, immoral boarding-houses, where they
+         were deliberately tempted.")
+
+One was that the girls were not all eager to be in a Christian home. We
+of course forbade all drinking, irregular hours, and more irregular
+"friendships." Attendance on prayers, night and morning, and at the
+school, was required. It looked for a time as if we should fail, for
+lack of girls to meet the expenses.
+
+But in spite of discouragements we kept on. The earnings of the girls
+who lived in the home, for the first year, were 1,361 yen. Of this sum
+they paid for board 905 yen, and sent to their parents 456, whereas
+girls in the other boarding-houses were able to save nothing, although
+the amount paid for board was the same in all the houses, being fixed by
+the factory at 3.60 yen per month, or twelve sen (six cents) per day.
+
+In February, 1903, a representative of the government who came from
+Tokyo to inspect the conditions of labor in western Japan, heard of the
+Dojokwai (Sympathy Home), and was so much interested in the story of its
+work that he took time to visit it with several local officials. He was
+greatly pleased, for he knew of nothing just like this, in any other
+part of Japan, particularly in its hygienic, educational, and moral
+advantages, and he expressed the wish that there might be many such.
+This was our first notice from government officials.
+
+As time went on, Mr. Omoto was found by the factory officials to be
+exceptionally faithful to its interests; he was rapidly promoted from
+one position to another, and in December of the same year was made
+"visitor" and "employing agent." This required him to visit neighboring
+towns and villages and collect new girls when needed. He tried to
+decline this work, saying that he could make no false promises to the
+girls or to their parents, nor in any way delude them as to the nature
+of their work, the amount of their wages, the conditions of the
+boarding-houses; being strictly a temperance man, also, he could not
+treat with sake (sah'-ke) and so get into friendly relations, all of
+which things employing agents constantly do; he had no expectations of
+gaining any recruits; the factory would better send some one else. They
+told him at least to try. To the surprise of all, and of himself the
+most, from his first trip he brought back with him fifteen girls. For
+three years he continued in this work and was always successful in
+securing girls for the factory. Because of his refusal to touch liquor
+in any form, his traveling expenses were much less than those of other
+employing agents, much to the satisfaction of the management; and the
+girls he secured on the whole remained longer and more contentedly at
+work, because he had always told them the truth. This made his position
+in the factory more secure and influential. After about two years'
+employment by the day he was promoted to the rank of a regular employee
+and paid by the month. His hours of official service were also largely
+reduced in order that he might have time for his educational and
+Christian work in the Home--a striking testimony of appreciation on the
+part of the factory officials.
+
+As the months passed by it gradually became clear that the effectiveness
+as well as the permanence of the work demanded suitable quarters. The
+heavy rental paid for the house made self-support impossible. Results
+already attained seemed to warrant appeal to friends for gifts, for the
+purpose of buying land and the erection of a building. Responses to our
+appeals provided the needed funds, land was purchased and a contract
+made with a carpenter on exceptionally favorable terms, just two days
+before the opening of the Russo-Japanese war (February, 1904).
+Immediately prices went up by leaps and bounds; but our contract was so
+well made and the carpenter had already made such full subcontracts for
+the lumber, etc., that we were not troubled because of war prices.
+
+As we entered our new quarters in June, 1904, however, the factory shut
+down the main part of its work and discharged the majority of its
+workers. This was a severe blow to the Home. The occupants were reduced
+to seven girls. Although the factory opened again after a few months,
+the conditions during and after the war made it difficult for the
+factory to secure girls, and the Home, together with the other
+boarding-houses, suffered from lack of boarders. Beginning with March,
+1907, however, special circumstances combined to fill the Home to its
+utmost capacity; during the three months of April, May, and June thirty
+applicants were refused admittance and as many more who desired to enter
+the school were declined.
+
+Increasing acquaintance with the disastrous effects of factory
+labor,--the lint-filled air so often producing consumption, and the
+excessive heat of summer sometimes resulting even in sunstroke,--made
+Mr. Omoto unwilling to persuade girls to enter upon such a life. The
+needs of the Home also pressed upon his time. These considerations led
+him, in 1906, to give up his work in the factory altogether, in order to
+devote his entire time and strength to the Home and to the upbuilding of
+the moral and religious life of the girls.
+
+In July, 1906, Mr. Omoto attended in Osaka the first convention of
+factory officials convened to study the problem of the proper care of
+operatives. Representatives were present from sixteen factories having
+night schools, and specimens of the work of the girls were compared. Mr.
+Omoto was fairly lionized because of the superior quality of the work
+sent in from our Home and many newspapers made special mention of him
+and his work.
+
+In September, 1908, there was held in Tokyo under the auspices of the
+Home Department of the Imperial government an eight weeks' school of
+applied sociology. Mr. Omoto was among the 376 persons who attended.
+Again he received exceptional attention and was asked to tell his story.
+At this school no less than thirty-six learned specialists gave lectures
+on every conceivable topic suitable for such a school. Among the
+speakers so many were professed Christians, and of the rest so many
+advocated such markedly Christian ideals, that some Buddhists are said
+to have taken offense, regarding the whole affair as a part of the
+Christian propaganda.
+
+In the spring of 1909 there occurred an event of considerable
+significance. Without a preliminary hint of what was happening, Mr.
+Omoto saw in the paper one day the amazing statement that the Matsuyama
+Working Girls' Home, along with seventy-nine other selected institutions
+throughout the country, was the recipient of a specified sum (200 yen)
+as a mark of government approval! A total of 40,000 yen were thus
+distributed in varying amounts, Christian institutions being recognized
+to an unexpected degree. Later, word came from the Prefectural Office
+summoning him to receive the gift. In the entire prefecture six
+institutions had been thus honored, and of these, two were Christian.
+This gift from the Department of the Interior has been repeated each
+year since.
+
+Again in May, 1910, a Conference of Social Service Workers (Chu-o Jizen
+Kyokwai) was held at Nagoya at the time of the Exposition, and Mr.
+Omoto was among those invited to attend. His address and statistical
+report received much attention. Mr. Tomeoka, representative of the
+government and chairman of the conference, spoke in unstinted praise of
+the work of the Home, which he characterized as "Kokka Jigyo" (a
+national enterprise), and recommended the adoption by others of several
+of its special features.
+
+In the spring of 1911, the Home Department of the central government
+published a small volume describing one hundred and thirteen model
+philanthropic institutions of the country, in which we were of course
+pleased to see that the Home was included, being the only one from the
+prefecture.
+
+As opportunity offered and means were available, following the advice of
+friends, four small adjacent lots were purchased, one of which we were
+almost forced to secure for self-protection, because of the evil
+character of the buildings upon it. We now own altogether about two
+acres of land on the north side of the beautiful Castle Hill, around
+which Matsuyama is built. Here have been erected at different times six
+buildings (three of them two-storied), for residential, dormitory,
+chapel, night school, weaving, hospital, bath, and other purposes. We
+have space for a playground, of which the girls joyously avail
+themselves, after returning from twelve hours of confinement in the dust
+and clatter of machinery. The garden, too, provides fresh vegetables of
+an assured character at a minimum of expense, adding much to the variety
+and the wholesomeness of the diet. The present value of the property is
+more than its original cost, for land and buildings are constantly
+rising in price, as is the case in other parts of the country.
+
+The city educational authorities in 1906 asked Mr. Omoto to open his
+night school to the poor of the district. For this he had to have a
+regular school license from the National Bureau of Education at Tokyo.
+This was to be a Christian school--the only license of exactly that
+kind in the empire, he was told.
+
+Industrial newspapers have been noticing the Home and its work for some
+time.[11] During the past five years the favorable attitude of local and
+national government officials has been particularly pronounced.
+Government inspectors have repeatedly been sent from the Prefectural
+Office and occasionally even from Tokyo to visit the Home. One such
+expressed himself as amazed at the excellent mental work done by the
+girls, in view of the fact that all their study takes place after twelve
+hours of toil. Nothing but good food, sufficient sleep, and a wholesome
+and happy home life could account for their splendid health and superior
+school work. One man remarked that the girls in the Home do better work
+than pupils in the same grade in public schools.
+
+    [11] See page 149. (Transcriber's note: See starting at "Mr. Omoto
+         was fairly lionized because of the superior quality of the
+         work sent in from our Home")
+
+Even so early as the autumn of 1906 the Home Department of the central
+government sent down special instructions to the prefectural office in
+Matsuyama to investigate our work, with the result that of nine
+benevolent institutions throughout Japan selected for commendation, ours
+was the one most carefully described and unqualifiedly praised. A recent
+government pamphlet concerning industrial problems makes special
+reference, covering two pages, to the work of the Home. Thus has a small
+institution begun to serve as a model for the country.
+
+The good health of the girls in our Home has been in strong contrast
+with the health of those in other boarding-houses, even in the best
+dormitories of the best factories in other cities.
+
+Statistics recently compiled by the government show that the average
+death-rate among factory operatives throughout the country is
+extraordinarily high. The highest, fifty per cent. on account of an
+epidemic, was reported from a certain factory owned and managed
+boarding-house in Niigata prefecture. Not one girl has ever died in our
+Home. Of the 301 girls who had lived in our Home by 1911, only eight,
+all told, died.
+
+In 1912 the Home passed through a crisis that threatened to destroy it.
+Late in 1911 the one factory in Matsuyama, where all the girls worked,
+was sold out to parties living in Osaka. A new manager was sent down who
+introduced many drastic changes. The change most affecting us was the
+stopping of the night work and the lengthening of day work to fourteen
+hours: namely, from 6 A.M. till 8 P.M.
+
+The girls in the Home soon became dissatisfied, and not many months
+passed before all had left the factory. Mr. Omoto was urged by the
+manager to find and bring in new girls. He refused however on the ground
+that he could not ask anybody to work such brutally long hours.
+
+Had it not been for a little weaving department with which we had
+already been experimenting, the Home would have been compelled to close.
+More looms were secured and those girls who wished to remain with us
+were given opportunity for work. Mr. Omoto's attention was at that time
+directed to the condition of the weaving girls in the scores and even
+hundreds of little establishments in the city and its suburbs. He soon
+found that an educational, economic, moral, and religious condition
+existed among them not unlike that which he had found among the factory
+girls of Matsuyama a dozen years before. The weaving establishments are,
+as a rule, small private affairs, usually having less than ten girls
+each, and are therefore wholly outside of the supervision of the
+government. The treatment of workers and the hours of labor are entirely
+settled by the individual owners.
+
+As a rule the girls are apprenticed for from two to three years
+immediately on leaving the primary school, at an age therefore of twelve
+or thirteen. They barely earn their living, although they work from
+daybreak to ten or eleven at night, and in some establishments even till
+midnight--from fifteen to eighteen hours a day! There are no night
+shifts and rare holidays on occasional festivals. The hygienic and moral
+conditions are about as bad as can be. It is estimated that one half of
+the girls are ruined before the close of their apprenticeship. Our Home
+is now deliberately attacking the new problem, which in many respects is
+more difficult than was the old one. We have put up two small buildings
+on our own grounds, enabling us to have thirty looms to give opportunity
+for work to thirty girls.
+
+The uniform quality of the cloth produced by our girls, the central
+portions of each piece equaling the ends in quality, shows unflagging
+moral attention, without effort to rush the work and stint the material;
+this has already won such approval from merchants that the "Sympathy
+Home" brand can be sold for a little more than other brands, and Mr.
+Omoto is assured that there is no limit to the amount which could be
+marketed.
+
+An owner of several weaving establishments has become so impressed with
+the quality of the work and the character developed in our girls that
+he asked Mr. Omoto if he would not take charge of a hundred of his
+weaving girls. This new departure is especially promising, for we have
+complete supervision of the girls throughout the entire twenty-four
+hours. The girls, moreover, are already remaining in our Home as a rule
+much longer than they used to when getting work in the spinning factory.
+
+As successive chapters of this book have shown, no more urgent problem
+faces New Japan than that of the moral development of her workers. This
+is particularly true of the hundreds of thousands of girls in the larger
+and smaller factories and industrial establishments. The wretched
+physical, economic, social, and moral conditions under which the
+majority of these girls lived and worked at the time when our Home was
+started are not easily described.
+
+Many of the factory authorities[12] are neither ignorant nor unmindful
+of the situation, and are striving to remedy it. The government also has
+enacted laws not a few. But laws and official actions alone provide no
+adequate solution of the serious problems raised by the extraordinary
+industrial and social transformations sweeping over Japan. A new spirit
+must be evoked, both on the part of capital and labor, and new moral
+ideals and relations established. This cannot be done by laws alone.
+Only love and contagious personal example are sufficient for the needs.
+
+    [12] It is not to be inferred from the statements in this book
+         that the political leaders and the organizers of
+         industrial Japan have been dependent on our Home for
+         ideas and ideals in regard to the problems raised by
+         modern industry. Many of those leaders are men of
+         cosmopolitan education and are well versed in the best
+         and most recent of literature of the West on these
+         matters. It is true, however, that our Home has been an
+         important concrete experiment affording in Japan
+         valuable suggestions and stimulus.
+
+Our Home was designed to meet just such a situation and has to a
+remarkable degree, we think, succeeded. It has provided not only
+sufficient fresh air, nourishing food, adequate bedding, clean rooms,
+and wholesome recreation, but also moral and religious instruction, and
+some education. The girls in our Home have enjoyed conspicuously better
+health and have done better work and earned and sent to their parents
+more money than those of the other boarding-houses of Matsuyama. But
+better than these have been the educational, moral, and religious
+results. Their womanhood has been raised. They have been better fitted
+for life's duties and for motherhood than they would have been without
+the training which has been given them.
+
+Moreover, the results of the Home have been such as to break down
+opposition. The good-will and cooperation of the factory officials were
+won. Factories in other parts of the country also have recognized our
+Home as presenting a splendid ideal which, in a measure, many of them
+are already following. The local and the central governments, as already
+shown, have repeatedly sent officials to inspect us, and in their
+reports have not only praised us, but have described our Home in detail,
+saying that we have solved the difficult problem of how to care for
+factory hands.
+
+Through the Home we are reaching the lowest strata of the working
+classes of Japan, and are providing them with ideals, motives, and
+education, and in a way, too, which does not tend to pauperize them, for
+each girl pays as board a sum sufficient to cover actual living
+expenses. It is also exerting an influence on the townsfolk. The
+attitude of the people toward Christianity has undergone a marked
+change. Villages in the interior likewise have altered their attitude on
+seeing how their daughters, graduates of our Home, have improved both in
+intelligence and character, in marked contrast to those who have been in
+other boarding-houses. All in all, Mr. Omoto has attained remarkable
+success. He is absorbed, heart and soul, in his work of bettering the
+moral and religious conditions of the working girls of Japan, and is a
+man continuously growing in spiritual life, Christian character, and
+knowledge of men. I have never known a man more thoroughly converted or
+more enthusiastic in his chosen field of work. The Omoto of to-day is a
+different person from the reformed debauchee of thirteen years ago, who
+began this service for factory girls as the outcome of his sincere
+question, "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" His family have become
+possessed with the idea of social service, and his five children are
+being brought up in this atmosphere and in the fear of the Lord.
+
+Thus has the Matsuyama Working Girls' Home survived many threatening
+vicissitudes, attained conspicuous successes, and is now embarked on a
+new line of endeavor. May it exceed in the future its successes of the
+past and make still more substantial contributions to the uplift of the
+working women of Japan!
+
+
+
+
+      *      *      *      *      *      *
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's note:
+
+Text in italics is enclosed by underscores (_italics_).
+
+Text in small capitals was replaced with ALL UPPER CASE.
+
+The illustrations have been moved so that they do not break up
+paragraphs and so that they are next the text they illustrate.
+Thus the page number of the illustration might not match the page
+number in the List of Illustrations.
+
+Errors in punctuations and inconsistent hyphenation were not
+corrected except for the following:
+
+On page 111, the book mentions "among the forty-eight prefectures
+of the Japanese empire", but there were forty-seven prefectures
+since 1888.
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WORKING WOMEN OF JAPAN***
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+<body>
+<h1 class="pg">The Project Gutenberg eBook, Working Women of Japan, by Sidney Lewis Gulick</h1>
+<pre>
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at <a href = "http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre>
+<p>Title: Working Women of Japan</p>
+<p>Author: Sidney Lewis Gulick</p>
+<p>Release Date: March 7, 2011  [eBook #35511]</p>
+<p>Language: English</p>
+<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p>
+<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WORKING WOMEN OF JAPAN***</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3 class="pg">E-text prepared by Meredith Bach, Delphine Lettau, Ernest Schaal,<br />
+    and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br />
+    (http://www.pgdp.net)</h3>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="full" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/ibookad.png" alt="LIBRARY
+OF CHRISTIAN PROGRESS" title="LIBRARY
+OF CHRISTIAN PROGRESS" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="center"><i>Volumes Issued</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="indent">The Church a Community Force.     <i>By Worth M. Tippy</i></p>
+<p class="indent">The Church at the Center.    <i>By Warren H. Wilson</i></p>
+<p class="indent">The Making of a Country Parish.    <i>By Harlow S. Mills</i></p>
+<p class="indent">Working Women of Japan.    <i>By Sidney L. Gulick</i></p>
+<p class="indent">Social Evangelism.    <i>By Harry F. Ward</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="center"><i>Cloth, 50 Cents, Prepaid</i></p>
+
+<p class="center">ADDITIONAL VOLUMES TO BE ISSUED</p>
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<a name="ifrontis" id="ifrontis"></a><img class="border" src="images/ifrontis.png" alt="A FARMER&#39;S HOME" title="A FARMER&#39;S HOME" /><br />
+<span class="caption">A FARMER&#39;S HOME</span>
+</div>
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+
+<h1>WORKING WOMEN<br />
+OF JAPAN</h1>
+
+<p class="indent">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p class="h2">BY<br />
+SIDNEY L. GULICK</p>
+
+<p class="center">Twenty-five years a missionary in Japan, Professor in<br />
+Doshisha University, Late Lecturer in the<br />
+Imperial University of Kyoto</p>
+
+<p class="center">Author of<br />
+<i>Growth of the Kingdom of God; Evolution of the Japanese;<br />
+The White Peril in the Far East; The American<br />
+Japanese Problem; The Fight for Peace</i></p>
+<p class="indent">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p class="center">1915<br />
+Missionary Education Movement of the<br />
+United States and Canada<br />
+NEW YORK</p>
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+
+<p class="center">
+COPYRIGHT, 1915, BY<br />
+MISSIONARY EDUCATION MOVEMENT OF THE<br />
+UNITED STATES AND CANADA
+</p>
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+
+<p class="center">
+Dedicated<br />
+to<br />
+SHINJIRO OMOTO<br />
+in appreciation of more than a decade<br />
+of untiring service<br />
+for the<br />
+Working Women of Japan
+</p>
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+
+<p class="h2">Contents</p>
+
+<p class="margin-left8">CHAPTER <span class="ralign">PAGE</span></p>
+
+<ul class="TOCRSC">
+<li>Preface <span class="ralign"><a href="#PREFACE">ix</a></span></li>
+
+<li>Social Classes in Japan, Old and New <span class="ralign"><a href="#CHAPTER_I">1</a></span></li>
+
+<li>Farmers' Wives and Daughters <span class="ralign"><a href="#CHAPTER_II">8</a></span></li>
+
+<li>Domestic Industries in Farming Families <span class="ralign"><a href="#CHAPTER_III">24</a></span></li>
+
+<li>Silk Workers <span class="ralign"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">32</a></span></li>
+
+<li>Wives and Daughters of Artizans and Merchants <span class="ralign"><a href="#CHAPTER_V">36</a></span></li>
+
+<li><i>Komori</i> (Baby-tenders) <span class="ralign"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">42</a></span></li>
+
+<li>Household Domestics <span class="ralign"><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">48</a></span></li>
+
+<li>Hotel and Tea-house Girls <span class="ralign"><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">52</a></span></li>
+
+<li>Factory Girls and Women <span class="ralign"><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">61</a></span></li>
+
+<li>Geisha (<i>Hetæræ</i>) <span class="ralign"><a href="#CHAPTER_X">87</a></span></li>
+
+<li><i>Shogi</i> (Licensed Prostitutes) <span class="ralign"><a href="#CHAPTER_XI">104</a></span></li>
+
+<li>Ameliorative Efforts <span class="ralign"><a href="#CHAPTER_XII">118</a></span></li>
+
+<li>The Matsuyama Working Girls' Home <span class="ralign"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">137</a></span></li>
+</ul>
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+
+<p class="h2">ILLUSTRATIONS</p>
+
+<p class="margin-left8">PAGE</p>
+
+<ul class="TOCU">
+<li><span class="smcap">A Farmer's Home</span> <span class="ralign"><a href="#ifrontis"><i>Frontispiece</i></a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Separating the Wheat Heads from the Straw</span> <span class="ralign"><a href="#i016">16</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">At the Loom</span> <span class="ralign"><a href="#i016">16</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">A Family at Work in a Rice-Field</span> <span class="ralign"><a href="#i028">28</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Transplanting Young Rice Plants</span> <span class="ralign"><a href="#i028">28</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Spinning Cotton Thread for Weaving</span> <span class="ralign"><a href="#i032">32</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">At Work in a Kitchen</span> <span class="ralign"><a href="#i032">32</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Carrying Fagots</span> <span class="ralign"><a href="#i044">44</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Baby-Tenders</span> <span class="ralign"><a href="#i044">44</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">At Work in a Silk Factory</span> <span class="ralign"><a href="#i082">82</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">O Hamayu (Geisha)</span> <span class="ralign"><a href="#i092">92</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Matsuyama Working Girls' Home</span> <span class="ralign"><a href="#i156">156</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Girls in the Matsuyama Home</span> <span class="ralign"><a href="#i156">156</a></span></li>
+</ul>
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;ix]</span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="PREFACE" id="PREFACE"></a>PREFACE</h2>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="smcap">Japan</span> is rapidly swinging into the current
+of an industrial civilization imported from
+the West. How is this movement modifying
+her ancient civilization? And, especially,
+what effect is it having on her homes
+and on the character of her manhood and
+womanhood? These are questions of profound
+interest to students of national and
+social evolution.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">While many works on Japan consider
+these questions more or less fully, they do
+so almost exclusively from the standpoint of
+the effect on men. So far as is known, no
+work studies the problem from the standpoint
+of the effect on women, who, it may
+be incidentally remarked, constitute one
+half of the population.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">One book, indeed, that by Miss Alice M.
+Bacon, on <i>Japanese Girls and Women</i>, describes
+the homes, lives, and characteristics
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;x]</span>
+of Japanese women. This important work
+should not be overlooked by any who wish
+to know Japan thoroughly. Yet Miss Bacon's
+study is largely confined to the higher and
+upper middle classes, who, though important,
+constitute but one section of the women
+of Japan. To understand Japan it is also
+needful to know the lives and characteristics
+of the working classes. Especially important
+in the eyes of those who study social
+development is the transformation that is
+taking place in the Japanese home because
+of the influx of Occidental industrialism.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The purpose of this book is to give some
+information as to conditions prevailing
+among working women, which conditions
+have called for the establishment of institutions
+whose specific aim is the amelioration
+of the industrial and moral situation. Two
+classes of workers have not been considered&mdash;school-teachers
+and nurses.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The reader will naturally ask what the
+native religions have done to help women
+meet the modern situation. The answer
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;xi]</span>
+is short; practically nothing. They are seriously
+belated in every respect. For ages the
+native religions have served by doctrine and
+practise to hold women down rather than
+to elevate them. The doctrine of the "triple
+obedience" to father, to husband, and when
+old to son, has had wide-reaching and disastrous
+consequences. It has even been utilized
+for the support of the brothel system. Popular
+Buddhism, especially during the feudal
+era, has emphasized the inherent sinfulness
+of woman; some have even taught that her
+lightest sins are worse than the heaviest sins
+of man. The brothel system flourishes in
+certain districts where Buddhism is most
+strongly entrenched. Brothels abound in the
+immediate vicinity of famous and popular
+temples. I have yet to hear of a Buddhist
+anti-brothel movement or a Buddhist rescue
+home for prostitutes. Japanese philanthropy,
+under the impulse of Buddhism, did indeed
+start early and attain striking development
+at the hands of Imperial and princely personages.
+Men and women of lowly origin
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;xii]</span>
+also attained high rank in the annals of
+Buddhist philanthropy. With the decay of
+Buddhism in recent centuries, however, little
+philanthropic activity has survived. With
+the revival of Buddhism Buddhists have
+again undertaken philanthropic work; they
+have established orphan asylums, schools, ex-convict
+homes, and various benevolent enterprises
+for the poor, the old, and invalids;
+but not yet do they seem to appreciate the
+moral and industrial situation, or undertake
+anything commensurate with their numbers
+and resources. The conception of private
+enterprise for the amelioration of industrial
+difficulties and moral need is still the almost
+exclusive possession of Christians.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The closing chapter describes one institution
+in which the Christian ideal is applied
+to the moral and industrial situation
+in one small town. It serves as an illustration
+of what is being done by Christians
+in other places and along many other lines
+as well. Christianity is being accepted in
+Japan, not so much because of its doctrine,
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;xiii]</span>
+as because of its practical methods of inspiring
+and uplifting manhood and womanhood.
+While the purpose of this book is,
+as stated, to describe the industrial condition
+and the characteristics of Japanese working
+women, back of this purpose is the desire
+to show how the Christian gospel, when
+concretely expressed, takes hold of Japanese
+working women in exactly these conditions
+and becomes to them "the power of God
+unto salvation."</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The problems of life are substantially the
+same the world around, for human nature
+is one; and the heart with its needs, desires,
+temptations, defeats, and victories is essentially
+the same, East or West. The problems
+created by industrialism do not differ,
+whether in Germany, England, and America
+or in Japan and China. And their fundamental
+solution likewise is the same.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Let not the reader assume that the discussions
+of this volume give adequate acquaintance
+with the working women of
+Japan. It deals with only a few specific
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;xiv]</span>
+classes and inadequately even with them.
+A more comprehensive treatment would
+doubtless be enlightening. Limitations, however,
+of time and space forbid a more adequate
+discussion.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">And let the reader be wary of generalizing
+certain criticisms herein made and applying
+them universally to all classes of women.
+Many years of life in Japan have led the
+writer to a high estimation of the character
+as well as the culture of Japanese women.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Especial thanks are due to Colonel Yamamuro
+for valued criticisms and suggestions
+in the preparation of this work. The responsibility,
+however, for its statements rests
+upon the writer. The limitations of this
+book none can feel more than he.
+</p>
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;1]</span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I</h2>
+
+<p class="h2a">SOCIAL CLASSES IN JAPAN, OLD AND NEW</p>
+
+<p class="cap">IN old Japan, next to the Imperial family
+and court nobles, came the feudal lords
+(<i>Daimio</i>), upheld by the warrior class
+(<i>Samurai</i>), below whom in turn were ranked
+the three chief working classes,&mdash;farmers,
+artizans, and tradesmen. These three classes
+produced and distributed the nation's wealth
+and paid taxes to their respective feudal lords
+by whom the warriors were supported. Below
+all were day laborers and palanquin
+bearers,&mdash;in those days a large and important
+though a despised class, for they lived entirely
+by bare, brute strength, lacking all
+special skill. Still lower were the <i>eta</i> or
+pariah class, excluded from towns and villages,
+except when they entered to do the
+foulest work, such as digging the graves
+of criminals and the slaughtering of animals,
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;2]</span>
+and curing their skins. And lowest of all
+were <i>hi-nin</i>, literally translated "non-humans."
+These were beggars and criminals,
+who would not or could not work.
+The name, popularly given, well indicates
+how they were regarded.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">With the fall of the feudal system, in the
+early seventies, society was reorganized.
+Those above the Samurai were divided in
+1886 into five grades, not counting the Imperial
+princes, namely: prince, marquis,
+count, viscount, and baron. These constitute
+to-day the hereditary peers of Japan, and
+possess considerable wealth and, of course,
+overwhelming prestige.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">They numbered, in 1903, 1,784 families.
+Besides the 1,784 heads of these families,
+there were 1,786 male and 2,485 female members
+of these families of rank. The number
+of these peers is constantly being increased
+by Imperial favor, the conferring of rank
+being the customary method of rewarding
+distinguished service. According to the
+<i>Japan Year Book</i> for 1914, the number of
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;3]</span>
+peers in 1911 was 919, there being 17 princes,
+37 marquises, 101 counts, 378 viscounts, and
+386 barons. Promotion from one rank to
+another causes constant change in the numbers
+of the various ranks.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The <i>Samurai</i>, deprived of their swords and
+military privileges, were given the name
+<i>shizoku</i> (Samurai families) and were paid
+off in lump sums, thereafter being thrown
+on their own resources. There are 439,154
+shizoku families, numbering altogether
+2,169,018 individuals. The remaining classes
+were designated as <i>heimin</i> (common people).
+Statistics show that they number 8,471,610
+families, totaling 44,558,025 individuals.
+The eta were elevated, hence popularly
+called <i>shin-heimin</i> (new common people)
+and allowed to live anywhere and take up
+any desirable calling. The hi-nin also were
+classed along with the rest of humankind.
+As a matter of fact, the eta and hi-nin were
+but a small fringe of the whole population,
+the descendants of the former being now estimated
+at something less than one million,
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;4]</span>
+and those of the latter amounting to about
+35,000.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">With the national reorganization it was
+inevitable that the new executive offices
+from the highest to the lowest should be
+given to men of experience. At first, therefore,
+the reorganization amounted to little
+more than a great shuffle of names and titles.
+Peers took the highest governmental positions,
+while Samurai and their sons as a rule
+filled the lower posts. Many Samurai, however,
+received no appointments and had to
+go to work. In time, as education has progressed,
+sons of farmers and merchants have
+become qualified and have been appointed
+to government offices. The new departments,
+such as the educational, the postal and telegraph
+offices, the railroads, and especially
+the army and navy, call for large numbers
+of efficient men. These posts are filled almost
+entirely on the basis of fitness. While
+ancestry is not entirely ignored in the making
+of appointments, nevertheless old class
+distinctions are gradually being obliterated.</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;5]</span>
+The fortunes of the women have naturally
+followed those of the men. All families that
+lost their hereditary income had to go to
+work; this was true chiefly of the Samurai.
+Where the men were fortunate, the women
+could maintain the old customs, limiting
+themselves to their familiar domestic work,
+with a servant or two to help, but tens of
+thousands of Samurai families found themselves
+reduced to the direst poverty; women
+having generations of genteel ancestry were
+forced to enter the ranks of the workers.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Let us define what we mean by a working
+woman. Women whose husbands or parents
+provide the support of the family are
+not to be included in this term. These
+women may, and indeed doubtless do, labor
+abundantly and fruitfully in the home; their
+time is fully occupied. Probably no working
+women toil more diligently or for longer
+hours than do these wives and mothers in
+hundreds of thousands of homes, in most
+of which there are no servants. All the
+cooking, sewing, and housecleaning is done
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;6]</span>
+by them, so that they are indeed workers.
+But they are not "working women." They
+are the true gentlewomen of Japan, whose
+culture, graces, and charms are not easily
+described.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">By "working women" we mean only those
+women who, in addition to the regular duties
+of the home, must share in the labor
+of earning the daily bread. In Japan the
+number of such is exceptionally large, if
+compared with that of some countries of
+the West. They may be divided into eleven
+classes, according to the nature of their occupations,
+namely: school-teachers, nurses,
+clerks and office girls, farmers, home industrial
+workers, factory hands, domestics, baby-tenders,
+hotel and tea-house girls, geisha,
+and prostitutes. Omitting the teachers and
+nurses, these are the classes whose conditions,
+numbers, education, and character we
+are now to study. Taken as a whole we do
+not hesitate to say that the working women
+of Japan, while probably lower in point of
+moral and physical energy and personal initiative
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;7]</span>
+than corresponding classes of the
+West, are not inferior to them in point of
+personal culture. And if civilization is
+defined, as it should be, in terms of personal
+culture rather than in those of mechanical
+contrivances and improvements, then
+Japan will surely take her place among the
+highly civilized nations of the world.
+</p>
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;8]</span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II</h2>
+
+<p class="h2a">FARMERS' WIVES AND DAUGHTERS</p>
+
+<p class="cap">JAPAN has three leading wealth-earning
+occupations: agriculture, sericulture, and
+factory work. In each of these women take
+an important part. In the cultivation of the
+soil farmers' wives and daughters share
+equally with men the toil of planting and
+reaping the crops. For instance, in the cultivation
+of rice, the most important and the
+hardest work of the farmer, it is often the
+women who plant it spear by spear in regular
+rows, and it is they who "puddle" the
+paddy-fields with their hands four or five
+times in the course of the season. In some
+districts, however, men and women do this
+work together. The toil and the weariness
+involved cannot be appreciated by one who
+has not actually shared it. Fancy, if you
+can, the fatigue of standing more than ankle
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;9]</span>
+deep in mud, stooping all day long as you
+set out the tiny rice plants in regular lines!
+And at short intervals of a few days each you
+must repeatedly puddle the whole paddy-field:
+that is, stir up the mud with your
+hands in order to destroy the sprouting
+weeds and prevent the soil from caking and
+hardening around the tender rice roots, preventing
+their best growth. And remember
+that you must do all this regardless of the
+broiling summer sun, or the pelting rain, for
+the planting must be done at exactly the right
+time, and the successive puddlings must follow
+in due order. So severe is the strain
+that, after the planting and each puddling,
+the whole village takes a rest. My gardener,
+an ex-farmer, speaking of those summer days
+of toil in the rice-fields, expatiates on the
+extreme fatigue and the joy of the rest days,
+and as women take the brunt of the stooping-work,
+theirs is the lion's share of the weariness.
+He says that, during the rice-planting
+season, the women are so important that
+those days are called the "women's daimio
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;10]</span>
+days," and adds that we must not forget
+how during that time the regular work of
+the women must also go on, for they must
+cook the food and care for the children. For
+this, indeed, young girls and grandmothers
+are pressed into service as far as possible,
+but the responsibility and care rest nevertheless
+on the wives and mothers.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><a name="i016" id="i016"></a>
+<img  class="border" src="images/i016.png" alt="SEPARATING THE WHEAT HEADS FROM THE STRAW
+AT THE LOOM" title="SEPARATING THE WHEAT HEADS FROM THE STRAW
+AT THE LOOM" /><br />
+<span class="caption">SEPARATING THE WHEAT HEADS FROM THE STRAW<br />
+AT THE LOOM</span>
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">Also in the harvesting and threshing of
+the rice, barley, wheat, and millet, women
+take an important part. But it is needless
+to enter into details. Enough to say that,
+in general farming, women share with husbands
+and brothers the heavy toil and fatigue
+of agriculture. It should be added that
+this is not because men shirk heavy work,
+but only because Japanese agriculture is so
+largely done by hand that every possible
+worker is pressed into service. As a fact,
+men do the heaviest part of the work, preparing
+the soil for the successive crops and
+carrying the heavy loads.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">So varied are the modes of agriculture in
+different parts of Japan that general statements
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;11]</span>
+are dangerous, but I know that in some
+districts the weariness and drudgery of rice-planting
+and puddling are relieved by the
+singing or chanting of old folk-songs. The
+chorus leader intones a descriptive phrase,
+oftentimes improvising his own story, and is
+answered with a refrain from a dozen or a
+score of women. A story slowly evolves as
+the hours pass, and thus the work is lightened
+and the time beguiled.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">In spite of fatigue, rice-planting has its
+charm for those who have been reared in
+farmers' homes. It is a time of hope, of
+social intercourse, of rest days and festivals,
+so that even the drudgery of the farmer has
+its compensations. Miss Denton, of the
+Doshisha Girls' School, says it is interesting
+to note how country girls get restless at rice-planting
+time, and for one reason or another
+usually succeed in getting excused from
+school work, to be off to the homes and share
+in the toils and joys of the season.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Tea-picking is probably the pleasantest
+form of toil undertaken by farmers' wives
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;12]</span>
+and daughters. The labor comes in the
+spring and early summer, when the temperature
+is delightful. It gives opportunity for
+social intercourse that is highly appreciated.
+Rice-planting and tea-picking constitute the
+two extremes of laborious and delightful toil
+engaged in by Japan's agricultural women.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">How many are the women engaged in
+agriculture? The <i>Japan Year Book</i> for
+1914 says that in 1912 there were 5,438,051
+farming families, constituting about 58 per
+cent. of the entire nation. According to the
+<i>Résumé Statistique</i> for 1914 the total number
+of females in Japan proper, in 1908, was
+24,542,383. Omitting those under fifteen
+years of age, 8,364,000, and those over sixty
+years of age, 2,216,000, we have 13,962,000 as
+the number of able-bodied women, of whom
+58 per cent., or 8,077,000, are the farmers'
+wives and daughters.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">In regard to their education it may be said
+that until the most recent times they have
+had practically none. In recent decades,
+however, farmers' children have begun to go
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;13]</span>
+to school. Until 1908 the elementary course
+(compulsory) covered four years, but the
+results were so poor that the period has now
+been extended to six. Four years' schooling
+does not give ability to read easily even a
+simple daily paper, much less an ordinary
+book. Our cook, an intelligent and able
+farming woman, when she came to us twelve
+years ago, could not read even the simplest
+Japanese characters, and thinks that at present
+relatively few farmers' wives have enough
+education to read papers or write letters.
+Whether or not six years' schooling will give
+this ability remains to be seen. It is safe
+to say that to-day Japanese adult farming
+women, as a whole, lack book education and
+have received little, if any, systematic training.
