There are both Shinto priests and priestesses, who need not, however, be celibate, and can give up their religious duties at any moment. It is a convenient religion and suits the easy-going Japanese, whose peculiar ideas as to morality are so proverbial.
Impressions of a Journey Round the World (1897)
We have already noticed the Japanese tenderness toward flies and insects, to kill one of which wantonly or unnecessarily would provoke the anger of their gods. It forms a part of their devotions to release insects from captivity, and in the temple-grounds are venders of insects for that purpose. We saw beetles sold for pieces of cash to such devotees, who doubtless in their prayers asked Buddha to remember their kindness and gentleness.
As a strange commentary, however, on this merciful disposition, it appeared to us as if they would not be loth to slaughter one of us, their white brethren, the hated foreigners, even though they turned aside from the crawling worm or gave glad freedom to an imprisoned insect. Their creed has been so learned that animal food never crosses their lips, because life has to be taken, and yet, with bitter ferocity, they have made their swords to drip with the hearts’ blood of Christians, and might be ready to do the same now if the power of the government were only relaxed.
The Sunrise Kingdom (1879)
Some time before our arrival [at Nagasaki] a large fire had consumed the Dutch storehouses in the island of Desima, and the Japanese had lent their aid in extinguishing it. During my rambles about the town and visits to the different houses, it more than once occurred that the people offered to sell me champagne, beer, coffee, &c., all which had evidently been plundered during the fire. The same were offered to others besides myself: quantities of coffee, which is not used by the Japanese, were offered for sale to some of the men for a mere trifle. The honesty of the Japanese people has been much vaunted, and, without doubt, they are honest among themselves; but this instance, and one or two which occurred afterwards, slowed that they are not so particular where foreigners are concerned. Yet during my residence on shore in the temples of the places I visited, I never heard of a single thing being pilfered, although our effects were carelessly cast about, and crowds of Japanese were continually passing and repassing.
Japan, the Amoor, and the Pacific (1861)
During the tiffin, the susceptibilities of my son and myself were a little shocked by one of the attentions shown us, which consisted in serving alive a large fish taken in the morning, one side of it being almost entirely carved to pieces; but the carving so done—this being the proof of skill in the artist—that the fish was still quite alive, and had, it seemed, a reproachful look in its moving eye as it was handed round. I know that it is idle to attempt so to live as
“Never to blend our pleasure or our pride
With sorrow of the meanest thing that feels,”
for we are continually inflicting sorrow upon something or somebody, and far too often upon some of the nobler “things that feel;” but let us hope that we avoid this as often as possible. At any rate, I was obliged to excuse myself from sharing in the delicacy so much appreciated by some of the party. In a little conversation which followed, I was reminded of our own mode of slaughtering calves and otherwise torturing animals, and had recalled to my recollection the fact that until the civilising influences of Europe reached Japan, and up to fifteen years ago, the slaughtering of oxen, either old or young, was forbidden there, and considered to be brutal.
Japan: Its History, Traditions, and Religions (1880)
I never found reason for the quoted cruelty of the Japanese, a people who so tenderly make pets of babies, animals, and flowers. The children of any nation are barbaric little savages until taught better, and one who has seen an American child bite viciously into the arm of a baby brother, and another young American drop a turtle into scalding water, to drive him out of his shell, feels that the American has no stones to sling in that direction.
A Woman Alone in the Heart of Japan (1906)
The achievements already made by Japan—her military power, her postal and telegraph service, her banking system, her education—all combine to give the world the assurance that when she sets herself to work in earnest, as she is doing now, to get her own commerce into her own hands and to control the markets in dependent countries, she will succeed. She has so much in her favour: the industry of her people, their powers of study, the quickness of their observation, their readiness to form combinations and to organise their undertakings. All these things work for her.
Against her, she has the lack of knowledge and experience of her old-fashioned merchants, the comparative smallness of her national capital, and, above all, the “defective integrity” which permeates the whole nation. “Defective integrity” is a complaint which is almost universally brought against Japan, and there would not be so much smoke unless there were a good deal of fire to cause it. It is the thorn in the flesh that troubles the lovers of Japan lest they should be too much elevated by the beauty of their beloved.
Every-day Japan (1909)
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