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[Illustration: SHIO YA SAKAE]




  WHEN I WAS A BOY
  IN JAPAN

  BY
  SAKAE SHIOYA

  _ILLUSTRATED FROM PHOTOGRAPHS_

  [Illustration]

  BOSTON
  LOTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD CO.




  Published, August, 1906.


  COPYRIGHT, 1906, BY LOTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD CO.


  _All Rights Reserved._


  WHEN I WAS A BOY IN JAPAN.


  Norwood Press
  Berwick & Smith Co.
  Norwood, Mass., U. S. A.




PREFACE


Japanese boys have not been introduced very much to their little
American friends, and the purpose of this book is to provide an
introduction by telling some of the experiences which are common to
most Japanese boys of the present time, together with some account of
the customs and manners belonging to their life. I can at least claim
that the story is told as it could be only by one who had actually
lived the life that is portrayed. I have endeavored to hold the
interest of my young readers by bringing in more or less of amusement.
The little girl companion is introduced to widen the interest and add
somewhat more of the story element than would otherwise be present. The
sketches composing the various chapters are necessarily disconnected,
but they form a series of pictures, priceless at least to the author,
which foreign eyes have seldom been allowed to see.

                                                           SAKAE SHIOYA.

    YALE UNIVERSITY, 1905.




CONTENTS


  CHAPTER I.: MY INFANCY.
    How I Looked--My Name--Walking--In Tea Season--My
    Toys--“Kidnapped”--O-dango                                         9

  CHAPTER II.: AT HOME.
    Introduction--Dinner--Rice--Turning to Cows--A Bamboo
    Dragon-fly--A Watermelon Lantern--On a Rainy Evening--The
    Story of a Badger                                                 23

  CHAPTER III.: THE VILLAGE SCHOOL.
    A Mimic School--Preparations--The School--How Classes Are
    Conducted--Out of Tune--A Moral Story--School
    Discipline--Playthings--“Knife Sense”                             35

  CHAPTER IV.: IN TOKYO.
    Where We Settled--A Police Stand--Stores--“Broadway”--
    Illumination--The Foreign Settlement                              51

  CHAPTER V.: MY NEW SCHOOL.
    Tomo-chan--The Men with Wens--A Curious Punishment--How I
    Experienced It--Kotoro-Kotoro                                     62

  CHAPTER VI.: CHINESE EDUCATION.
    My Chinese Teacher--How I Was Taught--Versification--My
    Uncle--Clam Fishing--A Flatfish                                   76

  CHAPTER VII.: AN EVENING FÊTE.
    My Father--His Love for Potted Trees--A Local Fête--Show
    Booths--Goldfish Booths--Singing Insects--How a Potted Tree
    Was Bought                                                        91

  CHAPTER VIII.: SUMMER DAYS.
    A Swimming School--How I Was Taught to Swim--Diving--The Old
    Home Week--Return of the Departed Souls--Visiting the Ancestral
    Graves--The Memorable Night--A Village Dance                     102

  CHAPTER IX.: THE ENGLISH SCHOOL.
    A Night at the Dormitory--Beginning English--Grammar--
    Pronunciation--School Moved--Mother’s Love                       114

  CHAPTER X.: A BOY ASTRONOMER.
    What I Intended to Be--My Aun View--My Parents’ Approval--My
    Uncle’s Enthusiasm--The Total Eclipse of the Sun                 128

  CHAPTER XI.: IN THE SUBURBS.
    A Novel Experiment--Removal--Our New
    House--Angling--Tomo-chan’s Visit                                143




ILLUSTRATIONS


                                                                    PAGE

  SAKAE SHIOYA                                   _Portrait Frontispiece_

  A JAPANESE HOUSE                                                    22

  A JAPANESE SCHOOL SCENE                                             40

  THE JAPANESE “BROADWAY”                                             56

  A TYPICAL JAPANESE STREET                                           90

  A JAPANESE SCHOOL OF THE PRESENT DAY                               120




WHEN I WAS A BOY IN JAPAN




CHAPTER I

MY INFANCY

    How I Looked--My Name--Walking--In Tea Season--My
    Toys--“Kidnapped”--O-dango.


I suppose I don’t need to tell you exactly, my little friends, when
and where I was born, because Japanese names are rather hard for you
to remember, and then I don’t want to disclose my age. Suffice it to
say that I was once a baby like all of you and my birthplace was about
