Part 19

The insect life of Japan broadly corresponds with that of temperate regions in Europe. But there are also a number of tropical species, notably among butterflies and beetles. The latter--for which the generic term in Japan is _mushi_ or _kaichu_--include some beautiful species, from the "jewel beetle" (_tama-mushi_), the "gold beetle" (_kogane-mushi_) and the _Chrysochroa fulgidissima_, which glow and sparkle with the brilliancy of gold and precious stones, to the jet black _Melanauster chinensis_, which seems to have been fashioned out of lacquer spotted with white. There is also a giant nasicornous beetle. Among butterflies (_chocho_) Rein gives prominence to the broad-winged kind (_Papilio_), which recall tropical brilliancy. One (_Papilio macilentus_) is peculiar to Japan. Many others seem to be practically identical with European species. That is especially true of the moths (_yacho_), 100 species of which have been identified with English types. There are seven large silk-moths, of which two only (_Bombyx mori_ and _Antheraea yama-mai_) are employed in producing silk. Fishing lines are manufactured from the cocoons of the _genjiki-mushi_ (_Caligula japonica_), which is one of the commonest moths in the islands. Wasps, bees and hornets, generically known as _hachi_, differ little from their European types, except that they are somewhat larger and more sluggish. The gad-fly (_abu_), the housefly (_hai_), the mosquito (_ka_), the flea (_nomi_) and occasionally the bedbug (called by the Japanese _kara-mushi_ because it is believed to be imported from China), are all fully represented, and the dragon-fly (_tombo_) presents itself in immense numbers at certain seasons. Grasshoppers (_batta_) are abundant, and one kind (_inago_), which frequent the rice-fields when the cereal is ripening, are caught and fried in oil as an article of food. On the moors in late summer the mantis (_kama-kiri-mushi_) is commonly met with, and the cricket (_kurogi_) and the cockroach abound. Particularly obtrusive is the cicada (_semi_), of which there are many species. Its strident voice is heard most loudly at times of great heat, when the song of the birds is hushed. The dragon-fly and the cicada afford ceaseless entertainment to the Japanese boy. He catches them by means of a rod smeared with bird-lime, and then tying a fine string under their wings, he flies them at its end. Spiders abound, from a giant species to one of the minutest dimensions, and the tree-bug is always ready to make a destructive lodgment in any sickly tree-stem. The scorpion (_sasori_) exists but is not poisonous.

Japanese rivers and lakes are the habitation of several--seven or eight--species of fresh-water crab (_kani_), which live in holes on the shore and emerge in the daytime, often moving to considerable distances from their homes. Shrimps (_kawa-ebi_) also are found in the rivers and rice-fields. These shrimps as well as a large species of crab--_mokuzo-gani_--serve the people as an article of food, but the small crabs which live in holes have no recognized _raison d'être_. In Japan, as elsewhere, the principal crustacea are found in the sea. Flocks of _lupa_ and other species swim in the wake of the tropical fishes which move towards Japan at certain seasons. Naturally these migratory crabs are not limited to Japanese waters. Milne Edwards has identified ten species which occur in Australian seas also, and Rein mentions, as belonging to the same category, the "helmet-crab" or "horse-shoe crab" (_kabuto-gani_; _Limulus longispina_ Hoeven). Very remarkable is the giant _Taka-ashi_--long legs (_Macrocheirus Kaempferi_), which has legs 1½ metres long and is found in the seas of Japan and the Malay archipelago. There is no lobster on the coasts of Japan, but there are various species of crayfish (_Palinurus_ and _Scyllarus_) the principal of which, under the names of ise-ebi (_Palinurus japonicus_) and _kuruma-ebi_ (_Penaeus canaliculatus_) are greatly prized as an article of diet.

