Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 37, Number 26, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 April 1905 — AFFECTION IN JAPAN. [ARTICLE]

AFFECTION IN JAPAN.

M 1. Deep find Lasting, but, as a Rule, Not Outspoken. Public demonstration of affection is most repugnant to the good taste of the Japanese, and it is the absence of this which is so generally mistaken for a lack of genuine feeling. I recall one man who was so devoted to his mother (though I doubt whether he could ever have been said to have “talked about” her) that when she died, while he was abroad, his depression was so profound that my husband watched him with anxiety lest he Should commit suicide. The stoical training may render more unsympathetic a coarse nature, but repression to the refined soul brings an exquisite capacity for pain scarcely conceivable by those who are .free to give utterance to every emotion. Another man said to me, “I rarely speak of my mothef, for a foreigner does not understand that a Japanese mother may be just as dear to her son as his to him and by the Japanese it is not expected that one should utter one’s deepest feeling." That same son fainted with grief when his mother died and when consciousness returned rose to make light of a “little dizziness," without reference to its cause. To this day, whenever he goes from home, he carries with him his mother’s letters, mounted on a beautiful roll of ivory and brocade, and on the anniversary of her passing beyond his mortal ken quietly devotes a portion of the day to meditation and special thought" of her. Even to his wife, despite the closest bond of love, he says not, “This is the day of my mother’s death.”—Outlook.