+They are accordingly largely controlled
+by tradition, and it goes without saying
+that their level of mental, moral, and
+spiritual life is low. The Shinto and Buddhist
+religions, as they exist among the farmers,
+are largely lacking in ethical content;
+they are rituals rather for burying the dead
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;14]</span>
+and through the use of charms and magic
+rites they promise future happiness and present,
+temporal blessings. Priests, as a rule,
+do not seek to cultivate the minds of the
+people, to strengthen their wills for moral
+life, or to elevate their personalities.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Yet it must not be inferred that farming
+women are without mental ability or common
+sense. They are indeed not inferior
+to the men with whom they share the burdens
+and toil of life. As a rule they are a
+sturdy, intelligent, self-respecting folk, having
+ideals of conduct which include cleanliness,
+gentleness, and politeness, and in comparison
+with the peasant classes of Europe
+are much to be commended. The women not
+seldom appear to better advantage than their
+husbands in point of intelligence and common
+sense, which I have thought might be
+due to the greater variety of their daily
+occupation.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">In her excellent work on <i>Japanese Girls
+and Women</i> Miss Bacon writing of this class
+says: "There seems no doubt at all that
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;15]</span>
+among the peasantry of Japan one finds the
+women who have the most freedom and independence.
+Among this class, all through
+the country, the women, though hard-worked
+and possessing few comforts, lead lives of
+intelligent, independent labor, and have in
+the family positions as respected and honored
+as those held by women in America.
+Their lives are fuller and happier than those
+of the women of the higher classes, for they
+are themselves breadwinners, contributing
+an important part of the family revenue, and
+are obeyed and respected accordingly. The
+Japanese lady, at her marriage, lays aside
+her independent existence to become the
+subordinate and servant of her husband and
+parents-in-law, and her face, as the years
+go by, shows how much she has given up,
+how completely she has sacrificed herself
+to those about her. The Japanese peasant
+woman, when she marries, works side by
+side with her husband, finds life full of
+interest outside of the simple household work,
+and, as the years go by, her face shows more
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;16]</span>
+individuality, more pleasure in life, less suffering
+and disappointment than that of her
+wealthier and less hard-working sister."<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p>
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<div class="footnote">
+<p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a>
+<a href="#FNanchor_1_1">
+<span class="label">[1]</span></a>
+Pp. 260, 261.</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">The home of the average tenant farmer is
+a small, single-storied, thatch-roofed building,
+having usually two or three small rooms
+separated by sliding paper screens, and a
+kitchen with earthen floor. The smoke escapes
+as it can, passing through the roof or
+pervading the whole house. No privacy of
+any kind is possible, nor is any need of it
+felt. The house is free of furniture, save
+for one or two chests of drawers. A closet
+or two affords a place for the <i>futon</i> (bedding)
+by day, and for the little extra clothing.
+Of course no books are found in such
+homes. The main room often has a board
+floor, with a fire box in the center, over
+which is a kettle suspended from the roof.
+Here the family eat, and friends gather to
+chat after the day's work is over. The food
+is of the poorest grade in the empire, though
+usually adequate in amount. Of course
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;17]</span>
+there are well-to-do farmers, not a few, who
+own their farms, employ fellow farmers, and
+cultivate large areas. Their homes are larger
+and better, but still in arrangement and structure
+they are practically the same. Their
+sons attend the middle schools and books and
+the daily paper are familiar objects.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The economic condition of the farming
+class may be judged from the fact that
+the land cultivated by each family averages
+three and one-third acres, which must provide
+food and clothing for five or six persons.
+The great majority of farmers live
+in little, compact villages, having populations
+ranging from 500 to 5,000. There are
+12,706 villages under 5,000, and only 1,311
+villages, towns, and cities over 5,000. These
+facts suggest the nature of the social conditions
+of the farming population. They
+live under the severest limitations of every
+kind, physical, intellectual, and spiritual.
+Yet during the recent era of Meiji (enlightened
+rule), from 1868 to 1912, the economic
+condition of the agricultural classes made
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;18]</span>
+great improvement. My gardener, a man of
+sixty, who remembers Japan before the reformation,
+1868, says that farmers now live
+in luxury. The taxes they pay to-day are
+slight compared with what was required of
+them in former times, when, in his section,
+farmers had to give to their Daimio about
+five twelfth of the rice crop, while taxes
+to-day require but one fifth or less. He
+adds that families owning three and one third
+acres of land are well-to-do, seeing many
+families have to make their entire living from
+only one acre!</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Of course, farmers, without education or
+social demands, require little beyond the
+simplest food and shelter. The clothing
+needed by their families is the cheapest cotton,
+with cotton wadding added in the winter
+for warmth. The heat of the summer renders
+much clothing a burden. A farmer is
+adequately dressed for the field or his own
+home if he has on his loin-cloth. His wife
+or grown-up daughter, when in the house
+with only the immediate members of the family
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;19]</span>
+or most intimate acquaintances present,
+is satisfied with the <i>koshimaki</i>&mdash;a strip of
+cloth some two feet wide tied around the
+waist and covering the lower part of the
+body. But on the street both men and women
+conform to the national customs and wear the
+kimono.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The Japanese household and bathing customs
+have served to prevent the development
+of that particular type of modesty characteristic
+of Western lands. It is difficult for
+Occidentals to understand this feature of
+Japanese civilization, but such an understanding
+is essential if one would do justice
+to the moral life of this people. We may
+not apply to them Occidental standards in
+matters of modesty or dress. They have
+standards of their own, to understand and
+appreciate which requires no little study.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">At this point, I venture a second quotation
+from Miss Bacon, for she has studied
+carefully this subject, which all foreigners
+seeking to estimate the nature of Japanese
+civilization and moral character should not
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;20]</span>
+fail to master. "As one travels," she writes,
+"through rural Japan in summer, and sees
+the half-naked men, women, and children
+that pour out from every village on one's
+route, surrounding the <i>kuruma</i> (wheeled
+vehicle) at every stopping place, one sometimes
+wonders whether there is in the country
+any real civilization, whether these half-naked
+people are not more savage than civilized.
+But when one finds everywhere good
+hotels, scrupulous cleanliness in all the appointments
+of toilet and table, polite and
+careful servants, honest and willing performance
+of labor bargained for, together with
+the gentlest and pleasantest of manners, one
+is forced to reconsider the judgment formed
+only upon one peculiarity of the national
+life, and to conclude that there is certainly a
+high type of civilization in Japan, though
+differing in many particulars from our own.
+A careful study of Japanese ideas of decency,
+and frequent conversation with refined and
+intelligent Japanese ladies upon this subject,
+has led me to the following conclusion.
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;21]</span>
+According to the Japanese standard, any
+exposure of the person that is merely incidental
+to health, cleanliness, or convenience
+in doing necessary work is perfectly modest
+and allowable; but an exposure, no matter
+how slight, that is simply for show, is in
+the highest degree indelicate. In illustration
+of the first part of this conclusion, I would
+refer to the open bath-houses, the naked laborers,
+the exposure of the lower limbs in wet
+weather by the turning up of the kimono, the
+entirely nude condition of the country children
+in summer, and the very slight clothing
+that some adults regard as necessary
+about the house or in the country during
+the hot season. In illustration of the last
+point, I would mention the horror with
+which many Japanese ladies regard that style
+of foreign dress which, while covering the
+figure completely, reveals every detail of the
+form above the waist, and, as we say, shows
+off to advantage a pretty figure. To the
+Japanese mind, it is immodest to want to
+show off a pretty figure. As for the ballroom
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;22]</span>
+costumes, where neck and arms are
+frequently exposed to the gaze of multitudes,
+the Japanese woman who would with entire
+composure take her bath in the presence
+of others, would be in an agony of shame at
+the thought of appearing in public in a costume
+so indecent as that worn by many respectable
+American and European women."<a name="FNanchor_1_2" id="FNanchor_1_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a></p>
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_2" id="Footnote_1_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_2"><span class="label">[2]</span>
+</a> <i>Japanese Girls and Women</i>, 257-260.</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">This completes our study of the homes and
+characteristics of five eighths of Japan. Here
+the brawn of the nation is reared. Hence
+come the sturdy, docile, patient, and courageous
+soldiers. Here are raised boys and
+girls by the hundreds of thousands who must
+at an early age begin to earn a living. This
+is the hunting-ground of those who seek for
+builders of railroads, factory hands, domestics,
+hotel girls, baby-tenders, and occasionally
+geishas, concubines, and prostitutes.
+Considering the severe economic conditions
+under which Japan's agricultural classes live,
+who can fail to admire their courage and
+grit, their personal culture, their even temper
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;23]</span>
+and cheerful faces, their innate habits of
+courtesy and good breeding, their mutual
+patience and forbearance, and their simple
+artistic tastes and pleasures! Do they not
+compare well with the peasant classes of any
+other nation?</p>
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;24]</span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III</h2>
+
+<p class="h2a">DOMESTIC INDUSTRIES IN FARMING FAMILIES</p>
+
+<p class="cap">BEFORE passing on to study the various
+classes of workers constantly recruited
+in no small numbers from the homes of
+farmers, we should first consider the high
+development of industrial occupations within
+these homes themselves. To appreciate both
+the opportunity and the need for this, we
+turn to the official statistics of marriage and
+education. Until 1908 compulsory education,
+as has been already stated, covered four
+years from the age of six to ten. According
+to governmental statistics (1912) 98.8 per
+cent. of the boys and 97.5 per cent. of the
+girls were actually fulfilling the requirement.
+This percentage seems high to American
+statistical students, but investigations show
+that, while Japanese rules for the attendance
+of pupils and methods of counting the
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;25]</span>
+same differ in some respects from those that
+prevail in the United States and Canada, yet,
+as a matter of fact, in school attendance
+Japan compares well with other lands. It
+should be remembered, however, that the
+nature of the Japanese written language is
+such that even six years of elementary education
+is probably not equal to four years
+of similar schooling in Western lands.
+American children, at the close of their elementary
+education, possess a mastery of the
+tools of civilization and a degree of general
+intelligence considerably in advance of
+Japanese children who have enjoyed the same
+number of years of school life. As we have
+already seen, this amount of compulsory education
+is insufficient to give children ability
+to read and write with freedom.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The question for us however is as to the
+number of girls above school age and still
+unmarried who, because of family poverty,
+must find some form of wage-earning occupation.
+Turning to the vital statistics provided
+by the government (1914), we find
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;26]</span>
+that in 1908 there were 2,496,142 girls between
+ten and fifteen years of age, and 2,180,408
+young women between fifteen and twenty
+years of age. But how many of these are
+married? Again relying on government statistics
+for the same year, we learn that only
+199 girls under fifteen had been married,
+whereas 193,978 had married under twenty
+years of age. In view of the fact that 709,021
+marriages took place between twenty
+and twenty-five years of age, it is altogether
+probable that, of those married under twenty,
+a large majority were married in their nineteenth
+year. Remembering that many do
+not marry until the twenty-third or twenty-fourth
+year, we can confidently assert that
+there are over 4,000,000 unmarried girls and
+young women between the ages of ten and
+twenty-five; and, as 58 per cent. belong to
+the farming class, we have in the vicinity of
+3,000,000 girls who belong to families of
+such economic state that they, no less than
+the boys, must contrive in some way to earn
+a share at least of their own living. Girls of
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;27]</span>
+fifteen and upwards in farmers' families help
+their fathers in the lighter forms of agriculture,
+planting the rice, as we have seen,
+and reaping and threshing the crops. But
+the small acreage to each family barely provides
+work enough for the man, much less
+for the half-grown boys and girls, hence the
+need of finding something besides the agricultural
+work for the growing family. The
+younger children (under fifteen) are pressed
+into lighter farming, and such household duties
+as are within their strength and ability,
+as cooking and caring for the still younger
+children; while the older children and the
+mother help the father, or take up some domestic
+industry, such as the rearing of silkworms,
+reeling of silk, spinning of thread,
+and weaving of silk and cotton fabrics, or
+similar work which can be easily and profitably
+done in the house in spare hours. Hence
+has come the widespread practise of household
+industries, by which the female members
+supplement the family income. There
+were, in 1907, 1,628,000 members of farming
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;28]</span>
+families who were earning a part of
+their living in this way. This condition has
+prevailed for many generations, and is the
+secret of the wonderful development of the
+arts and home industries in Japan.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><a name="i028" id="i028"></a>
+<img class="border" src="images/i028.png" alt="A FAMILY AT WORK IN A RICE-FIELD
+TRANSPLANTING YOUNG RICE PLANTS" title="A FAMILY AT WORK IN A RICE-FIELD
+TRANSPLANTING YOUNG RICE PLANTS" /><br />
+<span class="caption">A FAMILY AT WORK IN A RICE-FIELD<br />
+TRANSPLANTING YOUNG RICE PLANTS</span>
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">From of old Japan's industrial system, like
+that of other lands, has been domestic&mdash;carried
+on in the house. There have been
+families and gilds which have made their
+entire livelihood by these manual industries.
+There have also been hundreds of thousands
+of farming families which have supplemented
+their meager income from their farms by
+taking up some of these domestic industries,
+and those who have displayed or developed
+special aptitude for such work have naturally
+drifted into this wholly industrial life.
+This has doubtless been the origin of industrial
+families and gilds. But the point to be
+especially noted is that this wide development
+of domestic industries is due to the
+skill and diligence of Japan's working
+<i>women</i>. Japanese men have produced the
+food by which the nation has been fed; her
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;29]</span>
+women have produced industries by which
+the nation has been clothed, as indeed is the
+case of all great civilized nations. Their
+long-continued drill, from generation to generation,
+in home industrial occupations, has
+produced a high degree of manual dexterity;
+the eye and hand instinctively move accurately
+and rapidly in the work, and the result
+is that Japan's leading industries to this
+day are dependent on female labor. "Sericulture,
+silk-reeling, cotton spinning, <i>habutae</i>
+(a particular variety of silk fabric), and
+other woven goods, tea-picking, straw and
+chip braids, etc., are practically dependent on
+female labor," says the <i>Japanese Year Book</i>
+for 1910. "But an industry depending on
+female labor has this peculiarity, namely:
+it is not compatible with the factory system,
+but thrives best on the domestic plan. Generally
+speaking it is in industries which admit
+of being carried on independently at separate
+homes by housewives and mothers that
+skilled female labor is seen to the best advantage.
+As operatives of family industries
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;30]</span>
+Japanese women show an efficiency rarely
+reached by their foreign sisters." But in this
+connection we may remind ourselves of the
+great skill and industry of our grandmothers
+and preceding generations of women, who
+lived before the great factory system made
+their home industrial occupations unnecessary.
+Japan is merely several decades behind
+Western lands in her industrial development.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><a name="i032" id="i032"></a>
+<img class="border" src="images/i032.png" alt="SPINNING COTTON THREAD FOR WEAVING
+AT WORK IN A KITCHEN" title="SPINNING COTTON THREAD FOR WEAVING
+AT WORK IN A KITCHEN" /><br />
+<span class="caption">SPINNING COTTON THREAD FOR WEAVING<br />
+AT WORK IN A KITCHEN</span>
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">We are to understand, then, that a large
+portion of these 3,000,000 unmarried Japanese
+women and girls are engaged more or
+less continuously in some sort of industrial
+work, either in their own homes or in small
+groups in their immediate vicinity. The
+introduction into Japan of Occidental mechanical
+civilization, with its great machinery
+run by steam power, and the great
+factory system, taking girls and young women
+away from their home industries, home restraints,
+and home training, is producing
+mighty changes in Japan's traditional civilization.
+The real consequences of these new
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;31]</span>
+modes of life and labor are still little appreciated.
+There is taking place a rapid readjustment
+of population, which indeed is easily
+seen, but the disastrous results to the
+mental, moral, and religious life of the people,
+even to the maintenance of the ideals
+and standards that controlled the older arts
+and industries, are yet little realized, for the
+great changes have only begun within the
+past two decades. A generation or two must
+pass before we can see clearly what it all
+really means. Meanwhile it is for those who
+foresee coming evils to sound aloud the call,
+and, as prophets, to do that which in them
+lies to meet the threatened disasters, and
+turn new conditions into blessings. Japan
+has the advantage of a century of European
+experience from which to learn wisdom. It
+is to be hoped that she will avoid many
+of the perils and evils into which the West
+has fallen, but the signs of the times are
+not altogether reassuring. There are, as we
+shall see later on, ominous clouds on Japan's
+industrial horizon.
+</p>
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;32]</span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV</h2>
+
+<p class="h2a">SILK WORKERS</p>
+
+<p class="cap">THE chief wealth-earning domestic industry
+carried on by farmers' wives
+and daughters is the rearing of silkworms
+and the reeling, spinning, and weaving of
+the silk. Japan supplies about 28 per cent.
+of the total silk of the world and 60 per cent.
+of that used in the United States. The
+value of the silk exported in 1913 was
+$63,000,000. Women are the chief workers,
+contributing 90 per cent. of the labor. Here
+again the toil is taxing beyond belief.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The brunt of the work consists first in
+filling the mouths of the worms, which must
+be fed at regular intervals night and day
+for about three weeks, during the last few
+days of which they eat continuously and voraciously.
+It has been found that the rearing
+of worms can best be done only on a
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;33]</span>
+small scale, where minute attention can be
+given to each tray, almost to each worm.
+This means that worms are reared in the
+homes of the people, rather than in large
+establishments. During the silkworm season
+everything else must give way; the house
+is filled with trays of ravenous worms; rest,
+recreation, and sleep, for old and young alike,
+are neglected in order that the precious
+worms may get their fill. Men and boys
+bring in the mulberry leaves from the hills
+and fields, while women and girls strip the
+branches, chop the leaves and feed them to
+the magic creatures that transform worthless
+green leaves into costly silk. The leaves must
+not be damp, nor old, and every condition
+of weather and temperature must be watched
+with the closest care. Otherwise there is
+loss. This heavy work comes twice each
+year, in some places three times. That is
+to say, there are two or three crops of silkworms.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Then, after the cocoons have been formed,
+comes the reeling off of the silk, as much
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;34]</span>
+as possible before the sleeping grub wakens
+and eats its way out, destroying the silk
+it has spun for its nest. So again there is
+pressure, and again women do the work&mdash;I
+never heard of a man reeling silk. It takes
+the deft hand and quick eye of a girl to
+catch the thread in the boiling water, connect
+it with the wheel, and unroll without
+breaking the almost invisible thread so wonderfully
+wound up by the worm. This work
+is often done in the homes, but increasingly
+now, because more profitably, in factories
+where the girls can be closely watched by
+inspectors and paid according to the skill
+and the amount of their work.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The number of families engaged exclusively
+in raising silk in the nine principal
+districts is reported (1911) at 370,332. In
+addition however there are many tens of
+thousands of families which make this only
+a secondary business. Many merely raise
+the worms, selling the cocoons to the factories,
+and in such cases the work and strain
+are over in a few weeks. The value of the
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;35]</span>
+cocoons raised in 1911 was estimated at
+$89,001,988, which gives some idea of the
+great importance of this industry to the
+families engaged in it. But it must be remembered
+that the industry demands heavy
+expense and the most taxing of toil while it
+lasts.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">As this industry is carried on chiefly in
+the homes, the personal conditions of the
+workers are relatively favorable, as favorable
+as those of the homes. This requires
+therefore no special consideration.
+</p>
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;36]</span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V</h2>
+
+<p class="h2a">WIVES AND DAUGHTERS OF ARTIZANS AND MERCHANTS</p>
+
+<p class="cap">IN old Japan, among the workers the highest
+rank was held by farmers, next by
+artizans, and last came the merchants, for
+they were regarded as resorting to means
+somewhat degrading for making their living.
+In fact they were not producers of
+positive wealth, but lived by cunning wit on
+what others had made.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Artizans, such as carpenters, masons, and
+professional weavers, as well as merchants,
+naturally live in towns and cities. The first
+work of the wife is of course in the home,
+but when the husband's work is of such a
+nature that it is possible the wife naturally
+helps him. Merchants' wives and daughters,
+for instance, keep the shops while the husbands
+peddle the goods or secure fresh supplies.
+Weavers' wives and daughters aid
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;37]</span>
+directly, the whole family sharing in the
+work and acquiring skill. Carpentry and
+masonry however are trades in which women
+take no part, so women of these classes also
+seek some suitable domestic industry. In
+the smaller towns especially, in recent years,
+rearing of silkworms is a common occupation
+for all classes of moderate means, but
+in the cities it is impossible to secure the
+necessary mulberry leaves, so straw braiding,
+the making of fans, embroidery, and similar
+occupations are here sought; and there are
+produced the thousand and one articles used
+by the middle and wealthy classes and for
+export. As a means of increasing the income
+the wives of artizans often open their front
+rooms as shops and carry on a small retail
+business.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">In times of prosperity these classes flourish
+and grow luxurious, but hard times occasionally
+come, when they are reduced to
+dire poverty and even to the verge of starvation;
+for, living away from the land, they
+are more dependent than farmers on the
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;38]</span>
+continuous success of their labors and secondary
+industries.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The school education of the women of
+these classes is in general the same as that
+of the farming class. But inasmuch as they
+live, for the most part, in the larger villages,
+towns, and cities, they enjoy many advantages
+over their farming sisters. Along with
+their husbands they have more need of ability
+to read and write, and, becoming quick-witted
+through the stimulus of city life, they
+learn more easily. In recent decades, especially
+the last, many of their children, naturally
+those of the more successful families,
+are pressing up into the higher schools of
+learning. As a body, therefore, from the
+standpoint of mere intellect and wit, this
+class surpasses the farming class. From the
+standpoint however of moral character, of
+conjugal fidelity, of industry, and of trustworthiness
+in all relations the farming class,
+along with the shizoku, surpasses all others,
+and probably even the peers themselves. But
+in these higher classes we must distinguish
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;39]</span>
+between the men and the women; for while
+the wives are, as a rule, beyond praise in
+the matter of conjugal fidelity, the same may
+not be said of the husbands.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Among the many classes of working
+women named on a previous page are the
+"clerks." This is a new feature of Japanese
+life worthy of note, although the class is still
+small. Under this name we include ticket
+sellers in railway stations, assistant barbers,
+and saleswomen and shopgirls. Members of
+this class have of course enjoyed a relatively
+large amount of education, and are therefore
+above the average in general intelligence and
+ability. These girls are recruited from the
+families of city artizans and merchants.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The descendants of palanquin bearers, day
+laborers, eta, and hi-nin form to-day the
+lowest stratum of society, dwelling on the
+outskirts of large cities, in wretchedness,
+filth, and poverty, getting their living from
+day to day and breeding criminals, geisha,
+and prostitutes. The stone-breakers, gravel
+gatherers, coolies, and most irregular of city
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;40]</span>
+day laborers come from this class. Many of
+these men have illustrious pedigrees. Some
+fell to this estate through wanton lust and
+reckless expenditure of inherited wealth;
+some are descendants of disinherited sons;
+the ancestors of some have met political
+reverses and found refuge and safety only
+among the "non-humans," where they could
+live unrecognized and unknown. Thus all
+grades of blood course through the veins of
+this, the lowest class in Japan. The wives
+and daughters of these men share their fate
+and fortune, living from hand to mouth.
+Their life is so low and uncertain that it
+is absurd to speak of secondary occupations&mdash;they
+lack even a primary occupation; and
+their homes, which constitute the slums of
+the cities, are no places in which to carry
+on any domestic industry.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">With the coming to Japan however of
+modern industrialism and the building of
+large factories in or near the cities, the wives
+and daughters of this class have opportunity
+for regular work, earning enough and more
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;41]</span>
+than enough to support themselves while actually
+at work. But when attacked by laziness,
+fickleness, or disease, they easily slump
+back into the same economic pit. From
+this lowest class comes one of the serious
+dangers threatening the better life of modern
+Japan. The insufficiency of these laborers,
+their unreliable character, and the
+inferior quality of their work, have forced
+the factories to search elsewhere for hands.
+These they have found in the relatively
+workless, but industrious and comparatively
+moral farming class. These farmers' girls
+have been brought to the cities and thrown
+into intimate relations with the lowest, most
+dissolute, despised, and really despicable
+classes, and the results have naturally been
+disastrous in many ways, as we shall see in
+a later chapter.
+</p>
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;42]</span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI</h2>
+
+<p class="h2a"><i>KOMORI</i> (BABY-TENDERS)</p>
+
+<p class="cap">THE great poverty of the majority of the
+people renders necessary, as already
+noted, not only the utmost economy in the
+home, but also a high degree of industry,
+and the beginning of productive labor at
+an early age. As soon as the child has completed
+the elementary education, and, in cases
+of exceptional poverty, even before that, he
+or she must begin to do something of value
+and earn a living, at least in part. In the
+case of farming families, younger children
+care for the youngest and share in the
+household duties, thus relieving the mother
+and elder children, enabling them to aid
+the husband and father in the field. But the
+positive agricultural or industrial work which
+girls of from ten to fifteen can do is insignificant,
+yet they eat as much as a grown
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;43]</span>
+person, and hence comes the search for suitable
+openings for such workers. This is
+found for many of the younger girls in the
+homes of the middle and upper classes, where
+they go as <i>komori</i> (baby-tenders).</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Girls even as young as ten leave their
+homes and go out to service. They receive
+food and lodging, in some cases a garment
+in summer and one in winter, and sometimes
+in addition a small cash stipend. A komori
+thus is usually the daughter of a poor family
+who goes into a well-to-do family to aid
+the mother in the care of her infant. Her
+chief duty is to carry the infant, sleeping
+or waking, on her back for many consecutive
+hours during the day. In addition to
+this she aids a little in the household work,
+washing dishes and cleaning the house, her
+hours of service being unlimited. In some
+families she may be called on at any hour
+of the night to carry the baby, if it is restless
+or fretful and needs to be "jiggled" to
+sleep! A komori is employed by the year,
+but usually without specific contract, her
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;44]</span>
+parents sometimes receiving a few yen<a name="FNanchor_1_3" id="FNanchor_1_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> when
+she enters upon service. Her time is entirely
+at the disposal of her mistress and she goes
+to no school, receives no regular instruction,
+and no training other than that which comes
+incidentally from association with members
+of the family. Long hours each day are spent
+on the street with an infant on her back,
+playing hop-scotch and other games with
+other komori.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_3" id="Footnote_1_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_3"><span class="label">[3]</span>
+</a> A yen has the value of forty-nine cents.</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">In a few places efforts are being made, I
+am told, to provide these baby-tenders with
+educational advantages, but the movement is
+as yet small. Buddhists are said to be particularly
+active in this matter.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><a name="i044" id="i044"></a>
+<img class="border" src="images/i044.png" alt="CARRYING FAGOTS
+BABY-TENDERS" title="CARRYING FAGOTS
+BABY-TENDERS" /><br />
+<span class="caption">CARRYING FAGOTS<br />
+BABY-TENDERS</span>
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">A blind man in Matsuyama, a Christian
+of my acquaintance, put out one of his daughters
+to service as a komori. After two years
+of such life, poverty-stricken though the
+family was, he brought her home again, for
+the child of fourteen, so far from learning
+anything good, was learning many things
+bad on the street, and was being dwarfed
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;45]</span>
+in mind by the long hours when she was
+wholly without mental stimulus. The life
+of a komori will of course vary much with
+the nature of the family by which she is employed,
+but at best the service cannot fail to
+stunt the growth of both body and mind.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">I heard not long since of a boy who became
+a komori. His father had died a
+drunkard, leaving the family ruined financially.
+The mother and children were accordingly
+distributed among the creditors to
+work off his debts. The little boy of eight
+went with his mother, and, so long as she
+lived&mdash;some three years&mdash;life was endurable
+for him, but after her death he was made
+increasingly miserable. Long hours by day
+and many interrupted nights, unkind words,
+and unutterable loneliness vexed his orphaned
+spirit, until he could endure it no
+longer, and planned to run away. The stern
+master however discovered him doing up
+his bundle, and, to prevent his escape, ordered
+his few possessions, even his clothing,
+to be taken away. In spite of this he
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;46]</span>
+slipped out one night in the darkness and
+hid in a barn in a neighboring village until
+morning, when he was taken pity on by some
+children who shared a kimono or two with
+him, and so he got away. With increasing
+years he led a wild, roving life; at eighteen
+he became a murderer and was imprisoned
+for life, escaping the death penalty on account
+of being a minor. In prison he first
+heard the Christian gospel of God's forgiving
+love, of peace and hope and joy. This
+"good news" he accepted, and learned to
+read, that he might read the New Testament,
+which he committed to memory.
+Upon the death of the Empress Dowager, in
+1896, his penalty, with that of many other
+prisoners, was remitted, and now for fourteen
+years he has been living a life remarkably
+fruitful in Christian service.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">But, to return to our subject, we note that
+not all komori are children. Superannuated
+old women who have neither strength nor
+brains for anything else also act in this
+capacity, their conditions of service and
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;47]</span>
+wages being the same as those of girls. I
+have tried to get some idea as to the number
+of komori in Japan, but have been able to
+find no statistics. One gentleman assures
+me that at least one family in five of the
+middle and upper classes employs a komori.
+As the number of families in Japan, exclusive
+of farmers, is 3,981,940 (1912), this would
+make about 796,000 komori; but many well-to-do
+farming families also employ komori,
+so the total number in Japan would be not
+far from 1,000,000. A lady however assures
+me that this estimate is altogether too high,
+and thinks that not more than one family
+in twenty has the means to employ a komori.
+If this is true, then the number is in the
+vicinity of 250,000. In either case, the system
+and its nature are clear, and the numbers
+of children sent out to service at a
+tender age is not inconsiderable. The attention
+of educators and parents is being
+directed to the dangers to infants of this
+komori system, to say nothing of the harm
+it does to the girls themselves.
+</p>
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;48]</span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII</h2>
+
+<p class="h2a">HOUSEHOLD DOMESTICS</p>
+
+<p class="cap">BY the time a girl is fifteen or sixteen she
+is regarded as sufficiently large, strong,
+and mature to enter on more responsible
+work. Among the several fields open to her
+is that of <i>gejo</i>, or domestic service, of which
+we may distinguish two varieties: those who
+serve in private families and those who become
+maids in hotels and tea-houses. A
+komori may gradually work into the position
+of a domestic; indeed, in the majority of
+homes a komori not only tends the baby but
+aids the mother in her household work. It
+is only in the homes of the well-to-do that
+both gejo and komori are to be found. The
+work of a gejo consists in taking the brunt
+of the cooking, housecleaning, and washing,
+serving from daybreak, that is, from five
+or six in the morning, till ten or eleven
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;49]</span>
+at night. Her status is somewhat better
+than that of the komori. Her hours of
+service however are long and taxing. Her
+time for rest is after the family has retired
+for the night and before they rise in the
+morning. Frequently her private room is
+the front hall, or entrance room; she accordingly
+is the last person to retire and the
+first to rise. It is to be noted however that
+in the houses of the middle classes in the
+large cities there is usually now a small room
+for the servant-girl. The gejo draws the
+water from the well, washes the rice, lights
+the fires, cooks and lives in the dingy and
+usually smoky kitchen, washes the clothes,
+aids in the sewing, and has no relaxation but
+an occasional festival. Her lot is truly
+pitiful.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Besides her living (eating what is left
+from the family meal), she usually receives
+some two to three yen per month. Recently
+however some have been receiving even as
+much as five yen. The drudgery and monotony
+of the life are usually such that the
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;50]</span>
+opportunity to become a factory hand is
+quickly taken, especially as the cash earnings
+are relatively large. I am told by
+Japanese ladies that the problem of securing
+domestics in the cities or in the vicinities
+of factories is becoming serious.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Of course the average domestic has no
+opportunity nor desire for mental improvement.
+Having enjoyed no education to speak
+of, she can read neither papers nor books,
+nor may she attend meetings fitted to cultivate
+the mind or promote her higher life.
+Thus she is controlled by the culture and
+mental and moral traditions of the home in
+which she was reared.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Household domestics are recruited from
+farming and industrial families. They earn
+their living for from four to six years, until
+their parents or guardians find them husbands;
+for in Japan the girl has practically
+nothing to say as to whom she marries.
+Marriage is based, not on mutual acquaintance,
+much less on mutual attraction, but
+wholly on the judgment of parents or go-betweens,
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;51]</span>
+and is from first to last&mdash;if it is
+proper&mdash;a utilitarian affair.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">It thus comes to pass that in Japan domestics
+are, as a rule, young unmarried women.
+A domestic in her thirties, or over, is rare,
+and is almost certain to be a widow or a divorced
+woman.
+</p>
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;52]</span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII</h2>
+
+<p class="h2a">HOTEL AND TEA-HOUSE GIRLS</p>
+
+<p class="cap">A distinct class of domestics is that
+which serves in hotels, tea-houses, and
+restaurants. Here the hours of labor are
+longer,&mdash;from four or five in the morning
+till midnight, or later. My attention was
+early called to their hard lot by observing
+that the poor girl who was serving rice for
+my meal, sitting before me as I ate, often
+fell into a sleep, from which I had to awaken
+her to get my rice. Inquiry would show
+that she had risen at four o'clock that morning,
+and further questioning would bring the
+information that she had retired the previous
+night at midnight or later, sometimes even
+not till two o'clock! Rarely do these girls
+get five hours of rest; frequently there are
+not more than three. They must open all
+the <i>amado</i> (sliding wooden shutters which
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;53]</span>
+protect the paper "windows"), and get the
+general cleaning done before the first guest
+rises, and must continue their service until
+late into the night, answering the calls of
+the guests, till the last one has retired. In
+addition to the usual cleaning of the rooms,
+which is really not much of an undertaking,
+these girls carry all the meals of all
+the guests from the kitchen on the ground
+floor to their rooms on the second or third
+floors, serve them while they eat, and carry
+away the trays when the meal is completed.
+In preparation for the night the girls bring
+out the heavy <i>futon</i> (quilts) and make the
+"beds" on the floor; and in the morning remove,
+fold, and lay them all away in closets.
+The work of a Japanese hotel is relatively
+heavy for the number of guests, but that
+which is most taxing is the long hours of
+service and the insufficient time for rest. As
+in the poorer homes, so in the poorer and
+smaller hotels, the girls have no private
+rooms, but sleep in entryways and reception-rooms.
+Of course they have neither time nor
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;54]</span>
+opportunity for personal culture, nor even
+for recreation; and from the nature of their
+occupation, is it strange if they sometimes
+yield to the solicitations of guests?</p>
+
+<p class="indent">These girls are of course neither professional
+prostitutes nor geisha. Yet I was
+assured by a provincial chief of police, some
+years ago when making investigations, that,
+in the eyes of the police, three fourths or
+four fifths of the girls in hotels and tea-houses
+are virtually prostitutes, though of
+course they have no licenses and are subject
+to no medical inspection. Occasionally they
+are arrested for illegal prostitution, at the
+instance however of brothel keepers. Hotels
+and tea-houses take pains to secure pretty
+girls for servants, in order to make their
+service attractive. It is a dreadful statement
+to make, but, if I am justified in judging
+from such facts as have come to my
+knowledge, it would appear that few traveling
+men in Japan feel any special hesitation
+in taking advantage&mdash;with financial compensation
+of course&mdash;of such opportunities as
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;55]</span>
+are afforded them. Hotels give the girls
+their food, perhaps two gowns yearly, and
+generally a small payment in cash, but their
+principal earnings come from tips. This
+makes them attentive to the wants of the
+guests.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">There are many first-class hotels throughout
+the country, but chiefly in the principal
+cities, to which geisha are not admitted, but
+in those hotels to which they are admitted
+the green country girls soon learn from them
+the brazen ways and licentious talk that are
+evidently pleasing to many of the guests.
+All in all the life and lot of the hotel and tea-house
+girl are deplorable indeed. She does
+differ from the geisha and licensed prostitute,
+however, in that she can leave her place
+and retire to her country home at any time,
+being held by no contract or debt. Hotel
+and tea-house girls are recruited largely from
+the families of artizans and small tradespeople,
+living in interior towns and villages;
+they do not often come from farming families,
+since they would lack the regular features
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;56]</span>
+and light complexion desired by hotels.
+Their family pedigree explains in part this
+easy virtue. They are saved from more
+disaster than they actually meet, because
+geisha and prostitutes abound and are more
+attractive.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">I remember, one summer at a little country
+hotel, a girl rushed into my room from
+a neighbor's in order to escape from the
+urgency of a guest. She told me the following
+day quite freely of her troubles, of
+the horrid men that came to the hotel, and
+of the fact that most of the girls did not
+mind what she found unendurable. She had
+been there but a few weeks and was resolved
+to go home as soon as possible, claiming it
+was better to starve than to lead such a
+hard and especially such a disgusting life.
+Realizing that I had an exceptional opportunity
+for sociological study, I improved the
+occasion and asked many questions. When
+asked for her reasons for not responding to
+the solicitations of the men, she replied that
+it was the fear of being laughed at should
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;57]</span>
+she have a child. I could not learn that she
+had ever been taught to regard loose sexual
+relations before marriage as immoral or as
+intrinsically wrong. In her mind the question
+had no connection with religion, so far
+as I could discover. Her refusal was based
+wholly on utilitarian grounds.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">At another hotel where I often stopped I
+noticed on one of my tours that an especially
+attractive girl of eighteen or nineteen, who
+usually waited on me, was no longer there.
+On asking her substitute what had become of
+her, I was told she had become a regular
+prostitute, having found she could earn much
+more money that way than at the hotel. I
+asked if the parents had not opposed. "O
+no!" replied the girl, "the parents were the
+ones who proposed it and arranged for it."
+I asked the substitute if she herself did not
+regard the business as shameful and immoral.
