The First European Description of Japan, 1585 (50 page)

39. We work to get our trees to grow straight upward; in Japan, they purposefully
⁸⁴
hang stones from the branches so that they will grow crooked
.

Watsuji claimed that the mild climate of the Mediterranean produced straight trees that seemed artificial to the Japanese, who were used to the windblown, gnarled trees of their own country. While wind may have created the irregularity of Japanese pines in the mountains, Watsuji might have given his countrymen a bit more credit for their work to make domestic trees look “natural.” Alcock was impressed:

It is perfectly astonishing to see the amount of industry and perseverance which the Japanese must have devoted to the production of these plants. There were some little fir trees, not more than a foot in height, and yet I counted
upward of fifty ties, by means of which the shoots were bent backward and forward in a zigzag way.
⁸⁵

Some Westerners say the result is stunted and ugly; Frois used the word
tortas
(meaning “bent” or “crooked”), which shares its root with the English word tortured. Such is the life of a pine tree that has endured for more than a century on the side of a mountain in the face of a brisk wind.

40. We wash our hands and face in silver or porcelain hand basins; in Japan they wash in a wooden tub
,
⁸⁶
which at most is lacquered
.

The wooden tub or
tarai
is usually made like a barrel, out of slats reinforced with soft metal bands. These small tubs are used not only for washing one's face and hands, but also to scoop water out of the bath to wash oneself. Frois caught a small contrast but missed a large one:

We wash with soap inside the bath; they wash and rinse off outside the bath before climbing in.

41. We pour water for our hands through the spouts of our pitchers so that they produce a slow, thin stream; they pour water out of wooden pails, unleashing a very strong stream
.

This is a fairly arcane contrast, although Frois seems to depict the washing of hands in Europe as controlled and economical and perhaps more aesthetically pleasing (imagine a pitcher that was probably made of metal or porcelain, versus a wooden bucket). Frois would no doubt be impressed with contemporary Japanese flush toilets, which, when activated, send a little stream of water through the air (you can stick your fingers into the stream and clean them) and then into the tank to refill it.

42. In Europe ordinarily our roofs are clean; in Japan they are loaded down with stones, wood, and bamboo to protect them from the wind
.

Much of Japan is like Chicago, and the same gusts of wind that lead to crooked trees can also blow the straw off a poor man's roof. Big stones are still found on houses that have roofs made of straw or the more popular corrugated tin. Not all are there for wind protection, however, as Okada notes that stones and lumber sometimes were (and are) stored on the roof. The main roof of finely laid straw was usually too sharply sloped for stones to rest upon, and it was heavy enough by itself, so the roofs referred to here by Frois were likely on tiny shacks or were a type of awning-like extension sometimes found on larger roofs.

43. Our pine trees generally bear fruit; in Japan, even though there is an infinite number of pine trees and they bear nuts the size of walnuts, they are worthless
.

The Italian stone pine is the most common fruit-bearing pine tree found in Spain, Portugal, and Italy. For centuries the tree's pignolia nuts have
figured prominently in Mediterranean cuisine (e.g. toasted and tossed with pasta, sun-dried tomato, olive oil, garlic, and feta cheese).

The Japanese white pine is as common in Japan as the stone pine is in Mediterranean Europe. Presumably, this is the tree Frois had in mind when he noted it produced inedible fruit. However, “worthless” is a bit extreme, as Kaempfer noted that pine nuts were gathered for use as fuel.

44. Our cherry trees bear very tasty and beautiful cherries; those in Japan bear cherries that are very small and bitter, but also very beautiful flowers that the Japanese value
.

In the twenty years that one of us (Gill) lived in Japan he never noticed Japanese cherries, much less heard of anyone tasting them. These develop after the blossoms fall, and nobody goes to view the cherries, but instead focuses on the pretty, dappled shade of the cherry trees. Until something the Japanese call the “cherry-peach” (
sakura-momo
) was imported in the nineteenth century, there were no real fruit-bearing cherries in Japan. On the other hand, Japanese flowering cherries now bring delight to people by the Reflecting Pool in Washington D.C. and elsewhere.

45. Among us, when one picks a fragrant rose or carnation, we first smell it and then examine it visually; the Japanese pay no attention to the smell and take pleasure only in the visual experience
.

