New Year’s Etiquette in Japan

Holidays – Parliament Day in Japan

“At the recent election for the House of Peers held under the newly adopted Japanese Constitution, forty-four members were returned – twenty-two, were farmers, fifteen were merchants, and only one a noble. When it is remembered that until recently Japan has been con- trolled by the nobility with their feudal ideas, the reaction of the present day will bring to pass great and wholesome changes. It is to be hoped the spirit of modern improvement will now animate the Japanese.” – 

From the back of this card. This collector card and others like it, were packed in Duke's Cigarette’s packages, from the Gilded Age to the early 1900’s

Holiday Etiquette in Japan:

How the Jovial Japanese Make Life Merry and Happy

Mrs. H. H. Thompson, writing in “The Cosmopolitan” of the holidays of the Japanese, says New Year’s day is not altogether a holiday. The national idea of justice is shown by the law requiring all debts to be adjusted at the beginning of the year. Therefore, no one gives himself up to unrestrained enjoyment of this day until his accounts are satisfactorily arranged.

On this day, for which we had been impatiently waiting, we prepared to go everywhere and see everything. Festive preparations had been going on for many days, such as thoroughly renovating and cleaning houses, planting evergreen and bamboo branches along the street and on either side of the vestibules or doorways. The bakeries were teeming with delicacies. Professional rice-pounders, with their immense mortars and pestles, were hurrying from house to house. Flowers and ornamental shrubs of exquisite varieties were sold on every street, and shops displayed their daintiest wares and toys.

An interesting custom prevails in preparing the home feast to provide a liberal supply of food for the poorer neighbor. Each house, too, must be decorated, which is not a difficult task in this ever-blooming land. Every house and street was brilliantly illuminated for the inauguration of the new year; in fact, the entire city, bay and adjoining country presented a brilliancy that we never saw equaled. During the morning a Sabbath-like stillness prevails while accounts are being adjusted. Indeed, it has been said that New Year's day is the only Sabbath of Japan. After that all is astir; every one in festive garments and with smiling face exchanging polite greetings.

The Japanese are well trained in the laws of good breeding, and, in their several grades, seldom offend the rules of etiquette. According to these rules, a joyous freedom is extended to everyone on this day of days. Various styles of reception cards are carried through the streets on elegant lacquered trays by obsequious servants. It is the custom of Japanese merchants to send as gifts to the families of their customers beautiful fans and toys of exquisite designs.

One of the most popular amusements of its day is masquerades, in which parents, children and servants delight in puzzling one another by personifying various families of rank. Here there are fathers, with the big and little boys, who are intent upon the use of the top, with which they are very expert, while groups of pretty girls and young women play merrily with battledore and shuttle-cock. 

At one time we were mystified by sweet, musical sounds in the air, resembling those proceeding from an aeolian harp, and discovered that these came from a great number of kites flying over the city. Our Japanese teacher and interpreter explained this mystery by showing us a strip of the bamboo stretched across the frame of the kite.

Banquets are spread in the streets for the police, and for the benefit of those that prefer this repast to the more private dinner at home. Buckets, barrels and porcelain jars are everywhere overflowing with new saki, which everybody drinks, and yet to the credit of these people be it said, there is little drunkenness. Far into the night some religious ceremony is enacted by the head of each household, and by the priests in their public temples, which all evil spirits brooding about on wrong intent are said to exorcise; and thus the day is ended.

The Japanese are determined to enjoy life as they go. All classes may be seen leaving their homes to go on short journeys into the country - where, under the rustic shade of blossoming fruit trees, or in one of the endless tea houses, they may rest, refresh and enjoy themselves. We often observed family groups visiting the suburbs, or temples, or statues on some high hill, with apparently no other object than to view the landscape under a light fall of snow, or to gather some of nature’s treasures to adorn the grottoed wall, or miniature lake in the bit of garden at home, or to amuse the children. - Los Angeles Herald, 1887

🍽️Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia

Etiquette for Japan’s Dining Rooms

Table etiquette of 1895 had “elaborate rules, which high-bred ladies and gentlemen must strictly follow.” —A late 19th century collectible cigarette card, honoring “Flower Day” in Japan.

