Razaredge
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Post by Razaredge on Aug 22, 2010 10:50:40 GMT -5
This information was compiled from several sources over the last 2 years, much of which came from a paper written in 1578 by a European observer. For easy reference I have broken down the information into sections. If you have more information or corrections please post.
Secrecy about a birth...
In samurai Japan, the fact that a baby had been born was kept a very close secret. Or rather, it was treated as a secret, even though all the neighbors of the parents knew about it. There were several reasons, and the main one was simple, but rather sad: so many babies died at birth or soon afterwords that the parents did not think it proper to make the news public until they were sure that the child would survive.
Naturally, parents did their best to ensure that the baby would live, and to keep the "onin" (evil spirits) away. A warrior or priest sat outside the room while the mother was in labor,_ plucking a bow-string. If the family was poor, then the father of the child would perform this function. Sometimes, if the family could afford to pay, a "miko" (sorceress) was brought in to cast spells and mumble charms, in order to call up a protective spirit or "kami". Only the richer Japanese could afford to call a doctor. Therefore, since more than ninety per cent of Japanese were far from wealthy, surviving birth in samurai Japan was often a matter of luck. This was especially true if the family lived in a town.
Japanese towns and cities, which look so beautiful in paintings, drawings and prints, could be filthy, unhygienic places. Although orders were given that the streets should be kept clean, they were often not carried out. All sorts of rubbish was left lying around. There are even records of dead horses being left to rot in the Shogun’s capital, Kamakura, creating terrible smells and serving as a breeding ground for germs. Things were made worse by the fact that, except for the nobles, the Japanese did not use handkerchiefs to blow their noses. Instead, they pressed a finger against one nostril, blew the mucus from the other onto the ground, and then repeated the process to clear the other nostril.
They also used the ground as a toilet, simply squatting down on street corners or wherever they happened to be. Towns had no drains or sewers, and there was no built-in system of running water, so that all the dirt and rubbish had to stay where it was until the "hinin", the outcasts or "non-humans", came along to clear it away. There were various kinds of baths in Japan, including the "yu" (hot bath) and "furu" (steam bath), but there was no soap in the modern sense. In any case, bathing was regarded chiefly as a form of ritual purification for religious purposes, not as a means of keeping clean. Even new-born babies were not washed straightaway. Instead, at birth, the infant was simply wiped clean with sheets of thin paper, and was then left naked and unfed, as well as unwashed, for at least three days. If the child survived that long under these circumstances, it must have been very hardy, for the Japanese climate could be very harsh, especially in winter.
Another reason why the Japanese kept a birth secret was that it was an event traditionally endowed with much mystery and magic. There were many taboos surrounding a birth. A mother giving birth was believed to be defiled by it, and so were all the women who attended her. So, ideally, a birth had to take place in a separate room as far away as possible from the family’s main living quarters. Any entrances into the room were covered with white curtains and a sign indicating a taboo was placed outside. Often this sign was a willow sprig, which was supposed to have protective qualities. No one was allowed to enter the room while the taboo sign remained in place, not even the child’s father.
The first month of life However, if a child managed to survive for three days, despite all the perils, the mother felt optimistic enough to begin breast-feeding it and soon afterwords, the baby was given its first bath or "ubuyu". Among the noble and wealthy, tiny jewels were placed in the bath and, as the baby was immersed, a small statue or picture of a tiger or dog was held over it so that the reflection could be seen in the water. The jewels were believed to ensure that the child would be prosperous, and the dog or tiger was thought to grant it good health. After the bath, the baby was put into its first clothes. The next task was to choose a name for the child. Girls were given beautiful names, such as Haru (springtime), Yuki (snow), Hana (blossom) or Kiku (chrysanthemum).
Boys might be named in a rather more plain fashion, by the order in which they were born. Ichiro, for instance, meant "first son", and after him came Jiro, Saburo, Shiro and Goro. However, if a boy was the first child of his parents and therefore the heir to the family possessions, "-maru" or "-maro" was added to his name. For twins, special care was taken to choose the most felicitous or lucky names, because giving birth to more than one child at a time was considered undignified. Only animals did such things. Parents therefore tried to make up for the disgrace by giving twins the best possible names.
