A Japanese Robinson Crusoe

Chapter III. At Yezo Island

C h a p t e r I I I At Yezo Island A young man is naturally strong and vigorous. He has a great variety of thoughts and feelings. Having many thoughts, his wisdom and wit gush forth like a spring of water. Having much feeling, his heart is easily moved. He has strong impulses, therefore he loves an active life rather than a quiet one. Truly, youth is like a glorious day of spring. It is the time of seed sowing, and whether this seed grows or decays depends upon the care taken of it. There is no other season so dangerous for a man as the days of his youth. The father or mother needs a strong hand to hold the reins straight and direct him safely through those hazardous days. My father had now given up his hold of the bridle and rod, and he left me to run freely the wide world over, under the guidance of my greater Father in heaven. I started from my father’s house and turned my feet toward Akita, my native province. When I arrived there, the first thing I did was to look up a relative. The old lady was pleased to see me and welcomed me kindly, but as soon as she heard that I had left my father’s house and become a wanderer, her initial welcome turned to coldness. “Well, well! I am, then, a perfect stranger to you; I am not your relative any more,” she said briefly. She gave me a little food wrapped in a paper, “I give you this for my part of hospitality. I want you to take this and get away from here at once!” Such is the real condition of heathen friendship. “Heaven will reward you openly.” I left her that word and departed hast- 49 ily for the Island of Yezo, to work and die, I imagined, with the poor Ainu. Yezo Island is situated in the northeastern part of the Japanese empire. Its original inhabitants are the Ainu people, the uncivilized race that once occupied the main Island of Japan. The origin of the Ainu is generally believed to be the same as that of the Mongols. But they are more like the ancient Jewish people. Some writer has said: “The Ainu are the descendants of the sailors and gold hunters sent out by King Solomon to gain spoils for his temple at Jerusalem.” They are good-natured, brave, and faithful people, though perhaps stupid, it may be. Among them there is no alphabet, no writing of any sort, and no number above a thousand. During the summer months they live in rude huts which are thickly covered with bamboo leaves and straw. Their daily labor in summer is chiefly fishing and hunting to prepare the winter stores; and when the snowy months begin, most of them, excepting the chiefs and the more important ones, dwell in caves in the mountains. “A century ago the Ainu were living in the Stone Age. They are beyond it now only because they have obtained knives from the Japanese. The stone arrow-heads, which one may pick up almost anywhere, even in the ploughed fields of Hakodate, have given way to heads of bamboo or iron. Their language is still a puzzle; their traditions and myths are scarcely known except to a few students. They seem incapable of advancement. After a century of contact with the Japanese, they have learned no arts, adopted no improvements. The hunter to-day shoots the bear with poisoned arrow from a bow as primitive as early man himself , although the Japanese are famous for their archery and weapons.” The Ainu, like other savages, refuse to live with civilized people. So when the Japanese settled a part of the seacoast on Yezo Island, they gradually left their villages and towns for the interior, where perhaps no human foot was ever planted before. On that account, when I arrived at Hakodate, the chief sea50 Chapter III port of that island, I could not find any Ainu people near the town. So I decided to make a long journey into the interior. I bought all necessary things, such as a tent, a small kettle and a pan, a pistol, a knife, and some provisions. I started then toward the northwest, directed by my small pocket compass. The journey was a painful one. For there...