Arriving among [the Japanese], as we did, from China,—the land of pug-noses and yellow-skins,—we were at once struck with their fresh ruddy complexions, and, in many instances, well-cut features.
Besides the difference in their personal appearance, too, they offer a marked contrast to the Chinese in manner and bearing. In place of the abject, cringing demeanour of the latter, they—the yakonins, of course, in a greater, the lower classes in a lesser degree—carry themselves as becomes men, fearlessly and uprightly, look you straight in the face, and consider themselves inferior to none.
Our Life in Japan (1869)
Passing from China to Japan is like a change between two worlds. China is stationary, fixed, and immovable; Japan, on the contrary, is turning a somersault, and transmutation is visible in everything. Although geographically so close to each other, yet intellectually and morally they are as wide apart as the arctic and the tropical regions. In the one case, everything seems to have been frozen up for thousands of years, and at this moment their ideas appear to be as firmly imbedded as ever in the ice of ancient custom. In the other it would seem as if the vernal equinox had come round with its soft breezes, bringing out under its influence the young leaves and buds of a future summer along with it. “Non possumus” is the motto in China: in Japan they are straining every effort to copy whatever is European. Every attempt at railways or telegraphs has been opposed by the Celestials in all possible ways; and up to this moment not a single step in advance has yet been made in that direction among them. Already there are telegraphs all over Japan; one line of railway is now running; others are in progress, and there is not a modern improvement which they are not only willing, but most anxious, to import into their country. If balloons were to become a practical success in Europe, the Japs in their present temper would to a certainty have one on board the next P. and O. steamer for Yokohama. As the Chinese have no newspapers, and they do not condescend to read the papers or literature of the foreign barbarians, the high authorities at Peking have not even the means of knowing anything about new discoveries in Europe. Japan, on the contrary, is sending her sons, and even her daughters, to Europe to be taught, while she is importing professors and men of every kind of talent to educate and instruct her people in all the departments of western civilization.
Meeting the Sun (1874)
There is a perceptible difference between the Chinaman and the Japanese. The contrast never strikes one so forcibly as on first arriving in Japan after leaving China. The people we have left behind are surly, impertinent, independent, self-sufficient, in their manner towards foreigners; whilst those among whom we now are, poor and rich alike, have an innate politeness which is exceedingly pleasing, and address strangers in a respectful manner but rarely witnessed on the other side of the water.
A Lady’s Visit to Manilla and Japan (1863)
In the Japanese town, the streets are much wider and cleaner than those in Chinese cities. There is also a marked and most pleasing contrast in the cleanliness of their houses. So fearful are they of the floor being dirtied, they always take off their shoes before entering them. Such care is very necessary, for they have neither bed, chairs, nor tables, so the floor which is generally covered with nice clean matting, has to perform the duties of all these articles of furniture.
Letters from China & Japan (1875)
It would seem that, while physically robust, [the Japanese people’s] minds are of a cultivated and dilettante order. They love not idleness, but occupations which are refined and congenial to their tastes. Commerce is considered by them a degrading pursuit; while literature and the fine arts, and scientific acquirements, are held in high estimation. It is a question whether that activity of mind and energy of character which finds expression in pleasure-parties and gala-days, is not far preferable to the apathetic indifference of a Chinese mandarin, who thinks gaiety undignified, active exercise a penance, and who only desires to be left alone with his pipes and women, wrapt in contemplation of the Taoli, and the red tape peculiar to the Board of Rites. One result of this difference between the habits and mode of feeling of the two nations is undoubtedly this, that whereas the Chinese are steadily retrograding, and will in all probability continue to do so until the Empire fall to pieces, the Japanese, if not actually in a state of progressive advancement, are in a condition to profit by the flood of light that is about to be poured in upon them, and to take advantage of those improvements and inventions which the Chinese regard with contemptuous scorn, but which the Japanese will in all probability, when they come to know us better, be both able and anxious to adopt.
Narrative of the Earl of Elgin’s Mission to China and Japan (1859)
The Japanese ladies differ much from those of China in their manners and customs. It is etiquette with the latter to run away the moment they see the face of a foreigner; but the Japanese, on the contrary, do not show the slightest diffidence or fear of us. In these tea-houses they come up with smiling faces, crowd around you, examine your clothes, and have even learnt to shake hands! Although in manners they are much more free than the Chinese, I am not aware they are a whit less moral than their shy sisters on the other side of the water.
Yedo and Peking (1863)
In Japan, as well as in China, the duty towards parents is considered superior to that towards a wife; and a mother preserves her influence over a man as long as she lives. In Japan, however, a wife is an object of a man’s affection, care, and kindness, while in China her fate is more often slavery, cruelty, and neglect.
Japan, the Amoor, and the Pacific (1861)
But we have only a day to spend in Nagasaki, so let us land at once and go through the town. No sooner have we passed through the foreign quarter, and reached the native streets, than the contrast between things Japanese and things Chinese again becomes strikingly evident.
