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WHEN I WAS A BOY 
 IN JAPAN 
 
 BT 
 
 SAKAE SHIOYA 
 
 ILLUSTRATED FROM PHOTOGRAPHS 
 
 BOSTON 
 LOTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD CO. 
 
LIBRARY of CONGRESS 
 Two Cooics R«ceive<f 
 
 JON 13 1906 
 
 n Copyright Cntrv ^ 
 / JCL*SS A Uc. No. 
 
 Published, August, 1906. 
 
 Copyright, 1906, by Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co. 
 
 All Rights Reserved. 
 
 When I Was a Boy in Japan. 
 
 Berwick & Smith Co. 
 Norwood, Mass., U. S. A. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 Japanese boys have not been introduced 
 very much to their little American friends, 
 and the purpose of this book is to provide 
 an introduction by telling some of the 
 experiences which are common to most 
 Japanese boys of the present time, to- 
 gether with some account of the customs 
 and manners belonging to their life. I can 
 at least claim that the story is told as it 
 could be only by one who had actually 
 lived the life that is portrayed. I have 
 endeavored to hold the interest of my 
 young readers by bringing in more or less 
 of amusement. The little girl companion 
 is introduced to widen the interest and add 
 somewhat more of the story element than 
 would otherwise be present. The sketches 
 composing the various chapters are neces- 
 sarily disconnected, but they form a series 
 
 ill 
 
iv PREFACE 
 
 of pictures, priceless at least to the author, 
 which foreign eyes have seldom been al- 
 lowed to see. 
 
 Sakae Shioya. 
 
 Yale Universitt, 1905. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER I. : My Infancy. 
 
 How I Looked — My Name — Walking — In 
 Tea Season — My Toys — " Kidnapped " — 
 0-dango 9 
 
 CHAPTER 11. : At Home. 
 
 Introduction — Dinner — Rice — Turning to 
 Cows — A Bamboo Dragon-fly — A Water- 
 melon Lantern — On a Rainy Evening — The 
 Story of a Badger 23 
 
 CHAPTER IIL: The Village School. 
 
 A Mimic School — Preparations — The School 
 
 — How Classes Are Conducted — Out of Tune 
 
 — A Moral Story — School Discipline — Play- 
 things — <' Knife Sense " 35 
 
 CHAPTER lY.: In Tokyo. 
 
 Where We Settled — A Police Stand — Stores 
 
 — "Broadway'* — Illumination — The Foreign 
 Settlement 51 
 
 CHAPTER V. : My New School. 
 
 Tomo-chan — The Men with Wens — A Curi- 
 ous Punishment — How I Experienced It — 
 Kotoro-Kotoro 62 
 
 V 
 
vi CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER VI. : Chinese Education. 
 
 My Chinese Teacher — How I Was Taught — 
 Versification — My Uncle — Clam Fishing — 
 A Flatfish 76 
 
 CHAPTER VII. : An Evening Fete. 
 
 My Father — His Love for Potted Trees — A 
 Local Fete — Show Booths — Goldfish Booths 
 
 — Singing Insects — How a Potted Tree Was 
 Bought . 91 
 
 CHAPTER VIIL: Summer Days. 
 
 A Swimming School — How I Was Taught to 
 Swim — Diving — The Old Home Week — Re- 
 turn of the Departed Souls — Visiting the An- 
 cestral Graves — The Memorable Night — 
 A Village Dance 102 
 
 CHAPTER IX. : The English School. 
 
 A Night at the Dormitory — Beginning English 
 
 — Grammar — Pronunciation — School Moved 
 
 — Mother's Love 114 
 
 CHAPTER X. : A Boy Astronomer. 
 
 What I Intended to Be — My Aunt's View — 
 My Parents' Approval — My Uncle's Enthu- 
 siasm — The Total Eclipse of the Sun . . 128 
 
 CHAPTER XL: In the Suburbs. 
 
 A Novel Experiment — Removal — Our New 
 House — Angling — Tomo-chan's Visit . • 143 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Sakae Shioya .... Portrait Frontispiece 
 
 A Japanese House 22 
 
 A Japanese School Scene 40 
 
 The Japanese "Broadway" 66 
 
 A Typical Japanese Street 90 
 
 A Japanese School of the Present Day . . 120 
 
 Boy in Japan 
 
WHEN I WAS A BOY 
 IN JAPAN 
 
 CHAPTEE I 
 
 MY IN^FANCY 
 
 How I Looked — My Name — Walking — In Tea Sea- 
 son — My Toys — " Kidnapped " — 0-dango. 
 
 I SUPPOSE I don't need to tell you exactly, 
 my little friends, when and where I was 
 born, because Japanese names are rather 
 hard for you to remember, and then I don't 
 want to disclose my age. Suffice it to say 
 that I was once a baby like all of you and 
 my birthplace was about a day's journey 
 from Tokyo, the capital of Japan. I wish 
 I could have observed myself and noted 
 down every funny thing I did when very 
 small, as the guardian angel, who is said 
 to be standing by every cradle, will surely 
 do. But when my memory began to be 
 
 9 
 
10 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN JAPAN 
 
 serviceable, I was well on in my infancy, 
 and if I were to rely on that only, I should 
 have to skip over a considerable length of 
 time. How I should dislike to do this! 
 So, my little friends, let me construct this 
 chapter out of bits of things my mamma 
 used to tell me now and then. 
 
 When I was born, my father was away. 
 Grandma was very proud to have a boy 
 for the first-born, and at once wrote him 
 a letter saying that a son was born to him 
 and that he was like — and then she wrote 
 two large circles, meaning that I was very, 
 very plump. Do you know how a plump 
 Japanese baby looks? I have often won- 
 dered myself, and have many a time 
 watched a baby taking a bath. Let us sup- 
 pose him to be one year old and about to 
 be put into warm water in a wooden tub. 
 His chin is dimple-cleft, his cheeks ripe as 
 an apple, and his limbs are but a continua- 
 tion of his fat trunk. And how jolly the 
 elfin is ! After the queer expression he has 
 shown on being dipped has passed away 
 
MY INFANCY 11 
 
 and he realizes what he is about, he will 
 make many quick bows — really, I assure 
 you, to show his thanks for the trouble of 
 washing him. At this, mother, sister, and 
 the maid assisting them give a burst of 
 laughter, when, with a scream of immense 
 delight, he will strike his fists into the 
 water, causing a panic among the well-clad 
 and not-ready-to-get-wet attendants. With 
 royal indifference, however, he will then 
 try to push his fist into his mouth, and not 
 grumbling at all over his ill-success, he 
 will set about telling a story with his ever- 
 lasting mum-mum. Now he is taken out 
 and laid on a towel. Glowing red, how he 
 will move his arms and legs like an over- 
 turned turtle ! Well, that is how I looked, 
 I am very sure. 
 
 In Japan, in christening a child, we fol- 
 low the principle of ^^ A good name is 
 better than rich ointment." I was named 
 Sakae, which in the hierographic Chinese 
 characters represents fire burning on a 
 stand. The idea of illumination will per- 
 
12 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN JAPAN 
 
 haps suggest itself to you at once, and 
 indeed, it means glory or thrift. And my 
 well-wishing parents named me so, that I 
 might thrive and be a glory to my family. 
 So I was bound to be good, wasn't I? A 
 bad boy with a good name would be very 
 much like a monkey with a silk hat on. 
 
 Now begins my walking. Now and then 
 mamma or grandma would train me, tak- 
 ing my hands and singing : 
 
 " Anyo wa o-jozu, 
 Korobu wa o-heta." 
 
 But my secret delight — so I judge — was 
 to stand by myself, clinging to the con- 
 venient checkered frames of paper screens, 
 which covered the whole length of the 
 veranda. When I went from one side to 
 the other, at first without being noticed — 
 of course walking like a crab — and then 
 suddenly being discovered with a shout of 
 admiration, I used to come down with a 
 bump, which, however, never hurt me — I 
 was so plump, you know. I must describe 
 
MY INFANCY 13 
 
 here a sort of ceremony, or rather an 
 ordeal, I had to pass through when I was 
 fairly able to stand and walk without any 
 help. For this I must begin with my house. 
 
 My house stood on the outskirts of the 
 town, where the land rose to a low hill 
 and was covered with tea-plants. We 
 owned a part of it hedged in by cripto- 
 merias. 
 
 We were not regular tea dealers, but 
 we used to have an exciting time in the 
 season preparing our crop. Lots of red- 
 cheeked country girls would come to pick 
 the leaves, and it was a sight to see them 
 working. With their heads nicely wrapped 
 with pieces of white and blue cloth, jetting 
 out of the green ocean of tea-leaves, they 
 would sing peculiarly effective country 
 songs, mostly in solos with a short refrain 
 in chorus. But they were not having a 
 concert, and if you should step in among 
 them, they would make a hero of you, those 
 girls. And then we had also a good many 
 young men working at tea-heaters. 
 
14 WEEN I WAS A BOY IN JAPAN 
 
 Here they likewise sang snatches of 
 songs, but their principal business was 
 to roll up steamed leaves and dry them 
 over the fire. But when work is combined 
 with fun, it is a great temptation for a boy, 
 and I, a lad of five or six, I remember, 
 would have a share among them, and, 
 standing on a high stool by a heater and 
 baring my right shoulder like the rest, 
 would join more in a refrain than in roll- 
 ing the leaves. 
 
 But I was going to tell you about the 
 ceremony I had to pass through, wasn't I! 
 Well, it happened, or rather somebody 
 especially arranged it so, I suspect, that I 
 should have it just at the time of this 
 great excitement. The ceremony itself is 
 like this. They take a child fairly able 
 to walk, load him with some heavy thing, 
 and place him in a sort of a large basket 
 shaped like the blade of a shovel. Now 
 let him walk. The basket will rock under 
 him, the load is too heavy for him, and he 
 will fall down. 
 
MY INFANCY 15 
 
 If he does, it is taken for granted that 
 he has in that one act had all the falls that 
 he would otherwise meet in his later life. 
 So, if he appears too strong to stumble, he 
 will be shaken down by some roguish hands 
 before he gets out of it. 
 
 I was to go through this before august 
 spectators — country girls. They liked 
 to see me plump, because some of them 
 were even more plump than I. At 
 any rate, from everywhere they saluted 
 me as ^^ Bot'chan,'' ^^ Bot'chan.'' If 
 I had returned every salute by look- 
 ing this way and that, I should have 
 broken my neck. But it was custom- 
 ary to make a bow anyway, and I was 
 ordered by my mamma to do so. On 
 this occasion I made two snap bows with 
 my chin, which excited laughter. Now a 
 basket was produced, a brand-new one, I 
 remember, and I was loaded with some 
 heavy rice cake. I stood up, however, like 
 Master Peachling of our fairy-tale, who 
 is said to have surprised his adopted 
 
16 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN JAPAN 
 
 mother by rising in his bathtub on the very 
 day of his birth ! I was then placed in the 
 basket and made to walk. 
 
 I looked intently at the basket, not be- 
 cause it was new, but because it gave me a 
 queer motion, the ups and downs of a 
 boat, a new sensation to me, anyway. 
 Attracted, however, by the merry voices of 
 the crowd, I looked at them, and suddenly, 
 being pleased with so many smiling faces, 
 raised a cry of delight, when down I came 
 with a loud noise. A roar of laughter 
 broke out with the clapping of hands. The 
 noise buried my surprise and I also clapped 
 my hands without knowing who was being 
 cheered. 
 
 As the first-born of the house, I must 
 have had lots of playthings. But there 
 were two things I remember as clear as 
 the day. One was a sword, all wood, how- 
 ever. As the son of a samurai, I should 
 have had to serve my lord under the old 
 regime and stake my life and honor on 
 the two blades of steel. And so even if 
 
MY INFANCY 17 
 
 the good old days were gone, sometliing to 
 remind us of them was kept and made a 
 plaything of. But really, I liked my 
 wooden sword. The other thing was a 
 horse — a hobby-horse, I mean. I don't 
 know just how many horses I had, but I 
 wanted any number of them. I had some 
 pictures, but they were all of horses. If 
 not, I would not accept the presents. And 
 with these two kinds of treasures I en- 
 joyed most of my childhood days, the 
 sword slantingly on my side, and the horse, 
 which I fancied trotting, under me, while 
 I shouted ' ' Haiyo ! haiyo ! ' ' 
 
 Although I had my own name, people 
 called me '' Bot'chan," as I have said, be- 
 cause it is a general term of endearment, 
 and papa and mamma would call me 
 *^ Bo " or '' Boya." Among those who 
 addressed me thus, I remember very well 
 one middle-aged woman who often came 
 to steal me from mamma, and by whom 
 I was only too glad to be stolen. 
 
 We had a long veranda facing the gar- 
 
18 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN JAPAN 
 
 den, on which I passed most of my days. 
 There I rode on my hobby-horse or played 
 with my little dog Shiro, who wonld go 
 through all sorts of tricks for a morsel of 
 nice things. Suddenly my laugh would 
 cease and nothing of me would be heard. 
 "Wondering what the matter was, mamma 
 would open the paper screen to see, and 
 lo! not a shadow of me was to be seen. 
 Even Shiro had disappeared. Attacked 
 with a feeling something akin to horror, 
 she used to picture — so I imagine — a 
 winged tengu (a Japanese harpy) swoop- 
 ing down and carrying me away to some 
 distant hill. But soon finding recent steps 
 of clogs on the ground, coming to and re- 
 ceding from the veranda, she would nod 
 and smile at the trick. She knew that I 
 had been kidnapped by a good soul ! 
 
 Now I want to give you some reasons 
 why I liked this woman. First of all, it 
 was because she always carried me on 
 her back. The only way to appreciate what 
 it is to be tall, would be to be a grown-up 
 
MY INFANCY 19 
 
 man and a small child at the same time. 
 And that is exactly the feeling that I had. 
 I could see lots of curious things over the 
 forbidden hedges. I could even see things 
 over the house-tops; they were all one- 
 story, and built low, though. In a word, 
 I always felt while on her back like a wee 
 pig who had first toddled out into a wide, 
 wide world. And then she would carry me 
 through town. What life there was ! After 
 crossing a bridge which spanned the 
 stream, coming from the beautiful lake on 
 the north and going a little way along a 
 row of pine-trees, we would come on a flock 
 of ducks and geese on their way to the 
 water. What a noise they made, — quack, 
 quack! Then we would begin inspecting 
 rows of houses, open to the street and in 
 which all sorts of things were sold. Men, 
 women, and children, as well as dogs, 
 seemed to be very much occupied. Then I 
 would spy some horses laden with straw 
 bags and wood. Eeal horses they were, 
 but I was rather disappointed to find them 
 
20 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN JAPAN 
 
 so big and their appearance not half so 
 good as in my pictures. My faith in them 
 always began to shake a little bit, but still 
 I used to persist in thinking that my hobby- 
 horses and pictures were nearer the reality 
 than those we met on the street. And 
 wasn't it curious that my belief was at last 
 substantiated by seeing a Shetland pony 
 in America after some twenty years ? Ah, 
 that was exactly what I had in mind ! 
 
 Then I would hear a merry prattle on a 
 drum — terent'tenten, terent-tenten. Ah, 
 here would come boy acrobats dressed in 
 something like girls' gymnasium suits, 
 with a small mask of a lion's head with a 
 plume on it, on their heads. A funny sort 
 of boy, I thought, but on my woman's giv- 
 ing them some pennies, they would perform 
 all sorts of feats which interested me never 
 so much. The woman used to shake me 
 to make sure that I was not dead, as I 
 kept very quiet, watching. 
 
 The woman's house was just behind the 
 street, and she was sure to take me there. 
 
MY INFANCY 21 
 
 Here was another reason why I liked her 
 very much. She seemed to know just what 
 I wanted. She would set me on the sunny 
 veranda and bring me some nice o-dango 
 (rice dumpling). This she made herself, 
 and it was prepared just to my liking, 
 covered well with soy and baked deli- 
 ciously. I was in clover if I only had that ! 
 I will describe one of my visits, which 
 will well represent them all. The day was 
 calm and bright, and while we were feast- 
 ing — she had some of the good things, too 
 — her pussy sat on one end of the veranda 
 and was finishing her toilet in the sun. 
 Even the sparrows in this peaceful weather 
 forgot that they were birds of air, and 
 fell from the trees and were wrestling 
 noisily on the ground. Only the pussy's 
 move broke up their sport. By this time 
 we were very near the end of our busi- 
 ness. Turning from the sparrows, my 
 woman glanced at me and sat for a mo- 
 ment transfixed with the awful sight I 
 presented. There I was with my cheeks 
 
22 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN JAPAN 
 
 and nose all besmeared with brown soy, 
 stretching my sticky hands in a helpless 
 attitude, and licking my mouth by way of 
 variation. She now broke into laughter 
 and was scrambling on the floor, weak with 
 merriment. But my mute appeal was too 
 eloquent; indeed, I was all ready to shed 
 tears with an utter sense of helplessness 
 when she hastened to bring a wet towel and 
 wipe my face and hands clean and nice, 
 with, '' Oh, my poor Bot'chan! '^ 
 
o 
 
 1^ 
 
 1-3 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 AT HOME 
 
 Introduction — Dinner — Rice — - Turning to Cows — 
 A Bamboo Dragon-fly — A Watermelon Lantern — 
 On a Rainy Evening — The Story of a Badger. 
 