+She looked at me with apparent surprise,
+hardly understanding what I meant,
+evidently regarding the matter entirely as
+a financial one.</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;58]</span>
+Here is another case. A number of Young
+Men's Christian Association secretaries,
+tramping in the Japanese Alps, were convinced
+by the noises one night at the hot
+springs that the five or six guides and porters
+were indulging in licentiousness. The next
+night it came out around the camp-fire that
+these guides and porters had paid the hotel
+girls five sen<a name="FNanchor_1_4" id="FNanchor_1_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> (two and one-half cents)
+each.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_4" id="Footnote_1_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_4"><span class="label">[4]</span>
+</a> A sen has the value of one-hundredth of a yen, or almost half a
+cent.</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">Of course one may not generalize from
+three cases. But three such cases, together
+with the statement of the chief of police, and
+the experience, closely corresponding with
+my own, of many missionaries who have
+traveled in all parts of Japan, are strong
+evidence. I myself do not think that guests
+often solicit the girls, nor that hotel girls
+commonly yield to the requests of guests, but
+there can be no doubt that it occasionally
+happens, and is not regarded in any such
+way by either the men or the women as an
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;59]</span>
+Occidental would expect. As said above,
+there are many hotels in the cities from
+which geisha are rigidly excluded, and
+where without doubt the relations of guests
+with hotel girls are above criticism.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">It is an impressive fact of Japanese civilization
+that the "greenest" country girls can
+in but a few short weeks of hotel service become
+so graceful and attractive. That in
+their lives which to the Occidental is so deep
+a sin is nothing to them. Their calm, innocent
+eyes, winning ways, and gentle conversation
+can hardly fail to impress the foreigner.
+But compared with the girls in
+their homes they have lost that air of modesty
+and reserve which is so important an
+element in the charm of Japanese womanhood.
+The hotel and tea-house girl belongs
+rather to the geisha class, whose loud, harsh
+voices and artificial, coarse laughter are distinguishing
+characteristics. Girls of both
+these classes however have an advantage
+enjoyed by no other women in Japan,
+namely: that of meeting large numbers of
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;60]</span>
+men of various occupations and interests.
+They hear varied conversation and thus become
+somewhat acquainted with the affairs
+of the outside world, which makes them more
+intelligent than the average Japanese woman,
+so that it is possible to carry on some sort
+of a conversation with them&mdash;a thing practically
+impossible with the average young
+woman of Japan.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">In regard to the numbers of hotel domestics,
+I have found no statistics, but have no
+hesitation in venturing an estimate of many
+tens of thousands.
+</p>
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;61]</span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX</h2>
+
+<p class="h2a">FACTORY GIRLS AND WOMEN</p>
+
+<p class="cap">AS already stated, many girls prefer factory
+work to that of domestic service,
+either in private families or in hotels. From
+ancient times there have been small industrial
+enterprises, employing each a few hands
+in various lines of work, such as the reeling
+and spinning of silk and cotton thread and
+the weaving of cloth; but since the war with
+China there have arisen enormous factories,
+after the fashion of Western lands, which
+have introduced great changes in the industrial
+situation and in the condition of the
+working classes.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The government report for 1912 shows
+that there were 863,447 individuals employed
+in 15,119 factories having ten or more hands
+each. Of these, 348,230 were men and 515,217
+were girls and women. In addition it
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;62]</span>
+reports 427,636 weaving houses, having 733,039
+looms and employing 697,698 operators.
+No statement is made as to the proportion
+of the sexes. Remembering that the government
+statistics take no account of industrial
+enterprises employing less than ten
+hands, it is probably safe to estimate the
+number of women employed in exclusively
+non-domestic occupations at not less than a
+million.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">We are not concerned however with the
+industries themselves, but rather with the
+conditions under which the operatives work
+and the effect of the work on their lives and
+characters. To begin with the more pleasant
+side of the question, there are factories
+which come well up toward the ideal. The
+terms of employment, the wages paid, the
+provisions for ill health, for accident, for
+long service and old age; the rooms for sleeping,
+eating, and recreation; the bathing establishments;
+the education given to those who
+need it; the public lectures and religious and
+ethical instruction given at fixed times in the
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;63]</span>
+public halls of the factories, Buddhist and
+Christian teachers being impartially invited;
+the provisions for marriage of employees
+and arrangements that each couple have a
+separate suite of rooms, and that the infants
+are cared for while the mother is in the mill;
+these and other provisions show that the best
+in Japan is up to a high level of excellence.
+Such is the policy of the Kanegafuchi Company,
+which owns a score of mills in different
+parts of Japan, and whose success moreover
+is so great that it is now buying up less successful
+competitors.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">For several years this company has set
+aside annually 20,000 yen ($10,000) for its
+relief and pension fund for operatives. In
+June, 1913, in addition to its regular appropriation,
+it voted an extra $50,000 for a
+"welfare promotion fund."</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The president of the Fuji Cotton Spinning
+Company was given in 1913 a retiring grant
+of $50,000, inasmuch as the great success of
+this company had been due to his skill and
+energy. He however presented the entire
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;64]</span>
+amount to the "employers' relief fund, and
+it was decided to make this gift the nucleus
+of a permanent endowment fund."</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><a name="i082" id="i082"></a>
+<img class="border" src="images/i082.png" alt="AT WORK IN A SILK FACTORY" title="AT WORK IN A SILK FACTORY" /><br />
+<span class="caption">AT WORK IN A SILK FACTORY</span>
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">There is a silk factory in Ayabe, the Gunze
+Seishi Kwaisha, whose record is the most
+wonderful of all. It is managed by a Christian,
+who runs it entirely with a view to the
+benefit of the workers and the district. No
+girls of that district go elsewhere for work.
+Once enrolled as members of the working
+force they are regularly instructed, both in
+general education and in their particular duties;
+they earn good wages, keep good health,
+receive Christian instruction, have their
+regular rest days, remain the full number
+of years, help support the family and earn
+enough besides to set themselves up in married
+life, and are now beginning to send
+their daughters to the same factory. This
+Christian factory is Christianizing the district.
+The rising moral and religious life
+is transforming even the agricultural and
+other interests of the region. So high is the
+grade of silk thread produced, and so uniform
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;65]</span>
+and reliable is the quality, that it alone
+of all the factories in Japan is able to export
+its product direct to the purchasing
+firm in the United States, which buys the
+entire output at an annual cost of about
+$500,000, and without intermediate inspection
+at Yokohama. Here we have a splendid
+illustration of the way in which Christian
+character is solving the problem arising
+from the low moral and economic ideals
+of the masses of Japan's working classes. As
+a rule the modern industrial worker does
+not put moral character into his work; and
+a wide complaint of Occidental importers
+of Japanese products is that goods are not
+made according to contract or sample. This
+is one of the greatest obstacles to the continuous
+prosperity of any Japanese industry;
+for as soon as a large demand has arisen
+in foreign lands for any given article, its
+quality, as a rule, has rapidly deteriorated.
+It is this unreliability of Japanese workmen
+that makes so difficult direct exportation to
+foreign lands without the supervision of Occidental
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;66]</span>
+middlemen. The Christian Gunze
+Seishi Kwaisha is one of the splendid exceptions
+which shows what Japanese workmen
+and manufacturers can do, when controlled
+by high ideals and motives.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Unfortunately however not all factories
+and their managers have the same spirit,
+aim, or skill. Many factories are the exact
+opposite in every respect to those owned
+by the Kanegafuchi and Gunze Seishi companies.
+My personal attention was first
+called to the heartrending condition of servitude
+imposed on vast numbers of girls by
+reading, a score of years ago, of a fire in the
+dormitory of an Osaka factory. The dormitory
+was in a closed compound, whose
+doors and gates were carefully locked to keep
+the girls from running away. The result
+was the death, if I remember correctly, of
+every inmate, of whom there were several
+score.</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><a name="FmFN09" id="FmFN09"></a>My personal knowledge in regard to the
+conditions of life and work of factory operatives
+was secured in Matsuyama, Shikoku,
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;67]</span>
+a small inland city of some forty thousand
+inhabitants, having but a single cotton thread
+spinning factory. It had no dormitories of
+its own, but sent its operatives to certain
+specified boarding-houses in the town.
+Through a Mr. Omoto, who was at that
+time working in the factory, and whose life
+story is given in the final chapter, I became
+intimately acquainted with the conditions
+prevailing in Matsuyama. In 1901, when
+Mr. Omoto began to work in the factory,
+he was amazed to see how many were the
+children taking their turns in work along
+with the older girls by day and by night.
+Large numbers ranged from seven to twelve
+years old, the majority, however, being from
+fifteen to twenty. They worked in two
+shifts of twelve hours each, but as they were
+required to clean up daily they did not get
+out till six-thirty or seven, morning and night.
+The only holidays for these poor little workers
+came two or three times a month, when
+the shifts changed; but even then there was
+special cleaning, and the girls who had
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;68]</span>
+worked all night were kept till nine and even
+ten in the morning.
+<a name="FmFN10" id="FmFN10"></a>He was also deeply
+impressed with their wretched condition and
+immoral life. The majority of them could
+neither read nor write; their popular songs
+were indecent, and they were crowded together
+in disease-spreading and vermin-breeding,
+immoral boarding-houses, where they
+were deliberately tempted. Some of the
+landlords were also brothel keepers.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Mr. Omoto, having opportunity as official
+"visitor" to become accurately acquainted
+with their life, told me in detail
+the conditions which have been briefly summarized
+above. The boarding-houses were
+only for girls from out of town. They had
+to be "recognized" by the factory, and the
+girls had to live in the houses to which they
+were assigned. Of course the purpose of
+these houses was to make money. The financial,
+hygienic, intellectual, and moral interests
+of the girls were wholly ignored.
+They were crowded into ill-ventilated, sunless
+rooms, the two shifts occupying the same
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;69]</span>
+rooms alternately. Personal extravagance
+was purposely stimulated, for girls in debt to
+the keepers were compelled to stay to work
+off their debts. Drinking and immoral carousings
+were their only recreation. As
+might be expected, sickness was common and
+epidemics frequent. Many girls returned
+to their homes after a few months in the
+"city" ruined not only in health but in
+character,&mdash;premature mothers of illegitimate
+children.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The conditions of the factory girls in
+Matsuyama were not unique. Miss J. M.
+Holland, a Church of England missionary
+in Osaka, recently told me some of her observations
+and experiences. She has devoted
+the larger part of her time for fifteen years
+to work among factory girls, and on the
+whole can report improvement. When she
+began her visits to the factories, the conditions
+were often appalling. It was not uncommon
+for girls working on the night shift
+to be kept, on one pretext or another, till
+noon the next day, making eighteen hours
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;70]</span>
+of work. The conditions of work and life
+were such that the girls frequently ran away,
+to prevent which the dormitories were virtually
+prisons within the factory compounds.
+The girls were not allowed to go out on
+the streets, were given no opportunity for
+recreation, and of course no education. They
+were underfed, overworked, and punished
+in various ways by their overseers, cuffed and
+sometimes whipped, for disobedience or blunders.
+The daily papers of those days had
+frequent items reporting oppression and ill
+treatment; to be deprived of wages as punishment
+was a common experience; police
+occasionally discovered girls working in cellars
+and vaults as punishment for misdeeds;
+girls sometimes escaped in their night clothes,
+and on a few occasions the girls rebelled
+and did personal violence to the overseers.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">But, as already stated, the general conditions
+are now much better, for it was gradually
+found that such ill-treated labor was
+not profitable. "Most of the superintendents
+in Osaka are now splendid men, who on the
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;71]</span>
+whole take good care of the girls and wish
+to treat them honorably." The crying evils
+of the past have been largely done away.
+Rest, recreation, education, wages, and health
+are receiving careful consideration at all the
+leading factories. Still, no true parent would
+send a daughter to work in such a place, unless
+under the stress of dire poverty. There
+are still many small children under ten years
+of age, whose parents make false statements
+in regard to their ages. The work is from
+six in the morning to six in the evening.
+This means rising at four-thirty every morning
+for work on the day shift. Some factories
+have abolished the night shift. Fifteen minutes
+are allowed for rest in the middle of the
+forenoon, thirty minutes for lunch, and fifteen
+minutes again in the afternoon, giving
+thus eleven hours of steady work per day
+and the same per night. On pay days the
+girls, after standing eleven hours, have to
+stand in file from one to three hours more, according
+to their luck, and Miss Holland says
+that such long hours of standing result in
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;72]</span>
+serious organic difficulties. One half of the
+girls fail to work out their three years' contract,
+returning to their homes before time
+for marriage, seriously injured, if not completely
+ruined, physically. So long as this
+system continues, she adds, skilled labor is
+impossible. While some factories take great
+care that girls are carefully guarded from
+evil, others exercise no control whatever over
+their goings and doings. One factory she
+named as allowing its girls to be out on the
+streets till two o'clock in the morning. It insists
+on only two and a half hours of sleep!
+The difficulties connected with private boarding-houses
+for factory girls have proved so
+great that most of them have been closed.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">One of the tragic aspects of factory life in
+Japan is the large number of what would
+seem to us avoidable accidents, due to the
+fact that the girls know nothing whatever
+about machinery. Large factories accordingly
+keep surgeons on hand to care for the
+wounded. Miss Holland says that in one
+Osaka factory where there are a thousand
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;73]</span>
+operatives, the kind-hearted surgeon told her
+they had an average of fifty accidents daily
+which needed his attention. The little children
+especially suffer, often losing fingers.
+Not long since five fingers were clipped off
+in a single day! Miss Holland added that,
+improved though the conditions are, factory
+life for children is a "murder of the innocents."
+As a rule the food provided in factory
+dormitories is still inadequate. When
+asked whether corporal punishment is still
+inflicted, she expressed a doubt, having heard
+of none for a long time.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">In her conversation Miss Holland expressly
+limited her report to the factories
+she knows in Osaka. The question arises
+whether the conditions there may not be peculiar.
+May not factory conditions in Yokohama
+and Tokyo, where government inspection
+and control would theoretically be most
+complete, be better than elsewhere? The
+facts do not seem to justify such a surmise.
+The Kanegafuchi Company and some others
+have good factories everywhere, but there
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;74]</span>
+would seem also to be bad ones everywhere.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">A Japanese book on <i>Industrial Education</i>
+has recently been published by a Mr. R.
+Uno, who, for fifteen years, has been a devoted
+student of Japan's industrial problems.
+A summary of the statistics there given
+appeared in May, 1914, in the <i>Tokyo Advertiser</i>,
+from which I cull the following
+facts and figures.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">In the cotton thread and spinning factories
+of Japan, there are 81 girls to 19
+men. Out of 1,000 girls, 386 are over
+20 years of age, 317 are from 17 to 20,
+191 are from 15 to 16, 73 are from 12
+to 14, while 7 girls out of a thousand are
+under 12 years of age. The vast majority
+of factory girls live in the factory dormitories,
+which are of enormous size. In the
+region of Osaka there are more than 30,000
+girls working in 30 factories; in these same
+factories there are less than 7,000 men.
+Three of these factories employ over 3,000
+girls each, while three more employ 2,000
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;75]</span>
+and upward. These girls are herded together
+in enormous dormitories, disastrous
+both to health and morals. Statistics covering
+a number of years show that out of
+every 1,000 girls, 270 work less than six
+months at the same place; 200 less than one
+year, 179 less than two years; 121 less than
+three years; 141 less than five years, and
+only 89 pass the five-year period. The usual
+reason for this extraordinary fluctuation of
+workers is that the girls break down in
+health. Government statistics declare that
+out of every 100 girls to enter upon factory
+work 23 die within one year of their return
+to their homes, and of these 50 per
+cent. die of tuberculosis. But it is also asserted
+that 60 per cent. of the girls who
+leave home for factory work never return.
+Of the criminal girls arrested in Osaka for
+a certain period, 49 per cent. had been factory
+hands. As to the education of factory
+girls it is stated that, out of 1,000, the number
+that had completed the required number
+of years of schooling (six) was 450, while
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;76]</span>
+385 were entirely without education. Out
+of 1,000 girls, 453 were orphans. Of 1,000
+girls, 611 came from farmers' homes, 166
+from those of fishermen, and 55 from merchant
+homes, the remaining 168 being scattering.
+Factory girls earn and can save more
+than almost any other class. The average
+earnings per month are stated to be $4.67.
+The girl pays $1.20 per month for food,
+which is less than the actual cost, the factory
+providing the balance, namely, $1.30. The
+average girl sends home fifty cents per
+month. Three out of ten girls spend the
+balance entirely on clothes, five out of
+ten on cakes and theaters, while two out of
+ten save it. Such are some of the statements
+made by Mr. Uno in his enlightening book.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">In the September, 1910, number of the
+<i>Shin Koron</i>, a monthly magazine published
+in Tokyo, is an article by Professor Kuwada
+(of the Tokyo Imperial University) entitled
+"The Pitiful Environment of Factory
+Girls." He gives a detailed statement of the
+conditions of factory workers, in which he
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;77]</span>
+estimates the number of female laborers in
+factories containing ten or more hands at
+700,000, of whom ten per cent. are under
+fourteen years of age. In tobacco factories
+ten per cent., in match factories twenty per
+cent, and in glass factories thirty per cent.
+of the girls are under ten years of age. He
+vigorously condemns the situation as threatening
+the future of the working class, whose
+prospective mothers are thus being destroyed.
+The efforts of the government during recent
+years to enact factory laws have been successfully
+thwarted thus far, says Professor Kuwada,
+by shortsighted, selfish capitalists. The
+girls are brought in from their country homes
+by false promises. They are told of the
+beautiful sights to be seen, theaters to be
+visited, the regular Sunday rest, and even
+of the splendid care and education they will
+receive from the factory. There is also
+stealing of expert workers from one factory
+by the artful stratagems of another. There
+are factories which resort to devices for defrauding
+helpless operatives. In one town
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;78]</span>
+where there are many factories, it is customary
+to work overtime by setting back
+the hands of the clock. To conceal this from
+the operatives, no factory blows its whistles!
+Some factories do not give time for the girls
+to rest even while they eat, but require them
+to work with the right hand while they eat
+with the left. Night work in which both
+male and female operatives are engaged together
+is most demoralizing. Punishment of
+various kinds is administered. In addition
+to fines, in some places the girls are imprisoned
+in dark rooms, rations are reduced,
+their arms are bound and the lash applied
+freely, and in extreme cases they are stripped
+to the waist and marched through the factory
+among young men and girls, bearing a red
+flag tied to the back! Superintendents are
+invariably men.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">So appalling was the statement made by
+Professor Kuwada that I could scarcely believe
+him in all the details, particularly in
+regard to the use of the lash and the stripping
+to the waist. I accordingly wrote both
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;79]</span>
+to him and to Professor Abe of Waseda University,
+who has made special study of the
+social problems and conditions of industry.
+Professor Kuwada, I learned, has been a
+careful student of social and industrial conditions
+for nearly twenty years, and is one
+of the leaders in the Society for the Study
+of Social Politics, composed of one hundred
+and fifty university professors and high government
+officials. This society was organized
+to aid the government in its efforts to secure
+social and industrial reforms. In reply to
+my inquiries Professor Kuwada says that
+most of the facts given concerning silk factories
+he has himself observed. Those concerning
+cotton spinning factories he has derived
+from reliable sources, chiefly from the
+officers of the Department of Agriculture and
+Commerce, who are especially engaged in
+making investigations in regard to industrial
+conditions. Much of the testimony rests on
+the statements of the girls themselves. Some
+of the facts come from local police and some
+from the published reports of the Department
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;80]</span>
+of Agriculture and Commerce. "The
+article in the <i>Shin Koron</i> may therefore be
+regarded as semi-official," says Professor
+Abe. Since the appearance of the article referred
+to above, no reply has been made to
+it by factory owners or managers. As to
+the stripping of a girl to the waist and marching
+her through the factory filled with
+operatives, male and female, Professor Kuwada
+was told this by the girl herself. Under
+such circumstances, it is difficult to doubt
+the testimony. Nor is it probable that the
+cases cited are absolutely unique, although
+I think it highly probable that such extreme
+indignities and punishments are rare,&mdash;they
+are so out of keeping with the whole trend
+of Japanese civilization and culture. Mrs.
+Binford, a missionary in Mito, assures me,
+however, that altering the hands of the clock
+is a practise known to her. Testimony is
+widespread that girls are secured for factories
+by all kinds of false statements.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">In view of the frightful conditions of industrial
+labor thus indicated by Mr. Uno and
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;81]</span>
+Professor Kuwada, it is amazing that the
+Diet has refused on several successive occasions
+to enact suitable laws. The government
+began to realize in 1898 the need for legislation
+on these matters. A bill which was
+drafted and presented in 1902 was rejected,
+as were also three subsequent bills. The
+chief feature of the bill presented during
+the winter of 1910-11 was the provision
+that no factory may employ girls under
+twelve, and that girls of any age and youth
+under sixteen may not be kept at work for
+more than twelve hours per day, nor be made
+to do night work without "special reason."
+While some provisions of this bill were enacted
+and others amended, those considered
+most important by social reformers and by
+the government were virtually rejected. The
+bill was indeed passed, but with the added
+provision that the important clauses, relative
+to ages and night work, be inoperative for a
+period of fifteen years (!) in order to give
+time to the factories involved to adjust themselves
+to the new conditions. Since that time
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;82]</span>
+no further factory legislation has been enacted.
+Is it not astounding that in a land on
+the whole so progressive as Japan the difficulty
+of securing reform should be found in
+the Diet? The administration at this point
+is ahead of the representatives of the people,
+as it is indeed in many other respects. The
+fact is, as Professor Kuwada points out, that
+the "representatives" in both the lower and
+upper houses represent the financial interests
+of capitalists, rather than the human
+interests of the masses.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">But the reader, in his indignation over the
+situation of factory workers in Japan, should
+remember that Japan is no exceptional sinner
+among the nations. Christian England
+and America have had conditions equally
+bad, and possibly worse. Dr. Washington
+Gladden, in his article on "The Reason for
+the Unions," in the New York <i>Outlook</i> for
+March, 1911, makes the following statements
+in regard to the condition of labor in England
+in the early part of the nineteenth century.
+Men and women stood daily at their
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;83]</span>
+tasks, from twelve to fourteen and fifteen
+hours; a working day of sixteen hours was
+not an unheard-of thing. Government reports
+of this period show that children of
+five and six years of age were frequently
+employed in factories. "Nor was this unmeasured
+abuse of child labor confined to
+the cotton, silk, and wool industries....
+The report of 1842 is crammed with statements
+as to the fearful overwork of girls
+and boys in iron and coal mines, which doubtless
+had been going on from the end of the
+eighteenth century;... Children could get
+about where horses and mules could not.
+Little girls were forced to carry heavy
+buckets of coal up high ladders, and little
+girls and boys instead of animals dragged
+the coal bunkers. Women were constantly
+employed underground at the filthiest tasks.
+Through all this period the wages gravitated
+downward and family income was steadily
+lowered, while the cost of food increased.
+The homes of the workers were ruined. In
+a certain congested district there lived 26,830
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;84]</span>
+persons in 5,366 families, three fourths of
+which possessed but one room each. The
+rooms were without furniture, without everything;
+two married couples often shared the
+same room. In some cases there was not
+even a heap of straw on which to sleep. In
+one cellar the pastor found two families and
+a donkey; two of the children had died and
+the third was dying." And these conditions
+existed, not in days of industrial depression,
+but in flush times; business was booming and
+wealth accumulating in the hands of factory
+owners and employers.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Many of the conditions of industrial workers
+even in the United States to-day are heartrending
+in the extreme. Who could read
+of the strike of the shirt-waist makers of
+New York in the winter of 1909-10 without
+deep indignation over the conditions under
+which those brave girls worked, and against
+which they rebelled? The National Committee
+on Child Labor reported in the spring
+of 1911 that there were over 60,000 children
+in the factories of the United States, mostly
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;85]</span>
+in the South. Before condemning Japan
+unduly, Occidentals should remember that
+their own record is none too bright.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">If comparison is to be made however
+between Japan and the West, it may be made
+along other lines. The West fell into its
+industrial difficulties with no example from
+which to learn. But this is not true of Japan.
+She can easily learn the lesson of a century
+of Western experience; but she seems slow
+to do it. Then again in Japan it is the
+government that is feebly leading, and the
+official popular representatives who are both
+blind and resisting, whereas in the West the
+great movements for industrial reform are
+movements of the people themselves, backed
+up and oftentimes led by enlightened humanitarian
+and Christian popular opinion.
+In the West, the churches are fairly in line
+with forward social movements, whereas in
+Japan, Shintoism, Confucianism, and even
+Buddhism are apparently wholly indifferent
+to the economic and even ethical condition of
+the nation's toilers. Furthermore, we are
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;86]</span>
+seeing to-day in Japan the strange phenomenon
+of one section of the government seeking
+to ameliorate social and economic conditions,
+and at the same time another, seemingly mortally
+afraid of allowing the people either
+to discuss these matters or to attempt reform
+movements themselves. Labor unions are
+strictly forbidden, and any person advocating
+socialism is under strict police surveillance.
+Strikes are illegal and their promoters are
+liable to criminal punishment. Anomalous
+as it may be, the government seems to be
+seeking to destroy that enlightened popular
+opinion on which it must rely for the efficient
+enforcement of its own plans for social
+betterment of the working classes.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">I have dwelt at considerable length on
+the conditions of factory workers, for later
+on I shall describe a sociological experiment
+among this class.
+</p>
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;87]</span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X</h2>
+
+<p class="h2a">GEISHA (HETÆRÆ)</p>
+
+<p class="cap">THE word <i>geisha</i> means an "accomplished
+person." A geisha is invariably
+a young woman who has had years of training
+fitting her to provide social entertainment
+for men. The <i>gei</i> acquired are skill in
+playing the samisen (a three-stringed guitar),
+singing catching ditties, taking part in conversation
+and repartee, and in "dancing,"
+which is to the Western mind rather a highly
+conventional posturing, with deft manipulations
+of the inevitable fan. Years of exacting
+and diligent work are required for
+proficiency in these "gei,"&mdash;the Geisha
+School in Kyoto provides a course of six or
+seven years.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><a name="i092" id="i092"></a>
+<img class="border" src="images/i092.png" alt="O HAMAYU (GEISHA)
+Most celebrated in Tokyo" title="O HAMAYU (GEISHA)
+Most celebrated in Tokyo" /><br />
+<span class="caption">O HAMAYU (GEISHA)<br />
+Most celebrated in Tokyo</span>
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">According to the Japanese ideal, geisha
+singing must be shrill, and to secure this
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;88]</span>
+quality the voice is purposely strained till
+it is "cracked." Girls eight to ten years old
+are sometimes given their "singing lessons"
+in the frosty air of winter mornings before
+sunrise, or late at night, in order that they
+may take cold in the throat and then, by persistent,
+vigorous use, the voice is "broken"
+for life. Training in dancing and samisen
+playing is also prolonged and severe, for no
+pains are spared in efforts to excel. These
+efforts however are due, not to the will or
+desire of the <i>maiko</i>, the poor little girl who
+is being trained, but to the persistence of her
+owner.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Only daughters of the very poor are secured
+for this outwardly beautiful and attractive,
+but inwardly repulsive, soul-destroying life.
+Practically speaking, geisha are
+the property of the old women who support
+and educate them through the years of their
+childhood, and who rent them out by the
+hour for the entertainment of men at social
+functions. Such functions would, indeed, be
+inane without geisha to serve the meals in
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;89]</span>
+their dainty ways, to fill the sake<a name="FNanchor_1_5" id="FNanchor_1_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> cups for
+guests, to share in conversation by adding the
+spice, to provoke laughter, themselves laughing
+loudly and often, and at the proper time,
+to present their music, their singing, and
+their dancing. Dressed in faultless style, in
+richest silks and brilliant colors, geisha are
+moving pictures which have charmed generations
+of Japanese men and, in recent decades,
+many foreigners. Japanese political party
+dinners and consultations are often held in
+restaurants, where geisha make the fun and
+pour the wine. If foreign guests are to be
+entertained by wealthy individuals, by companies,
+or even by cities, the inevitable geisha
+is there, and is presented as a characteristic
+product of Japan&mdash;which she truly is. But
+while there is about her a certain charm of
+manner and dress, to one who watches her
+face, looking for traces of a soul, the story
+is all too plain&mdash;behind the harsh laugh and
+stoical face it is impossible not to recognize
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;90]</span>
+that there is an empty and often a bleeding
+heart.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_5" id="Footnote_1_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_5"><span class="label">[5]</span>
+</a> Sake (pronounced sah'-ke) is the fermented liquor of Japan, made
+from rice.</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">The lives of these girls are pitiful in the
+extreme. Chosen from among the families
+of the poor on the basis of their prospective
+good looks and ability to learn, they leave
+their homes at an early age and are subjected
+to the severe drill already outlined.
+They go through their lessons with rigid,
+mechanical accuracy. In public they appear
+in gorgeous robes, their faces painted and
+powdered, artificiality dominating everything
+about them,&mdash;clothing, manners, and smiles.
+As a rule nothing is done to develop their
+minds, and of course the cultivation of personal
+character is not even thought of. They
+are instructed in flippant conversation and
+pungent retort, that they may converse interestingly
+with the men, for whose entertainment
+they are alone designed. The songs
+learned, some of the dances performed, and
+the conversational repertoire acquired are
+commonly reported to be highly licentious,
+but these are the gei that best please the men,
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;91]</span>
+to whom they are open for private engagements
+from the time they are eighteen years
+of age. If, however, a geisha is exceptionally
+beautiful, her owner does not allow her to
+enter on such duties, for experience has shown
+that her beauty is soon lost in this way, and
+with it her highest earning capacity.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Many geisha undoubtedly develop considerable
+personal ability. The severe drill undergone
+could hardly fail to call forth their
+powers of mind, and intimate association
+with educated and quasi-cultured men serves
+further to stimulate their mental faculties.
+In native ability too they are not lacking,
+though drawn from the lowest classes of society,
+for, as will soon be more fully explained,
+they sometimes possess strains of
+high lineage. The national custom, which
+represses the normal intellectual development
+and social instincts of cultured, respectable
+women, is removed from this one class, which
+is favored by many circumstances. They are
+not subjected to the debauching excesses usual
+with the ordinary prostitute, nor to humiliating
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;92]</span>
+medical inspection. They are not conscious
+of popular disapproval, but on the
+contrary are the beauties of the town, their
+photographs for sale on every street. Indeed
+one well-informed gentleman told me that
+probably ten per cent. of the geisha enter
+the calling by their own choice. No wonder
+that from time to time the tale is told of
+some Japanese man of social position falling
+under the spell of an accomplished geisha,
+whom he prefers to any of the silent, passive,
+timid, incompetent girls selected for
+him, who in all probability have never talked
+with any man except immediate relatives or
+tradesmen. The national custom which predetermines
+the social incompetence of the
+majority of cultured women compensates for
+the loss by providing this geisha class. Not
+until Japanese ladies can hold their own in
+social life will the vocation of the geisha be
+ended.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Among the surprises one meets in studying
+the geisha question is the fact that not
+a few of the girls have features which indicate
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;93]</span>
+distinguished ancestry. My explanation
+for this fact is the further fact that for
+ages the standards of moral life in Japan
+have allowed large freedom of sexual relations.
+The result is that in the lowest classes,
+from which geisha are recruited, there run
+strains of gentle blood. It thus comes to
+pass that now in the midst of coarse surroundings
+and in deep poverty there are born
+of parents manifestly belonging to the lowest
+class, children of exceptional beauty,
+fitted, so far as individual appearance indicates,
+to belong to the highest ranks of society.
+Whether or not this suggested explanation
+is correct as a matter of historic
+fact I am not able to say, but I offer it as
+the most plausible that has occurred to me.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Parents in this class of society much prefer
+daughters to sons, for they are likely to
+become valuable sources of income. At eight
+or nine, those destined for the "accomplished"
+calling are put into the care of some
+experienced geisha and a mutual contract is
+given for a specific period (five or six years),
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;94]</span>
+during which the child is termed a <i>maiko</i>
+(dancing girl). As a rule the parents receive
+a small sum at the beginning of this
+first period. The owner undertakes to support
+and train the girl, and expects to profit
+by her earnings. By the time the girl is
+fifteen or sixteen she has finished her apprenticeship,
+when, if she has exceptional graces
+and charms likely to win her a place in
+the highest social gatherings, she will secure
+quite a competency (many hundreds of yen,
+and in some cases even a few thousand) for
+the keeper and parents. On the expiration
+of the first contract a new one is made, and
+so on, until the girl has passed her prime and
+is no longer sought for entertainments. If
+in the interval she has not become the concubine
+of some rich man, she then either returns
+to her poor home or, what is more
+usual, becomes a servant in a hotel or tea-house.
+If her ability is exceptional, she may
+set up as geisha keeper, train other maiko,
+employ younger geisha, and so make her
+living.</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;95]</span>
+The great ambition of a geisha is to
+"catch" some wealthy man of rank with
+her charms and become his concubine. My
+informant estimates that this is what happens
+to perhaps one half of the geisha. In
+such cases the man pays down a handsome
+sum to the owner, who sends part of it to
+the parents. Thus he buys his concubine,
+whom he usually keeps in a villa, not his
+home. I have asked if geisha ever become
+true, legal wives and am told "only very
+rarely." But, if they do, are they cordially
+received by the man's kindred? "Oh, no!
+that is not possible," is the repeated answer.
+The effects of her training can never be obliterated,
+and the new relatives cannot forget
+the despicable class from which she comes,
+and the calling by which she has gained her
+husband. She may become indeed refined
+and altogether correct in manner, but the
+taint of her origin as a rule adheres to her.
+Then too the years of immoral life before
+she won her husband make it a rare thing
+for a geisha to have children, and childless
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;96]</span>
+wives in Japan are not at a premium, for the
+prime purpose of marriage is the maintenance
+of the family line.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Foreigners commonly say that geisha are
+not prostitutes. It is true they are not licensed,
+that is to say, professional, prostitutes
+in the eye of the law, nor are they
+procurable, as are regular prostitutes, by the
+average man, for the expense is too great.
+But the chief of police already referred to,
+and many Japanese of whom I have inquired,
+insist that a large proportion of geisha are
+corrupt&mdash;two geisha keepers have estimated
+the proportion as high as ninety per cent.
+Geisha who decline engagements leading to
+immorality are rare indeed, and for that very
+reason are unpopular.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">But better than generalized statements is
+the story of an actual life. There lives to-day
+in Hyogo a paralytic whose influence
+through her words, newspaper articles, and
+books is widely felt throughout central Japan.
+She is one of the few girls who, though
+trained as a geisha, refused to follow the
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;97]</span>
+calling. The story of her life is worthy of
+more than passing mention.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Her father died in her infancy, and shortly
+after the death of her mother, who had married,
+her stepfather likewise married again.
+These stepparents, deciding to have her become
+a geisha, expended much time and
+money on her training.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">When she was prepared at sixteen years
+of age, she was entrusted to a woman whose
+business it was to find employment for geisha
+in hotels and tea-houses. This woman took
+her to a house in Osaka, where there were
+already many geisha and regular prostitutes.
+Learning the nature of the duties expected
+of her, she positively refused to comply. In
+spite of the fact that it was twenty miles
+to her home and that there were but two sen
+in her pocket, she escaped from the hotel,
+spent one sen on bridge toll, one sen on a
+lunch, and succeeded in walking all that distance
+alone, reaching home after midnight,
+the home from which she had been sent out
+with hopes that she should win for her stepparents
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;98]</span>
+an ample support. The reception accorded
+her can be fancied. She held firmly
+however to her resolve, preferring poverty
+and hard toil to luxury and fine clothing
+along with that service on which these were
+conditioned. Work was found for her in a
+factory, then as a family servant, and finally
+at a small tea-house, where during the winter
+she was especially exposed to the cold.
+An attack of rheumatism developed into paralysis.
+With no hope of recovery she longed
+for death, for her stepparents, considering
+the case hopeless, neglected to care for her
+properly, although she was so helpless. She
+could not feed herself, nor even crawl to the
+well in which she wished to drown herself,&mdash;the
+final resource of many a despairing Japanese
+woman. But, by a strange series of
+circumstances, or should we not say by a
+merciful Providence? a Christian man discovered
+and befriended her, told the story
+of Jesus, and revealed the Savior. Her faith
+soon became so strong and her words proved
+so thoughtful and helpful to those Christian
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;99]</span>
+friends who came to see her, that her influence
+began to spread. She found she could
+manage to write with her crippled hand, and
+as what she wrote was like her spoken words,
+simple and strong, it soon found its way into
+print. She was finally led to write the story
+of her life, and this book, with other articles
+written by her, has afforded a small income,
+which with additional help from friends has
+secured a comfortable home for herself and
+the family of which she is now the center.
+Her name is Zako Aiko, and she lives in
+Hyogo.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">A few geisha, coming under Christian influences,
+have been converted, and so far as
+I know, such persons leave the calling altogether,
+as incompatible with Christian principles.
+But condemnation of the whole
+geisha system is not confined to Christians.