After the naming ceremony, the baby had its first hair cut. The clippings were put into a box and buried in the local Shinto religious shrine. This was done so that the kami of the shrine would take the child under its care and protection., However, the dangers thought to attend the first days of life were by no means past. The Japanese believed that a child ’s soul was not properly attached to its body until it was at least 30 days old. During that time, to prevent the catastrophe of the child losing its soul, neither it nor its mother was allowed to leave the birth-room. They did not leave, in fact, until the time came for the mother to take the baby to the local shrine. A baby boy was taken there when he was 31 days old, and a girl when she was 33 days old. At the shrine, the mother clapped her hands to attract the kami’s attention and then lit a lamp. A celebration party followed, to which all the family and close friends were invited. At long last, the existence of the new baby could be recognized, and it was accepted into the family and community.
Weaning the baby...
Although the period of greatest danger to life — the first month — had passed without mishap, the parents of a child remained extremely vigilant. At any time disaster could still occur, through some illness or accident. The time that was most dreaded was when the baby was weaned from milk and pap, and began to eat its first solid food. The Japanese believed that weaning was a peril to life, so it was delayed for as long as possible. The mother prepared her baby for weaning by giving it a little rice-water, then a sort of gruel or soup made from rice and other cereals. When the baby was about 17 weeks old, the family and friends gathered round for the ceremony of "tabezome", at which the child ate a grain of rice.
A special table was prepared, and laid out with a rice-bowl and chopsticks: a baby boy had black chopsticks, a girl, black and red ones. The visitors watched closely as the mother picked up a grain of rice with the chopsticks and put it into the baby’s mouth. Prayers and good wishes were uttered for the baby ’s continued good health. Everyone heaved a huge sigh of relief when the child was finally weaned, and ate the same solid food as everyone else.
A baby’s age Already, strange as it may seem, the new- born baby had celebrated its first birthday
or "tan.j0bi", and had received its first toys: these were usually wood or rag dolls or painted dogs made from terracotta. The Japanese reckoned age rather differently from people in many other parts of the world. They counted a child’s age from the time it was conceived and considered that a child was one year old when it was born. The child was considered to be two years old at the beginning of the next year in the Japanese calendar. He or she might, in fact, have been born only a few months before, and a baby born on the last day of a calendar year was two years old only 24 hours later, when the New Year began!
From babyhood to childhood...
In Japan, "official" babyhood lasted quite a long time. It did not come to an end until girls were six years old and boys, seven. The preliminary ceremonies for the end of babyhood began, though, when the child was four or five, and had begun to speak. At that time, boys and girls had their hair cut in a special ceremony called "kamisogi". The child stood, facing in a "lucky" direction, on a "go" board, which would normally have been used for a game played with black and white counters. A few locks of hair were cut with scissors and placed on a tray.
In these very early years, boys and girls were not treated very differently, although a first-born son and heir was a little more favored than the other children because of his important position. For instance, he was always served first at meals. Otherwise, both boys and girls were dressed in the same way, in a short kimono tied around the waist and long drawers made of rough cloth. Sometimes, it was possible to tell a very young girl from a boy of the same age because the girl’s long hair was gathered up in large curls and tied with ribbons: the boy’s hair, which was shoulder-length, was pushed into a knot on top of his head and tied with a cord. In addition, boys might play with certain toys, such as bows and arrows or wooden swords, while the girls played with wood, rag or straw dolls, or pulled along little statuettes made from painted clay, stuck on small wheeled trolleys.
A difference in appearance between the two sexes became quite clear with the end of babyhood and the start of childhood. At age seven, Japanese boys put on their first "hakamo", that is, a pair of full breeches slit at the sides and worn over a kimono. Boys from high-ranking families were also permitted to wear, for the first time, the "hitai-eboshi", a triangle of black paper or stiffened material which was worn on the front hairline and tied in place with ribbons under the chin. The girls received their first long kimono, which was a loose robe with short, wide sleeves. It was tied round the waist with an "obi", a wide, brilliantly colored sash, gathered in a large box-shaped bow at the back. A special day was set aside for the official change of dress to be made. This day corresponded to 15 November in the British calendar, and the protective kami was informed of the event when the children visited the shrine soon afterwords.