Japanese native plants that are the closest equivalents of the “rose” and “carnation” (a briar rose and a pink) are practically without scent, and the cherry blossom is also scentless. Nevertheless, the Japanese pay almost as much attention to the scent of the official bloom of the New Year, the plum flower, as “we” pay to the rose. The difference is that the rose literally is brought to the nose (or
vice-versa
), while plum blossoms fill the air (all the way to the hazy moon, if haiku are to be believed).

46. We have many roses, flowers, carnations and herbs that are fragrant and quite aromatic; in Japan, very few of these things have a fragrance
.

Frois is correct, although he might have noted that the violet is an exception to his rule, at least according to poets such as Issa. The violet's scent is famous for its effervescence; soon after you have smelled it, you no longer do, so it would hardly work for perfume.

47. Europeans find the fragrant water from roses, angelicas, etc. very pleasing; the Japanese do not find any of these scents pleasing
.

Rose water was made by distilling rose petals or by simply letting the petals soak in water for two or three weeks (the more economical route). As far back as the Romans rosewater was something of an aphrodisiac and a means of treating depression. Angelica, including
Angelica heterocarpa
, a native of Iberia, is an aromatic flower (yellow or greenish in color) that was thought to be especially efficacious against spells and enchantments.

If the Japanese were not wild about rosewater or angelicas this was because they were not used to such scents, which were much sweeter than their own plum blossom or incense. Even today the Japanese feel that Westerners use perfumes that are too powerful. However, it would be remiss not to mention one scent the Japanese do appreciate: thick peels from oranges that are placed in bathwater.

48. We greatly esteem the scent from balsamic resins, calendulas, etc.; the Japanese think they are strong and cannot tolerate them, nor do they find them pleasing
.

Calendulas or marigolds are said to have a scent that resembles the smell of hops, which might help explain why they were esteemed by Europeans.
⁸⁷
The Japanese also found balsamic resins or benzoin offensive or “too strong.” One wonders if the occasional bathing of Europeans, as opposed to the daily bathing of the Japanese, had something to do with the differences in their attitudes toward scents.

1
  Between 1528 and 1590, the population of Lisbon went from 70,000 to over 120,000. Vitorino Magalháes Godinho,
A Estrutura Da Antiga Sociedade Portuguesa
(Lisbon: Arcádia, 1980), 27. See also Raffaella Sarti, “The Material Conditions of Family Life.” In
The History of the European Family, Volume I, Family Life in Early Modern Times
, 1500–1789, eds. David I. Kertzer and Marzio Barbagli, pp. 11–23 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001), 7; Damião de Góis,
Lisbon in the Renaissance, A New Translation of Urbis Olisiponis Descriptio
, trans. Jeffrey S. Ruth (Ithaca, N.Y.: Ithaca Press, 1996[1554]); A.R. Disney,
A History of Portugal and the Portuguese Empire
(Cambridge; Cambridge University Press, 2009), 148.

2
  Basil Hall Chamberlain,
Things Japanese, Being Notes on Various Subjects Connected with Japan
. Fourth revised and enlarged edition (London: John Murray, 1902), 24; Edward S. Morse,
Japanese Homes and Their Surroundings
(New York: Dover Publications, 1961[1886]). The latter is still considered an excellent source on Japanese architecture.

3
  See Fumio Hashimoto,
Architecture in the Shoin Style: Japanese Feudal Residences
, trans. H.M. Horton (Tokyo: Kodansha and Shibundo, 1981).

4
  The contemporary situation in Japan is summarized well by Richard Ronald, “Homes and houses, senses and spaces.” In
Home and Family in Japan
, eds. R. Ronald and A. Alexy, pp. 174–200 (London: Routledge, 2011).

5
  Sarti, “The Material Conditions of Family Life,” 4.

6
  Orlando Ribeiro,
Geografia e Civilização: Temas Portuguesas
(Lisbon: Livros Horizontes, 1992), 31; A. H. de Oliveira Marques,
Daily Life in Portugal in the Late Middle Ages
(Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1971), 97.

7
  Michael Cooper,
They Came to Japan
(Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1965), 216–217.

8
  Marques,
Daily Life in Portugal
, 117, 119 (fig. 67).

9
  Nicole C. Rousmaniere,“Tea Ceremony Utensils & Ceramics.” In
Japan's Golden Age, Momoyama
, ed. Money L. Hickman, pp. 203–236 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1996), 206.

