See Page 302.
HOME LIFE IN TOKYO
BY
JUKICHI INOUYE
WITH
NUMEROUS
ILLUSTRATIONS
TOKYO
1910
PRINTED BY
THE TOKYO PRINTING COMPANY LTD.
PREFACE.
The object of the present work is to give a concise account of thelife we lead at home in Tokyo. I am aware that there are already manyexcellent works on Japan which may be read with great profit; but astheir authors are most of them Europeans or Americans, and naturallylook at Japanese life and civilisation from an occidental point ofview, it occurred to me that notwithstanding the superabundance ofbooks on Japan, a description of Japanese life by a native of thecountry might not be without interest. I believe it is the first timethat such a task has been undertaken by a Japanese, for works inEnglish which I have so far seen written by my countrymen treat ofabstruse subjects and do not deign to touch upon such homely mattersas are here dealt with.
The information I have endeavoured to convey in these pages is open,I fear, to the charge of scrappiness. It is unavoidable from the verynature of the work, the purpose of which is to select from the wealthof material in hand such matters as are likely to interest the generalreader. I make no pretension to completeness or comprehensiveness oftreatment.
I may also explain that I have confined myself in these pages to thedepiction of life in Tokyo. To attempt to include the various customsthat prevail in other parts of the country would to difficult andtedious. I felt that it would add materially to clearness andsimplicity if I localised my observations; and it was only naturalthat Tokyo the capital should be selected for the purpose.
Finally, I would point out that I have made no distinction in thegrammatical number of the Japanese words used in this book. It may attimes puzzle the reader to find the same words occur, as in Japanese,in both the singular and the plural; but to the Japanese ear theaddition of the English plural suffix seems to impair the euphony ofJapanese speech.
JUKICHI INOUYE.
Tokyo, Japan,
September. 1910.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
Tokyo the Capital.
The youngest of the capitals—Yedo—The feudal government—Prosperity of Yedo—Its population—The military class—The Restoration—The new government—National reorganisation—Centralisation—Local government—Tokyo the leader of other cities—Struggle between Old and New Japan—The last stronghold of Old Japan.