A Tea Ceremony...
At about 3 p.m., the guests arrive, frequently attended by servants . . .. Haru receives them at the top of the stone steps and conducts each into the reception room, where they are arranged according to . . .rules of precedence . . .. When they were all assembled, Haru and her very graceful mother, squatting before each, present tea and sweetmeats on lacquer trays . . .. They addressed each other by their names with the honorific prefix "O", and the respectful suffix San . . This is not a description of a solemn religious ceremony or of an important formal meeting of adults: it describes a children’s tea party. It was written by Mrs Isabella Bird, an Englishwoman who traveled all over Japan in 1878, when it was still possible to see the traditional centuries-old customs, manners and etiquette.
The little girls - Haru and her friends —were like miniature adults, behaving towards each other just as adults would, and observing all the traditions of Japanese hospitality. The girls even looked like smaller versions of grown-up Japanese ladies in dress and appearance, complete with "nuka bukuro", a white face paint made from rice and convolvulus liquids. Mrs Bird wrote in her book Unbeaten Tracks in Japan: Haru’s hair is drawn back, raised in front and gathered into a double loop, in which some scarlet crepe is twisted. Her face and throat are much whitened, the paint terminating in three points at the back of the neck . . .. Her lips are slightly touched with red paint . . .. She wears a blue, flowered silk kimono with sleeves touching the ground, a blue girdle lined with scarlet, and a fold of scarlet crepe lies between her painted neck and her kimono. On her little feet she wears white "tabi", socks of cotton cloth, with a separate place for the great toe, so as to allow the scarlet-covered thongs of the finely lacquered clogs to pass between it and the smaller toes.
All Haru’s guests looked exactly the same, and when they arrived, their hostess greeted them with very formal but graceful bows. The sa1ne extremely polite performance was repeated when the party was over and it was time to go home. Haru’s guests made sure that they put into the loose, wide sleeves of their kimonos any sweetmeats which I-Iaru had offered them, and which they had accepted but not eaten. It was not considered polite to refuse anything a hostess offered, but it was not polite either, to leave it behind uneaten. , No one had to remind these little girls what they should do or how they should act or speak at the party. No adults had to stand by watchfully to stop any quarrels or trouble that might arise. Haru’s guests, and Haru herself, none of them more than ten years old, knew exactly what was expected of them, and how they should avoid giving offense or making embarrassing mistakes.
Discipline...
From all this, it would seem as if Japanese children were terribly solemn and never had any fun. In fact, they had many enjoyments, although, it is true that they seemed to take these very seriously, and were remarkably self-controlled. Japanese children could play for hours without a single angry word or even a discontented look. Everyone obeyed the rules of any game they played, because it was considered bad taste to do otherwise, and if there was some doubt about a move, the younger children turned towards one of the older ones for a decision. Whatever that decision was, the children accepted it with- out dispute, for Japan was a country where older people always had to be respected and obeyed. In fact, there was a three—year prison sentence provided by the law for any child who disobeyed its parents.
Favorite games...
Except among the nobles, where boys and girls were separated when they were only a few months old, children of both sexes used to play freely together. Both liked racing on stilts, driving a ball with a curved stick, flying kites, whipping tops or enjoying the quieter pastime of origami: this was the art of making birds, animals and other objects out of folded paper. Both boys and girls liked catching insects with gummed bamboo sticks, the girls favoring fireflies which they kept in cages and looked after with great care. They believed that the fireflies were the lost souls of dead people. The boys, on the other hand, seemed to prefer dragonflies or "tombo". These were aggressive insects, which the samurai called n "kachi-mushi" (victory insects), and they could be made to fight each other. The warfare they performed for the boys produced plenty of rowdy noise, at least by Japanese standards. Mrs Bird, comparing these boys and girls to the children she knew at home in England, found them formal and precocious, even at their more boisterous moments: I have never seen what we call child’s play . . . that general abandonment to . . . struggling, slapping, rolling, jumping, kicking, shouting, laughing, and quarreling!
Parents and their children...
