Child-life in Japan & Japanese Child-stories |
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amusement ball bamboo wood cakes called cards charcoal child CHILD-LIFE IN JAPAN Chinese CHRYSANTHEMUM SHOW clogs colours Daruma DAUGHTERS OF OKADA delight dog's dogs dolls dress drum exclaimed face father FILIAL GIRL filial piety fish FISHSAVE flags flowers GAMES AND SPORTS Garuta Genji GIRL OF ECHIGO Grandmother grass hair hand Hashiba Hideyoshi head images imitating Iroha Japanese boys JAPANESE CHILDREN Jingo Kogo junk KANGURA Kioto Kirjomasa kites lacquered little boy live looked mask Matsuri mother nearer night O'SHOGWATS O'Shu paper lanterns parents PARSLEY QUEEN picture piece play player Plumblossom pull rice rice-cake rice-fields rope round sash scarlet SCENES OF CHILD-LIFE scrap-book seaweed Senzaburo SEVEN SCENES shoes shuttlecock side sister snake snow-man SPORTS OF JAPANESE stalls stilts storks straw streets tail temple things throw tiny TOP SPINNING toys traveller Tsuneyori turtle URANAI usually whilst wooden wrestlers Yedo Yoshsan
Popular passages
Page 118 - The greatest day in the year for the boys is on the fifth day of the fifth month. On this day is celebrated what has been called the " Feast of Flags." Previous to the coming of the day the shops display for sale the toys and tokens proper to the occasion. These are all of a kind suited to young Japanese macuslinity.
Page 112 - New-year's, when the winds of February and March are favorable to the sport, kites are flown ; and there are few sports in which Japanese boys, from the infant on the back to the full-grown and the over-grown boy, take more delight. I have never observed, however, as foreign books so often tell us, old men flying kites, and boys merely looking on. The Japanese kites are made of tough paper pasted on a frame of bamboo sticks, and arc usually of a rectangular shape.
Page 122 - Japanese language in which a single word or sound may have a great many siguifications, riddles and puns are of extraordinary frequency. I do not know of any published collections of riddles, but every Japanese boy has a good stock of them on hand. There are few Japanese works of light, and perhaps of serious, literature, in which puns do not continually recur. The popular songs and poems are largely plays on words. There are also several puzzles played with sticks, founded upon the shape of certain...
Page 110 - ... reads half the stanza on his card, and the player having the card on which the other half is written calls out, and makes a match. Some children become so familiar with these poems that they do not need to hear the entire half of the stanza read, but frequently only the first word. The Kokin Garuta, or the game of Ancient Odes, the Genji Garuta, named after the celebrated Genji (Minamoto...
Page 121 - Osama-ken," five or six boys represent the various grades of rank, from the peasant up to the great daimios, or shogun. By superior address and skill in the game, the peasant rises to the highest rank, or the man of highest rank is degraded. From the nature of the Japanese language, in which a single word or sound may have a great many significations, riddles and puns are of extraordinary frequency. I do not know of any published collections of riddles, but every Japanese boy has a good stock of...
Page 111 - ... written in Chinese, and require a good knowledge of the Chinese and Japanese classics to play them well. To boys who are eager to become proficient in Chinese, it often acts as an incentive to be told that they will enjoy these games after certain attainments in scholarship have been made. Having made these attainments, they play the game frequently, especially during vacation, to impress on their minds what they have already learned. The same benefit to the memory accrues from the Iroha and...
Page 114 - Daruma are found by the hundreds in toy -shops, as tobacconists' signs and as the snow-men of the boys. Occasionally the figure of Geiho, the sage with a forehead and skull so high that a ladder was required to reach his pate, or huge cats and the peculiar-shaped dogs seen in the toy-shops, take the place of Daruma. Many of the amusements of the children indoors are mere imitations of the serious affairs of adult life. Boys who have been to the theatre come home to imitate the celebrated actors,...
Page 119 - One favorite game, which has how gone out of fashion, was that in which the boys formed themselves into a daimio's procession, having forerunners, officers, etc. and imitating as far as possible the pomp and circumstance of the old daimio's train. Another game which was very popular, was called the
Page 117 - When a danghter is born in the house during the previous year, a pair of hina or images are purchased for the little girl, which she plays with until grown up. When she is married her hina are taken with her to her husband's house, and she gives them to her children, adding to the stock as her family increases.
Page 113 - ... covered with tiny blades, each able to cut quickly and deeply. By getting the kite in proper position, and suddenly sawing the string of his antagonist, the severed kite falls, to be reclaimed by the victor. The Japanese tops are of several kinds ; some are made of univalve shells, filled with wax. Those intended for contests are made of hard wood, and are iron-clad by having a heavy iron ring round as a sort of tire. The boys wind and throw them in a manner somewhat different from ours. The...