The First European Description of Japan, 1585 (12 page)

The chape is a metal fitting at the bottom of the scabbard, which further protects the tip of the blade as well as the sword bearer. European swords usually had a well-shaped handle (hilt) with an often decorative butt end (pommel). Because Japanese scabbards were usually of wood they had no need for a chape, and while Japanese swords obviously had a handle, it was a rather simple affair. Frois might also have mentioned that European swords had a
hand guard, which, in its simplest form–a cross-bar–stopped an opponent's sword blade from sliding down into the hand. Japanese swords often had a simple washer-like device for a “hand guard.”

24a. Our swords are tested on lumber or animals; the Japanese insist upon testing their swords on human corpses
.

Like Damascus steel, the best Japanese swords were tempered
⁴⁴
and then tested on human flesh; “a first class blade sometimes cut through three corpses with one blow, although seven is on record.”
⁴⁵
This testing continued long after the Jesuits expressed dismay at the custom. Executed criminals, whose bodies were sometimes sewn together and re-used, were the principal source material for blade testing. Using corpses is one thing, but criminals and evil people in authority, including one Shogun, took to testing swords on any poor-looking passerby.
Suji-kire
, or “crossroads-cutting,” is still a favorite theme of Japanese television “Easterns.”

Lest the Japanese seem particularly inhumane, criminals who were convicted of especially heinous crimes were quartered in modern Europe and tens of thousands of witches and other “evil-doers” were burned or otherwise dispatched with spectacle. Paradoxically, while Europeans showed few qualms about ritual killing, they did pause–more than the Japanese, it seems–when it came to injuring a lifeless body. Perhaps Europeans feared offending God by complicating His work at the time of resurrection. Grave-robbing was a serious crime in Europe.

25a. Our cutlasses or scimitars are worn with the convex side downward; the Japanese wear theirs with the convex side up and the concave side down
.

As Frois himself points out, Europeans favored straight, double-edged swords. The cutlass or scimitar, which was made famous (and frightening) by the Ottoman Turks who laid siege to Vienna in 1529, were sometimes reproduced by European swordsmiths as a “costume accessory.”
⁴⁶
The Japanese wore their cutlasses in scabbards fastened more or less horizontally or thrust through the belt diagonally, but still far closer to horizontal than vertical. For this contrast to make sense, we must assume European swords likewise hung somewhat off the vertical. As Frois later discusses in
Chapter 7
on weapons and warfare (
#4
,
#7
–
#11
), the Japanese wore two swords (and a dagger); the larger was worn in the traditional bow up way (like a smile) and the smaller sword was worn with the bow down (like a frown). Because ends tend to hang down, scabbards holding a smile-like position had to have proper fasteners. In retrospect, Frois' exaggeration turns out to be a prediction, as Tokugawa period artwork shows that within a hundred years, both Japanese swords were worn like a frown. This method better holds a scabbard casually stuck through a belt.

26a. We wear felt caps, capes
,
⁴⁷
and hats in the rain; the Japanese, both rich and poor, wear hats and very long capes all made of straw
.

The Japanese do not have nor need a rain hat
per se
. Their traveling or working “hat” and “umbrella” are homophones (
kasa
). Because the
kasa
is umbrella-shaped, it provides excellent protection from both rain and sunlight. Moreover, because it does not cling to the head, but is instead supported by a harness, it provides ventilation and is perfectly suited to a muggy climate. In 1585, the Japanese apparently were in the process of “inventing” a raincoat, creating capes of straw that were layered like a thatched roof.
⁴⁸
A century after Frois, Kaempfer speculated that the Japanese had learned the use of it, together with the name, from the Portuguese.
⁴⁹
He further described a “large cloak … made of double varnish'd oil'd paper, and withal so very large and wide, that it covers and shelters at once man, horse and baggage.” At first,
kappa
meant any kind of cape, but during the Meiji era (1868–1912)
manto
(mantle) came to mean a cape or shawl and
kappa
came to mean only a raincoat.

