The First European Description of Japan, 1585 (38 page)

39. Among us, one goes into battle to take places, cities, villages and riches; in Japan, the fighting is almost always to take wheat, rice and barley
.

Taking grain to supply one's own soldiers' needs while depriving the enemy of food was a common war strategy in Japan and was referred to as
kari-ta
or “reapfield.” To suggest, however, that
kari-ta
was “almost always” the reason why the Japanese went to war is as misleading as suggesting that Europeans went to war to destroy foodstuffs, given the relative frequency with which European armies destroyed fields, either one's own (during a retreat) or those of the enemy.
⁴⁴
In both Europe and Japan most wars were fought over arable land.

40. Among us, horses, dromedaries, camels, etc., carry the soldiers' gear; in Japan, the peasants
⁴⁵
attached to each soldier carry his gear and food on their backs
.

During the late Middle Ages the southern third of the Iberian peninsula was occupied by Berbers and other North Africans who introduced camels and dromedaries, which were used along with horses and mules as “pack animals.” As noted above, Japanese samurai often went into battle with conscripted peasants who shouldered the samurai's gear. The contrast, while correct, is misleading if one thinks that the Japanese practice was specifically military. As discussed in the next chapter, the Japanese as a whole depended more on human than non-human animal power for transportation.

41. Among us, killing oneself is considered an extremely grave sin; during war, if the Japanese feel they cannot go on, slitting their belly is considered an act of great valor
.

During the Crusades tens of thousands of Europeans sacrificed their lives in the hope of liberating Jerusalem from the infidels. Meanwhile, the Japanese evolved their own particular cult of suicide. What apparently began as a battlefield demonstration of bravery (disemboweling oneself is a particularly
difficult
way to go) and a way of denying the enemy a psychological victory, became a Japanese social institution, one that provided individuals with a means of limiting the repercussions, especially to family, of an individual's wrongdoing or shortcomings.

Suicide always has been part of the Western experience (consider the heroic captain who goes down with his ship), and yet the West is loathe to acknowledge the often-felt need to take one's own life. This might be thought of as a contrast between
individualism and collectivism, or between Christianity and Buddhism (the former says life is sacred while the latter says it is an illusion). However, from the traditional Japanese point of view, it takes someone with self-discipline and self-respect (valuing one's name over one's life) to kill him- or herself at the right time.

Today, one still reads of Japanese who commit suicide to take responsibility for scandals, but on the whole there is little to differentiate Japanese suicide from that in the West, particularly when the “West” includes Eastern European countries with double the suicide rate of Japan. Interestingly, doctor-assisted suicide has, if anything, met stronger resistance in Japan than in most of the West. (Japanese doctors, and the Japanese as a whole, are reluctant to take responsibility for someone else's life.)

42. Among us, treason is rare and is considered highly reprehensible; in Japan, it is so common it that it is almost never considered reprehensible
.

Early modern Europe certainly had its fair share of treason,
à la
Macbeth. Treason was strongly censured, but also justified (Machiavelli). The extent of treachery is reflected in some of “our” current dinner rituals and dining room furniture. The credenza, for instance, initially was used as a “lab table” where servants tested the food and wine for poison before serving both.
⁴⁶

With respect to the Japanese, the main reason for treason apparently was not so much a lack of proper compensation (see
#38
above); after all, as Xavier and others noted, honor meant more to the Japanese than wealth. Instead, treason appears to have resulted from the political instability of sixteenth-century Japan. During Frois' time feudal lords came and went almost with the seasons. The era revealed the arbitrary nature of authority, which made even persons
suspecting themselves to be under suspicion
break and run for a new master to save himself and his family. Ironically, the nobilities' quick recourse to capital punishment itself was due, in part, to fear that the retainer,
suspecting that he might be suspected
, might betray his master. This vicious circle of uncertainty was outlined by one of Frois' Japanese contemporaries:

In our country, no one, not the lord nor anyone under his jurisdiction can live with peace of mind. The one constantly dreads treachery, while the other dreads unjust punishment at the hands of his mercilessly angry lord, or owing to a plot against him. So it is not at all rare that the sound of song and dance at the height of a banquette instantly becomes a bloodbath resounding the torments of hell.
⁴⁷

Retrospectively, there is irony here because the Japanese today think of themselves as a particularly loyal people, and this notion has been promulgated by
large corporations.
⁴⁸
Frois' contrast warns us that the attractive Japanese aesthetic of transience reflected in part the real and terrifying mutability of life; vaunted Eastern stability and harmony is as much myth as it is fact.

