FROM The Life and Letters of Saint Francis Xavier, (Letter LXXIX, 1549-1552):
“We shall write to you about Japan, just as far as we get acquainted with it, and what we ourselves have learnt. In the first place, the nation with which we have had to do here surpasses in goodness any of the nations lately discovered. I really think that among barbarous nations there can be none that has more natural goodness than the Japanese. They are of a kindly disposition, not at all given to cheating, wonderfully desirous of honour and rank. Honour with them is placed above every thing else. There are a great many poor among them, but poverty is not a disgrace to any one. There is one thing among them of which I hardly know whether it is practised anywhere among Christians. The nobles, however poor they may be, receive the same honour from the rest as if they were rich; nor can any noble, however poor and needy, be induced to contract marriage with even the richest plebeian. They think that by coming down to ally themselves with plebeians they lose a great deal of dignity and estimation, and thus it is that they despise riches in comparison with dignity. They have a great many observances of courtesy among themselves. They are very fond of arms and weapons, and rely upon them very much. The highest and lowest alike always wear their swords and daggers—even boys of fourteen years of age. They never bear an insult either in word or deed.
“The common people pay very great respect to the nobles, and these in their turn think it a great honour to themselves to wait on the Kings and Princes and obey their word. They seem to me to do this rather from their desire of honour than out of fear, lest by not behaving thus they should lose anything of their own dignity. They are sparing and frugal in eating, but not in drink. The wine they drink is made of rice, for here there is no other. They abhor dice and gaming as things highly disgraceful, because gamesters are greedy of other men’s goods, and their desire of gain leads them on to the desire of stealing. They seldom swear, but when they do, they swear by the sun. Most of them can read, and this is a great help to them for the easy understanding of our usual prayers and the chief points of our holy religion. They have not more than one wife. There are few thieves among them, and this is on account of the severity of the punishments inflicted for theft, as all thieves are put to death. So there is no kind of theft which they do not hate in a remarkable degree. They are wonderfully inclined to all that is good and honest, and have an extreme eagerness to learn.”