+Many Japanese, entirely outside our Christian
+circles, regard it as a disgrace to the
+country, and wish the whole business, along
+with licensed prostitution, concealed from
+public view. For instance, a man of high
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;100]</span>
+official rank, president of a large institution,
+tells me he regrets that there is no first-class
+Japanese hotel in Kyoto at which he may entertain
+foreign guests in Japanese style, except
+where geisha serve the meals. Rather than
+countenance the geisha system, he prefers to
+take his guests to a hotel where the service
+is not so perfect but where the women employed
+are above suspicion. He deplored the
+fact one day that all foreigners coming to
+Kyoto in the spring visit the <i>Miyako odori</i>,
+commonly known in English as the "Cherry
+Dance." I myself have seen this performance
+more than once, and found nothing objectionable
+in either the so-called dancing,
+its setting, or its accompaniments. It nevertheless
+affords opportunity for the display
+of something like eighty or ninety geisha,
+and helps to maintain the business and the
+system. As indicating the status of geisha
+in the best Japanese society, it is significant
+that all geisha are rigidly excluded from
+every entertainment where any member of
+the Imperial household is present.</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;101]</span>
+It is often said by foreigners that geisha
+and prostitutes not infrequently make happy
+matches, and by legal marriage escape from
+their unhappy lives of shame. This is one
+of those pretty fables one would like to
+believe, but the facts do not seem to support
+the theory. There are, no doubt, rare instances
+where such has been the case. I
+have known two women who had been geisha
+and who married men of some position. In
+one case the man was a physician. When
+I knew the family the ex-geisha had been in
+the home a number of years and was a lovely,
+modest, capable woman, a regular member
+of my wife's cooking class. But it was noticeable
+that she always took a "back seat"
+among the ladies; she was tolerated by them
+and treated not unkindly, but it was clear
+that they looked down on her. The man's
+kindred never favored the match, and would
+not let him marry the woman legally, so she
+lived in his house, took excellent care of his
+first wife's children, and was to them all that
+a stepmother could be, yet, so far as I know,
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;102]</span>
+she has never gained her full position in
+the home of her husband nor among his
+relatives.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The other case I knew but slightly, as she
+died but a few weeks after I made her acquaintance,
+but she must have been a woman
+of exceptional character. She was a Christian
+and highly respected in the church.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Such cases, however, are rare. A geisha
+may be in high favor during the decade or
+more when at the height of her physical
+charms, though even then her inner life is
+empty and loveless; but when no longer attractive
+she is cast aside as a faded flower,
+to spend the rest of her life forlorn, unloved,
+and uncared for. Truly, the way of the
+geisha is hard!</p>
+
+<p class="margin-left8">
+Geisha naru mi to;<br />
+Michi tobu tori wa<br />
+Doko no idzuko de<br />
+Hateru yara,
+</p>
+
+<p>is a popular ditty regarding the final disappearance
+of geisha from sight. It may be
+roughly translated: "What becomes of
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;103]</span>
+geisha, do you ask? I ask in turn, where end
+their lives the birds that fly along the
+road?"</p>
+
+<p class="indent">In regard to the number of geisha, Mr.
+Murphy's statistics show that from 1887 to
+1897 they increased throughout Japan from
+10,326 to 26,536, and since then the increase
+has been relatively small, the number
+being now in the vicinity of 30,000.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">So far as is known to me, no regular Christian
+or philanthropic work is done for this
+class.
+</p>
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;104]</span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI</h2>
+
+<p class="h2a"><i>SHOGI</i> (LICENSED PROSTITUTES)</p>
+
+<p class="cap">IT may seem strange to class prostitutes
+among working women, but the facts require
+such classification, for, not only so far
+as the parents and brothel keepers are concerned,
+but also so far as the girls themselves
+are concerned, it is entirely a matter of
+money. If the business did not pay splendidly,
+the keepers would not erect their
+handsome buildings, pay the heavy license
+fees, nor buy the girls from the parents at
+considerable cost. And on the other hand,
+if the parents did not receive what they
+regard as large sums for their daughters,
+the latter would not be sold to such lives
+of shame and disease. And so far as the
+poor victims are concerned, there is abundant
+evidence that they often go into the
+wretched business solely at the command of
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;105]</span>
+their parents, for among the lowest class the
+noble doctrine of obedience to parents is
+shamefully perverted to this vile end. Children
+are taught that obedience is a child's
+first duty, regardless of the question whether
+the thing required by parents is right or
+wrong. The girl goes to the brothel in
+obedience to her parents, who send her there
+to earn a living for herself and to help them
+out of special financial difficulties. Thus
+from first to last, so far as the girls, the
+parents, and the keepers are concerned, the
+question is economic.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Among the working women of Japan prostitutes
+surely are the most pitiful of all.
+They give the most and get the least. They
+receive no training, like the geisha; have no
+liberty; to prevent their running away, are
+imprisoned in brothels, or if diseased or ill,
+in hospitals; and have no friends except possibly
+other prostitutes. Most of them soon
+loathe the business, but are helpless, hopeless
+prisoners,&mdash;for the keepers who paid
+their parents a few score or hundreds of yen
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;106]</span>
+and loaded them with beautiful clothes,
+charge all these items to their account, so
+that they are under a heavy debt which
+must be paid before they can leave. This
+debt the laws of the land theoretically ignore
+but practically recognize, for the
+"keeper" keeps the books as well as the
+brothel, and the police and officials are often
+on his side. In this way licentiously inclined
+officials, merchants, and travelers provide
+for the easy, economical, and legal satisfaction
+of their desires.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">I do not propose here to give a detailed
+account of this distressful and disgusting
+"business." Those who desire more information
+should procure <i>The Social Evil in
+Japan</i>, by the Rev. U. G. Murphy. Some
+years ago Mr. Murphy, by grit and pluck,
+carried certain test cases through the courts
+and secured legal opportunity for girls to
+quit the business if they wished. The Salvation
+Army and some of the daily papers
+took pains to let the brothel girls know their
+legal rights, and in a short period over
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;107]</span>
+twelve thousand, at that time over one third
+of the whole number, left the brothels, so
+that for a while the business was prostrated
+in many quarters. This single fact shows the
+spirit and attitude of a large number of the
+girls. Since then the wily keepers and all
+interested in maintaining this lucrative trade
+have succeeded in modifying the administration
+of the regulations, so that the girls are
+again closely controlled.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">There is however a rising public conscience
+and an abolition movement is gathering
+strength. The virtual slavery of the
+girls; the fact that they are openly bought
+and sold, and that, too, under governmental
+supervision and sanction; the cruelty inflicted
+on many girls by their keepers; the fraud
+practised in connection with their accounts,
+whereby a girl is kept hopelessly in debt, so
+that, however faithful she may be, release is
+impossible, and indeed the more faithful the
+more profitable she is to her keeper&mdash;all
+these facts are becoming widely known and
+are beginning to arouse public indignation.
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;108]</span>
+The government is openly charged with protecting
+slavery, and that of the worst kind.
+High government officials are being condemned
+for licentiousness.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">As signs of the times, I give a few facts.
+In the summer of 1909 the wealthiest and
+most centrally located prostitute quarter in
+Osaka was completely wiped out by a great
+fire. Before the flames were fully out, the
+anti-brothel forces realized their opportunity
+and under the leadership of the Young Men's
+Christian Association and Young Women's
+Christian Union began to agitate for refusal
+to allow the rebuilding of the business
+in that region of the city. A petition was
+prepared and signed by one hundred thousand
+people. Large numbers of Osaka's best
+citizens allied themselves with the movement.
+The result was that the authorities in charge
+saw fit to yield to the pressure and arranged
+that the new buildings for prostitution should
+be erected on the outskirts of the city.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">In the winter of 1911, the city of Tokyo
+suffered from a great conflagration which
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;109]</span>
+completely destroyed the section of the city
+known as "Yoshiwara,"<a name="FNanchor_1_6" id="FNanchor_1_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> which for three
+hundred years has been assigned to prostitution.
+This center of the social evil had
+become enormously wealthy, and such magnificent
+buildings had been erected for the
+business that it had become one of the famous
+sights of Tokyo. Before the fire was
+fairly over, the anti-brothel forces began
+to organize their campaign, which continued
+for months. A magazine called <i>Purity</i>
+(<i>Kaku Sei</i>) was started. In this case, however,
+success did not crown their efforts.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_6" id="Footnote_1_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_6"><span class="label">[6]</span>
+</a> Foreigners commonly, but mistakenly, suppose that "Yoshiwara" means
+"Prostitute Quarter."</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">Not long since an army division was located
+in the vicinity of Wakayama, a city
+of considerable importance, not far from
+Osaka, in which there have never been any
+prostitute houses. This led to the suggestion
+that it would be well to open there a regular
+prostitute quarter. The matter was
+keenly discussed and the proposition carried
+through the city council and authorized by
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;110]</span>
+all the lower officials, but when it came
+finally before the prefectural governor for
+signature, it was vetoed, and the veto message
+is worthy of preservation and careful
+consideration by those who are interested in
+these matters.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The governor says in his message: "I was
+early convinced that the establishment of
+licensed quarters in the city was harmful
+to the public interest. It has been a subject
+of discussion in Wakayama now for many
+years, and I have investigated the question
+thoroughly from the standpoint of public
+morals, health, and economics, at places with
+and without licensed quarters, and find that
+the existence of such institutions is distinctly
+harmful. The standard of morals is lowered,
+the public health impaired, disease
+made rampant, the young are sent into wrong
+channels, homes are broken up, and extravagance
+is encouraged. The state of affairs
+in Shingu, in this prefecture of Wakayama,
+where licensed houses have been established,
+clearly shows that the existence of such
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;111]</span>
+places is extremely harmful to public interest.
+The majority representation to the
+authorities urged the establishment of licensed
+quarters on the ground that the quarters
+would promote the prosperity of that
+section of the city in which they were situated.
+It is true they may benefit a section
+of the city in one way, but the benefit so
+obtained would be offset by many other evils.
+The military authorities are strongly opposed
+to the establishment of licensed quarters,
+and their views are very reasonable.
+For these reasons I have decided to refuse
+permission for the establishment of licensed
+quarters in Wakayama city."<a name="FNanchor_1_7" id="FNanchor_1_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a></p>
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_7" id="Footnote_1_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_7"><span class="label">[7]</span>
+</a> As translated by the <i>Japan Chronicle</i>, May 13, 1911.</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">In passing, it is worthy of record that the
+prefecture of Joshu has for over thirty years,
+by ceaseless vigilance, prevented government
+sanction of prostitution. Repeatedly has the
+battle been fought and repeatedly have the
+anti-brothel forces won. In this respect
+Joshu stands alone among the forty-eight prefectures
+of the Japanese empire.</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;112]</span>
+As illustrating the low moral ideals prevailing
+among a certain class of men, Professor
+Abe of Waseda University, in a recent
+brothel-abolition speech, told of a certain
+politician who, though a fast liver, was
+praised because he never debauched the
+wives and daughters of his friends, but always
+confined himself to those women whose
+services he fully paid for in hard cash!
+Colonel Yamamuro, the highest Japanese
+officer in the Salvation Army, on the same
+evening, speaking of the low moral ideals
+of the classes from which prostitutes are
+drawn, said that in connection with the Salvation
+Army he had had opportunity to
+know of twelve hundred girls who had been
+aided in the two rescue homes of the Army.
+Of these twelve hundred about one half had
+been prostitutes. The reasons given by them
+for leaving were various, such as ill health,
+cruelty, lovers, but not one said she left
+the business because it was wrong. The evidence
+is full and convincing that a considerable
+section of the Japanese people do not
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;113]</span>
+regard loose sexual relations as particularly
+immoral.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">In regard to the statistics of prostitutes,
+the figures given by Mr. Murphy are probably
+the most accurate available, and are
+substantially official. Between 1887 and
+1897 the number of prostitutes increased
+from 27,559 to 47,055, reaching their maximum
+in 1899, when there were 52,410. Then,
+following up the work of Mr. Murphy and
+the Salvation Army, came the "cessation
+movement," reducing the number to 40,195
+in 1901, and the following year to 38,676.
+Since that date the number has grown. In
+two years four thousand fresh girls were
+bought up, and a thousand more the following
+year. The latest statistics are those
+for 1906, when the number of prostitutes
+was reported as 44,542. It is safe to say
+that at the present time the number is near,
+if it has not passed, the fifty thousand
+mark.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">It would be natural to suppose that recruits
+for the geisha and shogi occupations
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;114]</span>
+would be found largely among the poorest
+farmers, but both my outdoor man and also
+my cook assert that such is not the fact.
+"Farmers would never sell their daughters
+for such vile purposes, however poor they
+might become. Parents who do such things
+are only the degenerate creatures who live
+in cities," is the scornful remark of my gardener.
+My cook asserts the same thing, and
+adds that farmers' daughters have not the
+genteel features and figures nor the light
+complexion essential to girls seeking such
+occupations. Other investigations confirm
+these assertions. The great cities of Nagoya
+and Niigata, and indeed the whole of Echigo,
+are famous for the supply of girls they send
+to the brothels of Tokyo. A poor man with
+several daughters has a pretty good investment,
+and rejoices more at the birth of a girl
+than of a boy, because it means an early and
+definite income.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">I found at one time in Matsuyama that
+all the girls of sixteen to eighteen years of
+age in a certain poor quarter had, in the
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;115]</span>
+course of one year, been sold off to the
+brothels. About that time a man came to
+me with a pitiful story of poverty; he had
+five children, but unfortunately they were
+all boys; had they been girls, he said, he
+might have sold some of them and so not
+have needed to ask my aid!</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The word used in connection with both
+geisha and prostitutes is perfectly frank;
+no effort is made to conceal by terms the
+nature of the transaction. The girls are
+"bought" and "sold." They employ the
+same words as those used in buying and selling
+animals, food, clothing&mdash;anything. Their
+purchase and sale is a regular business in
+which men and women openly engage, traveling
+the country over in search of girls, and
+conducting them in small groups to the keepers
+of brothels, who pay so much a head.
+And this takes place in civilized Japan!
+Moreover, in spite of the fact that girls may
+thus be bought, it is true that they are also
+occasionally stolen. I have known of a
+pitiful instance where the girl, a member of
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;116]</span>
+a respectable family, was boxed and shipped
+on a steamer as freight, to elude the police,
+and taken to Siam. In five years she has
+succeeded in getting one letter to her home,
+but the parents dare not put the matter into
+the hands of Japanese officials, as that would
+make the situation hopeless.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">But Occidentals may not forget how terrible
+a scourge is commercialized vice in
+civilized and so-called "Christian" Europe,
+and who has not heard of the "white slavery"
+of America, with its stealing of girls
+and young women for purposes of prostitution?
+The institution of comparisons between
+nations and individuals is alike odious,&mdash;but
+unavoidable. A fair comparison would
+seem to be that, whereas in the West the
+moral sense of a large proportion of the
+people is very strongly against the social
+evil and seeks to abolish it, in Japan the
+moral sense of the mass of the population
+acquiesces in the situation, so that the government
+and a vast majority of the influential
+people of the land unite to make the
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;117]</span>
+business safe, legal, and remunerative; and
+that, while in Occidental Christian lands
+no girl can voluntarily enter this sphere of
+life without being conscious of its shame
+and immorality, many of the girls of Japan
+may have no adequate knowledge of these
+inevitable consequences until their fate has
+been sealed.
+</p>
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;118]</span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII</h2>
+
+<p class="h2a">AMELIORATIVE EFFORTS</p>
+
+<p class="cap">THE reader will desire to know what, if
+any, have been the efforts to ameliorate
+the evils described in preceding pages. They
+are of two kinds: first, governmental in
+origin, general in scope, legal and educative
+in method; and second, private in origin,
+both general and specific in scope, personal,
+educative, ethical, and religious in method.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The general educational policy of the government
+is not to be regarded as a philanthropic
+or ameliorative effort to meet the
+conditions already described. This policy
+however does have a powerful elevating influence
+on the lives and character of the
+entire people. As we have seen, over ninety-seven
+per cent. of the girls of school age
+are in attendance, according to the reports.
+Though we allow a discount on these figures
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;119]</span>
+(and some may perhaps be necessary),
+we can still say that, if the present policy
+of six years of compulsory education is carried
+out, the rising generation of boys and
+girls will be able to read fairly well the
+daily paper and simple books. To millions
+of women this means the opening of doors
+of knowledge and opportunity which in ages
+past have been closed to them.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The government has also been the chief
+initiative force in all recent movements
+to improve the economic and industrial conditions
+of the people. Railroads in Japan
+owe their existence to the government, as
+also do many forms of modern industry.
+Agriculture and fruit and stock raising owe
+much to the government, which has imported
+Western seed, Western fruit trees, and
+new breeds of horses and cattle. All these
+efforts have done much to improve the economic
+conditions, thus elevating the scale
+of living. People eat better food and more
+of it, live in better houses, and wear better
+clothes than they did fifty or more years ago,
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;120]</span>
+and&mdash;an important item&mdash;they pay less taxes
+in proportion to their income. A general
+uplifting process is modifying their life and
+thought, and this is profoundly affecting
+Japan's working classes, and, of course,
+her women.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">In regard to the specific evils introduced
+by Western industrialism, we have already
+seen how the government has sought to remedy
+the difficulties, so far as laws can go,
+but hitherto its efforts have largely been
+thwarted by capitalists.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Among the notable efforts of the government
+to promote wise social reform movements
+have been the large gatherings, at
+considerable government expense, of leaders
+of philanthropic and benevolent institutions
+for instruction in the most recent
+and approved sociological principles. Competent
+specialists from all over the country
+have been employed to instruct these leaders,
+and thus the whole country is given the benefit
+of the special knowledge of the few. The
+government has also, during the past four
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;121]</span>
+years, distributed some forty thousand yen
+annually among those eleemosynary institutions
+which it regards as models of
+efficiency.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Furthermore, opportunity for the higher
+education of women, first given on a wide
+scale during the past decade, while not yet
+affecting working women to any appreciable
+extent, cannot fail to do so as time passes,
+for it proclaims the intrinsic ability of
+woman and gives her a standing of intellectual
+equality with man, in sharp contrast
+to the humiliating position assigned to her
+by popular Buddhism, which has taught that
+women must be reborn as men before they
+can be saved. Indeed, they are born women
+because of their sins. A Japanese proverb
+has it that one must never trust a woman,
+even if she has borne you seven children!
+This long-believed doctrine as to the inherent
+incapacity and essential depravity of woman
+has no doubt been a powerful cause of her
+social degradation. Under the present system
+of general education, however, these
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;122]</span>
+doctrines and beliefs will soon be completely
+overthrown, thus making room for and producing
+great changes in the social and industrial
+conditions of all women.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">But the government is not the sole worker
+for the social amelioration of industrial conditions.
+Through private effort forces are
+being introduced which are more potent than
+any the government knows or can control. I
+refer to the gospel of Jesus Christ. This
+has already introduced such a leaven into
+Japanese society that nothing can now prevent
+its transforming the whole mass in
+time.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Should the entire foreign body of 624
+Protestant and 371 Roman Catholic missionaries
+be withdrawn from Japan, there would
+still remain (January, 1914) 728 ordained
+and 713 unordained Japanese Protestant
+pastors and trained evangelists, and 331
+Bible women. Among the 815 organized
+churches, 182 are wholly self-supporting.
+In addition to the 90,000 Protestant communicants,
+67,000 Roman Catholic people, and
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;123]</span>
+32,000 Greek Christians among the Japanese,
+it is estimated by Christian pastors
+that there are many hundreds of thousands
+of the people who are conducting their lives
+according to the principles and with the
+spirit of Jesus.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Furthermore, a careful study of modern
+Japanese civilization shows that the Christian
+conception of man as having intrinsic
+and inherent worth has been embodied in
+the constitution and laws of the land and is
+being put into wide practise. The rights
+of children, women, and inferiors and the
+duties of parents, husbands, and superiors
+are new notes in Japan, and are sounding
+forth a richer music than has ever before
+been heard in the Orient.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Of course there are still discordant notes,
+as we have seen when considering the subject
+of the buying and selling of geisha and
+prostitutes; but so there are even in so-called
+Christian lands. Nevertheless, the
+conception of the value of the individual and
+of his rights is inspiring a hope among the
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;124]</span>
+lowly and hitherto downtrodden and oppressed
+sections of the nation which cannot
+be extinguished, and will in due time powerfully
+transform the traditional civilization,
+giving to woman a place of equality
+along with man in the estimation of all.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The general education of girls, and especially
+their higher education, is signal proof
+of a wide acceptance of Christian conceptions.
+According to the <i>Résumé Statistique</i>
+(1914), there were, in 1911-12, 250 girls'
+high schools, public and private, whose pupils
+numbered 64,809. In addition, the number
+of women in normal schools preparing
+to become elementary school-teachers was
+8,271, and in the higher normal schools, 570.
+The number of female teachers is reported
+at 42,739. These girls' high and normal
+schools, through the ability they give their
+graduates to converse with men on a basis
+of intellectual equality in regard to topics
+of current interest while retaining their modesty
+and personal character, are so transforming
+the reticent habits and unsocial customs
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;125]</span>
+of Japanese ladies that ere long scant
+room will be left for the old-time geisha.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The change Christianity is silently bringing
+to the home life of Japan, adding to
+its sweetness, purity, and conscious unity, and
+contributing a mighty uplift to both head
+and heart, few as yet have either eyes to see
+or ears to hear. The influence already exerted
+by Christian ideas and ideals on the traditional
+conceptions of Japan in regard to
+home life, marriage, childhood, the poor
+and lowly, the orphan, the blind, the leper,
+and the diseased generally,&mdash;in a word on
+the value of the individual and his inalienable,
+God-given rights,&mdash;is so widespread
+and so beneficent that it receives little specific
+comment and no opposition.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">There were no doubt in old Japan certain
+influences predisposing many to the new
+ideals and practises introduced from the
+West. It is difficult, perhaps impossible,
+at this stage in Japan's development to reckon
+accurately how much of Japan's new life is
+due to new factors introduced from Christendom,
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;126]</span>
+and how much to ideals already
+operative in the feudal system. No one can
+doubt, however, that Christian ideals have
+been the most important factors in the West
+to give woman her present status. Nor can
+we doubt that Christian ideals and practises
+are playing an important rôle in the modern
+emancipation of women in Japan.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Those who criticize missionaries as forcing
+the Christian religion upon unwilling
+peoples know not whereof they speak. The
+Christian faith would make no progress
+whatever in Japan were it not found by Japanese
+themselves to be ennobling and satisfying.
+It is welcomed because it brings hope
+and peace and power to those who were
+hopeless and restless and powerless.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">But he is very shortsighted who thinks
+that the main forces Christianizing Japan
+are wielded by the foreign missionary. The
+missionary doubtless is an essential agent,
+but of far more importance is the work of
+Japanese Christians themselves; and in addition
+to these is the general though vague
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;127]</span>
+influence exerted by Western civilization as
+a whole, and particularly by the English language
+and literature. In that important
+work, <i>Fifty Years of New Japan</i>, are many
+remarkable chapters, but especially noteworthy
+are those entitled "Social Changes
+of New Japan," and "Influence of the West
+upon Japan," from the pens of competent,
+wide-awake Japanese scholars.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Consider what Professor Nitobe says:
+"The greatest influence of the West is, after
+all, the spiritual.... Christianity has influenced
+the thought and lives of many individuals
+in Japan, and will influence many
+more, eventually affecting the nation through
+the altered view-point and personnel of the
+citizen and the administrator. The character-changing
+power of the religion of Jesus
+I believe to be only just now making itself
+appreciably evident in our midst." Somewhat
+further on, referring to the English
+language, he writes: "The effect of the
+acquisition of the English tongue on the mental
+habits&mdash;I had almost said on the unconscious
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;128]</span>
+cerebrations of our people&mdash;is incalculable....
+The moral influence of some
+of its simple text-books used in our schools
+cannot be overrated.... They have been instrumental
+in opening new vistas of thought
+and vast domains of enterprise and interest
+to young minds."</p>
+
+<p class="indent">No student of Japan's new life, resulting
+from the influence of Western and Christian
+ideas and ideals, should fail to familiarize
+himself with the eighth issue (1910) of <i>The
+Christian Movement in Japan</i>, which gives a
+series of remarkable addresses delivered by
+Japanese and foreigners at the semicentennial
+celebration of the beginning of Protestant
+missions in Japan. Especial attention should
+be paid to the section treating of the "Influence
+of Christianity on Japanese Thought
+and Life."</p>
+
+<p class="indent">It will be obvious to any thoughtful person
+that changes so wide and deep, affecting
+all the fundamental conceptions of life, of
+manhood and womanhood, of the state, of law
+and justice, of right and duty, are not confined
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;129]</span>
+to those whose privilege it is to study
+Western books and acquire the higher education.
+In ten thousand ways the whole national
+life is being transformed, slowly it may
+be and silently, yet surely and steadily. And
+the benefits are accruing to the most lowly
+and least educated no less than to those at
+the top. All the working women of Japan
+have already received in some degree, and
+in the future will more and more receive,
+the blessings and the uplift which are coming
+to the nation through its contact with
+the Christian conceptions and standards embedded
+in Western civilization and literature.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">A volume&mdash;nay, many volumes&mdash;would be
+needed to tell in detail the story of how
+the Christian message has been and is being
+conveyed to the people of Japan. We should
+make known the story of Joseph Hardy
+Neesima, of the Kumamoto Band, of Dr.
+Clark and Dr. Hepburn, of Young Men's
+Christian Association teachers of English in
+government schools, of faithful, self-sacrificing
+pastors, evangelists, Bible women, and
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;130]</span>
+missionaries. We should recount the deeds
+of heroic lay Christians in all the walks of
+life, and above all in their homes, too often
+hostile, commending their new-found faith
+by their new spirit and life. We should
+tell of the work of Christian teachers of
+ethics in the prisons, and the remarkable results
+secured. We should relate the experiences
+of those who have struggled for the
+rights of prostitutes, of Salvation Army officers,
+of matrons of reform homes, of managers
+of ex-convicts' homes, of founders of
+orphan asylums, of supporters of private
+charity hospitals. We should tell the story
+of the scores of Christian institutions the
+central aim of which is to express in concrete
+life the Christian's faith and hope and
+love.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">But in addition to the narrative of direct
+Christian work, full heed should be given
+to the evidences of the wide acceptance by
+the nation of the best Christian ideals in
+matters of philanthropy. To meet the needs
+of the famine sufferers in north Japan during
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;131]</span>
+the winter and spring of 1914, and of
+those who were deprived of their all by the
+terrific volcanic explosion of the island of
+Sakurajima in January, 1914, more than a
+million yen ($500,000) of private gifts
+flowed into the hands of the relieving committees.
+For the earthquake sufferers the
+Diet voted 622,883 yen ($311,441).</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The late Emperor, shortly before his
+death, was so moved by the medical needs
+of the poor that he contributed a fund of
+a million yen for the systematic undertaking
+of medical work in all parts of Japan. This
+started a movement among the wealthy which
+has resulted in the establishment of a Medical
+Relief Association (Saiseikwai), having a
+fund of $5,000,000 already paid in and
+pledges for $8,000,000 more.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Men of wealth in Japan are following the
+example set by the best Christian life in
+the West. In recent years several large
+gifts have been made for education. At the
+close of 1913 one of the most wealthy and
+always generous families of Japan, Sumitomo
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;132]</span>
+of Osaka, announced their decision to establish
+an industrial school for the poor, at an
+expense of $200,000. And in the same year
+Mr. O'Hara, one of the wealthiest and most
+philanthropic men of Okayama, announced
+his plan of opening a high-grade agricultural
+school for poor boys of that prefecture.
+The amount of the gift is not stated, but in
+addition to the large sum needed for buildings
+and equipment, he donates as permanent
+endowment some 250 acres of rice land
+whose value, roughly estimated, may be about
+$50,000.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">There are in Japan of all denominations
+and religions the following institutions for
+the uplift and regeneration of the downtrodden
+and for the help of the poor:</p>
+
+<table style="width:50%;" border="0" summary="institutions">
+<tr>
+  <td>Orphan asylums</td>
+  <td>100</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td>Rescue work</td>
+  <td>92</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td>Dispensaries</td>
+  <td>45</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td>Reformatories</td>
+  <td>47</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td>Homes for ex-prisoners</td>
+  <td>37</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td>Homes for old people</td>
+  <td>22</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td>Poor farms</td>
+  <td>11</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td>Total</td>
+  <td>354</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;133]</span>
+Of these institutions, the compiler of the
+statistics states that for one Shinto and three
+Buddhist, there are five Christian institutions.
+The leaders and inspirers in all the
+forms of philanthropic work are Christians,
+as from the nature of the case might be
+expected.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">"In the matter of Christian Social Service,"
+writes A. D. Hail, in the <i>Japan Evangelist</i>,<a name="FNanchor_1_8" id="FNanchor_1_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a>
+"the Federated Missions have been
+represented by two Committees whose fields
+of endeavor are quite distinct. The one is
+the excellent Eleemosynary Committee. It
+deals with the delinquents, defectives, and
+dependents of society....</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_8" id="Footnote_1_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_8"><span class="label">[8]</span>
+</a> January, 1915.</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">"The Industrial Welfare Committee seeks
+to Christianize the industrial classes, and
+to encourage the development of dealing
+upon Christian principles with the complicated
+questions growing out of the relations
+of capital and labor. By the industrial
+classes we mean the non-capitalistic laborers
+and bread-winners. It includes men, women,
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;134]</span>
+and many thousands of children. They do
+not own the machinery they handle, and have
+no voice in the control of the industries with
+which they are connected. Being without
+any say in the control of factories, machines,
+and raw material, they can be discharged at
+any moment by employers for reasons satisfactory
+alone to themselves. Their bodies,
+their minds, and oftentime their morals, become
+subservient to foremen and managers.
+The unskilled laborers in particular have no
+margin of either wages or time for wholesome
+recreations, for accidents, old age,
+widowhood, and unemployment. Besides
+these there is another large class in Japan,
+of small traders who rent their shops and
+eke out earnings by the sweating process,
+or by renting rooms for doubtful purposes.
+To these are to be added fishermen who do
+not own tackle, tenant farmers and their employees,
+and the main body of school-teachers;
+also an army engaged in transportation,
+together with postal clerks, postmen, and
+others. Incidental to this are the districts
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;135]</span>
+of large cities and mining camps, where there
+are congested populations of unskilled laborers
+subjected to diseases occasioned by
+bad drainage, inadequate housing, and all
+the consequent evils. As these do not earn
+sufficient wages to entitle them to vote, they
+have no voice whatever in the betterment of
+their surroundings....</p>
+
+<p class="indent">"There is a growing tendency toward the
+fixedness of a gulf between laborers and
+their employers, so much so that Japan's
+great danger in this direction is that she may
+fail to realize that she has a labor problem
+on hand, and one that can be solved here,
+as elsewhere, only on the basis of Christian
+principles of common fair dealing."</p>
+
+<p class="indent">In spite, however, of abundant evidence
+that Christian ethical and philanthropic
+ideals are receiving wide acceptance in
+Japan, far wider than would be suggested
+by the statistics of membership in the Christian
+churches, it is also true that the evils
+of Occidental industrialism and materialism
+are sweeping in like a flood.</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;136]</span>
+Turning now from general statements as
+to the ethico-industrial conditions of the
+working women of Japan, in the next chapter
+I give the story of a single institution.
+</p>
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;137]</span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII</h2>
+
+<p class="h2a">THE MATSUYAMA WORKING GIRLS' HOME</p>
+
+<p class="cap">THE origin and history of the Matsuyama
+Working Girls' Home cannot be
+told apart from the story of the man who
+has been its heart and life, Mr. Shinjiro
+Omoto. Born in 1872 and graduating from
+the common school at fourteen, he at once
+went into business, first as an apprentice
+and later with his father. At nineteen he
+opened a sugar store, which flourished and
+before long overshadowed the father's business.
+Money came in so easily that he soon
+entered on a life of licentiousness, and for
+several years he was as famous for his
+drunken carousals as he had been for his
+phenomenal business success. His parents cut
+him off, refused him admittance to the house,
+and for years he did not even speak to his
+father.
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;138]</span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><a name="i156" id="i156"></a>
+<img class="border" src="images/i156.png" alt="MATSUYAMA WORKING GIRLS&#39; HOME
+GIRLS IN THE MATSUYAMA HOME" title="MATSUYAMA WORKING GIRLS&#39; HOME
+GIRLS IN THE MATSUYAMA HOME" /><br />
+<span class="caption">MATSUYAMA WORKING GIRLS&#39; HOME<br />
+GIRLS IN THE MATSUYAMA HOME</span>
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">In 1899, we held a preaching service in
+a theater. Mr. Omoto happened to be drinking
+in the saloon opposite. Hearing of our
+gathering, with some rowdy comrades, he
+thought he would break it up, with the
+result that we experienced persistent opposition
+throughout the meeting. But the
+sermons on Pessimism and the New Life, and
+my statement of the reasons that had brought
+me to Japan attracted his attention, and the
+next day I received an anonymous letter asking
+for tracts. These seem to have produced
+a profound impression, particularly the tract
+entitled "Two Young Men." It told of two
+hardened prisoners who had been transformed
+by the gospel and became highly useful
+and well-known members of society. Mr.
+Omoto thereupon set himself definitely to
+learn about Christianity, but privately, unwilling
+to make public his new hope. He
+bought and read through, quite by himself,
+the entire New Testament. Though he
+gained some idea of the gospel, he soon found
+he had lost none of his passion for drink.
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;139]</span>
+After a while he went to Kobe and joined
+a temperance society; but soon finding that
+the society had members who broke their
+pledges, he began to break his. In despair
+he went to Okayama and tried to join himself
+to Mr. Ishii, head of the well-known
+Christian orphanage, asking to be made a
+Christian, but he was told to return to Matsuyama
+and join the church there in his old
+home; only so could he be saved. Greatly
+disappointed, he returned and called on me
+early in June, 1901, but without telling fully
+about himself. He also called on Mr. Nishimura,
+an earnest Christian worker, who
+prayed with him, telling him that to be
+saved he must receive the Holy Spirit.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">That summer, quite exceptionally, I returned
+in the middle of the vacation. Mr.
+Omoto appeared at the prayer-meeting for
+the first time and was evidently in a state
+of great excitement, so much so that only
+with difficulty could we understand his remarks
+and his prayer. The gist was that
+he had that day received the Holy Spirit,
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;140]</span>
+that he was now saved, and that his joy was
+too great for utterance. Tears rolled down
+his cheeks as he talked and prayed. After
+the meeting I had a few words with him,
+and urged him to ally himself with our experienced
+workers. He was so excited that
+I feared for him, and wondered whether this
+might not be a tornado of emotion due to
+drink and to the nervous condition incident
+to his riotous life, an emotion which he mistook
+for the gift of the Holy Spirit. I urged
+him to begin at once to live the Christian
+life, cutting loose from all bad companions
+and bad habits.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">To gain an honest living he entered the
+Matsuyama Cotton Thread Spinning Factory.
+This required twelve hours of work
+daily, sometimes by day and sometimes by
+night, a hard pull for one who had done no
+steady work for years. He attended Christian
+services faithfully, so far as his hours of
+work allowed, and became quite intimate
+with two or three of our best Christians. Before
+long he began to talk about the wretched
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;141]</span>
+conditions and immoral life of the factory
+girls, telling us of the situation already described
+in Chapter IX.<a name="FNanchor_1_9" id="FNanchor_1_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> His first thought was
+to give these tired children wholesome recreation.
+He secured the use of our preaching
+place in the vicinity of the factory and invited
+the girls to attend what he called the
+Dojokwai (Sympathy Society). He soon
+persuaded the girls to add a little reading
+and writing to their play, and later also,
+sewing. These meetings had of course to
+be held after the twelve or more hours of
+work in the factory had been completed.
+Care had also to be taken that the studies and
+the fun should not absorb time needed for
+sleep. Membership in the Sympathy Society
+rose rapidly and soon numbered seventy
+girls.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<div class="footnote">
+<p>
+  <a name="Footnote_1_9" id="Footnote_1_9"></a>
+  <a href="#FNanchor_1_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a>
+  See pages <a href="#FmFN09">67-69</a>.</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">At first meetings were held only in the
+evening three times a week, and lasted but
+an hour. But as the educational element of
+the society developed, others were induced
+to help and every evening save Sunday was
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;142]</span>
+occupied. In order that girls on the night
+shift might continue their studies similar
+classes were also held from seven to nine
+o'clock in the morning. Before six months
+had passed the play aspect of the society was
+largely superseded by the educational.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">But opposition of Buddhists now began
+to show itself. A few parents refused to
+let their girls attend. The most determined
+opposition however came from the manager
+in the factory who had charge of one of the
+shifts. Members of that shift were so treated
+that gradually they dropped out of the Dojokwai,
+and new members from that shift
+could not be secured. The hostile manager
+was however himself dropped some months
+later, and all opposition to the work from
+within the factory ceased.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">In a previous chapter we have noted the
+facts discovered by Mr. Omoto as he went
+the rounds of the boarding-houses in which
+the girls were required to live.<a name="FNanchor_1_10" id="FNanchor_1_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> As these
+conditions became clearer and more appallingly
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;143]</span>
+impressive, he began to say with increasing
+frequency and insistence that the
+Sympathy Society, however successful, could
+not do what was needed. Only a Christian
+home would answer. Not only do the girls
+need to learn to read and write and sew, but
+even more than these do they need a home
+free from temptation, clean and pure and
+helpful, and elevating morally and religiously.
+The difficulties however in the way
+of such an enterprise seemed insuperable.
+To say nothing of the financial problem, a
+still greater obstacle, it was felt, was the
+securing of "recognition" from the factory,
+for Buddhist influence in the factory was at
+that time still dominant. During these
+months the Sympathy Society was winning
+its way among the girls and their parents,
+and Mr. Omoto himself was learning valuable
+lessons.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_10" id="Footnote_1_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_10"><span class="label">[10]</span>
+</a> See pages <a href="#FmFN10">68, 69</a>.</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">One was that the girls were not all eager
+to be in a Christian home. We of course
+forbade all drinking, irregular hours, and
+more irregular "friendships." Attendance
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;144]</span>
+on prayers, night and morning, and at the
+school, was required. It looked for a time
+as if we should fail, for lack of girls to
+meet the expenses.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">But in spite of discouragements we kept
+on. The earnings of the girls who lived in
+the home, for the first year, were 1,361 yen.