27a. We regard strolling as great recreation, as well as very healthful and calming; the Japanese do not go strolling at all, and they are amazed and view our strolling as a hardship and penance
.

During the nineteenth century America's first Ambassador to Japan, Townsend Harris, was told that prisons were not punishment for the Japanese because they did not feel a need to walk about in the first place (see also
Chapter 14
,
#11
). Both the Japanese and Chinese purportedly found the idea of “a constitutional” ludicrous. To relax and think, they sat still. The Portuguese evidently did not succeed in spreading the practice of walking in the Western sense, since the term for “a walk,” which is
sanpou
or “scattered-steps,” rarely was used until the Meiji era.

There are several caveats to Frois' contrast of “we who walk” and “they who do not.” First, the Japanese may well have led the civilized world in two types of walking: pilgrimages and stylized pageantry. Japanese of all classes took advantage of their excellent roads and would walk from shrine to shrine, from temple to temple, covering distances of hundreds and even thousands of miles. As is apparent from the later Haiku of poets such as Basho, these pilgrimages were the occasion for
all manner of reflection on life.
⁵⁰
The Japanese may not have walked much, but when they did, they walked like it was nobody's business. Mention should also be made of
neri-aruki
or “polished walking.” There were many varieties of this walk-as-dance, ranging from the rapid and tiny up-and-down toe movements used by most Shinto float (
dashi
) carriers, which still can be seen today in Japan, to the slow-motion deliberate wobbling and rotating of each foot in turn by courtesans on parade on high
geta
clogs. Finally, during the Tokugawa period poor poets were said to engage in “aimless walking” (
sozoro-aruki
) through the so-called “pleasure quarters” of Edo, poking fun at people.

28a. Our swords and most valuable possessions are beautifully adorned; their precious belongings have no grandeur or adornment
.

Europe's elite prized well-balanced swords with blades, pommels, hilts, and hand guards that often were engraved or featured complex designs, highlighted with gold and silver and sometimes jewels. The peak of perfection in Japanese sword manufacturing, which was characterized by simple-looking yet incredibly sharp and resilient blades, was reached in the fourteenth century. By Frois' time, the secrets of the old masters were so completely lost that no one has since been able to duplicate the quality of Japanese blades from the fourteenth century.
⁵¹
It is no wonder, therefore, that the Japanese valued old, “plain-looking” swords.
⁵²
However, the best and most revered swords were not really “plain,” as Dobrée points out; the blades often had exquisite wavy markings like wood grain. Some swordsmiths apparently also signed their blades, albeit on the hidden tang of the blade, and occasionally embellished their blades with inscriptions or images.
⁵³

29a. We consider it rude if a servant does not remain standing once his master is seated; they consider it poor etiquette if the servant does not take a seat when his master does
.

Japan shared the extreme up-and-down consciousness of much of Southeast Asia and Pacific island cultures, where a superior had to be literally higher than others at all times. To fold a wife's clothing on top of a husband's would disrespect him; to use a book as a pillow would disrespect the author.

30a. We use black for mourning; the Japanese use white
.

The equation, black = mourning has not always held true in the West. Aristocratic women in Roman antiquity wore white for mourning, as did European queens during the Middle Ages and the early modern period. In Portugal, black was adopted for mourning only decades before Frois' birth.
⁵⁴

With respect to Japan, the association of white with mourning apparently originated in China. The association, however, was not as absolute as Frois implies, because in one of his letters Frois noted that the bonzes wore fine black upper garments to funerals. Today, partly as a result of Western influence, black is more common than white at Japanese funerals. In neighboring Korea, white is still
the
color of bereavement (and worn all the time by the elderly as if to say “I'm ready to go!”).

31a. When we walk, we lift up the front of our clothing so it does not get soiled; the Japanese lift up the back of their clothing, so much so that their entire north
⁵⁵
is exposed
.

