JAPAN

Evening Star, Issue 20468, 26 April 1930, Page 3

JAPAN

ILLUSTRATED LECTURE At .the Tlicosophieal Hall la-t Wednesday evening 3lr J. Gilchrist delivered a Icctuic on Japan. Tlio lecturer in bis opening remarks drew attention to tlio fact that the four largo islands, along with tho four thousand smaller islands of Japan, are situated in the North Pacific, on the same great geological fault as New Zealand is positioned. Its foundations appeal' to bo much less stable than New Zealand, for it experiences an average of four earthquakes per day. Japan in its physical features is in many respects like New Zealand, in that it is a very mountainous country, and its rivers on that account are not navigable except for very small craft more than- a short distance from the sea. Twenty-four of its mountains aro between B,oooft and 12.000 ft in height. _ Eugiyania, an extinct or dormant volcanic mountain, rivals our Mount Cook, it being 12,090 ft in height. Japan possesses fifty active volcanoes, and it can bo said to lead all other countries in the number of its hot springs, there being well over 1,000 of these. ' The average annual rainfall is G2in, and tho country for a great part of the year is very damp, ami as one result a very dense vegetation grows well up tho mountain slopes. None of the mountains aro continually snow-capped, as in Now Zealand, and .there are no glaciers. Typhoons occasionally visit the land, and do considerable damage to life and property. The population of Japan is somewhere round about fifty millions. Tokio (the capital city) has 700,000 xnoro inhabitants than all New Zealand. The Japanese mainland, Honshu, is about the size of Great Brtiain, Hokkaido’is a little less than Scotland, and Shikoku a little Jess than Wales. Tho total area of Japan constitutes about 1 per cent, of Asia, or 112,000 square miles. Healing with the -origin of tho Japanese people, Mr Gilchrist said that they appeared to come to Japan via tlie Malay Archipelago about 2,000 years ago. When “they arrived in the southerly part of Japan they found the Ainns in habitation. The Japanese, being acquainted with the art of making and fashioning metal into weapons and armour, soon placed the Ainus under subjection, and became tho dominant people. The Ainus have been in Japan for at least three thousand years. Neither Japanese nor Ainu -is of Mongolian stock. They are both Aryan. The Japanese, however, arc not pure, but a composite people, their basic stock being a white people speaking an Arvan tongue. To know of the origins of "tilings Japanese one must consult the Kojiki (records) and tho Nihongi (chronicles) of Japan. The ancestors of the Japanese came out of tho woods when ours did. The Ainus speak a tongue which is neither Japanese, Chinese, Korean, nor Malay, but Arvan. There is a dose relationship between the old pure. non-Mongolian Japanese and the Ainu speech. The Ainu language lias marks common to tho speech of tlio six great Aryan peoples—Latin, Greek, Teuton, Celt, Slav, and Hindu. The religion of Japan is overwhelmingly ' Buddhist. ft is the heart of Japan, and this may bo taken as one proof amongst the many of the Japanese being more Aryan than Chinese. There is a scholarly minority of the Japanese who follow Confucius. Shintoism is an offshoot of Buddhism, and is somewhat official or national in character and outlook. Mr Gilchrist concluded’ his lecture by sketching the verv rapid approximation to European standards -which tho Japanese had made in every domain of activity since Western civilisation broke down and through their 400 years of isolation. In education, science, and manufactures they aro now in die forefront with the most advanced nations of the world. They ’ have a literature as Lafeadio Hearn, Chamberlain, and other scholars have shown that has its roots far back in "the past, and which has in no small measure been built up by women. Japan has also its problems, the same common to Western civilisation, connected with disarmament, unemployment, and health. Its slums arc equal to the worst of the Western nations. The lecture was illustrated throughout by lantern slides, most of which were very choice in colour, and, as the lecturer explained, were the work of Japanese artists.