 Our family consisted of father, mother, 
 grandmother, and two children besides 
 myself, at the time when I was six years 
 old. I don't remember exactly what busi- 
 ness my father was in, but my impression 
 is that he had no particular one. He had 
 been trained for the old samurai and de- 
 voted most of his youthful days to fenc- 
 ing, riding, and archery. But by the 
 time he had come of age, that training was 
 of no use to him professionally, because, 
 as quickly as you can turn the palm of 
 your hand, Japan went through a won- 
 derful change from the old feudal regime 
 to the era of new civilization. So my 
 
 23 
 
24 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN JAPAN 
 
 father, and many, many others like him, 
 were just in mid-air, so to speak, being 
 thrown out of their proper sphere, but 
 unable to settle as yet to the solid ground 
 and adapt themselves to new ways. My 
 mother came also of the samurai stock, 
 and, like most of her class, kept in her 
 cabinet a small sword beautifully orna- 
 mented in gold work, with which she was 
 ready to defend her honor whenever 
 obliged to. But far from being mannish, 
 she was as meek as a lamb, and was de- 
 voted to my father and her children. My 
 grandmother was of a retiring nature and 
 I cannot draw her very much into my 
 narrative. But she was very good to 
 everybody, and her daily work, so far as 
 I can remember, was to take a walk around 
 the farm every morning. She was so 
 regular in this habit that I cannot think of 
 her without associating her with the scent 
 of the dewy morning and with the green 
 of the field which stretched before her. 
 She died not many years after, but I often 
 
AT HOME 25 
 
 wonder if she is really dead. To me she 
 is still living, and what the great poet said 
 of Lucy Gray sounds peculiarly true in her 
 case, too. 
 
 " — Yet some maintain that to this day 
 She is a living child ; 
 That you may see sweet Lucy Gray 
 Upon the lonesome wild. 
 
 " O'er rough and smooth she trips along, 
 And never looks behind ; 
 And sings a solitary song 
 That whistles in the wind." 
 
 Only you would have to make Lucy seventy 
 years old to fit my grandmother. 
 
 The introduction being over, let us 
 attend a dinner, or rather give attention 
 to a description of one. We do not eat 
 at one large dining-table with chairs 
 around it. We each have a separate small 
 table about a foot and a half square, all 
 lacquered red, green, or black, and sit be- 
 fore it on our heels. A rice bucket, a tea- 
 pot, some saucers, a bottle of soy, and so 
 forth, are all placed near some one who 
 
26 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN JAPAN 
 
 is to specially serve us. We used to sit in 
 two rows, father and grandmother facing 
 each other^ mother next to father, with the 
 young sister opposite my brother and my- 
 self. The younger children usually sit 
 next to some older person who can help 
 them in eating. No grace was said, but I 
 always bowed to my elders before I began 
 with '^ itadakimasu " (I take this with 
 thanks), which I sometimes said when I 
 was very hungry, as a good excuse and 
 signal to start eating before the others. 
 
 Eice is our staple food and an almost 
 reverential attitude toward it as the sus- 
 tainer of our life is entertained by the 
 people. And I was told time and again 
 not to waste it. Once a maid, so my 
 mother used to tell me, was very careless 
 in cleaning rice before it was cooked. 
 She dropped lots of grains on the stone 
 floor under the sink day after day, and 
 never stopped to pick them up. One day, 
 when she wanted to clean the floor, she 
 was frightened half to death by finding 
 
AT HOME 27 
 
 there ever so many white serpents strain- 
 ing their necks at her. She really fainted 
 when the goddess of the kitchen appeared 
 to her in her trance and bade her to take 
 all those white serpents in a basket and 
 wash them clean. As she came to her- 
 self, she did as she was told, trembling 
 with horror at touching such vile things, 
 some of which, indeed, would try to coil 
 themselves around her hands. But as the 
 last pailful of water was poured on them, 
 lo! what were serpents a moment ago 
 were now all turned into nice grains of 
 rice ready to be boiled. Now if there is 
 one thing in the world I hate, it is a ser- 
 pent; the mere mention of it makes my 
 flesh creep. So you see I took care to 
 pitch every grain of boiled rice into my 
 mouth with my chop-sticks before I left my 
 table. 
 
 Another story was told me concerning 
 the meal. The Japanese teach home dis- 
 cipline by stories, you know. This was 
 a short one, being merely the statement 
 
28 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN JAPAN 
 
 that if anybody lies down on the floor soon 
 after he has eaten his meal, he will turn 
 into a cow. Now a number of times I had 
 found cows chewing their cuds while 
 stretched upon the ground. So I thought, 
 in my childish mind, that there must be 
 some mysterious connection between each 
 of the three in the order as they stand: 
 eating — lying down — cow. So, natu- 
 rally, I avoided the second process, and, 
 after eating, immediately ran out-of-doors 
 to see what our man, Kichi, was doing. 
 
 Kichi worked on our little farm, and I 
 usually found him cleaning his imple- 
 ments after the day's work. We were 
 great friends, and he used to present me 
 with toys of his own making, which were 
 very simple but indeed a marvel to me. 
 Once he picked up a piece of bamboo and 
 made a chip of it about a twelfth of an 
 inch thick, a third of an inch wide, and 
 three inches and a half long. Then he 
 sliced obliquely one-half of one side and 
 the other half of the same side in the 
 
AT HOME 29 
 
 opposite direction, so that the edges might 
 be made thin. He also bored a small hole 
 in the middle and put in a stick about 
 twice as thick as a hairpin and about four 
 inches long, the sliced side being down. 
 He then cut off the projecting end of the 
 stick, when it was tight in the chip. The 
 dragon-fly was now ready to take flight. 
 He took the stick between his palms and 
 gave a twist, when lo ! it flew away up in 
 the air. 
 
 I was delighted with the toy, and tried 
 several times to make it fly. But when I 
 used all my force and gave it a good long 
 twist, why, it took such a successful flight 
 that it hit the edge of the comb of our 
 straw roof and stuck there, never to come 
 down. I was very sorry at that, but Kichi 
 laughed at the feat the dragon-fly had per- 
 formed, and said that the maker was so 
 skilful that the toy turned out to be a real 
 living thing ! It was perched there for the 
 night. Well, I admired his skill very 
 much, but did not want to lose my toy in 
 
30 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN JAPAN 
 
 that way. So I made him promise me to 
 make another the next day, reminding him 
 not to put too much skill in it. 
 
 It was summer, the season of water- 
 melons. We had a small melon patch and 
 an ample supply of the fruit. Here was a 
 chance for Kichi to try his skill again. 
 One evening he took a pretty round melon 
 and scooped the inside out so as to put 
 in a lighted candle. So far this was very 
 ordinary. He scraped the inner part until 
 the rind was fairly transparent, and then 
 cut a mouth, a nose, and eyes with eye- 
 brows sticking out like pins. He then 
 painted them so that when the candle was 
 lighted a monster of a melon was pro- 
 duced. How triumphant a boy would feel 
 in possessing such a thing! I hung it on 
 the veranda that evening when the room 
 was weirdly lighted by one or two greenish 
 paper lanterns, and watched it with my 
 folks. I expressed my admiration for 
 Kichi 's skill, and with boyish fondness for 
 exaggeration mentioned the fact that a 
 
AT HOME 31 
 
 toy dragon-fly of his making had really 
 turned out to be a living thing. All 
 laughed, but of course I made an effort to 
 be serious. But no sooner were we silent 
 than, without the slightest hint, the melon 
 angrily dropped down with a crash. I 
 screamed, but, being assured of its safety, 
 I approached it and found the skull of the 
 monster was badly fractured, in fact, one 
 piece of it flying some twenty feet out in 
 the garden. The next morning I took the 
 first opportunity to tell Kichi that his toy 
 was so skilfully made that it sought death 
 of its own accord. 
 
 Well, I started to tell what I did eve- 
 nings, but when it was wet I had a very 
 tedious time. Nothing is more dismal to a 
 boy than a rainy day. To lie down was to 
 become a cow. So one rainy evening I 
 opened the screen, and, standing, looked 
 out at the rain. But this was no fun. The 
 only alternative was to go to one of the 
 rooms. Now there is no chair in a Japa- 
 nese house, and to sit over one's heels is 
 
32 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN JAPAN 
 
 too ceremonial, not to say a bit trying, even 
 for a Japanese child. So my legs uncon- 
 sciously collapsed, and there I was lying 
 on my back, singing aloud some songs I 
 had learned. Presently I began to look 
 at the unpainted ceiling, and traced the 
 grain. And is it not wonderful that out 
 of knots and veins of wood you can make 
 figures of some living things? Yes, I 
 traced a man's face, one eye much larger 
 than the other. Then, I had a cat. Now 
 I began to trace a big one with a V-shaped 
 face. A cow! The idea ran through me 
 with the swiftness of lightning, and the 
 next moment I sprang to my feet and 
 shook myself to see if I had undergone 
 any transformation. Luckily, I was all 
 right. But to make the thing sure, I felt 
 of my forehead carefully to see if any- 
 thing hard was coming out of it. 
 
 The room now lost its attraction. And 
 I ran away to the room where my grand- 
 mother was. Opening the screen, I said: 
 
 '^ Grandma! '^ 
 
AT HOME 33 
 
 ^^ Well, B6?'^ 
 
 '' May I come in? I want yon to tell 
 me the story of a badger, grandma." 
 
 I was never tired of hearing the same 
 stories over and over again from my 
 grandmother. There was at some dis- 
 tance a tall tree, shooting np like an arrow 
 to the sky, which was visible from a win- 
 dow of her room. It was there that the 
 badger of her story liked to climb. One 
 early evening he was there with the cover 
 of an iron pot, which he made with his 
 magic power appear like a misty moon. 
 Now a farmer, who was still working in 
 the field, chanced to see it, and was sur- 
 prised to find that it was already so late. 
 He could tell the hour from the position 
 of the moon, you know. So he made haste 
 to finish his work, and was going home, 
 when another moon, the real one this time, 
 peeped out of the wood near by. The 
 badger, however, had too much faith in his 
 art to withdraw his mock moon, and held 
 it there to rival the newly risen one. The 
 
34 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN JAPAN 
 
 farmer was astonished to find two moons 
 at the same time, but he was not slow to 
 see which was real. He smiled at the 
 trick of the badger, and now wanted to 
 outwit him. He approached the tree 
 stealthily and shook it with all his might. 
 The badger was not prepared for this. 
 Losing his balance, he dropped down to the 
 ground, moon and all, and had to run for 
 his life, for the farmer was right after 
 him with his hoe. 
 
 I laughed and grandma laughed, too, 
 over her own story, when the paper screen 
 was suddenly brightened. 
 
 '^ The badger's moon! " I cried, and 
 climbed up to my grandmother. 
 
 " Yes, I am a badger," said a voice, as 
 the door was opened. And there stood 
 my mother with a paper lantern she had 
 brought for the room. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 THE VILLAGE SCHOOL 
 
 A Mimic School — Preparations — The School — How 
 Classes Are Conducted — Out of Tune — A Moral 
 Story — School Discipline — Playthings — " Knife 
 Sense." 
 
 At the age of six I was sent to school. 
 For some time before the fall opening, 
 I was filled with excitement and curiosity 
 and looked forward to the day with great 
 impatience. As our neighbors were few 
 and scattered and I did not have many 
 playmates, I wondered how I should feel 
 on coming in contact with so many boys, 
 most of whom were older than I. And 
 then there was study. I had a faint idea 
 what a learned scholar such as Confucius 
 was, and felt as if a plunge into school a 
 day or two would half convert me into that 
 obscure ideal. Weeks before, I insisted 
 
 35 
 
36 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN JAPAN 
 
 on having a mimic school at home to pre- 
 pare myself a little for the august event, 
 and with my mother as teacher I learned 
 the numerals and the forty-eight letters 
 of the Japanese alphabet by heart. I 
 wished to do just as I would at school, and 
 so I used to go outdoors and with meas- 
 ured steps approach the porch. Entering 
 the house, I sat down before a table and 
 bowed reverentially. When my mother 
 was there before me, I cheerfully began to 
 study, well, for five minutes or so, but when 
 I found her not quite ready I was merci- 
 lessly thrown out of humor, and only her 
 exaggerated bows for apology would in- 
 duce me to dry my sorrowful tears. 
 
 The few days before the opening of the 
 school were taken for my preparation. I 
 needed copy-books, a slate, an abacus, 
 which is a frame strung with wires on 
 which are wooden beads to be moved in 
 counting and reckoning, and a small writ- 
 ing-box, containing a stone ink-well, a cake 
 of India ink, a china water-vessel, and 
 
THE VILLA au SCHOOL 37 
 
 brushes. I must have also a round lunch 
 set, the three pieces of which can be piled 
 one upon another like a miniature pagoda, 
 and then, when empty, be put one within 
 another to reduce the size. A pair of 
 chop-sticks went with the set of course. 
 Now all must be purchased new as if 
 everything had a new start. And then a 
 new school suit was procured together 
 with a navy cap. These were all ready a 
 day before, and were exhibited on the 
 alcove. 
 
 My younger brother was possessed of 
 the school mania at the sight of these last, 
 and insisted that he would have his set, 
 too. And so mimic ones were procured, 
 and these formed a second row together 
 with his holiday suit. 
 
 And then came the night before I was to 
 go. I played the part of a watch-dog by 
 sleeping right near my property. In fact, 
 I went to bed early, but I could not sleep 
 till after everybody had retired for the 
 night. And then I dreamed that my abacus 
 
38 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN JAPAN 
 
 stood up, its beads chattering on how to 
 start the trip in the morning. It was 
 joined by the copy-book, made of soft, 
 Japanese paper, which parted hither and 
 thither in walking, as a lady's skirt, — a 
 Japanese lady's, I mean. The chairman 
 was my navy cap. I did not know how 
 they decided, but they must have come to 
 a peaceful agreement, as they were found, 
 when I awoke in the morning, exactly in 
 the same place, lying quiet. 
 
 The next morning I set out with my 
 father for the school. The faces of every 
 one in the house were at the door looking 
 at me. I made every effort to be dignified 
 in walking, but could not help looking back 
 just once, when my face relaxed into a 
 smile, and I felt suddenly very shy. But 
 as I heard my younger brother struggling 
 to get away from my mother to follow me, 
 I hastened my steps to turn round a corner 
 of the road. 
 
 The school was a low, dark-looking 
 building, with paper-screened windows all 
 
THE VILLAaU SCHOOL 39 
 
 around like a broad white belt, and with a 
 spacious porch with dusty shelves to leave 
 clogs on. When we arrived, we were led 
 into a side room, where we met the master 
 or principal, and soon my father returned 
 home, leaving me to his care. I felt some- 
 what lonesome with strangers all around, 
 but kept myself as cool as possible, which 
 effort was very much like stopping a leak 
 with the hands. A slight neglect would 
 bring something misty into my eyes. But 
 now all the boys — and girls, too, in the 
 other room — came into one large room. 
 Some forty of the older ones and fifteen 
 of those who had newly entered took their 
 seats, the older ones glancing curiously at 
 the newcomers. But we were all in back 
 seats and so were not annoyed with looks 
 that would have been felt piercing us from 
 behind. The desk I was assigned to was a 
 miserable one ; not only was it besmeared 
 with ink ages old, but cuts were made here 
 and there as if it were a well-fought battle- 
 ground. But I did not feel ashamed to sit 
 
40 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN JAPAN 
 
 there, as I thought that this was a kind of 
 place in which a Confucius was to be 
 brought up. 
 
 Looking awhile on what was going on, 
 I found the boys were divided into three 
 classes. The method of teaching was 
 curious; one class alone was allowed to 
 have a reading lesson, while the other two 
 were having writing or arithmetic, that is, 
 the teaching was so arranged that what 
 one class was doing might not disturb the 
 others. I was struck, even in my boyish 
 mind, with the happy method, and learned 
 the first lesson in management. And then 
 reading was done partly in unison with 
 the master, in a singsong style, and the 
 effect was pleasing, if it was not very loud. 
 The class in arithmetic, on the other hand, 
 sent out a pattering noise of pencils on the 
 slates, which in a confused mass would 
 form an overtone of the orchestra. A 
 writing lesson taken in the midst of such 
 a company was never tiresome. Indeed, 
 anything out of tune would send the whole 
 
o 
 o 
 w 
 
 o 
 
 
THE VILLA au SCHOOL 41 
 
 house into laughter, and such things were 
 constantly happening. 
 
 I was not slow in becoming acquainted 
 with the boys. As I went into the play- 
 ground for the first time, I felt rather 
 awkward to find nobody to play with. 
 But soon two boys whom I knew thrust 
 themselves before me and uncovered 
 their heads. And from that moment the 
 playground became a place of great in- 
 terest to me. Two friends grew into five, 
 eight, ten, and fifteen, and in three days 
 I felt as if I possessed the whole ground. 
 
 As things grew more familiar, I found 
 almost every boy was striving a little bit 
 to be out of tune. When singsong reading 
 was going on, pupils echoing responsively 
 the teacher's voice, some wild boy would 
 suddenly redouble his effort with gusto, 
 and his voice, like that of a strangled 
 chicken, would soar away up, to the great 
 merriment of the rest. And then often a 
 boy, whose mind was occupied with a hun- 
 dred and one things except the book, en- 
 
42 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN JAPAN 
 
 gaged in some sly communication with 
 another, unconscious of the teacher's ap- 
 proach, when he would literally jump into 
 the air as the master's whip descended 
 sharply on his desk. We sat by twos on 
 benches, and when one boy saw his com- 
 panion carelessly perching on the end of 
 the bench, just right for experimenting 
 the principle of the lever, he would not 
 miss a moment to stand up, presumably 
 to ask some question. But no sooner had 
 he called to the teacher, than the other fel- 
 low would shoot down to the floor with a 
 cry, and the bench come back with a tre- 
 mendous noise. But this was not all. 
 When the boys could not find a pretense to 
 make a noise, they would stealthily paint 
 their faces with writing brushes. Two 
 touches would be enough to grow a thick 
 mustache curling up to the ears. When 
 the teacher faced a dozen of those mus- 
 tache-wearing boys who were unable to 
 efface their naughty acts as quickly as they 
 
TEE VILLA aU SCHOOL 43 
 
 had committed them, he could do nothing 
 but to burst into undignified laughter. 
 