The Japanese Dining Room

In Japan the family never gathers around one table as the European or other Asian people do, but each person has his or her own separate small table, a foot square and a foot high, and always highly decorated. When they take their meals they kneel upon the mat, each taking his table before him. 

The little lacquered table generally contains a small porcelain bowl, heaped up with deliciously cooked rice, and several lacquered wooden bowls containing soup or meat, and numbers of little porcelain plates with fish, radishes and the like. 

The way of cooking of course is entirely different from the European. Two pretty chop sticks, made of lacquered bamboo or wood, silver or ivory, are used, instead of knife, fork and spoon, and all people use them with great skill. 

All foods are prepared in the kitchen, so as to avoid any trouble to use knife and fork. Soup is to be drunk from the bowl by carrying it to the mouth by hand, in the same way as people drink tea or coffee. 

Table etiquette has elaborate rules, which high-bred ladies and gentlemen must strictly follow. A maid servant always waits, kneeling at a short distance, before a clean pan of boiled rice, with lacquered tray, on which she receives and delivers the bowls for replenishing them. 

Fragrant green tea is always used at the end of the meal, but sugar and cream never. — Placer Argus, 1895

🍽️Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia

Manners: The Spice of Life

We put on our best shoes when our friends call or when we call upon our friends. In Japan, a woman takes off her shoes at the threshold and makes her call in her stocking feet upon her hostess, who is similarly attired.

Variety as It Is Seen In the Customs of Various Countries

One of the most enjoyable things in travel is to notice how etiquette varies from land to land. In America, when a steamer leaves, the men shake hands and the women kiss each other and sometimes cry. In France and Italy, especially the women weep, while the men kiss and hug each other almost as vigorously as if they were in a wrestling match. 

An American woman shakes hands with a man of her acquaintance, while in Spain she always gives her hand to be kissed. It makes the same sensation in Madrid for a man to seize a woman’s hand and shake it as it does in New York for a foreigner to seize a New York woman’s hand and kiss it.

In America, it is rare for wine or beer to be seen on the table at a woman’s luncheon or dinner party. In Europe, not to have these would be considered the height of discourtesy. Among the western nations, to offer a visitor a cup of tea, is to invite him to prolong his visit. Among the eastern nations, it is the conventional intimation that it is time for him or her to go. 

An American man removes his hat while talking to a woman, while the “cad” keeps it carefully perched upon his ear. In China, a native man would sooner lose his head than be seen without his hat on when in company, while the ruffian takes it off as a mark of disrespect.

We put on our best shoes when our friends call or when we call upon our friends. In Japan, a woman takes off her shoes at the threshold and makes her call in her stocking feet upon her hostess, who is similarly attired. — San Jose Herald, 1895

🍽Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia

Old Japanese Proposal Etiquette

A 19th C. Japanese Bride arrives at the home of the groom’s parents – Instead of serenades by moonlight and other delicate ways of making an impression, it is etiquette for the Japanese lover to approach the dwelling of his lady, bearing some choice plant in his hand. This takes place at a time when he is fully assured that both mother and daughter are at home, and I need scarely say that neither of them is at all conscious that the young man is taking such a liberty with the flower pot outside of their window. 

A Graceful Sweethearting Custom

In houses wherein reside one or more daughters of a marriageable age, an empty flower pot of an ornamental character is encircled by a ring and suspended from the window or veranda by three light chains. Now, the Juliets of Japan are, of course, attractive, and their Romeos as anxious as those of other lands. But instead of serenades by moonlight and other delicate ways of making an impression, it is etiquette for the Japanese lover to approach the dwelling of his lady, bearing some choice plant in his hand. This takes place at a time when he is fully assured that both mother and daughter are at home, and I need scarely say that neither of them is at all conscious that the young man is taking such a liberty with the flower pot outside of their window. It is believed that a young lover so engaged, has never been seen by his lady, or her mamma, in this act of sacrilege. 

