Our New Allies in the Land of the Rising Sun.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXXI, Issue XIX, 7 November 1903, Page 60

Our New Allies in the Land of the Rising Sun.

(By Florence Bulgarnie.) NO. 6.) There is no prettier sight in the world than the dispersal of an ordinary Japanese day school. In their fantastic dressing-gon us of every variety of hue, it looks in the distance as it the flowers of sonic old-fashioned English garden had suddenly developed powers of locomotion, and jiansies, dahlias, marigolds, and hollyhocks were dancing tlown the embankment and over the bridge which leads from the large twostoreyed white wooden schoolhouse to the village street. From the picturesque standpoint, at any rate, it is unfortunate that, the authorities now insist that the girls attending the higher schools shall wear long high-waisted marooneoloured frocks of most hideous design, and that the boys shall revert ft the ancient Japanese “hakama.” a baggy pair of trousers, or, more strictly, a divided skirt of grey print. Boys clad in these cumbersome-looking garments, with white caps on their heads, may be recognised anywhere as students, it is now the midsummer holidays, and troops of publie school boys may be seen tiling through the gullies, which mark short cuts up the mountain sides, under the guidance, as a rule, of their tutors. On these occasions the divided skirt is strapped round the hips, but when riding the bicycle it Hops down on either side over their bare legs and white gloved feet. 1 have not ttnfrequently seen them riding in stil'ted elogs. It is marvellous how they manage to keep their feet on the pedals. Up till now 1 have seen no girls on bicycles, (hi the other hand, every grown girl and woman smokes. In the most matter-of-tact way. in train or tram, they draw’ out their dainty silk pipe cases, and tobacco pouches from the depths of their pretty satchels, and. filling the liny bowls of their pipes, take two or three graceful whiffs, which, in a few seconds after, they deliberately expel through nostrils and mouth. It is said that the very- babe will turn from the mother’s breast to seize her pipe. How far the stunted stature of the Japanese may be accounted for by this habit it is impossible to say; but within recent years a law has been passed prohibiting tb.e use of tobacco until the age of 20; The Japanese are great respecters of law. It is proverbial that a silken thread drawn across the street will effectually barricade a house on fire from an excited crowd; and I must certainly confess that, personal observation would lead me to believe the anti-tobacco law’ has some force. I have at least seen none of that juvenile smoking which is such a growing cause in English-speak-ing lands. On the other hand the Japanese are great sticklers for their rights, and a professor whose students are aged from 20 years and upwards tells me that in the intervals of classes they smoke in the schoolrooms as a matter of course. It is impossible to interfere. Boys organise early in Japan, and if a master is. not to their liking they will absent themselves from school in a body, and nothing will persuade them

to return until the offender has been removed. This sort of thing actually liappcns even in the primary schools. In the higher schools and colleges the pupils are often married men. and as faintly life is still on a patriarchial Itasis, it is easy for a married student to shift the responsibilities of wife and children upon his parents. Many of the students are very poor, and. urueli to their credit, are striving against fearful odds to obtain a degree. In the summer it has la-en their wont to take holiday trips as hawkers, their school credentials serving as passports. The Government having prohibited this, they are now going further afield to Corea and China. Others eke out a holiday by taking summer schools. At the back of Ihe oid duymoi's (noble's) country house, now an annex to Nanina’s Hotel (Yumoto), where I am living in Japanese style, is a little hillside eryptomeria shaded temple. Having often heard children's voices proceeding therefrom, J had the curiosity to mount the long Hight of steps, and, instead of the expected priest and his catechumen, 1 found the little temple converted into a summer school for boys and girls, taught by a student. The young teacher explained to me in broken English that he was paying his expenses at the A umoto sulphur springs by morning tuition, and that in term time he was studying at the Tokio School of Languages. where English. French, German. Italian. Spanish, Russian, Chinese, and Corean are taught. He was studying two languages, English first and German second. Although English is the principal foreign language spoken in Japan, German comes second, and M making considerable headway. Dr. Heidel, of Geneva, and Professor of Jurisprudence at the Tokio University, tells inc that the study of the German language is induced by the Japanese legal code, as well as by commerce. After first trying English, and then French, as their basis for their legal system, they have finally adopted the German. Strange to say, however, that the Professor, although speaking German by preference, is obliged to give his lectures in French. Whatever may be the present system for the study’ of natural science, the honour of founding the school of natural science for Japan is due to an Irishman, Dr. Dyvers, who devoted 25 years of his life to the work, ami succeeded in erecting a very fine college within the preeinets of Tokio University. A bust of the doctor occupies the place of honour at the main entrance of his building. Nearly’ opposite to it is the fine School of Engineering, built of red and white bricks; with Hanking towers, oriel windows, and spacious quadrangle, looking, for all the world, like one of the newer colleges at Oxford. < 'lose by, the big naval college is nearing completion. Medical school, laboratories and hospital are adjacent, and well equipped. The world-famed seismological station is also within the University precincts. From lienee the Slightest earth tremors are traced to their main point of manifestation and duly registered. The whole of the extensive University grounds was a gift from < ,'ount Kaga, who Availed in a narrow garden round his own mansions, that the publie might have the benefit of the

