Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 11.djvu/151

* JAPAN. 133 JAPAN. 1900 there were 723 Protestant missionaries in the country, 570 native preachers and helpers, 41t) chiirclies. 42,273 enrolled members, and 14 theological and other schools, with 5011 students and pupils. The Roman Catholics had 106 Euro- pean missionaries, 117 church edifices, 251 con- gregations, and 54,002 adherents. The Greek Church had 438 native workers, 297 churches, 25,1)98 followers, and schools with 19.055 pupils. In 1899 there were 71.977 Buddhist temples and monasteries, .ith 54,035 priests, 10,983 stu- dents, and 59.943 preachers. The Shinto temples numbered 191,902, in charge of kannushi or temple-keepers, not priests as they are sometimes miscalled. Etiixologt. The modern .Japanese are a very mixed people. The largest factor in the produc- tion of the .Japanese is to be traced back to the Mongolian race of the adjacent continent, a view confirmed by the physical characteristics of a con- siderable portion of the population at the present time. Some, indeed, group .Japanese and Koreans together as being ancestrally very closely akin, by physical characters as well as by speech. But among the .Japanese, as among the Koreans, and in certain parts Uf China, there are recognizable three physical types — an Aino type, chiefly char- acteristic of Xorthem Japan; a ilanchu-Korean, in the regions nearest Korea ; and a !Malayo- Mongolic, in the centre and east. The Korean- Manchu type seems to go back, like the primitive Chinese, to a Mongolian ancestry with a strain of proto-Caucasian blood, while the .inos (see Aixo) are perhaps allied to the most primitie Caucasians ; but such opinions must be accepted with caution. The best authorities agree in dis- tingiiishina: a 'fine' and a 'coarse' type among the modern .Japanese. The former is taller, more slenderly and gracefully built, longer faced and longer headed, with better-shaped nose, and, gen- erally, less distinctively Mongolic in form and features, with lighter skin, etc. This is the dominant type of the aristocracy and upper classes, and is found in those parts of the Em- pire nearest Korea, whence the original repre- sentatives of this type probably immigrated into Japan. The 'finer' type may be considered to he the descendants of the -Japanese immigrants from the continent, who conquered and intermingled with the original inhabitants, or Ainos. This 'fine' type has now become the .Japanese ideal. The 'coarse' tvpe is characterized by shorter stat- ure and thick-set body, broader skull and face, more prominent cheek-bones, somewhat oblique eyes, large lips, wide mouth, more powerful jaw, flatfish nose and wide nostrils, darker skin, and generally more of the Mongolian in form and feature. Many of the women of the upper classc- seem to belong more to the 'coarse' type, which may be accounted for by the process of conquest and the practice of polygamy. Both the 'fine' and the 'coarse' types are mixed, and in the north, from intermingling with the Ainos, another mixed type has been and is still being produced. The population of .Japan may thus be consid- ered to consist of a prehistoric proto-Aino and later historic Aino element, upon which the Si- birie ancestors of the .Japanese proper imposed themselves by slow degrees until they ultimately became the dominant factor. There has been added, perhaps at several different periods, a Malay or Polvnesian element, which is noticeable in Central and Eastern Japan, where it is thoight to have modified considerably both physical and social characters. Traces of ancient Xegrito in- iluence have been seen in Japan by some authori- ties, but others attach no importance to these alleged proofs of the former existence of a black race in .Japan. Physically the .Japanese are not a strongly de- veloped people, but they are capable of great exertion and endurance. A number of somatic peculiarities have been noted in the Japanese, such as the divided molar bone (os japonicum) , the low, broad upper jaw, without canine fossa, and the so-called '.Japanese knee' (due to the practice of sitting .so much). In their general physical conformation many of the .Japanese males of the better classes have a decidedly femi- nine, or even child-like, cast, a character thought by some authorities to belong more or less to the Mongolian race in general. Intellectually the .Japanese have shown a ca- pacity equal to that of any other known people, and their native power is revealed by the fact that while their manners, customs, and certain institutions were modified in ancient times by Chinese culture, and in recent times by Euro- pean and American civilization, the fundamental traits of their character have not been altered. The mental and moral characters of the .Japa- nese may be summed up as patience and per- sistence, combined with cheerfulness, a certain versatility and quick-wittedness, enterprise and originality, together with unexcelled powers of imitation, as well as progressiveness, industry, artistic sense, humor, cleanliness, politeness, honor, bravery, kindness, calmness, and ability to conceal the emotions. From the Chinese and some other ^Mongolian peoples the .Japanese differ in the freedom accorded to women from the re- motest times down to the present day. their less altruistic ethical system, their high estimation of the warrior and their appreciation of war as a means of national advancement, their national virility, and their power to respond to and accept facts of modern social .ind historical evolution. The social and moral life of the .Japanese offers much that is interesting in the way of evolution. In sexual relations they range from polygamy and concubinage to monogamy. As compared with Cliina. and perhaps with Korea, the civilization of .Japan is comparatively modern, for the coming of the continental ilon- goloid ancestors of the .Japanese to the island may be fixed at B.C. 2000-1.500. Tlieir conquest of the various islands of the great archipelago was slow and apparently difficult, as the .Japa- nese annals themselves record, for the Aino and proto-.-ino population was well distributed throughout the group. Relics of Aino origin are foimd almost everywhere, but naturally in more abundance toward the north. The amount of Aino blood in the modem .Japanese is consider- ably more than hitherto supposed, and the liberal policy of the present authorities toward the Ainos of the extreme north is leading to a recognition of the abilities and intellectuality of this ancient and primitive people, pointing to their ultimate disappearance, not by dying out or extermina- tion, but by absorption into the general popula- tion. The question of the Malayan or Polynesian element in .Japan is more difficult to elucidate. Twice at least in .Japanese annals there is men- tion of swarthy foreigners from the south who made irruptions into Eastern and Central Japan.