Japanese men typically lifted and then tucked the hem of their kimonos into their obi belt such that their behinds, and more often, their loin-cloths, were exposed. The Japanese even have a term for this “tucking up” (
shiri-karage
). It is possible that men showed more than their rear-ends, for loin-cloths were loosened in the humid summer and might be washed and tied to a bamboo pole to dry while walking. Japanese women, kept “the north” covered, “tucking up” instead in the front (and less radically, to be sure).

32a. Among us, pages and nobles accompanying their master should never reveal even so much as a toe; when travelling down the street with their master, the Japanese roll their breeches up clear to the groin
.

If Europeans found their inferiors' nudity insulting and professed to be disgusted by it, the Japanese rather enjoyed it. This attitude lasted well into the Edo era (1603–1868), when Issa wrote haiku of cold winter moonlight congealing on the rumps of butt-proud footmen. In Japan, a lord would be proud of, rather than embarrassed by the magnificent
gluteus maxima
of his charges.

33a. We spit at any time; the Japanese normally swallow their sputum
.

In his influential work, “On Good Manners,” Erasmus (d. 1536) did not take issue with spitting, but rather advised fellow Europeans to “Turn away when spitting to avoid spitting or spraying someone else.”
⁵⁶
Today, it is Japanese men who seem to spit too freely for the taste of most Westerners. Interestingly, neither Frois nor other Europeans mention that one bodily function that is considered a privilege of the male sex, and which aroused by far the most international controversy, at least judging from the countless letters to the editor on this topic published in English-language newspapers in Japan. We are referring here to
tachi-shoben
or “standing-urination.” Japanese men were once infamous for doing this practically anywhere and at any time, and eighteenth-century short poems called
senryu
(similar to haiku) tell of wise guys who peed on signs that forbid urination in public.

34a. We wield our swords with one hand; since Japanese swords are so heavy, all of them are wielded with both hands
.

As noted, the civilian swords worn by European elites were mostly a thin, straight-bladed thrusting weapon. Although Frois attributes the Japanese use of two hands to their heavy swords, two hands holding, grasping, or cupping an
object seem to sanctify it and its function. Polite drinking (a mark not just of formality but also of sincerity) was done with two hands, as was all giving and receiving of gifts. As is true of many things, this attitude and practice apparently was introduced from China during Japanese antiquity.

35a. We wear leather shoes and, [in the case of] our nobles, [shoes made of] felt; Japanese of all classes wear sandals made of rice straw
.

Europeans did not want for shoes made of calfskin, goatskin, deerskin, sheepskin, and unsoled cloth or felt, which were worn indoors.
⁵⁷
Unlike shoes from the Middle Ages, which were ridiculously pointed, those of the sixteenth century tended to have rounded toes.

The humidity in Japan is high during a good part of the year and especially in summer. Therefore, in addition to being costly because of a lack of cattle hides, shoes made of felt or leather would have given many Japanese athlete's foot. Made from rice straw or not, the fine weave of the
zori
, worn by the wealthy, and the crude macramé weave of the
waraji
, worn by the poor, both kept the feet cool and relatively dry. Today this footwear is seldom worn except by elderly ladies and visiting foreigners. Japanese men say they don't wear sandals for fear of having their feet crushed on the subway, while women, by contrast, do not hesitate to wear toeless shoes. Those sandals that are found in Japan today are mostly hideous plastic
surippa
(slippers). The footwear situation proves beyond a doubt that the Japanese have become vulnerable to fashion trends, particularly from the West.

36a. We in Europe would think it insane for a noble to remove his shoes before presenting himself before a prince; the Japanese consider it poor etiquette not to remove one's shoes before presenting oneself before another, regardless of rank
.

You have to believe European feet stunk a lot,
⁵⁸
given their bathing habits (or lack thereof). With regular bathing and cooler and better ventilated footwear, presumably Japanese feet stunk a lot less (even if the same feet were more easily soiled).

37a. We enter our homes with our shoes on; in Japan this is rude and shoes should be left at the door
.