Already in 1882, Dunker in his _Index Molluscorum Maris Japonici_ enumerated nearly 1200 species of marine molluscs found in the Japanese archipelago, and several others have since then been added to the list. As for the land and fresh-water molluscs, some 200 of which are known, they are mainly kindred with those of China and Siberia, tropical and Indian forms being exceptional. There are 57 species of _Helix_ (_maimaitsuburi_, _dedemushi_, _katatsumuri_ or _kwagyu_) and 25 of Clausilia (_kiseru-gai_ or pipe-snail), including the two largest snails in Japan, namely the _Cl. Martensi_ and the _Cl. Yoko-hamensis_, which attain to a length of 58 mm. and 44 mm. respectively. The mussel (_i-no-kai_) is well represented by the species _numa-gai_ (marsh-mussel), _karasu-gai_ (raven-mussel), _kamisori-gai_ (razor-mussel), _shijimi-no-kai_ (_Corbicula_), of which there are nine species, &c. Unlike the land-molluscs, the great majority of Japanese sea-molluscs are akin to those of the Indian Ocean and the Malay archipelago. Some of them extend westward as far as the Red Sea. The best known and most frequent forms are the _asari_ (_Tapes philippinarum_), the _hamaguri_ (_Meretrix lusoria_), the _baka_ (_Mactra sulcataria_), the _aka-gai_ (_Scapharca inflata_), the _kaki_ (oyster), the _awabi_ (_Haliotis japonica_), the _sazae_ (_Turbo cornutus_), the _hora-gai_ (_Tritonium tritonius_), &c. Among the cephalopods several are of great value as articles of food, e.g. the _surume_ (_Onychotheuthis Banksii_), the _tako_ (octopus), the _shidako_ (Eledone), the _ika_ (Sepia) and the _tako-fune_ (Argonauta).

Greeff enumerates, as denizens of Japanese seas, 26 kinds of sea-urchins (_gaze_ or _uni_) and 12 of starfish (_hitode_ or _tako-no-makura_). These, like the mollusca, indicate the influence of the Kuro Shiwo and the south-west monsoon, for they have close affinity with species found in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. For edible purposes the most valuable of the Japanese echinoderms is the sea-slug or _bêche de mer_ (_namako_), which is greatly appreciated and forms an important staple of export to China. Rein writes: "Very remarkable in connexion with the starfishes is the occurrence of _Asterias rubens_ on the Japanese coast. This creature displays an almost unexampled frequency and extent of distribution in the whole North Sea, in the western parts of the Baltic, near the Faroe Islands, Iceland, Greenland and the English coasts, so that it may be regarded as a characteristic North Sea echinoderm form. Towards the south this starfish disappears, it seems, completely; for it is not yet known with certainty to exist either in the Mediterranean or in the southern parts of the Atlantic Ocean. In others also _Asterias rubens_ is not known--and then it suddenly reappears in Japan. _Archaster typicus_ has a pretty wide distribution over the Indian Ocean; other _Asteridae_ of Japan, on the other hand, appear to be confined to its shores."

Japan is not rich in corals and sponges. Her most interesting contributions are crust-corals (_Gorgonidae_, _Corallium_, _Isis_, &c.), and especially flint-sponges, called by the Japanese _hoshi-gai_ and known as "glass-coral" (_Hyalonema sieboldi_). These last have not been found anywhere except at the entrance of the Bay of Tokyo at a depth of some 200 fathoms.

II.--THE PEOPLE

_Population._--The population was as follows on the 31st of December 1907:--

Population Population. Males. Females. Totals. per sq. m.

Japan proper 24,601,658 24,172,627 48,774,285 330 Formosa (Taiwan) 1,640,778 1,476,137 3,116,915 224 Sakhalin 7,175 3,631 10,806 0.1 ---------- ---------- ---------- Totals 26,249,611 25,652,395 51,902,006

The following table shows the rate of increase in the four quadrennial periods between 1891 and 1907 in Japan proper:--

Average Population Year. Males. Females. Totals. increase per per cent. sq. m.

1891 20,563,416 20,155,261 40,718,677 1.09 272 1895 21,345,750 20,904,870 42,270,620 1.09 286 1899 22,330,112 21,930,540 44,260,652 1.14 299 1903 23,601,640 23,131,236 46,732,876 1.54 316 1907 24,601,658 24,172,627 48,774,285 1.13 330

The population of Formosa (Taiwan) during the ten-year period 1898-1907 grew as follows:--

Average Population Year. Males. Females. Totals. increase per per cent. sq. m.

1898 1,307,428 1,157,539 2,464,967 -- 182 1902 1,513,280 1,312,067 2,825,347 2.70 209 1907 1,640,778 1,476,137 3,116,915 2.37 224