 One day a strange method of discipline 
 was instituted. The teacher must have 
 been at a loss to bring the urchins to be- 
 have well. It was the last hour, the only 
 hour, I think, the boys kept quiet. They 
 did so partly because the course bore the 
 great name of ethics, but more because 
 moral stories were told. And the boys 
 did not care whether the stories were moral 
 or not, as long as they were interesting. 
 Here is one of the twenty-four Chinese 
 stories that teach filial duty : 
 
 There was once a boy by the name of 
 Ching who had an old mother. He was a 
 good boy, and did what he could to please 
 her. The mother, however, often asked for 
 things hard to get. One day in winter she 
 wanted some carp for her dinner. It was 
 very cold, and the lake where Ching used 
 to fish was all frozen. What could he do? 
 He, however, went to the lake, looked about 
 the place to find out where the ice was not 
 
44 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN JAPAN 
 
 thick, and, baring himself about his stom- 
 ach, lay flat to thaw it. It was a very diffi- 
 cult thing to do, but at last the ice gave 
 way, and to his great joy, from the crevice 
 thus made, a big carp jumped out into the 
 air. So he could satisfy his mother's 
 want. 
 
 Not only the boys who listened intently, 
 but also the teacher, got interested as the 
 story grew to the climax, and the latter 
 would gesticulate and eventually imper- 
 sonate the dutiful boy, showing surprise 
 at seeing a carp jumping ten feet into the 
 air. This called forth laughter which was 
 meant for applause. But the teacher soon 
 came to himself and called silence. One 
 day, after telling this story, he said that 
 it was yet half an hour before the time to 
 close, but he would dismiss us. " But,'' 
 he continued, '' you can go only one by 
 one, beginning with those who are quiet 
 and good. This is to train you for your 
 orderly conduct in study-hours, and if any 
 one cannot keep quiet, even for half an 
 
THE VILLA au SCHOOL 45 
 
 hour, he shall stay in his place till he can 
 do so. ' ' This was a severe test. An early 
 dismissal, even of five minutes before the 
 time, had a special charm for boys, but 
 to-day we could march out half an hour 
 earlier. And then what a lovely day it 
 was in autumn! The warm sun was 
 bright, and the trees were ablaze with 
 golden leaves. Persimmons were wait- 
 ing for us to climb up and feast on them. 
 After a moment the boys were as still as 
 night. One by one a " good " boy was 
 called to leave; they went like lambs to 
 the door, but no sooner were they out, 
 than some stamped on the stairs noisily 
 and shouted and laughed on the green, 
 which act showed that the teacher did not 
 always pick the right ones. I naturally 
 waited my turn with impatience. I thought 
 I was a pretty good boy. At least I had 
 Confucius for my ideal, and those who had 
 it were not many. I never did mischief, 
 except once, and that was really an acci- 
 dent. I dropped my lunch-box in my 
 
46 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN JAPAN 
 
 arithmetic class, and chased it, as it had 
 rolled off quite a distance. Half the school 
 laughed at me, and that was all. I was now 
 musing on my ill-luck when a call came to 
 me at last. It was still a quarter of an 
 hour before closing time, and I thought the 
 teacher knew me, after all. 
 
 Within a month after I entered the 
 school, I made a new discovery as to a 
 schoolboy's equipments. I had thought 
 that they consisted only of books, copy- 
 books, an abacus, and such things. But 
 these form only a half of them. The 
 other half are hidden to view: they are 
 in the pockets, or in the sleeves, I should 
 have said. During the recess a strong 
 cord will come out and also a top about 
 two and a half inches in diameter, and 
 with an iron ring a quarter of an inch 
 thick. A Japanese top is a mad thing. 
 When it sings out of the hands and hits 
 that of the opponent, sending it off 
 crippled, it makes you feel very happy. 
 Another thing is a sling. It is as old as the 
 
THE VILLAaU SCHOOL 47 
 
 time of David, but it was perfectly new 
 to me. When a pebble shoots ont and 
 vanishes in the air, you feel as though you 
 were able to hit a kite circling away up in 
 the sky. And another thing! It is a 
 knife, the broad-bladed one. With it they 
 cut a piece one and a half feet long out of 
 a thick branch of a tree and sharpen one 
 end of it. Selecting a piece of soft ground, 
 the boys in turn drive in their own pieces 
 and try to knock over the others. The 
 game depends much on one's strength and 
 the kind of wood one selects. But there 
 is a pleasure in possessing a cruel branch 
 that will knock off three or four pieces at 
 a blow. Oh, for a knife and a top! I 
 thought. I disclosed the matter to my 
 mother, who thought a top was all right 
 and bought me one. But as for the knife, 
 she gave me a small one, fit only to sharpen 
 a pencil with. I felt ashamed (I blush to 
 confess, though) even to show it to my 
 schoolmates. If I had had money, I would 
 have given my all just for a knife. But 
 
48 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN JAPAN 
 
 money was a mean thing; the possession 
 of it was the root of all evil — so it was 
 thought, and, indeed, I was penniless. 
 But I must have a decent knife — decent 
 among boys. If I could only get one I 
 would give my Confucius for it. 
 
 One day I saw my Kichi — we had kept 
 up our meeting ever since. I talked to 
 him about a knife. He did not tell me how 
 I could get one because I talked only about 
 what the possession of a good knife would 
 mean to a boy. It was a rather general 
 remark, but I disliked to go right to the 
 point. It would be too much to presume 
 on his kindness, you know. And then I 
 rather wanted him to offer. He, however, 
 produced his own favorite knife and cut 
 a thick piece of deal right away to show 
 how sharp it was. Well, I thought he had 
 a knife sense, anyway. So I kept talking 
 about it day after day, and each time I 
 talked of it he showed me his, and tried it 
 on a piece of wood. 
 
 One day there was a town festival and 
 
THE VILLA au SCHOOL 49 
 
 in the evening I was allowed to go with 
 Kichi to see it. Kichi 's manner that night 
 was very strange; he appeared as if he 
 had a chestful of gold. He asked me in 
 a fatherly manner what I liked, and said 
 he could buy me all the booths if I wished 
 him to. I never felt so happy as then. I 
 thought my patience had conquered him 
 at last. And to make a long story short, 
 I came to own a splendid knife, better 
 than any other boy's at the school! That 
 night I slept with it under the pillow. 
 
 The next morning the first thing I did 
 was to go to thank Kichi. 
 
 " Hello, Kichi," I shouted. " Thank 
 you very much for the knife." 
 
 ^^ Oh, good morning, Bot'chan. Let me 
 see your knife," he said. '' But I am 
 sorry that I played a joke on you last 
 night. It was your mother who paid for 
 it. You must go and thank her for it. ' ' 
 
 '' Well, never! " I gasped. But being 
 told how she handed him the money when 
 we started, I gave him a slap — a mild one, 
 
50 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN JAPAN 
 
 though — on his face and ran immediately 
 to my mother, thinking that after all she 
 had something more than a mere knife 
 sense. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 IN TOKYO 
 
 Where We Settled — A Police Stand — Stores — 
 " Broadway " — Illumination — The Foreign Settle- 
 ment. 
 
 About two years after I entered the village 
 school I had to leave it for good and all. 
 My father, as I have said, was in mid-air 
 between the heaven of old Japan and the 
 prosaic earth of the new institution. He 
 would fain have remained there, had he 
 had a pillar of gold to support him. And 
 it is wonderful to see how this glittering 
 pillar does support one in almost any 
 place. It was a very serious matter for 
 him to launch in the new current without 
 any helpful equipment. But he had to do 
 it, and made up his mind to try his fortune 
 at the very centre of the new civilization, 
 Tokyo. And so one day we said good-by 
 
 61 
 
62 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN JAPAN 
 
 to our friends who came to see us off, and 
 started for the capital. " Parting is such 
 sweet sorrow," as the poet sang, but I 
 hardly remember now whether I shed tears 
 or not. As I, however, look back to the 
 day, I cannot but be grateful for the new 
 move, for the immeasurable benefit it 
 brought at least to us children. 
 
 In Tokyo we settled very near where my 
 aunt lived. The street was by no means 
 in a noisy quarter, but I can hardly think 
 of anywhere in the city which was so well 
 situated for being in contact with so many 
 places of interest, at least for a boy just 
 from the country. It was near to the 
 '' Broadway " of Tokyo, and just as near 
 to the foreign settlement and to the rail- 
 road station, the only one of the kind in 
 the city in those days. And if I wanted a 
 touch of the old order of things, there was 
 a big temple, a block on the east, which 
 made its presence known to the forgetful 
 people by striking a big bell every eve- 
 ning. I cannot say they rang the bell, be- 
 
IN TOKYO 53 
 
 cause the bells at Buddhist temples do not 
 chime, but boom. They are so big — 
 bigger than a siege-gun. I liked the 
 sound very much, as it brought to me like 
 a dream the vision of a hillside sleeping 
 under the setting sun. But I must not 
 forget to mention a large piece of grassy 
 ground very near us, where we could 
 romp, fly kites, or play at a tug-of-war. 
 
 Now the first thing I did when I came 
 to the new place was to familiarize myself 
 with the neighborhood for the sake of 
 running errands, or just to keep myself 
 informed. First I started eastward and 
 turned the corner to the left, where I found 
 a wee bit of a house, or rather a box, six 
 feet by nine, where two policemen were 
 stationed. It was the first time I had ever 
 seen any of them, and I thought they were 
 a queer sort of people, who looked at me 
 suspiciously whenever I looked at them 
 in that way. But I thought as long as I 
 did not do anything wrong, they would 
 have no reason for coming at me. I also 
 
64 WHEN 1 WAS A BOY IN JAPAN 
 
 had great faith that if a thief should break 
 into our house, they would soon come to 
 our help. So I made several trials to 
 see how quickly I could cover the distance 
 to give them notice. They must have 
 thought me a strange boy as I came pant- 
 ing to the police stand and stopped short 
 to look at the clock inside. 
 
 A little beyond began the market. First 
 a grocery store, then a fish stall, a bean- 
 cake shop, and so on. I remember that 
 the house I most frequented was a sweet 
 potato store. I could get five or six nice 
 hot baked pieces for a penny. And how I 
 liked them! At regular intervals fresh 
 ones were ready and we waited for them, 
 falling into a line. When we got as much 
 as we wanted, we would run a race lest 
 they should get too cold. At the end of the 
 street, just opposite a tall fire-ladder, 
 standing erect and with a bell on the top, 
 was a big meat store. Beef, pork, every- 
 thing, they had, and sometimes I found a 
 bill posted saying, " Mountain Whale, 
 
IF TOKYO 55 
 
 To-day.'' Whatever that might be, I 
 never cared to eat such doubtful things. 
 You never tried sea-horse or sea-elephant, 
 did you? 
 
 Then, going in another direction from 
 my house, I made my way to '' Broad- 
 way." I first crossed a bridge which 
 spanned a canal and came to an object of 
 much interest. It was a telegraph-pole. 
 I was never able to count the wires on it 
 unless I did it by the help of a multiplica- 
 tion table, as there were so many of them, 
 coming from all parts of the country to 
 the central station. A strange thing about 
 them was that they sang. When I put my 
 ear to the pole, even on a windless day, I 
 could hear a number of soft voices wailing, 
 as it were. I thought they must come 
 from messages running on the wires, many 
 of which were indeed too sad to describe. 
 And then there was something which made 
 me think that boys in that vicinity had a 
 very hard time. Many a time I saw kites 
 with warriors' faces painted on them, en- 
 
56 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN JAPAN 
 
 tangled in the wires. The faces which 
 looked heroic, now seemed only grinning 
 furiously for agony! But I must not be 
 musing on such things, for if I did not 
 take care in that crowded thoroughfare, a 
 jinrikisha man would come dashing from 
 behind with ' ' Heigh, there ! ' ' which took 
 the breath out of a country boy. 
 
 Broadway was built after a foreign 
 style, — I don't know which country's, 
 though. There were sidewalks with willow- 
 trees, — and there are no sidewalks in 
 ordinary Japanese roads, — and brick 
 houses, two stories high, and with no base- 
 ment. Horse-cars were running, but they 
 would not be on the track after ten in the 
 evening. Many jinrikishas were running, 
 too, and some half a dozen of them were 
 waiting for customers at each corner. But 
 not a shadow of a cab was to be seen any- 
 where. To tell the truth, I never thought 
 of finding one then, its existence in the 
 world being unknown to me at that time. 
 There were a good many wonders in store 
 
p 
 < 
 o 
 
 a? 
 
 
IN TOKYO 67 
 
 for me in the shops, and I never grew tired 
 of inspecting them. One curious thing 
 was that here and there at the notion 
 stores boys were playing hand-organs, 
 probably to draw customers in. So I 
 thought, anyway, and every time I passed 
 I obliged them awhile by listening to their 
 music. As I strolled on, I came across a 
 sign with " Shiruko " in large letters on 
 it. Shiruko is a sort of pudding, made of 
 sweet bean sauce and rice dumpling, and 
 served hot. To be sure, it made my mouth 
 water, but I went on reading a bill over 
 the wall. There were twelve varieties of 
 shiruko, it said, styled after the names of 
 the months, and any one who could finish 
 eating all of them at one time, would get 
 a prize besides the return of the price! 
 How I wished that I had a big stomach ! 
 
 The sight of Broadway was prettier in 
 the evening, when the sidewalks would be 
 lined with hundreds of stalls. I shall have 
 occasion to describe them later, and so 
 let me now mention one thing which I 
 
58 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN JAPAN 
 
 never remember without a smile. It was 
 an illumination on a holiday evening — 
 not of the whole street, but of only one 
 building, and that of two stories, I re- 
 member. It was a newspaper office. And 
 as newspapers are always giving us some- 
 thing new, this building, I think, awoke 
 one morning to give us what was very new 
 at that time. It girdled itself just once 
 with an iron pipe half an inch in diameter, 
 which twisted itself into some characters 
 in the front, and awaited a holiday eve- 
 ning. The paper advertised that every- 
 body should come to see how they were 
 going to celebrate the holiday evening. 
 So the whole city turned out, and all my 
 folks, too. Hand-organs in the stores 
 around began a concert, and people waited 
 with their mouths open. The time came, 
 and lights were seen running from both 
 ends like serpents, closing up in the centre. 
 Wonder of wonders! ^^ DAILY NEWS 
 OFFICE ' ' in gaslight appeared ! 
 I must tell you one more adventure I 
 
IN TOKYO 59 
 
 had, and that was an excursion into the 
 foreign settlement. As I came to the city 
 I met with a foreigner once in a while. I 
 wondered how I should feel if I but 
 plunged into their crowd and spoke with 
 them, if possible. So one day, with a 
 curious mind, I started for the place where 
 the foreigners lived together, about a mile 
 from my home. As I neared the settle- 
 ment I made several discoveries. First, 
 the houses looked very prim and square, 
 straight up and down, painted white, or 
 in some light color. When viewed from a 
 distance they looked as if they were so 
 many gravestones in a temple yard. Un- 
 fortunately, it was the only comparison 
 that occurred to a country boy. As I 
 looked again, I found out another fact. 
 That was, that while Japanese houses were 
 nestling under the trees, foreign houses 
 were above them. In fact, there was noth- 
 ing more than low bushes around the 
 houses. So my conclusion was that for- 
 eigners lived in gravestone-like houses, and 
 
t)0 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN JAPAN 
 
 did not like tall trees, being tall them- 
 selves, perhaps. As I entered a street I 
 found everything just contrary to my ex- 
 pectation. Streets were deserted instead 
 of being thronged ; only one or two people 
 and a dog were seen crossing. I went on, 
 when, as luck would have it, I neared a 
 Catholic temple from which two men, or 
 women, — I could not distinguish which, 
 — dressed in black, with hoods of the same 
 color, came! How dismal, I thought, and 
 immediately took to my heels till I came 
 to another part of the street where the 
 houses faced the sea. I wanted to see a 
 boy or a girl, anyway, if I could not find 
 a crowd. As I looked I saw something 
 white at one of the gates, and what was 
 my delight when I found it to be a little 
 girl ! I approached her, but not very near, 
 as we could not talk to each other. I just 
 kept at an admiring distance. I stood 
 there, one eye on her and the other on the 
 sea, lest I should drive her in by looking 
 at her with both my eyes, and began to 
 
IN TOKYO 61 
 
 examine her. What a pretty creature she 
 was! With her face white as a lily and 
 her cheeks pink as a cherry flower, she 
 stood there watching me. Her light hair 
 was parted, a blue ribbon being tied on 
 one side like a butterfly. She had on a 
 white muslin dress with a belt to match the 
 ribbon, but what was my astonishment to 
 find that I could not see any dress beyond 
 her knees ! I could not believe it at first, 
 but the dress stopped short there, and the 
 slender legs, covered with something 
 black, — I did not care what, — were shoot- 
 ing out. Might not some malicious person 
 have cut it so? " Oh, please, for mercy's 
 sake, cover them," was my thought. " I 
 don't care if you have a long dress, the 
 skirt trailing on the ground." But was I 
 mistaken in my standard of criticism? 
 I looked at myself, and, sure enough, my 
 kimono reached down to my feet ! 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 MY NEW SCHOOL 
 
 Tomo-chan — The Men with Wens — A Curious Pun- 
 ishment — How I Experienced It — Kotoro-kotoro. 
 
 Of course I attended another school as 
 soon as we were settled. And every morn- 
 ing I went with my Tomo-chan. 
 
 But I must tell you who Tomo-chan was. 
 She — yes, she — was the adopted daugh- 
 ter of my aunt, of about the same age as 
 I, and in the same class at school. I wish 
 I had space enough to tell you how she 
 came to be adopted, but I shall have to be 
 contented just with telling you that the 
 main cause of her becoming a member of 
 my aunt's family was all through me. 
 Aunty had no child, but she had found how 
 lovely a child is, even if he be mischie- 
 vous, through my short visit two years be- 
 fore, which I have had no occasion to tell 
 
 62 
 
MY NEW SCHOOL 63 
 
 you about. Now one of the first principles 
 in physics says that nature abhors a 
 vacuum. This means that it is unnatural 
 for a place to have nothing in it. I had 
 gone back: who was to fill my place? So 
 Tomo-chan, a better and certainly prettier 
 child than I, slipped into my shoes. 
 
