A JAPANESE BOY
BY
HIMSELF
NEW YORK
HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY
1890
COPYRIGHTED, 1889.
By SHIUKICHI SHIGEMI.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
MY BIRTHPLACE--MY GRANDFATHER--TENJINSAN.
CHAPTER II.
OLD-FASHIONED SCHOOL--MY SCHOOLMASTER--THE SCHOOL-HOUSE.
CHAPTER III.
THE KITCHEN--DINNER--FOOD.
CHAPTER IV.
GAMES--NEW SCHOOL--IMITATING THE WEST--MORE ABOUT MY SCHOOLMASTER --PUNISHMENTS AT SCHOOL.
CHAPTER V.
BATHS--EVENINGS AT HOME--JAPANESE DANCING AND MUSIC.
CHAPTER VI.
AMATEUR ACTORS AND REAL ACTORS AND ACTRESSES--JAPANESE THEATRE.
CHAPTER VII.
WRESTLING--STORY-TELLERS--PICNIC AND PICNIC GROUNDS--AN OLD CASTLE AND A TRADITION.
CHAPTER VIII.
ANGLING--A PIOUS OLD LADY AND HER ADVENTURES.
CHAPTER IX.
THE YAITO--A WITCH-WOMAN--AUNT OTSUNÉ, MISS CHRYSANTHEMUM AND MR. PROSPERITY.
CHAPTER X.
NEW-YEAR'S DAY--THE MOCHI-MAKING--OLD-TIME OBSERVANCES.
CHAPTER XI.
KITE-FLYING--HOW I MADE MY KITE--MY UNCLE AND HIS RIG KITE --OTHER NEW-YEAR GAMES--HOW WE END OUR NEW-YEAR HOLIDAYS.
CHAPTER XII.
OTHER JAPANESE HOLIDAYS--TANABATA AND INOKO, THE BOYS' DAYS --THE SHINTOISTIC AND BUDDHISTIC ABLUTION MASS.
CHAPTER XIII.
OUR PRIEST AND BOY-PRIEST--OUR DOG GEM--SHAKA'S BIRTHDAY.
CHAPTER XIV.
THE FESTIVALS OF LOCAL DEITIES--SCHOOL AGAIN, AND SOME ACCOUNT OF MY SCHOOL-FELLOWS--CONCLUSION.
PREFATORY LETTER.
PROF. HENRY W. FARNAM:
Dear Sir:--My motives in writing this jejune little volume are, as you are aware, two:
1st. There seems to be no story told in this country of the Japanese boy's life by a Japanese boy himself. The following rambling sketches are incoherent and extremely meagre, I own; but you must remember that they are a boy's talks. Give him encouragement, and he will tell you more.
2d. The most important of my reasons is my desire to obtain the means to prosecute the studies I have taken up in America. Circumstances have obliged me to make my own way in this hard world. If I knew of a better step I should not have resorted to an indiscreet juvenile publication--a publication, moreover, of my own idle experiences, and in a language the alphabet of which I learned but a few years ago.
To you my sincere acknowledgments are due for encouraging me to write these pages. This kindness is but one of many, of which the public has no knowledge.
I am, sir, Yours very truly. SHIUKICHI SHIGEMI
NEW HAVEN. CT., September, 1889.
A JAPANESE BOY.