Working Women of Japan Part 1

Working Women of j.a.pan.

by Sidney Lewis Gulick.

PREFACE

j.a.pan 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 j.a.pan 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, const.i.tute one half of the population.

One book, indeed, that by Miss Alice M. Bacon, on _j.a.panese Girls and Women_, describes the homes, lives, and characteristics of j.a.panese women. This important work should not be overlooked by any who wish to know j.a.pan thoroughly. Yet Miss Bacon's study is largely confined to the higher and upper middle cla.s.ses, who, though important, const.i.tute but one section of the women of j.a.pan. To understand j.a.pan it is also needful to know the lives and characteristics of the working cla.s.ses.

Especially important in the eyes of those who study social development is the transformation that is taking place in the j.a.panese 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 inst.i.tutions whose specific aim is the amelioration of the industrial and moral situation. Two cla.s.ses 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 prost.i.tutes. j.a.panese 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 inst.i.tution in which the Christian ideal is applied to the moral and industrial situation in one small town. It serves as an ill.u.s.tration of what is being done by Christians in other places and along many other lines as well. Christianity is being accepted in j.a.pan, 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 j.a.panese working women, back of this purpose is the desire to show how the Christian gospel, when concretely expressed, takes hold of j.a.panese working women in exactly these conditions and becomes to them "the power of G.o.d 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 j.a.pan and China. And their fundamental solution likewise is the same.

Let not the reader a.s.sume that the discussions of this volume give adequate acquaintance with the working women of j.a.pan. It deals with only a few specific cla.s.ses and inadequately even with them. A more comprehensive treatment would doubtless be enlightening. Limitations, however, of time and s.p.a.ce forbid a more adequate discussion.

And let the reader be wary of generalizing certain criticisms herein made and applying them universally to all cla.s.ses of women. Many years of life in j.a.pan have led the writer to a high estimation of the character as well as the culture of j.a.panese 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 CLa.s.sES IN j.a.pAN, OLD AND NEW

In old j.a.pan, next to the Imperial family and court n.o.bles, came the feudal lords (_Daimio_), upheld by the warrior cla.s.s (_Samurai_), below whom in turn were ranked the three chief working cla.s.ses,--farmers, artizans, and tradesmen. These three cla.s.ses 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 cla.s.s, for they lived entirely by bare, brute strength, lacking all special skill. Still lower were the _eta_ or pariah cla.s.s, 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 const.i.tute to-day the hereditary peers of j.a.pan, 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 _j.a.pan 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 _s.h.i.+zoku_ (Samurai families) and were paid off in lump sums, thereafter being thrown on their own resources. There are 439,154 s.h.i.+zoku families, numbering altogether 2,169,018 individuals. The remaining cla.s.ses 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 _s.h.i.+n-heimin_ (new common people) and allowed to live anywhere and take up any desirable calling. The hi-nin also were cla.s.sed 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 t.i.tles. 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 cla.s.s 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 j.a.pan, 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 j.a.pan the number of such is exceptionally large, if compared with that of some countries of the West. They may be divided into eleven cla.s.ses, 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 prost.i.tutes. Omitting the teachers and nurses, these are the cla.s.ses 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 j.a.pan, while probably lower in point of moral and physical energy and personal initiative than corresponding cla.s.ses 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 j.a.pan will surely take her place among the highly civilized nations of the world.

CHAPTER II

FARMERS' WIVES AND DAUGHTERS

j.a.pan 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: SEPARATING THE WHEAT HEADS FROM THE STRAW AT THE LOOM]

Also in the harvesting and thres.h.i.+ng 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 s.h.i.+rk heavy work, but only because j.a.panese 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 j.a.pan 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 pa.s.s, 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 Dos.h.i.+sha 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 const.i.tute the two extremes of laborious and delightful toil engaged in by j.a.pan's agricultural women.

How many are the women engaged in agriculture? The _j.a.pan Year Book_ for 1914 says that in 1912 there were 5,438,051 farming families, const.i.tuting about 58 per cent. of the entire nation. According to the _Resume Statistique_ for 1914 the total number of females in j.a.pan 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 j.a.panese 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 j.a.panese 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 s.h.i.+nto 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 st.u.r.dy, intelligent, self-respecting folk, having ideals of conduct which include cleanliness, gentleness, and politeness, and in comparison with the peasant cla.s.ses 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 _j.a.panese Girls and Women_ Miss Bacon writing of this cla.s.s says: "There seems no doubt at all that among the peasantry of j.a.pan one finds the women who have the most freedom and independence. Among this cla.s.s, 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 cla.s.ses, for they are themselves breadwinners, contributing an important part of the family revenue, and are obeyed and respected accordingly. The j.a.panese 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 j.a.panese 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, pa.s.sing 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 cla.s.s 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 cla.s.ses made great improvement. My gardener, a man of sixty, who remembers j.a.pan 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 _kos.h.i.+maki_--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 j.a.panese 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 j.a.panese 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.