+Of this sum they paid for board 905 yen,
+and sent to their parents 456, whereas girls
+in the other boarding-houses were able to
+save nothing, although the amount paid for
+board was the same in all the houses, being
+fixed by the factory at 3.60 yen per month,
+or twelve sen (six cents) per day.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">In February, 1903, a representative of the
+government who came from Tokyo to inspect
+the conditions of labor in western Japan,
+heard of the Dojokwai (Sympathy Home),
+and was so much interested in the story of
+its work that he took time to visit it with
+several local officials. He was greatly
+pleased, for he knew of nothing just like
+this, in any other part of Japan, particularly
+in its hygienic, educational, and moral advantages,
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;145]</span>
+and he expressed the wish that there
+might be many such. This was our first
+notice from government officials.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">As time went on, Mr. Omoto was found
+by the factory officials to be exceptionally
+faithful to its interests; he was rapidly promoted
+from one position to another, and in
+December of the same year was made "visitor"
+and "employing agent." This required
+him to visit neighboring towns and villages
+and collect new girls when needed. He
+tried to decline this work, saying that he
+could make no false promises to the girls
+or to their parents, nor in any way delude
+them as to the nature of their work, the
+amount of their wages, the conditions of the
+boarding-houses; being strictly a temperance
+man, also, he could not treat with sake
+(sah'-ke) and so get into friendly relations,
+all of which things employing agents constantly
+do; he had no expectations of gaining
+any recruits; the factory would better
+send some one else. They told him at least
+to try. To the surprise of all, and of himself
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;146]</span>
+the most, from his first trip he brought
+back with him fifteen girls. For three years
+he continued in this work and was always
+successful in securing girls for the factory.
+Because of his refusal to touch liquor in any
+form, his traveling expenses were much less
+than those of other employing agents, much
+to the satisfaction of the management; and
+the girls he secured on the whole remained
+longer and more contentedly at work, because
+he had always told them the truth.
+This made his position in the factory more
+secure and influential. After about two
+years' employment by the day he was promoted
+to the rank of a regular employee and
+paid by the month. His hours of official
+service were also largely reduced in order
+that he might have time for his educational
+and Christian work in the Home&mdash;a striking
+testimony of appreciation on the part of the
+factory officials.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">As the months passed by it gradually became
+clear that the effectiveness as well as
+the permanence of the work demanded suitable
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;147]</span>
+quarters. The heavy rental paid for
+the house made self-support impossible. Results
+already attained seemed to warrant appeal
+to friends for gifts, for the purpose of
+buying land and the erection of a building.
+Responses to our appeals provided the needed
+funds, land was purchased and a contract
+made with a carpenter on exceptionally favorable
+terms, just two days before the opening
+of the Russo-Japanese war (February,
+1904). Immediately prices went up by leaps
+and bounds; but our contract was so well
+made and the carpenter had already made
+such full subcontracts for the lumber, etc.,
+that we were not troubled because of war
+prices.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">As we entered our new quarters in June,
+1904, however, the factory shut down the
+main part of its work and discharged the
+majority of its workers. This was a severe
+blow to the Home. The occupants were
+reduced to seven girls. Although the factory
+opened again after a few months, the conditions
+during and after the war made it
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;148]</span>
+difficult for the factory to secure girls, and
+the Home, together with the other boarding-houses,
+suffered from lack of boarders. Beginning
+with March, 1907, however, special
+circumstances combined to fill the Home to
+its utmost capacity; during the three months
+of April, May, and June thirty applicants
+were refused admittance and as many more
+who desired to enter the school were
+declined.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Increasing acquaintance with the disastrous
+effects of factory labor,&mdash;the lint-filled
+air so often producing consumption, and
+the excessive heat of summer sometimes resulting
+even in sunstroke,&mdash;made Mr. Omoto
+unwilling to persuade girls to enter upon
+such a life. The needs of the Home also
+pressed upon his time. These considerations
+led him, in 1906, to give up his work
+in the factory altogether, in order to devote
+his entire time and strength to the Home and
+to the upbuilding of the moral and religious
+life of the girls.</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><a name="FmFN11" id="FmFN11"></a>In July, 1906, Mr. Omoto attended in
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;149]</span>
+Osaka the first convention of factory officials
+convened to study the problem of the proper
+care of operatives. Representatives were
+present from sixteen factories having night
+schools, and specimens of the work of the
+girls were compared.
+Mr. Omoto was fairly
+lionized because of the superior quality of
+the work sent in from our Home and many
+newspapers made special mention of him and
+his work.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">In September, 1908, there was held in
+Tokyo under the auspices of the Home Department
+of the Imperial government an
+eight weeks' school of applied sociology.
+Mr. Omoto was among the 376 persons who
+attended. Again he received exceptional attention
+and was asked to tell his story. At
+this school no less than thirty-six learned
+specialists gave lectures on every conceivable
+topic suitable for such a school. Among
+the speakers so many were professed Christians,
+and of the rest so many advocated
+such markedly Christian ideals, that some
+Buddhists are said to have taken offense, regarding
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;150]</span>
+the whole affair as a part of the
+Christian propaganda.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">In the spring of 1909 there occurred an
+event of considerable significance. Without
+a preliminary hint of what was happening,
+Mr. Omoto saw in the paper one day the
+amazing statement that the Matsuyama
+Working Girls' Home, along with seventy-nine
+other selected institutions throughout
+the country, was the recipient of a specified
+sum (200 yen) as a mark of government
+approval! A total of 40,000 yen were thus
+distributed in varying amounts, Christian
+institutions being recognized to an unexpected
+degree. Later, word came from the
+Prefectural Office summoning him to receive
+the gift. In the entire prefecture six institutions
+had been thus honored, and of these,
+two were Christian. This gift from the Department
+of the Interior has been repeated
+each year since.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Again in May, 1910, a Conference of Social
+Service Workers (Chu-o Jizen Kyokwai)
+was held at Nagoya at the time of the
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;151]</span>
+Exposition, and Mr. Omoto was among those
+invited to attend. His address and statistical
+report received much attention. Mr. Tomeoka,
+representative of the government and
+chairman of the conference, spoke in unstinted
+praise of the work of the Home,
+which he characterized as "Kokka Jigyo"
+(a national enterprise), and recommended
+the adoption by others of several of its special
+features.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">In the spring of 1911, the Home Department
+of the central government published a
+small volume describing one hundred and
+thirteen model philanthropic institutions of
+the country, in which we were of course
+pleased to see that the Home was included,
+being the only one from the prefecture.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">As opportunity offered and means were
+available, following the advice of friends,
+four small adjacent lots were purchased, one
+of which we were almost forced to secure
+for self-protection, because of the evil character
+of the buildings upon it. We now
+own altogether about two acres of land on
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;152]</span>
+the north side of the beautiful Castle Hill,
+around which Matsuyama is built. Here
+have been erected at different times six buildings
+(three of them two-storied), for residential,
+dormitory, chapel, night school,
+weaving, hospital, bath, and other purposes.
+We have space for a playground, of which
+the girls joyously avail themselves, after returning
+from twelve hours of confinement in
+the dust and clatter of machinery. The garden,
+too, provides fresh vegetables of an
+assured character at a minimum of expense,
+adding much to the variety and the wholesomeness
+of the diet. The present value of
+the property is more than its original cost,
+for land and buildings are constantly rising
+in price, as is the case in other parts of the
+country.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The city educational authorities in 1906
+asked Mr. Omoto to open his night school
+to the poor of the district. For this he had
+to have a regular school license from the
+National Bureau of Education at Tokyo.
+This was to be a Christian school&mdash;the only
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;153]</span>
+license of exactly that kind in the empire,
+he was told.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Industrial newspapers have been noticing
+the Home and its work for some time.<a name="FNanchor_1_11" id="FNanchor_1_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> During
+the past five years the favorable attitude
+of local and national government officials
+has been particularly pronounced. Government
+inspectors have repeatedly been sent
+from the Prefectural Office and occasionally
+even from Tokyo to visit the Home. One
+such expressed himself as amazed at the
+excellent mental work done by the girls, in
+view of the fact that all their study takes
+place after twelve hours of toil. Nothing
+but good food, sufficient sleep, and a wholesome
+and happy home life could account for
+their splendid health and superior school
+work. One man remarked that the girls in
+the Home do better work than pupils in the
+same grade in public schools.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_11" id="Footnote_1_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_11"><span class="label">[11]</span>
+</a> See page <a href="#FmFN11">149</a>.</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">Even so early as the autumn of 1906 the
+Home Department of the central government
+sent down special instructions to the prefectural
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;154]</span>
+office in Matsuyama to investigate
+our work, with the result that of nine benevolent
+institutions throughout Japan selected
+for commendation, ours was the one most
+carefully described and unqualifiedly praised.
+A recent government pamphlet concerning
+industrial problems makes special reference,
+covering two pages, to the work of the Home.
+Thus has a small institution begun to serve
+as a model for the country.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The good health of the girls in our Home
+has been in strong contrast with the health
+of those in other boarding-houses, even in the
+best dormitories of the best factories in other
+cities.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Statistics recently compiled by the government
+show that the average death-rate
+among factory operatives throughout the
+country is extraordinarily high. The highest,
+fifty per cent. on account of an epidemic, was
+reported from a certain factory owned and
+managed boarding-house in Niigata prefecture.
+Not one girl has ever died in our
+Home. Of the 301 girls who had lived in
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;155]</span>
+our Home by 1911, only eight, all told,
+died.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">In 1912 the Home passed through a crisis
+that threatened to destroy it. Late in 1911
+the one factory in Matsuyama, where all the
+girls worked, was sold out to parties living
+in Osaka. A new manager was sent down
+who introduced many drastic changes. The
+change most affecting us was the stopping
+of the night work and the lengthening of day
+work to fourteen hours: namely, from 6 <span class="smcap">a.m.</span>
+till 8 <span class="smcap">p.m.</span></p>
+
+<p class="indent">The girls in the Home soon became dissatisfied,
+and not many months passed before
+all had left the factory. Mr. Omoto was
+urged by the manager to find and bring in
+new girls. He refused however on the
+ground that he could not ask anybody to
+work such brutally long hours.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Had it not been for a little weaving department
+with which we had already been
+experimenting, the Home would have been
+compelled to close. More looms were secured
+and those girls who wished to remain
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;156]</span>
+with us were given opportunity for work.
+Mr. Omoto's attention was at that time directed
+to the condition of the weaving girls
+in the scores and even hundreds of little establishments
+in the city and its suburbs. He
+soon found that an educational, economic,
+moral, and religious condition existed among
+them not unlike that which he had found
+among the factory girls of Matsuyama a
+dozen years before. The weaving establishments
+are, as a rule, small private affairs,
+usually having less than ten girls each,
+and are therefore wholly outside of the supervision
+of the government. The treatment
+of workers and the hours of labor are entirely
+settled by the individual owners.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">As a rule the girls are apprenticed for
+from two to three years immediately on
+leaving the primary school, at an age therefore
+of twelve or thirteen. They barely
+earn their living, although they work from
+daybreak to ten or eleven at night, and in
+some establishments even till midnight&mdash;from
+fifteen to eighteen hours a day! There are
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;157]</span>
+no night shifts and rare holidays on occasional
+festivals. The hygienic and moral
+conditions are about as bad as can be. It
+is estimated that one half of the girls are
+ruined before the close of their apprenticeship.
+Our Home is now deliberately attacking
+the new problem, which in many respects
+is more difficult than was the old one. We
+have put up two small buildings on our own
+grounds, enabling us to have thirty looms to
+give opportunity for work to thirty girls.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The uniform quality of the cloth produced
+by our girls, the central portions of each
+piece equaling the ends in quality, shows unflagging
+moral attention, without effort to
+rush the work and stint the material; this
+has already won such approval from merchants
+that the "Sympathy Home" brand
+can be sold for a little more than other
+brands, and Mr. Omoto is assured that there
+is no limit to the amount which could be
+marketed.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">An owner of several weaving establishments
+has become so impressed with the quality
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;158]</span>
+of the work and the character developed
+in our girls that he asked Mr. Omoto if he
+would not take charge of a hundred of his
+weaving girls. This new departure is especially
+promising, for we have complete supervision
+of the girls throughout the entire
+twenty-four hours. The girls, moreover, are
+already remaining in our Home as a rule
+much longer than they used to when getting
+work in the spinning factory.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">As successive chapters of this book have
+shown, no more urgent problem faces New
+Japan than that of the moral development
+of her workers. This is particularly true
+of the hundreds of thousands of girls in the
+larger and smaller factories and industrial
+establishments. The wretched physical, economic,
+social, and moral conditions under
+which the majority of these girls lived and
+worked at the time when our Home was
+started are not easily described.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Many of the factory authorities<a name="FNanchor_1_12" id="FNanchor_1_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a> are
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;159]</span>
+neither ignorant nor unmindful of the situation,
+and are striving to remedy it. The government
+also has enacted laws not a few.
+But laws and official actions alone provide
+no adequate solution of the serious problems
+raised by the extraordinary industrial and
+social transformations sweeping over Japan.
+A new spirit must be evoked, both on the part
+of capital and labor, and new moral ideals
+and relations established. This cannot be
+done by laws alone. Only love and contagious
+personal example are sufficient for
+the needs.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_12" id="Footnote_1_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_12"><span class="label">[12]</span>
+</a> It is not to be inferred from the statements in this book that the
+political leaders and the organizers of industrial Japan have been
+dependent on our Home for ideas and ideals in regard to the problems
+raised by modern industry. Many of those leaders are men of cosmopolitan
+education and are well versed in the best and most recent of literature
+of the West on these matters. It is true, however, that our Home has
+been an important concrete experiment affording in Japan valuable
+suggestions and stimulus.</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p class="indent">Our Home was designed to meet just such
+a situation and has to a remarkable degree,
+we think, succeeded. It has provided not
+only sufficient fresh air, nourishing food,
+adequate bedding, clean rooms, and wholesome
+recreation, but also moral and religious
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;160]</span>
+instruction, and some education. The
+girls in our Home have enjoyed conspicuously
+better health and have done better
+work and earned and sent to their parents
+more money than those of the other boarding-houses
+of Matsuyama. But better than
+these have been the educational, moral, and
+religious results. Their womanhood has been
+raised. They have been better fitted for life's
+duties and for motherhood than they would
+have been without the training which has
+been given them.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Moreover, the results of the Home have
+been such as to break down opposition. The
+good-will and cooperation of the factory
+officials were won. Factories in other parts
+of the country also have recognized our
+Home as presenting a splendid ideal which,
+in a measure, many of them are already following.
+The local and the central governments,
+as already shown, have repeatedly sent
+officials to inspect us, and in their reports
+have not only praised us, but have described
+our Home in detail, saying that we have
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;161]</span>
+solved the difficult problem of how to care
+for factory hands.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Through the Home we are reaching the
+lowest strata of the working classes of Japan,
+and are providing them with ideals, motives,
+and education, and in a way, too, which does
+not tend to pauperize them, for each girl
+pays as board a sum sufficient to cover actual
+living expenses. It is also exerting an influence
+on the townsfolk. The attitude of
+the people toward Christianity has undergone
+a marked change. Villages in the interior
+likewise have altered their attitude
+on seeing how their daughters, graduates of
+our Home, have improved both in intelligence
+and character, in marked contrast to
+those who have been in other boarding-houses.
+All in all, Mr. Omoto has attained
+remarkable success. He is absorbed, heart
+and soul, in his work of bettering the moral
+and religious conditions of the working girls
+of Japan, and is a man continuously growing
+in spiritual life, Christian character, and
+knowledge of men. I have never known a
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;162]</span>
+man more thoroughly converted or more enthusiastic
+in his chosen field of work. The
+Omoto of to-day is a different person from
+the reformed debauchee of thirteen years
+ago, who began this service for factory girls
+as the outcome of his sincere question, "Lord,
+what wilt thou have me to do?" His family
+have become possessed with the idea of
+social service, and his five children are being
+brought up in this atmosphere and in the
+fear of the Lord.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Thus has the Matsuyama Working Girls'
+Home survived many threatening vicissitudes,
+attained conspicuous successes, and is
+now embarked on a new line of endeavor.
+May it exceed in the future its successes of
+the past and make still more substantial contributions
+to the uplift of the working women
+of Japan!</p>
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+
+<div class="tnote">
+
+<p class="h2a">Transcriber's Note:</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The illustrations have been moved so that they do not break up
+paragraphs and so that they are next the text they illustrate. Thus the
+page number of the illustration might not match the page number in the
+List of Illustrations.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Errors in punctuations and inconsistent hyphenation were not corrected
+except for the following:</p>
+
+<p class="indent">On page 111, the book mentions "among the forty-eight prefectures
+of the Japanese empire", but there were forty-seven prefectures since 1888.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="full" />
+<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WORKING WOMEN OF JAPAN***</p>
+<p>******* This file should be named 35511-h.txt or 35511-h.zip *******</p>
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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, Working Women of Japan, by Sidney Lewis Gulick
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: Working Women of Japan
+
+
+Author: Sidney Lewis Gulick
+
+
+
+Release Date: March 7, 2011  [eBook #35511]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WORKING WOMEN OF JAPAN***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Meredith Bach, Delphine Lettau, Ernest Schaal, and the
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+
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+Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
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+      See 35511-h.htm or 35511-h.zip:
+      (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/35511/35511-h/35511-h.htm)
+      or
+      (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/35511/35511-h.zip)
+
+
+
+
+
+WORKING WOMEN OF JAPAN
+
+      *      *      *      *      *      *
+
+[Illustration: LIBRARY OF CHRISTIAN PROGRESS]
+
+_Volumes Issued_
+
+The Church a Community Force. _By Worth M. Tippy_
+The Church at the Center. _By Warren H. Wilson_
+The Making of a Country Parish. _By Harlow S. Mills_
+Working Women of Japan. _By Sidney L. Gulick_
+Social Evangelism. _By Harry F. Ward_
+
+_Cloth, 50 Cents, Prepaid_
+
+
+ADDITIONAL VOLUMES TO BE ISSUED
+
+      *      *      *      *      *      *
+
+[Illustration: A FARMER'S HOME]
+
+
+WORKING WOMEN OF JAPAN
+
+by
+
+SIDNEY L. GULICK
+
+Twenty-five years a missionary in Japan, Professor in
+Doshisha University, Late Lecturer in the
+Imperial University of Kyoto
+
+Author of
+_Growth of the Kingdom of God; Evolution of the Japanese;
+The White Peril in the Far East; The American
+Japanese Problem; The Fight for Peace_
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+1915
+Missionary Education Movement of the
+United States and Canada
+New York
+
+Copyright, 1915, by
+Missionary Education Movement of the
+United States and Canada
+
+
+
+
+                               Dedicated
+                                   to
+                             SHINJIRO OMOTO
+                  in appreciation of more than a decade
+                          of untiring service
+                                for the
+                         Working Women of Japan
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+    CHAPTER                                                     PAGE
+
+            PREFACE                                               ix
+
+         I  SOCIAL CLASSES IN JAPAN, OLD AND NEW                   1
+
+        II  FARMERS' WIVES AND DAUGHTERS                           8
+
+       III  DOMESTIC INDUSTRIES IN FARMING FAMILIES               24
+
+        IV  SILK WORKERS                                          32
+
+         V  WIVES AND DAUGHTERS OF ARTIZANS AND MERCHANTS         36
+
+        VI  _KOMORI_ (BABY-TENDERS)                               42
+
+       VII  HOUSEHOLD DOMESTICS                                   48
+
+      VIII  HOTEL AND TEA-HOUSE GIRLS                             52
+
+        IX  FACTORY GIRLS AND WOMEN                               61
+
+         X  GEISHA (_HETAERAE_)                                   87
+
+        XI  _SHOGI_ (LICENSED PROSTITUTES)                       104
+
+       XII  AMELIORATIVE EFFORTS                                 118
+
+      XIII  THE MATSUYAMA WORKING GIRLS' HOME                    137
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+                                                                PAGE
+
+    A FARMER'S HOME                           _Frontispiece_
+
+    SEPARATING THE WHEAT HEADS FROM THE STRAW                     16
+
+    AT THE LOOM                                                   16
+
+    A FAMILY AT WORK IN A RICE-FIELD                              28
+
+    TRANSPLANTING YOUNG RICE PLANTS                               28
+
+    SPINNING COTTON THREAD FOR WEAVING                            32
+
+    AT WORK IN A KITCHEN                                          32
+
+    CARRYING FAGOTS                                               44
+
+    BABY-TENDERS                                                  44
+
+    AT WORK IN A SILK FACTORY                                     82
+
+    O HAMAYU (GEISHA)                                             92
+
+    MATSUYAMA WORKING GIRLS' HOME                                156
+
+    GIRLS IN THE MATSUYAMA HOME                                  156
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+Japan is rapidly swinging into the current of an industrial civilization
+imported from the West. How is this movement modifying her ancient
+civilization? And, especially, what effect is it having on her homes and
+on the character of her manhood and womanhood? These are questions of
+profound interest to students of national and social evolution.
+
+While many works on Japan consider these questions more or less fully,
+they do so almost exclusively from the standpoint of the effect on men.
+So far as is known, no work studies the problem from the standpoint of
+the effect on women, who, it may be incidentally remarked, constitute
+one half of the population.
+
+One book, indeed, that by Miss Alice M. Bacon, on _Japanese Girls and
+Women_, describes the homes, lives, and characteristics of Japanese
+women. This important work should not be overlooked by any who wish to
+know Japan thoroughly. Yet Miss Bacon's study is largely confined to the
+higher and upper middle classes, who, though important, constitute but
+one section of the women of Japan. To understand Japan it is also
+needful to know the lives and characteristics of the working classes.
+Especially important in the eyes of those who study social development
+is the transformation that is taking place in the Japanese home because
+of the influx of Occidental industrialism.
+
+The purpose of this book is to give some information as to conditions
+prevailing among working women, which conditions have called for the
+establishment of institutions whose specific aim is the amelioration of
+the industrial and moral situation. Two classes of workers have not been
+considered--school-teachers and nurses.
+
+The reader will naturally ask what the native religions have done to
+help women meet the modern situation. The answer is short; practically
+nothing. They are seriously belated in every respect. For ages the
+native religions have served by doctrine and practise to hold women down
+rather than to elevate them. The doctrine of the "triple obedience" to
+father, to husband, and when old to son, has had wide-reaching and
+disastrous consequences. It has even been utilized for the support of
+the brothel system. Popular Buddhism, especially during the feudal era,
+has emphasized the inherent sinfulness of woman; some have even taught
+that her lightest sins are worse than the heaviest sins of man. The
+brothel system flourishes in certain districts where Buddhism is most
+strongly entrenched. Brothels abound in the immediate vicinity of famous
+and popular temples. I have yet to hear of a Buddhist anti-brothel
+movement or a Buddhist rescue home for prostitutes. Japanese
+philanthropy, under the impulse of Buddhism, did indeed start early and
+attain striking development at the hands of Imperial and princely
+personages. Men and women of lowly origin also attained high rank in
+the annals of Buddhist philanthropy. With the decay of Buddhism in
+recent centuries, however, little philanthropic activity has survived.
+With the revival of Buddhism Buddhists have again undertaken
+philanthropic work; they have established orphan asylums, schools,
+ex-convict homes, and various benevolent enterprises for the poor, the
+old, and invalids; but not yet do they seem to appreciate the moral and
+industrial situation, or undertake anything commensurate with their
+numbers and resources. The conception of private enterprise for the
+amelioration of industrial difficulties and moral need is still the
+almost exclusive possession of Christians.
+
+The closing chapter describes one institution in which the Christian
+ideal is applied to the moral and industrial situation in one small
+town. It serves as an illustration of what is being done by Christians
+in other places and along many other lines as well. Christianity is
+being accepted in Japan, not so much because of its doctrine, as
+because of its practical methods of inspiring and uplifting manhood and
+womanhood. While the purpose of this book is, as stated, to describe the
+industrial condition and the characteristics of Japanese working women,
+back of this purpose is the desire to show how the Christian gospel,
+when concretely expressed, takes hold of Japanese working women in
+exactly these conditions and becomes to them "the power of God unto
+salvation."
+
+The problems of life are substantially the same the world around, for
+human nature is one; and the heart with its needs, desires, temptations,
+defeats, and victories is essentially the same, East or West. The
+problems created by industrialism do not differ, whether in Germany,
+England, and America or in Japan and China. And their fundamental
+solution likewise is the same.
+
+Let not the reader assume that the discussions of this volume give
+adequate acquaintance with the working women of Japan. It deals with
+only a few specific classes and inadequately even with them. A more
+comprehensive treatment would doubtless be enlightening. Limitations,
+however, of time and space forbid a more adequate discussion.
+
+And let the reader be wary of generalizing certain criticisms herein
+made and applying them universally to all classes of women. Many years
+of life in Japan have led the writer to a high estimation of the
+character as well as the culture of Japanese women.
+
+Especial thanks are due to Colonel Yamamuro for valued criticisms and
+suggestions in the preparation of this work. The responsibility,
+however, for its statements rests upon the writer. The limitations of
+this book none can feel more than he.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+SOCIAL CLASSES IN JAPAN, OLD AND NEW
+
+
+In old Japan, next to the Imperial family and court nobles, came the
+feudal lords (_Daimio_), upheld by the warrior class (_Samurai_), below
+whom in turn were ranked the three chief working classes,--farmers,
+artizans, and tradesmen. These three classes produced and distributed
+the nation's wealth and paid taxes to their respective feudal lords by
+whom the warriors were supported. Below all were day laborers and
+palanquin bearers,--in those days a large and important though a
+despised class, for they lived entirely by bare, brute strength, lacking
+all special skill. Still lower were the _eta_ or pariah class, excluded
+from towns and villages, except when they entered to do the foulest
+work, such as digging the graves of criminals and the slaughtering of
+animals, and curing their skins. And lowest of all were _hi-nin_,
+literally translated "non-humans." These were beggars and criminals, who
+would not or could not work. The name, popularly given, well indicates
+how they were regarded.
+
+With the fall of the feudal system, in the early seventies, society was
+reorganized. Those above the Samurai were divided in 1886 into five
+grades, not counting the Imperial princes, namely: prince, marquis,
+count, viscount, and baron. These constitute to-day the hereditary peers
+of Japan, and possess considerable wealth and, of course, overwhelming
+prestige.
+
+They numbered, in 1903, 1,784 families. Besides the 1,784 heads of these
+families, there were 1,786 male and 2,485 female members of these
+families of rank. The number of these peers is constantly being
+increased by Imperial favor, the conferring of rank being the customary
+method of rewarding distinguished service. According to the _Japan Year
+Book_ for 1914, the number of peers in 1911 was 919, there being 17
+princes, 37 marquises, 101 counts, 378 viscounts, and 386 barons.
+Promotion from one rank to another causes constant change in the numbers
+of the various ranks.
+
+The _Samurai_, deprived of their swords and military privileges, were
+given the name _shizoku_ (Samurai families) and were paid off in lump
+sums, thereafter being thrown on their own resources. There are 439,154
+shizoku families, numbering altogether 2,169,018 individuals. The
+remaining classes were designated as _heimin_ (common people).
+Statistics show that they number 8,471,610 families, totaling 44,558,025
+individuals. The eta were elevated, hence popularly called _shin-heimin_
+(new common people) and allowed to live anywhere and take up any
+desirable calling. The hi-nin also were classed along with the rest of
+humankind. As a matter of fact, the eta and hi-nin were but a small
+fringe of the whole population, the descendants of the former being now
+estimated at something less than one million, and those of the latter
+amounting to about 35,000.
+
+With the national reorganization it was inevitable that the new
+executive offices from the highest to the lowest should be given to men
+of experience. At first, therefore, the reorganization amounted to
+little more than a great shuffle of names and titles. Peers took the
+highest governmental positions, while Samurai and their sons as a rule
+filled the lower posts. Many Samurai, however, received no appointments
+and had to go to work. In time, as education has progressed, sons of
+farmers and merchants have become qualified and have been appointed to
+government offices. The new departments, such as the educational, the
+postal and telegraph offices, the railroads, and especially the army and
+navy, call for large numbers of efficient men. These posts are filled
+almost entirely on the basis of fitness. While ancestry is not entirely
+ignored in the making of appointments, nevertheless old class
+distinctions are gradually being obliterated.
+
+The fortunes of the women have naturally followed those of the men. All
+families that lost their hereditary income had to go to work; this was
+true chiefly of the Samurai. Where the men were fortunate, the women
+could maintain the old customs, limiting themselves to their familiar
+domestic work, with a servant or two to help, but tens of thousands of
+Samurai families found themselves reduced to the direst poverty; women
+having generations of genteel ancestry were forced to enter the ranks of
+the workers.
+
+Let us define what we mean by a working woman. Women whose husbands or
+parents provide the support of the family are not to be included in this
+term. These women may, and indeed doubtless do, labor abundantly and
+fruitfully in the home; their time is fully occupied. Probably no
+working women toil more diligently or for longer hours than do these
+wives and mothers in hundreds of thousands of homes, in most of which
+there are no servants. All the cooking, sewing, and housecleaning is
+done by them, so that they are indeed workers. But they are not
+"working women." They are the true gentlewomen of Japan, whose culture,
+graces, and charms are not easily described.
+
+By "working women" we mean only those women who, in addition to the
+regular duties of the home, must share in the labor of earning the daily
+bread. In Japan the number of such is exceptionally large, if compared
+with that of some countries of the West. They may be divided into eleven
+classes, according to the nature of their occupations, namely:
+school-teachers, nurses, clerks and office girls, farmers, home
+industrial workers, factory hands, domestics, baby-tenders, hotel and
+tea-house girls, geisha, and prostitutes. Omitting the teachers and
+nurses, these are the classes whose conditions, numbers, education, and
+character we are now to study. Taken as a whole we do not hesitate to
+say that the working women of Japan, while probably lower in point of
+moral and physical energy and personal initiative than corresponding
+classes of the West, are not inferior to them in point of personal
+culture. And if civilization is defined, as it should be, in terms of
+personal culture rather than in those of mechanical contrivances and
+improvements, then Japan will surely take her place among the highly
+civilized nations of the world.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+FARMERS' WIVES AND DAUGHTERS
+
+
+Japan has three leading wealth-earning occupations: agriculture,
+sericulture, and factory work. In each of these women take an important
+part. In the cultivation of the soil farmers' wives and daughters share
+equally with men the toil of planting and reaping the crops. For
+instance, in the cultivation of rice, the most important and the hardest
+work of the farmer, it is often the women who plant it spear by spear in
+regular rows, and it is they who "puddle" the paddy-fields with their
+hands four or five times in the course of the season. In some districts,
+however, men and women do this work together. The toil and the weariness
+involved cannot be appreciated by one who has not actually shared it.
+Fancy, if you can, the fatigue of standing more than ankle deep in mud,
+stooping all day long as you set out the tiny rice plants in regular
+lines! And at short intervals of a few days each you must repeatedly
+puddle the whole paddy-field: that is, stir up the mud with your hands
+in order to destroy the sprouting weeds and prevent the soil from caking
+and hardening around the tender rice roots, preventing their best
+growth. And remember that you must do all this regardless of the
+broiling summer sun, or the pelting rain, for the planting must be done
+at exactly the right time, and the successive puddlings must follow in
+due order. So severe is the strain that, after the planting and each
+puddling, the whole village takes a rest. My gardener, an ex-farmer,
+speaking of those summer days of toil in the rice-fields, expatiates on
+the extreme fatigue and the joy of the rest days, and as women take the
+brunt of the stooping-work, theirs is the lion's share of the weariness.
+He says that, during the rice-planting season, the women are so
+important that those days are called the "women's daimio days," and
+adds that we must not forget how during that time the regular work of
+the women must also go on, for they must cook the food and care for the
+children. For this, indeed, young girls and grandmothers are pressed
+into service as far as possible, but the responsibility and care rest
+nevertheless on the wives and mothers.
+
+ [Illustration: SEPARATING THE WHEAT HEADS FROM THE STRAW AT THE LOOM]
+
+Also in the harvesting and threshing of the rice, barley, wheat, and
+millet, women take an important part. But it is needless to enter into
+details. Enough to say that, in general farming, women share with
+husbands and brothers the heavy toil and fatigue of agriculture. It
+should be added that this is not because men shirk heavy work, but only
+because Japanese agriculture is so largely done by hand that every
+possible worker is pressed into service. As a fact, men do the heaviest
+part of the work, preparing the soil for the successive crops and
+carrying the heavy loads.
+
+So varied are the modes of agriculture in different parts of Japan that
+general statements are dangerous, but I know that in some districts the
+weariness and drudgery of rice-planting and puddling are relieved by the
+singing or chanting of old folk-songs. The chorus leader intones a
+descriptive phrase, oftentimes improvising his own story, and is
+answered with a refrain from a dozen or a score of women. A story slowly
+evolves as the hours pass, and thus the work is lightened and the time
+beguiled.
+
+In spite of fatigue, rice-planting has its charm for those who have been
+reared in farmers' homes. It is a time of hope, of social intercourse,
+of rest days and festivals, so that even the drudgery of the farmer has
+its compensations. Miss Denton, of the Doshisha Girls' School, says it
+is interesting to note how country girls get restless at rice-planting
+time, and for one reason or another usually succeed in getting excused
+from school work, to be off to the homes and share in the toils and joys
+of the season.
+
+Tea-picking is probably the pleasantest form of toil undertaken by
+farmers' wives and daughters. The labor comes in the spring and early
+summer, when the temperature is delightful. It gives opportunity for
+social intercourse that is highly appreciated. Rice-planting and
+tea-picking constitute the two extremes of laborious and delightful toil
+engaged in by Japan's agricultural women.
+
+How many are the women engaged in agriculture? The _Japan Year Book_ for
+1914 says that in 1912 there were 5,438,051 farming families,
+constituting about 58 per cent. of the entire nation. According to the
+_Resume Statistique_ for 1914 the total number of females in Japan
+proper, in 1908, was 24,542,383. Omitting those under fifteen years of
+age, 8,364,000, and those over sixty years of age, 2,216,000, we have
+13,962,000 as the number of able-bodied women, of whom 58 per cent., or
+8,077,000, are the farmers' wives and daughters.
+
+In regard to their education it may be said that until the most recent
+times they have had practically none. In recent decades, however,
+farmers' children have begun to go to school. Until 1908 the elementary
+course (compulsory) covered four years, but the results were so poor
+that the period has now been extended to six. Four years' schooling does
+not give ability to read easily even a simple daily paper, much less an
+ordinary book. Our cook, an intelligent and able farming woman, when she
+came to us twelve years ago, could not read even the simplest Japanese
+characters, and thinks that at present relatively few farmers' wives
+have enough education to read papers or write letters. Whether or not
+six years' schooling will give this ability remains to be seen. It is
+safe to say that to-day Japanese adult farming women, as a whole, lack
+book education and have received little, if any, systematic training.
+They are accordingly largely controlled by tradition, and it goes
+without saying that their level of mental, moral, and spiritual life is
+low. The Shinto and Buddhist religions, as they exist among the farmers,
+are largely lacking in ethical content; they are rituals rather for
+burying the dead and through the use of charms and magic rites they
+promise future happiness and present, temporal blessings. Priests, as a
+rule, do not seek to cultivate the minds of the people, to strengthen
+their wills for moral life, or to elevate their personalities.
+
+Yet it must not be inferred that farming women are without mental
+ability or common sense. They are indeed not inferior to the men with
+whom they share the burdens and toil of life. As a rule they are a
+sturdy, intelligent, self-respecting folk, having ideals of conduct
+which include cleanliness, gentleness, and politeness, and in comparison
+with the peasant classes of Europe are much to be commended. The women
+not seldom appear to better advantage than their husbands in point of
+intelligence and common sense, which I have thought might be due to the
+greater variety of their daily occupation.
+
+In her excellent work on _Japanese Girls and Women_ Miss Bacon writing
+of this class says: "There seems no doubt at all that among the
+peasantry of Japan one finds the women who have the most freedom and
+independence. Among this class, all through the country, the women,
+though hard-worked and possessing few comforts, lead lives of
+intelligent, independent labor, and have in the family positions as
+respected and honored as those held by women in America. Their lives are
+fuller and happier than those of the women of the higher classes, for
+they are themselves breadwinners, contributing an important part of the
+family revenue, and are obeyed and respected accordingly. The Japanese
+lady, at her marriage, lays aside her independent existence to become
+the subordinate and servant of her husband and parents-in-law, and her
+face, as the years go by, shows how much she has given up, how
+completely she has sacrificed herself to those about her. The Japanese
+peasant woman, when she marries, works side by side with her husband,
+finds life full of interest outside of the simple household work, and,
+as the years go by, her face shows more individuality, more pleasure in
+life, less suffering and disappointment than that of her wealthier and
+less hard-working sister."[1]
+
+    [1] Pp. 260, 261.
+
+The home of the average tenant farmer is a small, single-storied,
+thatch-roofed building, having usually two or three small rooms
+separated by sliding paper screens, and a kitchen with earthen floor.
+The smoke escapes as it can, passing through the roof or pervading the
+whole house. No privacy of any kind is possible, nor is any need of it
+felt. The house is free of furniture, save for one or two chests of
+drawers. A closet or two affords a place for the _futon_ (bedding) by
+day, and for the little extra clothing. Of course no books are found in
+such homes. The main room often has a board floor, with a fire box in
+the center, over which is a kettle suspended from the roof. Here the
+family eat, and friends gather to chat after the day's work is over. The
+food is of the poorest grade in the empire, though usually adequate in
+amount. Of course there are well-to-do farmers, not a few, who own
+their farms, employ fellow farmers, and cultivate large areas. Their
+homes are larger and better, but still in arrangement and structure they
+are practically the same. Their sons attend the middle schools and books
+and the daily paper are familiar objects.
+
+The economic condition of the farming class may be judged from the fact
+that the land cultivated by each family averages three and one-third
+acres, which must provide food and clothing for five or six persons. The
+great majority of farmers live in little, compact villages, having
+populations ranging from 500 to 5,000. There are 12,706 villages under
+5,000, and only 1,311 villages, towns, and cities over 5,000. These
+facts suggest the nature of the social conditions of the farming
+population. They live under the severest limitations of every kind,
+physical, intellectual, and spiritual. Yet during the recent era of
+Meiji (enlightened rule), from 1868 to 1912, the economic condition of
+the agricultural classes made great improvement. My gardener, a man of
+sixty, who remembers Japan before the reformation, 1868, says that
+farmers now live in luxury. The taxes they pay to-day are slight
+compared with what was required of them in former times, when, in his
+section, farmers had to give to their Daimio about five twelfth of the
+rice crop, while taxes to-day require but one fifth or less. He adds
+that families owning three and one third acres of land are well-to-do,
+seeing many families have to make their entire living from only one
+acre!