At any rate, my friend tells me that during his long residence in Japan, he never heard of one being interfered with in any way. The fact is, this act of placing a pretty plant into the empty flower pot is equivalent to a proposal to the young lady who dwells within, and the eastern fashion is, as I think, a delicate and most harmless way of proposing to a lady. The youthful gardener, having settled his plant to his mind retires, and the lady is free to act as she pleases. If he is the right man, she takes every care of his gift, waters it, tends it carefully with her own hands, that all the world can see. In a word, the donor is an accepted suitor. But if he is not a favorite, or the parents object, the poor plant is torn from the vase, and the next morning lies limp and withered on the veranda or on the path below.—Home Journal, 1886

Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia

19th C. Japanese Etiquette

Table etiquette has elaborate rules, which high-bred ladies and gentlemen must strictly follow. A maid-servant always waits, kneeling, at a short distance, before a clean pan of boiled rice, with lacquered tray, on which she receives and delivers the bowls for replenishing them. Fragrant green tea is always used at the end of a meal, but sugar and cream never.

The Japanese Home:

The Dwellings and the Domestic Life of the Quaint People

If a man of taste should enter a Japanese parlor he would not fail to be surprised at the display of marvelous and exquisite taste. Yet I have often heard the sayings of foreigners that "the Japanese house has no furniture and is absolutely cheerless and empty." This is quite wrong. I must say that they have no taste of the Japanese art, for the men of taste are agreed in saying that the art of decoration in Japan is excellent. If anyone has some taste in this art, he will perceive that the hanging picture on the toko wall, elaborate arrangement of flowers, pictures on the framed partitions and all decoration, however trifling, reveal infinite taste.

The tastes of the Western people differ so much from ours that the decoration in the chambers seems almost childish to the Japanese eyes. The gorgeous display of colors in their rooms would please our children to look at. Drawingrooms piled up from corner to corner with toys, shells stones, dishes, spoons and different novel things always remind us of our curio-shops, a bunch of flowers is stuck in a vase without form and without order. The pictures in the rooms hang perpetually, though the face of nature and feeling of man chance from time to time. All these sights which we are accustomed to see in the European house excite in us nothing but wonder. Yet this is the taste of the Western people; we have no right to criticize it.

In Japan, the family never gathers around one table as the European or other Asiatic peoples do, but each person has his or her own separate small table, a foot square and a foot high, and always highly decorated. When they take their meals they kneel upon the mat, each taking his table before him. The little lacquered table generally contains a small porcelain bowl, heaped up with deliciously cooked rice, and several lacquered wooden bowls containing soup or meat, and numbers of little porcelain plates with fish, radishes and the like. The way of cooking, of course, is entirely different from the European. 

Two pretty chopsticks, made of lacquered bamboo or wood, silver or ivory, are used, instead of knife, fork and spoon, and all people use them with great skill. All foods are prepared in the kitchen so as to avoid any trouble to use knife and fork. Soup is to be drunk from the bowl by carrying it to the mouth by hand, in the same way as people drink tea or coffee. Table etiquette has elaborate rules, which high-bred ladies and gentlemen must strictly follow. A maid-servant always waits, kneeling, at a short distance, before a clean pan of boiled rice, with lacquered tray, on which she receives and delivers the bowls for replenishing them. Fragrant green tea is always used at the end of a meal, but sugar and cream never. — Harper's Bazar, 1895

Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia 

Japanese Toilette Etiquette

 Victorian era view of a “Japanese belle” making her toilette — or as we know it today— she is engaging in her beauty regime.

The New Year Toilette of a Japanese Belle

The most elaborate New Year toilettes in the world are made by Japanese belles. The women of Japan have been having a New Year for hundreds of years before the women of Christian countries, according to their chronology of the age of the world, and they have learned to make much more of it than the women of shorter-lived nations. 

The New Year in Japan, falling a little later than ours, brings the flowery kingdom into its full floweriness; and on that day, the whole glad New Year is called in to celebrate the advent of another twelfth month. It is commonly supposed  that women in Japan hold a secondary place to men and that no festival could be carried on by them and for them. But, far from being the case, there is no nation on earth that values its women as highly as the Japanese, and no country where the New Year is more beautifully ushered in by them. 

