The Foundations of Japan - Notes Made During Journeys Of 6,000 Miles In The Rural Districts As - A Basis For A Sounder Knowledge Of The Japanese People by J.W. Robertson Scott
page 48 of 766 (06%)
page 48 of 766 (06%)
![]() | ![]() |
|
of time for the secretaries to call up all the members in the morning
by shouting to them, "so the secretary obtained bugles; but even the bugles were not heard everywhere, so they were changed to drums, and now five drums go round our village every morning." In every village of Japan there is a young men's association, which is by no means to be confounded with the world-encircling Y.M.C.A.[18] The village Y.M.A. of Japan is an institution of some antiquity and it has nothing whatever to do with religious effort. One day, when I was staying in a rural district, I was invited to a remoter part in order to see something of the discipline that the members of a group of young men's associations were imposing on themselves. The members of this group of Y.M.A. belonged to the branches established in a village of nineteen _aza_, that is hamlets. This fact, with the further fact that the village containing the nineteen _aza_ had four elementary schools and one higher school, will show that a Japanese village may be much larger than a Western one. Nearly six hundred young men were in the parade. They were dressed exactly alike in the tight blue calico trousers and kimono of jacket length which the Japanese farmer ordinarily wears. Each man had the usual _obi_ (waist scarf) tied round his kimono, and in the _obi_ was thrust the small cotton towel which Japanese carry with them everywhere. The young men wore puttees, _waraji_ (straw sandals) and caps. It is only of late that the Japanese worker has taken to wearing head-gear, or at any rate head-gear other than he could contrive with his towel. The physical condition of the young fellows was good and their evolutions with dummy "rifles" were smart and skilful. The paraders seemed lost in their desire to do their best for their credit's sake and their own good. After the first movements, the |
|