+
+Of course, farmers, without education or social demands, require little
+beyond the simplest food and shelter. The clothing needed by their
+families is the cheapest cotton, with cotton wadding added in the winter
+for warmth. The heat of the summer renders much clothing a burden. A
+farmer is adequately dressed for the field or his own home if he has on
+his loin-cloth. His wife or grown-up daughter, when in the house with
+only the immediate members of the family or most intimate acquaintances
+present, is satisfied with the _koshimaki_--a strip of cloth some two
+feet wide tied around the waist and covering the lower part of the body.
+But on the street both men and women conform to the national customs and
+wear the kimono.
+
+The Japanese household and bathing customs have served to prevent the
+development of that particular type of modesty characteristic of Western
+lands. It is difficult for Occidentals to understand this feature of
+Japanese civilization, but such an understanding is essential if one
+would do justice to the moral life of this people. We may not apply to
+them Occidental standards in matters of modesty or dress. They have
+standards of their own, to understand and appreciate which requires no
+little study.
+
+At this point, I venture a second quotation from Miss Bacon, for she has
+studied carefully this subject, which all foreigners seeking to estimate
+the nature of Japanese civilization and moral character should not fail
+to master. "As one travels," she writes, "through rural Japan in summer,
+and sees the half-naked men, women, and children that pour out from
+every village on one's route, surrounding the _kuruma_ (wheeled vehicle)
+at every stopping place, one sometimes wonders whether there is in the
+country any real civilization, whether these half-naked people are not
+more savage than civilized. But when one finds everywhere good hotels,
+scrupulous cleanliness in all the appointments of toilet and table,
+polite and careful servants, honest and willing performance of labor
+bargained for, together with the gentlest and pleasantest of manners,
+one is forced to reconsider the judgment formed only upon one
+peculiarity of the national life, and to conclude that there is
+certainly a high type of civilization in Japan, though differing in many
+particulars from our own. A careful study of Japanese ideas of decency,
+and frequent conversation with refined and intelligent Japanese ladies
+upon this subject, has led me to the following conclusion. According to
+the Japanese standard, any exposure of the person that is merely
+incidental to health, cleanliness, or convenience in doing necessary
+work is perfectly modest and allowable; but an exposure, no matter how
+slight, that is simply for show, is in the highest degree indelicate. In
+illustration of the first part of this conclusion, I would refer to the
+open bath-houses, the naked laborers, the exposure of the lower limbs in
+wet weather by the turning up of the kimono, the entirely nude condition
+of the country children in summer, and the very slight clothing that
+some adults regard as necessary about the house or in the country during
+the hot season. In illustration of the last point, I would mention the
+horror with which many Japanese ladies regard that style of foreign
+dress which, while covering the figure completely, reveals every detail
+of the form above the waist, and, as we say, shows off to advantage a
+pretty figure. To the Japanese mind, it is immodest to want to show off
+a pretty figure. As for the ballroom costumes, where neck and arms are
+frequently exposed to the gaze of multitudes, the Japanese woman who
+would with entire composure take her bath in the presence of others,
+would be in an agony of shame at the thought of appearing in public in a
+costume so indecent as that worn by many respectable American and
+European women."[2]
+
+    [2] _Japanese Girls and Women_, 257-260.
+
+This completes our study of the homes and characteristics of five
+eighths of Japan. Here the brawn of the nation is reared. Hence come the
+sturdy, docile, patient, and courageous soldiers. Here are raised boys
+and girls by the hundreds of thousands who must at an early age begin to
+earn a living. This is the hunting-ground of those who seek for builders
+of railroads, factory hands, domestics, hotel girls, baby-tenders, and
+occasionally geishas, concubines, and prostitutes. Considering the
+severe economic conditions under which Japan's agricultural classes
+live, who can fail to admire their courage and grit, their personal
+culture, their even temper and cheerful faces, their innate habits of
+courtesy and good breeding, their mutual patience and forbearance, and
+their simple artistic tastes and pleasures! Do they not compare well
+with the peasant classes of any other nation?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+DOMESTIC INDUSTRIES IN FARMING FAMILIES
+
+
+Before passing on to study the various classes of workers constantly
+recruited in no small numbers from the homes of farmers, we should first
+consider the high development of industrial occupations within these
+homes themselves. To appreciate both the opportunity and the need for
+this, we turn to the official statistics of marriage and education.
+Until 1908 compulsory education, as has been already stated, covered
+four years from the age of six to ten. According to governmental
+statistics (1912) 98.8 per cent. of the boys and 97.5 per cent. of the
+girls were actually fulfilling the requirement. This percentage seems
+high to American statistical students, but investigations show that,
+while Japanese rules for the attendance of pupils and methods of
+counting the same differ in some respects from those that prevail in
+the United States and Canada, yet, as a matter of fact, in school
+attendance Japan compares well with other lands. It should be
+remembered, however, that the nature of the Japanese written language is
+such that even six years of elementary education is probably not equal
+to four years of similar schooling in Western lands. American children,
+at the close of their elementary education, possess a mastery of the
+tools of civilization and a degree of general intelligence considerably
+in advance of Japanese children who have enjoyed the same number of
+years of school life. As we have already seen, this amount of compulsory
+education is insufficient to give children ability to read and write
+with freedom.
+
+The question for us however is as to the number of girls above school
+age and still unmarried who, because of family poverty, must find some
+form of wage-earning occupation. Turning to the vital statistics
+provided by the government (1914), we find that in 1908 there were
+2,496,142 girls between ten and fifteen years of age, and 2,180,408
+young women between fifteen and twenty years of age. But how many of
+these are married? Again relying on government statistics for the same
+year, we learn that only 199 girls under fifteen had been married,
+whereas 193,978 had married under twenty years of age. In view of the
+fact that 709,021 marriages took place between twenty and twenty-five
+years of age, it is altogether probable that, of those married under
+twenty, a large majority were married in their nineteenth year.
+Remembering that many do not marry until the twenty-third or
+twenty-fourth year, we can confidently assert that there are over
+4,000,000 unmarried girls and young women between the ages of ten and
+twenty-five; and, as 58 per cent. belong to the farming class, we have
+in the vicinity of 3,000,000 girls who belong to families of such
+economic state that they, no less than the boys, must contrive in some
+way to earn a share at least of their own living. Girls of fifteen and
+upwards in farmers' families help their fathers in the lighter forms of
+agriculture, planting the rice, as we have seen, and reaping and
+threshing the crops. But the small acreage to each family barely
+provides work enough for the man, much less for the half-grown boys and
+girls, hence the need of finding something besides the agricultural work
+for the growing family. The younger children (under fifteen) are pressed
+into lighter farming, and such household duties as are within their
+strength and ability, as cooking and caring for the still younger
+children; while the older children and the mother help the father, or
+take up some domestic industry, such as the rearing of silkworms,
+reeling of silk, spinning of thread, and weaving of silk and cotton
+fabrics, or similar work which can be easily and profitably done in the
+house in spare hours. Hence has come the widespread practise of
+household industries, by which the female members supplement the family
+income. There were, in 1907, 1,628,000 members of farming families who
+were earning a part of their living in this way. This condition has
+prevailed for many generations, and is the secret of the wonderful
+development of the arts and home industries in Japan.
+
+            [Illustration: A FAMILY AT WORK IN A RICE-FIELD
+                    TRANSPLANTING YOUNG RICE PLANTS]
+
+From of old Japan's industrial system, like that of other lands, has
+been domestic--carried on in the house. There have been families and
+gilds which have made their entire livelihood by these manual
+industries. There have also been hundreds of thousands of farming
+families which have supplemented their meager income from their farms by
+taking up some of these domestic industries, and those who have
+displayed or developed special aptitude for such work have naturally
+drifted into this wholly industrial life. This has doubtless been the
+origin of industrial families and gilds. But the point to be especially
+noted is that this wide development of domestic industries is due to the
+skill and diligence of Japan's working _women_. Japanese men have
+produced the food by which the nation has been fed; her women have
+produced industries by which the nation has been clothed, as indeed is
+the case of all great civilized nations. Their long-continued drill,
+from generation to generation, in home industrial occupations, has
+produced a high degree of manual dexterity; the eye and hand
+instinctively move accurately and rapidly in the work, and the result is
+that Japan's leading industries to this day are dependent on female
+labor. "Sericulture, silk-reeling, cotton spinning, _habutae_ (a
+particular variety of silk fabric), and other woven goods, tea-picking,
+straw and chip braids, etc., are practically dependent on female labor,"
+says the _Japanese Year Book_ for 1910. "But an industry depending on
+female labor has this peculiarity, namely: it is not compatible with the
+factory system, but thrives best on the domestic plan. Generally
+speaking it is in industries which admit of being carried on
+independently at separate homes by housewives and mothers that skilled
+female labor is seen to the best advantage. As operatives of family
+industries Japanese women show an efficiency rarely reached by their
+foreign sisters." But in this connection we may remind ourselves of the
+great skill and industry of our grandmothers and preceding generations
+of women, who lived before the great factory system made their home
+industrial occupations unnecessary. Japan is merely several decades
+behind Western lands in her industrial development.
+
+           [Illustration: SPINNING COTTON THREAD FOR WEAVING
+                         AT WORK IN A KITCHEN]
+
+We are to understand, then, that a large portion of these 3,000,000
+unmarried Japanese women and girls are engaged more or less continuously
+in some sort of industrial work, either in their own homes or in small
+groups in their immediate vicinity. The introduction into Japan of
+Occidental mechanical civilization, with its great machinery run by
+steam power, and the great factory system, taking girls and young women
+away from their home industries, home restraints, and home training, is
+producing mighty changes in Japan's traditional civilization. The real
+consequences of these new modes of life and labor are still little
+appreciated. There is taking place a rapid readjustment of population,
+which indeed is easily seen, but the disastrous results to the mental,
+moral, and religious life of the people, even to the maintenance of the
+ideals and standards that controlled the older arts and industries, are
+yet little realized, for the great changes have only begun within the
+past two decades. A generation or two must pass before we can see
+clearly what it all really means. Meanwhile it is for those who foresee
+coming evils to sound aloud the call, and, as prophets, to do that which
+in them lies to meet the threatened disasters, and turn new conditions
+into blessings. Japan has the advantage of a century of European
+experience from which to learn wisdom. It is to be hoped that she will
+avoid many of the perils and evils into which the West has fallen, but
+the signs of the times are not altogether reassuring. There are, as we
+shall see later on, ominous clouds on Japan's industrial horizon.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+SILK WORKERS
+
+
+The chief wealth-earning domestic industry carried on by farmers' wives
+and daughters is the rearing of silkworms and the reeling, spinning, and
+weaving of the silk. Japan supplies about 28 per cent. of the total silk
+of the world and 60 per cent. of that used in the United States. The
+value of the silk exported in 1913 was $63,000,000. Women are the chief
+workers, contributing 90 per cent. of the labor. Here again the toil is
+taxing beyond belief.
+
+The brunt of the work consists first in filling the mouths of the worms,
+which must be fed at regular intervals night and day for about three
+weeks, during the last few days of which they eat continuously and
+voraciously. It has been found that the rearing of worms can best be
+done only on a small scale, where minute attention can be given to
+each tray, almost to each worm. This means that worms are reared in the
+homes of the people, rather than in large establishments. During the
+silkworm season everything else must give way; the house is filled with
+trays of ravenous worms; rest, recreation, and sleep, for old and young
+alike, are neglected in order that the precious worms may get their
+fill. Men and boys bring in the mulberry leaves from the hills and
+fields, while women and girls strip the branches, chop the leaves and
+feed them to the magic creatures that transform worthless green leaves
+into costly silk. The leaves must not be damp, nor old, and every
+condition of weather and temperature must be watched with the closest
+care. Otherwise there is loss. This heavy work comes twice each year, in
+some places three times. That is to say, there are two or three crops of
+silkworms.
+
+Then, after the cocoons have been formed, comes the reeling off of the
+silk, as much as possible before the sleeping grub wakens and eats its
+way out, destroying the silk it has spun for its nest. So again there is
+pressure, and again women do the work--I never heard of a man reeling
+silk. It takes the deft hand and quick eye of a girl to catch the thread
+in the boiling water, connect it with the wheel, and unroll without
+breaking the almost invisible thread so wonderfully wound up by the
+worm. This work is often done in the homes, but increasingly now,
+because more profitably, in factories where the girls can be closely
+watched by inspectors and paid according to the skill and the amount of
+their work.
+
+The number of families engaged exclusively in raising silk in the nine
+principal districts is reported (1911) at 370,332. In addition however
+there are many tens of thousands of families which make this only a
+secondary business. Many merely raise the worms, selling the cocoons to
+the factories, and in such cases the work and strain are over in a few
+weeks. The value of the cocoons raised in 1911 was estimated at
+$89,001,988, which gives some idea of the great importance of this
+industry to the families engaged in it. But it must be remembered that
+the industry demands heavy expense and the most taxing of toil while it
+lasts.
+
+As this industry is carried on chiefly in the homes, the personal
+conditions of the workers are relatively favorable, as favorable as
+those of the homes. This requires therefore no special consideration.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+WIVES AND DAUGHTERS OF ARTIZANS AND MERCHANTS
+
+
+In old Japan, among the workers the highest rank was held by farmers,
+next by artizans, and last came the merchants, for they were regarded as
+resorting to means somewhat degrading for making their living. In fact
+they were not producers of positive wealth, but lived by cunning wit on
+what others had made.
+
+Artizans, such as carpenters, masons, and professional weavers, as well
+as merchants, naturally live in towns and cities. The first work of the
+wife is of course in the home, but when the husband's work is of such a
+nature that it is possible the wife naturally helps him. Merchants'
+wives and daughters, for instance, keep the shops while the husbands
+peddle the goods or secure fresh supplies. Weavers' wives and daughters
+aid directly, the whole family sharing in the work and acquiring skill.
+Carpentry and masonry however are trades in which women take no part, so
+women of these classes also seek some suitable domestic industry. In the
+smaller towns especially, in recent years, rearing of silkworms is a
+common occupation for all classes of moderate means, but in the cities
+it is impossible to secure the necessary mulberry leaves, so straw
+braiding, the making of fans, embroidery, and similar occupations are
+here sought; and there are produced the thousand and one articles used
+by the middle and wealthy classes and for export. As a means of
+increasing the income the wives of artizans often open their front rooms
+as shops and carry on a small retail business.
+
+In times of prosperity these classes flourish and grow luxurious, but
+hard times occasionally come, when they are reduced to dire poverty and
+even to the verge of starvation; for, living away from the land, they
+are more dependent than farmers on the continuous success of their
+labors and secondary industries.
+
+The school education of the women of these classes is in general the
+same as that of the farming class. But inasmuch as they live, for the
+most part, in the larger villages, towns, and cities, they enjoy many
+advantages over their farming sisters. Along with their husbands they
+have more need of ability to read and write, and, becoming quick-witted
+through the stimulus of city life, they learn more easily. In recent
+decades, especially the last, many of their children, naturally those of
+the more successful families, are pressing up into the higher schools of
+learning. As a body, therefore, from the standpoint of mere intellect
+and wit, this class surpasses the farming class. From the standpoint
+however of moral character, of conjugal fidelity, of industry, and of
+trustworthiness in all relations the farming class, along with the
+shizoku, surpasses all others, and probably even the peers themselves.
+But in these higher classes we must distinguish between the men and the
+women; for while the wives are, as a rule, beyond praise in the matter
+of conjugal fidelity, the same may not be said of the husbands.
+
+Among the many classes of working women named on a previous page are the
+"clerks." This is a new feature of Japanese life worthy of note,
+although the class is still small. Under this name we include ticket
+sellers in railway stations, assistant barbers, and saleswomen and
+shopgirls. Members of this class have of course enjoyed a relatively
+large amount of education, and are therefore above the average in
+general intelligence and ability. These girls are recruited from the
+families of city artizans and merchants.
+
+The descendants of palanquin bearers, day laborers, eta, and hi-nin form
+to-day the lowest stratum of society, dwelling on the outskirts of large
+cities, in wretchedness, filth, and poverty, getting their living from
+day to day and breeding criminals, geisha, and prostitutes. The
+stone-breakers, gravel gatherers, coolies, and most irregular of city
+day laborers come from this class. Many of these men have illustrious
+pedigrees. Some fell to this estate through wanton lust and reckless
+expenditure of inherited wealth; some are descendants of disinherited
+sons; the ancestors of some have met political reverses and found refuge
+and safety only among the "non-humans," where they could live
+unrecognized and unknown. Thus all grades of blood course through the
+veins of this, the lowest class in Japan. The wives and daughters of
+these men share their fate and fortune, living from hand to mouth. Their
+life is so low and uncertain that it is absurd to speak of secondary
+occupations--they lack even a primary occupation; and their homes, which
+constitute the slums of the cities, are no places in which to carry on
+any domestic industry.
+
+With the coming to Japan however of modern industrialism and the
+building of large factories in or near the cities, the wives and
+daughters of this class have opportunity for regular work, earning
+enough and more than enough to support themselves while actually at
+work. But when attacked by laziness, fickleness, or disease, they easily
+slump back into the same economic pit. From this lowest class comes one
+of the serious dangers threatening the better life of modern Japan. The
+insufficiency of these laborers, their unreliable character, and the
+inferior quality of their work, have forced the factories to search
+elsewhere for hands. These they have found in the relatively workless,
+but industrious and comparatively moral farming class. These farmers'
+girls have been brought to the cities and thrown into intimate relations
+with the lowest, most dissolute, despised, and really despicable
+classes, and the results have naturally been disastrous in many ways, as
+we shall see in a later chapter.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+_KOMORI_ (BABY-TENDERS)
+
+
+The great poverty of the majority of the people renders necessary, as
+already noted, not only the utmost economy in the home, but also a high
+degree of industry, and the beginning of productive labor at an early
+age. As soon as the child has completed the elementary education, and,
+in cases of exceptional poverty, even before that, he or she must begin
+to do something of value and earn a living, at least in part. In the
+case of farming families, younger children care for the youngest and
+share in the household duties, thus relieving the mother and elder
+children, enabling them to aid the husband and father in the field. But
+the positive agricultural or industrial work which girls of from ten to
+fifteen can do is insignificant, yet they eat as much as a grown
+person, and hence comes the search for suitable openings for such
+workers. This is found for many of the younger girls in the homes of the
+middle and upper classes, where they go as _komori_ (baby-tenders).
+
+Girls even as young as ten leave their homes and go out to service. They
+receive food and lodging, in some cases a garment in summer and one in
+winter, and sometimes in addition a small cash stipend. A komori thus is
+usually the daughter of a poor family who goes into a well-to-do family
+to aid the mother in the care of her infant. Her chief duty is to carry
+the infant, sleeping or waking, on her back for many consecutive hours
+during the day. In addition to this she aids a little in the household
+work, washing dishes and cleaning the house, her hours of service being
+unlimited. In some families she may be called on at any hour of the
+night to carry the baby, if it is restless or fretful and needs to be
+"jiggled" to sleep! A komori is employed by the year, but usually
+without specific contract, her parents sometimes receiving a few yen[3]
+when she enters upon service. Her time is entirely at the disposal of
+her mistress and she goes to no school, receives no regular instruction,
+and no training other than that which comes incidentally from
+association with members of the family. Long hours each day are spent on
+the street with an infant on her back, playing hop-scotch and other
+games with other komori.
+
+    [3] A yen has the value of forty-nine cents.
+
+In a few places efforts are being made, I am told, to provide these
+baby-tenders with educational advantages, but the movement is as yet
+small. Buddhists are said to be particularly active in this matter.
+
+              [Illustration: CARRYING FAGOTS BABY-TENDERS]
+
+A blind man in Matsuyama, a Christian of my acquaintance, put out one of
+his daughters to service as a komori. After two years of such life,
+poverty-stricken though the family was, he brought her home again, for
+the child of fourteen, so far from learning anything good, was learning
+many things bad on the street, and was being dwarfed in mind by the
+long hours when she was wholly without mental stimulus. The life of a
+komori will of course vary much with the nature of the family by which
+she is employed, but at best the service cannot fail to stunt the growth
+of both body and mind.
+
+I heard not long since of a boy who became a komori. His father had died
+a drunkard, leaving the family ruined financially. The mother and
+children were accordingly distributed among the creditors to work off
+his debts. The little boy of eight went with his mother, and, so long as
+she lived--some three years--life was endurable for him, but after her
+death he was made increasingly miserable. Long hours by day and many
+interrupted nights, unkind words, and unutterable loneliness vexed his
+orphaned spirit, until he could endure it no longer, and planned to run
+away. The stern master however discovered him doing up his bundle, and,
+to prevent his escape, ordered his few possessions, even his clothing,
+to be taken away. In spite of this he slipped out one night in the
+darkness and hid in a barn in a neighboring village until morning, when
+he was taken pity on by some children who shared a kimono or two with
+him, and so he got away. With increasing years he led a wild, roving
+life; at eighteen he became a murderer and was imprisoned for life,
+escaping the death penalty on account of being a minor. In prison he
+first heard the Christian gospel of God's forgiving love, of peace and
+hope and joy. This "good news" he accepted, and learned to read, that he
+might read the New Testament, which he committed to memory. Upon the
+death of the Empress Dowager, in 1896, his penalty, with that of many
+other prisoners, was remitted, and now for fourteen years he has been
+living a life remarkably fruitful in Christian service.
+
+But, to return to our subject, we note that not all komori are children.
+Superannuated old women who have neither strength nor brains for
+anything else also act in this capacity, their conditions of service
+and wages being the same as those of girls. I have tried to get some
+idea as to the number of komori in Japan, but have been able to find no
+statistics. One gentleman assures me that at least one family in five of
+the middle and upper classes employs a komori. As the number of families
+in Japan, exclusive of farmers, is 3,981,940 (1912), this would make
+about 796,000 komori; but many well-to-do farming families also employ
+komori, so the total number in Japan would be not far from 1,000,000. A
+lady however assures me that this estimate is altogether too high, and
+thinks that not more than one family in twenty has the means to employ a
+komori. If this is true, then the number is in the vicinity of 250,000.
+In either case, the system and its nature are clear, and the numbers of
+children sent out to service at a tender age is not inconsiderable. The
+attention of educators and parents is being directed to the dangers to
+infants of this komori system, to say nothing of the harm it does to the
+girls themselves.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+HOUSEHOLD DOMESTICS
+
+
+By the time a girl is fifteen or sixteen she is regarded as sufficiently
+large, strong, and mature to enter on more responsible work. Among the
+several fields open to her is that of _gejo_, or domestic service, of
+which we may distinguish two varieties: those who serve in private
+families and those who become maids in hotels and tea-houses. A komori
+may gradually work into the position of a domestic; indeed, in the
+majority of homes a komori not only tends the baby but aids the mother
+in her household work. It is only in the homes of the well-to-do that
+both gejo and komori are to be found. The work of a gejo consists in
+taking the brunt of the cooking, housecleaning, and washing, serving
+from daybreak, that is, from five or six in the morning, till ten or
+eleven at night. Her status is somewhat better than that of the komori.
+Her hours of service however are long and taxing. Her time for rest is
+after the family has retired for the night and before they rise in the
+morning. Frequently her private room is the front hall, or entrance
+room; she accordingly is the last person to retire and the first to
+rise. It is to be noted however that in the houses of the middle classes
+in the large cities there is usually now a small room for the
+servant-girl. The gejo draws the water from the well, washes the rice,
+lights the fires, cooks and lives in the dingy and usually smoky
+kitchen, washes the clothes, aids in the sewing, and has no relaxation
+but an occasional festival. Her lot is truly pitiful.
+
+Besides her living (eating what is left from the family meal), she
+usually receives some two to three yen per month. Recently however some
+have been receiving even as much as five yen. The drudgery and monotony
+of the life are usually such that the opportunity to become a factory
+hand is quickly taken, especially as the cash earnings are relatively
+large. I am told by Japanese ladies that the problem of securing
+domestics in the cities or in the vicinities of factories is becoming
+serious.
+
+Of course the average domestic has no opportunity nor desire for mental
+improvement. Having enjoyed no education to speak of, she can read
+neither papers nor books, nor may she attend meetings fitted to
+cultivate the mind or promote her higher life. Thus she is controlled by
+the culture and mental and moral traditions of the home in which she was
+reared.
+
+Household domestics are recruited from farming and industrial families.
+They earn their living for from four to six years, until their parents
+or guardians find them husbands; for in Japan the girl has practically
+nothing to say as to whom she marries. Marriage is based, not on mutual
+acquaintance, much less on mutual attraction, but wholly on the judgment
+of parents or go-betweens, and is from first to last--if it is
+proper--a utilitarian affair.
+
+It thus comes to pass that in Japan domestics are, as a rule, young
+unmarried women. A domestic in her thirties, or over, is rare, and is
+almost certain to be a widow or a divorced woman.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+HOTEL AND TEA-HOUSE GIRLS
+
+
+A distinct class of domestics is that which serves in hotels,
+tea-houses, and restaurants. Here the hours of labor are longer,--from
+four or five in the morning till midnight, or later. My attention was
+early called to their hard lot by observing that the poor girl who was
+serving rice for my meal, sitting before me as I ate, often fell into a
+sleep, from which I had to awaken her to get my rice. Inquiry would show
+that she had risen at four o'clock that morning, and further questioning
+would bring the information that she had retired the previous night at
+midnight or later, sometimes even not till two o'clock! Rarely do these
+girls get five hours of rest; frequently there are not more than three.
+They must open all the _amado_ (sliding wooden shutters which protect
+the paper "windows"), and get the general cleaning done before the first
+guest rises, and must continue their service until late into the night,
+answering the calls of the guests, till the last one has retired. In
+addition to the usual cleaning of the rooms, which is really not much of
+an undertaking, these girls carry all the meals of all the guests from
+the kitchen on the ground floor to their rooms on the second or third
+floors, serve them while they eat, and carry away the trays when the
+meal is completed. In preparation for the night the girls bring out the
+heavy _futon_ (quilts) and make the "beds" on the floor; and in the
+morning remove, fold, and lay them all away in closets. The work of a
+Japanese hotel is relatively heavy for the number of guests, but that
+which is most taxing is the long hours of service and the insufficient
+time for rest. As in the poorer homes, so in the poorer and smaller
+hotels, the girls have no private rooms, but sleep in entryways and
+reception-rooms. Of course they have neither time nor opportunity for
+personal culture, nor even for recreation; and from the nature of their
+occupation, is it strange if they sometimes yield to the solicitations
+of guests?
+
+These girls are of course neither professional prostitutes nor geisha.
+Yet I was assured by a provincial chief of police, some years ago when
+making investigations, that, in the eyes of the police, three fourths or
+four fifths of the girls in hotels and tea-houses are virtually
+prostitutes, though of course they have no licenses and are subject to
+no medical inspection. Occasionally they are arrested for illegal
+prostitution, at the instance however of brothel keepers. Hotels and
+tea-houses take pains to secure pretty girls for servants, in order to
+make their service attractive. It is a dreadful statement to make, but,
+if I am justified in judging from such facts as have come to my
+knowledge, it would appear that few traveling men in Japan feel any
+special hesitation in taking advantage--with financial compensation of
+course--of such opportunities as are afforded them. Hotels give the
+girls their food, perhaps two gowns yearly, and generally a small
+payment in cash, but their principal earnings come from tips. This makes
+them attentive to the wants of the guests.
+
+There are many first-class hotels throughout the country, but chiefly in
+the principal cities, to which geisha are not admitted, but in those
+hotels to which they are admitted the green country girls soon learn
+from them the brazen ways and licentious talk that are evidently
+pleasing to many of the guests. All in all the life and lot of the hotel
+and tea-house girl are deplorable indeed. She does differ from the
+geisha and licensed prostitute, however, in that she can leave her place
+and retire to her country home at any time, being held by no contract or
+debt. Hotel and tea-house girls are recruited largely from the families
+of artizans and small tradespeople, living in interior towns and
+villages; they do not often come from farming families, since they would
+lack the regular features and light complexion desired by hotels. Their
+family pedigree explains in part this easy virtue. They are saved from
+more disaster than they actually meet, because geisha and prostitutes
+abound and are more attractive.
+
+I remember, one summer at a little country hotel, a girl rushed into my
+room from a neighbor's in order to escape from the urgency of a guest.
+She told me the following day quite freely of her troubles, of the
+horrid men that came to the hotel, and of the fact that most of the
+girls did not mind what she found unendurable. She had been there but a
+few weeks and was resolved to go home as soon as possible, claiming it
+was better to starve than to lead such a hard and especially such a
+disgusting life. Realizing that I had an exceptional opportunity for
+sociological study, I improved the occasion and asked many questions.
+When asked for her reasons for not responding to the solicitations of
+the men, she replied that it was the fear of being laughed at should
+she have a child. I could not learn that she had ever been taught to
+regard loose sexual relations before marriage as immoral or as
+intrinsically wrong. In her mind the question had no connection with
+religion, so far as I could discover. Her refusal was based wholly on
+utilitarian grounds.
+
+At another hotel where I often stopped I noticed on one of my tours that
+an especially attractive girl of eighteen or nineteen, who usually
+waited on me, was no longer there. On asking her substitute what had
+become of her, I was told she had become a regular prostitute, having
+found she could earn much more money that way than at the hotel. I asked
+if the parents had not opposed. "O no!" replied the girl, "the parents
+were the ones who proposed it and arranged for it." I asked the
+substitute if she herself did not regard the business as shameful and
+immoral. She looked at me with apparent surprise, hardly understanding
+what I meant, evidently regarding the matter entirely as a financial
+one.
+
+Here is another case. A number of Young Men's Christian Association
+secretaries, tramping in the Japanese Alps, were convinced by the noises
+one night at the hot springs that the five or six guides and porters
+were indulging in licentiousness. The next night it came out around the
+camp-fire that these guides and porters had paid the hotel girls five
+sen[4] (two and one-half cents) each.
+
+    [4] A sen has the value of one-hundredth of a yen, or almost
+        half a cent.
+
+Of course one may not generalize from three cases. But three such cases,
+together with the statement of the chief of police, and the experience,
+closely corresponding with my own, of many missionaries who have
+traveled in all parts of Japan, are strong evidence. I myself do not
+think that guests often solicit the girls, nor that hotel girls commonly
+yield to the requests of guests, but there can be no doubt that it
+occasionally happens, and is not regarded in any such way by either the
+men or the women as an Occidental would expect. As said above, there
+are many hotels in the cities from which geisha are rigidly excluded,
+and where without doubt the relations of guests with hotel girls are
+above criticism.
+
+It is an impressive fact of Japanese civilization that the "greenest"
+country girls can in but a few short weeks of hotel service become so
+graceful and attractive. That in their lives which to the Occidental is
+so deep a sin is nothing to them. Their calm, innocent eyes, winning
+ways, and gentle conversation can hardly fail to impress the foreigner.
+But compared with the girls in their homes they have lost that air of
+modesty and reserve which is so important an element in the charm of
+Japanese womanhood. The hotel and tea-house girl belongs rather to the
+geisha class, whose loud, harsh voices and artificial, coarse laughter
+are distinguishing characteristics. Girls of both these classes however
+have an advantage enjoyed by no other women in Japan, namely: that of
+meeting large numbers of men of various occupations and interests. They
+hear varied conversation and thus become somewhat acquainted with the
+affairs of the outside world, which makes them more intelligent than the
+average Japanese woman, so that it is possible to carry on some sort of
+a conversation with them--a thing practically impossible with the
+average young woman of Japan.
+
+In regard to the numbers of hotel domestics, I have found no statistics,
+but have no hesitation in venturing an estimate of many tens of
+thousands.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+FACTORY GIRLS AND WOMEN
+
+
+As already stated, many girls prefer factory work to that of domestic
+service, either in private families or in hotels. From ancient times
+there have been small industrial enterprises, employing each a few hands
+in various lines of work, such as the reeling and spinning of silk and
+cotton thread and the weaving of cloth; but since the war with China
+there have arisen enormous factories, after the fashion of Western
+lands, which have introduced great changes in the industrial situation
+and in the condition of the working classes.
+
+The government report for 1912 shows that there were 863,447 individuals
+employed in 15,119 factories having ten or more hands each. Of these,
+348,230 were men and 515,217 were girls and women. In addition it
+reports 427,636 weaving houses, having 733,039 looms and employing
+697,698 operators. No statement is made as to the proportion of the
+sexes. Remembering that the government statistics take no account of
+industrial enterprises employing less than ten hands, it is probably
+safe to estimate the number of women employed in exclusively
+non-domestic occupations at not less than a million.
+
+We are not concerned however with the industries themselves, but rather
+with the conditions under which the operatives work and the effect of
+the work on their lives and characters. To begin with the more pleasant
+side of the question, there are factories which come well up toward the
+ideal. The terms of employment, the wages paid, the provisions for ill
+health, for accident, for long service and old age; the rooms for
+sleeping, eating, and recreation; the bathing establishments; the
+education given to those who need it; the public lectures and religious
+and ethical instruction given at fixed times in the public halls of the
+factories, Buddhist and Christian teachers being impartially invited;
+the provisions for marriage of employees and arrangements that each
+couple have a separate suite of rooms, and that the infants are cared
+for while the mother is in the mill; these and other provisions show
+that the best in Japan is up to a high level of excellence. Such is the
+policy of the Kanegafuchi Company, which owns a score of mills in
+different parts of Japan, and whose success moreover is so great that it
+is now buying up less successful competitors.
+
+For several years this company has set aside annually 20,000 yen
+($10,000) for its relief and pension fund for operatives. In June, 1913,
+in addition to its regular appropriation, it voted an extra $50,000 for
+a "welfare promotion fund."
+
+The president of the Fuji Cotton Spinning Company was given in 1913 a
+retiring grant of $50,000, inasmuch as the great success of this company
+had been due to his skill and energy. He however presented the entire
+amount to the "employers' relief fund, and it was decided to make this
+gift the nucleus of a permanent endowment fund."
+
+               [Illustration: AT WORK IN A SILK FACTORY]
+
+There is a silk factory in Ayabe, the Gunze Seishi Kwaisha, whose record
+is the most wonderful of all. It is managed by a Christian, who runs it
+entirely with a view to the benefit of the workers and the district. No
+girls of that district go elsewhere for work. Once enrolled as members
+of the working force they are regularly instructed, both in general
+education and in their particular duties; they earn good wages, keep
+good health, receive Christian instruction, have their regular rest
+days, remain the full number of years, help support the family and earn
+enough besides to set themselves up in married life, and are now
+beginning to send their daughters to the same factory. This Christian
+factory is Christianizing the district. The rising moral and religious
+life is transforming even the agricultural and other interests of the
+region. So high is the grade of silk thread produced, and so uniform
+and reliable is the quality, that it alone of all the factories in Japan
+is able to export its product direct to the purchasing firm in the
+United States, which buys the entire output at an annual cost of about
+$500,000, and without intermediate inspection at Yokohama. Here we have
+a splendid illustration of the way in which Christian character is
+solving the problem arising from the low moral and economic ideals of
+the masses of Japan's working classes. As a rule the modern industrial
+worker does not put moral character into his work; and a wide complaint
+of Occidental importers of Japanese products is that goods are not made
+according to contract or sample. This is one of the greatest obstacles
+to the continuous prosperity of any Japanese industry; for as soon as a
+large demand has arisen in foreign lands for any given article, its
+quality, as a rule, has rapidly deteriorated. It is this unreliability
+of Japanese workmen that makes so difficult direct exportation to
+foreign lands without the supervision of Occidental middlemen. The
+Christian Gunze Seishi Kwaisha is one of the splendid exceptions which
+shows what Japanese workmen and manufacturers can do, when controlled by
+high ideals and motives.
+
+Unfortunately however not all factories and their managers have the same
+spirit, aim, or skill. Many factories are the exact opposite in every
+respect to those owned by the Kanegafuchi and Gunze Seishi companies. My
+personal attention was first called to the heartrending condition of
+servitude imposed on vast numbers of girls by reading, a score of years
+ago, of a fire in the dormitory of an Osaka factory. The dormitory was
+in a closed compound, whose doors and gates were carefully locked to
+keep the girls from running away. The result was the death, if I
+remember correctly, of every inmate, of whom there were several score.
+
+My personal knowledge in regard to the conditions of life and work of
+factory operatives was secured in Matsuyama, Shikoku, a small inland
+city of some forty thousand inhabitants, having but a single cotton
+thread spinning factory. It had no dormitories of its own, but sent
+its operatives to certain specified boarding-houses in the town.
+Through a Mr. Omoto, who was at that time working in the factory, and
+whose life story is given in the final chapter, I became intimately
+acquainted with the conditions prevailing in Matsuyama. In 1901, when
+Mr. Omoto began to work in the factory, he was amazed to see how many
+were the children taking their turns in work along with the older
+girls by day and by night. Large numbers ranged from seven to twelve
+years old, the majority, however, being from fifteen to twenty. They
+worked in two shifts of twelve hours each, but as they were required
+to clean up daily they did not get out till six-thirty or seven,
+morning and night. The only holidays for these poor little workers
+came two or three times a month, when the shifts changed; but even
+then there was special cleaning, and the girls who had worked all
+night were kept till nine and even ten in the morning. He was also
+deeply impressed with their wretched condition and immoral life. The
+majority of them could neither read nor write; their popular songs
+were indecent, and they were crowded together in disease-spreading and
+vermin-breeding, immoral boarding-houses, where they were deliberately
+tempted. Some of the landlords were also brothel keepers.
