the emotions.  The entire feudal order likewise was calculated to have the same effect.  The intellectual life being low, its inhibitions were correspondingly weak.  When, in the future, the entire population shall have become fairly educated, and taught to think independently; and when government by the people shall have become much more universal, throwing responsibility on the people as never before, and stimulating discussion of the general principles of life, of government, and of law, then must the emotional features of the nation become less conspicuous.

It is a question of relative development.  As children run to extremes of thought and action on the slightest occasion, simply because their intellects have not come into full activity, weeping at one moment and laughing at the next, so it is with national life.  Where the general intellectual development of a people is retarded, the emotional manifestations are of necessity correspondingly conspicuous.

Even so fundamental a racial trait, then, as the emotional, is seen to be profoundly influenced by the prevailing social order.  The emotional characteristics which distinguish the Japanese from other races are due, in the last analysis, to the nature of their social order rather than to their inherent nature or brain structure.

XV

AESTHETIC CHARACTERISTICS

In certain directions, the Japanese reveal a development of aesthetic taste which no other nation has reached.  The general appreciation of landscape-views well illustrates this point.  The home and garden of the average workman are far superior artistically to those of the same class in the West.  There is hardly a home without at least a diminutive garden laid out in artistic style with miniature lake and hills and winding walks.  And this garden exists solely for the delight of the eye.

The general taste displayed in many little ways is a constant delight to the Western “barbarian” when he first comes to Japan.  Nor does this delight vanish with time and familiarity, though it is tempered by a later perception of certain other features.  Indeed, the more one knows of the details of their artistic taste, the more does he appreciate it.  The “toko-no-ma,” for example, is a variety of alcove usually occupying half of one side of a room.  It indicates the place of honor, and guests are always urged to sit in front of it.  The floor of the “toko-no-ma” is raised four or five inches above the level of the room and should never be stepped upon.  In this “toko-no-ma” is usually placed some work of art, or a vase with flowers, and on the wall is hung a picture or a few Chinese characters, written by some famous calligraphist, which are changed with the seasons.  The woodwork and the coloring of this part of the room is of the choicest.  The “toko-no-ma” of the main room of the house is always restful to the eye; this “honorable spot” is found in at least one room in every house; and if the owner has moderate means, there are two or three such rooms.  Only the homes of the poorest of the poor are without this ornament.