43. Among us, it is considered a great disgrace to be an executioner; in Japan, taking another's life to serve justice is something that any noble will do, and he takes pride in doing it
.

Perhaps because capital punishment in early modern Europe often was capricious or unjust, the executioner was shunned and feared and sometimes forced to wear distinctive clothing and reside outside the city or town. This was true in much of Mediterranean Europe (i.e. Iberia, Italy, France), but not Germany. (Note that while shunned, executioners often were well paid in grain or with the assets of those they executed).

It was not out of the ordinary in sixteenth-century Japan for a lord or samurai to cut down a maleficent on the spot. There also were formal executions, sometimes performed by a lord (usually to test a sword), but mostly by untouchables, a class of people who were entrusted with executing criminals as well as butchering domesticated animals. Lastly, there were
seppuku
, “seconds,” who were asked by an individual intent on suicide to behead the individual just as he began disemboweling himself.
⁴⁹
This assistance often was rendered by samurai or nobles and might best be called euthanasia rather than execution.

44. The cambalas
⁵⁰
that are used as fans in India by the Moors and gentiles are used by the Japanese as hair to adorn the rims of their helmets
.

The Japanese valued imported yak hair from China (see
Chapter 2
,
#5
) as a charm as well as adornment. Tail hair from white yaks was used on everything from spear heads to implements carried by religious leaders. As Frois notes, “fans” of yak hair (they actually look more like long-haired dusters) were used in India primarily for giving flies and mosquitoes the brush-off.

45. Our razors are thick and flat; theirs are thin and curved, with a single edge
.

If Frois had possessed a greater understanding of Japanese blade technology he might have mentioned the most essential difference between Japanese blades and all others, namely that Japanese blades have a hard and keen edge and a relatively soft and resilient blade body. European blades were of a uniform consistency (relatively soft), so while they were durable, they were comparatively dull.
⁵¹

46. We sharpen our blades using oil on a hard stone; the Japanese sharpen theirs using a soft stone and water
.

The Japanese for many centuries have used sharpening stones made of sedimentary rock (the most desired stone was mined north of Kyoto in Narutaki) that is softer than the novaculite preferred by Europeans and Americans. Frois is also correct in that the Japanese use water rather than oil when sharpening their blades on the whetstone. The use of a softer stone and water means the stone does not become glazed or loaded with “swarf” as quickly, although the sharpening stone wears out faster than an oilstone. Because dull blades are useless (if not dangerous), Europeans and the Japanese prized blade sharpeners. In Europe, they went door to door in larger towns or cities, sharpening a variety of blades, including knives and scissors. During the sixteenth century Sengo Muramasa gained almost mythical status in Japan for the incredible edge he was able to produce on a sword blade.
⁵²

47. Among us, only barbers give shaves; in Japan, almost everyone knows how to do this
.

Given the incredible sharpness of Japanese cutting devices (one could apparently shave with an
adaga
or short sword), it makes sense that nearly everyone in Japan was his own barber, particularly as Japan had professional sharpeners (
togishi
) who offered door-to-door service. Moreover, because the Japanese wrote with a brush, they may have enjoyed greater manual dexterity, enough so they could safely shave without a safety razor. The relative paucity of facial and body hair may have helped as well, but the Japanese threw away much of that advantage by also shaving part of the head.

48. Among us, if one does not go to the barber, one cannot shave his beard; many bonzos and laymen shave their beards and heads by themselves
.

This contrast seems to be a repeat of
#47
above, except in pointing out that not just laymen, but also Buddhist priests shaved themselves and had no need of a barber.