 Aunty wished us to be good friends. So 
 I called on her every morning on my way 
 to school, and in the afternoon we went 
 over our lesson together. Arithmetic was 
 not very hard for me, and so I helped her 
 over pitfalls of calculation, while she did 
 the same for me with reading. Girls re- 
 member very well, but do not care to rea- 
 son things out, it seems. And indeed, 
 Tomo-chan remembered even the number 
 of mistakes I made in reading. Now what 
 one can do in half a day, two can accom- 
 plish in half an hour, was the philosophy 
 that came to me from our case; for our 
 drudgery was over in no time, and we were 
 going through Tomo-chan 's treasure of 
 nice pictures and books of fairy-tales. 
 
64 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN JAPAN 
 
 There was a picture in one of the books 
 of an old man with a wen on his cheek, 
 dancing before a crowd of demons and 
 goblins. '^ Look here, what is this? '' I 
 asked. She laughed at the picture and 
 would not tell me about it till she had 
 thoroughly enjoyed laughing. That is 
 the way of a girl. But with '' dear! '^ 
 she started thus : 
 
 ' ' One day, this old man with a wen hap- 
 pened to fall into a crowd of those ugly 
 monsters, and was made to dance. He 
 danced very well, and so was asked to come 
 again the next day. The goblins wanted 
 something for a pledge for his keeping 
 his word and so removed the wen from the 
 man's cheek. The old man was very glad 
 to part with it, and went home, when he 
 met another man with a wen.'' She 
 turned the leaf to show another picture. 
 This time the new man was dancing be- 
 fore the weird crowd. ' ' You see, this man 
 was told how he could remove his wen, 
 and is now showing his skill before them to 
 
MY NEW SCHOOL 66 
 
 induce them to ask for the pledge. But 
 he did not have any practice at all in dan- 
 cing and so was just jumping round. 
 And the goblins got angry over his deceit, 
 and sent him back with the wen that the 
 old man had left." Turning the leaf, 
 ^^ Here he is with wens on both his 
 cheeks ! ' ' 
 
 She laughed again, and I could not help 
 laughing with her, too. At this moment 
 some one was coming up the stairs. 
 
 " Why, is this the way you study your 
 lesson? ", 
 
 It was aunty who entered the room 
 as she said: " I am surprised at you." 
 And she laid down a tray with a teapot and 
 cups and a dish of cakes on it. The sight 
 made us happy all at once, and Tomo-chan 
 explained to her how soon we had finished 
 our study. 
 
 ^' Why, Ei-chan helped me in arithme- 
 tic, so we finished a long, long time ago." 
 
 '^ Well, Ei-chan is a good boy, isn't he? " 
 said aunty. Boys feel awkward to be well 
 
66 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN JAPAN 
 
 spoken of to their face, and my speech 
 failed me somehow. By the way, I was 
 no longer " Bot'chan." 
 
 The school I found much larger and 
 finer than the village one. The pupils 
 numbered ten times more. Each class had 
 its own room, and boys and girls marched 
 in and out in procession every hour. It 
 was so much more orderly and systematic 
 than the village school that there was less 
 of ' ' out-of-tune ' ' matter. But then there 
 was one thing that puzzled me. It was that 
 often a boy was seen standing in the hall- 
 way with a bowl of water in his hands. 
 Sometimes he stood there motionless until 
 the class was all dismissed. But I was not 
 slow to divine the cause. What puzzled 
 me was the question : ' ' How could that be 
 the best form of punishment? " While a 
 boy stood there he need not attend the 
 class. That was certainly easy for an idle 
 boy. And then there was no pain to en- 
 dure. As to the holding of a bowl, why, 
 did I not hold my bowl of rice every meal 
 
MY NEW SCHOOL 67 
 
 and not know even if it was heavy or 
 light? But another solution suggested it- 
 self to me; it might have the same effect 
 on the offender as wearing a cap with '' I 
 am a Fool, ' ' written on it. He stood there, 
 and everybody thought he was a bad boy. 
 " It might be, it might be," I said, con- 
 gratulating myself on the happy solution, 
 when a crow that had just alighted on a 
 branch of the elm by the gate repeated, 
 ^' It might be! " I threw a stone at him 
 without thinking that it was a violation 
 of the school rule, and, if discovered, I 
 might have undergone the punishment. 
 
 At any rate, I was destined, it appeared, 
 to undergo the punishment once at least. 
 And it happened in this way. 
 
 At this school, boys were not allowed to 
 carry iron tops or even hand-balls. There 
 were too many of them, and if they should 
 all indulge in these sports, there would be 
 constant danger of breaking their legs or 
 knocking their noses off. So compara- 
 tively harmless footballs were provided. 
 
68 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN JAPAN 
 
 Now, one noon recess, ten of us wanted to 
 have a game. We were divided into 
 parties of five and played. Of course we 
 had no rules to go by, but tried to carry 
 the ball within the enemy's lines by 
 every means. One time we fumbled furi- 
 ously near the building, and, in the heat of 
 our tackling, one fellow seized the ball and 
 kicked it without minding in which direc- 
 tion he was aiming. If he had had less 
 skill the ball would have gone only over 
 the roof and dropped on the head of a 
 jinrikisha man running on the other street. 
 But as it was, it went madly against a 
 window-pane and smashed it all to pieces. 
 What a noise it made! For a minute it 
 made all the boys and girls playing on the 
 ground keep quite still. And in this awful 
 suspense a teacher appeared and caught 
 the five, I among the number, who were 
 still in the position of fumbling, together 
 with the poor fellow who did the kicking, 
 and who stood dazed, unable to recover 
 as yet from the shock of his late experience. 
 
MY NEW SCHOOL 69 
 
 I didn't know how the other four escaped 
 being caught, but I was glad that they 
 did. 
 
 There was no question in the teacher's 
 mind but that all six should be exhibited 
 in the hallway, and so we were made to 
 stand there, each holding a bowl of water. 
 Now I had an ample opportimity to learn 
 every significance of this form of punish- 
 ment. Naturally, we felt merry at first. 
 In the first place^ there was something un- 
 reasonable and ludicrous in the way at 
 least five of us came to stand there. And 
 then when you have companions in your 
 bad luck, you feel surely light of heart. 
 And so we did. But when fifteen, thirty 
 minutes passed, our legs got to be stiff 
 and the weightless bowls began to weigh 
 very much in our hands. Indeed, the 
 slightest inclination would spill the water 1 
 But why did we not drink some of it, you 
 may say? Well, we should have done it, 
 but we knew that it must all be there when 
 the teacher came. Forty-five minutes, and 
 
70 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN JAPAN 
 
 the bell rang for the dismissal. All the 
 boys and girls poured out, leaving us alone. 
 Ah, that is the saddest moment for any 
 schoolboy, for after that the school is dis- 
 mal as a prison. Fifteen minutes more, 
 and all the teachers, except the one in 
 charge of us, were gone. None of us dared 
 to look up, our heads being bent with ex- 
 treme sorrow. Presently a weak-minded 
 fellow dropped his china and cried out. 
 It was not I, but we were all ready to fol- 
 low his example, when the teacher came 
 out, and, removing the bowls, read us a 
 lecture before sending us home. 
 
 We lost our courage, even to run out of 
 the school compound, but dragged slowly 
 home. But when I turned the first corner 
 whom should I meet but my Tomo-chan? 
 
 < < Why, Tomo-chan ! ' ' I looked at her 
 in surprise. 
 
 ^^ I could not go home without you. So 
 I waited for you. But isn't it a shame 
 for teacher to punish you without your 
 deserving it? " she said. 
 
MY NEW SCHOOL 71 
 
 '' We did not want to let Takeda suffer 
 alone, you know/' 
 
 My answer was a surprise even to me. 
 Of course^ I did not think to the contrary, 
 but I was not impressed with the signifi- 
 cance of it till I put it into words and — 
 to her. It came as a new thought to me. 
 Our hearts became light, the thing was for- 
 gotten, and only the prospect of the fine 
 time we should have that golden after- 
 noon in late summer occupied our minds. 
 
 " Come along,'' I said. '' Let's go to 
 the field! " 
 
 And we hastened on briskly, and, throw- 
 ing our things into our houses on the way, 
 went to the field, green with cool, cushion- 
 like grass. About a dozen boys and girls 
 were already waiting for us, and we just 
 jumped among them. 
 
 '' What shall we play? " said one. 
 
 " Let's have Kotoro-kotoro," suggested 
 another. 
 
 " That's fun! " all shouted. 
 
 To play the game, we must first select 
 
72 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN JAPAN 
 
 from the boys one " chief " to protect his 
 '' sons and daughters," and one '' imp " 
 to catch them. The boys stand in a circle 
 and are ready to say " Jan-ken-pon," and 
 to hammer with their fists. At ^^pon" 
 you make one of three shapes with your 
 hand. When your hand is spread, that 
 denotes a sheet of paper; when two fin- 
 gers only are stretched, that means a pair 
 of scissors; and when your hand is held 
 closed, it signifies a stone. A sheet of 
 paper can be cut by scissors, but the latter 
 is ineffectual on a stone. But a stone can 
 be wrapped by a sheet of paper. Hence, 
 each one can defeat one of the rest, but is 
 conquered by the other. To simplify the 
 matter, you can use only two of the three 
 shapes. The one who wins at first is to be 
 the chief, the one who is ultimately de- 
 feated, the imp. So we began : ' ' Jan-ken- 
 pon! '' 
 
 Only three won. Then those three tried 
 again. 
 
 ^^ Jan-ken-pon! '' 
 
MY NEW SCHOOL 73 
 
 I won; and so was the chief. The rest 
 went on jan-ken-ponning till the imp was 
 decided. 
 
 Now all except the imp held firmly each 
 other's belt on the back, in a line, with me 
 at the head. It is a pity you don't have 
 any belt on yonr dress, and so play the 
 sport. It is very convenient to us. Apart 
 from its use in sport, when we meet a rob- 
 ber, we throw him down by jiu-jitsu, and, 
 untying our belt, bind him up hand and 
 foot ! But to return. I was ready with the 
 imp in front and with my " little ones " 
 behind, like the body of a centipede. The 
 imp could not touch me; he could only 
 seize any one behind. I stretched my 
 arms, ran to and fro to prevent the imp 
 from getting round to my flanks. The 
 line swayed, rolled, jerked like a serpent 
 in a rapid flight. And the motion would 
 all but throw weak-armed ones off their 
 holds. But they merrily persisted, and 
 could have held on longer but for their 
 
74 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN JAPAN 
 
 mirth being worked up too high by the 
 very manner of the imp himself. 
 
 The boy who played that part was a 
 born comedian. He loved his fun more 
 than his bread. Once in the midst of his 
 supper he heard a man come with a monkey 
 dressed in a kimono. No sooner than he 
 recognized that by the sound of a drum, 
 he threw away his chop-sticks, and, run- 
 ning out of his house, danced all way up 
 the street with the professional monkey as 
 his wondering spectator. Now in playing 
 his part as the imp, he did not go about it 
 like an eagle intent on his prey. But he 
 brought all his talent into full play in 
 every motion of his body, suggestive of 
 some grotesque form, heightened by a 
 queer ejaculation. When, in his series of 
 performances, he imitated a pig, flapping 
 his hands from his head like large ears 
 of the animal and grunting, Gr-r-r-r, 
 Grr-r-r-r, it caused everybody to burst into 
 laughter. At this moment he made a sud- 
 den turn, which caused such a jerk to the 
 
MY NEW SCHOOL 75 
 
 line, that, being absent-minded from merri- 
 ment, they were all thrown out of their 
 hold, each rolling on the grass, but still 
 laughing at the grunting. The imp could 
 now jump at anybody for his prey, but as a 
 true comedian, he also rolled on the grass, 
 laughing with the rest. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 CHINESE EDUCATION 
 
 My Chinese Teacher — How I Was Taught — Versifica- 
 tion" — My Uncle — Clam Fishing — A Flatfish. 
 
 Some months after I entered the public 
 school, my father came to a conclusion that 
 what was taught there was too modern to 
 have enough of culture value. My educa- 
 tion had to be supplemented by the study 
 of Chinese classics. And his intention 
 would have been of great benefit to me 
 if he had been equally wise in selecting a 
 good private teacher. As it was, I gained 
 but a fraction of it, undergoing a hard 
 struggle. 
 
 There lived a Chinese scholar near by, 
 who was second to none in his learning 
 within three miles. Formerly he was a 
 priest of Zen sect, the Unitarian of Bud- 
 dhism. As it was considered most laudable 
 
 76 
 
CHINESE EDUCATION 77 
 
 to a man of his calling, he never ate fish 
 or meat, and had two frugal meals a day, 
 taking only a cupful of starch and sugar 
 in the evening, till he came to lead a secu- 
 lar life. Starch and sugar ! — so he must 
 have come to have such white hair, I 
 thought. Anyway, the snowy mass height- 
 ened the expression of his earnest face, 
 rather youthful for a man of sixty. He 
 was, indeed, the classic itself; the rhythm 
 of it seemed to be ringing in his veins, 
 whether awake or asleep. And he de- 
 lighted in nothing so much as to eat his 
 dinner listening to the clear-voiced chant- 
 ing of boys reviewing their lesson, as if 
 they were minstrels entertaining at a 
 king's feast! And, of course, I was sent 
 to him. 
 
 I started from the beginning, which was, 
 indeed, no beginning at all. The Chinese 
 sages did not write their scriptures as 
 graded school text-books, but their de- 
 scendants believed so, anyhow. Genesis 
 was the genesis of successful mastery. 
 
78 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN JAPAN 
 
 And so I began with that great sentence 
 in the '^ Book of Great Learning: '^ 
 
 "Learning is a gateway to virtue/' 
 
 I envy those boys who tore Chinese au- 
 thors, and whose books, when taken to a 
 second-hand bookstore, were not bought 
 even for a penny. My books were, on the 
 contrary, just as clean as ever, as if they 
 had been too loath to impart anything to 
 the owner. And this was not from any 
 effort on my part to take care of them, 
 but simply from the little use I made 
 of them. Now this was the way I 
 studied them. Teacher would read with 
 me about four pages in advance, and 
 see once how I could read. I stuck; 
 he prompted me; I stuck again; he 
 prompted me again; I stuck for the 
 third time, and for the third time he 
 prompted me, and so on, and indeed con- 
 tinually, if I had gone on till I had thor- 
 oughly mastered it. But one review 
 seemed to him sufficient for such easy pas- 
 
CHINESE EDUCATION 79 
 
 sages, and my boyish heart responded too 
 gladly to be released after a short lesson. 
 And I laid my book by till the next day. 
 I did not know how the teacher regarded 
 me, but he must have thought me a very 
 bright fellow for whom such a slow process 
 as review was totally unnecessary. And he 
 immediately took up the next four pages 
 and went on in the usual manner. The 
 first book was finished; the teacher's in- 
 stinct asserted itself, and he wanted me to 
 read a few pages by way of a test before 
 I proceeded. What a shame! I only 
 recognized a box here and a starfish there, 
 and that was all. The teacher was angry 
 at the result. He saw that I was not pre- 
 pared yet to take up the classics. And 
 with his admirable pedagogical insight, 
 he sent me to a primer the very next day. 
 It was a Japanese history, written in easy 
 Chinese prose. How I enjoyed the change ! 
 The passages rolled off on my tongue as 
 easily as you might say, " Mary had a 
 little lamb." The teacher smiled at my 
 
 w 
 
80 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN JAPAN 
 
 ease, and soon recovered his humor. But 
 his eyes were so constructed as to see noth- 
 ing but the top and the foot of a mountain, 
 and his mind worked like a spring-board, 
 which either stays low or jumps high up. 
 And on the third day I was ordered to 
 begin the second book of the classics, called 
 the ' ' Doctrine of Mean ! ' ' 
 
 And I plodded on. I went through the 
 '' Book of Divination," and " Odes of 
 Spring and Autumn,'' and came out only 
 with some phantoms of angular, mysteri- 
 ous hieroglyphics dancing before my eyes. 
 But my Chinese education included some- 
 thing more than reading. It was versifi- 
 cation. Just think of requiring a ten-year- 
 old boy to write verse in Latin or Greek. 
 But every Saturday I was required to do 
 the same sort of thing for two years. Oh, 
 how I struggled! I hunted for something 
 sensible to write, but while all sorts of 
 nonsense would come up, evgn common 
 sense, that most useful guide in a prosaic 
 field, fled from me. Outside, merry shouts 
 
CHINESE EDUCATION 81 
 
 of boys — a happy group who cared for 
 balls and kites more than dry-as-dust 
 ' ' culture ' ' — were heard, and I mused in 
 a corner of a room, consulting such help 
 as a phrase book and a rhyming diction- 
 ary. Nothing but doggerel could be born 
 of such a forced labor. Here is a speci- 
 men: 
 
 " Shut from the blue of skies in spring, 
 I sit and fret for words to rhyme. 
 O bird, if you have songs to sing, 
 Drop one for me to save my time 1 " 
 
 The Chinese training did me at least one 
 good turn. It drove Confucius out of my 
 head! 
 
 I should have been a blighted boy if 
 Sundays had not come to my rescue. The 
 real use to which the day should be put 
 had not dawned on me, nor was it in the 
 mind of those who introduced the insti- 
 tution. But I am glad to say that it 
 did me good in many ways. With this, 
 however, my uncle is invariably associ- 
 ated. 
 