The surprising thing is that Japanese children were such calm, disciplined creatures even though they were, in fact, spoiled and pampered in many ways. Some of their elders regarded them as almost heavenly creatures, for it was thought that the gods often reincarnated themselves (took human form) in the guise of children. Even when they were very naughty, the children were hardly ever beaten, only scolded, and they were more or less allowed to do as they pleased. Their parents used to lavish an enormous amount of love and pride on them and at times, it seemed as if they did not want to be apart from them for a moment. Even quite young children stayed up late at night and went to bed only when their parents did. Of course, there was much rivalry between parents about whose child was the best, biggest or most beautiful, and in Japan the men were just as eager as the women to discuss their children at great length. Mrs Bird wrote: It is most amusing about six every morning to see twelve or fourteen men sitting on a low wall, each with a child under two years in his arms, fondling and playing with it, and showing off its physique and intelligence . . .. To judge from appearances, the children form the chief topic [of conversation] at this morning gathering.
Educating the children...
Although children were so petted and fussed over in Japan, this did not mean that they were sheltered, or protected from the harsher aspects of life. They were taught, at a very early age, the tasks that were expected of them, the duties they must perform, the respect they must show to elders and those in authority, and how to behave correctly at all times.
Where they received this education depended on the standing of their family. Lower ranking samurai and lesser nobility might place their sons in the households of richer families, where they would serve as pages. Or me boys might go to one of the fine craftsmen, sculptors, or artists, so that they could become proficient in artistic skills. Among higher-ranking and richer samurai, fathers took great pride in educating their sons themselves, or they might engage private teachers for them. A very important part of their education was, of course, learning to use weapons and this could start during babyhood. "When he was five or six years old," runs an account by the teacher Okazaki Bunzo in the Genpei Seisuiki, an early fourteenth-century chronicle, "I taught him to handle a small bow and some arrows of thin bamboo, and to shoot at a target, at deer and rabbits, and to ride horseback so as to chase rabbits and deer . . .". Other samurai boys might go to a monastery for their education. Here, they served as pages to the monks and priests, who treated
them with enormous affection and pride. Some of the boys were treated as if they were prize pets. The monks saw to it that they were dressed in the most gorgeous garments, and they had their eyebrows shaved and their faces painted.
Study at the monasteries was hard, all the same. There was a lot of memorizing to be done, for the boys needed to know Chinese texts by heart, as well as the "sutras" or holy books of Buddha, the ancient Buddhist poems. An account of the education of Yoshitsune, a member of the Minamoto
family was given in the Taiheiki, a chronicle written in the mid-fourteenth century:
He spent every day with his master reciting sutra, and bending over the Chinese classics. When the sun sank in the west he went on reading with his master until the lamp went out. I-Ie studied day and night, working at his books until dawn . . .
Craftsmen’s sons were taught their skills by their fathers and were given more and more complex tasks as they became more experienced. The craftsmen of old Japan took great pride in their work, and rightly so. The art of "urushi" or lacquer work, for instance, produced many great masterpieces of painting, sculpture and decoration on boxes, bowls or musical instruments. Ceramic artists, metal-workers and workers in leather or paper were, likewise, men of great talent who produced beautiful, delicate work by much patience and care.
The children of the humble farmers and peasants were also taught the skills they needed in order to follow in their fathers’ footsteps. No one argued with this rule of life in Japan, because it was taken for granted that sons would do the same work as their fathers and grandfathers before them, whether they were high- or low-born. A farmer’s son, therefore, had to know how to identify plants, and do what was necessary with the crops at each season of the year. He was taught how to cut grass for feeding the horses and the oxen, how to collect mulberry leaves to feed the silk worms, and how to do more mundane tasks, such as collecting firewood, leading the farm animals and giving a hand in the kitchen. Japanese girls, whatever their station in life, were expected to center their lives on the home, to help their mothers in the kitchen and look after the younger children.
In addition, farmers’ daughters had to plant and pick the rice crops, look after the animals and keep them clean and fed. Like the boys, the girls were expected to do hard physical work, as ordered by the Shogun or local lord, on projects to build irrigation channels, or bridges or pathways. Girls who belonged to wealthier or more aristocratic families naturally had easier lives. They were taught some reading and writing, though not much: it was thought sufficient for them to know how to write the fifty-one symbols of the "kana" alphabet.
Upper-class elegance...
