Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 3.djvu/103

Rh reached, and, after an interval of rest, to replace the men in exactly the same grips they had before the interruption, the idea of these pauses being to prevent any unscientific exercise of brute force. If the course of the contest satisfies the umpire that neither man is likely to gain an advantage over the other, he declares the bout "divided" (hiki-wake), and if there occurs a perplexity which the elders of the ring cannot agree to solve, the umpire says "we take chare" (o-azukari), and again the struggle is drawn. Absolute good temper prevails. The wrestler is generally an uneducated man of low origin, but roughness and violence are foreign to his disposition, and he possesses the Japanese characteristic of being able to accept his reverses or welcome his successes with unfailing equanimity.

The whole science of wrestling is supposed to be comprised in forty-eight devices,"—forty-eight hands,” as they are called,—namely, twelve thrusts, twelve grasps, twelve twists, and twelve under-grips, each having a distinctive name,—another example of the extraordinary elaboration to which every art and every pastime is carried in Japan. It is a commonly entertained belief that these have never been changed since they were reduced to rule in the eighth century. But that is a fallacy. Various celebrities in successive ages added methods of their own, and a thorough master of the craft in the present era must be