10
  Edward S. Morse,
Japanese Homes and Their Surroundings
(New York: Dover, 1961[1886]), 93.

11
  
Chanoyu
, which transliterates as “tea's hot-water,” refers to what is commonly called the tea ceremony. In Japanese, different words are used for hot water (
yu
), water (
mizu
) and cold water (
ohiya
).

12
  See especially João Rodrigues, Arte del Cha, ed. J.L. Alvarez-Taladriz.
Monumenta Nipponica Monographs 14
(Tokyo: Sophia University, [1620]1954, 81–96

13
  João Rodrigues,
This Island of Japon
, trans. and ed., Michael Cooper (Tokyo: Kodansha International Limited, 1973[1620]), 264.

14
  See Dennis Hirota,
Wind in the Pines, Classic Writings of the Way of Tea as a Buddhist Path
(Fremont, California: Asian Humanities Press, 1995).

15
  Engelbert Kaempfer,
The History of Japan, Together With a Description of the Kingdom of Siam, 1690–92
. 3 Vols. Glasgow: James MacLehose and Sons, 1906[1690–92]), II, 319.

16
  See C.R. Boxer, ed.
South China in the sixteenth century, being the narratives of Galeote Pereira, Fr. Gaspar da Cruz, O.P. [and] Fr. Martín de Rada, O.E.S.A
. (
1550–1575)
(London: Hakluyt Society, 1953), 99.

17
  
Zaxiqis
.

18
  Most window glass in Frois' Europe was made from blown glass cylinders that were opened into sheets. Such windows were generally small and relatively expensive, as compared with windows with “panes” of paper, pressed horn, or oiled canvas.

19
  Marques,
Daily Life in Portugal
, 121–122.

20
  Dias, “The Manueline,” 32–34.

21
  Rodrigues,
This Island of Japon
, 264–265.

22
  The Portuguese original is corrupted. Although Schütte suggests ‘houses,' it seems that ‘rooms' (from ‘
camaras
') is more probable, given that this is the term Frois uses in both 7 and 8 above. It appears that “rooms” is also the referent in 11 and 12 below.

23
  Ricardo de la Fuente Ballesteros, ed. and trans.,
Tratado sobre las contradicciones y diferencias de costumbres entre los europeos y japoneses por Luis Frois
(Salamanca: Ediciones Universidad de Salamanca, 2003[1585]), 103, suggests that the term is from the Arabic
gadaamesii
, which, according to Corominas and Pascal, refers to the Libyan city of Gadames, where this famous item was made. The word is documented as early as the twelfth century, in the poem
El Cid
. In Spanish the word is rendered as
guadamecíes
(plural of guadamecí).

24
  
Panos de Frandes
.

25
  
Beobus
[
byôbu
], or in Portuguese,
biombo
.

26
  Pedro Dias, “Manueline Art.” In
Museum With No Frontiers Exhibition The Manueline, Portuguese Art During the Great Discoveries
, pp. 22–38 (Lisbon: Programa de Incremento do Turismo Cultural, 2002), 34.

27
  Lisa Jardine,
Worldly Goods: a New History of The Renaissance
(New York: Nan A. Talese, 1996).

28
  Marques,
Daily Life in Portugal
, 131–132.

29
  For some examples of these screens, which depict Japanese interaction with Europeans, see Money L. Hickman, ed.,
Japan's Golden Age: Momoyama
(New Haven: Yale University Press, 1996); Yukio Lippit,“Os Biombos Dos Bárbaros Do Sul.” In
Portugal E O Mundo Nos Séculos XVI E XVII
, 343–354 (Lisbon: Museu Nacional de Arte Antíga, 2009). See also
Naban Art: A Loan Exhibition from Japanese Collections
, eds. Shin'ichi Tani and Tadashi Sugase (International Exhibitions Foundation, 1973).

30
  Rosamond Mack,
Bazaar to Piazza: Islamic Trade and Italian Art, 1300–1600
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001).

31
  Dias, “Manueline Art, 34.

32
  Shinano Kyoiku-kai, ed.,
Issa Zenshuu
, Vol. 1, Hokku. (Nagano: Shinano Mainichi Shinbunsha, 1979), 377.