82 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN JAPAN 
 
 I have not said anything about him, but 
 he was a well-fed man with a goat's 
 beard. He was very nervous, however, and 
 could not keep from pulling his beard. 
 This accounted for its scantiness. It was 
 very amusing to observe how easily his 
 temper was disturbed out of its normal 
 mood. When he was contradicted he 
 pulled hard at his beard and wrung his 
 hands furiously. His body seemed to ex- 
 pand with the inner fire when he ejacu- 
 lated many an '' Ahem! " preliminary to 
 an eruption. Everybody had to find 
 shelter and thrust his fingers into his ears, 
 lest the drums should break. But when he 
 was pleased, his face melted with laugh- 
 ter; he went to a cupboard to look for 
 some nice thing for us, ordered dinner to 
 be hurried for our sake, and went round 
 and round us to see if we were really com- 
 fortable. 
 
 He was very alert, and was always look- 
 ing for a new thing. He did well, too, 
 to keep himself abreast of the age, and, 
 
CHINESE EDUCATION 83 
 
 indeed, mastered something of the Eng- 
 lish language, of which he could well boast 
 in his day. His pronunciation, how- 
 ever, was rather painful to hear, and in 
 his talk with foreigners his nervous hands 
 played a large part to fill in the gaps in 
 his vocabulary, with an intermixture of 
 many a ' ' you know. ' ' 
 
 One good thing about him was his love 
 for outdoor sports. He could not sit all 
 day like my Chinese teacher, and if ever 
 an eruption occurred, it was always on 
 the occasion of such confinement to his 
 room. His Sundays were scheduled for 
 this or that kind of pleasure excursion. 
 And of course I was wise enough to do 
 what I could to please him in order that I 
 might not be left out of his party. 
 
 One Sunday we were to go clam-fishing. 
 When it was announced on Friday before, 
 I thought of a great time and could hardly 
 sleep for joy. After a tedious labor of 
 writing verse was over the next Saturday, 
 I busied myself the rest of the afternoon 
 
84 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN JAPAN 
 
 with the preparation for the next day. 
 I kept going to my uncle's to see whether 
 we had the same things that they had, and 
 also to suggest the necessity of providing 
 things we had and they had not. Many 
 conferences for this purpose were held at 
 the door-sill with Tomo-chan. Small hand- 
 rakes were bought, one for each ; small and 
 large baskets, knives, thick-soled socks, 
 small sashes, and so forth, were collected 
 from various sources. To this I added 
 a net three by four feet large, with two 
 poles to meet the exigency of encountering 
 some large fish — perhaps a whale. But 
 of this I did not speak to anybody. 
 
 Mother was also busy preparing our 
 lunch. For this she got up very early in 
 the morning and boiled rice, which she 
 made into triangular, round, or square 
 masses, speckled with burned sesame 
 seeds. She packed them in several lac- 
 quered boxes, with fresh pickles and 
 cooked vegetables. We relied on our 
 clams for chief dishes; so some cooking 
 
CHINESE EDUCATION 85 
 
 utensils were necessary. Also some tea 
 and a teapot, cups and dishes, together 
 with chop-sticks and toothpicks, even. 
 
 The day was not fair, but it was just the 
 kind of weather for the season, dull and 
 somewhat hazy, but bespeaking a calm sea. 
 The tide was fast ebbing when we started 
 in a boat. There was a good company of 
 us, including uncle, aunt, mother, Tomo- 
 chan, and me. As we emerged into the bay 
 from the canal^ the extended view was 
 delightful. On one side green masses of 
 pine-trees overhung the stone mounds and 
 merged into a leafy hill, which stretched 
 itself like an arm into the sea. On the 
 other, beyond reedy shoals, the old forts, 
 with a lighthouse on one of them, dotted 
 the expanse. The view was washed in 
 gray, and even the sails of junks, hanging 
 lazily from the masts, were scarcely lighter 
 than the background. 
 
 All was calm. But as we sighted from 
 a distance some other parties already on 
 the scene, we soon forgot everything for 
 
86 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN JAPAN 
 
 the excitement and let the boatman hurry 
 with all his strength. It was nine when 
 we arrived at the desired spot^ and we 
 had three hours to enjoy ourselves. We 
 fixed our boat to a pole, from the top of 
 which was drooping a piece of red and 
 white cloth. This served as our mark to 
 enable us to find the boat quickly in the 
 case of need. So each party had some- 
 thing of its own design. Purple, green, 
 white, and red in all sorts of combinations 
 and forms were displayed, while a coat, a 
 shirt, or even an improvised scarecrow 
 was not denied use. 
 
 So we went into water, our sleeves and 
 skirts being tied up and our legs bared to 
 the knees. Each was provided with a 
 basket and a hand-rake — except myself, 
 who, in addition to the implements, took 
 out secretly my net, wound round the poles. 
 My people were all too busy to observe 
 me, however. We went on raking for 
 clams. There seemed to be lots of black 
 or white shells which we did not want, but 
 
CHmUSU EDUCATION 8T 
 
 I soon found that clams were rather a 
 matter of chance, and a chance would come 
 no more than once in every fifteen min- 
 utes! I luckily struck on three nice ones 
 in a short time, and dug diligently for 
 some thirty minutes, but without any re- 
 sult. So I grew tired, and began inspec- 
 tion. Aunt had ten, mother eight, and 
 uncle five. When I approached him, he 
 looked up, red in the face. I wondered if 
 he was not angry. But it was not so, for 
 he heaved a sigh and straightening up and 
 striking his back with his fist, said, '' O 
 dear! " 
 
 " Uncle, you will soon be quitting your 
 job, just as I shall, I think," said I. 
 
 '' Pshaw! How many have you? " 
 
 a Three, sir." 
 
 '' You can't have more than that for 
 your lunch, you understand, unless you get 
 more. Now don't be in my way." And 
 again he doubled his corpulent body to 
 work. But I was right in thinking that he 
 could not keep himself in the same posture 
 
88 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN JAPAN 
 
 for another three minutes. Now I passed 
 on to Tomo-chan. Poor Tomo-chan had 
 only two ! She was all but weeping for the 
 bad luck. She, however, looked comforted 
 to find that I did not fare much better. 
 But what was her surprise when I threw 
 all my clams in with hers ! 
 
 ' ' Keep them, Tomo-chan. I am going to 
 fish with this net." Her eyes looked 
 gratitude. " Oh, thank you ever so much. 
 But I'll catch fish with you if I don't fare 
 any better. ' ' 
 
 " All right.'' And I went on thinking 
 that if I could not get clams for my lunch, 
 I should have fish to the envy of all. I 
 looked among the rocks for some shadow 
 of them. Surely I saw something shooting 
 away now and then, without waiting for 
 me to find out whether it was large or not. 
 But anyway, they were all right if I could 
 get a number of them, and so I fixed my 
 net and tried to drive them into it, little 
 thinking that the very whiteness of my net 
 — I appropriated a net made for the pur- 
 
CHINESE EDUCATION 89 
 
 pose of keeping flies off — scared every 
 fish. I got irritated with my ill-success, 
 and finally splashed the water vigorously 
 to punish them. 
 
 By this time my uncle had quit his work, 
 as I predicted, and was engaging with hen- 
 like anxiety to look after his flock. He 
 kept his eyes on them, and would go like 
 a shepherd dog to fetch any one who went 
 too far away from the boat. He looked at 
 his watch to see if the tide was not turn- 
 ing on, and went occasionally to the boat 
 to see if anything was lost. He seemed to 
 like this kind of work better than clam- 
 fishing, for I could see even from a dis- 
 tance that he was pulling at his beard, as 
 he was wont to do when his mind was 
 occupied. Presently he heard me splash- 
 ing the water far away, and started at once 
 to bring me back. Time could not be lost, 
 he must have thought, but I did not know 
 anything of his approach till I heard a 
 shriek behind me. Surprised, I turned 
 round when I found him just recovering 
 
90 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN JAPAN 
 
 his balance and looking intently into the 
 water. 
 
 " What^s matter, uncle? '^ I hastened 
 toward him. 
 
 ' ' Stop. A flatfish somewhere. ' ' Seeing 
 me with a net, he exclaimed, '^ Quick with 
 your net." 
 
 " A flatfish? " I queried in excitement. 
 
 ' ' Yes, I stepped on him and he gave me 
 a slip. . • . Oh, here he is; cover him 
 quick! " And we covered him with my 
 net without much ado. I was surprised to 
 see how easily I could catch him compared 
 with other fish that I had tried for. As 
 I raised him, however, I found he was 
 already crushed dead under my uncle's 
 weight ! 
 
 But it was a large one, and I could have 
 an honorable share at lunch. 
 

 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 AN EVENING FETE 
 
 My Father — His Love for Potted Trees — A Local 
 Fgte — Show Booths — Goldfish Booths — Singing 
 Insects — How a Potted Tree Was Bought. 
 
 Evenings were not without enjoyment for 
 me. And for this I owe much to my 
 father. 
 
 My father was a silent, close-mouthed 
 man. His words to children were few and 
 mostly in a form of command. They were 
 never disobeyed, partly because it was 
 father who spoke, but more because we 
 knew that he spoke only when he had to. 
 Indeed, he carried a formidable air about 
 him, apparently engrossed in thought 
 somewhat removed from his immediate 
 concern. He was by no means philosophi- 
 cal, however, and his reticent habit was 
 born of the peculiar circumstances under 
 
 91 
 
92 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN JAPAN 
 
 which he was laboring. Fortune was 
 evidently against him. And partly out of 
 sympathy with him and partly out of fear 
 of breaking his spell, when we had some- 
 thing to ask of him — boys have many 
 wants — we had some indirect means to 
 devise. Thus, when my cap had worn out 
 and I wanted a new one, I dropped a hint 
 in his presence by way of a soliloquy: 
 " I wish I had a new cap. My old one is 
 worn out." Saying this just once at a 
 time and thrice in the course of one eve- 
 ning, if I persevered for three nights, I 
 used to have my old cap replaced with a 
 new one on the next day ! 
 
 He knew that he was fighting against 
 odds, but his spirit was never crushed. 
 He only persevered. One day he came back 
 from his evening stroll with a piece of bam- 
 boo flute. Evidently he was attracted by 
 a tune a man at the corner of a street was 
 playing on it as he sold his wares, and felt 
 his soul suddenly gain its freedom and soar 
 to the sky. I remember how well he loved 
 
AN EVENma FETE 93 
 
 his instrument, and from day to day he 
 used to pour out low, mournfulrtunes. But 
 his art was never equal to the demand of 
 his soul, and one evening the bamboo flute 
 was laid aside for a pot containing a dwarf 
 pine-tree. 
 
 You may well wonder how a flowerless 
 potted tree could be preferred to even the 
 commonest tune for spiritual solace. But 
 at any rate it was a piece of nature, and 
 was healing to behold. And then, in its 
 fantastic shape, there was a beauty of re- 
 pose which had a very soothing effect, but 
 which required some study for apprecia- 
 tion. But in his case, there was something 
 deeper in the matter. A tree over fifty 
 years old, which, if left in the field, would 
 have grown to an immense size, was re- 
 duced by human art to only a foot in 
 height, and was kept alive on a potful of 
 earth. My father must have read a his- 
 tory of his own in it and tried to learn a 
 secret of contentment from it. 
 
 One by one potted trees were added to 
 
94 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN JAPAN 
 
 his stock, — he could afford to buy only 
 at odd intervals, — and presently shelves 
 were provided for them in the small gar- 
 den. Morning and evening he attended to 
 them, and with patience as well as with 
 pleasure looked forward to the time when 
 his care would result in a growth of just 
 an inch and a quarter of pine leaves and 
 palm leaves two inches by three in size. 
 
 One night an unexpected thing hap- 
 pened. A thief found his way to the gar- 
 den from the back door and sneaked away 
 with half a dozen of the choice trees. 
 Naturally, my father was distressed, but 
 after a while he was patiently filling the 
 vacancy one by one, of course seeing that 
 the back door should be securely locked 
 every night. 
 
 I was going to tell you something about 
 the amusements I had in the evening, but 
 it was mainly due to this love of my 
 father's for potted trees that I was taken 
 regularly to a local fete, held three times 
 a month. The day for this was fixed; it 
 
J[i\r EVENINa FETE 95 
 
 fell on every day connected with the num- 
 ber seven; that is, the seventh, the seven- 
 teenth, and the twenty-seventh. And as 
 in the calendar, rain or shine, it came and 
 went. Naturally, I had my weather bureau 
 open on that day to see if the evening was 
 all right, for a wet night would be an 
 irretrievable loss. At the police stand they 
 published a forecast in the morning, but 
 that was not to be too much relied on. It 
 sometimes said rain when it was anything 
 but wet, and fine when it was actually 
 drizzling — though in the latter case I 
 rather inclined to believe the report even 
 if it ended in sorrow. 
 
 I did not need any formality of asking 
 to be taken ; it was a matter of course with 
 me as long as I behaved well. This be- 
 having, however, was peculiar. I had to 
 be waiting for my father outside and fol- 
 low him when he came out, without saying 
 anything or shouting for delight for a 
 block or so. The reason for this was 
 simple. Mother objected to sending out the 
 
96 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN JAPAN 
 
 younger members of our family in the eve- 
 ning, and especially to such, a crowded 
 place where they were liable to be lost. My 
 going there must not attract their atten- 
 tion. 
 
 One evening I slipped off with my father 
 in this way. The place where the fete was 
 held was not far away, and after two or 
 three turnings we soon came to the street. 
 At a distance, you might take it for a fire, 
 for the tiny stalls and booths crowding the 
 place were lighted by hundreds of kerosene 
 torches which flared and smoked. The 
 central section of the street was not more 
 than two blocks in length, but it was liter- 
 ally packed with six rows of booths and 
 stalls and with such a concourse of people 
 that there did not seem to be room even 
 to move. 
 
 The approach to the scene was marked 
 by some show booths. Hung in front were 
 some wonderful pictures of what was to 
 be seen within : a serpent over thirty feet 
 long, which had lived in some distant part 
 
AZ\r EVENINa FETE 97 
 
 of the country and had actually swallowed 
 two babies ; a woman who had a real rub- 
 ber neck which could be stretched so far 
 that while sitting still her head could wan- 
 der all over the house ; monkeys dressed in 
 old-style costume and giving some theatri- 
 cal performance, and so on. The entrance 
 fee was a penny, and men stood outside 
 crying the various excellencies of their 
 shows, and when you stopped before one 
 of them and looked at the sign, they would 
 lift the curtain for a second and drop it 
 again, just to whet your curiosity. I natu- 
 rally wanted very much to look at some of 
 the monstrosities, and watched to see if 
 the inducement would work on my father, 
 but, much to my disappointment, he walked 
 calmly on with his hands in his sleeves. 
 
 Now we came in front of the goldfish 
 booths. It was simply fascinating to see 
 such a number of dear little things swim- 
 ming in wooden tubs, some being hung 
 high in glass globes by the side of helpless 
 turtles enjoying air riding. In the next 
 
98 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN JAPAN 
 
 two or three booths were masses of minute 
 bamboo cages. Most of them were only 
 three inches by two. Here they were sell- 
 ing all sorts of singing insects and fire- 
 worms. And what an orchestra these tiny 
 winged things were! There were bell 
 insects which chirped on " chinkororin, 
 chinkororin, ' ' in staccato, crickets which 
 hummed in sweet undulating " rin — rin 
 — rin, ' ' and katydids which broke in with 
 a cymbal-like " gaja, gaja/' as we say. I 
 watched to see if these things would tempt 
 my father, but no, his face was set on some- 
 thing else ahead. 
 
 Now a great part of these enterprising 
 peddlers were gardeners by profession. 
 And out of the six rows of booths in the 
 central portion three were shows of potted 
 jflowers and trees. They even had for sale 
 grown-up trees half as tall as a telegraph- 
 pole ! As we came to this part my father 
 slackened his pace. Here was something 
 at last which interested him. He took time 
 to examine some of the nice potted trees, 
 
AN EVENINa FETE 99 
 
 and his progress was very slow indeed, 
 somewhat to my annoyance. I would 
 rather have him stop before a candy booth 
 than in these places. After a while, how- 
 ever, he found one tree much to his liking. 
 He was tempted just to ask the price 
 of it. 
 
 " Ten dollars, sir," was the answer. 
 
 My father smiled dryly and passed on. 
 
 '' How much you give. Mister? '' asked 
 the man. 
 
 No answer. 
 
 '' I'll make it five dollars this time. 
 Mister," cried the man. Still receiving 
 no answer, he came after us. " But give 
 me your price. Mister." 
 
 " Fifty cents," said my father. 
 
 '' Ough, that won't pay even the ex- 
 press. Give me a dollar, then." 
 
 But my father was already some dis- 
 tance away. The man, growing desperate 
 to lose him, cried aloud u 
 
 *^ Mi-ster, you can have it for the price. 
 
 Lora 
 
100 WEEN I WAS A BOY IN JAPAN 
 
 This is the first one I have sold this eve- 
 ning. I must start the sale, anyway. '^ 
 
 So my father came into possession of 
 one more potted tree. The price was low, 
 to be sure, but the man did not undersell 
 his goods. 
 
 There seemed to be nothing now to do 
 but to wend our way home as my father 
 turned round at the corner and came down 
 with the crowd. We passed toy booths, 
 basket booths, booths where hairpins with 
 beautiful artificial flowers were sold, or 
 where all sorts of fans, bamboo screens, 
 and sundry other things were for sale. 
 And we passed them apparently without 
 any interest, at least on my father's part. 
 I was wondering what my father would 
 buy for me, when whom should I meet but 
 my aunt and Tomo-chan just going round 
 the street in the other way? I spoke with 
 Tomo-chan while my father and aunt 
 were exchanging some remarks — possibly 
 about the potted tree. 
 
AN EVENINa FETE 101 
 
 *^ Did you get something bought for 
 you? " I asked. 
 
 '' No, not yet. IVe just come, you 
 know. And you? " 
 
 ^^N-no. But—'' 
 
 I could not say the rest as my father 
 and aunt parted and the crowd was push- 
 ing between us, and so I waved my hand to 
 say good-by to Tomo-chan. 
 