According to quasi-historical records, the population of the empire in the year A.D. 610 was 4,988,842, and in 736 it had grown to 8,631,770. It is impossible to say how much reliance may be placed on these figures, but from the 18th century, when the name of every subject had to be inscribed on the roll of a temple as a measure against his adoption of Christianity, a tolerably trustworthy census could always be taken. The returns thus obtained show that from the year 1723 until 1846 the population remained almost stationary, the figure in the former year being 26,065,422, and that in the latter year 26,907,625. There had, indeed, been five periods of declining population in that interval of 124 years, namely, the periods 1738-1744, 1759-1762, 1773-1774, 1791-1792, and 1844-1846. But after 1872, when the census showed a total of 33,110,825, the population grew steadily, its increment between 1872 and 1898 inclusive, a period of 27 years, being 10,649,990. Such a rate of increase invests the question of subsistence with great importance. In former times the area of land under cultivation increased in a marked degree. Returns prepared at the beginning of the 10th century showed 2½ million acres under crops, whereas the figure in 1834 was over 8 million acres. But the development of means of subsistence has been outstripped by the growth of population in recent years. Thus, during the period between 1899 and 1907 the population received an increment of 11.6% whereas the food-producing area increased by only 4.4%. This discrepancy caused anxiety at one time, but large fields suitable for colonization have been opened in Sakhalin, Korea, Manchuria and Formosa, so that the problem of subsistence has ceased to be troublesome. The birth-rate, taking the average of the decennial period ended 1907, is 3.05% of the population, and the death-rate is 2.05. Males exceed females in the ratio of 2% approximately. But this rule does not hold after the age of 65, where for every 100 females only 83 males are found. The Japanese are of low stature as compared with the inhabitants of Western Europe: about 16% of the adult males are below 5 ft. But there are evidences of steady improvement in this respect. Thus, during the period of ten years between 1893 and 1902, it was found that the percentage of recruits of 5 ft. 5 in. and upward grew from 10.09 to 12.67, the rate of increase having been remarkably steady; and the percentage of those under 5 ft. declined from 20.21 to 16.20.

_Towns._--There are in Japan 23 towns having a population of over 50,000, and there are 76 having a population of over 20,000. The larger towns, their populations and the growth of the latter during the five-year period commencing with 1898 were as follow:--

URBAN POPULATIONS

1898. 1903.

Tokyo 1,440,121 1,795,128 Osaka 821,235 988,200 Kioto 353,139 379,404 Nagoya 244,145 284,829 Kobe 215,780 283,839 Yokohama 193,762 324,776 Hiroshima 122,306 113,545 Nagasaki 107,422 151,727 Kanazawa 83,595 97,548 Sendai 83,325 93,773 Hakodate 78,040 84,746 Fukuoka 66,190 70,107 Wakayama 63,667 67,908 Tokushima 61,501 62,998 Kumamoto 61,463 55,277 Toyama 59,558 86,276 Okayama 58,025 80,140 Otaru 56,961 79,746 Kagoshima 53,481 58,384 Niigata 53,366 58,821 Sakai 50,203 -- Sapporo -- 55,304 Kure -- 62,825 Sasebo -- 52,607

The growth of Kure and Sasebo is attributable to the fact that they have become the sites of large ship-building yards, the property of the state.

The number of houses in Japan at the end of 1903, when the census was last taken, was 8,725,544, the average number of inmates in each house being thus 5.5.