Instead of the narrow streets of Canton, lined with brick-built shops and houses, we have here broad, well-laid roads, running between picturesque rows of wooden houses, not unlike Swiss cottages of one floor only. Instead of the eager, bustling activity, which reigns supreme in Chinese towns, there is here an air of quiet business and well-to-do contentment. Instead of the guttural voices and harsh accents which fall upon one’s ear whenever Chinamen are within earshot, the sounds heard here are those of a soft, rich language, almost as liquid and as full of vowels as Italian. Instead of the yellow legs and faces, the blue hanging gowns, the pendant pig-tails, we see small and well-knit men, with bronze complexions, dark gowns girt up at the waist, and hair dressed close to the head. ...
And then, instead of the flat-faced women of the Flowery Land, clad in stiff dresses which reach up to the throat, and hang down straight and flat to the ancles, we see the aquiline noses, florid complexions, and graceful costumes of the women of Kiu-Siu. Their short and slight figures are tastefully dressed in loose-sleeved gowns, which open in front over inner vests, and are girdled at the waist by broad silk bands, of neat pattern and bright colours. These bands are folded up behind into a large bow, giving an effect not unlike that of the ‘panniers’ of a recent English fashion; indeed, who shall say that the English fashion was not introduced from this costume of Niphon?
Round the World in 1870 (1872)
The rise of European influence in Japan has been accompanied by a patriotic revulsion against that which was formerly the chief foreign influence—namely, the Chinese. We may compare the patriotic rage against Germany, and the destruction of German influence which has accompanied the opening of Russia to western thought. Chinese influence was once as dominant in Japan as was German influence at St. Petersburg; but there is no reason to fear that the foreign influence of the present day will die out in Japan as the Chinese influence has died out. The Chinese civilisation was adopted by the Japanese because it was altogether superior to their own, and it was abandoned when found to be inferior to that of the Western nations.
English Influence in Japan (1876)
From a sanitary point of view, the Chinese and the Japanese have been thus amusingly contrasted: the Chinaman every other day puts clean clothes on the same dirty skin, while the Japanese puts the same dirty clothes on a clean skin.
The Land of the Morning (1882)
The social amusements of the Japanese are both many and various. Indeed, it has been truly remarked that during the last two and a half centuries the main business of the nation would seem to have been play. Here we have a radical contrast between the Japanese character and that of the Chinese, whose very school primers lay down the maxim that play is unprofitable.
The Land of the Morning (1882)
The Japanese, as a rule, are not the most steady and sober minded people. They are mercurial in disposition, fond of novelties and given to change. In this they differ widely from their neighbors, the Chinese, who are the most staid and persevering of all the Asiatics. This fact explains something that quite puzzles the American on his first introduction to Japan. Almost all positions of trust and responsibility in hotels, banks, and mercantile houses, kept by foreigners, are held by Chinese; and this through no special love for Chinamen certainly, but, as it is said, they are more reliable, and can be trusted further to attend strictly to the duties assigned them. The attitude of the average Japanese and Chinese toward each other is rather amusing than otherwise. They both claim to be of heavenly origin, but each assumes to be superior to the other. The Japanese disdains comparison with the Chinaman, and the Chinaman holds the Japanese in contempt.
From Japan to Granada (1889)
What a contrast we observed between the stolidity and imperturbability of the Chinamen, and the merriment and jollity depicted in the faces of these Japanese, who persistently set off giggling at nothing at all in particular! Then their courteous ways and polite bows would do credit to Sir Walter Raleigh, or a descendant of the noblesse of France. Even the jinricksha man is not so importunate as the Chinaman, and laughs joyously at receiving his ten cents. for carrying one to the hotel.
Impressions of a Journey Round the World (1897)
The Japanese people are possessed of much higher civilisation than all the other Asiatic nations; they are courageous, inventive, and highly gifted in intellect; and at the same time cheerful, fond of life, and extremely polite. This latter trait in their character has procured for them the name of “the politest people of the world.” This politeness seems to be inborn; you do not only find it with the better classes of society but throughout the population, down to the people of the poorest and lowest ranks. By their system of shutting themselves off from all intercourse with foreign nations the Japanese have not become ossified like the Chinese; on the contrary they have remained fresh and susceptible, and it is principally this pronounced contrast in the behaviour of the two yellow nations which strikes all the Europeans so much when coming from the “Celestial Empire” to pay a visit to the “Land of the Rising Sun.” They find in Japan everything so totally different from what they saw in the other parts of Asia; and much of what they see here demands their approbation and even admiration. The Japanese as a rule is not as conceited as the pigtailed son of Tshung-Kwock, who in his self-complacency is possessed of an extravagant notion of himself and his culture. The Japanese on the contrary approaches the foreigner, and with great zeal and discretion endeavours to appropriate everything foreign that seems to him worth making his own. Contrary to the Chinese he shows himself free from any prejudice in doing so. To acquire such a bright disposition their simple mode of living may be of some assistance to the Japanese; they eat the most digestible dishes, rice, fish, and vegetable, rarely meat, and take as beverage mostly drinks which cheer but don’t intoxicate. Unlike their yellow brothers on the mainland they are less economic, but spend easily and with open-handedness what they may have earned oft-times by heavy work. They seldom save for the future, but rely on their children, who will have to take care of their aged parents.
Japan As I Saw It (1912)
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