+
+Mr. Omoto, having opportunity as official "visitor" to become accurately
+acquainted with their life, told me in detail the conditions which have
+been briefly summarized above. The boarding-houses were only for girls
+from out of town. They had to be "recognized" by the factory, and the
+girls had to live in the houses to which they were assigned. Of course
+the purpose of these houses was to make money. The financial, hygienic,
+intellectual, and moral interests of the girls were wholly ignored. They
+were crowded into ill-ventilated, sunless rooms, the two shifts
+occupying the same rooms alternately. Personal extravagance was
+purposely stimulated, for girls in debt to the keepers were compelled to
+stay to work off their debts. Drinking and immoral carousings were their
+only recreation. As might be expected, sickness was common and epidemics
+frequent. Many girls returned to their homes after a few months in the
+"city" ruined not only in health but in character,--premature mothers of
+illegitimate children.
+
+The conditions of the factory girls in Matsuyama were not unique. Miss
+J. M. Holland, a Church of England missionary in Osaka, recently told me
+some of her observations and experiences. She has devoted the larger
+part of her time for fifteen years to work among factory girls, and on
+the whole can report improvement. When she began her visits to the
+factories, the conditions were often appalling. It was not uncommon for
+girls working on the night shift to be kept, on one pretext or another,
+till noon the next day, making eighteen hours of work. The conditions
+of work and life were such that the girls frequently ran away, to
+prevent which the dormitories were virtually prisons within the factory
+compounds. The girls were not allowed to go out on the streets, were
+given no opportunity for recreation, and of course no education. They
+were underfed, overworked, and punished in various ways by their
+overseers, cuffed and sometimes whipped, for disobedience or blunders.
+The daily papers of those days had frequent items reporting oppression
+and ill treatment; to be deprived of wages as punishment was a common
+experience; police occasionally discovered girls working in cellars and
+vaults as punishment for misdeeds; girls sometimes escaped in their
+night clothes, and on a few occasions the girls rebelled and did
+personal violence to the overseers.
+
+But, as already stated, the general conditions are now much better, for
+it was gradually found that such ill-treated labor was not profitable.
+"Most of the superintendents in Osaka are now splendid men, who on the
+whole take good care of the girls and wish to treat them honorably." The
+crying evils of the past have been largely done away. Rest, recreation,
+education, wages, and health are receiving careful consideration at all
+the leading factories. Still, no true parent would send a daughter to
+work in such a place, unless under the stress of dire poverty. There are
+still many small children under ten years of age, whose parents make
+false statements in regard to their ages. The work is from six in the
+morning to six in the evening. This means rising at four-thirty every
+morning for work on the day shift. Some factories have abolished the
+night shift. Fifteen minutes are allowed for rest in the middle of the
+forenoon, thirty minutes for lunch, and fifteen minutes again in the
+afternoon, giving thus eleven hours of steady work per day and the same
+per night. On pay days the girls, after standing eleven hours, have to
+stand in file from one to three hours more, according to their luck, and
+Miss Holland says that such long hours of standing result in serious
+organic difficulties. One half of the girls fail to work out their three
+years' contract, returning to their homes before time for marriage,
+seriously injured, if not completely ruined, physically. So long as this
+system continues, she adds, skilled labor is impossible. While some
+factories take great care that girls are carefully guarded from evil,
+others exercise no control whatever over their goings and doings. One
+factory she named as allowing its girls to be out on the streets till
+two o'clock in the morning. It insists on only two and a half hours of
+sleep! The difficulties connected with private boarding-houses for
+factory girls have proved so great that most of them have been closed.
+
+One of the tragic aspects of factory life in Japan is the large number
+of what would seem to us avoidable accidents, due to the fact that the
+girls know nothing whatever about machinery. Large factories accordingly
+keep surgeons on hand to care for the wounded. Miss Holland says that in
+one Osaka factory where there are a thousand operatives, the
+kind-hearted surgeon told her they had an average of fifty accidents
+daily which needed his attention. The little children especially suffer,
+often losing fingers. Not long since five fingers were clipped off in a
+single day! Miss Holland added that, improved though the conditions are,
+factory life for children is a "murder of the innocents." As a rule the
+food provided in factory dormitories is still inadequate. When asked
+whether corporal punishment is still inflicted, she expressed a doubt,
+having heard of none for a long time.
+
+In her conversation Miss Holland expressly limited her report to the
+factories she knows in Osaka. The question arises whether the conditions
+there may not be peculiar. May not factory conditions in Yokohama and
+Tokyo, where government inspection and control would theoretically be
+most complete, be better than elsewhere? The facts do not seem to
+justify such a surmise. The Kanegafuchi Company and some others have
+good factories everywhere, but there would seem also to be bad ones
+everywhere.
+
+A Japanese book on _Industrial Education_ has recently been published by
+a Mr. R. Uno, who, for fifteen years, has been a devoted student of
+Japan's industrial problems. A summary of the statistics there given
+appeared in May, 1914, in the _Tokyo Advertiser_, from which I cull the
+following facts and figures.
+
+In the cotton thread and spinning factories of Japan, there are 81 girls
+to 19 men. Out of 1,000 girls, 386 are over 20 years of age, 317 are
+from 17 to 20, 191 are from 15 to 16, 73 are from 12 to 14, while 7
+girls out of a thousand are under 12 years of age. The vast majority of
+factory girls live in the factory dormitories, which are of enormous
+size. In the region of Osaka there are more than 30,000 girls working in
+30 factories; in these same factories there are less than 7,000 men.
+Three of these factories employ over 3,000 girls each, while three more
+employ 2,000 and upward. These girls are herded together in enormous
+dormitories, disastrous both to health and morals. Statistics covering a
+number of years show that out of every 1,000 girls, 270 work less than
+six months at the same place; 200 less than one year, 179 less than two
+years; 121 less than three years; 141 less than five years, and only 89
+pass the five-year period. The usual reason for this extraordinary
+fluctuation of workers is that the girls break down in health.
+Government statistics declare that out of every 100 girls to enter upon
+factory work 23 die within one year of their return to their homes, and
+of these 50 per cent. die of tuberculosis. But it is also asserted that
+60 per cent. of the girls who leave home for factory work never return.
+Of the criminal girls arrested in Osaka for a certain period, 49 per
+cent. had been factory hands. As to the education of factory girls it is
+stated that, out of 1,000, the number that had completed the required
+number of years of schooling (six) was 450, while 385 were entirely
+without education. Out of 1,000 girls, 453 were orphans. Of 1,000 girls,
+611 came from farmers' homes, 166 from those of fishermen, and 55 from
+merchant homes, the remaining 168 being scattering. Factory girls earn
+and can save more than almost any other class. The average earnings per
+month are stated to be $4.67. The girl pays $1.20 per month for food,
+which is less than the actual cost, the factory providing the balance,
+namely, $1.30. The average girl sends home fifty cents per month. Three
+out of ten girls spend the balance entirely on clothes, five out of ten
+on cakes and theaters, while two out of ten save it. Such are some of
+the statements made by Mr. Uno in his enlightening book.
+
+In the September, 1910, number of the _Shin Koron_, a monthly magazine
+published in Tokyo, is an article by Professor Kuwada (of the Tokyo
+Imperial University) entitled "The Pitiful Environment of Factory
+Girls." He gives a detailed statement of the conditions of factory
+workers, in which he estimates the number of female laborers in
+factories containing ten or more hands at 700,000, of whom ten per cent.
+are under fourteen years of age. In tobacco factories ten per cent., in
+match factories twenty per cent, and in glass factories thirty per cent.
+of the girls are under ten years of age. He vigorously condemns the
+situation as threatening the future of the working class, whose
+prospective mothers are thus being destroyed. The efforts of the
+government during recent years to enact factory laws have been
+successfully thwarted thus far, says Professor Kuwada, by shortsighted,
+selfish capitalists. The girls are brought in from their country homes
+by false promises. They are told of the beautiful sights to be seen,
+theaters to be visited, the regular Sunday rest, and even of the
+splendid care and education they will receive from the factory. There is
+also stealing of expert workers from one factory by the artful
+stratagems of another. There are factories which resort to devices for
+defrauding helpless operatives. In one town where there are many
+factories, it is customary to work overtime by setting back the hands of
+the clock. To conceal this from the operatives, no factory blows its
+whistles! Some factories do not give time for the girls to rest even
+while they eat, but require them to work with the right hand while they
+eat with the left. Night work in which both male and female operatives
+are engaged together is most demoralizing. Punishment of various kinds
+is administered. In addition to fines, in some places the girls are
+imprisoned in dark rooms, rations are reduced, their arms are bound and
+the lash applied freely, and in extreme cases they are stripped to the
+waist and marched through the factory among young men and girls, bearing
+a red flag tied to the back! Superintendents are invariably men.
+
+So appalling was the statement made by Professor Kuwada that I could
+scarcely believe him in all the details, particularly in regard to the
+use of the lash and the stripping to the waist. I accordingly wrote
+both to him and to Professor Abe of Waseda University, who has made
+special study of the social problems and conditions of industry.
+Professor Kuwada, I learned, has been a careful student of social and
+industrial conditions for nearly twenty years, and is one of the leaders
+in the Society for the Study of Social Politics, composed of one hundred
+and fifty university professors and high government officials. This
+society was organized to aid the government in its efforts to secure
+social and industrial reforms. In reply to my inquiries Professor Kuwada
+says that most of the facts given concerning silk factories he has
+himself observed. Those concerning cotton spinning factories he has
+derived from reliable sources, chiefly from the officers of the
+Department of Agriculture and Commerce, who are especially engaged in
+making investigations in regard to industrial conditions. Much of the
+testimony rests on the statements of the girls themselves. Some of the
+facts come from local police and some from the published reports of the
+Department of Agriculture and Commerce. "The article in the _Shin
+Koron_ may therefore be regarded as semi-official," says Professor Abe.
+Since the appearance of the article referred to above, no reply has been
+made to it by factory owners or managers. As to the stripping of a girl
+to the waist and marching her through the factory filled with
+operatives, male and female, Professor Kuwada was told this by the girl
+herself. Under such circumstances, it is difficult to doubt the
+testimony. Nor is it probable that the cases cited are absolutely
+unique, although I think it highly probable that such extreme
+indignities and punishments are rare,--they are so out of keeping with
+the whole trend of Japanese civilization and culture. Mrs. Binford, a
+missionary in Mito, assures me, however, that altering the hands of the
+clock is a practise known to her. Testimony is widespread that girls are
+secured for factories by all kinds of false statements.
+
+In view of the frightful conditions of industrial labor thus indicated
+by Mr. Uno and Professor Kuwada, it is amazing that the Diet has
+refused on several successive occasions to enact suitable laws. The
+government began to realize in 1898 the need for legislation on these
+matters. A bill which was drafted and presented in 1902 was rejected, as
+were also three subsequent bills. The chief feature of the bill
+presented during the winter of 1910-11 was the provision that no factory
+may employ girls under twelve, and that girls of any age and youth under
+sixteen may not be kept at work for more than twelve hours per day, nor
+be made to do night work without "special reason." While some provisions
+of this bill were enacted and others amended, those considered most
+important by social reformers and by the government were virtually
+rejected. The bill was indeed passed, but with the added provision that
+the important clauses, relative to ages and night work, be inoperative
+for a period of fifteen years (!) in order to give time to the factories
+involved to adjust themselves to the new conditions. Since that time no
+further factory legislation has been enacted. Is it not astounding that
+in a land on the whole so progressive as Japan the difficulty of
+securing reform should be found in the Diet? The administration at this
+point is ahead of the representatives of the people, as it is indeed in
+many other respects. The fact is, as Professor Kuwada points out, that
+the "representatives" in both the lower and upper houses represent the
+financial interests of capitalists, rather than the human interests of
+the masses.
+
+But the reader, in his indignation over the situation of factory workers
+in Japan, should remember that Japan is no exceptional sinner among the
+nations. Christian England and America have had conditions equally bad,
+and possibly worse. Dr. Washington Gladden, in his article on "The
+Reason for the Unions," in the New York _Outlook_ for March, 1911, makes
+the following statements in regard to the condition of labor in England
+in the early part of the nineteenth century. Men and women stood daily
+at their tasks, from twelve to fourteen and fifteen hours; a working
+day of sixteen hours was not an unheard-of thing. Government reports of
+this period show that children of five and six years of age were
+frequently employed in factories. "Nor was this unmeasured abuse of
+child labor confined to the cotton, silk, and wool industries.... The
+report of 1842 is crammed with statements as to the fearful overwork of
+girls and boys in iron and coal mines, which doubtless had been going on
+from the end of the eighteenth century;... Children could get about
+where horses and mules could not. Little girls were forced to carry
+heavy buckets of coal up high ladders, and little girls and boys instead
+of animals dragged the coal bunkers. Women were constantly employed
+underground at the filthiest tasks. Through all this period the wages
+gravitated downward and family income was steadily lowered, while the
+cost of food increased. The homes of the workers were ruined. In a
+certain congested district there lived 26,830 persons in 5,366
+families, three fourths of which possessed but one room each. The rooms
+were without furniture, without everything; two married couples often
+shared the same room. In some cases there was not even a heap of straw
+on which to sleep. In one cellar the pastor found two families and a
+donkey; two of the children had died and the third was dying." And these
+conditions existed, not in days of industrial depression, but in flush
+times; business was booming and wealth accumulating in the hands of
+factory owners and employers.
+
+Many of the conditions of industrial workers even in the United States
+to-day are heartrending in the extreme. Who could read of the strike of
+the shirt-waist makers of New York in the winter of 1909-10 without deep
+indignation over the conditions under which those brave girls worked,
+and against which they rebelled? The National Committee on Child Labor
+reported in the spring of 1911 that there were over 60,000 children in
+the factories of the United States, mostly in the South. Before
+condemning Japan unduly, Occidentals should remember that their own
+record is none too bright.
+
+If comparison is to be made however between Japan and the West, it may
+be made along other lines. The West fell into its industrial
+difficulties with no example from which to learn. But this is not true
+of Japan. She can easily learn the lesson of a century of Western
+experience; but she seems slow to do it. Then again in Japan it is the
+government that is feebly leading, and the official popular
+representatives who are both blind and resisting, whereas in the West
+the great movements for industrial reform are movements of the people
+themselves, backed up and oftentimes led by enlightened humanitarian and
+Christian popular opinion. In the West, the churches are fairly in line
+with forward social movements, whereas in Japan, Shintoism,
+Confucianism, and even Buddhism are apparently wholly indifferent to the
+economic and even ethical condition of the nation's toilers.
+Furthermore, we are seeing to-day in Japan the strange phenomenon of
+one section of the government seeking to ameliorate social and economic
+conditions, and at the same time another, seemingly mortally afraid of
+allowing the people either to discuss these matters or to attempt reform
+movements themselves. Labor unions are strictly forbidden, and any
+person advocating socialism is under strict police surveillance. Strikes
+are illegal and their promoters are liable to criminal punishment.
+Anomalous as it may be, the government seems to be seeking to destroy
+that enlightened popular opinion on which it must rely for the efficient
+enforcement of its own plans for social betterment of the working
+classes.
+
+I have dwelt at considerable length on the conditions of factory
+workers, for later on I shall describe a sociological experiment among
+this class.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+GEISHA (HETAERAE)
+
+
+The word _geisha_ means an "accomplished person." A geisha is invariably
+a young woman who has had years of training fitting her to provide
+social entertainment for men. The _gei_ acquired are skill in playing
+the samisen (a three-stringed guitar), singing catching ditties, taking
+part in conversation and repartee, and in "dancing," which is to the
+Western mind rather a highly conventional posturing, with deft
+manipulations of the inevitable fan. Years of exacting and diligent work
+are required for proficiency in these "gei,"--the Geisha School in Kyoto
+provides a course of six or seven years.
+
+                    [Illustration: O HAMAYU (GEISHA)
+                       Most celebrated in Tokyo]
+
+According to the Japanese ideal, geisha singing must be shrill, and to
+secure this quality the voice is purposely strained till it is
+"cracked." Girls eight to ten years old are sometimes given their
+"singing lessons" in the frosty air of winter mornings before sunrise,
+or late at night, in order that they may take cold in the throat and
+then, by persistent, vigorous use, the voice is "broken" for life.
+Training in dancing and samisen playing is also prolonged and severe,
+for no pains are spared in efforts to excel. These efforts however are
+due, not to the will or desire of the _maiko_, the poor little girl who
+is being trained, but to the persistence of her owner.
+
+Only daughters of the very poor are secured for this outwardly beautiful
+and attractive, but inwardly repulsive, soul-destroying life.
+Practically speaking, geisha are the property of the old women who
+support and educate them through the years of their childhood, and who
+rent them out by the hour for the entertainment of men at social
+functions. Such functions would, indeed, be inane without geisha to
+serve the meals in their dainty ways, to fill the sake[5] cups for
+guests, to share in conversation by adding the spice, to provoke
+laughter, themselves laughing loudly and often, and at the proper time,
+to present their music, their singing, and their dancing. Dressed in
+faultless style, in richest silks and brilliant colors, geisha are
+moving pictures which have charmed generations of Japanese men and, in
+recent decades, many foreigners. Japanese political party dinners and
+consultations are often held in restaurants, where geisha make the fun
+and pour the wine. If foreign guests are to be entertained by wealthy
+individuals, by companies, or even by cities, the inevitable geisha is
+there, and is presented as a characteristic product of Japan--which she
+truly is. But while there is about her a certain charm of manner and
+dress, to one who watches her face, looking for traces of a soul, the
+story is all too plain--behind the harsh laugh and stoical face it is
+impossible not to recognize that there is an empty and often a bleeding
+heart.
+
+    [5] Sake (pronounced sah'-ke) is the fermented liquor of Japan,
+        made from rice.
+
+The lives of these girls are pitiful in the extreme. Chosen from among
+the families of the poor on the basis of their prospective good looks
+and ability to learn, they leave their homes at an early age and are
+subjected to the severe drill already outlined. They go through their
+lessons with rigid, mechanical accuracy. In public they appear in
+gorgeous robes, their faces painted and powdered, artificiality
+dominating everything about them,--clothing, manners, and smiles. As a
+rule nothing is done to develop their minds, and of course the
+cultivation of personal character is not even thought of. They are
+instructed in flippant conversation and pungent retort, that they may
+converse interestingly with the men, for whose entertainment they are
+alone designed. The songs learned, some of the dances performed, and the
+conversational repertoire acquired are commonly reported to be highly
+licentious, but these are the gei that best please the men, to whom
+they are open for private engagements from the time they are eighteen
+years of age. If, however, a geisha is exceptionally beautiful, her
+owner does not allow her to enter on such duties, for experience has
+shown that her beauty is soon lost in this way, and with it her highest
+earning capacity.
+
+Many geisha undoubtedly develop considerable personal ability. The
+severe drill undergone could hardly fail to call forth their powers of
+mind, and intimate association with educated and quasi-cultured men
+serves further to stimulate their mental faculties. In native ability
+too they are not lacking, though drawn from the lowest classes of
+society, for, as will soon be more fully explained, they sometimes
+possess strains of high lineage. The national custom, which represses
+the normal intellectual development and social instincts of cultured,
+respectable women, is removed from this one class, which is favored by
+many circumstances. They are not subjected to the debauching excesses
+usual with the ordinary prostitute, nor to humiliating medical
+inspection. They are not conscious of popular disapproval, but on the
+contrary are the beauties of the town, their photographs for sale on
+every street. Indeed one well-informed gentleman told me that probably
+ten per cent. of the geisha enter the calling by their own choice. No
+wonder that from time to time the tale is told of some Japanese man of
+social position falling under the spell of an accomplished geisha, whom
+he prefers to any of the silent, passive, timid, incompetent girls
+selected for him, who in all probability have never talked with any man
+except immediate relatives or tradesmen. The national custom which
+predetermines the social incompetence of the majority of cultured women
+compensates for the loss by providing this geisha class. Not until
+Japanese ladies can hold their own in social life will the vocation of
+the geisha be ended.
+
+Among the surprises one meets in studying the geisha question is the
+fact that not a few of the girls have features which indicate
+distinguished ancestry. My explanation for this fact is the further fact
+that for ages the standards of moral life in Japan have allowed large
+freedom of sexual relations. The result is that in the lowest classes,
+from which geisha are recruited, there run strains of gentle blood. It
+thus comes to pass that now in the midst of coarse surroundings and in
+deep poverty there are born of parents manifestly belonging to the
+lowest class, children of exceptional beauty, fitted, so far as
+individual appearance indicates, to belong to the highest ranks of
+society. Whether or not this suggested explanation is correct as a
+matter of historic fact I am not able to say, but I offer it as the most
+plausible that has occurred to me.
+
+Parents in this class of society much prefer daughters to sons, for they
+are likely to become valuable sources of income. At eight or nine, those
+destined for the "accomplished" calling are put into the care of some
+experienced geisha and a mutual contract is given for a specific period
+(five or six years), during which the child is termed a _maiko_
+(dancing girl). As a rule the parents receive a small sum at the
+beginning of this first period. The owner undertakes to support and
+train the girl, and expects to profit by her earnings. By the time the
+girl is fifteen or sixteen she has finished her apprenticeship, when, if
+she has exceptional graces and charms likely to win her a place in the
+highest social gatherings, she will secure quite a competency (many
+hundreds of yen, and in some cases even a few thousand) for the keeper
+and parents. On the expiration of the first contract a new one is made,
+and so on, until the girl has passed her prime and is no longer sought
+for entertainments. If in the interval she has not become the concubine
+of some rich man, she then either returns to her poor home or, what is
+more usual, becomes a servant in a hotel or tea-house. If her ability is
+exceptional, she may set up as geisha keeper, train other maiko, employ
+younger geisha, and so make her living.
+
+The great ambition of a geisha is to "catch" some wealthy man of rank
+with her charms and become his concubine. My informant estimates that
+this is what happens to perhaps one half of the geisha. In such cases
+the man pays down a handsome sum to the owner, who sends part of it to
+the parents. Thus he buys his concubine, whom he usually keeps in a
+villa, not his home. I have asked if geisha ever become true, legal
+wives and am told "only very rarely." But, if they do, are they
+cordially received by the man's kindred? "Oh, no! that is not possible,"
+is the repeated answer. The effects of her training can never be
+obliterated, and the new relatives cannot forget the despicable class
+from which she comes, and the calling by which she has gained her
+husband. She may become indeed refined and altogether correct in manner,
+but the taint of her origin as a rule adheres to her. Then too the years
+of immoral life before she won her husband make it a rare thing for a
+geisha to have children, and childless wives in Japan are not at a
+premium, for the prime purpose of marriage is the maintenance of the
+family line.
+
+Foreigners commonly say that geisha are not prostitutes. It is true they
+are not licensed, that is to say, professional, prostitutes in the eye
+of the law, nor are they procurable, as are regular prostitutes, by the
+average man, for the expense is too great. But the chief of police
+already referred to, and many Japanese of whom I have inquired, insist
+that a large proportion of geisha are corrupt--two geisha keepers have
+estimated the proportion as high as ninety per cent. Geisha who decline
+engagements leading to immorality are rare indeed, and for that very
+reason are unpopular.
+
+But better than generalized statements is the story of an actual life.
+There lives to-day in Hyogo a paralytic whose influence through her
+words, newspaper articles, and books is widely felt throughout central
+Japan. She is one of the few girls who, though trained as a geisha,
+refused to follow the calling. The story of her life is worthy of more
+than passing mention.
+
+Her father died in her infancy, and shortly after the death of her
+mother, who had married, her stepfather likewise married again. These
+stepparents, deciding to have her become a geisha, expended much time
+and money on her training.
+
+When she was prepared at sixteen years of age, she was entrusted to a
+woman whose business it was to find employment for geisha in hotels and
+tea-houses. This woman took her to a house in Osaka, where there were
+already many geisha and regular prostitutes. Learning the nature of the
+duties expected of her, she positively refused to comply. In spite of
+the fact that it was twenty miles to her home and that there were but
+two sen in her pocket, she escaped from the hotel, spent one sen on
+bridge toll, one sen on a lunch, and succeeded in walking all that
+distance alone, reaching home after midnight, the home from which she
+had been sent out with hopes that she should win for her stepparents an
+ample support. The reception accorded her can be fancied. She held
+firmly however to her resolve, preferring poverty and hard toil to
+luxury and fine clothing along with that service on which these were
+conditioned. Work was found for her in a factory, then as a family
+servant, and finally at a small tea-house, where during the winter she
+was especially exposed to the cold. An attack of rheumatism developed
+into paralysis. With no hope of recovery she longed for death, for her
+stepparents, considering the case hopeless, neglected to care for her
+properly, although she was so helpless. She could not feed herself, nor
+even crawl to the well in which she wished to drown herself,--the final
+resource of many a despairing Japanese woman. But, by a strange series
+of circumstances, or should we not say by a merciful Providence? a
+Christian man discovered and befriended her, told the story of Jesus,
+and revealed the Savior. Her faith soon became so strong and her words
+proved so thoughtful and helpful to those Christian friends who came to
+see her, that her influence began to spread. She found she could manage
+to write with her crippled hand, and as what she wrote was like her
+spoken words, simple and strong, it soon found its way into print. She
+was finally led to write the story of her life, and this book, with
+other articles written by her, has afforded a small income, which with
+additional help from friends has secured a comfortable home for herself
+and the family of which she is now the center. Her name is Zako Aiko,
+and she lives in Hyogo.
+
+A few geisha, coming under Christian influences, have been converted,
+and so far as I know, such persons leave the calling altogether, as
+incompatible with Christian principles. But condemnation of the whole
+geisha system is not confined to Christians. Many Japanese, entirely
+outside our Christian circles, regard it as a disgrace to the country,
+and wish the whole business, along with licensed prostitution, concealed
+from public view. For instance, a man of high official rank, president
+of a large institution, tells me he regrets that there is no first-class
+Japanese hotel in Kyoto at which he may entertain foreign guests in
+Japanese style, except where geisha serve the meals. Rather than
+countenance the geisha system, he prefers to take his guests to a hotel
+where the service is not so perfect but where the women employed are
+above suspicion. He deplored the fact one day that all foreigners coming
+to Kyoto in the spring visit the _Miyako odori_, commonly known in
+English as the "Cherry Dance." I myself have seen this performance more
+than once, and found nothing objectionable in either the so-called
+dancing, its setting, or its accompaniments. It nevertheless affords
+opportunity for the display of something like eighty or ninety geisha,
+and helps to maintain the business and the system. As indicating the
+status of geisha in the best Japanese society, it is significant that
+all geisha are rigidly excluded from every entertainment where any
+member of the Imperial household is present.
+
+It is often said by foreigners that geisha and prostitutes not
+infrequently make happy matches, and by legal marriage escape from their
+unhappy lives of shame. This is one of those pretty fables one would
+like to believe, but the facts do not seem to support the theory. There
+are, no doubt, rare instances where such has been the case. I have known
+two women who had been geisha and who married men of some position. In
+one case the man was a physician. When I knew the family the ex-geisha
+had been in the home a number of years and was a lovely, modest, capable
+woman, a regular member of my wife's cooking class. But it was
+noticeable that she always took a "back seat" among the ladies; she was
+tolerated by them and treated not unkindly, but it was clear that they
+looked down on her. The man's kindred never favored the match, and would
+not let him marry the woman legally, so she lived in his house, took
+excellent care of his first wife's children, and was to them all that a
+stepmother could be, yet, so far as I know, she has never gained her
+full position in the home of her husband nor among his relatives.
+
+The other case I knew but slightly, as she died but a few weeks after I
+made her acquaintance, but she must have been a woman of exceptional
+character. She was a Christian and highly respected in the church.
+
+Such cases, however, are rare. A geisha may be in high favor during the
+decade or more when at the height of her physical charms, though even
+then her inner life is empty and loveless; but when no longer attractive
+she is cast aside as a faded flower, to spend the rest of her life
+forlorn, unloved, and uncared for. Truly, the way of the geisha is hard!
+
+    Geisha naru mi to;
+    Michi tobu tori wa
+    Doko no idzuko de
+    Hateru yara,
+
+is a popular ditty regarding the final disappearance of geisha from
+sight. It may be roughly translated: "What becomes of geisha, do you
+ask? I ask in turn, where end their lives the birds that fly along the
+road?"
+
+In regard to the number of geisha, Mr. Murphy's statistics show that
+from 1887 to 1897 they increased throughout Japan from 10,326 to 26,536,
+and since then the increase has been relatively small, the number being
+now in the vicinity of 30,000.
+
+So far as is known to me, no regular Christian or philanthropic work is
+done for this class.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+_SHOGI_ (LICENSED PROSTITUTES)
+
+
+It may seem strange to class prostitutes among working women, but the
+facts require such classification, for, not only so far as the parents
+and brothel keepers are concerned, but also so far as the girls
+themselves are concerned, it is entirely a matter of money. If the
+business did not pay splendidly, the keepers would not erect their
+handsome buildings, pay the heavy license fees, nor buy the girls from
+the parents at considerable cost. And on the other hand, if the parents
+did not receive what they regard as large sums for their daughters, the
+latter would not be sold to such lives of shame and disease. And so far
+as the poor victims are concerned, there is abundant evidence that they
+often go into the wretched business solely at the command of their
+parents, for among the lowest class the noble doctrine of obedience to
+parents is shamefully perverted to this vile end. Children are taught
+that obedience is a child's first duty, regardless of the question
+whether the thing required by parents is right or wrong. The girl goes
+to the brothel in obedience to her parents, who send her there to earn a
+living for herself and to help them out of special financial
+difficulties. Thus from first to last, so far as the girls, the parents,
+and the keepers are concerned, the question is economic.
+
+Among the working women of Japan prostitutes surely are the most pitiful
+of all. They give the most and get the least. They receive no training,
+like the geisha; have no liberty; to prevent their running away, are
+imprisoned in brothels, or if diseased or ill, in hospitals; and have no
+friends except possibly other prostitutes. Most of them soon loathe the
+business, but are helpless, hopeless prisoners,--for the keepers who
+paid their parents a few score or hundreds of yen and loaded them with
+beautiful clothes, charge all these items to their account, so that they
+are under a heavy debt which must be paid before they can leave. This
+debt the laws of the land theoretically ignore but practically
+recognize, for the "keeper" keeps the books as well as the brothel, and
+the police and officials are often on his side. In this way licentiously
+inclined officials, merchants, and travelers provide for the easy,
+economical, and legal satisfaction of their desires.
+
+I do not propose here to give a detailed account of this distressful and
+disgusting "business." Those who desire more information should procure
+_The Social Evil in Japan_, by the Rev. U. G. Murphy. Some years ago Mr.
+Murphy, by grit and pluck, carried certain test cases through the courts
+and secured legal opportunity for girls to quit the business if they
+wished. The Salvation Army and some of the daily papers took pains to
+let the brothel girls know their legal rights, and in a short period
+over twelve thousand, at that time over one third of the whole number,
+left the brothels, so that for a while the business was prostrated in
+many quarters. This single fact shows the spirit and attitude of a large
+number of the girls. Since then the wily keepers and all interested in
+maintaining this lucrative trade have succeeded in modifying the
+administration of the regulations, so that the girls are again closely
+controlled.
+
+There is however a rising public conscience and an abolition movement is
+gathering strength. The virtual slavery of the girls; the fact that they
+are openly bought and sold, and that, too, under governmental
+supervision and sanction; the cruelty inflicted on many girls by their
+keepers; the fraud practised in connection with their accounts, whereby
+a girl is kept hopelessly in debt, so that, however faithful she may be,
+release is impossible, and indeed the more faithful the more profitable
+she is to her keeper--all these facts are becoming widely known and are
+beginning to arouse public indignation. The government is openly
+charged with protecting slavery, and that of the worst kind. High
+government officials are being condemned for licentiousness.
+
+As signs of the times, I give a few facts. In the summer of 1909 the
+wealthiest and most centrally located prostitute quarter in Osaka was
+completely wiped out by a great fire. Before the flames were fully out,
+the anti-brothel forces realized their opportunity and under the
+leadership of the Young Men's Christian Association and Young Women's
+Christian Union began to agitate for refusal to allow the rebuilding of
+the business in that region of the city. A petition was prepared and
+signed by one hundred thousand people. Large numbers of Osaka's best
+citizens allied themselves with the movement. The result was that the
+authorities in charge saw fit to yield to the pressure and arranged that
+the new buildings for prostitution should be erected on the outskirts of
+the city.
+
+In the winter of 1911, the city of Tokyo suffered from a great
+conflagration which completely destroyed the section of the city known
+as "Yoshiwara,"[6] which for three hundred years has been assigned to
+prostitution. This center of the social evil had become enormously
+wealthy, and such magnificent buildings had been erected for the
+business that it had become one of the famous sights of Tokyo. Before
+the fire was fairly over, the anti-brothel forces began to organize
+their campaign, which continued for months. A magazine called _Purity_
+(_Kaku Sei_) was started. In this case, however, success did not crown
+their efforts.
+
+    [6] Foreigners commonly, but mistakenly, suppose that "Yoshiwara"
+        means "Prostitute Quarter."
+
+Not long since an army division was located in the vicinity of Wakayama,
+a city of considerable importance, not far from Osaka, in which there
+have never been any prostitute houses. This led to the suggestion that
+it would be well to open there a regular prostitute quarter. The matter
+was keenly discussed and the proposition carried through the city
+council and authorized by all the lower officials, but when it came
+finally before the prefectural governor for signature, it was vetoed,
+and the veto message is worthy of preservation and careful consideration
+by those who are interested in these matters.
+
+The governor says in his message: "I was early convinced that the
+establishment of licensed quarters in the city was harmful to the public
+interest. It has been a subject of discussion in Wakayama now for many
+years, and I have investigated the question thoroughly from the
+standpoint of public morals, health, and economics, at places with and
+without licensed quarters, and find that the existence of such
+institutions is distinctly harmful. The standard of morals is lowered,
+the public health impaired, disease made rampant, the young are sent
+into wrong channels, homes are broken up, and extravagance is
+encouraged. The state of affairs in Shingu, in this prefecture of
+Wakayama, where licensed houses have been established, clearly shows
+that the existence of such places is extremely harmful to public
+interest. The majority representation to the authorities urged the
+establishment of licensed quarters on the ground that the quarters would
+promote the prosperity of that section of the city in which they were
+situated. It is true they may benefit a section of the city in one way,
+but the benefit so obtained would be offset by many other evils. The
+military authorities are strongly opposed to the establishment of
+licensed quarters, and their views are very reasonable. For these
+reasons I have decided to refuse permission for the establishment of
+licensed quarters in Wakayama city."[7]
+
+    [7] As translated by the _Japan Chronicle_, May 13, 1911.
+
+In passing, it is worthy of record that the prefecture of Joshu has for
+over thirty years, by ceaseless vigilance, prevented government sanction
+of prostitution. Repeatedly has the battle been fought and repeatedly
+have the anti-brothel forces won. In this respect Joshu stands alone
+among the forty-eight prefectures of the Japanese empire.
+
+As illustrating the low moral ideals prevailing among a certain class of
+men, Professor Abe of Waseda University, in a recent brothel-abolition
+speech, told of a certain politician who, though a fast liver, was
+praised because he never debauched the wives and daughters of his
+friends, but always confined himself to those women whose services he
+fully paid for in hard cash! Colonel Yamamuro, the highest Japanese
+officer in the Salvation Army, on the same evening, speaking of the low
+moral ideals of the classes from which prostitutes are drawn, said that
+in connection with the Salvation Army he had had opportunity to know of
+twelve hundred girls who had been aided in the two rescue homes of the
+Army. Of these twelve hundred about one half had been prostitutes. The
+reasons given by them for leaving were various, such as ill health,
+cruelty, lovers, but not one said she left the business because it was
+wrong. The evidence is full and convincing that a considerable section
+of the Japanese people do not regard loose sexual relations as
+particularly immoral.
+
+In regard to the statistics of prostitutes, the figures given by Mr.
+Murphy are probably the most accurate available, and are substantially
+official. Between 1887 and 1897 the number of prostitutes increased from
+27,559 to 47,055, reaching their maximum in 1899, when there were
+52,410. Then, following up the work of Mr. Murphy and the Salvation
+Army, came the "cessation movement," reducing the number to 40,195 in
+1901, and the following year to 38,676. Since that date the number has
+grown. In two years four thousand fresh girls were bought up, and a
+thousand more the following year. The latest statistics are those for
+1906, when the number of prostitutes was reported as 44,542. It is safe
+to say that at the present time the number is near, if it has not
+passed, the fifty thousand mark.
+
+It would be natural to suppose that recruits for the geisha and shogi
+occupations would be found largely among the poorest farmers, but both
+my outdoor man and also my cook assert that such is not the fact.
+"Farmers would never sell their daughters for such vile purposes,
+however poor they might become. Parents who do such things are only the
+degenerate creatures who live in cities," is the scornful remark of my
+gardener. My cook asserts the same thing, and adds that farmers'
+daughters have not the genteel features and figures nor the light
+complexion essential to girls seeking such occupations. Other
+investigations confirm these assertions. The great cities of Nagoya and
+Niigata, and indeed the whole of Echigo, are famous for the supply of
+girls they send to the brothels of Tokyo. A poor man with several
+daughters has a pretty good investment, and rejoices more at the birth
+of a girl than of a boy, because it means an early and definite income.
+
+I found at one time in Matsuyama that all the girls of sixteen to
+eighteen years of age in a certain poor quarter had, in the course of
+one year, been sold off to the brothels. About that time a man came to
+me with a pitiful story of poverty; he had five children, but
+unfortunately they were all boys; had they been girls, he said, he might
+have sold some of them and so not have needed to ask my aid!