49. Among us, soldiers carry the fuse on their left arm; the Japanese carry it on their right
.

Frois is referencing here a requirement of some of the earliest handguns used by cavalry in Europe and later introduced to Japan. These rather primitive guns were fired by a lighted fuse that was applied to a touchhole on the top of the barrel near the breech.
⁵³
The “fuse” carried by both European and Japanese soldiers is more aptly conveyed by the Japanese term
hinawa
, or “fire-string,” which was kept smoldering during battle. The
Dicionário Houaiss da Língua Portuguesa
indicates that the
morrão
generally was made of linen cord, one end of which was soaked in a solution of quicklime and potassium so that it would burn slowly. The fact that the Japanese carried the fuse on their right arm, implying that they used their left hand to ignite the charge, may reflect a previous samurai tradition of holding the bow in the left, or “bow” hand (see
Chapter 8
,
#10
). In Europe, the gun was held under the right arm and ignited by a fuse held in the right hand.
⁵⁴

50. Our fuses are made of cloth fibers; theirs are made of paper or bamboo husks
.

This is a difference, but hardly a striking contrast, unless European fuses burned much more slowly. For a real difference we have to wait until the seventeenth century, when Europeans embraced the flintlock.

51. Among us, one fences without speaking; the Japanese must give a shout with every blow and parry
.

This shouting was discussed in
#25
above. One can
hear
a high school kendo class in Japan practicing with their split bamboo swords from outside the gym. Scream! Whack! Scream! Scream! Whack!

52. Our soldiers in Switzerland
⁵⁵
fire their harquebus from the shoulder; the Japanese place theirs against their face as if they are sighting in on an enemy
.

The matchlock or harquebus, which did not require a hand-held “fuse” (the “fuse” was incorporated into the firing mechanism of the gun), was invented around 1500 in Spain and quickly became a favorite among European armies. Because of the substantial weight and recoil of the harquebus,
⁵⁶
it often was fired while mounted on a forked rest or pole. Following their defeat of the armies of Charles the Bold in the 1470s, the Swiss were acclaimed Europe's greatest soldiers. The Swiss mercenary harquebusiers mentioned here by Frois were engaged all over Europe by anyone with money to hire them, including Pope Julius II, who in 1506 initiated the enduring Papal Swiss Guard.

In 1543, several Portuguese sailors who had travelled aboard a Chinese junk to Tanegashima Island put on a demonstration of the harquebus for the ruling daimyo, and in a few short years the Japanese were producing their own muskets (called
hinawaju
).
⁵⁷
For reasons unknown, the harquebus developed by the Japanese had a relatively short butt. Presumably it produced less recoil,
⁵⁸
which might explain why the Japanese were sufficiently comfortable placing it against the face. Frois says “as if,” but perhaps the Japanese harquebusier
did
sight in on the enemy. Whatever the case, by 1585 numerous daimyo were using European and Japanese harquebuses to overpower competitors.
⁵⁹
At the battle of Shimabara in 1584, the Jesuit supporter Õtomo fielded an army of 25,000 men, at least 9,000 of whom carried harquebuses.
⁶⁰
During the opening decades of the seventeenth century, the Tokugawa became fearful that an armed peasantry might mount a successful rebellion, and so the government disarmed the peasantry and forbade firearms.
⁶¹

1
  Thousands literally died each year in duels during the second half of the sixteenth century. Francois Billacois,
The Duel: Its Rise and Fall in Early Modern France
, trans. Trista Selous (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990); Tobias Capwell,
The Noble Art of the Sword
(London: The Wallace Collection, 2012), 112.

2
  During the centuries preceding the arrival of Europeans, Japanese nobles favored a long sword (a foot longer than the
katana
) that was worn with the cutting edge slung down from the hip. By the sixteenth-century this
tachi
was superseded in popularity by the
katana
. Lisa J. Robertson, “Warriors and Warfare.” In
Handbook to Life in Medieval and Early Modern Japan
, ed. William E. Deal, 131–185 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006), 160.