 We soon came almost to the end of the 
 gay portion of the street, and after a few 
 booths a touch of festival air would be 
 gone, when my father halted before a 
 molasses candy booth, and, to my great 
 joy, bought a nickel's worth of cake. We 
 got a big, swollen bagful ; this was for me 
 and for our stay-at-home folks. I wished 
 that I had met Tomo-chan once more. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 SUMMER DAYS 
 
 A Swimming School — How I Was Taught to Swim — 
 Diving — The Old Home Week — Keturn of the 
 Departed Souls — Visiting the Ancestral Graves — 
 The Memorable Night — A Village Dance. 
 
 The third summer in Tokyo had come. 
 The air was fresh and cool, while the 
 morning-glories in our back yard were 
 blooming lavishly, and the Ainu chrysan- 
 themums in white, pink, and purple, and 
 the late irises were seen carried round the 
 street in flower- venders ' baskets. But it 
 soon got warmer as they vanished from 
 the sight till I found it hot even in one 
 piece of a thin garment over my body, 
 though my mother starched it for me just 
 stiff enough for the air to pass through 
 from one sleeve to the other. 
 In one of the canals near by, an annual 
 
 102 
 
SVMMEB DAYS 103 
 
 swimming-school was opened. The place 
 was inviting in hot weather, besides, it was 
 such fun to bathe with hosts of boys, and 
 to learn how to swim. I must confess that 
 I could not swim yet. I thought at first 
 that it was quite an easy thing, because I 
 often saw a man swimming with his feet 
 and performing such a trick with his hands 
 as peeling a pear with a knife and eating 
 it. But after a few trials I was obliged 
 to correct my notion to such a degree as 
 to consider swimming an extremely diffi- 
 cult as well as dangerous undertaking. 
 Not only my body was found to be some- 
 thing between a block of hard wood and 
 a stone, and much nearer to the latter, but 
 once it stayed so long in the water, head 
 and all, that I experienced pretty nearly 
 what it was to get drowned. But all this I 
 did in secret and did not tell to any of my 
 folks. Indeed my mother was keeping my 
 younger brother from the water by telling 
 him about the story of a sea-monkey who 
 would stretch his exceptionally long arm 
 
104 WHEN I WAS A BOY W JAPAN 
 
 and drag people into the depths, especially 
 boys who went swimming against their 
 mother's remonstrance. As an elder 
 brother, I was bound to set a good ex- 
 ample. 
 
 A week after the opening of the school, 
 however, I brought the swimming matter 
 to my mother's attention, and piling up 
 such reasons as I thought most expedient, 
 and rounding up by mentioning names of a 
 number of my schoolmates, as if they were 
 co-petitioners, who had been enrolled in 
 the membership, I wanted her to ask my 
 father. I had anticipated a refusal from 
 both mother and father, but my mother 
 was all right as long as the place was 
 safe, while my father surprised me by his 
 instant permission. He was an excellent 
 swimmer himself and must have felt it a 
 shame that his son did not know even 
 how to keep himself afloat. My poor 
 younger brother, however, was to wait 
 another year. 
 
 So I went to swimming. We had an 
 
SUMMER DAYS 105 
 
 exciting time in the canal, and the heat of 
 the snn ceased to be of any trouble to me. 
 On the first day one of the trainers sup- 
 ported me with his hands and made me 
 move my arms and legs according to his 
 instruction. I made a vigorous effort, 
 while he carried me on as if I were mak- 
 ing a progress myself. Now and then, 
 however, he would loosen his hold and see 
 if I could keep myself going. I was then 
 taken with sudden fear, and, feeling that 
 the water grew instantly to be very deep, 
 I gave a cry of horror and distress, and 
 did some splashing, too. The instructor 
 laughed over my plight and told me that I 
 should be safe as he was near, and that I 
 must try to acquire the sense of ease with 
 the water. As long as my limbs were 
 moving properly, I was sure to be float- 
 ing. So I put confidence in his words and 
 cultivated assiduously what he called the 
 sense of ease, which I understood to be a 
 suppression of fear. The first day, how- 
 ever, passed without any result, in spite 
 
106 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN JAPAN 
 
 of my determination that I woulgl go to the 
 bottom rather than call for help again. 
 
 But, strangely enough, at the very first 
 unassisted trial on the second day, my 
 body did float. How joyful I felt at this, 
 you can hardly imagine. I swam round 
 and round the place — of course stopping 
 every quarter of a minute — till I was 
 fairly exhausted. On my return home, 
 however, I mustered courage enough to 
 impart to my brother on the matted floor 
 my successful experience in swimming. 
 
 Diving came next. On my first dip I 
 felt instinctively that man and fish were at 
 the opposite extremities of creation. The 
 suppression of breath and the closing of 
 eyes were bad enough ; but there was such 
 a roaring in my ears as if all the watery 
 spirits were murmuring at the intrusion, 
 while my body was at once subjected to 
 a different law of repulsion. But it was 
 great fun to play at being a sea-monkey 
 and drag the legs of idle boys, at which 
 sport I had been a victim myself on the 
 
SUMMER DAYS 107 
 
 very first day. So I began practising it, 
 and in a few days was already looking for 
 a chance to apply my half -mastered skill. 
 Seeing once two boys near me engaging in 
 splashing water, I plunged at once, aiming 
 at one of them. It was but a few yards 
 to dive, but I came out of the water with- 
 out striking anything, and before I had 
 time to brush off the dripping water from 
 my eyes, I was subjected to a furious spray 
 from the two boys, when, thud, came some- 
 thing on my side, and in another second I 
 was dragged into the water. A mouthful 
 of water went down my throat before I 
 knew, and when I came to my feet with all 
 the water boiling around me, I noticed a 
 third and new boy standing and laughing 
 over his trick ! 
 
 So passed a good part of the summer 
 till about the middle of August, when the 
 Japanese '' Old Home Week " came. The 
 principal day falls on the sixteenth day 
 of the seventh month, according to the 
 lunar calendar, which is about a month 
 
108 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN JAPAN 
 
 after the ordinary date. It is a sort of 
 Decoration Day, too, because we go to the 
 temple yards and pay a visit to our ances- 
 tral graves. Now for three years this 
 duty was neglected by us, and father 
 thought it proper for some one to visit the 
 old place in the country. My uncle was 
 also in a similar position, and it was ar- 
 ranged that my aunt and Tomo-chan 
 should go from their family while I repre- 
 sented my own. And two days before the 
 date we set out in a conveyance called a 
 kuruma. 
 
 I wasn't quite sure of the significance of 
 the graveyard visiting on this special oc- 
 casion, and so found time to ask my aunt 
 of it. And this was what she told me, not 
 on the road, but in her house the night 
 before we started. (I had known the in- 
 convenience of the kuruma in keeping me 
 separate from my aunt all the way, though 
 it had the decided merit, as it turned out, 
 of packing Tomo-chan and myself in one 
 seat.) 
 
SVMMER DAYS 109 
 
 Now, when a man dies, he goes either 
 to paradise or to hell, according to Bud- 
 dhism. In the former place, he is led to 
 his seat on a large lotus flower floating 
 on the cool surface of the rippling water. 
 The sweet calmness of the summer morn 
 is all his, my aunt said, but beyond that 
 there seems to be nothing going on in that 
 floral berth. But in hell, all is excitement. 
 The king of devils will mete out punish- 
 ment to each arrival according to his 
 guilt, and he is made by red and green 
 demons to tread on the hill of swords, to 
 ride in the coach of fire, or to bathe in the 
 boiling caldron. But, good or bad, those 
 departed souls are allowed once a year to 
 pay a short visit to their earthly homes, 
 and this happens on the sixteenth of the 
 seventh month. So we go to the graves 
 of our ancestors, clean and decorate them 
 so that the dead may feel comfortable, and, 
 delivering our message of welcome and 
 turning about, ask the invisible to get on 
 our backs to our homes ! I wondered if my 
 
110 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN JAPAN 
 
 back was large enough for the whole train 
 of my ancestors to ride on. 
 
 At my native village we stayed at an- 
 other uncle's. A day's ride in the same 
 narrow kuruma made Tomo-chan and me 
 more companionable than ever, while the 
 strangeness of the new place kept us two 
 always close by. Everywhere we were 
 welcomed as Tokyonians, and treated to 
 melons and rice dumpling. We had not, 
 however, much time to spare, for we were 
 quite busy seeing to our family graves. 
 We hired a man to* weed and clean the lot, 
 sent enough offerings to the temple so 
 that the priests, when chanting for the 
 rest of the departed, might think comfort- 
 ably of it, and, above all, took care that 
 every grave might not lack fresh flowers 
 for two days, that is during our stay. On 
 the sixteenth day I was prepared to carry 
 any number of invisible spirits from the 
 graveyard to the house. But as some 
 one told me that the spirits would not dare 
 
SUMMER DAYS 111 
 
 to come in the daylight, I was glad that 
 my service was not needed, after all. 
 
 The sun set gloriously behind the castle, 
 and the mellow booming of the temple 
 bell was wafted through the evening air. 
 Presently the misty moon, just waning, 
 rose from the plain, and the memorable 
 night began. In every house the rooms 
 were swept clean and the tiny lights were 
 burning in the household shrine. In front, 
 the flames from a heap of flax stems, known 
 as the " reception fire," were dazzling, 
 and, unheard and unobserved, the ghosts 
 of our fathers passed into the house. 
 
 I did not know how long they would 
 stay, but bowing once respectfully before 
 the shrine, I went out with Tomo-chan to 
 stay around. In the temple ground there 
 was an open space hemmed in by tall, 
 shady pines, where the young people of the 
 village would assemble that night and hold 
 the annual dancing. And naturally our 
 steps were directed there. We found that 
 already many of them were gathered, and, 
 
112 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN JAPAN 
 
 by the uncertain light of paper lanterns 
 hung here and there on the trees, we saw 
 that they were all dressed in uniform white 
 and blue garments, with folded pieces of 
 cloth dangling about their necks. The 
 browned faces of the swains were not dis- 
 tinguishable in such dimness, but those of 
 the lasses looked distinctly lovely, the 
 scratches and blemishes incidental to their 
 outdoor occupation being invisible. The 
 swains grouped on this side and the girls 
 on the other; the former being not yet 
 bold enough, and the latter too shy, to 
 mingle with one another. Presently some 
 sweet-voiced lad sang a ballad, and then 
 all rose to arrange themselves in rows, 
 boys on one side and girls on the other. 
 They called to the singer to start anew, 
 and began to trip to the song, clapping 
 their hands at a rhythmic turn. They 
 never moved on, but closed in and again 
 drew apart on the same spot, all repeat- 
 ing the same movement. It was a novel 
 thing for both of us, and we watched them 
 
SVMMEB DAYS 113 
 
 with great delight. Song after song was 
 sung, all bursting into laughing cheers 
 after each piece and sometimes going into 
 such commotion that each lad paired with 
 his bonny lassie. 
 
 " Isn't that delightful? " I asked Tomo- 
 chan. 
 
 ^^ Yes, lovely." 
 
 ^' And simple, too." 
 
 She nodded. 
 
 ^^ Let's watch again and see if we can 
 learn," I said to her, and we stood at the 
 end of the line. 
 
 The song went clear and plaintive and 
 the touching trill was preying upon the 
 hearts of the dancers and working them 
 into dreamy ecstasy. The moon by this 
 time climbed high up in the sky, and when 
 a filmy cloud glided off her face, the pale 
 weird rays revealed Tomo-chan and me 
 dancing in the group ! 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 THE ENGLISH SCHOOL 
 
 A Night at the Dormitory — Beginning English — 
 Grammar — Pronunciation — School Moved — Moth- 
 er's Love. 
 
 It was September and the beginning of a 
 new term. Father decided that I should 
 leave the school I had attended hitherto 
 and go to another one where English was 
 taught. This was the second time that I 
 had left school without finishing it, but 
 I was destined not to fare any better at the 
 new place. Indeed, I changed school four 
 times without finishing, till I finally set- 
 tled in a college. But this leaping habit 
 — I am sorry to say that it took a sem- 
 blance of habit at last — did not come 
 from any changeableness on my or my 
 father's part, but all from the sincere de- 
 
 114 
 
THE ENaLISH SCHOOL 115 
 
 sire to prepare me for life in the best 
 way. This it was that drove me into the 
 three years' study of the Chinese classics, 
 though I beat a rather dishonorable retreat 
 from it, and again this it was that directed 
 me to take up the foreign languages 
 early. I was afraid, however, that I 
 leaped too much this time, as I found that 
 all my new schoolmates were much older 
 than I, and, indeed, there were some who 
 needed shaving every morning! 
 
 The school was at first very near to my 
 house. The building was of brick; the 
 first floor was used for the class-rooms and 
 the second was made into a dormitory. 
 This last was a novelty to me; I never 
 knew before that boys stayed away from 
 home in this fashion, and entertained a 
 secret desire to share a bed once with some- 
 body, just to see what it was like. This, 
 however, was easily granted, as I soon 
 grew to be a favorite with everybody be- 
 cause of my youthfulness, and one night I 
 made a bundle of my night-shirt and went 
 
116 WEEN I WAS A BOY IN JAPAN 
 
 to tlie room of one of my classmates. I was 
 at once devoured with curiosity in watch- 
 ing him make the bed. It was not such a 
 simple process as I used to see at home — 
 laying one or two quilts on the matted 
 floor and another over them. But he had 
 to build a bedstead first from a sliding 
 door, and placed one end of it on his 
 table and the other on his bookcases. 
 Upon that he laid his thin quilt and 
 blanket. I wondered why he had to do 
 such a crazy thing. 
 
 '' Don't you know the reason? '' He 
 seemed to be surprised at my ignorance. 
 ^' It is on account of the fleas. You can't 
 sleep on the floor. Look here." And he 
 showed me a bottle in which an army of 
 captured fleas were drowned. After all, 
 a dormitory was not a covetable place, I 
 thought. But there was some fascination 
 in the sliding door bed, which creaked like 
 a cuckoo with every move of my body. 
 
 But I must tell you about my first ex- 
 perience in English. English was very 
 
THE ENaLISH SCHOOL 117 
 
 encouraging to start with. The alphabet 
 consists of only twenty-six letters, and 
 when I mastered that and was provided 
 with a handful of vocabulary, I felt as if 
 I were already half an American. I went 
 around and talked to everybody, espe- 
 cially to those who did not know anything 
 of English, like this: 
 
 ^^ It is a dog. See the dog! It is a 
 cow. See the cow! " I could even play a 
 trick by way of variation like this: 
 
 '' Is it a dog? Yes, it is a dog." 
 
 And my family, who were constantly 
 spoken to in this unknown tongue, were 
 surprised at my speedy progress. 
 
 And indeed I thought first that any num- 
 ber of words might be easily learned, be- 
 cause they were but combinations of 
 letters in one way or other, which are 
 limited to only twenty-six. But it did not 
 take me long to change this view. As the 
 length of the daily lesson increased I came 
 to wonder more and more whether the 
 English words were not charmed after all. 
 
118 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN JAPAN 
 
 They were as slippery as eels, and, indeed, 
 written like eels too. I thought time and 
 again that I had them secure in my mental 
 box, but when I opened the lid the next 
 day, they vanished like a spirit. Some- 
 thing must be done, I thought, to tie them 
 down, and so I invented a certain scheme. 
 It was that when I looked up a new word in 
 my Anglo-Japanese dictionary, I put a 
 black mark beside it to show that on that 
 very moment it passed into my possession. 
 The plan seemed to work very well, but 
 before long I found I had to mark the 
 same words three or four times, till my 
 dictionary looked very much as if it were 
 suffering from spotted fever! 
 
 Then came grammar. Grammar is the 
 least familiar part of language study. 
 We are never taught in that in learning 
 vernacular Japanese. Somehow words 
 come out of our mouths naturally and 
 arrange themselves into smooth sentences. 
 So when I had to commit to memory the 
 definitions of the noun, verb, adjective, and 
 
TEE ENGLISH SCHOOL 119 
 
 so forth, and to classify English words 
 into them, I came to doubt if I were not 
 studying botany instead of language. 
 Fortunately I did not make such a mistake 
 as, ^^ A verb is something to eat," or 
 " Every sentence and the name of God 
 must begin with a caterpillar." But it 
 took me months to understand the differ- 
 ence between the transitive and intransi- 
 tive verbs. I finally struck an original 
 definition of them. It is this, that a verb 
 is called transitive when it is ambitious 
 and intransitive when it is not, because 
 in the former case it takes an object and in 
 the latter it does not. I wondered why 
 some one among the learned teachers did 
 not tell me that right away in the begin- 
 ning. It would have saved me a lot of 
 trouble. Again in parsing, any word 
 parading with a capital was a relief to 
 me: I had no hesitation in giving it as a 
 proper noun, whether it appeared in the 
 main body of a piece or — in the title ! 
 Now there is one little part of speech 
 
120 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN JAPAN 
 
 which puzzled me a great deal. It is the 
 article. In translation I had the great 
 satisfaction of passing it over entirely, as 
 we have no equivalent to it in Japanese, 
 but in composition it was the first thing 
 that puzzled and annoyed me. The Japa- 
 nese formerly went out bareheaded, and 
 their language is also free from this en- 
 cumbrance of a head-gear — for the article 
 is a head-gear to a noun — and I was liable 
 to drop off the article entirely, or, if I 
 tried, to use a wrong one every time. 
 Surely this hat etiquette was difficult and 
 capricious, too. I thought I could master 
 its secret if I knew thoroughly when and 
 what sort of a bonnet a girl should wear 
 — of course including the case of wearing 
 a derby on horseback! This occurred to 
 me a long time afterward in America, how- 
 ever. 
 