+
+The word used in connection with both geisha and prostitutes is
+perfectly frank; no effort is made to conceal by terms the nature of
+the transaction. The girls are "bought" and "sold." They employ the
+same words as those used in buying and selling animals, food,
+clothing--anything. Their purchase and sale is a regular business in
+which men and women openly engage, traveling the country over in search
+of girls, and conducting them in small groups to the keepers of
+brothels, who pay so much a head. And this takes place in civilized
+Japan! Moreover, in spite of the fact that girls may thus be bought, it
+is true that they are also occasionally stolen. I have known of a
+pitiful instance where the girl, a member of a respectable family, was
+boxed and shipped on a steamer as freight, to elude the police, and
+taken to Siam. In five years she has succeeded in getting one letter to
+her home, but the parents dare not put the matter into the hands of
+Japanese officials, as that would make the situation hopeless.
+
+But Occidentals may not forget how terrible a scourge is commercialized
+vice in civilized and so-called "Christian" Europe, and who has not
+heard of the "white slavery" of America, with its stealing of girls and
+young women for purposes of prostitution? The institution of comparisons
+between nations and individuals is alike odious,--but unavoidable. A
+fair comparison would seem to be that, whereas in the West the moral
+sense of a large proportion of the people is very strongly against the
+social evil and seeks to abolish it, in Japan the moral sense of the
+mass of the population acquiesces in the situation, so that the
+government and a vast majority of the influential people of the land
+unite to make the business safe, legal, and remunerative; and that,
+while in Occidental Christian lands no girl can voluntarily enter this
+sphere of life without being conscious of its shame and immorality, many
+of the girls of Japan may have no adequate knowledge of these inevitable
+consequences until their fate has been sealed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+AMELIORATIVE EFFORTS
+
+
+The reader will desire to know what, if any, have been the efforts to
+ameliorate the evils described in preceding pages. They are of two
+kinds: first, governmental in origin, general in scope, legal and
+educative in method; and second, private in origin, both general and
+specific in scope, personal, educative, ethical, and religious in
+method.
+
+The general educational policy of the government is not to be regarded
+as a philanthropic or ameliorative effort to meet the conditions already
+described. This policy however does have a powerful elevating influence
+on the lives and character of the entire people. As we have seen, over
+ninety-seven per cent. of the girls of school age are in attendance,
+according to the reports. Though we allow a discount on these figures
+(and some may perhaps be necessary), we can still say that, if the
+present policy of six years of compulsory education is carried out, the
+rising generation of boys and girls will be able to read fairly well the
+daily paper and simple books. To millions of women this means the
+opening of doors of knowledge and opportunity which in ages past have
+been closed to them.
+
+The government has also been the chief initiative force in all recent
+movements to improve the economic and industrial conditions of the
+people. Railroads in Japan owe their existence to the government, as
+also do many forms of modern industry. Agriculture and fruit and stock
+raising owe much to the government, which has imported Western seed,
+Western fruit trees, and new breeds of horses and cattle. All these
+efforts have done much to improve the economic conditions, thus
+elevating the scale of living. People eat better food and more of it,
+live in better houses, and wear better clothes than they did fifty or
+more years ago, and--an important item--they pay less taxes in
+proportion to their income. A general uplifting process is modifying
+their life and thought, and this is profoundly affecting Japan's working
+classes, and, of course, her women.
+
+In regard to the specific evils introduced by Western industrialism, we
+have already seen how the government has sought to remedy the
+difficulties, so far as laws can go, but hitherto its efforts have
+largely been thwarted by capitalists.
+
+Among the notable efforts of the government to promote wise social
+reform movements have been the large gatherings, at considerable
+government expense, of leaders of philanthropic and benevolent
+institutions for instruction in the most recent and approved
+sociological principles. Competent specialists from all over the country
+have been employed to instruct these leaders, and thus the whole country
+is given the benefit of the special knowledge of the few. The government
+has also, during the past four years, distributed some forty thousand
+yen annually among those eleemosynary institutions which it regards as
+models of efficiency.
+
+Furthermore, opportunity for the higher education of women, first given
+on a wide scale during the past decade, while not yet affecting working
+women to any appreciable extent, cannot fail to do so as time passes,
+for it proclaims the intrinsic ability of woman and gives her a standing
+of intellectual equality with man, in sharp contrast to the humiliating
+position assigned to her by popular Buddhism, which has taught that
+women must be reborn as men before they can be saved. Indeed, they are
+born women because of their sins. A Japanese proverb has it that one
+must never trust a woman, even if she has borne you seven children! This
+long-believed doctrine as to the inherent incapacity and essential
+depravity of woman has no doubt been a powerful cause of her social
+degradation. Under the present system of general education, however,
+these doctrines and beliefs will soon be completely overthrown, thus
+making room for and producing great changes in the social and industrial
+conditions of all women.
+
+But the government is not the sole worker for the social amelioration of
+industrial conditions. Through private effort forces are being
+introduced which are more potent than any the government knows or can
+control. I refer to the gospel of Jesus Christ. This has already
+introduced such a leaven into Japanese society that nothing can now
+prevent its transforming the whole mass in time.
+
+Should the entire foreign body of 624 Protestant and 371 Roman Catholic
+missionaries be withdrawn from Japan, there would still remain (January,
+1914) 728 ordained and 713 unordained Japanese Protestant pastors and
+trained evangelists, and 331 Bible women. Among the 815 organized
+churches, 182 are wholly self-supporting. In addition to the 90,000
+Protestant communicants, 67,000 Roman Catholic people, and 32,000 Greek
+Christians among the Japanese, it is estimated by Christian pastors that
+there are many hundreds of thousands of the people who are conducting
+their lives according to the principles and with the spirit of Jesus.
+
+Furthermore, a careful study of modern Japanese civilization shows that
+the Christian conception of man as having intrinsic and inherent worth
+has been embodied in the constitution and laws of the land and is being
+put into wide practise. The rights of children, women, and inferiors and
+the duties of parents, husbands, and superiors are new notes in Japan,
+and are sounding forth a richer music than has ever before been heard in
+the Orient.
+
+Of course there are still discordant notes, as we have seen when
+considering the subject of the buying and selling of geisha and
+prostitutes; but so there are even in so-called Christian lands.
+Nevertheless, the conception of the value of the individual and of his
+rights is inspiring a hope among the lowly and hitherto downtrodden and
+oppressed sections of the nation which cannot be extinguished, and will
+in due time powerfully transform the traditional civilization, giving to
+woman a place of equality along with man in the estimation of all.
+
+The general education of girls, and especially their higher education,
+is signal proof of a wide acceptance of Christian conceptions. According
+to the _Resume Statistique_ (1914), there were, in 1911-12, 250 girls'
+high schools, public and private, whose pupils numbered 64,809. In
+addition, the number of women in normal schools preparing to become
+elementary school-teachers was 8,271, and in the higher normal schools,
+570. The number of female teachers is reported at 42,739. These girls'
+high and normal schools, through the ability they give their graduates
+to converse with men on a basis of intellectual equality in regard to
+topics of current interest while retaining their modesty and personal
+character, are so transforming the reticent habits and unsocial customs
+of Japanese ladies that ere long scant room will be left for the
+old-time geisha.
+
+The change Christianity is silently bringing to the home life of Japan,
+adding to its sweetness, purity, and conscious unity, and contributing a
+mighty uplift to both head and heart, few as yet have either eyes to see
+or ears to hear. The influence already exerted by Christian ideas and
+ideals on the traditional conceptions of Japan in regard to home life,
+marriage, childhood, the poor and lowly, the orphan, the blind, the
+leper, and the diseased generally,--in a word on the value of the
+individual and his inalienable, God-given rights,--is so widespread and
+so beneficent that it receives little specific comment and no
+opposition.
+
+There were no doubt in old Japan certain influences predisposing many to
+the new ideals and practises introduced from the West. It is difficult,
+perhaps impossible, at this stage in Japan's development to reckon
+accurately how much of Japan's new life is due to new factors introduced
+from Christendom, and how much to ideals already operative in the
+feudal system. No one can doubt, however, that Christian ideals have
+been the most important factors in the West to give woman her present
+status. Nor can we doubt that Christian ideals and practises are playing
+an important role in the modern emancipation of women in Japan.
+
+Those who criticize missionaries as forcing the Christian religion upon
+unwilling peoples know not whereof they speak. The Christian faith would
+make no progress whatever in Japan were it not found by Japanese
+themselves to be ennobling and satisfying. It is welcomed because it
+brings hope and peace and power to those who were hopeless and restless
+and powerless.
+
+But he is very shortsighted who thinks that the main forces
+Christianizing Japan are wielded by the foreign missionary. The
+missionary doubtless is an essential agent, but of far more importance
+is the work of Japanese Christians themselves; and in addition to these
+is the general though vague influence exerted by Western civilization
+as a whole, and particularly by the English language and literature. In
+that important work, _Fifty Years of New Japan_, are many remarkable
+chapters, but especially noteworthy are those entitled "Social Changes
+of New Japan," and "Influence of the West upon Japan," from the pens of
+competent, wide-awake Japanese scholars.
+
+Consider what Professor Nitobe says: "The greatest influence of the West
+is, after all, the spiritual.... Christianity has influenced the thought
+and lives of many individuals in Japan, and will influence many more,
+eventually affecting the nation through the altered view-point and
+personnel of the citizen and the administrator. The character-changing
+power of the religion of Jesus I believe to be only just now making
+itself appreciably evident in our midst." Somewhat further on, referring
+to the English language, he writes: "The effect of the acquisition of
+the English tongue on the mental habits--I had almost said on the
+unconscious cerebrations of our people--is incalculable.... The moral
+influence of some of its simple text-books used in our schools cannot be
+overrated.... They have been instrumental in opening new vistas of
+thought and vast domains of enterprise and interest to young minds."
+
+No student of Japan's new life, resulting from the influence of Western
+and Christian ideas and ideals, should fail to familiarize himself with
+the eighth issue (1910) of _The Christian Movement in Japan_, which
+gives a series of remarkable addresses delivered by Japanese and
+foreigners at the semicentennial celebration of the beginning of
+Protestant missions in Japan. Especial attention should be paid to the
+section treating of the "Influence of Christianity on Japanese Thought
+and Life."
+
+It will be obvious to any thoughtful person that changes so wide and
+deep, affecting all the fundamental conceptions of life, of manhood and
+womanhood, of the state, of law and justice, of right and duty, are not
+confined to those whose privilege it is to study Western books and
+acquire the higher education. In ten thousand ways the whole national
+life is being transformed, slowly it may be and silently, yet surely and
+steadily. And the benefits are accruing to the most lowly and least
+educated no less than to those at the top. All the working women of
+Japan have already received in some degree, and in the future will more
+and more receive, the blessings and the uplift which are coming to the
+nation through its contact with the Christian conceptions and standards
+embedded in Western civilization and literature.
+
+A volume--nay, many volumes--would be needed to tell in detail the story
+of how the Christian message has been and is being conveyed to the
+people of Japan. We should make known the story of Joseph Hardy Neesima,
+of the Kumamoto Band, of Dr. Clark and Dr. Hepburn, of Young Men's
+Christian Association teachers of English in government schools, of
+faithful, self-sacrificing pastors, evangelists, Bible women, and
+missionaries. We should recount the deeds of heroic lay Christians in
+all the walks of life, and above all in their homes, too often hostile,
+commending their new-found faith by their new spirit and life. We should
+tell of the work of Christian teachers of ethics in the prisons, and the
+remarkable results secured. We should relate the experiences of those
+who have struggled for the rights of prostitutes, of Salvation Army
+officers, of matrons of reform homes, of managers of ex-convicts' homes,
+of founders of orphan asylums, of supporters of private charity
+hospitals. We should tell the story of the scores of Christian
+institutions the central aim of which is to express in concrete life the
+Christian's faith and hope and love.
+
+But in addition to the narrative of direct Christian work, full heed
+should be given to the evidences of the wide acceptance by the nation of
+the best Christian ideals in matters of philanthropy. To meet the needs
+of the famine sufferers in north Japan during the winter and spring of
+1914, and of those who were deprived of their all by the terrific
+volcanic explosion of the island of Sakurajima in January, 1914, more
+than a million yen ($500,000) of private gifts flowed into the hands of
+the relieving committees. For the earthquake sufferers the Diet voted
+622,883 yen ($311,441).
+
+The late Emperor, shortly before his death, was so moved by the medical
+needs of the poor that he contributed a fund of a million yen for the
+systematic undertaking of medical work in all parts of Japan. This
+started a movement among the wealthy which has resulted in the
+establishment of a Medical Relief Association (Saiseikwai), having a
+fund of $5,000,000 already paid in and pledges for $8,000,000 more.
+
+Men of wealth in Japan are following the example set by the best
+Christian life in the West. In recent years several large gifts have
+been made for education. At the close of 1913 one of the most wealthy
+and always generous families of Japan, Sumitomo of Osaka, announced
+their decision to establish an industrial school for the poor, at an
+expense of $200,000. And in the same year Mr. O'Hara, one of the
+wealthiest and most philanthropic men of Okayama, announced his plan of
+opening a high-grade agricultural school for poor boys of that
+prefecture. The amount of the gift is not stated, but in addition to the
+large sum needed for buildings and equipment, he donates as permanent
+endowment some 250 acres of rice land whose value, roughly estimated,
+may be about $50,000.
+
+There are in Japan of all denominations and religions the following
+institutions for the uplift and regeneration of the downtrodden and for
+the help of the poor:
+
+    Orphan asylums.......................... 100
+    Rescue work.............................  92
+    Dispensaries............................  45
+    Reformatories...........................  47
+    Homes for ex-prisoners..................  37
+    Homes for old people....................  22
+    Poor farms..............................  11
+                                            ____
+                                             354
+
+Of these institutions, the compiler of the statistics states that for
+one Shinto and three Buddhist, there are five Christian institutions.
+The leaders and inspirers in all the forms of philanthropic work are
+Christians, as from the nature of the case might be expected.
+
+"In the matter of Christian Social Service," writes A. D. Hail, in the
+_Japan Evangelist_,[8] "the Federated Missions have been represented by
+two Committees whose fields of endeavor are quite distinct. The one is
+the excellent Eleemosynary Committee. It deals with the delinquents,
+defectives, and dependents of society....
+
+    [8] January, 1915.
+
+"The Industrial Welfare Committee seeks to Christianize the industrial
+classes, and to encourage the development of dealing upon Christian
+principles with the complicated questions growing out of the relations
+of capital and labor. By the industrial classes we mean the
+non-capitalistic laborers and bread-winners. It includes men, women,
+and many thousands of children. They do not own the machinery they
+handle, and have no voice in the control of the industries with which
+they are connected. Being without any say in the control of factories,
+machines, and raw material, they can be discharged at any moment by
+employers for reasons satisfactory alone to themselves. Their bodies,
+their minds, and oftentime their morals, become subservient to foremen
+and managers. The unskilled laborers in particular have no margin of
+either wages or time for wholesome recreations, for accidents, old age,
+widowhood, and unemployment. Besides these there is another large class
+in Japan, of small traders who rent their shops and eke out earnings by
+the sweating process, or by renting rooms for doubtful purposes. To
+these are to be added fishermen who do not own tackle, tenant farmers
+and their employees, and the main body of school-teachers; also an army
+engaged in transportation, together with postal clerks, postmen, and
+others. Incidental to this are the districts of large cities and mining
+camps, where there are congested populations of unskilled laborers
+subjected to diseases occasioned by bad drainage, inadequate housing,
+and all the consequent evils. As these do not earn sufficient wages to
+entitle them to vote, they have no voice whatever in the betterment of
+their surroundings....
+
+"There is a growing tendency toward the fixedness of a gulf between
+laborers and their employers, so much so that Japan's great danger in
+this direction is that she may fail to realize that she has a labor
+problem on hand, and one that can be solved here, as elsewhere, only on
+the basis of Christian principles of common fair dealing."
+
+In spite, however, of abundant evidence that Christian ethical and
+philanthropic ideals are receiving wide acceptance in Japan, far wider
+than would be suggested by the statistics of membership in the Christian
+churches, it is also true that the evils of Occidental industrialism and
+materialism are sweeping in like a flood.
+
+Turning now from general statements as to the ethico-industrial
+conditions of the working women of Japan, in the next chapter I give the
+story of a single institution.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+THE MATSUYAMA WORKING GIRLS' HOME
+
+
+The origin and history of the Matsuyama Working Girls' Home cannot be
+told apart from the story of the man who has been its heart and life,
+Mr. Shinjiro Omoto. Born in 1872 and graduating from the common school
+at fourteen, he at once went into business, first as an apprentice and
+later with his father. At nineteen he opened a sugar store, which
+flourished and before long overshadowed the father's business. Money
+came in so easily that he soon entered on a life of licentiousness, and
+for several years he was as famous for his drunken carousals as he had
+been for his phenomenal business success. His parents cut him off,
+refused him admittance to the house, and for years he did not even speak
+to his father.
+
+              [Illustration: MATSUYAMA WORKING GIRLS' HOME
+                      GIRLS IN THE MATSUYAMA HOME]
+
+In 1899, we held a preaching service in a theater. Mr. Omoto happened to
+be drinking in the saloon opposite. Hearing of our gathering, with some
+rowdy comrades, he thought he would break it up, with the result that we
+experienced persistent opposition throughout the meeting. But the
+sermons on Pessimism and the New Life, and my statement of the reasons
+that had brought me to Japan attracted his attention, and the next day I
+received an anonymous letter asking for tracts. These seem to have
+produced a profound impression, particularly the tract entitled "Two
+Young Men." It told of two hardened prisoners who had been transformed
+by the gospel and became highly useful and well-known members of
+society. Mr. Omoto thereupon set himself definitely to learn about
+Christianity, but privately, unwilling to make public his new hope. He
+bought and read through, quite by himself, the entire New Testament.
+Though he gained some idea of the gospel, he soon found he had lost none
+of his passion for drink. After a while he went to Kobe and joined a
+temperance society; but soon finding that the society had members who
+broke their pledges, he began to break his. In despair he went to
+Okayama and tried to join himself to Mr. Ishii, head of the well-known
+Christian orphanage, asking to be made a Christian, but he was told to
+return to Matsuyama and join the church there in his old home; only so
+could he be saved. Greatly disappointed, he returned and called on me
+early in June, 1901, but without telling fully about himself. He also
+called on Mr. Nishimura, an earnest Christian worker, who prayed with
+him, telling him that to be saved he must receive the Holy Spirit.
+
+That summer, quite exceptionally, I returned in the middle of the
+vacation. Mr. Omoto appeared at the prayer-meeting for the first time
+and was evidently in a state of great excitement, so much so that only
+with difficulty could we understand his remarks and his prayer. The gist
+was that he had that day received the Holy Spirit, that he was now
+saved, and that his joy was too great for utterance. Tears rolled down
+his cheeks as he talked and prayed. After the meeting I had a few words
+with him, and urged him to ally himself with our experienced workers. He
+was so excited that I feared for him, and wondered whether this might
+not be a tornado of emotion due to drink and to the nervous condition
+incident to his riotous life, an emotion which he mistook for the gift
+of the Holy Spirit. I urged him to begin at once to live the Christian
+life, cutting loose from all bad companions and bad habits.
+
+To gain an honest living he entered the Matsuyama Cotton Thread Spinning
+Factory. This required twelve hours of work daily, sometimes by day and
+sometimes by night, a hard pull for one who had done no steady work for
+years. He attended Christian services faithfully, so far as his hours of
+work allowed, and became quite intimate with two or three of our best
+Christians. Before long he began to talk about the wretched conditions
+and immoral life of the factory girls, telling us of the situation
+already described in Chapter IX.[9] His first thought was to give these
+tired children wholesome recreation. He secured the use of our preaching
+place in the vicinity of the factory and invited the girls to attend
+what he called the Dojokwai (Sympathy Society). He soon persuaded the
+girls to add a little reading and writing to their play, and later also,
+sewing. These meetings had of course to be held after the twelve or more
+hours of work in the factory had been completed. Care had also to be
+taken that the studies and the fun should not absorb time needed for
+sleep. Membership in the Sympathy Society rose rapidly and soon numbered
+seventy girls.
+
+    [9] See pages 67-69. (Transcriber's note: See starting at "In
+        1901, when Mr. Omoto began to work in the factory, he was
+        amazed to see how many were the children taking their turns
+        in work along with the older girls by day and by night.")
+
+At first meetings were held only in the evening three times a week, and
+lasted but an hour. But as the educational element of the society
+developed, others were induced to help and every evening save Sunday
+was occupied. In order that girls on the night shift might continue
+their studies similar classes were also held from seven to nine o'clock
+in the morning. Before six months had passed the play aspect of the
+society was largely superseded by the educational.
+
+But opposition of Buddhists now began to show itself. A few parents
+refused to let their girls attend. The most determined opposition
+however came from the manager in the factory who had charge of one of
+the shifts. Members of that shift were so treated that gradually they
+dropped out of the Dojokwai, and new members from that shift could not
+be secured. The hostile manager was however himself dropped some months
+later, and all opposition to the work from within the factory ceased.
+
+In a previous chapter we have noted the facts discovered by Mr. Omoto as
+he went the rounds of the boarding-houses in which the girls were
+required to live.[10] As these conditions became clearer and more
+appallingly impressive, he began to say with increasing frequency and
+insistence that the Sympathy Society, however successful, could not do
+what was needed. Only a Christian home would answer. Not only do the
+girls need to learn to read and write and sew, but even more than these
+do they need a home free from temptation, clean and pure and helpful,
+and elevating morally and religiously. The difficulties however in the
+way of such an enterprise seemed insuperable. To say nothing of the
+financial problem, a still greater obstacle, it was felt, was the
+securing of "recognition" from the factory, for Buddhist influence in
+the factory was at that time still dominant. During these months the
+Sympathy Society was winning its way among the girls and their parents,
+and Mr. Omoto himself was learning valuable lessons.
+
+    [10] See pages 68, 69. (Transcriber's note: See starting at
+         "they were crowded together in disease-spreading and
+         vermin-breeding, immoral boarding-houses, where they
+         were deliberately tempted.")
+
+One was that the girls were not all eager to be in a Christian home. We
+of course forbade all drinking, irregular hours, and more irregular
+"friendships." Attendance on prayers, night and morning, and at the
+school, was required. It looked for a time as if we should fail, for
+lack of girls to meet the expenses.
+
+But in spite of discouragements we kept on. The earnings of the girls
+who lived in the home, for the first year, were 1,361 yen. Of this sum
+they paid for board 905 yen, and sent to their parents 456, whereas
+girls in the other boarding-houses were able to save nothing, although
+the amount paid for board was the same in all the houses, being fixed by
+the factory at 3.60 yen per month, or twelve sen (six cents) per day.
+
+In February, 1903, a representative of the government who came from
+Tokyo to inspect the conditions of labor in western Japan, heard of the
+Dojokwai (Sympathy Home), and was so much interested in the story of its
+work that he took time to visit it with several local officials. He was
+greatly pleased, for he knew of nothing just like this, in any other
+part of Japan, particularly in its hygienic, educational, and moral
+advantages, and he expressed the wish that there might be many such.
+This was our first notice from government officials.
+
+As time went on, Mr. Omoto was found by the factory officials to be
+exceptionally faithful to its interests; he was rapidly promoted from
+one position to another, and in December of the same year was made
+"visitor" and "employing agent." This required him to visit neighboring
+towns and villages and collect new girls when needed. He tried to
+decline this work, saying that he could make no false promises to the
+girls or to their parents, nor in any way delude them as to the nature
+of their work, the amount of their wages, the conditions of the
+boarding-houses; being strictly a temperance man, also, he could not
+treat with sake (sah'-ke) and so get into friendly relations, all of
+which things employing agents constantly do; he had no expectations of
+gaining any recruits; the factory would better send some one else. They
+told him at least to try. To the surprise of all, and of himself the
+most, from his first trip he brought back with him fifteen girls. For
+three years he continued in this work and was always successful in
+securing girls for the factory. Because of his refusal to touch liquor
+in any form, his traveling expenses were much less than those of other
+employing agents, much to the satisfaction of the management; and the
+girls he secured on the whole remained longer and more contentedly at
+work, because he had always told them the truth. This made his position
+in the factory more secure and influential. After about two years'
+employment by the day he was promoted to the rank of a regular employee
+and paid by the month. His hours of official service were also largely
+reduced in order that he might have time for his educational and
+Christian work in the Home--a striking testimony of appreciation on the
+part of the factory officials.
+
+As the months passed by it gradually became clear that the effectiveness
+as well as the permanence of the work demanded suitable quarters. The
+heavy rental paid for the house made self-support impossible. Results
+already attained seemed to warrant appeal to friends for gifts, for the
+purpose of buying land and the erection of a building. Responses to our
+appeals provided the needed funds, land was purchased and a contract
+made with a carpenter on exceptionally favorable terms, just two days
+before the opening of the Russo-Japanese war (February, 1904).
+Immediately prices went up by leaps and bounds; but our contract was so
+well made and the carpenter had already made such full subcontracts for
+the lumber, etc., that we were not troubled because of war prices.
+
+As we entered our new quarters in June, 1904, however, the factory shut
+down the main part of its work and discharged the majority of its
+workers. This was a severe blow to the Home. The occupants were reduced
+to seven girls. Although the factory opened again after a few months,
+the conditions during and after the war made it difficult for the
+factory to secure girls, and the Home, together with the other
+boarding-houses, suffered from lack of boarders. Beginning with March,
+1907, however, special circumstances combined to fill the Home to its
+utmost capacity; during the three months of April, May, and June thirty
+applicants were refused admittance and as many more who desired to enter
+the school were declined.
+
+Increasing acquaintance with the disastrous effects of factory
+labor,--the lint-filled air so often producing consumption, and the
+excessive heat of summer sometimes resulting even in sunstroke,--made
+Mr. Omoto unwilling to persuade girls to enter upon such a life. The
+needs of the Home also pressed upon his time. These considerations led
+him, in 1906, to give up his work in the factory altogether, in order to
+devote his entire time and strength to the Home and to the upbuilding of
+the moral and religious life of the girls.
+
+In July, 1906, Mr. Omoto attended in Osaka the first convention of
+factory officials convened to study the problem of the proper care of
+operatives. Representatives were present from sixteen factories having
+night schools, and specimens of the work of the girls were compared. Mr.
+Omoto was fairly lionized because of the superior quality of the work
+sent in from our Home and many newspapers made special mention of him
+and his work.
+
+In September, 1908, there was held in Tokyo under the auspices of the
+Home Department of the Imperial government an eight weeks' school of
+applied sociology. Mr. Omoto was among the 376 persons who attended.
+Again he received exceptional attention and was asked to tell his story.
+At this school no less than thirty-six learned specialists gave lectures
+on every conceivable topic suitable for such a school. Among the
+speakers so many were professed Christians, and of the rest so many
+advocated such markedly Christian ideals, that some Buddhists are said
+to have taken offense, regarding the whole affair as a part of the
+Christian propaganda.
+
+In the spring of 1909 there occurred an event of considerable
+significance. Without a preliminary hint of what was happening, Mr.
+Omoto saw in the paper one day the amazing statement that the Matsuyama
+Working Girls' Home, along with seventy-nine other selected institutions
+throughout the country, was the recipient of a specified sum (200 yen)
+as a mark of government approval! A total of 40,000 yen were thus
+distributed in varying amounts, Christian institutions being recognized
+to an unexpected degree. Later, word came from the Prefectural Office
+summoning him to receive the gift. In the entire prefecture six
+institutions had been thus honored, and of these, two were Christian.
+This gift from the Department of the Interior has been repeated each
+year since.
+
+Again in May, 1910, a Conference of Social Service Workers (Chu-o Jizen
+Kyokwai) was held at Nagoya at the time of the Exposition, and Mr.
+Omoto was among those invited to attend. His address and statistical
+report received much attention. Mr. Tomeoka, representative of the
+government and chairman of the conference, spoke in unstinted praise of
+the work of the Home, which he characterized as "Kokka Jigyo" (a
+national enterprise), and recommended the adoption by others of several
+of its special features.
+
+In the spring of 1911, the Home Department of the central government
+published a small volume describing one hundred and thirteen model
+philanthropic institutions of the country, in which we were of course
+pleased to see that the Home was included, being the only one from the
+prefecture.
+
+As opportunity offered and means were available, following the advice of
+friends, four small adjacent lots were purchased, one of which we were
+almost forced to secure for self-protection, because of the evil
+character of the buildings upon it. We now own altogether about two
+acres of land on the north side of the beautiful Castle Hill, around
+which Matsuyama is built. Here have been erected at different times six
+buildings (three of them two-storied), for residential, dormitory,
+chapel, night school, weaving, hospital, bath, and other purposes. We
+have space for a playground, of which the girls joyously avail
+themselves, after returning from twelve hours of confinement in the dust
+and clatter of machinery. The garden, too, provides fresh vegetables of
+an assured character at a minimum of expense, adding much to the variety
+and the wholesomeness of the diet. The present value of the property is
+more than its original cost, for land and buildings are constantly
+rising in price, as is the case in other parts of the country.
+
+The city educational authorities in 1906 asked Mr. Omoto to open his
+night school to the poor of the district. For this he had to have a
+regular school license from the National Bureau of Education at Tokyo.
+This was to be a Christian school--the only license of exactly that
+kind in the empire, he was told.
+
+Industrial newspapers have been noticing the Home and its work for some
+time.[11] During the past five years the favorable attitude of local and
+national government officials has been particularly pronounced.
+Government inspectors have repeatedly been sent from the Prefectural
+Office and occasionally even from Tokyo to visit the Home. One such
+expressed himself as amazed at the excellent mental work done by the
+girls, in view of the fact that all their study takes place after twelve
+hours of toil. Nothing but good food, sufficient sleep, and a wholesome
+and happy home life could account for their splendid health and superior
+school work. One man remarked that the girls in the Home do better work
+than pupils in the same grade in public schools.
+
+    [11] See page 149. (Transcriber's note: See starting at "Mr. Omoto
+         was fairly lionized because of the superior quality of the
+         work sent in from our Home")
+
+Even so early as the autumn of 1906 the Home Department of the central
+government sent down special instructions to the prefectural office in
+Matsuyama to investigate our work, with the result that of nine
+benevolent institutions throughout Japan selected for commendation, ours
+was the one most carefully described and unqualifiedly praised. A recent
+government pamphlet concerning industrial problems makes special
+reference, covering two pages, to the work of the Home. Thus has a small
+institution begun to serve as a model for the country.
+
+The good health of the girls in our Home has been in strong contrast
+with the health of those in other boarding-houses, even in the best
+dormitories of the best factories in other cities.
+
+Statistics recently compiled by the government show that the average
+death-rate among factory operatives throughout the country is
+extraordinarily high. The highest, fifty per cent. on account of an
+epidemic, was reported from a certain factory owned and managed
+boarding-house in Niigata prefecture. Not one girl has ever died in our
+Home. Of the 301 girls who had lived in our Home by 1911, only eight,
+all told, died.
+
+In 1912 the Home passed through a crisis that threatened to destroy it.
+Late in 1911 the one factory in Matsuyama, where all the girls worked,
+was sold out to parties living in Osaka. A new manager was sent down who
+introduced many drastic changes. The change most affecting us was the
+stopping of the night work and the lengthening of day work to fourteen
+hours: namely, from 6 A.M. till 8 P.M.
+
+The girls in the Home soon became dissatisfied, and not many months
+passed before all had left the factory. Mr. Omoto was urged by the
+manager to find and bring in new girls. He refused however on the ground
+that he could not ask anybody to work such brutally long hours.
+
+Had it not been for a little weaving department with which we had
+already been experimenting, the Home would have been compelled to close.
+More looms were secured and those girls who wished to remain with us
+were given opportunity for work. Mr. Omoto's attention was at that time
+directed to the condition of the weaving girls in the scores and even
+hundreds of little establishments in the city and its suburbs. He soon
+found that an educational, economic, moral, and religious condition
+existed among them not unlike that which he had found among the factory
+girls of Matsuyama a dozen years before. The weaving establishments are,
+as a rule, small private affairs, usually having less than ten girls
+each, and are therefore wholly outside of the supervision of the
+government. The treatment of workers and the hours of labor are entirely
+settled by the individual owners.
+
+As a rule the girls are apprenticed for from two to three years
+immediately on leaving the primary school, at an age therefore of twelve
+or thirteen. They barely earn their living, although they work from
+daybreak to ten or eleven at night, and in some establishments even till
+midnight--from fifteen to eighteen hours a day! There are no night
+shifts and rare holidays on occasional festivals. The hygienic and moral
+conditions are about as bad as can be. It is estimated that one half of
+the girls are ruined before the close of their apprenticeship. Our Home
+is now deliberately attacking the new problem, which in many respects is
+more difficult than was the old one. We have put up two small buildings
+on our own grounds, enabling us to have thirty looms to give opportunity
+for work to thirty girls.
+
+The uniform quality of the cloth produced by our girls, the central
+portions of each piece equaling the ends in quality, shows unflagging
+moral attention, without effort to rush the work and stint the material;
+this has already won such approval from merchants that the "Sympathy
+Home" brand can be sold for a little more than other brands, and Mr.
+Omoto is assured that there is no limit to the amount which could be
+marketed.
+
+An owner of several weaving establishments has become so impressed with
+the quality of the work and the character developed in our girls that
+he asked Mr. Omoto if he would not take charge of a hundred of his
+weaving girls. This new departure is especially promising, for we have
+complete supervision of the girls throughout the entire twenty-four
+hours. The girls, moreover, are already remaining in our Home as a rule
+much longer than they used to when getting work in the spinning factory.
+
+As successive chapters of this book have shown, no more urgent problem
+faces New Japan than that of the moral development of her workers. This
+is particularly true of the hundreds of thousands of girls in the larger
+and smaller factories and industrial establishments. The wretched
+physical, economic, social, and moral conditions under which the
+majority of these girls lived and worked at the time when our Home was
+started are not easily described.
+
+Many of the factory authorities[12] are neither ignorant nor unmindful
+of the situation, and are striving to remedy it. The government also has
+enacted laws not a few. But laws and official actions alone provide no
+adequate solution of the serious problems raised by the extraordinary
+industrial and social transformations sweeping over Japan. A new spirit
+must be evoked, both on the part of capital and labor, and new moral
+ideals and relations established. This cannot be done by laws alone.
+Only love and contagious personal example are sufficient for the needs.
+
+    [12] It is not to be inferred from the statements in this book
+         that the political leaders and the organizers of
+         industrial Japan have been dependent on our Home for
+         ideas and ideals in regard to the problems raised by
+         modern industry. Many of those leaders are men of
+         cosmopolitan education and are well versed in the best
+         and most recent of literature of the West on these
+         matters. It is true, however, that our Home has been an
+         important concrete experiment affording in Japan
+         valuable suggestions and stimulus.
+
+Our Home was designed to meet just such a situation and has to a
+remarkable degree, we think, succeeded. It has provided not only
+sufficient fresh air, nourishing food, adequate bedding, clean rooms,
+and wholesome recreation, but also moral and religious instruction, and
+some education. The girls in our Home have enjoyed conspicuously better
+health and have done better work and earned and sent to their parents
+more money than those of the other boarding-houses of Matsuyama. But
+better than these have been the educational, moral, and religious
+results. Their womanhood has been raised. They have been better fitted
+for life's duties and for motherhood than they would have been without
+the training which has been given them.
+
+Moreover, the results of the Home have been such as to break down
+opposition. The good-will and cooperation of the factory officials were
+won. Factories in other parts of the country also have recognized our
+Home as presenting a splendid ideal which, in a measure, many of them
+are already following. The local and the central governments, as already
+shown, have repeatedly sent officials to inspect us, and in their
+reports have not only praised us, but have described our Home in detail,
+saying that we have solved the difficult problem of how to care for
+factory hands.
+
+Through the Home we are reaching the lowest strata of the working
+classes of Japan, and are providing them with ideals, motives, and
+education, and in a way, too, which does not tend to pauperize them, for
+each girl pays as board a sum sufficient to cover actual living
+expenses. It is also exerting an influence on the townsfolk. The
+attitude of the people toward Christianity has undergone a marked
+change. Villages in the interior likewise have altered their attitude on
+seeing how their daughters, graduates of our Home, have improved both in
+intelligence and character, in marked contrast to those who have been in
+other boarding-houses. All in all, Mr. Omoto has attained remarkable
+success. He is absorbed, heart and soul, in his work of bettering the
+moral and religious conditions of the working girls of Japan, and is a
+man continuously growing in spiritual life, Christian character, and
+knowledge of men. I have never known a man more thoroughly converted or
+more enthusiastic in his chosen field of work. The Omoto of to-day is a
+different person from the reformed debauchee of thirteen years ago, who
+began this service for factory girls as the outcome of his sincere
+question, "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" His family have become
+possessed with the idea of social service, and his five children are
+being brought up in this atmosphere and in the fear of the Lord.
+
+Thus has the Matsuyama Working Girls' Home survived many threatening
+vicissitudes, attained conspicuous successes, and is now embarked on a
+new line of endeavor. May it exceed in the future its successes of the
+past and make still more substantial contributions to the uplift of the
+working women of Japan!
+
+
+
+
+      *      *      *      *      *      *
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's note:
+
+Text in italics is enclosed by underscores (_italics_).
+
+Text in small capitals was replaced with ALL UPPER CASE.
+
+The illustrations have been moved so that they do not break up
+paragraphs and so that they are next the text they illustrate.
+Thus the page number of the illustration might not match the page
+number in the List of Illustrations.
+
+Errors in punctuations and inconsistent hyphenation were not
+corrected except for the following:
+
+On page 111, the book mentions "among the forty-eight prefectures
+of the Japanese empire", but there were forty-seven prefectures
+since 1888.
+
+
+
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