Evolution Of The Japanese, Social And PsychicGulick, Sidney Lewis
History
Evolution Of The Japanese, Social And Psychic
Gulick, Sidney Lewis
Japan -- Civilization; Japan -- Social life and customs; National characteristics, Japanese
If the Japanese are a conspicuously emotional race, as is commonly
believed, we should naturally expect this characteristic to manifest
itself in a marked degree in the relation of the sexes. Curiously
enough, however, such does not seem to be the case. So slight a place
does the emotion of sexual love have in Japanese family life that some
have gone to the extreme of denying it altogether. In his brilliant
but fallacious volume, entitled "The Soul of the Far East," Mr.
Percival Lowell states that the Japanese do not "fall in love." The
correctness of this statement we shall consider in connection with the
argument for Japanese impersonality. That "falling in love" is not a
recognized part of the family system, and that marriage is arranged
regardless not only of love, but even of mutual acquaintance, are
indisputable facts.
Let us confine our attention here to Japanese post-marital emotional
characteristics. Do Japanese husbands love their wives and wives their
husbands? We have already seen that in the text-book for Japanese
women, the "Onna Daigaku," not one word is said about love. It may be
stated at once that love between husband and wife is almost as
conspicuously lacking in practice as in precept. In no regard,
perhaps, is the contrast between the East and the West more striking
than the respective ideas concerning woman and marriage. The one
counts woman the equal, if not the superior of man; the other looks
down upon her as man's inferior in every respect; the one considers
profound love as the only true condition of marriage; the other thinks
of love as essentially impure, beneath the dignity of a true man, and
not to be taken into consideration when marriage is contemplated; in
the one, the two persons most interested have most to say in the
matter; in the other, they have the least to say; in the one, a long
and intimate previous acquaintance is deemed important; in the other,
the need for such an acquaintance does not receive a second thought;
in the one, the wife at once takes her place as the queen of the home;
in the other, she enters as the domestic for her husband and his
parents; in the one, the children are hers as well as his; in the
other, they are his rather than hers, and remain with him in case of
divorce; in the one, divorce is rare and condemned; in the other, it
is common in the extreme; in the one, it is as often the woman as the
man who seeks the divorce; in the other, until most recent times, it
is the man alone who divorces the wife; in the one, the reasons for
divorce are grave; in the other, they are often trivial; in the one,
the wife is the "helpmate"; in the other, she is the man's
"plaything"; or, at most, the means for continuing the family lineage;
in the one, the man is the "husband"; in the other, he is the "danna
san" or "teishu" (the lord or master); in the ideal home of the one,
the wife is the object of the husband's constant affection and
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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