the modest merriment and shorn glories of
the Feast of Flowers in the year eighteen
hundred and fifty-nine!

JAPAN TRAITS.

THE position of women in Japan seems to
be peculiar and contradictory, and, like
everything else in the country, to combine in itself
extremes of civilisation and barbarism. There
is so much of this latter condition and of the
Asiatic element in their relation towards
men, that it seems that they are, during their
whole lives, in a state of tutelage and
complete dependence on husbands, sons, and
other male relatives.

In Japan, a woman has no legal existence
and no legal rights, and her evidence is
inadmissible in a court of justice. A Japanese
husband possesses unlimited power of divorce,
or rather a power limited only by his means,
as the divorced wife must be maintained
according to the station of her husband,
unless she happen to be childless, and then
she has no claim upon him whatever; but a
wife cannot demand a separation from her
husband under any circumstances, or upon
any plea. A wife in her own home is
certainly superior to all other female members
of the household, in rank, dignity, and
domestic authority—in proof of which she
alone can shave her eyebrows—but the
husband may introduce as many subsidiary
unwedded helpmates as he thinks proper.

Then, too, the wife is kept in profound
ignorance of the public and private affairs of
her husband, and he would resent any
question relative to such matters as an act of
unpardonable presumption and audacity.

All this, and much more of the same kind,
would seem to indicate that women in Japan
occupy no higher social position than women
in other oriental countries; and just as this
conclusion has been forced upon us, we are
startled by finding incidents related by
travellers and stories by Japanese writers
proving the respect in which married women
are held, showing the careful cultivation and
training that all women receive in early life,
and relating what learned, fascinating, and
elegant ladies they eventually become.

Boys and girls are for some time educated
together, and on the same system; then, when
they branch off, and the boys are initiated
into the mystery of the Happy Despatch, the
girls continue with assiduity the study of
their own language so as to read, speak, and
write it correctly—an undertaking of which
no one can estimate the difficulty until he
has attempted it. This is followed by the
study of logic, eloquence, morals, poetry, and
painting. Women are said to be among the
most admired historians, moralists, and poets
of Japan; and male authors choose stories of
female presence of mind, courage, and heroism
as the ground-work of their dramas and
popular novels.

We find, in that distant land, an echo of
many of the tales so well known in the western
world. Take, for example, the story of the
Japanese Lucretia. A man of rank went on
a journey; and, during his absence, his wife
was persecuted by a noble in authority whom
she rejected with scorn and indignation:
ultimately, however, the unhappy lady became
a victim to the fraud and violence of the
libertine.

When the husband returned, he was
received by his wife with affection, but with
a dignified reserve which surprised him
greatly. He asked for an explanation; but
his wife begged him to allow her to defer it
until the morrow, when she had invited her
relations and the chief people of the city to
an entertainment, and would make known
to him and to all of them the reason of
her conduct. The husband acquiesced, and
on the morrow her guests came, and the
noble who had wronged her was one of
them.

As is often done in Japan, the entertainment
was given on the terraced roof of the
house. When the repast was ended the lady
rose, made known the outrage to which she
had been subjected, and passionately
demanded that her husband should slay her as
she was unfit to live. But the guests, and
the husband foremost, besought her to be
calm; they strove to convince her that she
had done no wrong, and was an innocent
victim, though the author of the outrage—
whom she had not named—merited death.
She thanked them all. She wept in her
husband's arms. She kissed him affectionately,
and then, springing from him, she
rushed to the edge of the terrace, and cast
herself over the parapet. In the confusion
that ensued, no one noticed that the guilty
noble instantly sprang down the stairs; but
when the husband and his guests had reached
the crushed and dying lady, he was weltering
in his blood by her side. He had executed
the Happy Despatch, hoping to expiate his
crime and appease his victim.

If a Japanese gentleman wishes to bestow
the highest possible praise on a lady for her
judgment and resolution, he compares her to
the wife of Tchouya. Now Tchouya was a
great lord who entered into a conspiracy
against the emperor; and his wife was a
woman greatly celebrated for her wit and
beauty. After many years of prudence, an
act of indiscretion on the part of Tchouya
betrayed the conspiracy, and orders were
issued for his arrest and that of Ziositz, his
most intimate friend. It was deemed desirable
to seize both, if possible, or at least
Tchouya—who lived at Yeddo—alive, in
order to extort further disclosures. But this
was no easy task, as Tchouya would have
performed the Happy Despatch at the first
sight of an officer of justice. It was therefore
necessary to surprise him; so one day
an alarm of fire was raised at his door,