_Physical Characteristics._--The best authorities are agreed that the Japanese people do not differ physically from their Korean and Chinese neighbours as much as the inhabitants of northern Europe differ from those of southern Europe. It is true that the Japanese are shorter in stature than either the Chinese or the Koreans. Thus the average height of the Japanese male is only 5 ft. 3½ in., and that of the female 4 ft. 10½ in., whereas in the case of the Koreans and the northern Chinese the corresponding figures for males are 5 ft. 5¾ in. and 5 ft. 7 in. respectively. Yet in other physical characteristics the Japanese, the Koreans and the Chinese resemble each other so closely that, under similar conditions as to costume and coiffure, no appreciable difference is apparent. Thus since it has become the fashion for Chinese students to flock to the schools and colleges of Japan, there adopting, as do their Japanese fellow-students, Occidental garments and methods of hairdressing, the distinction of nationality ceases to be perceptible. The most exhaustive anthropological study of the Japanese has been made by Dr E. Baelz (emeritus professor of medicine in the Imperial University of Tokyo), who enumerates the following sub-divisions of the race inhabiting the Japanese islands. The first and most important is the Manchu-Korean type; that is to say, the type which prevails in north China and in Korea. This is seen specially among the upper classes in Japan. Its characteristics are exceptional tallness combined with slenderness and elegance of figure; a face somewhat long, without any special prominence of the cheekbones but having more or less oblique eyes; an aquiline nose; a slightly receding chin; largish upper teeth; a long neck; a narrow chest; a long trunk, and delicately shaped, small hands with long, slender fingers. The most plausible hypothesis is that men of this type are descendants of Korean colonists who, in prehistoric times, settled in the province of Izumo, on the west coast of Japan, having made their way thither from the Korean peninsula by the island of Oki, being carried by the cold current which flows along the eastern coast of Korea. The second type is the Mongol. It is not very frequently found in Japan, perhaps because, under favourable social conditions, it tends to pass into the Manchu-Korean type. Its representative has a broad face, with prominent cheekbones, oblique eyes, a nose more or less flat and a wide mouth. The figure is strongly and squarely built, but this last characteristic can scarcely be called typical. There is no satisfactory theory as to the route by which the Mongols reached Japan, but it is scarcely possible to doubt that they found their way thither at one time. More important than either of these types as an element of the Japanese nation is the Malay. Small in stature, with a well-knit frame, the cheekbones prominent, the face generally round, the nose and neck short, a marked tendency to prognathism, the chest broad and well developed, the trunk long, the hands small and delicate--this Malay type is found in nearly all the islands along the east coast of the Asiatic continent as well as in southern China and in the extreme south-west of Korean peninsula. Carried northward by the warm current known as the Kuro Shiwo, the Malays seem to have landed in Kiushiu--the most southerly of the main Japanese islands--whence they ultimately pushed northward and conquered their Manchu-Korean predecessors, the Izumo colonists. None of the above three, however, can be regarded as the earliest settlers in Japan. Before them all was a tribe of immigrants who appear to have crossed from north-eastern Asia at an epoch when the sea had not yet dug broad channels between the continent and the adjacent islands. These people--the Ainu--are usually spoken of as the aborigines of Japan. They once occupied the whole country, but were gradually driven northward by the Manchu-Koreans and the Malays, until only a mere handful of them survived in the northern island of Yezo. Like the Malay and the Mongol types they are short and thickly built, but unlike either they have prominent brows, bushy locks, round deep-set eyes, long divergent lashes, straight noses and much hair on the face and the body. In short, the Ainu suggest much closer affinity with Europeans than does any other of the types that go to make up the population of Japan. It is not to be supposed, however, that these traces of different elements indicate any lack of homogeneity in the Japanese race. Amalgamation has been completely effected in the course of long centuries, and even the Ainu, though the small surviving remnant of them now live apart, have left a trace upon their conquerors.

The typical Japanese of the present day has certain marked physical peculiarities. In the first place, the ratio of the height of his head to the length of his body is greater than it is in Europeans. The Englishman's head is often one-eighth of the length of his body or even less, and in continental Europeans, as a rule, the ratio does not amount to one-seventh; but in the Japanese it exceeds the latter figure. In all nations men of short stature have relatively large heads, but in the case of the Japanese there appears to be some racial reason for the phenomenon. Another striking feature is shortness of legs relatively to length of trunk. In northern Europeans the leg is usually much more than one-half of the body's length, but in Japanese the ratio is one-half or even less; so that whereas the Japanese, when seated, looks almost as tall as a European, there may be a great difference between their statures when both are standing. This special feature has been attributed to the Japanese habit of kneeling instead of sitting, but investigation shows that it is equally marked in the working classes who pass most of their time standing. In Europe the same physical traits--relative length of head and shortness of legs--distinguish the central race (Alpine) from the Teutonic, and seem to indicate an affinity between the former and the Mongols. It is in the face, however, that we find specially distinctive traits, namely, in the eyes, the eye-lashes, the cheekbones and the beard. Not that the eyeball itself differs from that of an Occidental. The difference consists in the fact that "the socket of the eye is comparatively small and shallow, and the osseous ridges at the brows being little marked, the eye is less deeply set than in the European. In fact, seen in profile, forehead and upper lip often form an unbroken line." Then, again, the shape of the eye, as modelled by the lids, shows a striking peculiarity. For whereas the open eye is almost invariably horizontal in the European, it is often oblique in the Japanese on account of the higher level of the upper corner. "But even apart from obliqueness, the shape of the corners is peculiar in the Mongolian eye. The inner corner is partly or entirely covered by a fold of the upper lid continuing more or less into the lower lid. This fold often covers also the whole free rim of the upper lid, so that the insertion of the eye-lashes is hidden" and the opening between the lids is so narrowed as to disappear altogether at the moment of laughter. As for the eye-lashes, not only are they comparatively short and sparse, but also they converge instead of diverging, so that whereas in a European the free ends of the lashes are further distant from each other than their roots, in a Japanese they are nearer together. Prominence of cheekbones is another special feature, but it is much commoner in the lower than in the upper classes, where elongated faces may almost be said to be the rule. Finally, there is marked paucity of hair on the face of the average Japanese--apart from the Ainu--and what hair there is is nearly always straight. It is not to be supposed, however, that because the Japanese is short of stature and often finely moulded, he lacks either strength or endurance. On the contrary, he possesses both in a marked degree, and his deftness of finger is not less remarkable than the suppleness and activity of his body.