Introduction:
I originally came to Japan just to see the sights of the amazing far East. I've heard so much about the amazing religious structures and the astounding way of life these people have. I, however, have become very interested in the treatment of children and the schooling system over here, as a teacher myself. These children are quite coddled! A child of these ages would be already at work in a factory when I was their age, not lazing about playing games. It seems as though schooling is very important to the families of these children, as well as it should be in today's world. The children in these schools seem to be very invested in work, but after school they have play and do not do any of the chores we have deemed for children. I, of course, have toys for my children, but how are they to get the farm work done if they have so much time dedicated to play? I think the family values of this culture are very strange, as the mother often takes care of the child far into maturation. These children are 5 to 10 years old and still getting special treatment? I find this interesting, and have collected a few interesting photographs with which to continue to show my point.
This child is enjoying his toy boat in a tub of water. This tub is one that would be used for washing, so in order to save water the child uses the dirty water left over after his mother cleans all of the clothes. The child himself is practically naked, wearing what looks like an apron. His kimono was probably washed by his mother, so he's currently waiting for it in whatever he could find. The boat was most likely bought at a store or fashioned by his father. There is a big smile on his face because he's having fun playing with his toys, and you know how boys like to both get a little dirty and run around without their skivvies on.
Here, a native girl-child is pouring tea for a boy, possibly a brother. These women are taught early on to serve the men, and by the time they are adults, are completely subservient to their fathers and husbands. They both are wearing kimono, which are worn by men and women of any ages over here. They are decorated cloth tied closed with a thicker strip of cloth, usually silk for the wealthy. The Japanese have this particular way of making tea that occurs in a "tea ceremony," which usually ends up with the woman serving the man tea. The tea is a peculiar green liquid referred to as matcha. The matcha can come in either thin (薄茶 ) or thick (濃茶), although i personally find the thin to be more like traditional English tea. I think the thinner tea is the more pricey and rare as well, since it is like the tea we have back home. These children are practicing very well for their future, and I commend their studies after class, unlike the children at play. Both of these children will be well prepared to take on their respective roles in the household.
Dolls are very popular toys for children in Japan. A lot of effort goes into making the doll and the kimono to go with it. Dolls are used as a teaching tactic for early family life, so they come in either gender for the children to play with. These dolls are made to look like them in order to install some maternal instinct that will kick in in the future. The mother's of these children will work for hours sewing clothing for these dolls, since the children do nothing but play here. I have not once seen an image of a Japanese child sewing, or doing much of anything besides playing. The parents also seem more invested in letting them play, as when the Father gets home he does not reprimand the child for not doing housework. Children get very dressed up all of the time, no matter what they are doing. Here the children are in full kimono, just to sit in the house and play. It's like wearing your sunday's best every day, no matter what your plans are.
This image is startling, and i knew when i saw it, i had to have it. These children are meeting each other in order for their parents to find if they are suitable for each other in marriage. The children will only meet a handful of times before they are finally married by the age of 10. This is very similar to the cultural practices I have heard of in other countries in the Orient. Children are taught early on how to be a good wife and take care of children in order to be more appealing to their male counterpart and their father. In this image the girl is showing the boy a garden, possibly one she helped plant, in order to prove she can provide food and bring a cultivation skill to their future family. The boy is very impressed and has picked some of the flowers to bring back to his family to show them the skills this girl has.
There are school systems in Japan, and they are pretty decent. They seem to be based slightly on how we run our schools, with some changes. Most children, no matter social status, are able to go to school now. Actually, I believe it is mandatory for schooling. Lunches in Japan are quite an affair, as you receive a lot of food. Children in this image are probably dining on rice with some kind of meat, most likely fish. They don't seem to eat too much beef, although not for the same reason the people of India seem to not eat beef. These children have perfected the art of eating with chopsticks, probably because they have never encountered a fork before. Lord knows they'd make the switch right away. There are a lot of girls in this image, as there are not many girls in my classes back home. Many families are too poor to send their sons and daughters, so they usually just send their sons. Here, it seems like school exists on government handed-out spots, and not dependent on how wealthy you are.
Analysis
Most globetrotters captions were made about events they were not actually around to witness. A lot of my made up globetrotters captions pretended as though i was there, watching this little boy play, or these children eating. My GT is very interested in children and their interactions, especially how little they seem to work. This is because, around this time in Europe, children were just being granted freedom from child labor. Instead, European children were made to go to school, and then come home and work at the house, most likely tending a farm. Opposite gender children were generally kept separate also, so some of these images would be pretty shocking. There are a lot of assumptions made on little to know actual information on the East, such as arranging marriages and teaching women to serve husbands early. The majority of pictures being school images and play images would probably be what influenced my GT to claim that Japanese children do not work, however just because there are no images of it, doesn't mean it wasn't happening. Foreigners were more interested in domestics of women and children, and less about the chores children were doing, or what work they did outside of the home. There was also just a lot more understanding of children's needs to play, which is why they allowed for more freedom.
The strangest of the images has to be the one of the two girls playing with the dolls. The other images look candid enough that the children could be actually at play, but this one is very posed and unnatural. One girl looks at her doll, while the other girl looks at a spot on the floor with her doll seated next to her. Neither girl is facing each other or interacting with each other, so the image is very much for the viewer to feel as though they are peaking in on these children, and less about the actual act of playing. The child with the boat does look as though he's playing in a wash bucket, but I'd chalk that up to less dirty, more resourceful.
The image of the school children is very interesting because of the table they are seated at. It's not a traditional on-the-floor-with-cushions seating, but rather a Western style table. Meiji Japan was inspired by the Western school system, so they could have decided this was also an easier way to have children at this time eat, or this could have been a long changing tradition.
