the body, but perhaps to save
father or kin from ruin or starvation. The Yoshiwara has, of course,
other recruits, but in the main its inmates are not the victims of
lust but of self-sacrifice. There is too often a whole tragedy in the
story of a Japanese girl of this kind, and it is deplorable when the
self-righteous European comes along and points the finger of scorn at
her. I am aware that though not despised, as in this country, the lot
of the inmate of the Yoshiwara is often, if not always, a horrible
one. She is, as a rule, sold, or sells herself, for a lump sum of
money to which amount is added the cost of her outfit, usually as much
as the price paid to the woman or her relatives. Until this amount was
worked off--and the accounts were, of course, not over accurately
kept--the woman was to all intents the chattel of her master. This
has, undoubtedly, for many centuries been the custom of the country. I
am glad, however, to be able to state that quite recently the highest
court in Japan has decided that, whatever custom may have decreed, the
law gives, and will give, no sanction to any such custom. A girl
confined in the Yoshiwara was forcibly taken away therefrom. The owner
of the house in which she resided, as her debt had not been
liquidated, considered he had a lien upon her, and he invoked the aid
of the law to assist him to assert what he considered to be his rights
and retake possession of the girl. The case was strenuously fought and
taken to several courts, with the result I have stated. This decision
will probably have far-reaching effects and declaring, as it does,
that the inmates of the Yoshiwara are not slaves or chattels, it is to
be cordially welcomed.

The assertion of Miss Bird, already referred to, that the manhood of
Japan is enslaved and degraded by vice is one which I have no
hesitation in describing as gross exaggeration. Vice, of course, there
is in Japan, vice of various kinds and degrees, but the ordinary
Japanese man is not, in my opinion, nearly so immoral as the average
European. The chastity of the Japanese woman I place still higher. The
fact, already stated, that the inmates of the Yoshiwara are not
generally recruited from those who have lapsed from virtue might be
urged in proof of this. Nor is the fact that prostitution is not in
Japan regarded with the same loathing as in this country, in my
opinion, to be taken as any evidence of an immoral tone. The ideas
that obtain on the