Women have a strange way, all over the world, of bringing in the New Year. Other holidays are common to all, men and women, but the New Year seems devoted to women alone. In Japan on New Year's day the ladies are up early and making a most elaborate toilette. The toilette of a Japanese women is always a refined one, and the sweetest of cosmetics and the most delicate of scents are employed for her beautification. But the New Year toilet is something specially fine. 

On the New Year, the Japanese belle, like the Chinese one, wears no old clothes. Everything from her flowing silk outer garments to her straight, delicately woven undergarments is all new. Her favorite color is pink, and ter robes are gorgeous in colors of pink and red. She makes her toilette sitting on the floor with a silk robe around her. When she gets out of her peculiar little bed upon the floor and lifts her shapely head from her smooth, round pillow, she gets into a perfumed bath, in the taking of which she is assisted by her female servants, if she be a woman of very high rank, and by the women of her household if she be of good family but not wealthy. Her perfumed bath is poured into a tub and a little matting screen is set around the tub. Into the water she gets, while her women sit outside the screen upon the clean matting floor.

When the time comes for a shampoo of the flesh, the bather rises and the women of the family assist her, making a sport of this daily ablution. In this respect, the heathen differs from the Christian. A Christian woman conceals the fact that she bathes, and beyond doing so daily for cleanliness spends no time in the bath. It is not even etiquette to mention it. But the heathen talks of it, and the fables are full of the wives of high dignitaries whose daily round of happenings took place in the gardens through which they walked while going to and from the bath.

The bath over, and on New Year's day it is prolonged, the Japanese woman bather sets up her little easel and, taking her place upon the floor, begins to beautify herself. Her fine, soft, brown skin is massaged with grease perfumes and washed with scents. Then into the long brows are smoothed streaks of black greased paint to make them longer. The peculiar slanting eyes of the Japanese belle are caused largely by the way she puts on the brow paint, and the tales that are told of operations to change the form of the Japanese eyes are mostly without foundation. The style for the eyes is less slanting than it used to be, and what we would flippantly call the style for 1898 is almost as straight as our own. A touch of carmine is rubbed into the lips of the belle to make a pointed pout and a tiny bit of rouge is put upon the point of her chin.

The Japanese rouge is a smooth, soft thing, much like our vaseline, and is not unpleasant to thought or touch. When her toilet is made the Japanese belle plays with her children upon the floor, talks with her women, embroiders and conducts her household affairs. She does not receive strangers into the house, as it is not etiquette to do so, nor does she receive men callers unless they accompany her husband home, in which case she may, if they be specially honored friends of the family, wait upon them with the New Year rice cake and the whey. The Japanese belle makes her pretty New Year toilette for her own husband, and when you see how carefully she prepares herself to be beautiful in his eyes you think that, after all, the religion that animates her life is not so bad—Ralph Cruger, January 2, 1898

Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia 

Etiquette for Japanese Empress

The Japanese Way

Rules That Must Be Observed When Her Majesty Passes Along A Street 

A recent visitor to Japan says that there has existed in Japan for many centuries a curious law to the effect that whenever the Emperor or Empress appeared in public no other person should seem to occupy a higher place than this member of the royal family; therefore, on such occasions the shutters of all upper stories were drawn and the upper parts of the houses through which the royal party moved, were seemingly deserted.

The Law Is Still In Effect

Three months ago, when the Empress went into the country for a brief period, an elaborate announcement was posted in conspicuous places along the line of her contemplated route commanding the public to observe strictly certain requirements of etiquette, to wit: 

When her Majesty shall past along no one must look at her from the frame built on houses for the drying of clothes, or through cracks in doors, or from any position in the upper part of their houses. 

If anybody wishes to see her Majesty, he or she must sit down at the side at the road by which her Majesty will pass. 

All children must be taken particular care of that they do not play in the road and so obstruct the passage of her Majesty through the streets. 