 Let me mention another difficulty. 
 This was the pronunciation. A number of 
 new sounds were introduced, the most 
 conspicuous of which are those in which 
 
p 
 
 H 
 "^ 
 
 w 
 
 H 
 O 
 O 
 
 o 
 
 w 
 
 o 
 
 1^ 
 
THE ENaLISH SCHO OL 121 
 
 th, 1, f, and v are found. The th-sound 
 was bad enough, but 1 was next to impos- 
 sible. Finding this to be the case, an 
 American teacher would draw a cross- 
 section of a face on the blackboard, only 
 with a scant outline of the mouth and nose 
 (once he drew the head, too, but it caused 
 an unusual amount of merriment among 
 the boys, as it was as bald as his, and he 
 never finished the picture again), and ex- 
 plain the position of the tongue in uttering 
 the sound, which we industriously copied. 
 And he also would have us say, " RoUo 
 rode Lorillard," instead of '' Present," 
 or " Here," when the roll was called. 
 But the semi-historical passage fell from 
 the boys ' lips rumbling like a thunder : 
 
 '' Rorro rode Rorirrard! " 
 
 One year passed happily in the new 
 school, when it moved to its new buildings 
 on the other side of the city, about five 
 miles away. It was at first a short walk 
 from my house, but when it increased from 
 two minutes to two hours, with no con- 
 
122 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN JAPAN 
 
 venience of street-cars to help my feeble 
 feet, I naturally hesitated to go. I had 
 to walk if I continued to attend, as board- 
 ing out in the dormitory was too expen- 
 sive for our means. The school, however, 
 was too good to be given up at that time, 
 and so I made up my mind not to discon- 
 tinue it. 
 
 To cover ten miles a day, spending four 
 to five hours, was not a light task for a boy 
 of thirteen. It was all I could do on fine 
 days. In stormy weather the feat would 
 become a struggle, and I was more than 
 glad to accept the kind offer of one of my 
 schoolmates to break the trip at his home 
 for the night. 
 
 I had to start early to be on time at 
 the eight o'clock exercise. Five o'clock 
 was the time for me to get up, but my 
 mother rose at least at half-past four to 
 make me a hot breakfast of boiled rice 
 and bean soup. 
 
 My mother was the sort of woman who 
 expresses herself in work rather than in 
 
THE ENaLISH SOHO OL 123 
 
 words. And in this she was regularity 
 itself. One thing which impressed me in 
 this more than anything else was her 
 management of my dresses. Japanese 
 decency requires eight suits a year for any 
 one just for ordinary use, and of course I 
 needed, or rather my mother believed that 
 I needed that : eight suits — four in sum- 
 mer, two in winter, and one each in spring 
 and in autumn. The dresses were not 
 always made from new pieces, and so gave 
 much more trouble. She made over the 
 old clothes, washed and turned or dyed, 
 if necessary, before doing so. My notion 
 of her regularity, however, must be aug- 
 mented five times, as she was doing the 
 same thing — though I did not notice it at 
 the time — with the other members of the 
 family. 
 
 And so this early rising on her part for 
 my sake went like clockwork morning 
 after morning. If this means steadiness 
 of her devotion to her son and to all re- 
 lated dearly to her, she had it. 
 
124 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN JAPAN 
 
 Again she was not wordy in any case. 
 I never had a long lecture from her, 
 though, I am sorry to say, I had some short 
 ones. On the contrary, she had the secret 
 of speaking in silence. There was some 
 magic power in her touch. I love to look 
 back to my childhood, when she used to 
 dress me in the morning, at the end of 
 which she would whisper in my ear just a 
 word : ^ ^ Be good all the day, dear child. ' • 
 It was simply pleasure. 
 
 So at this hour when the world was still 
 asleep, as I sat without a word at a short 
 morning repast before her, with the 
 lamp shining and every manifestation of 
 motherly love around me, I was under an 
 unspeakable spell, and learned to love her 
 most. 
 
 I had to start soon, however. I de- 
 scended to the door and opened it. It was 
 still dark and the sky was starry. There 
 was something that held me back for a 
 moment. But I took heart and went out. 
 Mother wanted to go with me for some 
 
THE ENaLISH SCHOOL 125 
 
 distance. Naturally, I declined the offer, 
 wishing not to seem cowardly, but also be- 
 cause I did not want to give her such a 
 trouble. So she just stood at the door 
 with a lantern and saw me off till I turned 
 the corner. 
 
 I thought she turned and stepped inside 
 after that, as I heard the noise of the 
 sliding door being shut, and, being satis- 
 fied, I hurried on my way. But one morn- 
 ing something happened that revealed the 
 truth. There was a bridge at the second 
 turning, two blocks away from my house, 
 and from that a long street ran. I was 
 away some distance on this road when one 
 of the fastenings of my clog-straps broke 
 off. It is sad when this occurs. We can- 
 not walk at all. We should be provided 
 with material for repair, but it seldom 
 happens that we are. To return was to 
 lose time, and I must be going. So I did 
 what boys usually do under such a circum- 
 stances. I hunted a wedge-shaped pebble, 
 
126 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN JAPAN 
 
 and, holding the broken end of the fasten- 
 ing in the hole, where it had been kept 
 tight, drove it with another piece of stone. 
 I was able to walk a short distance, but 
 again it broke off. I was irritated, but 
 there was no use in fussing: so I again 
 went patiently to repair. I was hammer- 
 ing the clog with a stone when I heard 
 the noise of hurried steps approaching. I 
 was too busy to look back, but a voice came 
 which made me drop the stone. 
 
 " Sakae! " 
 
 I turned, and there my mother stood 
 with a strip of cloth ready to help me! I 
 was surprised, but was too glad for help 
 to ask any question. 
 
 As I trod on, I reasoned to account for 
 her appearance in this way: that after 
 seeing me turn the corner, my mother was 
 wont to put out the light, shut the door, 
 and follow me to the bridge, and from 
 there was watching to see that I was safe. 
 She saw that day that I was in trouble, 
 
THE ENaLISH SCHOOL 127 
 
 and divined the whole case by the knocks 
 I gave at the clog. So she was there with 
 her help. As I thought of that, a silent 
 tear trickled down my cheek. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 A BOY ASTRONOMER 
 
 What I Intended to Be — My Aunt's View — My Par- 
 ents* Approval — My Uncle's Enthusiasm — The 
 Total Eclipse of the Sun. 
 
 Like all ambitious boys, I now began to 
 dream of my future. 
 
 In a daily paper to which we were sub- 
 scribing, there was a story appearing in 
 serial form, which I happened to read, and 
 in which I became immediately interested. 
 It was a scientific novel, with a revenge 
 motive. The title, the author, the plot — 
 all are now forgotten except the vague idea 
 that the hero in the end, by his high in- 
 ventive ability, built a wonderful machine, 
 by means of which he poured poisonous 
 gas into the castle where his enemy lived, 
 and thereby took his vengeance upon him. 
 
 128 
 
A BOY ASTRONOMER 129 
 
 I was simply fascinated, and wanted to be 
 an engineer. 
 
 The first one to whom I confided my in- 
 tention was Tomo-chan. Of course I did 
 not and could not depict an engineer as the 
 one in the story, wrapped in the glowing 
 splendor of his intellectual triumph. I 
 might have tried it if she had given me 
 a chance to do so. But too soon her pecul- 
 iar and perhaps truer view of the pro- 
 fession came on me like a blow. 
 
 " Why, isn't an engineer a sort of car- 
 penter? " she asked. Reduced to such a 
 lowest term, even my hero looked shabby, 
 and from that very moment I dropped him 
 entirely. 
 
 I was not, however, fortunate enough 
 to find a substitute worthy of my admira- 
 tion, and I had to go without any. But 
 this time my mind seemed to be able to 
 present to me a proper object of my 
 ambition. All my thought gradually 
 drifted toward the province of science (I 
 little knew then that it was the same engi- 
 
130 WHI:N I WAS A BOY IN JAPAN 
 
 neer story which influenced me). Of all 
 branches of learning, science appeared to 
 me to be the most substantial, most worthy 
 of serious study, and most certain of 
 arriving at the secret of the creation. The 
 study, however, of a small portion of 
 Gf^od's work, such as a leaf of a tree or a 
 nameless insect, did not appeal to me. No, 
 any section of the earth was not large 
 enough to lay down my life for. I wanted 
 to take in the earth, the sun, the moon, the 
 planets, and the stars — in fact, all the 
 universe at once ! So I fixed upon astron- 
 omy as my special study. The immensity 
 of the field and the purely theoretical 
 nature of the subject, coupled with the 
 transcendency of the pursuit over the 
 triviality of worldly affairs, had all its 
 charm over me. It was simply great. 
 
 I went again to Tomo-chan to tell her of 
 my intention. The idea of an astronomer 
 was apparently beyond her grasp. She 
 could not think of any occupation such as 
 carpenter, mason, and so forth, to associate 
 
A BOY ASTRONOMEU 131 
 
 with an astronomer, and it did not take 
 her long to admit that it was grand. 
 
 This was my first triumph, and now I 
 approached my aunt to see what she would 
 think of it. She was one of those women 
 whose mind never soared above the world 
 even for the sake of observation. She 
 could not conceive the idea that this earth 
 — which, by the way, was flat, according to 
 her view — revolves every day. I went 
 into a whole length of explanation by the 
 help of a lighted lamp and my fist, to show 
 how the revolution would cause day and 
 night, but to no purpose. So I changed 
 my tactics and told her the story of a little 
 girl, who, in her own way, understood this 
 fact. She lived at the foot of a high moun- 
 tain, on the summit of which there was a 
 lake. The little girl could not understand 
 how water could be found in such a high 
 place till she was told one day about the 
 diurnal revolution of the earth. '' That 
 must be true," she said, " and so the 
 
132 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN JAPAN 
 
 mountain dips into the sea in the night 
 and carries the water from there! " 
 
 But it was not my purpose to convince 
 her about such a matter, and so I pro- 
 ceeded to acquaint her with my intention. 
 I soon found that it was not exactly in the 
 line of her approval. She presented to me 
 at once her worldly view of the profession, 
 how out of ordinary my choice was. The 
 astronomer was to her a man who sleeps 
 when all should be up, and is awake when 
 all should be in bed. He looks always at 
 the sky, and does not know often that he 
 is about to tumble into a ditch. He has to 
 perch on a roof or a tree-top like a spar- 
 row, to watch the stars while everybody 
 is enjoying some nice thing in the house. 
 
 This, however, had no effect of a wet 
 blanket upon me. I knew that she was 
 teasing me for the mere fun of it. Her 
 humorous eyes were ready to take in any 
 change in my surprised countenance, which 
 on my part I partly assumed to please her. 
 
 In the end, however, she frankly ad- 
 
A BOY ASTRONOMER 133 
 
 mitted that the constantly increasing num- 
 ber of new studies in these enlightened 
 days bewildered her greatly, and she 
 could not tell which profession was sure 
 to lead one to success. Perhaps I was 
 right, she said, in choosing a study which 
 only a few might attempt. 
 
 Two days passed, in the course of which 
 I became surer of my choice and was ready 
 to face my parents. I had a secret sus- 
 picion that my father might have some 
 plan already laid out for me. If he had 
 had anything in mind outside of a scien- 
 tific pursuit, I should have been non- 
 plussed. But, luckily, I found I was ahead 
 of him; indeed, he and my mother, too, 
 seemed to trust everything to my natural 
 inclination, and had only a vague but 
 bright future for me without any particu- 
 lar road leading to it. So, when I laid 
 before them, side by side, my desire or 
 rather my determination to become an 
 astronomer and a future college profes- 
 sor, with an income four times as great 
 
134 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN JAPAN 
 
 as my father's, — I reserved the poetic 
 side of my choice for my own meditation, 
 — I made such a deep impression on 
 them that it surprised me altogether. My 
 mother, bending over her sewing by lamp- 
 light, silently passed her hand over her 
 eyes, while my father picked up a paper 
 which had been read all through, with a 
 slightly drawn " Um," in his throat, 
 which in his case was to be interpreted as 
 indicating some pleasant feeling. My 
 mother was the spokesman in such a case 
 when my father's silence was meant for 
 consent. She told me that one must go 
 heart and soul into any sort of study in 
 order to excel in it. I simply nodded, and 
 presently went to bed with a light heart, 
 after bidding good night to the dear little 
 stars who would be my constant com- 
 panions hereafter. 
 
 I could not meet my uncle till Sunday, 
 but Tomo-chan told me that he heard 
 everything about me from my aunt, and 
 was very enthusiastic over my intention. 
 
A BOY ASTRONOMER 135 
 
 Indeed, he was always enthusiastic over 
 new things, though his enthusiasm was 
 usually rather short-lived. But I was 
 glad that my news struck him in that 
 light. That morning I found him reading 
 a paper, but as I approached he looked up, 
 and, removing his spectacles, and comb- 
 ing his beard with his fingers, surveyed 
 me awhile as if to see if I was capable of 
 my word. But really he was waiting for 
 the return of his enthusiastic mood. I felt 
 that Tomo-chan was smiling over my situa- 
 tion from the next room, though I could 
 not remove my eyes from my uncle. 
 
 '' Astronomer, eh? "he said at last. 
 
 " Yes, sir. Going to be one." 
 
 " That's grand. You will be the fourth 
 or fifth in that line in our country. I 
 should take one of those new studies if 
 I were young enough. But astronomy is 
 indeed fascinating. Do you know that the 
 moon never shows her other side? " 
 
 Here he rose up and began to pace the 
 room. His enthusiasm served to bring 
 
136 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN JAPAN 
 
 back a flood of the shallow but ready 
 knowledge which he stored up in a corner 
 of his head. And he did not let me speak a 
 word till he had finished a lecture on the 
 solar system. 
 
 '' Look here," — he turned to me with 
 the look of a man who made a sudden dis- 
 covery, — ^ ^ do you know of the solar 
 eclipse we are going to have on the 20th? " 
 
 Of course I did. It was still two weeks 
 thence, and the moon was as opposite as 
 could be, but I had already darkened a 
 piece of glass over a candle and begun to 
 observe the sun at least once a day. 
 
 " This is the total eclipse and its rare 
 opportunity. You may not see it again in 
 Japan in your lifetime," he went on. 
 
 In my lifetime was too strong a phrase, 
 but I was very sorry to miss the chance, 
 as the zone of the total eclipse passed 
 some fifty miles north of Tokyo, and I 
 had — no money. 
 
 '' Perhaps in your lifetime, too," I 
 ventured to suggest. 
 
A BOY ASTRONOMER 137 
 
 '' Yes, indeed. I did not think of my- 
 self," he laughingly said. " Well, then, 
 let's go! " 
 
 " Go? " 
 
 '' I will take you and Tomo with me." 
 
 In the adjoining room Tomo-chan was 
 seen just raising both her outstretched 
 hands, opening her mouth, and rolling her 
 eyes — all bespeaking her joy and sur- 
 prise. I wished very much to answer the 
 signal but for the presence of my uncle, 
 who kept staring at anybody or anything 
 near him, and this time at me, while re- 
 volving some new plan in his mind. 
 
 For the intervening days I was busy 
 making preparations for the expedition. 
 I had to buy half a dozen pieces of glass, 
 frame and darken them in a variety of 
 shade; to adjust my watch to keep time; 
 to study the constellation where the sun 
 was, and note the stars of the first magni- 
 tude visible on the day; and to make four 
 or five copies of a drawing with a gradu- 
 ated circle in the centre for the sun, and 
 
138 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN JAPAN 
 
 two other concentric circles for the orbits 
 of Mercury and Venus. The difficult part 
 of the business was how to record time 
 for the beginning of the eclipse. We 
 needed two, at least, for this. Tomo-chan 
 was glad to offer her service, but she did 
 not want to look at the watch but at the 
 sun. Well, I had no objection to that, as 
 long as she could tell the right moment. 
 But as I was a little in doubt on that point, 
 we spent several nights in drill by means 
 of a shaded lamp which cast a bright disc 
 on the wall. No sooner than I moved an 
 opaque one and touched the other, she had 
 to press my hand. But too often the 
 movable disc was a quarter of an inch 
 inside the other when the belated touch 
 passed on to me. So I had to train her 
 eyes first by giving a signal at the time of 
 contact by means of a pinch. And if she 
 did not perceive it still, she got pinched 
 still harder. She was very unteachable 
 in this respect, but still wanted to look at 
 the sun rather than the watch! 
 
A BOY ASTRONOMER 139 
 
 So the day of the eclipse arrived. It 
 was a hot, clear day in July, and most 
 fitted for the observation. We took an 
 early train, as we had a long way to go, 
 and then we must settle somewhere to 
 watch the beginning and the end and the 
 most precious middle. In the central part 
 of the zone of the total eclipse there was 
 a government observatory temporarily 
 erected, and we wanted to get as near to it 
 as possible. But we did not take into ac- 
 count the rather slow service of the train, 
 and the hour for the eclipse had come 
 before we got into the zone, and were, of 
 course, in the train. As nothing could 
 be done under such circumstances, we gave 
 up the initial observation, and all the three 
 just looked at the sun through the soot- 
 covered pieces of glass. We did not know 
 that we were a gainer and not a loser by 
 this till late, except Tomo-chan, who had 
 already earned enough pinches merely to 
 be ready for the occasion. 
 
 The train was a few miles within the 
 
140 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN JAPAN 
 
 zone when my uncle thought it wise to 
 stop at a small village and make an obser- 
 vation there, as the sun was fast being 
 overshadowed. We settled in a nice tea- 
 house, whose front room in the second 
 floor with an open veranda was just the 
 sort of place for our purpose. And there, 
 after a quick lunch, we awaited the hour. 
 Tomo-chan and I had a board and a sheet 
 of paper which I had specially prepared, 
 to note the location of the visible stars 
 and to draw the shape of the corona. 
 
 I never knew that the light of the sun 
 was so strong, for till the luminous sur- 
 face was reduced to a very thin crescent, 
 no change was observed in the sky. But 
 all at once, as the shadow of a man pass- 
 ing on the street became weirdly faint, the 
 color of the sky turned into warm steel- 
 black and the purple stars began to 
 shine! And in no time the crescent was 
 changed into a mere speck of silver light, 
 and in a second, as it burned itself off, a 
 
A BOY ASTRONOMER 141 
 
 beautifully soft fringe of twilight ap- 
 peared. That was the corona! 
 
