Japan and the Japanese illustrated . in the Court of the has been reliu(]uishcd t(t the jieoplc, with poetry, religion, social life, all thosesuperHuous things which do liut clog the wheels of the governmental machine. Fromend to end of tlie administrative hierarchy, every functionary is assisted by a con-troller; the genius of the employes is exercised in doin<j- iKitliino- and savincr nothincjwhich can furnish matter for compromising reports. As to their i)rivate life, it ishidihU, Hki that [ the Japanese nublrs in general, bcliind the walls of their domestic THE TWO SOCIETIES
Japan and the Japanese illustrated . in the Court of the has been reliu(]uishcd t(t the jieoplc, with poetry, religion, social life, all thosesuperHuous things which do liut clog the wheels of the governmental machine. Fromend to end of tlie administrative hierarchy, every functionary is assisted by a con-troller; the genius of the employes is exercised in doin<j- iKitliino- and savincr nothincjwhich can furnish matter for compromising reports. As to their i)rivate life, it ishidihU, Hki that [ the Japanese nublrs in general, bcliind the walls of their domestic THE TWO SOCIETIES OF YEDDO. 187 fortresses. While the streets of the town, composed of houses standing wide open onthe public way, are constantly enlivened by a crowd of comers ami goers of all :igesand of both sexes ; in the aristocratic quarters neither women nor childnn are to lieseen, except indeed by stealth behind the window bars in the servants quarters. There arc two societies in Yeddo—one, armed and privileged, lives in a state of. ^^^,::: ~ - Jz 1 C-ji«-yui i_^ DOMESTIC rXDluISM. magnificent imprisonment, in the vast citadel : the other, disarmed, and subject to thedominion of the first, seems to enjoy the advantages of liberty ; but, in reality, an ironyoke weighs upon the middle classes uf the people of Yeddo. For every iivr lifadsof families, the Taikounal administration sets up one as a magistrate over theother four. Iniquitous laws punish a whole family, a whole quarter, for the crime K B 2 188 LIFE IN JAPAN. of one of its members. The properties, and even the lives, of the citizens, are secured by-no legal guarantee. The extortions and the violence of the two-sworded men remaintoo frequently unpunished. The citizen finds compensation in the charms of the beautifulcity. If the regime of the Taikouns is severe, he remembers that the Mikados werenot always amiable, and that one of them delighted in exhibiting his skill as anarcher b}^ shooting down peasants who were forced to cli
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, bookidjapanjapanes, bookyear1874