No one must look at her Majesty without taking off his hat, in neck-cloth or turban, or whatever else be may be wearing on his head. 

Moreover, no one must be smoking while he or she is looking at her Majesty, nor must anyone carry a stick or cane. 

Only women wearing the clothes of foreigners will be permitted to retain their head-covering.

Although it may rain, no person will be allowed to put up an umbrella while her Majesty maybe passing. 

Dogs must not be allowed to wander on the road by which her Majesty will pass. 

Until the passage of her Majesty, the route by which she will come will be kept free from carriages and jinrikashas. The roads which she will take must be completely free from all traffic. 

As her Majesty passes, no one must raise his voice, nor must any sound be heard, nor must the crowd close in and follow her carriage, for no noise must be made. 

When her Majesty reaches Umeda Station there will be a discharge of fifty fire-works. — New Orleans' Picayune, 1890

Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia

Japan's Empress' Etiquette of Dress

Civilisation has reached a stage
never yet attained in the past history of this country, and everything seems to point to the necessity of reviving the old 'standing etiquette' of the Naniwa Court, for it is evident that the sitting form of etiquette can no longer hold its place in society. 

Japanese Female Costumes

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Empress Advises Her Countrywomen How to Dress

Her Imperial Majesty, addressing the wives of the high dignitaries and nobles of the Empire, has given expression to the following views with respect to the dress of the women of Japan:

"In ancient times the costume of the women of Japan consisted of an upper garment and a skirt. Following in the wake of the administrative reforms instituted in the period of Taikwa, in the reign of the Emperor Kotoku, a specific style of court costume was fixed and established in the reign of the Emperor Jito; while later, during the reign of the Emperor Gensho, the folding of the left side of the dress over the right side was prohibited.

Still later, in the time of the Emperor Shomu, a decree was promulgated throughout the Empire ordaining that all women should adopt and wear a style of dress which had been established by law. The new costume consisted of an upper garment and a skirt, and in some cases women went the length of wearing two skirts, an inner and an outer. This custom, however, was afterwards prohibited by statute. Thus, until the middle ages, the women of this country, both in cities and in the rural districts, continued to wear a skirt, which was generally of a scarlet color.

But about this period dissensions arose among the members of the Imperial Family as to the succession, and a Northern and a Southern Court being formed, the country was for a long time the scene of civil discord and warfare. Under each circumstances our women were compelled by necessity to content themselves with only one upper garment. Once established as a custom this style of dress continued long after the conditions that had prompted its introduction ceased to exist, the skirt being dispensed with, and the upper garment simply lengthened to cover and protect the lower limbs.

In recent years since the period of Yenpo, the width of the belt was gradually increased until the costume as a whole has assumed its present form. But a dress consisting only of an upper garment, and destitute of a skirt, is manifestly imperfect, and ought to be supplemented in some way on the lines of the ancient costume of Japan.

Moreover, civilisation has reached a stage never yet attained in the past history of this country, and everything seems to point to the necessity of reviving the old 'standing etiquette' of the Naniwa Court, for it is evident that the sitting form of etiquette can no longer hold its place in society. If we examine the dress of Western women we find that it, like the old dress of Japanese women, consists of both upper garment and skirt, and, further, that not only does it lend itself readily to the requirements of the 'standing etiquette,' but also affords every facility and ease for changes of posture and for the movement of the limbs.

It is, therefore, only right and proper that we should borrow suggestions from the Western style in order to the improvement of our clothing. But, in endeavoring to bring about this costume reform, there is one consideration that ought to receive very special attention, and that is the necessity of utilizing as far as it is at all possible, the fabrics manufactured and the materials produced in this country.

If the products of our own land are properly made use of, then the reform in question will certainly tend to impart a powerful stimulus to the progress of manufactures and of the fine arts in Japan, while at the same time it will confer no inconsiderable benefit on merchants and others. It may therefore be expected confidently to be productive of good in many respects other than the mere improvement of the costume of our women.