main portion of his land. The entire group of splendid buildings forms a noble coronet for the city of Tokio. which slopes downwards from the brow of the hill until it reaches the plain where its unwieldly form sprawls over a space of 100 square miles. An added dignity is lent to the University grounds by the massive porclicd gateway which at one time formed the entrance to the nobleman's estate. Instead of allowing myself to be carried off to some slow day school, I have made random visits, and have been much struck with the excellent equipment of even village -schools. Geography appears to be a somewhat neglected subject, if I may judge from the manager of an hotel who, when requested to direct an envelope in Japanese hand-writing to New Zealand, said, “Is it in the United States of America ?” When in Tokio I called at the Education Department, which supervises and controls education in Japan, from the two Imperial Universities of Tokio and Kyoto down to the elementary schools. From the latest report issued —l9OO-1901—I learn that education, although compulsory from the ages of six to fourteen, is only under certain conditions free, that the attainments of tiie children are not determined by examination and that there is a total of students, of all ages, of 4.925,673, of whom nearly 80,000 are in middle schools ami 3240 in the Universities. The average attendance for t he whole of Japan in the elementary schools is 90.35 boys, and 71.75 girls. But according to a ehart of the country, in many districts the attendance is as low as 50 per eent., and in others as high as 95 per cent. We are further informed that "because of their useful and refining character,” legislation, political economy. and singing are obligatory in middle schools. Technical schools appear. however, to be more popular, notably rhe one in Tokio, where dyeing and weaving, furnace work, applied chemistry, mechanics, electricity, aud technical designing arc taught to 666 pupils. There is an apprentices’ school in connection with this institution. The Minister of State for Education and other high officials make frequent tours of inspection to supplement the work of the regular inspectors. Summer institutes, I imagine after the AngloAmerican Chatauqua plan are held for teachers, aud during the year fortytwo students-were sent to America and Europe, and twenty-one returned to Japan, after having studied subjects as varied as jurisprudence, engineering, agriculture, the seisme of commerce, medicine, law and aesthetics. The subjects of study in the ordinary schools include morals, the Japanese language, arithmetic ami gymnastics ami one or more subjects, such as drawing or singing. may be added. Of mental arithmetic the Japanese, like the Chinese, know nothing. Before paying one’s weekly hotel bill the manager will get out his "abacus” to make sure seven days have elapsed since the date of previous payment. No one can tell that two and two make four until the little balls have been transposed. In the higher elementary schools the English language may be added. Kindergartens have also been established in many places in connection with the Government higher normal school for

females, as well as privately. There are also institutions for the blind and dumb, where all tuition fees have been abolished. The higher education ot girls still lags sadly behind that of boys—only one girl to seven boys being at the middle schools and not one at the University. But the Government iS doing all it can to foster middle schools for girls, and a “Women’s University” has lately been founded at Tokio. Its standard is, I fear, not high. Even this very brief resume of a bulky volume indicates a standard second only to our own, and the results are little short of marvellous, when we remember that it was only in 1868 that elementary schools were first estabtablished, and the University not until the following year. The awakening of Japan in the last quarter of the nineteenth century is one of the most remarkable phenomena in the history of nations. Japans people are poor, but her enlightened rulers, under a patriarchal form of Government, have spared no expense in bringing the best professors and teachers from foreign lands to fill not only the University chairs of art. science, law ete., but also positions in the public schools. Year by year the number of foreign teachers decreases, while the graduated pupils take their place. Of music, as we understand it, Japan practically knows nothing. It was, therefore, an epoch-making event when, at the recent breaking up for the holidays, the pupils of the School of Music in Tokio performed Gluek’s “Orpheus” before more than a thousand of their friends. So keen was the desire to be present that not more than a dozen Europeans gained admission, but J was privileged to attend an excellent private rehearsal. The libretto Was printed both in French and in German, but sung in Japanese. The old classic story probably harmonised with many Japanese conceptions, but whether or not the underlying idea finds an echo for all time and hi the hearts of all races when youthful voices chant—“Tendre amours quo tes chaincs out de charities pour uos coeurs Out de charuics pour nos coeurs.” Yumoto, Nikko, Japan, Aug. 13, 1903.