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THE PRESENT JAPANESE EACE. 401
current and the Kuro-sivo, and it is possible that Japan may have in this way been
peopled from the Pacific or East Indian Archipelagoes. At the same time no
historic document mentions any voyages of this sort before the arrival of the
Europeans. The annals speak only of the relations of the Japanese with the neighbouring
islanders and with the peoples of the mainland, whence the communi-
cations were in any case more easily established. Passing from Hondo and Kiu-
siu to Iki, and thence by Tsu-sima and the Korean Archipelago to Korea itself,
mariners have the land always in sight, while, according
to the direction of the
trade winds, even light craft are constantly carried from one coast to the other.
Thus it was that the Kmaso or Yusu occupied simultaneously the south-east corner
of Korea and the country of the Yomodz or Neno Kumi in the west of Japan.
They were not " pacified," that is, subdued, till the second century of the vulgar
era. The Yamato, or Japanese properly so called, seem to have originally dwelt on
the southern shores of the archipelago facing the Pacific. But before any mention
occurs either of Ainos, Yusu, or Yamato, the islands were already peopled. On
the plain of Yedo and in several other parts of Nip-pon refuse heaps have been
found resembling the Danish Kjokkenmoddinger, and containing, besides shells
different from the living species, earthenware and human bones mingled with those
of monkeys, deer, wild boars, wolves, and dogs. The race associated with these
remains would seem to have been anthropophagi.
THE PRESENT JAPANESE RACE.
Ethnologists have attempted to describe the characteristic Japanese type.
although at first sight few differences are detected, foreigners residing
But
in the
country soon begin to distinguish two distinct types, which correspond partly
to two
social classes, and which the native artists have at all times reproduced and even
exaggerated. These types are those of the peasants and the aristocracy. The
features of the peasant approach nearest to those of the East Asiatic peoples. He
has the same broad, flat face, crushed nose, low brow, prominent cheek bones, half
open mouth, small black and oblique eyes. He is best represented in the northern
division of Hondo, in the low-lying plain of the Tone-gava and on the highlands
stretching west of Kioto. The nobles are distinguished by their lighter complexion,
more pliant and less vigorous body, more elongated head, elevated brow and oval
face. The cheek bones are but slightly prominent, the nose aquiline, mouth small,
eyes very small and apparently oblique. Artists have accepted this aristocratic
type as the ideal of beauty, transferring it to their gods and heroes, and exaggerating
it in their portraits of women. Being found chiefly in the Kioto district and
on the slope facing the Pacific, it has been argued that these features belonged to a
conquering "Polynesian" element from the eastern islands. But all shades of
transition are now found between the two extremes, and owing to crossings and
shiftings of fortune many of the nobles might be taken for plebeians, while the oval
face and aquiline nose of the aristocracy are often found amongst the lower classes.
On the whole, the Japanese face, with its olive complexion, lozenge shape and