Like the boys of the same social standing, the girls had to know all the rules of etiquette, how to stand with proper dignity, and also how to tell the difference between all the many kinds of perfumes, iris bulbs, shellfish, and tea. Dressing properly, in good taste, was very important, and so was playing a musical instrument, dancing and composing poetry. For the boys, there were many energetic pursuits of the sort usually followed by noble or wealthy families. These included hawking, horse-riding, archery and playing "kemari", a football game. Their sisters, meanwhile, might be occupying themselves with the niceties of their appearance. Ideally, girls were supposed to have small, delicate, bright red mouths, and the girls achieved this by painting the centre of their lower lip red with crushed flower petals of the "benibcma", a sort of saffron. The same paint was used to make the cheeks blush prettily and beneath it all, unless a girl had a naturally white skin, was the "nukabukuro" dead-white face paint.
On reaching womanhood, girls had to pluck their eyebrows until only a thin, delicate arch was left. In addition, the girls painted two black marks called "motomayu" high on their foreheads, using "haizumi", a black paint made from soot and glue. Many women also blackened their teeth. So did the samurai warriors who also wore face paint, and it is not surprising that to European eyes, they all looked rather like grotesque clowns. However, to the Japanese, it was considered bad taste NOT to look like this ·· it was a sign of upper-class elegance. One young girl, described in a thirteenth century narrative, rebelled against these traditions and was virtually treated as an outcast:
She thought that people’s artificial manners were hateful and refused to pluck her eyebrows. She declared that teeth blacking was even more harmful and dirty . . . and her smile displayed astonishing white teeth . . .. People were scared and ill at ease before her and shunned her . . .
To another lady, this young girl’s eyebrows looked like "caterpillars and her teeth as naked as a skinned animal".
Reaching adulthood...
Until they were about twelve or thirteen years old, girls were allowed to play boys’ games, even the rougher ones. But this had to end at the age of puberty, because then, the girls were leaving childhood and becoming women. Soon, they would be old enough to have a husband chosen for them by their parents, and to have children of their own. This important stage in a girl’s life was marked among the samurai and nobility by the ceremony of "mayuhami", or shaving and plucking the eyebrows. Girls of humbler families painted their teeth to show that they had reached womanhood, and among the peasants, girls simply tied their hair up on the back of their heads.
The boys had their own special ceremonies to denote that they had attained manhood. Among the families of merchants or craftsmen, this ceremony, called "gempuku ", might take place as early as age ten or twelve, while in noble families, boys were considered to be men at thirteen. Samurai boys had to wait two years more before they were entitled to exchange the wooden sword of childhood for a real sword of steel. At fifteen, samurai were old enough to fight in battle. The Tcziheiki records one teenage samurai who fought in the war between the Taira and the Genji clans, which lasted from 1180 to 1185:
Thereupon, from among those who were watching [the battle], came a young boy of fourteen or fifteen, clad in pale green armour with full breeches lifted up high at the sides and his hair fastened up in ringlets like a child’s . . .. Kajitsu turned quickly to protect himself . . . but when he noticed the painted eyebrows and the blackened teeth of the fifteen-year-old boy, he resolved not to strike him down . . .
Kajitsu, a member of the Taira clan, knew that the young samurai was on his own side because their enemies, the Genji, did not blacken their teeth, but left them natural white. Usually, though, the different samurai clans were distinguished by a "mon" or special heraldic-type symbol, which they
wore, in the form of a square, a circle or a stylized plant, animal, flower or other object. The full, high breeches worn by the young samurai were called "hakama" and putting them on was an important part of the gempuku ceremony. So was the coiling of the hair on top of the head. On a lucky day, specially chosen, the young samurai put on a man’s head-dress ("eboshi") and also received a new name, made up of two parts, the first a family name, the other a personal one.
Yoshitsune, for instance, was called Shanao until he reached manhood. The first part of his new name was chosen because it had already occurred in the names of his father (Yoshimoto, head of the Minamoto clan), his grandfather (Tameyoshi) and elder brother (Yoshihira). Whenever Yoshitsune, like other fifteen-year-old samurai boys, signed his new name, he was entitled to use a special mark called a "kao". This showed that the signature was that of a fully-grown man.
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