 I now assiduously set about to take down 
 the exact shape of it. There were only 
 thirty seconds of this precious moment. 
 So I just put down important points on the 
 paper, noting carefully the position and 
 the distance, and tried to take a clear im- 
 pression in my mind to be traced out later. 
 Tomo-chan was working, too. But her 
 process was just the opposite of mine. 
 Evidently she wished to follow my pic- 
 ture, but as mine was no picture, she 
 turned to the sun with a sigh, and, though 
 she finished it in time, she had a picture 
 of a heavenly corona twisted considerably 
 by an earthly wind ! 
 
 The wonderful moment had now passed, 
 and the corona, with a tail trailing at the 
 right-hand side of the sun, disappeared 
 like a dream. It was too brief, but we 
 were satisfied, and did not know what to 
 think of our good fortune when, three 
 minutes later, a dark cloud came and 
 
142 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN JAPAN 
 
 brushed the sun off. Then we imagined 
 what the consequence might have been if 
 the train had been fast and we had gone on 
 further north. The next day's paper said 
 that the government expedition was en- 
 tirely spoiled on account of the untimely 
 shower I 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 IN THE SUBURBS 
 
 A Novel Experiment — Removal — Our New House — • 
 Angling — Tomo-chan's Visit. 
 
 We were now to remove to the suburbs. 
 Father got a better position with a firm 
 quite far from our house, and it was 
 thought expedient for us to do so for his 
 convenience. 
 
 There was one thing which made me dis- 
 like this change. And it was about Tomo- 
 chan. We should be separated, and might 
 not see each other so often; all the more 
 so as we had grown to be quite intimate 
 and congenial by this time and had great 
 fun in indulging in some novel experiment 
 now and then. This last was by no means 
 of a scientific nature. Still we went at it 
 with something of scientific spirit to see 
 
 143 
 
144 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN JAPAN 
 
 whether a certain innovation was appli- 
 cable or not. 
 
 Here is one such experiment we tried. 
 Tomo-chan heard from one of her friends, 
 whose sister recently came home from 
 America, that in that enlightened country 
 when a lady and a gentleman take a walk 
 together, the latter offers his arm to the 
 former, who, of course, never hesitates to 
 take it. Tomo-chan thought it was a fine 
 idea, and asked me if we might try it. 
 Well, I had no objection if it were only 
 dark enough to make the trial. So one 
 evening, under the shade of cherry-trees, 
 we hooked our arms. Our cumbersome 
 sleeves were somewhat in the way, but 
 still we got on famously. After that, 
 whenever we were in the dark, a hint would 
 come from Tomo-chan to walk in that 
 fashion, and I was only glad to accept it. 
 Curiously enough it was the girl who sug- 
 gested it every time ! 
 
 Of course we were not uniformly suc- 
 cessful. I well remember the evening of 
 
m THE SUBURBS 145 
 
 that memorable day of the total eclipse. 
 My uncle's enthusiasm greatly abated as 
 the event of the day passed, and as we 
 alighted from the train and stood before 
 a fruit-vender's stall, he now appeared 
 to be much interested in a large water- 
 melon. Unable to resist the temptation, 
 he bought one and had me carry it. So I 
 held it under my arm and walked on. The 
 street was not crowded and the night was 
 dark, and I went on behind my uncle with 
 Tomo-chan beside me, when a touch was 
 felt at my unoccupied arm. It was the 
 well-known hint, and in no time Tomo-chan 
 and the watermelon were hanging from 
 my arms. It was not an easy thing to walk 
 in that way, especially behind the back of 
 my uncle, who might turn round to see us 
 at any moment. Then I found that even a 
 watermelon had a bit of jealousy in it, 
 for every minute it would get heavier and 
 more unmanageable as my mind inclined 
 more and more to my fair companion. 
 The point was soon reached when it was no 
 
146 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN JAPAN 
 
 longer endurable for the watermelon, and 
 at my unguarded moment it jumped out of 
 my arm to commit suicide. The bounce at 
 once made my uncle turn and wring his 
 hands for anger at my carelessness. I 
 was equal to the occasion, however. 
 Quickly extricating myself from Tomo- 
 chan, I pounced at the sulky thing before 
 a word was spoken, and saved it from any 
 harm. So we went on as before. Only 
 both my arms were now taken by the 
 watermelon, and poor Tomo-chan dragged 
 on crestfallen. 
 
 But such fun we could no longer have 
 now that we were to be separated for a 
 time at least, and we parted with heavy 
 heart. 
 
 The removal was a curious affair. On 
 five or six carts, everything in the house 
 from paper screens to a kitchen stove was 
 piled up. There was an old pomegranate- 
 tree in the back yard which we had brought 
 from the country some six or seven years 
 ago. And of course we dug it up carefully 
 
m THE SUBURBS 147 
 
 and loaded it on the cart. Also we did 
 not forget to pull down long poles for dry- 
 ing purpose and add them to the heap, 
 together with two or three round stones 
 for pressing pickles. The train of the 
 carts pulled by coolies then moved slowly 
 on through the city, and it was after dark 
 before we could unload them at the desti- 
 nation. 
 
 The new house was in a charming spot. 
 Just back of us was a low hill thickly 
 wooded with tall oaks and criptomerias ; 
 to the left across a brook stretched a 
 tilled field, fringed in the far distance with 
 bamboo bushes and elm groves; to the 
 right and on the hill the eye could com- 
 mand the western horizon where Fujiyama 
 hung low like an azure fan against the 
 golden sky. The birds sang, the flowers 
 bloomed, the fire-worms glowed, and I 
 never felt a change so delightful, com- 
 ing as I did from a town where boys be- 
 lieved that Indian corn either grew on a 
 
148 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN JAPAN 
 
 tree, or sprang, like bamboo shoots, from 
 the ground without planting. 
 
 My school came to be much nearer; the 
 potted trees of my father increased; a 
 baby was added to our family ; and, as the 
 sun and the moon moved on peacefully, 
 we were all well contented with our lot. 
 
 There was not much to be recorded for 
 our purpose in those days except the 
 angling my father and I had occasionally 
 in a river. His was always a calm turn 
 of mind, and the soothing, restful pastime 
 of fishing suited him immensely. I love 
 to picture him sitting under the shelter- 
 ing pine-tree by a quiet river bank, and 
 handling the rod and line, while quaint 
 ripples of smiles came and went across 
 his face as the nibbling fish gave his 
 line a tantalizing pull. Once, when it 
 was the season of smelt in the month of 
 May, we went over to a stream about two 
 miles off. The scene around there was 
 lovely. The mass of fresh leaves covered 
 the open field, and along the slope of the 
 
IN THE SUBURBS 149 
 
 bank, with stunted willows here and there, 
 myriads of dandelions like golden stars 
 studded the green. And the breeze was 
 fanning leisurely the warmth of the May 
 sun. The stream was shallow, and was 
 singing and foaming on the pebbly bed. 
 
 " Let's see what we can do about here," 
 said my father, as he selected a spot where 
 the water was going on in a cataract. 
 And we cast our flies and tried our luck. 
 But, after awhile, having no success, I 
 began to doubt if my father had chosen the 
 right spot, and so I thought that I had 
 better follow up the river and see if they 
 bit. I left my father to his fortune and 
 started on my adventure. I did not know 
 that smelt-fishing was such a dull busi- 
 ness, for, wherever I went, there was the 
 foaming pool, the steady flow, and there 
 were practically no bites. Yes, there was 
 one, but I only fished a piece of some rot- 
 ten wood or dripping moss ! I wondered 
 what my father was doing, and, not with- 
 out a smile over his probable ill-luck, I 
 
150 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN JAPAN 
 
 went back, when I found him still standing 
 in the same spot. I doubted if he was not 
 going to take root there. I at once in- 
 quired about his success. '' No, nothing 
 remarkable," he gently replied, dreaming 
 on the sparkling water. I went to his 
 basket dipped in the river, and lifted the 
 lid, when a large prisoner, disturbed by 
 the jar I gave, snapped violently! After 
 all, I thought, he was of a piece with Izaak 
 Walton. 
 
 So days passed, and more than a year 
 rolled on since our removal. It was now 
 the latter part of October, when one day 
 we had unexpected visitors. They were 
 my aunt and Tomo-chan. This was not 
 their first visit since we came here, but I 
 had always been out and had had no 
 chance to meet them. Still, they did not 
 come very often, and so my aunt, with 
 many bows, apologized for her negligence 
 to call, while my mother, with equal cour- 
 tesy, was not behind the guest in heaping 
 up apologies for neglect on her part. 
 
IN THE SUBURBS 151 
 
 Then, as tea and cakes were produced, in- 
 quiry after the health and condition of 
 each member of the family issued from 
 both sides, and was answered modestly, 
 followed by amiable comment from the 
 inquirers. Then, with equal lightness of 
 heart, the season was talked over, the 
 recent events, and, indeed, anything of 
 timely interest. 
 
 While such a talk was going on my eyes 
 were secretly on Tomo-chan. I was sur- 
 prised at her change. I left her a mere 
 child only a year and a half ago, but the 
 bud of yesterday was the flower of to-day. 
 With a snowy neck and rosy cheeks, her 
 ebony hair done up stylishly, she sat in 
 striped silk of light azure and dove-gray. 
 She no longer looked at me straight, but, 
 except for furtive glances, her eyes 
 sought her jewelled hands, idly occupied 
 in clasping and unclasping on her knees. 
 A glow of bashfulness was beaming from 
 her as most eyes sought their focus in 
 her. 
 
162 WHEN 1 WAS A BOY IN JAPAN 
 
 As the talk was about to become more 
 personal, my mother suggested that Tomo- 
 chan might go out with me as a guide to 
 look around the place, which was beauti- 
 ful at that time. My aunt seconded the 
 motion, and asked me to take the trouble 
 of doing so. So there was no need of 
 hesitation, and in the next moment we were 
 out for a walk on a country road. 
 
 At first we were speechless. She ap- 
 peared to me no longer approachable with 
 the familiarity of '^ Tomo-chan." But 
 as the autumnal breeze cooled down her 
 bashfulness, and the beauty of the scenery 
 was absorbing her attention more and 
 more, I ventured to falter : 
 
 '' Tomo-chan! '^ 
 
 ii Yes? " 
 
 She looked at me with her eyes beaming 
 with laughter, and there was the same 
 old innocent childhood, but where was the 
 bashfulness? 
 
 * ' Do you find this beautiful ? ' ^ I asked. 
 
 ** Yes, certainly." 
 
IN THE SUBURBS 153 
 
 ^' It wasn't so beautiful yesterday.'' 
 
 "" You mean to say that you had a sud- 
 den frost last night that tinged the 
 leaves? " she archly asked. 
 
 '^ Why, more sudden than that; it got 
 to be lovelier this very afternoon. We've 
 had something better than a frost." 
 
 " How is it possible? " She laughed. 
 
 ' ' No stranger than that you are changed 
 so beautifully in a year." 
 
 I said what I should not have said, for 
 she blushed to the roots of her hair, and 
 1 repented of my forwardness. 
 
 '' But come along, Tomo-chan. I'll 
 show you what you have not seen yet. ' ' 
 
 And I took her over the hill and pointed 
 to the faint shadow of the peerless moun- 
 tain. 
 
 '' Why, Fujiyama! " she exclaimed. 
 '' Oh, how lovely! Could you see that 
 every day from here? " 
 
 '' Not in rainy weather. . . . But she 
 wanted to see you to-day, as everybody 
 else did, and waited there from morning. ' ' 
 
154 WHEN I WAS A BOY IN JAPAN 
 
 " I wish you would thank her for that, 
 Sakae-san. ' ' 
 
 ' ' You ought first to thank him who told 
 her about your coming." 
 
 " Oh,'' she smilingly said, " but don't 
 tell me his name now, as I want to repay 
 him afterwards — abundantly. ' ' 
 
 I touched her dimple as she said so, and 
 then we went to the secluded part of the 
 hill where the crimson branches of maples 
 were projecting from the green back- 
 ground, the red frosted ' ' crows ' melons ' ' 
 festooned high on the criptomerias, and 
 the wild chrysanthemums were blooming 
 lavishly. In such a charming spot Tomo- 
 chan was a child of thirteen, and wanted 
 me to take ' ' crows ' melons " — I won- 
 der if she remembered the watermelon 
 incident ? — and to gather chrysanthe- 
 mums, and laughed and sang to her 
 heart's content. She was her old very 
 self. As the setting sun was resting on 
 her shoulder, I decked her hair with wild 
 flowers, and whispered in her ear that she 
 
IN THE SVBVBBS 155 
 
 would remember evermore the day we 
 spent together. She nodded, and smiled 
 the sweetest of smiles. 
 
 THE END. 
 
^°FoP Young Americans. 
 
 By ELBRIDGE S. BROOKS. 
 THE POPULAR ''TRUE STORY'' SERIES. 
 
 Seven 4to volumes of from 200 to 250 pages each, profusely 
 illustrated and attractively bound in cloth, each $1.50. 
 
 "A series which is worthy of hearty commendation. Every grown-up 
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 young folks at home." — The Christian Advocate. 
 
 This series contains : 
 
 THE TRUE STORY OF CHRISTOPHER 
 COLUMBUS, called the Admiral. 
 
 Revised Edition. 
 
 THE TRUE STORY OF GEORGE 
 WASHINGTON, called the Father of 
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 THE TRUE STORY OF ABRAHAM LIN- 
 COLN, the American. 
 
 THE TRUE STORY OF U. S. GRANT, 
 
 the American Soldier. 
 
 THE TRUE STORY OF BENJAMIN 
 FRANKLIN, the American Statesman. 
 
 THE TRUE STORY OF LAFAYETTE, 
 
 the Friend of America. 
 
 THE TRUE STORY OF THE UNITED 
 STATES OF AMERICA. From 1492 
 to 1900. 
 
 Also, recently published : 
 
 IN BLUE AND WHITE. A Story of the 
 American Revolution. 8vo, illustrated, ^1.50. 
 
 Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co., 
 
 93 FEDERAL STREET BOSTON. 
 
American Heroes and Heroines 
 
 By Pauline Carrington Bouve Illustrated 
 i2mo Cloth $1.25 
 
 THIS book, which will tend directly toward 
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 '• The style of the book for simplicity and clearness 
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 The Scarlet Patch 
 
 The Story of a Patriot Boy in the Mohawk Valley 
 
 By Mary E. Q. Brush Illustrated by George W. Picknell $1.25 
 ^''npHE Scarlet Patch*' was the badge of a Tory organization, and a 
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 ** A book that will be most valuable to the library of the young boy." — Provi- 
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 Stories of Brave Old Times 
 
 Some Pen Pictures of Scenes Which 
 
 Took Place Previous to, or Connected 
 
 With, the American Revolution 
 
 By Helen M. Cleveland Profusely illustra- 
 ted Large i2mo Cloth $1.25 
 IT is a book for every library, a book for 
 adults, and a book for the young. Per- 
 haps no other book yet written sets the great 
 cost of freedom so clearly before the young, 
 consequently is such a spur to patriotism. 
 
 " It can unqualifiedly be commended as a book for 
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 adding to its value," — Chicago News, 
 
 For sale by all booksellers or sent postpaid on receipt of price 
 by the publishers, 
 
 LOTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD CO., BOSTON 
 
pamous Children 
 
 By H. TwiTCHELL Illustrated $1.25 
 
 WE have here a most valuable book, telling 
 not of the childhood of those who have 
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 For convenience the subjects are grouped as 
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 iffiiirtWiiiiaifrifefei^ 
 
 St 
 
 »FAMOUS^ 
 CHILDREN 
 
 H TWITCHELL 
 
 The Stotty of the Cid 
 
 For Young 
 People 
 
 By Calvin Dill Wilson Illustrated by J. W, Kennedy $1.25 
 
 MR. WILSON, a well-known writer and reviewer, has prepared from 
 Southey's translation, which was far too cumbrous to entertain the 
 young, a book that will kindle the imagination of youth and entertain and 
 inform those of advanced years. 
 
 Jason's Quest 
 
 By D. O. S. Lowell, A. M., M. D. Master in 
 Roxbury Latin School Illustrated $1.00 
 
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 Het^oes of the Gt*asades 
 
 By Amanda M. Douglas Cloth Fifty full-page illustrations $1.50 
 
 THE romantic interest in the days of chivalry, so fully exemplified by 
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 For sale by all booksellers or sent postpaid on receipt of price 
 by the publishers, 
 
 LOTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD CO., BOSTON 
 
JI Boy of a thousand 
 years Jigo 
 
 By Harriet T. Comstock Large i2mo 
 Profusely illustrated with full-page draw- 
 ings and chapter headings by George 
 
 VaRIAN $1.00 
 
 TT will at once be understood that the 
 i <*boy" of the story is Alfred the Great 
 in his youth, but it cannot be understood 
 how delightful a story this is until it is seen 
 and read. The splendid pictures of George 
 Varian make this book superior among 
 juveniles. 
 
 **Not a boy lives who will not enjoy this book thoroughly. There is a good 
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 years ago." — Louisville Courier- Journals 
 
 " Mrs. Comstock writes very appreciatively of Little Alfred, who was after- 
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 Cbe Story of Joan of Arc boysJ?d%irls 
 
 By Kate E. Carpenter Illustrated by 
 Amy Brooks, also from paintings, and 
 with map Large i2mo Cloth $i.oo 
 
 nPHE favorite story of Joan of Arc is here 
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 up places on the map, and have a fine time 
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 educational point of view. 
 
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 For sale by all booksellers or sent postpaid on receipt of price 
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 LOTHROP, LEE & 5HEPARD CO., BOSTON 
 
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