THE HEART OF JAPAN.
The Heart of Japan : Glimpses of Life and Nature Par from the Traveller's Track in the Land of the Rising Sun. By Clarence
Ludlow Brownell. (Methuen and Co. 6s.)—It is possible that "The Soul of a People," Mr. Fielding Hall's remarkable study of the Burmese, may have suggested the title of this book ; but
Japan does not wear her heart upon her sleeve, and the reader who looks in these pages for a revelation of her hidden mysteries is likely to be disappointed. This is not to say that he will not find a good deal of curious information, pleasantly con- veyed; but the author's outlook is in the main superficial, and too much has been sacrificed to the desire to be constantly amusing. The humour is often forced, and not always in good taste. This is specially to be regretted in the description of a cremation on the west coast, one of the stories for which the writer's friend, Mr. Gardner, found an attentive audience in the globe-trotters of Tokio. Those chapters in which Mr. Gardner discourses are the least attractive. Be it said, with these reser- vations, that from his own experiences and those of his friend during a five years' residence in the remoter parts of Japan Mr. Brownell has put together an agreeable miscellany of story, legend, and observation. Some will think him at his best when he is serious, as in the pathetic histories of 0 Toyo San, the discarded wife, and Kato, whose filial piety brought him to a sorry end. Others will prefer his genuinely amusing treatment of the spoken language of Japan. The unfail- ing politeness of the Japanese is a source of constant delight to the Western mind. " That is so," says the West. " Honourably so augustly is," says the East. Mr. Brownell gives us many scraps of talk and writing in which this honorific mode of expres- sion is skilfully reproduced. A New Year's card sent to an acquaintance ends as follows : " Pardon the contemptible selfishness of selfish me, for the unspeakable effrontery of venturing to address honourable you." " Etiquette," Mr. Brownell tells us, "is against a captive trying to escape after he has been informed courteously that he is under arrest, and should augustly condescend to accompany his captor to the police-station." The police force of Japan is indeed a model of efficiency, but the Press censorship is Russian in its severity. The connection of these two, not obvious at first sight, may be discerned in the chapter called "The Censor and the Crafty Editor." It is difficult in Japan to conduct a paper on such lines as to avoid giving offence. Newspapers are suspended at the rate of one a week. This is the sort of message which the editor receives :—" Deign honourably to cease honour- ably publishing august paper. Honourable editor, honourable publisher, honourable chief printer, deign honourably to enter august jail." How the honourable three for a time evaded incar- ceration may be read with profit and joy in Mr. Brownell's pages; and for the sake of this and similar excellences "Mr. and Mrs. Everybody," as they say in Japan, will to his occasional lapses "august pardon deign."
Previous page
