2. ETHNOLOGY. The limit of a nation and that of a race do not necessarily coincide. While a nation may consist of two or more racial elements, one and the same division of a race may be found in different countries. We see both cases exemplified in the people of Japan. Extending from the Kurile islands and the southern half of Saghalien in the north to Formosa in the south, the empire naturally con tains several racial elements. Though some of them are peculiar to till land, others are the small branches spreading from the main stems of peoples which are to be found in other coun tries.
Besides these existing populations we must count among the inhabitants of Japan the pre historic people, who have left innumerable stone-age objects throughout the greater part of the country. Thus from ethnological points of view, Japan is remarkable for containing peoples of exceedingly different character in a comparatively limited area. We will now describe the constituent people under respective headings.
Prehistoric Stone im plements and potteries found in the northern portions of the Kurile islands and those found in Formosa were evidently made by the fore fathers of the present inhabitants of those places. Relics of different types and of differ ent kinds have been discovered from several stone-age sites widely distributed in the lands lying between Loo-Choo and the southern por tions of the Kurile islands and Saghalien. As these relics form a group by themselves, and as no connecting links exist between them and those found in the two extreme places above mentioned, we are led to the conclusion that there must have been a stone-age neople differ ing both from the aborigines of Formosa and from the Kurile Ainu.
From shell mounds—the refuse heaps left by the stone-age people—human bones are sometimes found often broken and scattered, like the bones of wild animals, showing that cannibalism was practised by the people. As it is very difficult to obtain entire skeletons, special burial places being almost unknown, the knowledge of the osteological character of the people is very limited. The only conclusion which can be drawn from such insufficient materials is that the forms of these bones do not agree with those of the Ainu or the Japan ese, who are the successors, so to speak, of the stone-age people in Yezo and the main islands of Japan respectively.
In general the relics found in the northern districts are comparatively new, showing the latest movement of the stone-age people to have been from the •south to the north, that is toward Yezo. Among the Ainu living in the island just named, there are traditions that those who made stone implements and potteries were entirely different from the Ainu them selves or from the Japanese, and that this pre Ainu race migrated northward as the Ainu in creased in number. The Ainu gave several names to the race, Koropokguru being one. Supposing the traditions to be correct, the foot prints of the stone-age people must be sought for in Saghalien and the regions situated on the north and the northeast of the northern part of the Kurile islands. According to the Saghalien Ainu, the stone-age people called themselves Tonchi, and lived there about eight generations back. So far as known., the Chukchi, the Aleuts
and the Eskimo are those who seem to have had close connections with the stone-age people. Among the three mentioned, the Eskimo are most intimately related to the latter, at least in manners, customs and handiwork. This con clusion is obtained from the minute investiga tions concerning the stone-age sites and relics.
Present In Saghalien there are the Giliaks, the Orokkos and the Ainu. In the Kurile islands and Yezo, the Ainu with some local peculiarities are found. The Bonin islands are inhabited by the naturalized Euro peans. The aboriginal tribes and the Chinese immigrants in Formosa are now Japanese sub jects. Having these peoples in the northern and the southern parts of the empire, the Japanese proper occupy the chief central is lands, and. thence spread in both directions. The natives of Loo-Choo have no distinctive ethnological peculiarities, and are to be con sidered as forming a branch of the Japanese. The Giliaks and the Orokkos are found not only in Japanese, but also in Russian territory, and both of them belong to the Tungus, who are c,hiefly distributed in the northern part of Asia. The aborigines of Formosa are Malayans, the inhabitants of the Philippine Islands showing a strong resemblance to them. Geo graphically considered, the large and small islands of Japan form a kind of stepping stone extending from the north to the south. Just as we now find the Tungus and the Malayan at the two ends, so in remote times the chief central islands of Japan might have been in habited by the northern and the southern races. Moreover, some people might have come from the continent by way of the peninsula of Korea. According to traditions and records, we are led to believe that such was actually the case.
The average height of Japanese men is about five feet three inches. Cephalic index, 80; hair, straight and black; iris, dark brown; complexion, very light brown, often white in better classes ; face, some narrow, some broad; beard, some full, some small.
Among the Japanese proper, there are some who have the Korean physiogonomy, while bthers show the Malay traits. Some are so hairy that it is difficult to distinguish them from the Ainu. The Japanese language is closely related to the Korean. In Japanese manners and customs some likeness to those of Korea and Malay are found.
It is probable that the Ainu, Malay and continental elements are the chief, though not necessarily the only, constituents of the Japanese. See MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS or THE JAPANESE ; THE DEVELOPMENT AND CONSTI TUTION OF SOCIETY IN JAPAN.
Bibliography.—Dooman, The Origin of the Japanese Race) (in Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan, Vol. XXV, Yokohama 1897) ; Oshima Tane Hito, (Essai d'ethnographiejap onaise) (in Revue franfaise du Japon, Vol. I, Tokio 1892) • Griffis,
Japanese Nation in Evolution: Steps in the Progress of a Great People) (New York 1907) • Puini,
origini del popolo e della civilta. Giapponese) (Turin 1905); Batchelor,
Ainu of Japan) (Lon don 1892), and
Ainu and their
(1901) •' Landor, A. H. S.,