Passage from an old into a new order of things, as in this case, cannot fail to be attended by great, and in many instances needless, expenditure of money; but if due care be exercised, if the wearer's expenses are kept proportionate to her means, and if simplicity is always preferred to extravagance, I think it will be possible to attain the object hoped for without undue lavishness. These are my sentiments and my hopes in reference to this reform in the costume of Japanese women." — The Daily Alta, 1887

Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia

Etiquette in Japan's Edo Era

Above: A page from the government-approved morals education textbook 'Watashitachi no Doutoku' ('Our Morals'), for 5th- and 6th-graders, describes behaviors said to be from the Edo Period. In recent years, many Japanese public schools have begun programs teaching Edo period etiquette to the students. The board of education in the city of Moriya, Ibaraki Prefecture, launched a pilot project to teach Moriya shigusa, which is inspired by Edo shigusa, to its elementary and junior high schools. The city has created a booklet that includes 24 “encouraged” behaviors to be used in its public elementary and junior high schools. US government officials in Japan during the Edo period noted the many differences in Western etiquette and Japanese etiquette; "Great inconveniences will of course be experienced by us in furnishing the necessary rooms and accommodations for so large an accession to our numbers, and especially when some will be of the highest rank, and therefore require special attention and conveniences; while all speak an unknown language, and are so unlike to ourselves in dress, in food and in manners. The Japanese, however, are distinguished for simplicity of manners, and simplicity with neatness in dress, and simplicity in diet..." Sources: Japan Times and New York Times

Jeddo, Saturday, Oct. 8, 1859

"You and your readers have been apprised long since, that, according to a provision in the treaty concluded by Mr. Harris between the United States and Japan in June, 1858, two Japanese Commissioners were to be sent to Washington in a national vessel, and at the expense of the United States, the object being to make a good impression upon the Japanese upon their first introduction into the comity of nations, and with whom the United States are destined to conduct an important commerce through the enterprise of our countrymen in California and Oregon. 

It was conditional in the treaty that the Commissioners should leave Japan on the 22d day of February; and as rumors were rife, and universally credited, that the Japanese would never fulfill the condition, it was necessary for Commodore Tatnall to visit Jeddo, and ascertain to a certainty whether the Commissioners would be ready to go at the appointed time, as also to urge an earlier day for their departure, in case they should go, since so much expense would be incurred, and discomfort experienced, by the officers and crew of the Powhatan, should their long-cherished hopes be blasted. For these reasons, leaving Shanghai Sept. 17, we cast anchor before the great and unknown City of Jeddo, Wednesday, Oct. 5, having stopped a few days at Nagasaki.

Daimyo were the most powerful feudal rulers from the 10th century to the middle 19th century in Japan, and were subordinate only to the Shogun. 

Having spent some days under the hospitable roof of Mr. Harris, I have learned all the particulars respecting the Commissioners and their future movements. There are two parties in Japan -- the Progressives and Old Fogies; the men who are attached to the institutions, the customs and the non-intercourse policy of their fathers; and others who see advantages in commerce and intercourse with other nations, or else think it is better to yield gracefully to circumstances, and freely do what they soon must do from necessity. The Emperor is always a mere cypher, and now is a boy only 16 years old, but in fact as important and influential as other Emperors, however venerable the age they attained. A Council of six members is selected from the hereditary princes, of whom there are 360, who are to the Japanese government very much what the House of Commons is to the English. The Emperor may select his Council of State from these Daimais (sic), or princes, and they may pursue the course they please, but unless it also pleases the Daimias, and they refuse to sanction it, the Emperor is obliged to dismiss them and appoint others.

Townsend Harris was a minor politician, a successful NYC merchant, and the first United States Consul General to Japan. He negotiated what is known as the "Harris Treaty" between the US and Japan. He is credited as the diplomat who first opened the Empire of Japan to culture and foreign trade during the Edo period in Japan, 1603-1868. After learning that the Japanese had a large group of men attending to them during the negotiations, Mr. Harris explained that American taste and etiquette are unlike Japanese, and that even our greatest men had no retinue so large.

