Manners and most remarkable custom of the Japanese is that of Aari or (or hum Ito kiru, i.e., " belly-cut"), a legalized mode of suicide, by making two cross-cuts on the abdomen with a sharp-pointed knife. This custom, according to some recent accounts, is now less frequent, and the ceremonies with which it was once performed have become obsolete. There are still, however, professors of the art in most large cities. The curious custom of nay-ooe,n, or naibun consists " in osten tatious secrecy as regards events, or incognito in reference to persons." Well-known events are totally ignored, and individuality is unrecognized under shelter of the nay boen privilege.
The social position of women is, in some respects, more favorable than in most pagan countries. The ladies of Japan, however, live in strict seclusion, and little is known about them. Female education is not neglected. Polygamy is not allowed, but the power of divorce is permitted to the husband by law. The laws against adultery on the part of the wife are severe, and death is the penalty, which may be inflicted by the husband. He, on the contrary, may take as many concubines as he pleases or can afford. The marriage ceremony is an important part of social etiquette; the families of both bride and bridegroom meet and celebrate the event. Saki flows abundantly, and great feasting and hilarity prevail. When it maiden marries, her teeth are blackened, her eyebrows plucked out, and artificial ugliness is henceforth cultivated to the great est possible extent. The Chinese custon of affiancing children is followed by the upper classes, and aristocratic usage interdicts a personal interview' to the bride and bride groom previous to marriage; but this rule is now much.relaxed, Prostitution is a legalized custom, and a father, may sell his daughter, for this purpose, for a term of, years; whilst the Japanese gentleman, notwithstanding his high notions of honor, often chooses his wife from amongst the inmates of those houses of ill-fame, which are at once supported and controlled by government. The bath is a great institution in Japan, and forms a kind of people's parliament. It is the general custom throughout the country for men and women to bathe together, with a total absence of decorum, but without sense of immodesty. In Japan the social position of every man is fixed by his birth, and the line that separates class from class is not only clearly defined, but impass able. Daimios and sahnios, priests and soldiers, are considered to belong to the higher classes, and in the others are included medical men, inferior government officials, mer chants, retail dealers, and laborers. There are 8 classes of society, half of which belong to the upper, and the other half to the lower ranks of society. Men of rank only can enter a city on horseback; but these distinctions will now be greatly modified, if they do not pass away altogether, with the double sovereignty, and the feudal power of the daitnios. The ordinary vehicle in Japan is a description of palanquin: the common sort, made of bamboo, is called a cango; the better kind, made of lacquered wood, a wrimon. The Japanese manifest great regard for the dead. The ancestral tablet (wei pae) is fashioned on tire Chinese model, and is placed in the family shrine with the household gods. Ina Japanese cemetery, the solid and elaborately carved granite monu ments are Beautiful specithens of architectural taste. Each body is buried in a sitting posture, with the hands folded in the attitude of devotion; and the coffins are all circu lar. The Japanese observe many holidays, and celebrate the opening of the year in the Chinese fashion. There are, too, many holidays of a religious character, hut the great n dional festivals are 5 in number. The Japanese are a theater-loving people, and invet erate gamblers. They delight in wrestling—their national sport—perform wonderful feats in spinning tops, aqi very expert jugglers, and excel in archery. Fish and rico are the staple food of the people, and tea and said (a spirit distilled from rice) their beverages.
Government, Institutions, and Present understand something of the government and institutions of Japan. past and present, it will be necessary to glance at its history and political landmarks. Here we find an emperor, whose dynasty began to reign 2.532 years ago, or 660 B.C. Its founder. Zinniu, or Zen Mon, was contemporary with Nebuchadnezzar; and in 1868, after a duration of 25 centuries, it threw off the oppression and decrepitude of 676 years, and in the person of Moutz Hito, the present mikado or emperor (the 122d of his race), entered upon a new and promising career. The principal landmarks of Japanese political history are briefly as follows: A time of anarchy and faction on the one side, and a'suceession of feeble sovereigns on the other, enabled Yoritomo, the shiogun or generalissimo (from Ta-tsiang-kinn, the Chinese term for " the great chief or commander of the army")—or tycoon (Chinese Tai Koon, i.e.,
" Great Lord"), as he is called in recent treaties—to usurp the supreme authority. This occurred in 1192 A D.; but the creation of a shiogun by the mikado dates from 85 B.C. This high officer was subsequently known to Europeans as the temporal emperor, and to tire mikado they assigned purely spiritual functions; but the Japanese themselves recognized one sovereign only, viz., the mikado, who held his court at Milk°, while his rival inredo acted as real sovereign, at the safe distance of 300 in.; and the shiotrunate became henceforward a permanent institution. It might now be said that the shiogun governed, but did not reign; while the mikado reigned, hut did not gevern; though three times a year he received the homage of his all-powerful subject. He even con chilled nominally the sole temporal emperor, though pensioned by the shiogun, and deprived of all real authority. In 1603 the shiogun Tokugawa Iyeyas (the " illustrious ") organized a government which secured to the empire a peace of 200 years. He founded likewise a permanent succession, and his descendants reigned at Yedo till 1868. His system was perfected by Iyenrits, the third shiognn of the Tokugawa dynasty. It was his policy " to preserve unchanged the condition of the native intelligence," " to pre vent the introduction of new ideas," and to effect this he not only banished foreigners. interdicted all intercourse with them, and extirpated Christianity, but introduced that most rigid and cunningly devised system Of espionage" that was in full activity at the time of the earl of Elgin's mission, as amusingly described by Mr. Oliphant. "This espionage," says a recent Japanese writer, "held every one in the community in dread and suspicion; not only the most powerful daimio felt its insidious influence, but the meanest retainer was subject to its sway; and the ignoble quality of deception, develop ing rapidly to a large extent, became at this time a national characteristic. The daimios. who at first enjoyed an honorable position as guests at the court of Yedo, were reduced to vassalage, and their families retained as hostages for the rendition of mt.bienthah-cere monial of homage to the shiogun. Restrictions surrounded personages of this rank until, without special permission, they were not allowed to meet each other alone." In 1540 St. Francis Xavier introduced the Roman Catholic religion into Japan, and the Portuguese (who first landed in Japan in the year 1543) carried on a lucrative trade: hut by-and-by the ruling powers took alarm, ordered away all foreigners, and interdicted Christianity (16'24), believing that foreigners impoverished the country, while their religion struck at the root of the political and religious systems of Japan. The converts to that form of Christianity introduced by Xavier, were found to have pledged their allegiance to a foreign power; while their conduct is said to have been offensive towards the Sintu and Buddhist temples; so that in time they came to be regarded as a danger ous and anti-national class whose extirpation was essential to the well-being of the nation, and to the success of the political system then being organized or perfected by lyemits. The Portuguese continued to frequent Japan till 1638, when they and their religion were finally expelled; Christianity was suppressed with every cruelty. and at the cost of some 50,000 lives; its profeSsors were murdered, and the ports closed to foreign traffic. From this date the Japanese government maintained the most rigid policy of isolation. No foreign vessels might touch at Japanese ports under any pre tense. Japanese sailors wrecked on any foreign shore were with difficulty permitted to return home; while the Dutch, locked up in their factory at Deeima, might hold no communication with the mainland; and the people lived like frogs in a well, till 1853, when they were rudely awakened from their dream of peace and security by commo dore Perry steaming into the harbor of Yokohama, with a squadron of 1. S. war vessels. Ile extorted a treaty from the frightened shiogun (March 31, 1854), and Japan, after a withdrawal of 216 years, entered once more the family of nations. Other countries slowly followed the example of the United States: Russia and the Nether lands in 1855; our own treaty followed in 1858; that with France in 1850: with Portu gal in 1800; with Prussia and the Zollverein in 1861; with Switzerland in 1864; with Italy in 1866; and with Denmark in 1867. By these the seven Japanese ports of Yoko hama, Nagasaki, Kanagawa, Niegata, Iliogo, Osaka, and llakodadi have been opened to foreign commerce.