When the treaty was proposed it encountered violent opposition in the Council, though it was finally sanctioned; while the majority of the Princes denounced it on all occasions, some of them declaring, as they touched their hands to the two swords which every one always carries, that it would be better to perish manfully, standing by the sacred institutions and policy of their fathers, than to open their beautiful and happy country to foreign nations, of whom they needed nothing, as centuries of seclusion had shown, when they had whatever immaterial things their wants required, and, besides, uninterrupted peace and safety. The Emperor, like Queen Victoria, was obliged to succumb to the tempest his Ministers had raised, and, dismissing them, appoint a new Board from the opposite party. Opposed, as the new Cabinet is, to the policy of the treaty, they feel obliged to observe it, which is a circumstance highly in commendation of their integrity; and when Mr. Harris inquired of them, the other day, at the request of Com. Tatnall, whether the two Commissioners would proceed to the United States under his flag, they replied that two new Commissioners had just been appointed, who would certainly be ready to embark at the specified time, but not sooner.

At first, 81 persons of different classes had been appointed to accompany them, of whom two were censors, or, in other words, spies upon the Commissioners, two lieutenant-governors, eight generals and colonels, two interpreters, or Japanese, who can speak Dutch, and perhaps some little English, two physicians, and forty servants. Mr. Harris told them that American taste and etiquette are unlike Japanese, and that even our greatest men had no retinue; so large a suite would, therefore, in no measure contribute to the honor of the Commissioners, but probably, on the contrary, would be an annoyance and disadvantage to them. They informed Mr. Harris that they had struck off ten from the list, and we earnestly hope that there will be a still greater reductio ab absurdo (or "reduction to absurdity".)

Great inconveniences will of course be experienced by us in furnishing the necessary rooms and accommodations for so large an accession to our numbers, and especially when some will be of the highest rank, and therefore require special attention and conveniences; while all speak an unknown language, and are so unlike to ourselves in dress, in food and in manners. The Japanese, however, are distinguished for simplicity of manners, and simplicity with neatness in dress, and simplicity in diet; and we hope to make a pleasant voyage with them across the Pacific to Panama, where they will cross the Isthmus and take passage in a vessel provided by the Government. In the meantime we shall be making our way around the Horn, and hope for a pleasant reunion with our Japanese friends on our own soil. May our country prove to be as interesting to them as theirs has been to us.

Leaving Jeddo in a few days, we shall run down to Shanghai and Hong Kong, and having taken in coal and provisions, return to this port, and, making all the necessary arrangements for the accommodation of the Japanese dignitaries and attendants, be ready to take a last farewell of Japan and its unequaled scenery on Feb. 22, at the first gleam of morning. We now seek the rising and not the setting sun."

Examples of Edo Era Etiquette in Japan

One example of Edo-style etiquette advocated is kasa kashige (umbrella-leaning), the practice by people passing others on a narrow street to tilt their umbrellas slightly away from each other to avoid getting others wet.

The compassion demonstrated in kasa kashige is at the root of Edo shigusa. But it’s not about imposing a certain behavior on people. . . . It’s about having the mind to care for others . . . (to) show compassion for others.

The merchant practice of kobushi ukase, which refers to the behavior of moving over on a bench to make space for others.

Proponents believe these traditions, which are not documented on paper and have been handed down only verbally, were on the brink of extinction until a man known for his pseudonym Mitsuakira Shiba, whose background is little known but who, legend has it, was a descendant of an Edo merchant, started a campaign to restore the Edo Period practices in the 1970s, based on what he had heard from his grandfather.

Some say Edo-style etiquette is not backed up by historical evidence, and that teaching such behavior as if it were a part of the nation’s history may distort Japanese moral education, which includes teaching not to lie to others.

“Lessons of Edo shigusa are indeed ethically sound . . . but that doesn’t mean they can tell a lie,” or otherwise children may mistakenly consider lying is OK as long as it is good for people, said Minoru Harada, an author and independent researcher of pseudohistory.

Source ~ Japan Times

Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber, is the Site Editor  for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia.