,illustration3 ,,the ,,great ,,statue ,,of ,,buddha ,,at ,,kamakura ,,an ,,artist',s ,,letters ,,from ,,japan ,,by ,,john ,,la ,,farge ,illustration ,,new ,,york ,,the ,,century ,,co4 #ahig ,copyright1 #ahij1 #ahia1 #ahic1 #ahig1 ,by ,,the ,,century ,,co4 ,,the ,,de ,,vinne ,,press4 ,,to ,,henry ,,adams1 ,,esq4 ,my ,dear ,adams3 ,without you ,i should not have seen the place1 without you ,i should not have seen the things of which these notes are impressions4 ,if anything worth repeating has been said by me in these letters1 it has probably come from you1 or has been suggested by being with you--perhaps even in the way of contradiction4 ,and you may be amused by the lighter talk of the artist that merely describes appearances1 or covers them with a tissue of dreams4 ,and you alone will know how much has been withheld that might have been indiscreetly said4 ,if only we had found ,nirvana--but he was right who warned us that we were late in this season of the world4 ,j4 ,l4 ,f4 ,illustration3 ,,which ,,in ,,english ,,means3 ,,and ,,you ,,too1 ,,okakura ,,san3 ,i wish to put your name before these notes1 written at the time when ,i first met you1 because the memories of your talks are connected with my liking of your country and of its story1 and because for a time you were ,japan to me4 ,i hope1 too1 that some thoughts of yours will be detected in what ,i write1 as a stream runs through grass--hidden1 perhaps1 but always there4 ,we are separated by many things besides distance1 but you know that the blossoms scattered by the waters of the torrent shall meet at its end4 ,,contents ,,page ,,an ,,artist',s ,,letters ,,from ,,japan #a ,,from ,,tokio ,,to ,,nikko #bi ,,the ,,shrines ,,of ,,iy,,yas ,,and ,,iy,,mits ,,in ,,the ,,holy ,,mountain ,,of ,,nikko #eb ,,iy,,mits #he ,,tao3 ,,the ,,way #ii ,,japanese ,,architecture #aai ,,bric--,,brac #abh ,,sketching #aei ,,nirvana #age ,,sketching4--,,the ,,flutes ,,of ,,iy,,yas #ahe ,,sketching4--,,the ,,pagoda ,,in ,,rain #aic ,,from ,,nikko ,,to ,,kamakura #aie ,,nikko ,,to ,,yokohama #bjb ,,yokohama--,,kamakura #baf ,,kioto #bcj ,a ,,japanese ,,day4--,,from ,,kioto ,,to ,,gifu #bec ,,from ,,kambara ,,to ,,miyanoshita--,a ,,letter ,,from ,a ,,kago #bfe ,,postscript #bhj ,,appendix #bha ,,illustrations ,,page ,,the ,,great ,,statue ,,of ,,buddha ,,at ,,kamakura4 ,,frontispiece4 ,,the ,,kuruma #e ,,castle1 ,,and ,,moat ,,with ,,lotus #i ,,at ,,the ,,well #aa ,,ancient #ae ,n ,,dancer ,,with ,,mask1 ,,representing ,,the ,,sak ,,imp #ai ,,modern #bc ,,the ,,lake ,,in ,,uy,,no ,,park #bh ,a ,,torii #cb ,,our ,,runner #cf ,,in ,,the ,,great ,,avenue ,,of ,,cryptomeria #ci ,,nikko-,,san #dc ,,the ,,waterfall ,,in ,,our ,,garden #dg ,,portrait-,,statue ,,of ,,iy,,yas ,,in ,,ceremonial ,,dress #ec ,,avenue ,,to ,,temple ,,of ,,iy,,yas #ee ,,sketch ,,of ,,statue ,,of ,,iy,,yas ,,tokugawa #eg ,,stable ,,of ,,sacred ,,horses #fa ,,sacred ,,font #fe ,,young ,,priest #fh ,,details ,,of ,,bases ,,of ,,cloister ,,walls1 ,,inner ,,court #ga ,,detail ,,of ,,cloister ,,walls1 ,,inner ,,court #ge ,,lintel1 ,,bracket ,,capital #gg ,,inside ,,the ,,cat ,,gate--,,gate ,,to ,,the ,,tomb #gi ,,tomb ,,of ,,iy,,yas1 ,,tokugawa #hc ,,looking ,,down ,,on ,,the ,,water-,,tank1 ,,or ,,sacred ,,font1 ,,from ,,the ,,second ,,gate #hg ,a ,,priest ,,at ,,iy,,mits #hh ,,in ,,the ,,third ,,gate ,,of ,,the ,,temple ,,of ,,iy,,mits1 ,,looking ,,toward ,,the ,,fourth #ia ,a ,,priest ,,at ,,iy,,mits #ic ,,kuwanon1 ,,by ,,okio #id ,,entrance ,,to ,,the ,,tomb ,,of ,,iy,,mits #if ,,painting ,,by ,,chin-,,nan-,,pin #ace ,,signature ,,of ,,hokusai #adi ,,inscription ,,on ,,old ,,lacquer #aeb ,,inscription ,,from ,,ho-,,riu-,,ji #aee ,,bed ,,of ,,the ,,dayagawa1 ,,nikko #afa ,,mountains ,,in ,,fog ,,before ,,our ,,house #afe ,,portrait ,,of ,a ,,priest #afi ,,old ,,pagoda ,,near ,,the ,,priests' ,,houses #aga ,,statue ,,of ,,oya ,,jizo #agg ,,peasant ,,girls ,,and ,,mountain ,,horses ,,of ,,nikko #aha ,,our ,,landlord ,,the ,,buddhist ,,priest #ahg ,,kioto ,,in ,,fog--,,morning #bca ,,peasant ,,woman--,,thresher #bci ,a ,,pilgrim #bdg ,,fusi-,,yama ,,from ,,kambara ,,beach #beg ,,fishing ,,with ,,cormorants #bfa ,,peasant ,,carrying ,,fodder1 ,,and ,,bull ,,carrying ,,load #bfg ,a ,,runner ,,in ,,the ,,rain #bge ,,an ,,artist',s ,,letters ,,from ,,japan ,,yokohama1 ,july #c1 #ahhf4 ,arrived yesterday4 ,on the cover of the letter which ,i mailed from our steamer ,i had but time to write3 ,we are coming in2 it is like the picture books4 ,anything that ,i can add will only be a filling in of detail4 ,we were in the great bay when ,i came up on deck in the early morning4 ,the sea was smooth like the brilliant blank paper of the prints2 a vast surface of water reflecting the light of the sky as if it were thicker air4 ,far-off streaks of blue light1 like finest washes of the brush1 determined distances4 ,beyond1 in a white haze1 the square white sails spotted the white horizon and floated above it4 ,the slackened beat of the engine made a great noise in the quiet waters4 ,distant high hills of foggy green marked the new land2 nearer us1 junks of the shapes you know1 in violet transparency of shadow1 and five or six war-ships and steamers1 red and black1 or white1 looking barbarous and out of place1 but still as if they were part of us2 and spread all around us a fleet of small boats1 manned by rowers standing in robes flapping about them1 or tucked in above their waists4 ,there were so many that the crowd looked blue and white--the color of their dresses repeating the sky in prose4 ,still1 the larger part were mostly naked1 and their legs and arms and backs made a great novelty to our eyes1 accustomed to nothing but our ship1 and the enormous space1 empty of life1 which had surrounded us for days4 ,the muscles of the boatmen stood out sharply on their small frames4 ,they had almost all--at least those who were young--fine wrists and delicate hands1 and a handsome setting of the neck4 ,the foot looked broad1 with toes very square4 ,they were excitedly waiting to help in the coaling and unloading1 and soon we saw them begin to work1 carrying great loads with much good-humored chattering4 ,around us played the smallest boats with rowers standing up and sculling4 ,then the market-boat came rushing to us1 its standing rowers bending and rising1 their thighs rounding and insteps sharpening1 what small garments they had fluttering like scarfs1 so that our fair missionaries turned their backs to the sight4 ,illustration ,two boys struggling at the great sculls in one of the small boats were called by us out of the crowd1 and carried us off to look at the outgoing steamer1 which takes our mail1 and which added its own confusion and its attendant crowd of boats to all the animation on the water4 ,delicious and curious moment1 this first sense of being free from the big prison of the ship2 of the pleasure of directing one's own course2 of not understanding a word of what one hears1 and yet of getting at a meaning through every sense2 of being close to the top of the waves on which we dance1 instead of looking down upon them from the tall ship's sides2 of seeing the small limbs of the boys burning yellow in the sun1 and noticing how they recall the dolls of their own country in the expression of their eyes2 how every little detail of the boat is different1 and yet so curiously the same2 and return to the first sensation of feeling while lying flat on the bottom of the boat1 at the level of our faces the tossing sky-blue water dotted with innumerable orange copies of the sun4 ,then subtle influences of odor1 the sense of something very foreign1 of the presence of another race1 came up with the smell of the boat4 ,illustration ,we climbed up the side of the big steamer and found the ,doctor there1 who told us that he had been expecting us for a whole month2 so that he soon took possession of us1 and we found ourselves in the hotel launch1 and at the wharf1 and passing the custom house and its officers1 who let everything go through quickly except my suspicious water-color blocks4 ,outside of the gate1 in the street1 we found the long-expected jinrikisha1 an arrangement that you know probably as well as ,i do--a two-wheeled perambulator or gig1 very small1 with a hood that is usually lowered1 and with a man in the shafts4 ,our fellows were in blue-black clothes1 a big inscription on their backs2 and they wore apron-like vests1 close-fitting trousers1 and broad straw hats poised on their heads4 ,but you know all about these2 and ,i have only to add that we were trundled off to our hotel1 along the pretty quay which edges that part of the town1 past ,european houses1 unlike ours1 and having a certain character which will probably appear very commonplace later1 because it is not beautiful1 but which is novel yet to us4 ,our hotel is also on the quay1 just at a corner where a canal breaks in1 and where we can see big walls and trees on the other side4 ,our rooms open on the water--that same blue water spangled with sunshine and fading into sky4 ,there men-of-war and steamers far out2 picturesque junks sailing past rapidly1 flattened out into mere edges of shadow and light against the sea and the sky1 their great hollow sterns with the rudder far inboard1 and sails which are open at the seams4 ,not far from us was a little sharp-pointed boat with a man fishing1 his big round hat as important as any part of the boat4 ,it was already late in the day4 ,european children were out with their ,japanese nurses2 from time to time a phaeton or a curricle passed with ,european occupants1 and even in this tremendous heat ladies rode out on horseback4 ,but the human beings are not the novelty1 not even the ,japanese2 what is absorbingly new is the light1 its whiteness1 its silvery milkiness4 ,we have come into it as through an open door after fourteen gray days of the ,pacific which ended only at sunrise this very morning4 ,and we looked again at all the light outside1 from the dining-room1 where we lunched1 where the waiters slipped about in black clothes like those of the runners1 and where we were joined at table by a foreign gentleman with high cheek-bones1 yellow face1 and slanting eyes1 and dressed in the latest ,european fashion with high collar1 four-in-hand scarf1 and pointed shoes4 ,he was very courteous1 and managed what little ,english he used as skilfully as he dresses4 ,and he gave me a touch of the far ,east in the story of his being here2 for he is under a cloud1 an amiable exile whose return to his native land might involve his being boiled in oil1 or other ingenious form of death4 ,for well as he figured at luncheon with us1 ,i hear that he has been obliged to leave because of his having poisoned too many of his guests one day at table1--former enemies of his1--and because of his having despatched with the sword those whose digestion had resisted his efforts at conciliation4 ,however this may be1 his extradition is demanded2 to which he objects1 invoking ,western ideas of civilization1 and protesting that his excesses have been merely political4 ,then1 late in the afternoon1 we sauntered out into the ,japanese quarter--walking1 so that we might mingle with the gray1 black1 and blue crowd1 and respectfully followed by our jinrikisha men1 who slowly dragged our carriages behind them1 like grooms following their masters4 ,we stopped at little curio shops and bargained over miserable odds and ends1 calling up1 ,i feel sure1 the unexpressed contempt of the ,doctor1 the great collector of precious lacquers2 but it is so amusing to see things as they are1 and not as they should be4 ,we went into a show which had an enormous draped sign outside1 and where1 in uncertain darkness1 an old1 miserable1 distorted dwarf played the part of a spider in a web1 to the accompaniment of fiendish music and the declamation of the showman4 ,then we lingered outside of a booth in which a wrestling match was going on1 but did not enter1 and we saw the big wrestlers go in or come out1 their shoulders far above the heads of a smaller race of men1 and we turned at every moment to look at the children1 many of whom are so pretty1 and who seem to have an easy time of it4 ,men carry them in their arms as women do with us1 and many a little elder sister walks about with the infant of the family slung behind her maternal shoulders4 ,and then there are curious combinations of ,western and ,eastern dress--rarely successful4 ,our hats and shoes and umbrellas--all made here1 are used1 and our ugly shirts stiffen out the folds of the soft ,japanese robes2 but the multitude wear their usual dress and make no abuse of hats4 ,illustration3 ,,the ,,kuruma4 ,wearied by the novelty1 every detail of which1 however1 was known to us before1 we walked back in the white1 milky sunset1 which was like a brilliant twilight4 ,,july #e4 ,we made our first visit to town yesterday2 that is to say1 we went to ,tokio1 which is about twenty miles off4 ,of course we took our jinrikishas at the door of the hotel1 and passing through the wide ,yokohama streets1 saw the semi-,european houses1 some with high garden walls in which are small doors3 there are sidewalks1 too1 and ,european shops1 and ,colonial buildings1 post-office1 and telegraph office2 and the ,japanese kura1 or storehouses--heavy tile-roofed buildings with black and white earthen surfaces1 the black polished to a glaze1 as was done with ,greek and ,etruscan vases4 ,they have deep windows or doors1 recessed like our safes1 with a great air of solidity1 which contrasts with that temporary wooden structure1 the usual ,japanese house4 ,i came near saying that the little railway station is like ours2 but it is better than most of ours1 with neat arrangements4 ,we entered the little cars2 ,i noticed1 in the third class1 ,japanese curled up on the seats4 ,the grade is as level as a table1 the landscape is lovely1 and we saw the shapes we know so well in the prints--the curious shapes of the ,japanese pines2 little temples on the hillside2 and rice-fields with their network of causeways1 occasionally a horse or a peasant threading them4 ,the land is cultivated like a garden1 the lotus leaves fill the ditches1 and one or two pink flowers are just out4 ,from time to time we saw stretches of blue sea4 ,and once1 for an instant1 as ,i looked up into the hazy1 clouded sky1 far beyond the hills1 that were lost in the mist into which the rice-field stretched1 ,i saw a pale1 clear blue opening in which was an outline more distinct1 something very pure1 the edge of a mountain1 looking as if it belonged to another world than the dewy moist one in which we are--the cone of ,fusi-yama4 ,illustration3 ,,castle1 ,,and ,,moat ,,with ,,lotus4 99 99 99 99 99 ,on passing through the station1 very much like the other with its various arrangements for comfort and order1--first-1 second-1 and third-class rooms and so forth1--we met a crowd of jinrikishas with their runners1 or1 as my friends tell me to call them1 kuruma and kurumaya1 every man clamoring for patronage in the usual way of the hackman4 ,we selected as a leader ,chojiro1 who speaks ,english--a little2 is a traveled man1 having gone as far as ,constantinople2 wears the old-fashioned queue1 flattened forward over the top of his shaven head2 and whose naked feet were to run through the day over newly-macadamized roads1 for which a horse would need to be well shod4 ,a little way from us1 on the square1 stood the car of the tramway1 which runs as far as ,asakusa1 to the great popular temples of protecting divinities1 ,kuwanon and ,jizo1--and ,benten1 from whose shrine flowed one day copper coins as if from a fountain1--where ,buddhist sermons are preached daily2 which are full of innumerable images1 pictures1 and ex-votos2 and where prayer-wheels1 duly turned1 helped the worshiper to be free from annoying sins1 or to obtain his desires4 ,how shall ,i describe our ride through the enormous city8 ,we were going far across it to call on ,professor ,f----1 the great authority on ,japanese art1 and to be delighted and instructed by him through some fragments of his collection4 ,illustration3 ,,at ,,the ,,well4 ,in the first street where the tramway runs there are semi-,european faades to houses1 and in their pilasters the ,ionic capital has at length made the circle of the world4 ,then we took more ,oriental and narrower streets1 through the quarter of the gei-sha1 the dancers and singers who go out perpetually to put a finishing touch on entertainments4 ,at such early hours they are of course unseen4 ,where houses seemed more closed than usual servants were attending to household duties1 and we heard the occasional strum of a guitar4 ,then great streets again1 with innumerable low houses1 the usual shops1 like open sheds1 with swinging signs carved1 painted1 and gilded1 or with draperies of black cloth marked with white characters4 ,merchants sat on their mats among the crowded goods1 girls at corners drew water from the wells2 in a narrower street the black streak of a file of bulls peacefully dragging merchandise2 where the crowd was thickest a black-lacquered palanquin1 all closed1 in which was shut some obstinate adherent to ancient fashions4 ,then bridges and canals1 and great empty spaces1 long white walls with black copings1 and buildings that continued the walls1 with gratings like those of barracks4 ,these were the yashikis--inclosed residences of princes who were formerly obliged to spend part of the year at the seat of government with small armies of retainers4 ,then the walls of the castle1 great sloping ramparts of irregular blocks of masonry1 about which stand strangely twisted pine-trees1 while the great moats of clouded water are almost filled with the big leaves of the lotus4 ,now and then great gates of gray wood and enormous doors4 ,on some of the wide avenues we met cavalry officers in ,european costume1 correct in style1 most of the younger with straggling mustaches1 long and thin1 whence their nickname of horn-pouts1 naturally connected with that of the cats1 devourers of fish1 as the gei-sha are called4 ,near official buildings we saw a great deal of black frock-coats1 and trousers1 and spectacles4 ,everything was seen at a full run1 our runners dragging us at horse's pace4 ,still it was long before we reached our destination4 ,streets succeeded streets1 empty or full1 in desolate ,oriental wearisomeness4 ,at length we stopped at a little gate in a plank fence1 and entered a vast high space1 formerly a prince's park1 at one end of which we saw trees and hills1 and we came to the ,professor's house1 a little ,european structure4 ,my mind is yet too confused with many impressions to tell you of what we saw that afternoon and evening1 and what was said2 all the more that the few beautiful paintings we looked at out of the great collection lifted me away from to-day into an indefinite great past4 ,i dislike to use analogies1 but before these ancient religious paintings of ,buddhist divinities1 symbolical of the elements or of protective powers1 whose worn surfaces contained marvels of passionate delicacy and care framed in noble lines1 ,i could not help the recall of what ,i had once felt at the first sight of old ,italian art4 99 99 99 99 99 ,we passed from this sense of exalted peace to plunge again into the crowded streets at night4 ,it was late2 we had many miles to go to catch the last train2 two additional runners had been engaged for each kuruma--one to push1 one to be harnessed in front4 ,then began a furious ride4 ,mine was the last carriage4 ,we were whirled along with warning cries of ,hai-hai6 now into the dark1 then into some opening lighted by starlight1 in which ,i could see the flitting shapes of the other runners and of my companions4 ,i remember the creaking of their carriages1 the jerking of them with each pull of the men2 then our crossing suddenly other parties lighted by lanterns like ourselves1 the lights flaring upon yellow faces and dark dresses and black hair2 then our turning some narrow corner and plunging at full speed into lighted streets crowded with people1 through whom we seemed to cut our way4 ,much shouting of our men1 and dodging of wayfarers with lanterns and of bystanders who merely turn enough to let us glide by4 ,then one of my runners at full gallop struck a post and was left behind2 another was gathered in somehow without a stop1 and we tore through the city1 still more crowded as we came nearer to our end--the railway station4 ,we were in time1 and we slept in the now familiar train4 ,we reached the deserted station and were jogged peacefully to our hotel2 our men1 in ,japanese fashion1 sleepily turning out of the way of the ownerless dogs that lay in the middle of the streets4 ,and when ,i awoke in the morning ,i found that the day's impressions had faded in sleep to what ,i tell you4 ,illustration3 ,,ancient4 ,,july #f4 ,i have been asking myself whether it would be possible to have sensations as novel1 to feel as perfectly fresh1 things ,i knew almost all about beforehand1 had we come in any other way1 or arrived from any other quarter4 ,as it is1 all this ,japan is sudden4 ,we have last been living at home1 are shut up in a ship1 as if boxed in with our own civilization1 and then suddenly1 with no transition1 we are landed in another4 ,and under what splendor of light1 in what contrasting atmosphere6 ,it is as if the sky1 in its variations1 were the great subject of the drama we are looking at1 or at least its great chorus4 ,the beauty of the light and of the air is what ,i should like to describe1 but it is almost like trying to account for one's own mood--like describing the key in which one plays4 ,and yet ,i have not begun to paint1 and ,i dread the moment of beginning to work again4 ,rather have ,i felt like yielding entirely to the spirit in which ,i came1 the intention of a rest1 of a bath for the brain in some water absolutely alien4 ,a---- and ,i had undertaken that we should bring no books1 read no books1 but come as innocently as we could2 the only compromise my keeping a scientific ,japanese grammar1 which1 being ancient and unpractical1 might be allowed1 for it would leave me as unready as on the day ,i left4 99 99 99 99 99 ,the ,doctor took us on ,sunday afternoon to his club--whose name ,i think means the perfume of the maple--to see and to listen to some ,japanese plays which are given in the club theater built for the purpose4 ,we went there in the afternoon1 passing by the ,shiba temples1 and our kurumas were drawn up at one end of the buildings4 ,there everything was ,japanese1 though ,i hear stories of the other club and its ultra-,european ways--brandies-and-sodas1 single eyeglasses1 etc4 ,however that may be1 on this side we were in ,japan without mistake4 ,we sat on the steps and had our shoes taken off1 according to the ,japanese fashion1 so as not to injure mats1 and we could hear during the operation long wailings1 high notes1 and the piercing sound of flutes and stringed instruments2 the curiously sad rhythm mingled with a background of high1 distinct declamation4 ,we walked in with careful attention to make no noise1 forgetting that in our stocking-feet we could have made none had we wished1 and we found the ,doctor's place reserved for him and us1 and marked with his name1 written large4 ,other low boxes1 with sides no higher than our elbows as we sat on the mats1 divided the sloping floor down to the stage4 ,the stage was a pretty little building projecting into the great hall from its long side4 ,it had its own roof1 and connected with a long gallery or bridge1 along which the actors moved1 as they came on or disappeared1 in a manner new to us1 but which gave a certain natural sequence and made a beginning and an end1--a dramatic introduction and conclusion1--and added greatly to the picture when the magnificent dresses of stiff brocade dragged slowly along to the cadence of the music4 ,the boxes were mostly occupied1 and by a distinguished-looking audience2 the ,n1 as this operatic acting is called1 being a refined1 classical drama1 and looked upon differently from the more or less disreputable theater4 ,hence the large proportion of ladies1 to whom the theater is forbidden4 ,hence1 also1 owing to its antiquity and the character of its style1 a difficulty of comprehension for the general public that explained the repeated rustle of the books of the opera which most of the women held1 whose leaves turned over at the same moment1 just as ours used to do at home when we were favored by ,french tragedy4 ,illustration3 ,n ,,dancer ,,with ,,mask1 ,,representing ,,the ,,sak ,,imp4 ,a quiet1 sleepy appreciation hovered over the scene2 even the devotees near us1 many of them older people and belonging to the old rgime1 showing their approval or disapproval with restrained criticism4 ,i could see without turning my head the expression of the face of my neighbor1 a former daimio1 a man of position2 his face a ,japanese translation of the universal well-known aristocratic type--immovable1 fatigued1 with the drooping under lip4 ,behind him sat former retainers1 ,i suppose--deferential1 insinuating remarks and judgments1 to which he assented with inimitable brevity4 ,still1 ,i thought that ,i could distinguish1 when he showed that the youthful amateurs--for most of the actors were non-professional--did not come up to a proper standard1 that his memory went back to a long experience of good acting4 ,and so catching are the impressions of a crowd that ,i myself after a time believed that ,i recognized1 more or less distinctly1 the tyro and the master1 even though ,i only vaguely understood what it was all about4 ,for ,i need not tell you that the libretto would have been still more difficult for me than the pantomime before me2 and very often it was but pantomime1 the actor making gestures to the accompaniment of music1 or of the declaration of the choragus1 who told the poetic story4 ,occasionally these movements amounted to a dance1 that is to say1 to rhythmic movements--hence called the ,n dance--to which emphasis was given by rising and falling on either foot1 and bringing down the sole with a sudden blow4 ,there were many short plays1 mostly based on legendary subjects1 distinguished by gorgeous dresses1 and occasionally some comic scenes of domestic life4 ,the monotony of impression was too novel to me to become wearisome1 and ,i sat for several hours through this succession of separate stories1 patient1 except for the new difficulty of sitting cross-legged on the mats4 ,moreover1 we had tobacco to cheer us4 ,on our arrival the noiseless servants had brought to us the inevitable little tray containing the fire-box with hot charcoal and the little cylinder for ashes1 and tea and little sugary balls2 and then1 besides1 notwithstanding the high-toned repose of the audience1 there was enough to watch4 ,there were the envoys from ,loo ,choo1 seated far off in the dim light of the room1 dressed in ancient costumes1 their hair skewered up on the top of the head with a double pin--grave and dignified personages2 and a ,european prince1 a ,napoleonic pretender1 seated alongside1 with his suite1 and ourselves1 the only foreigners4 ,the types of the older people were full of interest1 as one felt them formed under other ideas than those of to-day4 ,and though there were no beauties1 there were much refinement and sweetness in the faces of the women1 set off by the simplicity of their dresses1 of blacks1 and browns1 and grays1 and dull violets1 in exquisite fabrics1 for we were in an atmosphere of good breeding4 ,and ,i watched one of the young ladies in front of me1 the elder of two sisters1 as she attended to every little want of her father1 and even to his inconveniences4 ,and now it was time to leave1 though the performance was still going on1 for we wished to return in the early evening4 ,our shoes were put on again at the steps1 our umbrellas handed to us--for sun and rain we must always have one--and we passed the ,shiba temples and took the train back for ,yokohama4 ,illustration3 ,,modern4 ,,july #ab4 ,we are doing nothing in particular1 hesitating very much as to what our course shall be4 ,one thing is certain--the breaking out of the cholera will affect all our plans4 ,even the consequent closing of the theaters shows us how many things will be cut off from us4 ,we spend much time in such idleness as bric--brac1 letting ourselves go1 and taking things as they come4 ,the ,doctor's kindness is with us all the time4 ,one feels the citizen of the world that he is when he touches little details of manners here1 now as familiar to him as those of ,europe4 ,i enjoy1 myself1 this drifting1 though ,a---- is not so well pleased1 and ,i try to feel as if the heat and the novelty of impressions justified me in idleness4 ,once only ,i was tempted to duty1 however1 when we went to the temples of ,shiba and ,uyno1 where are the tombs of the shoguns1 rulers of ,japan of the ,tokugawa line4 ,they are all there but the two greatest1 ,iyyas and ,iymits1 who lie at ,nikko1 the sacred place1 a hundred miles away4 ,here in ,tokio are the tombs of the others1 and the temples about them splendid with lacquer and carving and gold and bronze1 and set among trees and gardens on these hills of the ,shiba and ,uyno4 ,my dreams of making an analysis and memoranda of these architectural treasures of ,japan were started1 as many resolutions of work are1 by the talk of my companion1 his analysis of the theme of their architecture1 and my feeling a sort of desire to rival him on a ground for fair competition4 ,but ,i do not think that ,i could grasp a subject in such a clear and dispassionate and masterly way1 with such natural reference to the past and its implied comparisons1 for ,a----'s historic sense amounts to poetry1 and his deductions and remarks always set my mind sailing into new channels4 ,but ,i must put this off--certainly for to-day--while we discuss whether we shall make our visit to ancient ,kamakura and the great bronze statue and the island of noshima1 or whether to put it off until our return from ,nikko1 and our seeing the other shrines of the shoguns there4 ,the ,doctor1 who has just left ,nikko1 tells us of its beauty in the early summer1 a few weeks ago1 and ,i feel all the hotter as he talks of the cold mountain streams which run by his house and of banks of azaleas covering the high rocks4 ,and then the ,japanese proverb says1 ,who has not seen ,nikko cannot say beautiful4 ,illustration3 ,,the ,,lake ,,in ,,uy,,no ,,park4 ,,from ,,tokio ,,to ,,nikko ,july #bj1 #ahhf4 ,the cholera was upon us1 and we decided to go to ,nikko and spend a month there1 near the ,f----s'4 ,the ,docs coolness and its other charms1 was to pilot us and instruct us by the way1 and much of the miscellaneous information that ,i shall give you has come more or less from him4 ,late in the morning we rode to ,tokio1 and lunched in ,uyno ,park1 looking down on the great pond and the little temple which stands in it1 and which you know1 having seen them on the fans and colored prints4 ,they were veiled in the haze of the sunlight1 as if in a spring or winter mist1 and through this fog of light shone the multitudinous little sparkles of the ribs and swellings of the lotus-pads lapping one over another1 and reaching to far streaks of clearer water4 ,a denser lightness here and there marked the places of the flowers1 and a faint odor came up in lazy whiffs4 ,the roof of the temple seemed to be supported by the moisture below4 ,above there was no cloud4 ,all things lay alike in the blaze1 enveloped in a white glimmer of heat and wet1 and between the branches of the trees around us the sky was veiled in blue4 ,the locusts hissed with a crackling sound like that of heated wood4 ,the ugly bronze ,buddha at the corner of the tea-house shone as if melting in the sun4 ,then came the moment of leaving for the station1 where1 owing to delays of trains1 we waited still longer in the heat4 ,in the cleanly waiting-room we looked at the illustrations in the ,japanese newspapers1 and at the last report of the weather bureau1 printed in ,english and fastened to the wall2 or we read a little in that morning's edition of the excellent ,yokohama ,english paper2 all these comforts of civilization being supplied by the ,road4 ,at length the noise of hundreds of wooden clogs1 worn by men1 women1 and children1 clattered upon the stones outside and announced an end to waiting4 ,the tightly-closed train had been baking in the sun all day1 and we leaned out of the doors on the sides and gasped for breath4 ,our train skirted the great hill of ,uyno1 and its dark shadow1 which did not quite reach us4 ,monuments and gravestones1 gray or mossy1 blurred here and there the green wall of trees4 ,the ,doctor told us of the cooler spring-time1 when the cherry-trees of ,uyno cover the ground with a snow of blossoms1 and the whole world turns out to enjoy them1 as we do the first snows of winter4 ,but this is a lame comparison4 ,the ,japanese sensitiveness to the beauties of the outside world is something much more delicate and complex and contemplative1 and at the same time more natural1 than ours has ever been4 ,outside of ,arcadia1 ,i know of no other land whose people hang verses on the trees in honor of their beauty2 where families travel far before the dawn to see the first light touch the new buds4 ,where else do the newspapers announce the spring openings of the blossoms8 ,where else would be possible the charming absurdity of the story that ,w---- was telling me of having seen in cherry-blossom time some old gentleman1 with capacious sak gourd in hand and big roll of paper in his girdle1 seat himself below the blossom-showers1 and look1 and drink1 and write verses1 all by himself1 with no gallery to help him8 ,if there is convention in a tradition half obligatory2 and if we1 ,western lovers of the tree1 do not quite like the ,japanese refinement of growing the cherry merely for its flowers1 yet how deliciously upside-down from us1 and how charming is the love of nature at the foundation of the custom6 ,from the rustling of leaves and rechoing of trees we passed into the open country1 and into free air and heat4 ,in the blur of hot air1 trembling beneath the sun1 lay plantations and rice-fields2 the latter1 vast sheets of water dotted with innumerable spikes of green4 ,little paths raised above them made a network of irregular geometry4 ,occasionally a crane spread a shining wing and sank again4 ,in the outside ditches stood up the pink heads of the lotus above the crowded pads4 ,at long intervals small groups of peasants1 men and women1 dressed in blue and white1 knee-deep in the water1 bent their backs at the task of weeding4 ,the skirts of their dresses were caught up in their girdles1 and their arms were freed from their looped-back sleeves4 ,the ,doctor spoke to us of the supposed unhealthiness of rice-planting1 which makes life in the rice-fields short1 in a country where life is not long4 ,we are told that the manuring of the rice-fields taints all the waters for great distances1 and we are warned not to drink1 without inquiring1 even from the clearest streams4 ,not even high up in the mountains shall we be safe2 for there may be flat spaces and table-lands of culture which drain into the picturesque wildness below4 ,we learn that with all these hardships the rice-growers themselves cannot always afford this staple food of the country1 for cheaper than rice are millet1 and buckwheat1 and the plants and fungi that grow without culture4 ,contrasting with the tillage we were passing1 islands of close foliage stood up in the dry plain1 or were reflected1 with the clouds above1 in the mirror of the wet rice-fields4 ,occasionally a shrine was visible within1 and the obligatory ,torii stood at the edge of the grove1 or within its first limits4 ,illustration3 ,a ,,torii4 ,looking through a ,torii one is sure to be in the direction of something sacred1 whether it be temple or shrine or holy mountain4 ,neither closeness nor distance interferes with this ideal intention1 and the sacred ,fusi-yama is often seen a hundred miles away in the sky1 framed by these lines1 built for the purpose4 ,this assemblage of four lines of stone or wood or bronze is to me one of the creations of art1 like the obelisk or the pyramid4 ,most impressive1 most original of symbolic entrances1 whether derived from sacred ,india or from the ancestral innocence of ,polynesia1 there is something of the beginning of man1 something invented while he lived with the birds1 in this elementary porch1 whose upper line1 repeating the slope of hill and wave1 first embodied the curve that curls all upper edges in the buildings of the farther ,east4 ,and if indeed1 the ,torii#a be nothing but the first bird-perch1 then ,i can imagine the father of all peacocks spreading his gigantic fan across its bars2 or ,i may prefer to suppose it the rest for the disk of the sun-god1 whose lower curve is repeated by the ,torii's upper beam4 99 99 99 99 99 ,sometimes there were traces of inclosure about these woods2 sometimes they had no edgings but their own beautifully-modeled contours4 ,long ages1 respectful care1 sometimes fortunate neglect1 have made of these reserved spaces types of an ideal wildness1 for these are sacred groves1 and they are protected by the divine contained within them4 ,this preservation of a recall of primeval nature1 this exemption of the soil from labor1 within anxious and careful tillage1 is a note of ,japan constantly recurring1 and a source of perpetual charm4 ,notwithstanding the men and women working in the fields1 there was a certain desolateness in the landscape1 and ,a---- made out its reason more easily than ,i1 and recalled that for miles and miles we had traveled without seeing any of the four-footed beasts which the ,western mind always associates with pastoral life and labor4 ,as the evening came on we crossed a large river and looked down from the height of the new bridges upon the discarded ferry-boats1 and upon the shape of a more fantastic one that was never meant to sail--a pine-tree1 shaped and trimmed1 which spread its green mast and sails in a garden by the water4 ,far away were lines of mountains and the peaks of extinct volcanoes4 ,at every station now the country people gathered to stare at the novelty of the train2 we saw the lighting up of the farm-houses as we passed2 in the dooryards1 behind high hedges reminding me of ,normandy1 bonfires were being made to keep off mosquitoes3 then temples and shrines with lights before them1 and at eight o'clock on a festal night we came into ,utsunomiya4 ,the streets were full of people carrying lanterns2 children ran about together1 with little toy shrines1 and the whole town was drowned in noise4 ,we got into a basha1 a sort of omnibus1 attached to two wild horses1 and were hurled through the crowded streets1 much as if carrying the mails1 with apparent disregard of the lives and limbs of the inhabitants4 ,the hotel1 where we were expected and where the ,doctor had represented us as distinguished visitors1 opened its whole front1 in a ,japanese way1 to receive us1 for there was no outside wall to the lower floor4 ,we were driven quite into the house1 and beheld an entire household drawn up in line on the platform1 which occupied a full half of this lower space4 ,the ,doctor did all that was right1 while we remained in amused embarrassment before our prostrated host and the kneeling attendants4 ,as we sat helpless on the steps of the platform our shoes were taken off1 and in stockinged feet we were ushered through the crowd and the lower part of the house1 through the preparations for passing travelers1 the smell and heat of washing and cookery1 and an inexpressibly outrageous odor1 even for this land of frightful smells1 evidently of the same nature as that of the rice-fields4 ,notwithstanding this horror1 we found1 on clambering up the steep little staircase of dark1 slippery wood1 better fitted to stockings than to boots1 a most charming1 cleanly apartment ready for us3 ready1 ,i say1 but its three big rooms1 which took all one side of the court1 contained nothing but a drawing hanging in each room and a vase filled with flowers2 in justice1 ,i ought to add a ,european table of the simplest make1 and three ,european chairs4 ,under them was spread a piece of that red cloth which seems to have a fascination for the ,japanese--perhaps as being ,european4 ,everything was of the cleanest--wall1 floor1 stairs1 tables2 everything was dusted1 wiped1 rubbed1 polished4 ,it was too hot and we were too tired to go out and see the town1 noisy with the excitement of a festival4 ,the ,doctor directed the preparation of a meal on a ,japanese basis of rice1 mingled and enlivened with the contents of various cans2 and meanwhile ,i went down another little staircase of cleanly white wood1 at the farther end of our apartment1 to our little private bath-room below4 ,this was about six feet square1 and its furniture consisted of a deep lacquer tray to lay clothes in4 ,the bathtub was sunk in the floor1 but so that its edge rose high above the level of the room4 ,i had declined the honorable hot water1 which is the ,japanese necessity1 and obtained cold1 against protest4 ,i had yet to learn the luxury and real advantage of the ,japanese hot bath4 ,i closed my door1 but my window was open1 and through its wooden bars ,i could see our opposite neighbors across the garden of the courtyard--a whole family1 father1 mother1 children1 and young daughter--file down to the big bath-room at the corner1 whose windows were open to mine4 ,i heard them romp and splash1 and saw heads and naked arms shining through the steam4 ,meditating upon the differences which make propriety in various places1 ,i joined my friends at dinner and listened to what the ,doctor had to say upon the ,japanese indifference to nudity2 how ,japanese morals are not affected by the simplicity of their costumes1 and that1 of course1 to the artist it seems a great pity that the new ideas should be changing these habits in a race so naturally law-abiding2 for even the government is interfering1 and enforcing dress within city limits4 ,then came the question whether this be a reminiscence of ,polynesian ancestry and simplicity1 or born of climate and cleanliness4 ,and1 indeed1 all ,japan spends most of its time washing1 so that the very runners bathe more times a day than our fine ladies4 ,meanwhile the servant-girls were spreading for us the blue-green mosquito nettings1 put together with bands of orange silk4 ,they were slung by cords from the corners of the beams1 which serve for a cornice1 and they made a good-sized square tent in the middle of the room4 ,inside1 our beds were made up on the floor1 of well-wadded coverlets folded one upon another4 ,one of these ,i took for a pillow4 ,i have not yet dared to try the block of wood1 hollowed out for the nape of the neck1 which serves for a pillow in ,japan1 notwithstanding that it has a pad to relieve its severity--a pad of paper fastened on1 and which you remove sheet by sheet as you want a clean pillow-slip4 ,i can understand1 however1 how precious it must be in a country where the women keep1 day and night1 undisturbed1 those coiffures of marvelous black hair1 glistening with camellia oil1 the name of which ,i like better than its perfume4 ,from inside my netting ,i could see1 as ,i was lying1--for the screens1 which made our windows1 remained wide open1--through the topmost branches of the trees of the garden1 the ,japanese family opposite1 now ending their evening meal4 ,illustration3 ,,our ,,runner4 ,laughter and chatter1 clattering of cups1 rap of pipes against boxes1 a young man came in and bent over one of the women seated upon the floor2 the girl repeated some prayer1 with clapping hands outstretched2 the lights were put out1 all but the square ando1 or floor night-lantern1 and they drew their screens4 ,i fell asleep1 to be waked with a start by the watchman1 who1 every hour1 paced through the garden1 striking a wooden clapper1 and impertinently assured us of the hour4 99 99 99 99 99 ,this weary noise marked the intervals of a night of illness1 made worse by nightmares of the cholera1 from which we were flying4 ,the earliest dawn was made hideous by the unbarring and rolling of the heavy amados1#b the drawing back of the inside screens 7shojis71 and the clattering of clogs over pavement1 through other parts of the house4 ,our ,japanese family across the way ,i could hear at their ablutions1 and1 later1 tumultuously departing for early trains2 and at last ,i slept in broad daylight4 99 99 99 99 99 ,late in the morning we entered our friend the basha4 ,in the daylight ,i noticed that the horses wore something like a ,dutch collar1 and were harnessed with ropes4 ,two men1 one the driver1 the other the running groom1 sat on the low front seat4 ,our trunks and bags and ,japanese baskets encumbered the omnibus seats1 on which we stretched our sick and wearied bodies1 for the ,doctor himself was ill1 and smiled mechanically when ,i tortured him with questions4 ,we left town at a full gallop1 and at risk of life for every one in the streets2 one of our drivers meanwhile blowing wildly through a horn1 to the inspiriting of the horses and the frightening of the ,japanese small-boy4 ,soon one of our men plunged off his seat and began running by the horses in the old ,japanese way--hereditary with him1 for they follow the calling from generation to generation4 ,running without pause and without sweating1 he threw his body back as if restraining his pace to that of the horses4 ,at the limits of the town1 in full run1 he stripped his upper garments and showed himself tattooed at every visible point4 ,above the double strip of his breech-clout1 a waterfall1 a dragon1 and a noble hero made a fine network of blue and pink on the moving muscles4 ,now the road became heavy1 wet1 and full of deep ruts1 and our miserable ponies came to a standstill--and balked4 ,the ,japanese mildness of our driver disappeared4 ,he took to beating their poor backs with a heavy bamboo cane1 while we remonstrated feebly1 regretting that we had not sufficient strength to beat him too4 ,then he explained1 deferentially1 that confusion seized him at being unable to keep his promise of delivering us to ,imaichi for the appointed hour1 and ,i felt as if we had been put in the wrong4 ,imagine the difference had he been--any one but a ,japanese4 ,we turned aside from the main way into a little dry side-path1 which led us into the hills and moors4 ,as we got among them we left the annoying odors of the rice-fields and smelled for the first time the fragrance of wild roses1 looking like ours1 but a little paler4 ,this was the first thing which reminded me of home--the roses that the ,japanese do not seem to care for1 do not seem to understand4 ,with them the rose has no records1 no associations1 as with us2 for1 once on this farther side of the garden of ,iran1 the peony and the chrysanthemum1 the lotus and the iris1 the peach1 the cherry1 and the plum1 make up the flower-poetry of the extreme ,east4 ,illustration3 ,,in ,,the ,,great ,,avenue ,,of ,,cryptomeria4 99 99 99 99 99 ,then1 leaving the dry and sunny uplands1 we entered a famous avenue1 shaded for twenty miles by gigantic cryptomeria trees #fj to #abj feet high4 ,they were planted1 as an act of homage1 some two centuries ago1 by some mighty noble1 when it was decided to place at ,nikko the tomb of the great shogun ,iyyas4 ,they rise on each side of the sunken road1 from banks and mounds1 over which steps lead1 from time to time1 to plantations and rice-fields beyond1 and to shrines peeping out among the trees4 ,in side-roads above1 on either hand1 passed occasionally peasants and pack-horses laden with forage1 or the bright shine of a peasant woman's red skirt4 ,where an occasional habitation1 or two or three1 are niched in some opening1 the tall columns of the great trees are interrupted by spaces filled with crossed branches of the wilder pine2 and behind these1 outside1 sometimes the light-green feathery mass of a bamboo grove4 ,against the bank stood low1 thatched buildings2 near them the great trees were often down1 or sometimes dying2 an occasional haystack1 sliced off below by use1 was fastened1 in thick projection1 around some smaller tree4 ,once1 at a turn of the road1 near a building with wide roof1 pushed against the corner bank out of a basin fringed with iris1 sprang into the air a little jet of water4 ,near by1 a solitary ditcher had placed in a bamboo fence some bright red blossom1 with its stem and leaves1 apparently to cheer him at his work4 ,the heavy road was being ditched on each side to carry off the soaking waters1 and our weary1 miserable horses broke down again4 ,a---- and ,i rested by going in advance1 and ,i experienced the new sensation of walking among the bamboo stems1 like an insect among the knotted stalks of a gigantic grass4 ,the still heat of the sun burned in great smoky streaks across our way1 spotted by the flight of many yellow butterflies4 ,there was no sound of birds in the high spaces above2 the few peasants that we met slipped past on their straw sandals1 their noiseless horses also shod with straw2 occasionally a shiver of the great spruces overhead1 and far behind us the cries of our grooms to their horses4 ,it was two o'clock when we galloped bravely1 as if with fresh horses1 into the single long street which is ,imaichi village4 ,we were now on high ground1 some two thousand feet above our point of departure1 and could feel1 but not see clearly1 in the blaze of sunlight1 great mountains lost in great wet clouds4 99 99 99 99 99 ,we stopped at the village inn2 drivers and runners were sitting on the stone bench in front1 drinking tea1 when we drove up4 ,we sat down on the straw-matted porch inside1 the whole front of the building open1 and drank miserable1 herby tea1 and tasted the usual sweet balls of sugary stuff4 ,alongside the tea-house1 in one of the recesses between the buildings1 we could see the runners of kurumas being washed off and rubbed down1 just as if they were horses in a livery stable4 ,as they stood naked1 their companions poured pails of water over them1 its brown spread covering the stone slabs4 ,some of them1 in the porch1 lay on their backs1 others prone1 others on the side1 all near a kettle1 which hung over a charcoal fire1 in which1 perhaps1 they were heating sak4 ,one on his back1 his neck on the wooden pillow1 was smoking4 ,the village itself lay in hot1 clean repose1--not dusty1--the rows of buildings on each side of the street irregular1 but all of the same appearance4 ,most of the fronts were open1 the goods all displayed outside of the walls1 or on the floors1 innumerable pieces of paper hanging about everywhere4 ,a few men sat about on the porches1 their naked feet hanging off1 their sandals on the ground below them1 the inevitable umbrella by their side4 ,most of the village was asleep in nakedness4 ,the color of flesh glowed in the hot shade2 brown and sallow in the men1 ruddy on the breasts of the women and the entirely nude bodies of the children4 ,illustration3 ,,nikko-,,san4 ,and here1 now1 we said good-by to the basha1 and got into the two-wheeled baby wagon1 which they call a kuruma4 ,one man ran between the shafts1 and another1 in front1 was fastened to the cross-bar by a long strip of cloth tied about him4 ,the file of our five wagons started off at a rapid trot--we had two for our baggage--with the ,doctor ahead1 his white helmet dancing before us in the sun4 ,from under my umbrella ,i tried to study and occasionally to draw the motions of the muscles of our runners1 for most of them were naked1 except for the complicated strip around the loins--a slight development of the early fig-leaf4 ,the vague recall of the antique that is dear to artists--the distinctly rigid muscles of the legs and thighs1 the rippling swellings of the backs--revived the excitement of professional study and seemed a god-send to a painter4 ,the broad1 curved hat1 lifted by a pad over the head1 was but an ,eastern variation1 not so far removed from the ,greek ,greek3 petasos of ,athenian riders4 ,some heads were bare2 that is to say1 their thick black thatch was bound with a long handkerchief1 which otherwise hung on the shoulders or danced around their necks4 ,not all were naked4 ,the youngest1 a handsome fellow1 had his tunic pulled up above the thighs1 and the slope of his drapery and his wide sleeves gave him all the elegance of a medieval page4 ,i found it easier now to struggle against heat and indolence1 and to make my studies as our runners ran along1 for we had entered again the avenue of the great cryptomeria4 ,we had passed the entrance of another1 which in old times was the road traveled by the ,mikado's ambassador1 in the fifth month1 when he journeyed across the island to carry offerings to ,iyyas1 in his tomb at ,nikko4 ,the big trees grew still taller in this higher air1 their enormous roots spreading along the embankments in great horizontal lines and stages of buttresses4 ,prolonged wafts of cool air blew upon us from the west1 to which we were hurrying4 ,above us spread a long avenue of shade1 high up and pale in the blue4 ,and so we got into ,nikko as the sun was setting with the delicious sensation that at last we were in coolness and in shade4 99 99 99 99 99 ,right before us1 crossing the setting sun1 was the island mountain of ,nikko-san2 small enough to be taken in by the eye1 as it stood framed by greater mountains1 which were almost lost in the glittering of wet sunlight4 ,the mountain threw its shade on the little village2 down its one long street we rode to the bridge that spans the torrent1 which1 joining another stream1 gives ,nikko the look of an island4 ,alongside this bridge1 at a distance of two hundred feet1 crosses the red lacquer bridge1 over which we are not allowed to pass4 ,it is reserved for the family ,tokugawa1 the former shoguns of japan1 whose ancestors built the great shrines of ,nikko1 and for the ,emperor on his occasional visits4 ,it stands supported on a gigantic framework of stone1 imitating wood1 the uprights being pierced to allow the crosspieces to run through1 against all ,european constructional principles1 but with a beauty which is ,japanese1 and a fitness proved by time4 ,illustration3 ,,the ,,waterfall ,,in ,,our ,,garden4 ,these great posts under the bridge lean against what seems the wall of the mountain2 the rock foundation being supplemented1 everywhere that a break occurs1 by artificial work4 ,here and there cascades fall over natural and over artificial walls and glisten far up through the trees on the opposite side of the bridge4 ,as we rattled over it1 we looked down on the overflowing long wooden trough1 which carried the pure waters of the mountain to the village that we had passed1 and upon the torrent below1 whose limpid clearness was made blue by mist1 where the warmer air was chilled by a coldness drawn from far-up mountains4 ,before us steps of enormous width passed under the foliage and turned above in many directions1 and there on the lowest step1 her dainty feet on straw sandals1 whose straps divided the toes of the close-fitting ,japanese socks1 with bare ankles1 stood our hostess1 in latest ,european dress1 most graceful contrast to our own consciousness of being jaded and dirty1 and to the nakedness of our runners4 ,panting with the last run1 they stood at rest1 and leaned forward against the cross-bar of the shafts1 with muscles still trembling1 clear streams of sweat varnishing their bronze nakedness1 and every hair plastered with wet on forehead1 chest1 and body4 ,just before them rustled the unrumpled starched spread of the skirts of the fair ,american4 ,she was summering at ,nikko1 and1 friendly with the ,buddhist clergy1 had arranged that one of the priests should let us have his house1 and kindly walked with us to it1 a little way up in one of the first open spaces of the mountain4 ,after passing the great outside fringe of trees we found a large clear opening1 broken up by walled inclosures1 the wall sometimes high and sometimes low1 and edged by gutters through which the torrents ran4 ,these were the former residences of princes1 whom etiquette obliged to worship officially at ,nikko4 ,a quarter of a mile up we came to our own garden1--with an enormous wide wall or embankment of stone1 some twenty feet deep1--which also had been a prince's1 and now belongs to the little ,buddhist priest who is our landlord4 ,there are two houses in the inclosure1 one of which he lets to us4 ,ours is brand-new and two stories high1 while his is old and low1 with an enormous roof1 and an arbor built out from the eaves and connecting with his little garden4 ,high behind his house rise rocks and wall2 and on top of them are planted willows1 pines1 maples1 and the paulownia1 whose broad leaves are part of the imperial crest4 ,a little waterfall tumbles over the rocks and gives us water for our garden and for our bath4 ,in our house we made the acquaintance of ,kato1 who is to wait upon us4 ,a few minutes later we were welcomed by our landlord1 dressed for the occasion4 ,he conducted us to our rooms1 and1 leaving for a moment1 returned with a china bowl that was covered with a napkin1 and contained sweetmeats which he told me are peculiar to ,nikko4 ,seeing that we were helpless with the language1 he bowed low and left us to our bath and to a survey of our new quarters4 ,we were tired1 sick1 miserable1 weary travelers1 having gone through a shipwreck of heat and fatigue1 but there was a fascination in feeling that this baby-house was ours1 that it was typical1 that on entering we left our shoes out on our own threshold and were walking on the soft clean mats1 stocking-toed2 that in a few minutes we should be stretched on these as on a bed1 and that ,kato would pour out our tea4 ,our lowest story1 which has a veranda1 can be divided so as to make a servant's room and a hall beyond4 ,in an ,l behind stretches out a wash-room with a big dresser fixed to the wall1 under which1 through a trough1 rolls a torrent from the waterfall2 and1 farther on1 is the little square bath-room with one side all open to the floor1 when the wooden screen is drawn1 through which we get light and air1 and through which the box containing burning charcoal is brought from the priest's house to heat our bath4 ,we have a little staircase--just the width of our trunk--which leads sharply up to the veranda above1 from which we step into ,a----'s room and then into mine2 they are separated by movable screens1 so that we can be about as private as if the division were a chalk line4 ,but outside we have a wealth of moving wall3 first the paper screens1 which1 when we wish1 can separate us from the veranda2 then1 lastly1 on its edge1 the amado1 or wooden sliding-doors1 which are lying now in their corner box1 but which later will be pulled out and linked together1 and close the open house for the night4 ,then1 as we were about leaving1 we solemnly placed a great ornamental revolver before the little god of ,contentment who sits upon the ,tokonoma--that mantelpiece which is at the level of my eye when ,i lie on the floor1 and which is the ,japanese ideal seat of honor1 but never occupied4 ,this revolver is left there to appease a ,japanese conventional fear of robbers4 ,we went down in the twilight to our friends1 and had a very ,european supper1 and sat on their veranda1 looking through the trees toward the bridge1 in a moonlight of mother-of-pearl2 and we were so sleepy that ,i can only suppose we must have talked of home1 and ,i can only remember our host clapping his hands for lanterns1 and ,kato leading us back1 with the light held low1 and the noise of the torrents running under the little stone bridges that we passed1 and our taking off our shoes on our own door-step1 and the thunder of the amado as ,kato rolled them out for the night4 #a ,the usual etymology of ,torii is bird-perch2 from ,tor1 a bird4 #b ,rain-doors1 outer wooden screens1 which close the house at night1 and roll in a groove4 ,,the ,,shrines ,,of ,,iy,,yas ,,and ,,iy,,mits ,,in ,,the ,,holy ,,mountain ,,of ,,nikko ,july #be4 ,from where we are in the ,holy ,mountain1 our first visit would be naturally to the shrine of the shogun ,iyyas1 whose extreme walls ,i see among the highest trees whenever ,i look from our balcony over our little waterfall4 ,iyyas died in #afaf1 having fought1 he said1 ninety battles and eighteen times escaped death1 having almost destroyed ,christianity1 and leaving his family established as rulers of ,japan4 ,in obedience to his dying wishes1 his son and successor removed the body of his father from its resting-place in the south to this final tomb at ,nikko4 ,here1 in #afag1 with complicated and mystic ceremonial1 he was buried and deified4 ,if you have no work on ,japan near by to refer to1 sub voce ,iyyas1 ,i can tell you1 briefly1 what he did or what he was1 though ,i1 too1 have no books at my hand4 ,he was a great man1 a patient waiter upon opportunity1 who at the end of the sixteenth century came upon the scene of a great civil war1 then filled by two protagonists1 the military ruler1 ,nobunaga1 and his lieutenant1 ,hidyoshi1 who was to be known later as ,taiko ,sama4 ,their aim was to settle something more definitely1 of course in their favor2 and1 in fact1 the death of the former and the triumphant success of the latter1 who succeeded him1 went far toward disposing of many contending claims1 and toward a crystallizing of the feudal system1 which had grown of centuries of civil war4 ,this is the moment that we see reflected in the annals of the first ,christian missionaries1 to whom the military chiefs of ,japan were alternately kind or cruel4 ,illustration3 ,,portrait-,,statue ,,of ,,iy,,yas ,,in ,,ceremonial ,,dress4 ,when ,hidyoshi died he had grown to be the master of ,japan2 he had been made ,regent of the ,empire1 as a title of honor1 for he was that and more in reality2 he had become one of the greatest of ,oriental warriors1 and had begun life as a groom1 the son of a humble peasant4 ,the name of ,taiko 7,great ,gate7 he took like other regents1 on retiring nominally from office1 but with the addition of ,sama 7,lord7 it is applied to him alone in popular memory4 ,naturally1 then1 he believed in a possible dynasty originating in him4 ,at his death he could see1 as his greatest fear for the future of the young son to whom he wished to leave his power1 this man ,iyyas ,tokugawa1 lord now of many provinces1 but who had begun humbly1 and who had assisted him in breaking many enemies1 receiving a reward with every success1 and consolidating meanwhile his own smaller powers4 ,the dying ,taiko made complicated arrangements to secure the good-will of ,iyyas1 and also to prevent his encroachments4 ,these arrangements1 including and combining the agencies of numbers of princes and vassals1 many of them newly ,christianized1 seem only the more certainly to have forced on a position in which ,iyyas1 with few allies1 but with clear aims and interests1 took the field against a larger number of princes1 commanding more men1 but not united in any intention as fixed as his was4 ,these he defeated for once and all1 on a great battlefield1 ,skigahara1 on some day in ,october in the year #afjj4 ,it was the greatest battle that ,japan ever saw1 and one of the bloodiest--remarkable for us because of the death of three of the ,christian leaders against ,iyyas1 warriors distinguished before in many wars1 who could not1 being ,christians1 take their own lives in defeat1 as their ,japanese traditions of honor commanded4 ,hence the victor had them beheaded--a shameful death1 and thereby heroic4 ,these were almost his only immediate victims4 ,iyyas wisely forgave1 when it paid1 and merely weakened the beaten1 increasing the possessions but not the powers of his adherents2 and finally remained in undisputed power1 with great titles from the ,mikado1 who1 though poor in power1 was still a dispenser of honors1 for1 as with the greater gods1 the victrix causa pleased4 ,meanwhile the protection of the son of the great ,taiko ,sama1 for which all this war had been supposed to grow1 had not been effected1 and even this one obstacle or reminder was to disappear from before ,iyyas1 but not for several years1 and only just before his death4 ,illustration3 ,,avenue ,,to ,,temple ,,of ,,iy,,yas4 ,he had1 in ,japanese custom1 resigned his apparent power to his son1 for behind him he could act more obscurely and with less friction4 ,then began the drama of the extinction of ,christianity2 slowly1 for many reasons1 not the least being that several ,christian princes1 with their vassals1 had supported ,iyyas in his struggle4 ,and at length the son of ,taiko ,sama1 ,hidyori1 indirectly connected with the ,christian side1 fell before ,iyyas4 ,his strong castle at ,osaka was said to have become a place of refuge for the persecuted and the discontented1 even to the very ,christians whom his father had cruelly persecuted4 ,which was in the wrong and disturbed the waters1 the wolf or the lamb1 ,i do not know1 but only that in ,june1 #afae1 the great castle was attacked by ,iyyas and his son in as bloody a battle as was ever fought2 and notwithstanding that for a moment victory hung in the balance1 the ,tokugawa ,luck prevailed1 the castle took fire1 thousands perished1 and ,hidyori and his mother disappeared4 ,whether ,iyyas was the author of the code of laws or rules at which he is supposed to have worked during these years of waiting1 with the aid of learned scholars1 to bequeath them to his descendants for the maintenance of the order of things he left1 ,i do not know2 nor perhaps was the information ,i once had about them at all accurate4 ,they1 or their spirit1 however1 served to guide the nation for the next two hundred and fifty years2 that is to say1 until the second ,commodore ,perry came to ,japan1 with the increased weight of an outside world much changed4 ,illustration3 ,,sketch ,,of ,,statue ,,of ,,iy,,yas ,,tokugawa4 ,meanwhile the great man died1 leaving a great personal fame behind him1 over and above the powers he could transmit4 ,he was buried here1 as ,i said4 ,the place was chosen in #afaf2 at the end of the same year the buildings were begun1 and in the beginning of the next year were partly completed4 ,when the funeral procession arrived1 in nineteen days from ,iyyas's former resting-place1 amid great ceremonies and religious rites1 the title of ,supreme ,highness1 ,lord of the ,east1 ,great ,incarnation1 was given to the hero and ruler and son of the small laird of ,matsudaira4 ,while he was being thus deified the persecution of the ,christians increased in violence1 passing into a hideous delirium of cruelty2 wiping out its victims1 but unable to affect their courage4 ,there can be apparently no exaggeration of the sufferings of the martyrs nor of the strength of mind shown by them--a courage and constancy ennobling to ,japan4 ,hidetada1 the son of ,iyyas1 is buried at ,yeddo 7,tokio72 but ,iymits1 the grandson1 has a temple and a tomb here in the forest1 alongside of his grandfather's4 ,he succeeded to power in #afbc1 and lived and ruled some thirty years more with an energy worthy of ,iyyas1 and carried the system to completion4 ,the laws known as the laws of ,iyyas are sometimes made out to be his4 ,these laws1 based on the old feudal habits1 and influenced and directed by the great ,chinese doctrines of relationship and duties1 are not laws as we think of law1 nor were they to be published4 ,they were to be kept secret for the use of the ,tokugawa house2 to serve as rules for conduct in using their power1 so as to secure justice1 which is in return to secure power1 that exists for its own end in the mind of rulers4 ,these laws1 some of which are reflections1 or moral maxims1 or references to the great man's experience1 made out a sort of criminal code1--the relations of the classes1--matters of rank and etiquette1 and a mechanism of government4 ,they asserted the supremacy1 and at the same time destroyed the power1 of the ,mikado1 and by strict rules of succession1 residence1 and continued possession bound up the feudal nobles4 ,they reasserted the great individual virtues of filial piety and of feudal loyalty1 and insisted on the traditions of military honor4 ,the sword was to be the soul of the ,samurai1#c and with it these have carried the national honor and intelligence in its peculiar expressions4 ,full recognition was given to the teaching1 ,thou shalt not lie beneath the same sky1 nor tread on the same earth1 with the murderer of thy lord4 ,the rights of the avenger of blood were admitted1 even though he should pay the penalty of his life4 ,suicide1 which had long been a ,japanese development of chivalrous feeling and military honor1 was still to be regarded as purifying of all stain1 and1 for the first time1 allowed in mitigation of the death penalty4 ,indeed1 half a century later1 the forty-seven ,ronin 7wave-people--,samurai who had lost their natural lord and their rights7 were to die in glorious suicide1 carrying out the feudal idea of fidelity4 ,you know the story probably2 at any rate1 you will find it in ,mitford's tales of old ,japan4 ,it is a beautiful story1 full of noble details1 telling how1 by the mean contrivance of a certain lord1 the ,prince of ,ako was put in the wrong1 and his condemnation to death and confiscation obtained4 ,and how1 then1 forty-seven gentlemen1 faithful vassals of the dead lord1 swore to avenge the honor of their master1 and for that purpose to put aside all that might stand in the way4 ,for this end they put aside all else they cared for1 even wife and children1 and through every obstacle pursued their plan up to the favorable moment when they surprised1 on a winter night1 in his palace1 among his guards1 the object of their vengeance1 whose suspicions had been allayed by long delay4 ,and how his decapitated head was placed by them upon his victim's tomb1 before the forty-seven surrendered themselves to justice1 and were allowed to commit suicide by hara-kiri1 and how they have since lived forever in memory of ,japan4 ,these laws1 then1 destroyed nothing2 they reasserted certain ,japanese traditions and customs1 but made out1 through many details1 the relations of dependence of all classes of society upon the shogun1 as vassal indeed of the ,mikado1 but supreme ruler who held the key of all4 ,all this did ,iymits carry out1 as well as the consequent seclusion of the country2 the only manner of avoiding ideals which might clash with those upon which this consolidation of the past was based4 ,and to many of these ideals1 to the idea of the sacredness of the family1 to the idea of subjection to the law of the ruler1 ,christianity1 by its ideal of marriage1 by its distinctions of the duty to ,csar1--to name only a few reasons1--might be found an insidious dissolvent4 ,therefore1 if it be necessary to find a high motive1 ,iymits did what he could to trample out the remains of ,christianity1 which were to expire1 a few years after his death1 in a final holocaust as terrible and glorious as ,nero himself could have wished to see4 ,from that time1 for two centuries1 all went on the same1 until the arrival of the foreigners found a system so complete1 so interlocked and rigid1 as to go to pieces with the breaking of a few links4 ,that break was supplied by the necessity of yielding to the ,christian and foreign demand of entrance1 and in so far abandoning the old ways4 ,with this proof of weakness the enemies of the ,tokugawa and those of the system began to assert themselves1 circumstances aiding1 and in #ahfh the last of the race resigned all powers and retired to private life4 ,the details of the enormous changes1 as they followed one another1 are too many and sudden1 and apparently too contradictory1 for me to explain further4 ,even now ,i repeat this deficient summary of the ,tokugawa story only because of wishing to recall who they were that have temples and tombs about us1 and to recall1 also1 that such has been the end of the beginning which is buried here4 ,illustration3 ,,stable ,,of ,,sacred ,,horses4 99 99 99 99 99 ,the approach to the temple1 to which most paths lead1 is through a great broad avenue1 a quarter of a mile long1 bordered by high stone walls1 above which rise high banks and higher trees4 ,between these dark green walls1 all in their own shade1--in the center of the enormous path and in the full light of the sky1--a brilliant torrent rushes down in a groove of granite1 hidden occasionally under the road4 ,here and there drop out from the walls noisy columns of clearest water4 ,in the distance beyond1 through a mass of closer shade1 made by two rows of dark cryptomeria1 that are planted on banks faced with stones1--for here the road divides into three different grades of ascent by enormous steps1--shine the high white walls of the temple grounds1 edged with a red-lacquered fence and a black roofed gate of red and gold4 ,in the open space before it1 with wide roads diverging through high walls1 crowned with scarlet fences1 stands a granite ,torii1 some thirty feet high1 whose transverse stones are crossed by a great black tablet1 marked with the gilded divine name of ,iyyas4 ,on one side a five-storied pagoda1 graceful and tall1 certainly one hundred feet high1 blood-red and gold in the sunlight1 and green1 white1 and gold in the shadows of its five rows of eaves1 rises free from the trees around it and sends a tall spear1 encircled with nine gilded rings1 into the unbroken sky4 ,bindings and edges of copper1 bright green with weathering1 sparkle on its black roofs1 and from their twenty corners hang bells of bright green copper4 ,above the steep steps1 against the white wall1 we pass through the first gate4 ,it is recessed1 and two gigantic columns of trees stand in the corners4 ,two monsters of uncertain lion-form occupy the niches on each side4 ,from the upper side of the red pillars1 as supports for the engaged lintel1 stretch out the gilded heads of tapirs1--protectors against pestilence1--of lions and elephants1 and great bunches of the petals of the peony4 ,above1 the architrave and frieze are painted flat with many colors and with gold1 and the ends of the many beams which support the roofing are gilded4 ,everywhere1 even to the ends of the bronze tiles of the black roof1 the crest of ,iyyas's family1 the ,tokugawa1 is stamped in gilded metal4 ,at the inside corner of the gate stands a gigantic cedar1 said to have grown to this height since the time when ,iyyas carried it about with him in his palanquin4 ,opposite to three red buildings1 which are storehouses for the memorial treasures of the temple1 stands1 closer to the wall1 a charming building1 mostly gray1--partly owing to the wearing of the black lacquer with time1--and decorated with carved panels1 which make a frieze or string-course all around its sides4 ,above this line of green1 red1 blue1 white1 and gold1 a large space of gray wood1 spotted with gilt metal where the framework of the outer beams is joined1 spreads up to the pediment under the eaves1 which is all carved and painted on a ground of green4 ,the heavy roof above is of black bronze and gilded metal and is spotted with the golden ,tokugawa crest4 ,below the colored band1 midway1 the black wall has gratings with golden hinges1 for this delicate splendor is given to a stable--the stable of the sacred horse of the god ,iyyas4 ,the patient little cream-colored pony has no look of carrying such honors2 and ,i can scarcely imagine his little form galloping out in the silence of the night under the terrible rider4 ,illustration3 ,,sacred ,,font4 ,a gentle splashing of water1 which mingles with the rustling of the trees and the quiet echoes of the pavement1 comes from the end of the court where its edge is a descent filled with high forest trees4 ,this lapping sound comes from the temple font1 a great wet mass of stone1 looking like solid water4 ,it has been so exactly balanced on its base that the clear mountain stream overflows its sides and top in a perfectly fitting liquid sheet4 ,this sacred well-basin has a canopy with great black bronze-and-gold roof1 supported by white stone pillars1 three on each corner1 that are set in bronze sockets and strapped with gilded metal4 ,the pediment and the brackets which cap the pillars are brilliantly painted1 and the recessed space below the curved roof-beam is filled with palm-like curves of carved waves and winged dragons4 ,next to this1 and at right angles to it1 is a heavy bronze ,torii1 through which we go up to another court1 turning away from the buildings we have seen4 ,on the dark surface of the ,torii glisten the golden ,tokugawa crests2 on the great tie-beam1 the upper pillars1 and the central upright4 ,near us1 the eaves of its lower roof continuing the lines of the water-tank pavilion1 is the closed library1 red1 delicately adorned with color under the eaves1 and with the same heavy black roofing of bronze dotted with gold which all the buildings have in a heavy monotony4 ,the steps lead us to another court1 spotted with different buildings1 among tremendous trees--a bronze pavilion with a hanging bell1 a bell tower1 and a drum tower1 closed in with sloping walls of red lacquer1 and a large lantern of bronze under a bronze pavilion1 whose curious1 ,european1 semi-,gothic details contrast suddenly with all this alien art1 and prove its origin a tribute from trading ,christian ,holland to the mortal deity worshiped here4 ,on one side1 where the forest slopes down in sun and shadow1 stands a ,buddhist temple1 sole survivor of the faith in this place1 now turned over to the official and native worship4 ,the latticed gold-and-black screens were all closed1 except in the center1 through which we could see the haze and occasional glitter of the gold of gods and altar ornaments1 and the paleness of the mats4 ,on its red veranda stood a young ,buddhist priest1 whom our companions knew2 a slight1 elegant figure1 a type of modesty and refinement4 ,farther back1 on the other side of the veranda1 an older companion looked down the valley at some girls whose voices we could hear among the trees4 ,illustration3 ,,young ,,priest4 ,the main entrance rises above the high steps to a little esplanade with heavy railing1 on the level of a higher embankment4 ,the court that we were in was full of broken shadows from its own tall trees1 and from all this accumulation of buildings1 red-lacquered and gilded1 black-and-bronze roofed1 spotted and stained with moss and lichens1 or glittering here and there in their many metals4 ,long lines of light trickled down the gray trunks and made a light gray haze over all these miscellaneous treasures4 ,great lanterns 7toro7 of stone1 capped with green and yellow moss1 metal ones of bronze and iron1 stand in files together here and in the lower court1 or are disposed in rows along the great stone wall1 which is streaked by the weather and spotted with white and purple lichens4 ,along its upper edge runs the red-lacquered wall1 heavily roofed1 of the cloister which surrounds the farther court above4 ,its face is paneled between the metal-fastened beams and posts with two rows of deep carvings of innumerable birds and trees and waves and clouds and flowers4 ,all these are painted and gilded1 as are the frieze above and the intervals between the gilded rafters4 ,on all this space1 and on the great white gate1 the ,gate ,magnificent1 the full sun embroidered the red and white and colored surfaces with millions of stitches of light and shadow4 ,the gate1 or triumphal arch1 is a two-storied building with heavy bronze-tiled roof1 capped and edged1 like all the rest1 with gilded metal1 and spotted with the gilded crest of the ,tokugawa4 ,its front toward us rises in the well-known curve1 shadowing a pediment1 full of painted sculpture4 ,eight white pillars embroidered with delicate reliefs support the white lintel1 which is embossed with great divine monsters and strapped with gilded metal4 ,in the niches on each side are seated two repellant painted images1 inside of white walls1 which are trellises of deeply-carved floral ornament4 ,these figures are warriors on guard1 in ancient and ,japanese costume1 armed with bows and quivers of arrows1 whose white1 wrinkled1 and crafty faces look no welcome to the intruder1 and recall the cruel1 doubtful look of the guardian statues of foxes that protect the entrances of the primitive shrines of the land-god ,inari4 ,the far-projecting white capitals are the half-bodies of lion-like monsters with open mouths and stretched-out paws4 ,above these1 below the carved balcony which marks the second story1 the cornice is made of a wilderness of tenfold brackets1 black lacquered and patterned with gold1 and from each of the ten highest ones a gilded lion's head frowns with narrowed eyes4 ,the balcony is one long set of panels--of little panels carved and painted on its white line with children playing among flowers4 ,above1 again1 as many white pillars as below2 along their sides a wild fringe of ramping dragons and the pointed leaves of the bamboo4 ,this time the pillars are crowned with the fabulous dragon-horse1 with gilded hoofs dropping into air1 and lengthy processes of horns receding far back into the upper bracketings of the roof4 ,upon the center of the white-and-gold lintel1 so delicately carved with waves as to seem smooth in this delirium of sculpture1 is stretched between two of the monster capitals a great white dragon with gilded claws and gigantic protruding head4 ,but all these beasts are tame if compared with the wild army of dragons that cover and people the innumerable brackets which make the cornice and support the complicated rafters under the roof4 ,tier upon tier hang farther and farther out1 like some great mass of vampires about to fall4 ,they are gilded2 their jaws are lacquered red far down into their throats1 against which their white teeth glitter4 ,far into the shade spreads a nightmare of frowning eyebrows1 and pointed fangs and outstretched claws extended toward the intruder4 ,it would be terrible did not one feel the coldness of the unbelieving imagination which perhaps merely copied these duplicates of earlier terrors4 ,illustration3 ,,details ,,of ,,bases ,,of ,,cloister ,,walls1 ,,inner ,,court4 ,so it is1 at least1 in this bright1 reasonable morning light2 but ,i can fancy that late in autumn evenings1 or in winter moonlight1 or lighted by dubious torches1 one might believe in the threats of these blinking eyes and grinning jaws1 and fear that the golden terrors might cease clinging to the golden beams4 ,it is steadying to the eye to meet at last the plain gold-and-black checker pattern of the ends of the final rafters below the roof1 and to see against the sky peaceful bells like inverted tulips1 with gilded clappers for pistils1 hanging from the corners of the great bronze roof4 ,and as we pass through the gate we are made to see how ill omen was turned from the ,luck of the ,tokugawa by an evil-averting pillar1 which has its pattern carved upside down as a sacrifice of otherwise finished perfection4 ,i noticed also that a childish realism has furnished the lower monsters of the gate with real bristles for their distended nostrils2 and this trifle recalls again the taint of the unbelieving imagination1 which insists upon small points of truth as a sort of legal protection for its failing in the greater ones4 ,within this third cloistered court which we now entered is an inclosed terrace1 some fifty yards square4 ,inside of its walls are the oratory and the final shrine1 to which we can pass through another smaller gate1 this time with lower steps4 ,the base of the terrace1 which makes the level of the innermost court1 is cased with large blocks of cemented stone4 ,above it is a fence or wall with heavy roof and projecting gilded rafters4 ,great black brackets support the roof4 ,between them all is carved and colored in birds and flowers and leaves1 almost real in the shadow4 ,between the decorated string-courses the wall is pierced with gilded screens1 through which play the lights and darks1 the colors and the gilding of the shrine inside4 ,at the very bottom1 touching the stone plinth1 carved and painted sculptures in high relief project and cast the shadows of leaves and birds upon the brilliant granite4 ,beyond this inclosure and the shrine within it the court is abruptly ended by a lofty stone wall1 high as the temple roof1 and built into the face of the mountain4 ,from its very edge the great slope is covered with tall trees that look down upon this basin filled with gilding and lacquers1 with carvings and bronze1 with all that is most artificial1 delicate1 labored1 and transitory in the art of man4 ,it is in this contrast1 insisted upon with consummate skill1 that lies the secret beauty of the art of the men who did all this4 ,the very lavishness of finish and of detail1 the heaped-up exaggerations of refinement and civilization1 bring out the more the simplicity and quiet of the nature about them4 ,up to the very edges of the carvings and the lacquers grow the lichens and mosses and small things of the forest4 ,the gilded temples stand hidden in everlasting hills and trees1 open above to the upper sky which lights them1 and to the changing weather with which their meaning changes4 ,nothing could recall more completely the lessons of death1 the permanence of change1 and the transitoriness of man4 ,we went up the steps of the recessed gate1 which repeats the former theme of white and gold and black in forms of an elegance that touches the limits of good taste4 ,its heavy black roof1 whose four ridges are crowned by long bronze dragons and crawling lions1 opens in a high curve on the front and sides to show under the bent white-and-gold ridge-beams a pediment strapped and intersected by spaces of small carvings1 white and tinted1 relieved by red perpendiculars of beams4 ,illustration3 ,,detail ,,of ,,cloister ,,walls1 ,,inner ,,court4 ,white and gold shine in the great brackets and the recesses of the rafters4 ,below the white frieze1 carved with many small figures of ,chinese story1 the pillars and the lintel are inlaid in many carved woods1 ornaments of dragons1 plants1 and diapered patterns on the whitened ground4 ,the opened doors repeat the same faint tones of wood1 and of white and gold1 and of gilded metals4 ,the walls1 which are open at the base1 are merely lattice screens4 ,their exquisite flowered patterns fluctuate with gilded accents of whites1 greens1 lavenders1 and blues4 ,illustration3 ,,lintel1 ,,bracket ,,capital4 ,the gate inside is1 therefore1 nothing but an ornamented trellis1 made still lighter by contrast with the solid white doors1 trellised at top1 but whose lower panels are exquisitely embellished with inlaid carved woods and chiseled golden metal4 ,we took off our shoes1 and ascended the bronze-covered steps of the oratory and shrine1 which come down from the red-lacquered veranda1 behind the four carved white pillars of the descending porch4 ,great white dragons with spiky claws project from the pillars1 and crawl in and out of the double transom4 ,in the shadow of the roof golden monsters hang from the complex brackets4 ,the friezes and bands of the temple face are filled with carving1 delicate as embossed tapestry1 while the panels1 deeply cut into auspicious forms of birds and flowers1 carry full color and gold far up into the golden rafters4 99 99 99 99 99 ,all recesses and openings are filled with half-realities1 as if to suggest a dread or a delicious interior1 as flowers might pass through palings1 or great beasts1 types of power1 might show great limbs through confining barriers4 ,the long building1 indeed1 is a great framework1 strongly marked1 dropped on a solid base1 and weighted down by a heavy roofing4 ,the white pillars or posts which divide its face and corners stand clear between the black-and-gold latticed screens1 partly lifted1 which make almost all its wall4 ,strips of the sacramental white paper hang from the lower lintel against the golden shade of the interior4 ,inside1 pale mats cover the black-lacquer floor4 ,exquisite plain gold pillars1 recalling ,egyptian shapes1 divide the gilded central walls4 ,here and there on the gilded tie-beams curved lines of emerald-green or crimson1 like tendrils1 mark with exquisite sobriety a few chamfered cuttings4 ,on either side of the long room 7fifty feet7 are two recesses with large gold panels on which symbolic forms are freely sketched1 and carved inlays of emblematic birds fill their farthest walls4 ,their ceilings are carved1 inlaid1 and painted with imperial flowers1 mystic birds1 and flying figures1 and the pervading crest of the ,tokugawa4 ,for these were the waiting-rooms of the family1 and1 as ,a---- remarked1 the impression is that of a princess's exquisite apartment1 as if the ,tartar tent had grown into greater fixity1 and had been touched by a fairy's wand4 ,illustration3 ,,inside ,,the ,,cat ,,gate--,,gate ,,to ,,the ,,tomb4 ,all was bare except for an occasional sacred mirror1 or hanging gilded ornament1 or the hanging papers of the native worship2 and this absence of the ,buddhist images and implements of worship left clear and distinct the sense of a personal residence--the residence of a divinized spirit1 not unlike the one that he was used to in life4 ,even more1 on the outside of the building the curved stone base1 like a great pedestal1 with pierced niches filled with flowers carved and painted between the great brackets that support the veranda1 makes the temple seem as if only deposited for a time1 however long that time may be4 ,we merely looked at the central passage1 that1 dividing the building1 leads down and then up to the shrine itself1 and waited for the time when we shall get further permission1 and ,i shall be allowed to sketch and photograph4 ,as for me1 ,i was wearied with the pleasure of the endless detail2 for even now1 with all my talk1 ,i have been able to note but a little of what ,i can remember4 ,we withdrew1 put on our shoes again at the gate1 and turned below to the east side of the court4 ,we passed the ,hall of ,perfumes1 where incense was once burned while the monks chanted prayers in the court1 as they did when ,iyyas was buried4 ,we passed the ,hall of the ,sacred ,dances1 whose open front makes a large1 shady1 dim stage1 with a great red railing on its projecting edge4 ,within it moved a white shadow1 the figure of a woman-dancer4 ,and then we came to a white-and-gold gate1 inside of the roofed cloister wall4 ,above the open door that leads to it sleeps a carved white cat1 in high relief1 said to have been the work of a famous left-handed sculptor1 carpenter1 and architect4 ,its cautious rest may not have been so far from the habits of the living ,iyyas1 to whose tomb1 farther on1 this is the entrance4 ,framed by the gold and white of the gate and of the half-opened door rise the steps built into the hillside and all carpeted with brilliant green mosses4 ,the stone railings1 which for two hundred feet higher up accompany the steps1 are also cushioned with this green velvet1 and our steps were as noiseless as if those of the white cat herself4 ,all is green1 the dark trees descending in sunlight to our right and rising on the bank to our left1 until we reach an open space above1 with a bank of rocky wall inclosing the clearing4 ,here is the small final shrine1 and behind it a stone esplanade with a stone fence1 within which stands1 in the extreme of costly simplicity1 the bronze tomb of ,iyyas4 ,a large bronze gate1 roofed in bronze1 of apparently a single casting1 with bronze doors1 closes the entrance4 ,before the monument1 on a low stone table1 are the ,buddhist ornaments--the storks1 the lotus1 and the lion-covered vases1 all of brass and of great size4 ,the tomb itself is of pale golden bronze1 in form like an ,indian shrine3 a domed cylinder surmounted by a great projecting roof which rises from a necking that separates and connects them above--the roof a finial in the shape of a forked flame4 ,five bronze steps1 or bases1 support this emblematic combination of the cube1 the cylinder1 and the globe4 ,the crest of the ,tokugawa1 ten times repeated1 seals the door upon the burnt ashes of the man who crystallized the past of his country for more than centuries1 and left ,japan as ,perry found it4 ,all his precautions1 all his elaborate political conservatism1 have been scattered to the winds with the ,luck of the ,tokugawa1 and the hated foreigner leans in sightseeing curiosity upon the railing of his tomb4 ,illustration3 ,,tomb ,,of ,,iy,,yas ,,tokugawa4 ,but the solemnity of the resting-place cannot be broken4 ,it lies apart from all associations of history1 in this extreme of cost and of refined simplicity1 in face of the surrounding powers of nature4 ,there is here no defiance of time1 no apparent attempt at an equal permanency2 it is like a courteous acceptance of the eternal peace1 the eternal nothingness of the tomb4 ,we leaned against the stone rails and talked of ,iyyas--of his good nature1 of his habit of chatting after battle1 of his fraudulent pretensions to great descent2 and of the deadening influence of the ,tokugawa rule1 of its belittling the classes whose energies were the true life of the country4 ,we recognized1 indeed1 that the rulers of ,iyyas's time might have perceived the dangers of change for so impressionable a race1 but none of us asked whether the loss of hundreds of thousands of lives of courageous ,christians had been made up in the strength of the remaining blood4 ,illustration3 ,,entrance ,,to ,,the ,,tomb ,,of ,,iy,,mits4 ,far away the sounds of pilgrims' clogs echoed from the steps of distant temples2 we heard the running of many waters4 ,above us a few crows1 frequenters of temples1 spotted the light for a moment1 and their cries faded with them through the branches4 ,a great1 heavy1 ugly caterpillar crept along the mossy edge of the balustrade1 like the fresh incarnation of a soul which had to begin it all anew4 #c ,the ,samurai1 the entire warrior class of the feudal days2 therefore1 also1 the gentry4 ,,iy,,mits ,we were told by our good friends that the temple of ,iymits1 the grandson of ,iyyas1 far less pretentious than the shrine of the grandfather and founder1 would show us less of the defects which accompanied our enjoyment of yesterday4 ,the successors of ,iymits were patrons of art1 sybarites1 of those born to enjoy what their ancestors have sown4 ,the end of the seventeenth century has a peculiar turn with us1 a something of show and decadence1 of luxury and want of morals2 and the same marks belong to it even in ,japan4 ,indeed1 ,i feel in all the ,tokugawa splendor something not very old1 something which reminds me that this was but the day of my own great-grandfather2 a time of rest after turmoil1 of established sovereigns on various scales1 of full-bottomed wigs1 of great courtliness1 of great expenses in big and little ,versailles4 ,i miss the sense of antiquity1 except as all true art connects with the past1 as the ,greek has explained when he said that the ,parthenon looked old the moment it was done4 99 99 99 99 99 ,the temple of ,iymits is1 indeed1 charming and of feminine beauty1 complete1 fitted into the shape of the mountain like jewels in a setting4 ,from near the red pagoda of ,iyyas's grounds a wide avenue leads1 all in shade1 to an opening1 narrowed up at its end to a wall and gate1 which merely seem a natural entrance between the hills4 ,there are great walls to the avenue1 which are embankments of the mountains4 ,from them at intervals fountains splash into the torrents at each side1 and overhead are the great trees and their thin vault of blue shade4 ,the first gate is the usual roofed one1 red1 with gilded rafters and heavy black bronze tiles1 and with two red muscular giants in the niches of the sides4 ,its relative simplicity accentuates the loveliness of the first long court1 which we enter on its narrowest side4 ,its borders seem all natural1 made of nothing but the steep mountain sides1 filled with varieties of leafage and the columns of the great cedars4 ,these indeterminate edges give it the look of a valley shut at each end by the gate we have passed1 and by another far off disguised by trees4 ,this dell is paved in part1 and with hidden care laid out with smaller trees4 ,down the steep hillside1 a cascade trembles through emerald grass1 part lost1 part found again1 from some place where1 indistinct among the trees1 the jaws of a great bronze dragon discharge its first waters4 ,a simple trough collects one rill and sends it into the large stone cube of a tank1 which it brims over and then disappears4 ,the little pavilion over this well is the only building in the inclosure4 ,it is more elegant than that of ,iyyas1 with its twelve columns1 three at each corner1 sloping in more decidedly1 their white stone shafts socketed in metal below and filleted with metal above1 melting into the carved white architrave4 ,in the same way the carvings and the blue and green and red and violet of the entablature melt in the reflections under the shadow of the heavy black-and-gold roof with four gables4 ,from under the ceiling1 and hanging below the lintels1 flutter many colored and patterned squares of cloth1 memorials of recent pilgrims4 ,illustration3 ,,looking ,,down ,,on ,,the ,,water-,,tank1 ,,or ,,sacred ,,font1 ,,from ,,the ,,second ,,gate4 ,as we turn to the highest side of the court on the left and ascend slowly steep1 high steps to a gorgeous red gate above our heads whose base we cannot see1 the great cedars of the opposite side are the real monuments1 and the little water-tank1 upon which we now look down1 seems nothing but a little altar at the foot of the mountain forest4 ,the gate1 when we look back1 is only a frame1 and its upper step only a balcony from which to look at the high picture of trees in shadow and sunlight across the narrow dell which we can only just feel beneath us4 ,the great red gate has two giant guardians of red and green1 and innumerable bracketings for a cornice1 all outlined1 and confused all the more by stripes of red and green and white and blue4 ,illustration3 ,a ,,priest ,,of ,,iy,,mits ,just behind the gate1 as if it led to nothing1 rises again the wall of the mountain2 then we turn at right angles toward a great esplanade1 lost at its edges in trees1 from which again the forest would be all the picture were it not that farther back upon the hill rises a high wall1 with a platform and lofty steps1 and the carved red-and-gold face of a cloister1 with another still richer gate of a red lacquer1 whose suffering by time has made it more rosy1 more flower-like4 ,up these steps we went1 the distant trees of the mountains ascending with us1 and we rested in the red-and-gold shade4 ,above us the gold brackets of the roof were reflected back1 in light and dark1 upon the gold architrave1 adorned by the great carved peonies1 red and white1 and great green leaves which stood out with deep undercutting4 ,from the fluted red columns projected great golden tapirs' heads and paws1 streaked with red like the bloom of tulips4 ,the gilded metal sockets and joinings and the faint modeled reliefs of the wall1 all of dull gold1 looked green against the red lacquer4 ,beyond1 the inner lintel was green1 like malachite1 against the sunny green of the forest4 ,its chamfered edge reflected in gold the lights and shadows beyond1 and against the same green trees stood out the long heads and trunks of the tapir capitals in red and gold4 ,through this framework of red and many-colored gold we passed into the inner court1 made into a cloister by walls and narrow buildings1 rich in red lacquer and black and gold4 ,as before with ,iyyas1 so also within this inclosure1 is another raised upon a base faced with great blocks of granite1 fretted1 spotted1 and splashed with white and purple lichens4 ,the sun-embroidered wall or fence that edges it is black with a bronze-and-gold roof2 its trellises are of white1 edged with gold2 as usual1 bands of carved and colored ornament divide so as almost to pierce its face2 and its beams are capped with jointings of chiseled metal4 ,the central gate spots joyously the long line of black and gold and color and bronze1 with imposts of white carving1 framed in rosy lacquer1 and with gold pillars and a gold lintel1 upon which is spread a great white dragon1 and with a high gold pediment1 divided by recesses of golden ornament on ultramarine1 and with golden doors fretted with a fairy filagree of golden ornament4 ,through this lovely gate1 with an exquisite inlaid ceiling of pearl and gold and walls of carved and colored trellises1 we pass to the main shrine1 only just behind it4 ,here again1 less pretense than with ,iyyas1 and greater and more thoughtful elegance4 ,the long white carved columns of the portico run straight up to the brackets of its roof--except where1 to support the cross-beam of the transoms1 project red lions' heads and paws1 looking like great coral buds4 ,the entire architrave of the building is divided into a succession of long friezes1 stepping farther and farther out1 like a cornice1 until they meet the golden roof4 ,only a few gold brackets support the highest golden beam--carvings1 color1 and delicate stampings of the lacquer embroider the gold with a bloom of color4 ,the gold doors look like jewelers' work in heavy filagree4 ,all within was quiet1 in a golden splendor4 ,through the small openings of the black-and-gold gratings a faint light from below left all the golden interior in a summer shade1 within which glittered on lacquer tables the golden utensils of the ,buddhist ceremonial4 ,from the coffered ceiling hangs the metal baldachin1 like a precious lantern's chain without a lamp4 ,illustration3 ,,in ,,the ,,third ,,gate ,,of ,,the ,,temple ,,of ,,iy,,mits1 ,,looking ,,toward ,,the ,,fourth4 ,illustration3 ,a ,,priest ,,at ,,iy,,mits4 ,the faces of the priests who were there were known to us1 the elder's anxious and earnest1 the younger's recalling an ,italian monsignore4 ,one of them was reading by the uplifted grating and rose to greet us1 and to help to explain4 ,we entered the narrow passage which makes the center1 through whose returning walls project1 in a curious refinement of invention1 the golden eaves of the inner building beyond4 ,gratings which were carved and gilded trellises of exquisite design gave a cool1 uncertain light4 ,we passed out of a trellised door on to the black lacquered floor of a veranda1 and then sat awhile in a simple room with our hosts to look at temple manuscripts and treasures1 and at the open palanquin which once brought here the dead ,iymits--not reduced to ashes1 as his grandfather ,iyyas1 but wrapped and covered up in innumerable layers of costly and preserving vermilion4 ,we passed into the corridor behind the building and looked at the picture hanging on the wall1 which faces the mountain and the tomb1 in which ,kuwan-on the ,compassionate sits in contemplation beside the descending stream of life4 ,then for a few moments we entered by a low door the sanctuary1 narrow and high and with pyramidal roof4 ,illustration3 ,,kuwanon1 ,,by ,,okio4 ,by the flickering torch which alone gave light1 all seemed of gold--the wall1 the columns which run up to the central golden roof1 and the transoms which connect them4 ,in the darker shade stood a golden shrine1 never opened4 ,whatever precious details there may be were bathed in a shade made of reflected gold4 ,an exquisite feeling of gentle solemnity filled the place4 ,we passed out suddenly into the glare of day and under the blazing blue sky1 which hung over the inclosure of tall trees and the temple like the ceiling of a tent4 ,again a great wall1 spotted with moss and lichens1 is built around as an inclosure4 ,it makes a base for the greater wall of the mountain rising above it1 which is covered with forest trees1 as if the skirting of the wilderness of northern ,japan were here suddenly limited4 ,across one single opening1 on the one side1 where show the seams of the immense cyclopean construction1 and joining two corners1 broken by great patches of the shadows of the gigantic trees1 stretches a white wall1 heavily roofed1 against a shadow almost black4 ,in its center is a strange1 white gate-building1 moundlike in shape1 absolutely plain1 but capped by a great roof1 which is stretched out upon a mass of brackets1 all of gold and colors1 and with carved golden doors1 whose central panels are all fretted and chiseled and stamped with the ,wheel of the law4 ,here begin the distant steps leading through the trees to the tomb where lies the body of ,iymits1 cased in layers of vermilion1 under golden bronze1 like his grandfather ,iyyas1 and surrounded by the still more solitary splendor of the forest4 ,astonishing as is the contrast to-day1 in the abundance and glory of summer1 of the bronze and the lacquered colors1 and the golden carvings1 with the wild rocks and trees1 the grass and the mosses1 ,i should like to see in the snow of winter this richness and glitter and warmth of red and white and black and gold4 ,can it bring out still more the lavishness of refinement1 which wells up as if exhaustless8 ,does its white monotony and the dark of the great cedars make one feel still more the recklessness of this accumulation of gold lacquer and carving and bronze1 all as if unprotected and trusted to the chances of the recurring seasons8 ,as we repeat each look1 on our slow return through the temples1 the same elegance1 the same refinement1 the same indifference to the outrages of time1 contrast again with the permanence and the forces of nature4 ,with the fatigue and repetition of the innumerable beauties of gold and color1 carving and bronze1 the sense of an exquisite art brings the indefinable sadness that belongs to it1 a feeling of humility and of the nothingness of man4 ,nowhere can this teaching be clearer than in this place of the tombs4 ,it is as if they said1 serenely or splendidly1 in color and carving and bronze and gold3 ,we are the end of the limits of human endeavor4 ,beyond us begins the other world1 and we1 indeed1 shall surely pass away1 but thou remainest1 ,o ,eternal ,beauty6 ,,tao3 ,,the ,,way ,,nikko1 ,july #bh4 ,osomi and ,tategawa were the architects of ,nikko2 ,osomi planned the lovely pagoda1--so ,i am told1--and ,i hasten to put down their names4 ,at that time the great ,tenkai was abbot4 ,he was a friend and adviser of ,iyyas1 as he was the teacher of ,iymits1 the grandson1 and of ,hidetada1 the less illustrious son4 ,it may be with him that ,iyyas arranged the plan of fixed endowment for the ,church2 an endowment not to be added to or diminished1 so that it should be an element of stability and no longer a fluctuating danger4 ,with this seems to have ended the possible reasons for military dependents in the service of the ,church4 ,tenkai is said to have planned or prepared beforehand the temples of ,iyyas1 which might explain the extremely short time given in the record for their building2 so that1 begun in #afaf1 the stable1 the surrounding edifices1 and the shrine were completed in the third month of #afag4 ,i have been careful to give you some account of the temples of ,iyyas and ,iymits1 because ,i regret having said so little of those temples of ,shiba in ,tokio1 where the remainder of the ,tokugawa rulers repose in a state adorned by similar splendors4 ,but these temples of the founders are of a more complete type1 and1 with one exception1 seem to me more impressive4 ,yet even with the beauties that ,i have tried to describe1 ,i am still not quite so carried away as ,i might have been by such complete works of art4 ,there is a something1 a seeming of pretense or effort or ingeniousness1 which ,i cannot seize1 but which seems to me to belong to a splendor not quite secure1 or perhaps only just secured1--something like what ,i might call the mark of the parvenu4 ,yes2 ,i think that is it4 ,it is still1 after all this time1 just a little new4 ,but what thorough adaptation of means to ends2 how delicately subtle the arrangements1 and simple2 and how impossible to describe through words or drawings4 ,how the result alone is aimed at1 and what little parade is made of the intention and preparation4 ,this work1 which seems to betray an inferiority to its own ideal--this work1 which has even a touch of the vulgar1 is charming enough to look like a fairyland4 ,it displays a capacity for arrangement which none of us to-day could hope to control2 has a charm that any passer-by could feel2 has more details of beauty than all our architects now living1 all together1 could dream of accomplishing in the longest life4 ,when ,i began to reflect how this wood and plaster had more of the dignity of art and of its accessible beauty than all that we have at home1 if melted together1 would result in2 that these frail materials conveyed to the mind more of the eternal than our granite1 it seemed to me that something was absolutely wrong with us4 ,and the cause of this result was not the splendor of line and color2 it was not the refinement4 ,the last time ,i could recall a similar sensation had been before some little church tower of ,england2 it was certainly the subordination of all means to a single end1 and their disappearance in one impression4 444 ,since my first visit to the temples my mind has been dwelling more and more in an involuntary manner upon the contrast with all modern art1 and ,i venture to note down for you some of the thoughts forced upon me4 ,it seems as if ,i were really reminded of what ,i always knew1 or ought to have known2 and perhaps what ,i may say about ourselves is as good a way as any other of giving an opinion upon what ,i see here4 ,for1 indeed1 what ,i see here that ,i admire ,i feel as though ,i had always known1 had already seen2 it is rather most of our own that seems queer1 strange1 and often unreasonable4 ,i can make no set and orderly arrangement of my rather confused thinking1 but can only trace it out as it occurred to me--as if it were from outside2 as if something whispered to me now and then out of small occurrences1 and said1 ,don't you understand more clearly8 444 ,on leaving the temples we went back to our friends' house1 which was once the residence of the regent of ,japan--a large1 low wooden building of the kind so carefully described by ,mr4 ,morse in his book4 ,all is extremely simple2 there is nothing to call any attention4 ,the woodwork is merely put together with great care2 some little panels of the closets are nicely trimmed with metal and highly ornamented4 ,this1 with metal nail-heads and a pretty wall-paper1 is all the decoration4 ,here we found the mail and papers1 and enjoyed the watering-place feeling of news from town4 ,there were copies of ,life and of the ,london ,punch1 many of whose drawings did not look out of place in this land of clever sketchers4 ,indeed1 that in them which once seemed good across the seas still held its own in presence of the little prodigies of technique that one meets in ,japanese drawings4 ,indeed1 they recalled one another4 ,both call out one's sudden recollection of some facts in nature2 and besides1 all good sketches resemble one another as being the nearest approach to the highest finished work4 ,they have in common with it the essential merit of being better than they appear1 of indicating more than is necessary to tell the tale1 of not being strictly measurable quantities4 ,we grow so ungrateful when too well treated that we forget how ,mr4 ,du ,maurier throws in1 over and above the social epigram in lines1 an elegance and grace that might belong to a poetic picture2 that ,mr4 ,keene tells his story over and over again in the very folds of each individual's dress2 that he will1 unconcernedly1 present us with a landscape as full of nature as his human figures1 instead of the indifferent background which would have been sufficient for the story of the caricaturist4 ,now1 the feeling of disenchantment1 of having found out appearances1 of having come to the end of a thing1 is never forgiven by the average healthy mind4 ,in greater things one turns1 some day1 to those which are always richer and fuller of meaning with time1--as one looks to-day at a ,corot or a ,delacroix or a ,millet once uncared-for1--and that means that at length our eyes are opened4 ,the sketch1 like the great work of art1 is better than it appears1 and recalls to me the emperor in the story1 whom the old woman could not recognize in the presence of the big drum-major4 ,we can appreciate what suffering the little old woman underwent when she discovered her mistake1 and how she never forgave the big drum-major4 ,for mankind has never believed at heart that the work itself is to be judged1 but has always 7at least in the case of one's neighbor7 acknowledged that it is the work of art which judges us4 ,so says a ,japanese friend1 and ,i think that he has it exactly4 ,hence an importance attaches to criticism which otherwise would be inexplainable1--the importance there is in being right1--because we shall be judged ourselves if we are wrong1 and often by ourselves as judges4 444 ,and late numbers of the magazines had come1 pleasant to look over before dinner1--while the noiseless servants glided over the matting1 and our hostess put on her ,japanese costume1--serving to make the distance greater1 as we feel that all goes on at home with the usual regularity4 ,some architectural sketches in facsimile in a magazine became entangled with the thread of my thinking and brought to my mind an inevitable lesson4 ,they were charming1 and so different from the realities which they were meant to embody4 ,one ,i dwelt upon1 bright and clever1 where every dark of window or of shadow intensified the joyfulness of the white wall of a residence at home1 which you daily pass4 ,in the reality1 alas6 its ,fifth ,avenue monotony is unrelieved4 ,the wall is not bright1 the windows are paler than the walls1 and the projections and adornment are duller yet4 ,the drawing was an abstraction1 probably meant for the sweet enticement of the client1 and was what the building should have been4 ,the draughtsman knew better than he builded4 ,as my mind analyzed this curious professional misstatement of truth1 it seemed to me that ,i could see how the art of architecture in ,japan was real compared to ours1 even though none of their architects1 any more than those of the great past of the world1 could have made such a drawing--such a brilliant promise of a performance not to be1 such a beautifully engraved check upon a bank where there were no funds4 ,not knowing the science and art of perspective drawing1 nor the power of representing shadows according to rule1 nor having the habit of ruling lines with a ruler to give interest1 nor of throwing little witty accents of dark to fill up blanks1 they were perhaps the more obliged to concentrate their powers upon the end of the work2 and their real motive was the work itself4 ,this may be strange and contradictory to the modern ,western mind1 gradually accustomed to polished cartoons for bad paintings and worse glass1 to remarkable designs for decoration and architecture which look their best in woodcuts1 to great decorative paintings which are carried out so that they may be photographed without any injury to their color1 nay1 to its vast improvement4 ,do you remember how ,b----1 the famous sculptor1 used to preach to me that to-day no one looked at a thing itself1 no one expected to1 and that the fame of the artist was for those whose work could be adequately represented in the newspapers4 ,that an excellence which could not be duplicated1 that a tone which could not be matched1 that a line which could not be copied1 was not to be appreciated and could not be cared for4 ,in fact1 that such refinements were only worthy of the mind of an ,oriental1 of a man accustomed to wear the moon embroidered on his back4 ,why spend days in obtaining the color of a wall which any architect will think can be adequately replaced by his description of something like it to the painting firm around the corner8 ,why make the thing itself1 if something like it will do as well8 ,why strike the note exactly1 if any sound near it satisfies the average ear8 ,for us1 to-day1 things and realities no longer exist4 ,it is in their descriptions that we believe4 ,even in most cultivated ,france an architect or designer like ,viollet-le-,duc will seriously undertake to restore old work1 every square inch of which has had the patient toil of souls full of love and desire of the best1 by rubbing it all out1 and making a paper drawing or literary description for others to restore again in a few modern weeks the value of ancient years of ineffably intelligent care4 ,consider this impossibility of getting a decent restoration carried out by our best intelligences1 and note that while they are unable with all money and talk and book-learning to replace the past in a way that can deceive us1 there exist patient1 obscure workmen who1 beginning at the other end of the work1 produce little marvels of deception in false antiquities--purchased by museums and amateurs for sums their authors never could get in their proper name4 ,but these latter have only one object1 the thing itself1 and are judged by the result2 while we1 the arbiters and directors better known1 who never employ them1 are satisfied1 and satisfy others by our having filed in the archives of to-day notices that we are going to do something in the utterly correct way4 ,i took as an example our friend ,viollet-le-,duc1 the remarkable architect whose works we have both studied1 because he has written well1--in some ways1 no one more acutely and more wisely2 because of his real learning1 and on account of his very great experience4 ,is all that this man and his pupils did in their own art of making1 worth1 as art1 the broken carving that ,i kick to-day out of my path8 ,has such a risible calamity ever occurred before in any age8 ,destruction there has been1 replacing of old1 good work with better or with worse by people who did not understand1 or care1 or pretend to care2 but the replacing of good with bad by people who do understand1 and who claim to care1 has never been a curse until to-day4 ,this failure in all restoration1 in all doing of the thing itself1 must be directly connected with our pedantic education and with our belief in convenient appliances1 in propositions1 in labor-saving classifications1 in action on paper1 in projects for future work1 in soul-saving theories and beliefs--in anything except being saved by the--work itself4 ,indeed1 ,i have always felt that perhaps in the case of poor ,richardson1 just dead1 we may begin to see the shape of an exception1 and can realize what can be accomplished through what we called deficiencies4 ,he was obliged1 in the first place1 to throw overboard in dealing with new problems all his educational recipes learned in other countries4 ,then1 do you think that if he had drawn charming drawings beforehand he would have been able to change them1 to keep his building in hand1 as so much plastic material8 ,no2 the very tenacity needed for carrying out anything large would have forced him to respect his own wish once finally expressed1 while the careful studies of his assistants were only a ground to inquire into1 and1 lastly1 to choose from4 ,for many little prettinesses and perfections do not make a great unity4 ,through my mind passes the reminiscence of something ,i have just been reading1 the words of an old ,chinese writer1 an expounder of ,tao 7the ,way71 who said what he thought of such matters some twenty-five centuries ago4 ,what he said runs somewhat in this way3 ,the snake hissed at the wind1 saying3 ,i at least have a form1 but you are neither this nor that1 and you blow roughly through the world1 blustering from the seas of the north to the seas of the south4 ,it is true1 replied the wind1 that ,i blow roughly1 as you say1 and that ,i am inferior to those that point or kick at me1 in that ,i cannot do the same to them4 ,on the other hand1 ,i blow strongly and fill the air1 and ,i can break huge trees and destroy large buildings4 ,out of many small things in which ,i do not excel ,i make ,,one ,,great ,,one in which ,i do excel4 99 99 99 99 99 ,in the domains of the ,one there may not be managing4 ,hence1 also1 the difficulty1 ,i had almost said the impossibility1 of finding a designer to-day capable of making a monument3 say1 for instance1 a tomb1 or a commemorative1 ideal building--a cathedral1 or a little memorial4 ,there is no necessity in such forms of art1 nothing to call into play the energies devoted to usefulness1 to getting on1 to adaptation1 to cleverness1 which the same ,taoist says is the way of man1 while integrity is the way of ,god4 ,art alone1 pure1 by itself1 can be here the object of the maker's contemplation2 the laws of the universe that men call beauty are the true and only sufficient materials of construction4 ,with what preparation does a designer of humbugs come to such work1 failure in which cannot be excused because of any practical reasons1 because of any pressing necessities--that really belongs to the public1 to everybody more than to its possessor1 or to its owner1 or to those who have paid for it--that1 finally1 can be saved from adverse criticism only for a short time1 while passing interests are concerned4 ,who knows this better than yourself8 ,where on earth to-day can you find a thing done by us designers that an artist will go to look at for love1 for the deep desire of enjoyment which makes us visit so many little things of the past1 and go far for them8 ,if you can1 imagine any painter desiring to note1 so as to make them his own by copy1 a modern set of moldings1 the corner of a modern building4 ,and yet what a rush of delight comes upon us with a few ,greek moldings1 with a fragment of ,greek or ,gothic ornament1 with the mere look of the walls of some good old building4 ,how the pleasure and the emotions of those who made them have been built into them1 and are reflected back to us1 like the smile from a human face4 ,i know that ,i have told you often how the fragment of a ,gothic window from old ,english ,boston set into the cloister of ,trinity of the new ,boston always seemed to me to outweigh the entire building in which it rests4 ,and yet it is only a poor fragment of no great period4 ,but then the makers thought and felt in the materials that they worked in1 even if their drawings were rude and incomplete and often incorrect4 ,and no architect seems to realize to-day that his walls could give us the same emotions that we receive from a ,rembrandt1 or a ,van ,eyck1 or a ,veronese1 and for the same reasons1 and through a similar use of a real technique4 ,you draw well2 you can make a sketch1 ,i am sure1 which1 like many others1 would have spots of light on a black surface1 or a pretty wash of sky above it1 or little patches of shadow1 like clever lichens1 spread over it1 and that would be correct in artificial perspective1 and recall something of older design1 and have no great blemishes to take hold of4 ,how far would it help you to have made a million such if you seriously wished to do a thing for itself1 not for its effects upon a client1 nor for a claim upon the public1 nor for a salve to your own vanity8 ,and now do you see how1 as we architects and designers gradually work more and more on paper and not in the real1 our energies are worked out in accomplishing before we get to our real work1--that of building a work of art1--and the result of our drawings grows feebler and feebler and tamer as it presses to its end4 ,then1 for this weak frame of conception1 the men who have come in to help 7and that only because the director's time would not admit of his doing all himself1 otherwise he would1 in his jealous weakness1 adorn as poorly as he imagines7--then1 ,i say1 if the painter1 the sculptor1 the decorator1 shows any strength or power1 there is another danger4 ,there is danger that the sculptor's relief will be more powerful than the weak projections of solid masonry1--that the lines of the painter will be grander and more ample than those which were meant to guide and confine them--that the paint of the decorator will appear more massive and more supporting than the walls of the architect4 ,whence all will be tamed1 all annulled and made worthless and paltry1 so as not to disturb the weak efforts of the master directing4 ,and for the first time in the history of art we shall have buildings which the ,greek or the ,roman1 the ,medieval or the ,oriental1 would have been unable to adorn1 while in their times the masters who were architects1 great and small1 found no trouble in placing within their buildings1 made famous to all time by this choice1 the sculptures of the ,parthenon or of ,olympia1 the glass or the statues of ,christian cathedrals1 or the carvings of ,india or of ,japan4 ,so that when the greatest painter of the century left instructions for his tomb1 he asked that it should be copied from some former one of antiquity or renaissance1 so that it might have--to typify his love and his dislikes--masculine moldings and a manly character1 contrary1 as he said1 to all that is done to-day in architecture4 ,you may say that through all this wandering of thought ,i am telling you little about ,japanese art4 ,wait2 perhaps ,i may be merely preparing your mind and mine for what ,i shall have to say later4 ,or1 rather1 let us think that ,i am carried away by the spirit1 and that ,i am certainly talking of what ,i do not find here2 and if there is no novelty in what ,i say1 and that you know it1 and have always known it1 we shall come back to what you also know1 that art is the same everywhere and always1 and that ,i need not come this distance to learn its principles4 ,if there is anything good here1 it must resemble some of the good that we have with us4 ,but here at least ,i am freer1 delivered from a world of canting phrases1 of perverted thought1 which ,i am obliged to breathe in at home so as to be stained by them4 ,whatever pedantry may be here1 ,i have not had to live with it1 and ,i bear no responsibility in its existence4 ,and then again1 art here seems to be a common possession1 has not been apparently separated from the masses1 from the original feeling of mankind4 ,to-day at dinner1 ,kato1 who was waiting upon us1 could give his opinion upon the authenticity of some old master's work1 at the request of our host1 himself a great authority2 so that ,i could continue my dreaming through the conversation and the semi-,european courses1 marked by my first acquaintance with the taste of bamboo shoots--a little delicacy sent in by ,a-chin1 the children's nurse4 ,much was talked of the ,tokugawa race1 and some cruelty was shown to their memory as a family of parvenus who had usurped the power theoretically invested in the mikados--an usurpation practised over and over again by every successful shogun1 as by ,yoritomo1 ,taikosama4 ,indeed1 the ,ashikaga move through ,japanese history against a background of mikados4 ,and when ,o---- comes in later he talks of ,masashige1 and of others1 who during centuries1 at long intervals1 attempted to realize what has now been accomplished--the restoration of the mikado to his ancient powers and rulership of twenty centuries ago4 ,yes1 the ,tokugawa splendor was that of parvenus4 ,their half-divine masters lie in no gilded shrines nor under monumental bronze1 but buried beneath the elements1 their graves marked only by mounds or trees1 as it might have been with their earliest ancestors1 the peaceful chieftains of a primitive family3 a simplicity recalled to-day by the little fragment of dried fish that accompanies presents1 in memory of the original humility of the fishing tribes1 the ancestors of this almost over-cultivated race4 ,these ,tokugawa1 then1 were parvenus1 and naturally asked of art1 which lasts and has lasted and is to last1 an affirmation of their new departure4 ,this splendor was made for them1 and its delicious refinement has not quite escaped that something which troubled me at ,shiba--an anxiety that all should be splendid and perfect1 an unwillingness to take anything for granted4 ,and yet1 by comparison1 this looks like a fairyland of refinement4 ,what should we do when called to help a new man to assist or to sweeten his acquired position8 ,what vulgarity of vulgarities should we produce8 ,think of the preposterous dwellings1 the vulgar adornments given to the rich2 the second-hand clothing in which newly acquired power is wrapped4 ,the ,english cad1 and the ,frenchman not good enough for home1 put the finishing touch upon the proofs of culture which are to represent them to their children4 ,i need not refer to what is seen in ,san ,francisco as an example4 ,at home in ,new ,york we have more than are pleasant to think of4 ,i know that some may say that we have only what we deserve for thinking that we can escape1 in the laws that govern art1 the rules that we have found to hold in everything else4 ,some years ago ,i told you how once a purveyor of decorations for the millionaire1 a great man in his line1 explained to me how and why he had met his clients half-way4 ,you despise my work1 he said1 though you are too polite to say so1--for we were friendly in a manner1--and yet ,i can say that ,i am more thoroughly in the right than those who would seek to give these men an artistic clothing fit for princes4 ,is there anything more certain than that the artist represents his age1 and is all the greater for embodying it4 ,now that is what ,i do4 ,you will say that my work is not deeply considered1 though it is extremely careful in execution2 that its aims are not high2 that it is not sober2 that it is showy1 perhaps even more2 that it is loud occasionally--when it is not tame2 that it shows for all it is worth1 and is never better than it looks4 ,and who1 pray1 are the people that live surrounded by what ,i make8 ,are they not represented by what ,i do8 ,do they not want show of such a kind as can be easily understood1 refinement that shall not remind others of a refinement greater than theirs1 money spent largely1 but showing for every dollar8 ,they want everything quick1 because they have always been in a hurry2 they want it on time1 whatever happens1 because they are accustomed to time bargains2 they want it advertisable1 because they live by advertising2 and they gradually believe in the value of the pretenses they have made to others4 ,they are not troubled by what they feel is transient1 because their experience has been to pass on to others the things they preferred not to keep4 ,they feel suspicious of anything that claims or seems to be better than it looks2 is not their business to sell dearer than they buy8 ,they must not be singular1 because they must fit into some place already occupied4 ,i claim to have fully expressed all this of them in what ,i do1 and ,i care little for the envious contempt of the architects who have to employ me and who would like to have my place and wield my influence4 ,and so ,i reflect my clients1 and my art will have given what they are4 ,thus the great ,german rolled out his mind with the ,teutonic delight at giving an appearance of pure intellect to the interested working of his will--incidentally sneering at the peacock feathers1 the sad-eyed dados1 the poverty-stricken sentimentality1 half esthetic1 half shopkeeper1 of his ,english rivals1 or at the blunders in art which ,mr4 ,stanford ,white once called our native ,hottentot style4 ,of course my ,german was merely using a current sophistry that is only worth quoting to emphasize the truth4 ,augustus1 the greatest of all parvenus1 did not ask of ,virgil to recall in verse the cruelties of civil war4 ,no true artist has ever sought to be degraded2 no worker of the ,middle ,ages has reflected the brutality of the world around him4 ,on the contrary1 he has appealed to its chivalry and its religion4 ,no treacherous adventurer of the ,renaissance is pictured in the sunny1 refined architecture that was made for him4 ,you and ,i know that art is not the attempt at reflecting others1 at taking possession of others1 who belong to themselves2 but that it is an attempt at keeping possession of one's self4 ,it is often a protest at what is displeasing and mean about us2 it is an appeal to what is better4 ,that is its most real value4 ,it is an appeal to peace in time of brutal war1 an appeal to courageous war in time of ignoble peace2 it is an appeal to the permanent reality in presence of the transient2 it is an attempt to rest for a moment in the true way4 ,we are augurs conversing together1 and we can afford to laugh at any respected absurdity4 ,we know that cleverness is not the way to the reality2 cleverness is only man's weak substitute for integrity1 which is from ,god4 ,all these words--miscalled ideas--poured out by my ,german friend and his congeners are merely records of merchants' ways of looking at the use of a thing1 not at the thing itself4 ,such people are persuaded that they must surely know about the thing they sell or furnish4 ,if not they1 then who8 ,for none can be so impartial1 as none are so disinterested1 in the use of the thing sold4 ,it is too far back for you to remember the charming ,blanco1 the great slave-dealer1 but you may have heard of his saying1 which covers the side of the dealer4 ,he had been asked why he felt so secure in his judgment of his fellow-creatures1 and especially of women4 ,because1 said he1 ,i have traded in so many--,j'en ai tant vendu4 ,i have sometimes quoted this saying to dealers in works of art1 to dealers in knowledge about art1 without1 however1 any success in pleasing them4 ,in fact1 one has no judgment of one's own in regard to anything sold that is not a matter of utility until one feels quite thoroughly1 as if it were one's own1 the sense of ,talleyrand's treatment of the persuasive dealer4 ,i am sure that you do not know the story4 ,two friends of his1 ladies of rank1 had chosen his study as a place of meeting4 ,they wished to select some ring1 some bracelet1 for a gift1 and the great jeweler of ,paris was to send one of his salesmen with sufficient to choose from4 ,of course the choice was soon limited to two1 and there paused1 until ,talleyrand1 sitting at the farther end of the long library1 called out1 ,let me undertake to help you to make your decision4 ,young man1 of these two trinkets tell me which you prefer4 ,this one1 certainly1 your ,excellency4 ,then1 ended the experienced cynic1 please accept it for your sweetheart2 and ,i think1 ladies1 that you had better take the other4 ,i tell you anecdotes2 are they not as good as reasons8 ,listen to what my ,chinese writer says3 ,of language put into other people's mouths1 nine-tenths will succeed4 ,of language based upon weighty authority1 seven-tenths4 ,but language which flows constantly over1 as from a full goblet1 is in accord with ,god4 ,when language is put into other people's mouths1 outside support is sought4 ,just as a father does not negotiate his son's marriage1 for any praise he could bestow would not have the same value as praise by an outsider4 ,thus the fault is not mine1 but that of others1 who would not believe me as the original speaker4 ,again1 a story of ,china comes back to me1 told by the same writer1 who lived before our purer era1 and who was1 as a ,japanese friend remarks1 a strategist in thought1 fond of side attacks1 of presenting some point apparently anecdotic and unimportant1 which1 once listened to1 turns the truthful mind into channels of fresh inquiry4 ,the anecdote is old1 told by the old writer many centuries before ,christ1 and before any reflections about art troubled our barbarian minds4 ,it is about a court architect who flourished in celebrity some twenty-seven centuries ago1 and who answered admiring queries as to how he did such wonderful things4 ,there is nothing supernatural about it1 he said4 ,i first free my mind and preserve my vitality--my dependence upon ,god4 ,then1 after a few days1 the question of how much money ,i shall make disappears2 a few more days1 and ,i forget fame and the court whose architect ,i am2 another day or so1 and ,i think only of ,,the ,,thing ,,itself4 ,then ,i am ready to go into the forest--the architect and the carpenter were one then--whose wood must contain the form ,i shall seek4 ,as you see1 there is nothing supernatural about it4 ,twenty-seven centuries ago the formula of all good work was the same as it has been since4 ,this looking for the thing itself1 not for the formula to control it1 enabled men who were great and men who were little1 far down toward us1 far down into the times of the ,renaissance 7until pedantry and night covered human freedom and integrity71 to be painters or poets1 sculptors or architects1 as the occasion required1 to the astonishment of our narrowed1 specialized vision of the last two hundred years4 ,again1 if ,i have not put it clearly enough in this story of the far ,east1 let me add another1 which includes the meaning of the first4 ,you will forgive it in honor of the genius loci1 for these writings of the ,chinese philosophers form a staple of conversation and discussion in social gatherings of cultivated people here4 ,the story is of the greatest of ,chinese rulers1 the ,yellow ,emperor of some forty-seven centuries ago4 ,he was in pursuit of that law of things1 that sufficient ideal which is called ,tao 7the ,way71 and he sought it in the wilds beyond the world known of ,china1 in the fabulous mountains of ,chu-tzu4 ,he was accompanied by ,ch'ang ,yu and ,chang ,jo1 and others of whom ,i know nothing2 and ,fang ,ming1 of whom ,i know nothing also1 was their charioteer4 ,when they had reached the outside wilderness these seven sages lost their way4 ,by and by they fell in with a boy who was tending horses1 and they asked him if he knew the ,chu-tzu ,mountains4 ,i do1 said the boy4 ,and can you tell us1 said the sages1 where ,tao1 the law1 abides8 ,i can1 replied the boy4 ,this is strange1 said the ,yellow ,emperor4 ,pray tell me how would you govern the empire8 ,i should govern the empire1 replied the boy1 in the same way that ,i tend my horses4 ,what else should ,i do8 ,when ,i was a little boy and lived within the points of the compass my eyes grew dim4 ,an old man advised me to visit the wilderness outside of the world4 ,my sight is now better1 and ,i continue to dwell outside of the points of the compass4 ,i should govern the empire in the same way4 ,what else should ,i do8 ,said the ,yellow ,emperor1 ,government is not your trade1 but ,i should be glad to learn what you would do4 ,the boy refused to answer1 but being urged again1 said3 ,what difference is there between governing the empire and looking after horses8 ,see that no harm comes to the horses2 that is all4 ,thereupon the emperor prostrated himself before the boy2 and calling him divine teacher1 took his leave4 ,i am writing these vagaries by the sound of the waterfall in our garden2 half of the amados are closed2 the paper screens near me ,i have left open1 and the moths and insects of the night flutter around my lamp in orbits as uncertain as the direction of my thoughts4 ,i have given up my drawing2 it is too hot to work4 ,and ,i have already tired myself with looking over prints and designs4 ,among them there is a sketch by ,hokusai which reminds me of the way in which my mind bestrides stray fancies that float past4 ,the picture is that of ,tekkai 7the beggar71 the ,sennin exhaling his spiritual essence in a shadowy form1 which shadow itself often rides away upon the spirit horse that ,chokwaro or ,tsuga evokes occasionally from his traveling-gourd4 ,to-day we talked of the legends of these ,rishi or ,sennin1 whose pictures so often come up in the works of ,japanese artists4 ,rishi or ,sennin are beings who enjoy rest1--that is to say1 are exempt from transmigration1--often in the solitude of mountains for thousands of years1 after which delay they again enter the circle of change4 ,if they are merely human1 as many of them are1 they have obtained this charm of immortality1 which forms an important point in the superstitious beliefs and practices of modern ,taoism4 ,these appear to have no hold in ,japan1 as they have in ,china1 but these personages1 evolutions of ,taoist thought1 live here at least in legend and in art4 ,the original mysticism from which they sprung is full of beauty and of power4 ,general ,tcheng-ki-tong has recently stated it well1 when he says that ,lao ,tz1 its great antique propounder1 speaks with the tone of a prophet4 ,he neither preached nor discussed1 yet those who went to him empty departed full4 ,he taught the doctrine which does not find expression in words1 the doctrine of ,tao1 or the ,way--a doctrine that becomes untrue and unprofitable when placed in set forms and bound in by pedantry1 but which allows teaching by parables and side glimpses and innuendoes as long as they are illuminated by that light which exists in the natural heart of man4 ,and ,i1 too1 am pleased to let myself be guided by this light4 ,after many years of wilful energy1 of forced battle that ,i have not shunned1 ,i like to try the freshness of the springs1 to see if new impressions come as they once did in childhood4 ,with you ,i am safe in stating what has come to me from outside4 ,it has come2 hence it is true3 ,i did not make it4 ,i can say with the ,shadow1 personified by my expounder of the ,way1#d that when the light of the fire or the sun appears1 then ,i come forth2 when the night comes1 ,i lie still3 ,i wait indeed1 even as they wait4 ,they come and ,i come1 they go and ,i go too4 ,the shade waits for the body and for the light to appear1 and all things which rise and wait wait upon the ,lord1 who alone waits for nothing1 needs nothing1 and without whom things can neither rise nor set4 ,the radiance of the landscape illuminates my room2 the landscape does not come within4 ,i have become as a blank to be filled4 ,i employ my mind as a mirror2 it grasps nothing1 it refuses nothing2 it receives1 but does not keep4 ,and thus ,i can triumph over things without injury to myself--,i am safe in ,tao4 #d ,prmare's ,notitia ,lingu ,sinic1 #dum exemplum4 ,sic inducit ,tchouang-tsee umbram loquentem3 ,ego quidem existo1 sed nescio qua ratione4 ,ego sum veluti cicadarum tunic et ,serpentis spolia1 etc4 ,if what ,i have written is ever seen by ,h4 ,b4 ,m4's consul at ,tamsui1 he will perceive my present indebtedness to his most admirable translations4 ,,japanese ,,architecture ,,nikko1 ,august #b4 ,i fear that of all my description the refrain of the words gold and bronze will be all that you will retain4 ,how can ,i have any confidence in my account of anything so alien1 whose analysis involves the necessary misuse of our terms1 based upon another past in art8--for words in such cases are only explanations or easy mnemonics of a previous sight4 ,but soon ,i shall have photographs to send1 and if ,i can summon courage for work1 in this extreme heat and moisture1 ,i shall make some drawings4 ,but again1 these would not give the essential reasons for things being as they are2 and whatever strange beauties would be noted1 they might appear to have happened1 if ,i may so say1 and not to have grown of necessity4 ,it is so difficult for our average way of accepting things to think of what is called architecture without expecting structures of stone--something solid and evidently time-defying4 ,and yet1 if architecture represents the needs of living of a people1 the differences that we see here will have the same reasonableness that other devices show elsewhere4 ,the extreme heat1 the sudden torrents of rain1 will explain the far-projecting and curved roofs1 the galleries and verandas1 the arrangements for opening or closing the sides of buildings by sliding screens1 which allow an adjustment to the heat or the damp4 ,but weightier reasons than all these must have directed in the construction of such great buildings as the temples1 and ,i think that1 putting aside important race influences1 these sufficient reasons will be found in the volcanic nature of ,japan and its frequent earthquakes4 ,whatever was to be built must have had to meet these difficult problems3 how successfully in the past is shown by a persistence of their buildings which to us seems extraordinary1 for many of them are lasting yet in integrity for now over a thousand years4 ,i speak of the influences of race1 because it is evident that very many traditions1 prejudices1 and symbolic meanings are built into these forms1 and that many of them must have come through the teachings of ,china4 ,everywhere the higher architecture1 embodied in shrines and temples1 is based on some ideal needs1 and not essentially upon necessities2 is1 in fact1 a record or expression of a religious idea or mystery4 ,in this case ,i am too profoundly ignorant1 as most of us are1 to work out origins2 but my mind feels the suggestion of an indefinite past1 that once had meanings and teachings1 just as my eye recognizes in the shape of the massive temples the image of a sacred box1 or ark1 once to be carried from place to place4 ,there is1 perhaps1 in this direction a line of study for the men to come4 ,like all true art1 the architecture of ,japan has found in the necessities imposed upon it the motives for realizing beauty1 and has adorned the means by which it has conquered the difficulties to be surmounted4 ,hence no foundations1 which would compromise the super-imposed building by making it participate in the shock given to its base4 ,hence solid pedestals1 if ,i may so call them1 or great bases1 upon which are placed only1 not built in1 the posts which support the edifice1 leaving a space between this base and the horizontal beams or floors of the building4 ,the building is thus rendered elastic1 and resumes its place after the trembling of the earthquake1 and the waters of bad weather can escape without flooding any foundations4 ,the great1 heavy1 curved roof1 far overhanging1 weighs down this structure1 and keeps it straight4 ,an apparently unreasonable quantity of adjusted timber and beams supports the ceiling and the roof4 ,complicated1 tremendous corbelings1 brackets grooved and dovetailed1 fill the cornices as with a network2 but all these play an important practical part1 and keep the whole construction elastic1 as their many small divisions spread the shock4 ,still more1 in such a building as the charming pagoda at ,iyyas's shrine1 which is full one hundred feet high1 slight-looking and lithe1 the great beam or mast which makes its center does not support from the base1 but is cut off at the foundation2 and hence it acts as a sort of pendulum1 its great weight below retarding the movement above when the earthquake comes4 ,i have heard the whisper of a legend saying that the architect who devised this1 to correct the errors of a rival and partner1 was poisoned in due time1 in jealous return4 ,for those were happy times when backbiting among artists took the more manly form of poisoning4 ,now besides all this1 which gives only the reason for the make of certain parts which together form the unity of a single building1 there are other principles before us4 ,the relation of man to nature1 so peculiarly made out in the ,japanese beliefs1 is made significant1 symbolized1 or typified through the manner in which these buildings are disposed4 ,a temple is not a single unity1 as with us1 its own beginning and end4 ,a temple is an arrangement of shrines and buildings meaningly placed1 often1 as here1 in mountains--a word synonymous with temples2 each shrine a statement of some divine attribute1 and all these buildings spread with infinite art over large spaces1 open1 or inclosed by trees and rocks4 ,the buildings are but parts of a whole4 ,they are enveloped by nature1 the principle and the adornment of the subtle or mysterious meaning which links them all together4 ,besides all this is the religious symbolism underlying or accompanying all1 as once with us1 of which ,i know too little to speak1 but which can be felt and occasionally detected because of many repetitions4 ,but this would carry me beyond my limits2 and1 indeed1 we find it very difficult to obtain any more information from our instructors1 whether they do not know securely1 or whether they reserve it for better minds and worthier apprehensions4 ,nor do ,i object to this ,oriental secrecy or mystery1 as it adds the charm of the veil1 which is often needed4 ,and ,i should wish that soon some one might undertake to make out in full the harmony of proportions which has presided over these buildings4 ,it is evident that a delicate and probably minute system of relations1 under the appearance of fantasy1 produces here the sense of unity that alone makes one secure of permanent enjoyment4 ,my information on the subject is fragmentary3 ,i know that the elegant columns are in a set relation to the openings of the temple2 that the shape of these same columns is in another relation to their exquisite details2 that the rafters play an important part1 determining the first departure4 ,i have seen carpenter's drawings1 with manners of setting out work and measurements1 and ,i feel that there is only a study to carry out4 ,nor is my wish mere curiosity1 or the interest of the antiquarian4 ,what we need to-day is belief and confidence in similar methods1 without which there is nothing for ourselves but a haphazard success2 no connection with the eternal and inevitable past1 and none with a future1 which may change our materials1 but will never change our human need for harmony and order4 ,you have heard of the little gardens1 and of their exquisite details1 in which the ,japanese makes an epitome of nature1 arranged as if for one of his microscopic jewels of metals1 ivory1 or lacquer4 ,here in our own garden there would seem no call for an artificial nature4 ,the mountain slope on which we live must have always been beautiful of itself2 but for all that1 our garden--that is to say1 the space about our landlord's house and our own--has been treated with extreme care4 ,our inclosure is framed towards the great temple groves1 and the great mountains behind them1 by a high wall of rock1 over which1 at a corner edged with moss1 rolls a torrent1 making a waterfall that breaks three times4 ,the pool below1 edged with iris that grow in the garden sand1 is crossed by a bridge of three big flat stones1 and empties secretly away4 ,on each side of the fall1 planted in the rock wall1 stands a thick-set paulownia1 with great steady leaves1 and bending towards it a willow1 whose branches drop far below itself and swing perpetually in the draught of the waterfall4 ,bunches of pink azalea grow in the hollows of the rocks1 and their reflections redden the eddies of the pool4 ,steps which seem natural lead up the wall of rock2 old pines grow against it1 and our feet pass through their uppermost branches4 ,on the top is planted a monumental stone1 and from there a little path runs along1 leading nowhere nowadays1 as far as ,i can make out4 ,i am right in calling this mass of rock1 which is a spur of the mountain's slope1 a wall2 for ,i look down from its top to the next inclosure far below1 now overgrown and wild4 ,what is natural and what was made by man has become so blended together1 or has always been so1 that ,i can choose to look at it as my mood may be1 and feel the repose of nature or enjoy the disposing choice of art4 ,where the little bridge crosses over1 and where mossy rocks dip down a little to allow a passage1 edged by a maple and a pine1 ,i look over across the hidden road to a deserted yashiki1 with one blasted tree1 all overgrown with green and melting into distances of trees which1 tier behind tier1 reach to a little conical hill1 that is divided and subdivided by sheets of mist at every change of heat and damp1 so that ,i feel half as if ,i knew its forms perfectly--half as if ,i could never get them all by heart4 ,in the sand of our little garden are set out clumps of flowers1 chrysanthemum mostly1 and occasionally iris and azalea2 and the two houses make its other two sides4 ,the priest's house1 an old one1 with large thatched roof projecting in front and supported there by posts covered with creepers1 is nearer the water4 ,i see the little priest with his young neophyte curled on the mats in the big front room whose whole face is open2 while in a break1 or wing1 is the opening to the practical housekeeper side of the dwelling4 ,our own house1 which faces south like the priest's1 completes the square1 as ,i said4 ,it is edged on the outside by a small plantation of trees with no character1 that stretch away to the back road and to a wall terracing a higher ground behind4 ,there a wide space overgrown with bushes and herbage1 that cover former care and beauty1 spreads out indefinitely toward conical hills hot in the sun1 behind which rises the great volcanic slope of ,nio-ho4 ,a little temple shrine1 red1 white1 and gold1 stands in this heat of sunlight and makes cooler yet the violets and tender greens of the great slopes4 ,this is to the north4 ,when ,i look toward the west ,i see broad spaces broken up by trees1 and the corner of ,iyyas's temple wall half hidden by the gigantic cedars1 and as ,i write1 late in the afternoon1 the blue peak of ,nan-tai-san rounded off like a globe by the yellow mist4 ,the garden1 embosomed in this vastness of nature1 feels small1 as though it were meant to be so4 ,every part is on a small scale1 and needs few hands to keep things in order4 ,we have a little fountain in the middle of the garden1 which gives the water for our bath1 and sends a noisy stream rolling through the wooden trough of the wash-room4 ,the fountain is made by a bucket placed upon two big stones1 set in a basin1 along whose edge grow the iris1 still in bloom4 ,a hidden pipe fills the bucket1 and a long1 green bamboo makes a conduit for the water through the wooden side of our house4 ,with another bamboo we tap the water for our bath4 ,in the early morning ,i sit in the bath-room and paint this little picture through the open side1 while ,a----1 upstairs in the veranda1 is reading in ,dante's ,paradiso1 and can see1 when he looks up1 the great temple roof of the ,buddhist ,mangwanji4 ,occasionally the good lady who takes care of our priest's house during his weeks of service at the temple of ,iymits salutes me while at my bath1 for the heating of which her servant has supplied the charcoal4 ,she is already dressed for the day1 and in her black silk robe walks across the garden to dip her toothbrush in the running water of the cascade4 ,then in a desultory way she trims the plants and breaks off dead leaves1 and later the gardener appears and attends to one thing after another1 even climbing up into the old pine tree1 taking care of it as he does of the sweet-peas2 and ,i recall the ,japanese gardener whom ,i knew at our ,exposition of #ahgf1 as ,i saw him for the last time1 stretched on the ground1 fanning the opening leaves of some plant that gave him anxiety4 ,thus the ,japanese garden can be made of very slight materials1 and is occasionally reduced to scarcely anything1 even to a little sand and a few stones laid out according to a definite ideal of meaning4 ,a reference to nature1 a recall of the general principles of all landscapes1--of a foreground1 a distance1 and a middle distance2 that is to say1 a little picture1--is enough4 ,when they cannot deal with the thing itself--when they do1 they do it consummately--they have another ideal which is not so much the making of a real thing as the making of a picture of it4 ,hence the scale can be diminished1 without detriment in their eyes1 until it becomes lilliputian to ours4 ,all this ,i take to be an inheritance from ,china1 modified toward simplicity4 ,i do not know to what type our little garden belongs4 ,for they have in their arrangements manners of expressing ideas of association1 drawing them from nature itself1 or bringing them out by references to tradition or history1 so that ,i am told that they aim to express delicate meanings which a ,western imagination can hardly grasp2 types1 for instance1 conveying the ideas of peace and chastity1 quiet old age1 connubial happiness1 and the sweetness of solitude4 ,does this make you laugh1 or does it touch you--or both8 ,i wish ,i knew more about it1 for ,i am sure that there is much to say4 ,i have spoken of simplicity4 ,the domestic architecture is as simple1 as transitory1 as if it symbolized the life of man4 ,you can see it all in the drawings1 in the lacquers1 and it has recently been treated completely in the charming book of ,professor ,morse4 ,within1 the ,japanese house is simplicity itself2 all is framework1 and moving screens instead of wall4 ,no accumulations1 no bric--brac2 any lady's drawing-room with us will contain more odds and ends than all that ,i have yet seen together in ,japan4 ,the reserved place of honor1 a sort of niche in the wall1 the supposed seat of an ideal guest1 has upon its bench some choice image on a stand1 or a vase with elegant disposal of flowers or plants1 and above it the hanging roll with drawing or inscription4 ,perhaps some other inscription or verse1 or a few words on a tablet upon some cross-beam1 and perhaps a small folding screen4 ,otherwise all works of art are put aside in the fireproof store-house1 to be brought out on occasions4 ,the woodwork is as simple as it can be--occasionally1 some beautiful joinery2 always1 when it can be afforded1 exquisite workmanship2 and1 above all1 exquisite cleanliness4 ,for there are no beds--only wadded coverlets and the little wooden pillow1 which does not disturb the complicated feminine coiffure in the languors of the night4 ,no tables2 food is laid on the cleanly mats1 in many trays and dishes4 ,no chairs2 the same mats that serve for bedstead and table serve for seats with1 perhaps1 a cushion added4 ,and this is all the same for all1 from emperor's palace to little tradesman's cottage4 ,there is nothing1 apparently1 but what is necessary1 and refinement in disposing of that4 ,the result is sometimes cold and bare4 ,there is the set look of insisting upon an idea--the idea of doing with little3 a noble one1 certainly2 as1 for instance1 when the emperor's palace at ,kioto is adorned merely by the highest care in workmanship and by the names of the artists who painted the screen walls--in solitary contradiction to the splendor and pomp of all absolute rulers1 no storehouse for the wasted money of the people1 but an example of the economy which should attend the life of the ruler4 ,it is possible that when ,i return ,i shall feel still more distaste for the barbarous accumulations in our houses1 and recall the far more civilized emptiness persisted in by the more esthetic race4 ,,bric--,,brac ,,nikko1 ,august #ab4 ,i need not tell you that the pervading manner of spending time and money is always within our reach4 ,we do not go after the owner and seller of bric--brac2 he comes to us4 ,coming from afar1--from ,tokio1 a hundred miles away1 and from ,ozaka1 four times that distance1--bales of merchandise are unloaded at our door1 or at our friends' for us4 ,patient pack-horses stand in the inclosure of the yards2 big parcels1 and piles of boxes and bundles1 encumber the verandas4 ,weary hours1 beginning with excitement and ending with gentle disappointment1 are spent in indecision of judgment and uncertainty of purchase4 ,but there remains always at the bottom of the boxes a delusive hope1 and some treasure may perhaps reward our patience4 ,and then1 besides occasional beauties in color or design1 there is something in looking over all these dbris of civilization in their own home2 and odds and ends1 having not much more excuse for themselves than that they remain1 help to explain either the art or the habits of the country1 or its history1 or the nature we see about us4 ,we have found almost nothing among the things brought us which can rank as work of high art1 and ,i am afraid that we must be looked down upon by our friends for purchases which have no excuse in any lofty esthetic code4 ,but they have the charm of being there1 and of explaining1 and in another way of teaching1 even when they are bad1 and often because they are bad4 ,because their very poverty helps to a classification and to an analysis of the means through which the artist worked1 and to a knowledge of the prevalent subjects and arrangements which he found ready to his hand1 bequeathed to him by an earlier and nobler choice4 ,from all this poor stuff exhales the faded scent of a greater art and refinement1 which is now invisible1 or destroyed1 or subsisting only in fragments1 difficult of access1 or which are far away4 ,and there is a peculiar unity in the arts of the extreme ,east4 ,we must remember that this very sensitive ,japanese race has developed in its art1 as in everything1 without being subjected to the many direct and contradictory influences which have made our ,western art and civilization4 ,there have been here1 within historic times1 no vast invasions of alien races1 bringing other ways for everything in thought and in life1 and obliging an already complex civilization to be begun over and over again on readjusted bases2 no higher living and advanced thought obliged to yield for times and half times1 until the grosser flames of energy could be purified2 no dethronement1 within society tried by every other calamity1 of the old primeval faith4 ,instead of a tempest of tastes and manners of feeling blowing from every quarter1 and in which the cruder dislikes have held for centuries the balance against cultured likings and devotion1 ,japan has been carried on in one current1 in which have mingled1 so as to blend1 the steady influences of the two most conservative civilizations of ,india and of ,china4 ,all here to-day1 and for far back1 is interwoven with ,chinese thought1 breaks through it1 returns to it1 runs alongside of it4 ,and through ,buddhism1 its fervor1 its capacity for taking up in its course boulders of other creeds or habits1 a something different1 higher in aspiration and in form1 has lived with everything else and affected all4 ,this impressionable race found1 contrasting with and supporting its nature1 secure1 steady1 undeviating guides1 so that these foreign ideals have persisted here with a transplanted life4 ,in fact1 it is possible to look to ,japan to find something of what ancient ,china was4 ,so much of what has here been done1 as their language does to-day1 saves for us a hint or a reflection of the great ,chinese ages1 when ,china had not yet been conquered by the foreigner1 and when energies apparently unknown to the ,china of to-day flourished with the strength of youth4 ,the art and literature of ,japan1 therefore1 represent in great part the ,chinese prototype--an original which for us has practically disappeared4 ,we cannot easily know what arrangements and compositions1 what free interpretations of the world1 or severe imitations of nature1 the old ,chinese adopted1 but they are reflected or continued in the styles and subjects and treatments of what we call ,japanese4 ,the limits and definitions of each may be clear to the ,japanese critic1 but to our casual ,western eye they merge or derive one from the other1 like some little-known streams which make one river4 ,almost all the arrangements that we know so well on ,japanese drawings1 screens1 bronzes1 lacquers1 ivories1 etc41 have ,chinese prototypes4 ,and all this is over and above the constant use of ,chinese legend1 and story1 and philosophy1 which are to ,japan what ,greece and ,rome used to be to us--a storehouse of associated meanings and examples4 ,would it amuse you if ,i made out some of the types that you see8 ,here are the pine-tree and the stork1 emblems of long life2 or the bamboo and the sparrow1 which typify the mildness and gentleness of nature4 ,the willow waves in the wind to and fro1 and the swallows swing forth and back again4 ,the names of ,color and of ,love are joined by a similarity of sound1 and probably by a mystic association3 and so you will see upon the screens that the leaves of the maple turn red in autumn1 when the stag calls the doe4 ,the cherry-blossom's splendor is for show1 like the pheasant's plumage4 ,long centuries ago the plum became the poet's tree1 because of an early poet's verses2 and the nightingale1 also a singer and a poet1 is associated with the tree4 ,the tiger hiding in the jungle has a background of bamboo1 as the oxen have the peach-tree1 from an old ,chinese sentence3 ,turn the horse loose on the flower-covered mountain1 and the ox into the orchard of peaches4 ,the cock stands on the unused war-drum1 which is a ,chinese symbol of good government1 the aim of which is peace4 ,or1 again1 legends and stories are referred to4 ,the cuckoo flies across the crescent of the moon1 and the story of ,yorimasa is called up1 who slew with bow and arrow the mysterious monster that had tormented the life of the ,mikado ,narihito4 ,i despair of telling the story without great waste of words1 and ,i half-regret having chosen the example2 but1 perhaps1 it is all the more ,japanese for its complication4 ,you must know that the ,mikado--this was about the year #aaec--;had been ill night after night with terrible nightmares1 to the confusion of his numerous doctors2 and that his many feminine attendants had done all they could to soothe him1 to no avail4 ,every night1 at the hour of the ,bull 7two ,a4 ,m41 an hour when evil power is great71 the dovecote was fluttered by this fearful visitation4 ,but1 at length1 either these gentle dames or other watchers noticed that before each access a cloud had drifted over the palace1 and that1 resting just above the sleeping-apartments1 two lights shone out from the dark mass4 ,then the bells of the city temples sounded the hour of the ,bull4 ,the gentlemen of the palace and the imperial guards were set on watch1 the priests prayed to ward off the evil influence2 but uselessly4 ,then ,yorimasa--a brave warrior1 a famous archer1 one of the guards--was allowed1 or ordered1 to try to destroy the evil thing1 whatever it might be4 ,he1 with a follower1 watched nightly until the dark cloud and the shining orbs were near1 when the great bow of ,yorimasa was discharged1 and a strange and wonderful beast fell blinded to the ground4 ,the sword of ,yorimasa despatched it in nine separate blows1 and the thing1--said to have had something of the monkey1 the tiger1 and the serpent1--was burned to ashes4 ,for this ,yorimasa was given the girl he loved1 the ,lady ,iris-flower 7who1 therefore1 had not watched in vain71 and with her the celebrated sword called ,shishino-o 7,king of ,wild ,boars74 ,now the imperial deputy1 as he presented this sword to ,yorimasa1 tried him with a punning verse1 while a cuckoo sang4 ,this is what the verse said3 ,the cuckoo above the clouds1 how does it mount8 ,but it meant1 ,like the cuckoo to soar so high1 how is it so8 ,to which ,yorimasa answered1 filling in the necessary couplet1 ,the waning moon sets not at will1 which might also mean1 in modest disclaimer of ambitious effort1 ,only my bow ,i bent2 that alone sent the shaft4 ,and so this moon stands in the picture1 as in the verses1 for the bent bow of ,yorimasa4 ,it is a shorter story1 that which makes the allusion in the type of the chrysanthemum and the fox4 ,it is a variation of the perpetual story4 ,the prince royal of ,india had a lovely mistress1 who had bewitched him1 and who fell asleep one day in a bed of chrysanthemums1 where her lover shot at and wounded a fox in the forehead4 ,the bleeding temple of the girl discovered the evil animal she really was4 ,for the fox1 as in ,china1 is in ,japan a wicked animal1 capable of everything in the way of transformation and suggestion4 ,there are endless stories about him1 and the belief or superstition is still very strong4 ,o---- was talking to us lately about the scorcerers and spiritual mediums and fortune-tellers1 and1 as an explanation of the power of some medium1 told us that he claimed to have in his service tame foxes4 ,only1 when ,i asked where they might be lodged in the little city house1 he explained that they were not living in the body1 and therefore cumbersome1 but were the spirits of foxes1 thus subservient1 and able to penetrate everywhere and report4 ,the badger also is a misleading creature1 and the cat is considered uncertain4 ,or take the way in which ,hokusai refers to ancient story when1 at the end of one of his books1 he makes a picture of the devoted knight ,kojima ,takanori clad in armor1 covered with the peasant's rain-cloak2 and he is writing on the trunk of the cherry-tree the message of warning for his master1 the ,emperor ,go-,daigo ,tenno4 ,but instead of the old verse1 ,hokusai has put3 ,in the sixth year of the era ,tempo1 in the month of ,april1 my seventy-sixth year1 this is written by me1 formerly by name ,hokusai1 but now more correctly known as ',the ,old ,man gone ,mad for ,painting4' ,here ,i have been wandering into ,japan1 while my theme was rather the persistence of ,chinese subjects1 or of subjects connected with ,china1 the list of which would be endless1 from ,shoki1 the devil-killer1 hunting his prey of imps over sword-guards and round the corners of boxes1 to pictures of aphorisms1 such as this saying of ,confucius1 of which ,i found a drawing yesterday3 ,avoid even the appearance of evil2 do not stop to tie your shoes in the melon-patch of an enemy4 ,and so these innumerable subjects are common property1 and serve as a field for the artist to try to be himself1 to bring out the story or part of it1 or his way of looking at it1 or its decorative capacity1 or any way of anchoring the ,japanese imagination4 ,i cannot say that for many of the ordinary arrangements1 the most simple and conventional1 one does not often suffer the boredom of repetition1 as we do at home1 with the eagle and the stars1 and armorial bearings1 and the stereotyped symbolism of churches4 ,but it suffices to see the thing well done again1 to start once more into some new enjoyment of the choice of subject4 ,so there can exist with regard to these subjects1 apparently mere motives of form1 and partly because they are conventional1 a deeper convention or meaning1 more or less visible to the artist when at work1 according to his temperament or his school1 as in our poetry1 where an idea may or may not be overlaid with realistic or esthetic decoration4 ,i reach out for the first design that my hand can find1 which turns out to be a drawing by ,chin-nan-pin4 ,i have chosen at haphazard1 but the choice is perhaps all the better4 ,we shall have no example of a great man to deal with1 but merely the work of a remarkable ,chinaman who1 somewhere in the early eighteenth century1 happened to come to ,japan1 or to be born there1 so as to fit into a certain ,chinomania then prevalent4 ,the photograph that ,i send you is a poor one4 ,you can merely discern the pattern1 or what might be called the masses1 of the design4 ,a horse is tied to a tree1--a horse of ,japan1--and a monkey slides down the trunk and clutches at the halter that prevents escape4 ,i need not ask you to admire the stealthy and yet confident step of the ape1 and the motions and repugnance and fright of the horse4 ,i don't think that they could be better given4 ,withal1 there is a gravity of general outline and appearances1 and a pleasantly managed balance of the full and empty spaces4 ,but these decorative points are not those ,i wish to refer to just now4 ,what ,i wish to indicate now is that this subject1 which might have suited a ,dutchman for realism and for its choice of the accidental1 will mean1 if you wish to see it1 the natural resistance and struggle of the inferior nature against a superior mastery which it does not understand1 and which at first appears capricious and unreasonable4 ,without being quite certain of the accuracy of my definition1 ,i know that the design is based upon a like convention4 ,illustration3 ,,painting ,,by ,,chin-,,nan-,,pin4 ,this may not be spirituality1 but how far it is from what we call realism1 and how wise the acceptance by the artist of a convention which allows him to give all his energies to a new interpretation1 through his own study of nature6 ,as with those who have chosen distinctly religious subjects1 and whose vitality and personality can triumph and coexist with the absence of novelty in the theme1 so the artist in more ordinary subjects may be wise in keeping to themes which are known to those whom he addresses1 and in which they can fully grasp and enjoy his success4 ,these general themes allow a stricter individuality in the artist who uses them1 when he is capable1 and make his want of individuality tolerable1 and even laudable and pleasant1 when1 like most of us1 he has little of his own4 ,then he can never be so offensive if we do not like him4 ,those that we do not like are often offensive because their personal vanity appears upon a solid ground of their own stupidity4 ,perhaps this is why the ,japanese objet d'art never offends1 at least in the older work done under the general influences that have obtained with the race4 ,hence1 also1 their astonishing variety4 ,a thousand times1 many thousand times1 you will have seen the same subject1 but never the same rendering1 never the same object1 twice repeated4 ,that is to say1 that whenever it is worth while we can get at the most valuable and costly part of the work of art1 the humanity that made it1 the love of something that went with the work4 ,it is this that makes the mystery of the charm of innumerable little pieces of older work1 like the metal-work that belongs to the old swords1 any one of which is superior to anything that we do1 unless in the rare cases when we bring in the expensive life of a great master to rival it--some part of the work left by a ,barye1 a ,cellini1 a ,pisano4 ,all that our great men have done is exactly opposite to the tendency of our modern work1 and is based on the same ground that the ,japanese has lived and worked on--i4 e41 the reality and not the appearance1 the execution and not the proposition of a theme4 ,the whole principle is involved in the analysis of1 say1 a successful study from nature--a beautiful painting1 for instance1 of a beautiful sky4 ,in such a case the subject is all provided2 the importance of the result depends upon the artist's sensitiveness to the facts supplied to him1 upon his use of his hereditary and acquired methods of recording them1 and upon his personal variation of those methods4 ,no one dreams of praising the art of the sky itself1 that is to say1 the fact that the facts existed2 to praise the artist for the thing having occurred from which he worked4 ,it is this apparent want of comprehension of the first principles of the plastic arts in our poor work1 and in a vast proportion of our best1 that makes any reasonable man a pessimist as to our near future4 ,every poor element of our civilization is against it1 and our influences are now deteriorating the art of ,japan4 ,we value material or the body instead of workmanship or the right use of the body2 and instead of style and design1 the intellect and the heart4 ,to us a gold object seems spiritually precious1 and we hesitate at working in other than costly materials4 ,to the ,japanese workman wood and gold have been nothing but the means to an end4 ,we had rather not do anything than do anything not enduring1 so that when our materials are difficult1 the life has flown that was to animate them2 the ,japanese is willing to build a temporary architecture1 and make a temporary lacquer1 which holds more beauty and art than we to-day manage to get in granite or in metal4 ,and when the ,oriental workman takes the hardest surfaces of steel or of jade1 he has had the preparations for using it with mastery2 it is again plastic and yielding for him1 as the less abiding materials have been before4 ,nor would the ,japanese artist understand the point of view of many of our men1 who do their best to put an end to all art1 so lost are they in our vanity of advertisement4 ,the ,japanese would never have invented the idea of doing poorly the work one is forced to do to live1 so as to reserve vast energy for more important or influential work that might draw attention to him4 ,the greater part of our decoration is carried out just the contrary way to his4 ,our artists accept as a momentary curse the fact that to live they may have to draw patterns1 or work in glass1 or paint or model subsidiary ornamentation4 ,they look forward to the glorious time when they may wreak their lofty souls in the dignity of paint mixed with the sacred linseed oil1 or in the statue done in bronze or carved in marble by other hands than theirs4 ,and yet if their nature be not too far removed from ours1 the habit of doing less than their best1 the habit of doing poorly1 the scorn of anything but the fine clothes of a fine material1 will never be gotten over1 and throughout this little cheapness of soul1 this essential snobbishness1 will be felt to puzzle and disconcert those who wish to admire4 ,that is to say1 that they too often do not look to the end1 but to the means1 while to the artist the means are a mere path--as with the ,greeks1 whose work will live1 even if its very physical existence is obliterated1 because it is built in the mind1 in the eternity of thought4 ,so ,greek art existed1 and has lived1 and lives1 the most flourishing and richest that we know of--with less to represent it than we turn out daily4 ,so it lived1 when it had no longer anything of its own body to represent it1 in everything that was done in every country which kept its lessons2 and lives still1 without examples to refer to1 even into the very painting of to-day4 ,it is the principle of the proper place of means that makes the little piece of ,japanese metal-work--for instance1 the sword-guard or the knife-handle--an epitome of art1 certainly a greater work of art than any modern cathedral4 ,and as certainly we shall never even produce good ordinary ornamental work until we feel the truth that ,i have lamely indicated4 ,i might perhaps do as well as this1 said an intelligent architect1 as we looked at some excellent but not noblest details of ,french ,renaissance1 but how could ,i spend the time on it8 ,and not only that1 but how could ,i have spent the time previous to this in doing other similar work to train me8 ,i can only make a project1 have it carried out by the best commercial firm1 not anxious to change the course of trade1 and shut my eyes to the result4 ,i should never be criticized1 because ,i did not give more than my bargain4 ,and yet to give more than your bargain is merely to give art4 ,look at this little netsuke1#e or inro1#f or sword-guard1 and follow the workman as you admire each detail of the execution4 ,he has chosen some subject or some design which may have an associated meaning1 or may be of good omen1 and bear good wishes1 or he may have chosen out of the entire world of observation1 of fancy1 or of tradition2 and may have chosen just as much because it fits well the space which he has to cover4 ,he will take as well a design that has been used a hundred times as a newer one4 ,for he has to reinvent it in execution1 even as the ,greek sculptor who recut again the egg and dart1 or the orator who is to expound and carry out to success some argument all ready in his mind--as the old architect who rebuilt a glorious ,greek temple upon the rules and canons of proportion that others had used before him4 ,but he has to see that this design in his mind--or nearer yet1 perhaps on paper--shall fit the spaces of the material and of the object which he is to make1 so that it shall be made1 as it were1 for that place only4 ,he will then go again to nature1--perhaps working directly from it1 perhaps only to his memory of sight1--for remember1 that in what we call working from nature--we painters--we merely use a shorter strain of memory than when we carry back to our studios the vision that we wish to note4 ,and more than that1 the very way in which we draw our lines1 and mix our pigments1 in the hurry of instant record1 in the certainty of successful handling1 implies that our mind is filled with innumerable memories of continuous trials4 ,the workman then goes to nature1 and finds in it the reality and the details of his design1 even1 let us say1 to the very markings of a tree trunk that he has chosen3 they are all there1 since they exist in the design1 and the design is good4 ,but they exist only in so far as they exist also in the ivory that he cuts--in the veining of the tortoise-shell or malachite that is to render it4 ,now with patient pleasure he can hunt out these associations2 he can use gold1 or silver1 or vulgar lead1 or lacquer1 or the cutting and filing of steel1 or the iridescence of mother-of-pearl for his leaves1 or his stems1 or the water1 or the birds1--for the clouds or the moonlight1--for the sunshine and the shadow1--for the light and dark1--for the male and female of his little manufactured world4 ,these he will model1 chisel1 sink1 or emboss as the story needs1 and do it coarsely1 or loosely1 or minutely1 or delicately1 as the unity of his little world requires4 ,and he will work in a hurry1 or work slowly1 he will varnish it and rub it down1 and polish it again1 and bake it many times1 and let it weather out of doors1 or shut it up carefully from the smallest track of dust1 or bathe it in acids or salts1 and all this for days and months in the year4 ,and when he has finished1--because to do more or less would not be to finish it1--he has given me1 besides the excellency of what we call workmanship1 which he must give me because that is the bargain between us--he has given me his desires1 his memories1 his pleasures1 his dreams1 all the little occurrences of so much life4 ,as you see1 he is following the law of ,tao1 so that however humble his little world1 it has a life of its own which cannot be separated from its materials2 no picture of it1 no reproduction1 will give its full charm1 any more than a photograph gives that of a human being4 ,take out the word ,japanese wherever ,i have put it1 take out the actual materials that ,i have mentioned1 and the description and the reasoning will apply4 ,that is all there is to any work of art4 ,it does not exist in a fine abstract of intention--nor again in the application of some method of toil--to define technic1 as so many young idiots most excusably try to persuade themselves4 ,it exists in an individual result with origins so powerful and deep that they are lost in shade4 ,to go on1 ,i wish to put it that the same reasons will cause the artist1 then1 to elaborate profusely1 to work in long patience1 to use precious materials1 to work slightly or carelessly1 to finish his work with minute details1 or to sketch rapidly with the end of a brush filled with the single color of ,india ink4 ,there is no difference in reality2 there is only the question of the kind of interest he wishes to evoke1 the sort of relation he wishes to establish between himself and his work1 and incidentally to me1 the looker-on4 ,i am afraid that this hazy weather is affecting the sequence of my dreaming1 or what ,i am pleased to call my thought1 so that you may not clearly understand me4 ,again ,i wish you to remark that in all fullness of work other things are suggested than those directly represented1 upon the same principle1 for the same reasons1 that the successful sketch1 as ,i said before1 is richer than it looks4 ,hence the suggestion of color when there is really but black and white2 hence the suggestion of modeled light and shadow when there is really but flat color and outlines4 ,hence the success of all great periods in what we call decorative work1 because there was no separation2 there was merely art to be used to fill certain spaces1 and to recall the fact that it was so used4 ,many years ago ,i used to read ,mr4 ,ruskin1 when my sight was bad1 and ,i lived within the points of the compass1 and also the works of other men1 who laid down the exact geography and the due distances1 north and south1 of a certain department or land of art which they called ,decoration4 ,some of them are not yet dead4 ,the light of ,tao fell upon the subject from the words of a child who had been listening to a talk in which ,i and others wiser than myself were trying to follow out these boundaries that outlined true methods of decorative art1 and kept to the received instructions of abstention from this and that1 of refraining from such and such a reality1 of stiffening the flow of outline1 of flattening the fullness of modeling1 of turning our backs on light and shade1 of almost hating the surface of nature2 and we wondered that when our ,european exemplars of to-day had fulfilled every condition of conventionality1 had carefully avoided the use of the full methods of art1 in the great specialties of painting and sculpture1 their glorious work had less stuff to it than a ,gothic floral ornament or a ,japanese painted fan4 ,father1 said the child1 are you not all making believe8 ,is the ,japanese richness in their very flat work so different from what you can see in this sketch by my little brother8 ,see how his tree looks as if it had light and shadow1 and yet he has used no modeling4 ,he has used only the markings of the tree and their variation of color to do for both4 ,he has left out nothing1 and yet it is flat painting4 ,nor have the ,japanese left out things4 ,they have not been forced to overstudy any part1 so as to lose the look of free choice1 to make the work assume the appearance of task-work--the work of a workman bored1 nobly bored perhaps1 but still bored1 a feeling that is reflected in the mind of the beholder4 ,the ,japanese artist makes his little world1--often nothing but an ,india-ink world1--but its occupants live within it4 ,they are always obedient to all the laws of nature that they know of4 ,however piercing the observation of actual fact1 its record is always a synthesis4 ,i remember many years ago looking over some ,japanese drawings of hawking with two other youngsters1 one of them now a celebrated artist1 the other a well-known teacher of science4 ,what struck us then was the freedom of record1 the acute vision of facts1 the motions and actions of the birds1 their flight1 their attention1 and their resting1 the alertness and anxiety of their hunters1 and the suggestions of the entire landscapes 7made with a few brush-marks74 ,one saw the heat1 and the damp1 and the dark meandering of water in the swamps2 marked the dry paths which led over sounding wooden bridges1 and the tangle of weeds and brush1 and the stiff swaying of high trees4 ,all was to us realism1 but affected by an unknown charm4 ,now this is what the artist who did this realism has said1 as well as ,i can make it out3 ,the ancient mode must be maintained4 ,though a picture must be made like the natural growth of all things1 yet it lacks taste and feeling if it simulates the real things4 ,evidently the painter had not learned our modern distinctions of the realist and the idealist4 99 99 99 99 99 ,if you wished to know what ,i admire most in these forms of art1 ,i might say to you1 keeping1 ,i hope1 within the drift of what ,i have been writing1 that it is their obedience to early rules which were once based on the first primeval needs of the artist4 ,and if you pushed me further1 and wished to make me confess what ,i thought that these necessities might be1 and to make me give you a definition of them1 and thereby force me into a definition of art itself1 ,i should hesitatingly state that ,i do not like to define in matters so far down as causes4 ,but if you would not tell1 or take advantage of my having been drawn into such a position of doctrine1 ,i might acknowledge that ,i have far within me a belief that art is the love of certain balanced proportions and relations which the mind likes to discover and to bring out in what it deals with1 be it thought1 or the actions of men1 or the influences of nature1 or the material things in which necessity makes it to work4 ,i should then expand this idea until it stretched from the patterns of earliest pottery to the harmony of the lines of ,homer4 ,then ,i should say that in our plastic arts the relations of lines and spaces are1 in my belief1 the first and earliest desires4 ,and again ,i should have to say that1 in my unexpressed faith1 these needs are as needs of the soul1 and echoes of the laws of the universe1 seen and unseen1 reflections of the universal mathematics1 cadences of the ancient music of the spheres4 ,for ,i am forced to believe that there are laws for our eyes as well as for our ears1 and that when1 if ever1 these shall have been deciphered1 as has been the good fortune with music1 then shall we find that all best artists have carefully preserved their instinctive obedience to these1 and have all cared together for this before all4 ,for the arrangements of line and balances of spaces which meet these underlying needs are indeed the points through which we recognize the answer to our natural love and sensitiveness for order1 and through this answer we feel1 clearly or obscurely1 the difference between what we call great men and what we call the average1 whatever the personal charm may be4 ,this is why we remember so easily the arrangement and composition of such a one whom we call a master--that is why the silhouette of a ,millet against the sky1 why his placing of outlines within the rectangle of his picture1 makes a different1 a final1 and decisive result1 impressed strongly upon the memory which classifies it1 when you compare it with the record of the same story1 say1 by ,jules ,breton4 ,it is not the difference of the fact in nature1 it is not that the latter artist is not in love with his subject1 that he has not a poetic nature1 that he is not simple1 that he has not dignity1 that he is not exquisite2 it is that he has not found in nature of his own instinct the eternal mathematics which accompany facts of sight4 ,for indeed1 to use other words1 in what does one differ from the other8 ,the arrangement of the idea or subject may be the same1 the costume1 the landscape1 the time of day1 nay1 the very person represented4 ,but the ,millet1 if we take this instance1 is framed within a larger line1 its spaces are of greater or more subtle ponderation1 its building together more architectural4 ,that is to say1 all its spaces are more surely related to one another1 and not only to the story told1 nor only to the accidental occurrence of the same4 ,the eternal has been brought in to sustain the transient4 ,for fashions change as to feelings and sentiments and ways of looking at the world4 ,the tasks of the days of ,angelico1 or of ,rubens1 or of ,millet are not the same2 religions live and disappear2 nations come and go in and out of the pages of history3 but ,i can see nothing from the earliest art that does not mean living in a like desire for law and order in expression4 ,it is1 therefore1 because we consciously or unconsciously recognize this love of the unwritten harmonies of our arts1 the power of recalling them to us1 in some painter or in some architect1 that we say that such a man is great4 ,he is great because he is the same as man has been1 and will be2 and we recognize1 without knowing them by name1 our ancestral primordial predilections4 ,yes1 the mere direction or distance of a line by the variation of some fraction of an inch establishes this enormous superiority--a little more curve or less1 a mere black or white or colored space of a certain proportion1 a few darks or reds or blues4 ,and now you will ask1 ,do you intend to state that decoration--8 ,to which ,i should say1 ,i do not mean to leave my main path of principles to-day1 and when ,i return we shall have time to discuss objections4 ,besides1 ,i am not arguing2 ,i am telling you4 99 99 99 99 99 ,this is the unity1 this is the reality1 which disengages itself from the art of ,japan1 even as we know it in common1 through what we usually call bric--brac4 ,our introduction to it is rather curious when one comes to think of it4 ,suddenly1 owing to enormous social changes in ,japan1 involving vast fluctuations in fortunes1 most of all that was portable was for sale1 and flooded our markets4 ,ignorant dealers held in masses small treasures of temples1 adornments of the wealthy1 all the odds and ends of real art1 along with the usual furniture1 along with all the poor stuff that would naturally be made for us barbarians1 and had been made for us for centuries through the trade of ,holland4 ,it was as if ,paris or ,london had suddenly been unloaded of everything portable1 from works of art to household furniture4 ,naturally the main-spring of it all1--the works of great draftsmen1 for instance1--being more debatable1 more inexplicable1 more useless1 in a word1 or detained by stronger bands1 just as it would be with us1 have somewhat escaped the drain4 ,our perceptions have been confused in all this mixture by repetitions1 imitations1 which in every form of art1 as we know so well in literature1 degrade the perception and enjoyment of what is good4 ,i can only wonder that the world has not been tired out and disgusted with ,japanese bric--brac4 ,and had we not been in such bad straits of taste ourselves1 such would have been the case4 ,i have always considered that the artist needed to be forgiven for his turn toward bric--brac2 not for his liking to have odds and ends for help and refreshment1 but for having too many2 because his life is to make1 not to collect4 ,to others1 that can be forgiven easily2 for the pieces of the past are a consolation of the present1 and one would like to feel that a man's likings are his important self1 and are betrayed by his choices4 ,dis-moi ce que tu aimes--je te dirai ce que tu es4 ,if one had time and did not do1 what pleasure it might be to describe forever the innumerable objects and things that might be found here1 even though words are a poor rendering of sight4 ,and what pleasure it might be to try to describe the greatest of all bric--brac1 the greatest remains of the higher arts--sculpture and painting4 ,i have begun some such letter for you1 but ,i fear that it may never be finished4 ,nor do ,i see any way of giving an account of the history of painting in ,japan1 which would have to stand for a still further explanation4 ,should ,i study it further1 can ,i do more than to increase my own knowledge1--and all knowledge is a burden1--and to give you cursory proof1 by names and a few examples1 that the art of painting and the art of sculpture are very old here8 ,i should have to begin to ask myself for you if the earliest remains do not already prove still earlier schools and accepted or debated tradition1 and ,i should then have still one thousand years of design to account for4 ,i shall probably leave my letter to you unfinished4 ,it has already become unwieldy1 and ,i could give you only my own impressions4 ,and then in the history of art everything is needed4 ,illustration3 ,,signature ,,of ,,hokusai4 ,it would not be merely reproduction in words1 however beautiful1 of the surfaces of works that have survived time1 nor of the men who made them1 of their characters1 the accidents of their lives1 and their technical beliefs4 ,it would be simply a history of humanity at a given place4 ,it could not be solved by a mere account of the place and the race1 according to some of our later scientific fads4 ,i was writing to you but yesterday1 and trying to make out that the work of art is often a contradiction of the period1 or a step in advance2 that the moods of feeling of the future are as often reflected by art as the habits of the present4 ,but whatever personal sense of solitariness or of antagonism has inspired or oppressed the artist1 he must have had partners since he has had admirers1 even when he antagonizes his time4 ,however transient certain of his forms1 however much to us who come afterward they indicate the period1 he has expressed not his time1 but the needs of others who have been looking in the same ways1 and yet have had no voice4 ,and even if they have not quite sympathized1 the accumulations of like tendencies have become stronger and clearer in their descendants4 ,to reflect fully1 then1 in words1 the face of the work of art1 one would have to melt into it in some way the gaze of those who have looked at it2 to keep upon it still the gentle looks of the pitiful and the loving1 the rapt contemplation of the saints1 the tender or mocking smile of women1 the hard or contemptuous appreciation of rulers1 the toleration of the wise1 all of which have been in reality a part of the very work4 ,their negations or sympathies have fallen on the work1 and these ineffable delicacies of impression are transmitted in it to successive generations1 even as the shadowing of innumerable years of incense-burning has browned the gold and blackened the azure1 as concealment in the shade has sometimes paled1 sometimes preserved1 the edges of the outlines and the modeling of the colors1 or exposure and heat and damp have cracked and channeled and dusted all surfaces4 ,you see what ,i should consider a true carrying out of such a task1 and how unsatisfied ,i should be with anything that ,i could accomplish1 unless it were to stand to you as something fragmentary and evanescent4 ,one thing ,i should like to do1--should ,i remain long enough1 and be able to get it from the few acquaintances who may know1--and that is1 to save some part of the artists themselves out of that obscurity by which the lives of great workers are almost always clouded4 ,to me ,rembrandt1 and ,balzac1 and ,delacroix1 each contradictory to his surroundings1 have become more intelligible through the record of their every-day struggle1 the exactness of measurement which one can place upon the personal circumstances in which they carried out their work1 the limitations of its exact meaning and importance in their own eyes1 as we follow them in the daylight of favor1 or in the gloomy endings that so often close the lives of great artists4 ,i hear occasionally of the wanderings of ,kano ,motonobu1 the founder of the great school and family of artists who have lasted through four centuries to the present day1 and have filled ,japan and the temples here with works better or poorer1 until the family name becomes a burden4 ,i hear about ,okio1 the charmer1 the painter of everything and of animals1 who began as a little child1 by sketching on the earth with bamboo sticks when he followed his parents into the fields to work4 ,one might perhaps learn about ,hokusai1 who is tabooed here1 and about whom ,i dare not inquire1 but whose charming last letter1 as given by ,mr4 ,morse1 comes back to my memory--it is so gay and so sad1 so triumphant over circumstances1 so expressive of the view of the world which explains his woodcuts4 ,i quote from memory3 ,king ,em-m 7he writes to a friend7--,king ,em-m 7the ruler of the under world7 has become very old1 and is thinking of retiring from business2 so that he has ordered a little country house to be built1 and he asks of me to come to him that ,i may paint him a 'kakemono'2 so that in a few days ,i must be ready to travel and to take my sketches with me4 ,i shall take up my residence at the corner of the ,street of the ,under ,world1 where it will give me much pleasure to receive thee1 when thou hast the opportunity to come over there4 ,or this mocking challenge to old age1 at the end of one of the volumes of his pictures of ,fuji3 ,since my sixth year ,i have felt the impulse to represent the form of things2 by the age of fifty ,i had published numberless drawings2 but ,i am displeased with all ,i have produced before the age of seventy4 ,it is at seventy-three that ,i have begun to understand the form and the true nature of birds1 of fishes1 of plants1 and so forth4 ,consequently1 by the time ,i get to eighty1 ,i shall have made much progress2 at ninety1 ,i shall get to the essence of things2 at a hundred1 ,i shall have most certainly come to a superior1 undefinable position2 and at the age of a hundred and ten1 every point1 every line1 shall be alive4 ,and ,i leave it to those who shall live as ,i have myself1 to see if ,i have not kept my word4 ,written1 at the age of seventy-five1 by me1 formerly known as ,hokusai1 but now known as ,gakyo ,rojin 7,the ,old ,man gone ,mad for ,painting74 444 ,i had been intending to add1 when ,i interrupted myself some way back1 that ,i enjoyed in this art of ,japan--at least in this drawing which they call painting--the strange nearness ,i seem to be in to the feelings of the men who did the work4 ,there is between us only a thin veil of consummate skill4 ,the habit and the methods resulting from it1 of an old obedience to an unwritten law common to all art1 have asked for the directest ways of marking an intention or an observation4 ,illustration3 ,,inscription ,,on ,,old ,,lacquer4 ,this reference to a previous tradition of meaning1 of ideal arrangement by rule1 this wish for synopsis1 this feeling for manners of expressing one's self in the thing seen1 will naturally make art out of anything4 ,and it is not wonderful that what we call handwriting may then give full play to art1 in a written language of which ideography is the key4 ,given the ,chinese characters1 their original intentions1 the associations1 historical and literary1 connected with them1 is it anything strange in reality1 however strange to our habits1 to find writing a form of art in ,japan8 ,it may have all ,i have just referred to1 and be full of the meaning of ideas1 and be literature1 and then it can be made conformable to the laws of beauty of form and spacing2 and above all1 to give character of style1 and character of personality1 to look more or less grave1 or elegant1 or weighty1 according to circumstances1 be elegiac1 or lyric1 or epic1 and reflect on its face the intentions of the text4 ,and again it will be the mark or sign of the person2 so that my ,japanese friends can object to ,hokusai's bad writing1 as betraying something not refined1 for a weighty argument against his other works done with a similar implement1 the brush1 which is the pen of the far ,east4 ,it will then be in what we call drawing--which is an abstraction1 the synopsis of the outlines of things meeting together1 of their relative intensities1 of their own colors1 of their relations to the place they are in1 that is to say1 the picture--that this art of ,japan1 the daughter of the art of ,china1 will attain its highest form2 so that in reality those of us who think of it as appearing at its best only in color1 in external charm1 have not understood it4 ,an etching of ,rembrandt could fairly be said to represent1 not so much in itself1 but in its essence1 what a great ,chinaman would have liked to do in ,india ink--the material of all others which1 even to us1 is his especially4 ,the line1 the abstract line of ,rembrandt1 its elegance1 its beautiful patterning of the surface1 is concealed to us by the extraordinary richness of some of his modeling and the extreme gradations of what we call light and shade4 ,but it is there all the same1 as a geologic foundation1 in the same way that inside of the ,titian's splendor of surface there is a decorative substructure as well balanced and fixed as a ,venetian brocade--just as the works of other great colorists1 as we call them 7to designate more complex men71 imply1 in their constitution and the mechanism of their technic1 powers of design and drawing sufficient to furnish out armies of such draftsmen as flourish1 for instance1 in the ,paris of to-day4 ,it is this surplus of richness that conceals the identity4 ,our arts have undertaken an enormous accession of truths and ambitions upon which the arts of the extreme ,east have never ventured4 ,they have attained their end1 the end of all art1 at an earlier mental period4 ,they are younger1 perhaps even more like children1 and their work cannot involve the greater complications of greater age2 but it has also all that grasp of the future that belongs to youth1 and that has to be accompanied by deficiencies of knowledge2 that is to say1 of later acquirement and the practice of good and evil4 ,and it is impossible to look at the expression of nature1 or of any intention made by the child in full sincerity1 without realizing that the aim of the artist1 be he even ,michael ,angelo1 is to return to a similar directness and unity of rendering4 ,not that the ,eastern artist1 any more than the child1 could be conscious of deficiencies of which he had not thought4 ,he has been satisfied1 as we have been satisfied1 but for a longer time and under a greater prestige4 ,as the fruit painted by the ,greek deceived the birds1 and the curtain painted by the ,greek painter deceived his fellow-artist1 so the horses of ,kanaoka have escaped from their kakemonos1 and the tigers sculptured in the lattices of temples have been known to descend at night and rend one another in the courtyards4 ,o---- tells me the ,chinese story of the painter forced to let go his painting of the moon for a nominal sum to repay an oppressive money-lender1 and how1 when the banker happened to unroll it1 the whole room was illumined1 and he grew into a habit of spending evenings in the mild effulgence of the painted rays4 ,but when1 after an absence1 he looked at it again1 the moon was gone1--where old moons go1--and he was enraged at the painter1 though he might well have noticed that for many days the moon had not been so bright1 and indeed had seemed to be ill drawn4 ,o---- tells me that the artist got it back for little1 and waited the necessary number of days to have its crescent reappear again2 and ,a---- says that1 though the picture is lost to-day1 he hopes to find it again in ,china in following years4 ,illustration3 ,,inscription ,,from ,,ho-,,riu-,,ji4 ,these stories serve as a way of stating to you that as long as new wants were not felt1 newer accuracies did not begin to exist1 and these limitations are naturally seen to be more easily put up with in a civilization of uninterrupted tradition4 ,to acquire something when one's hands are full1 something has to be dropped4 ,in the stations of our own progress in art1 the advance has at every stage involved some deficiency1 or failure1 or weakening on another side4 ,this is the only explanation ,i can make for painting in the extreme ,east not having taken up portraiture--that is to say1 not having triumphed in it1 while sculpture has reached out toward it in a splendid way4 ,we have seen the same thing in the transition from the ,middle ,ages1 when sculpture outreaches painting in the direction of reality4 ,but then sculpture is to a certain extent easier and in a certain way inferior1 because it gives a sort of duplicate of the object1 not a relation of it to other things4 ,so that the ,japanese have not come to the work from the model1 which has at so many periods and so long been ours4 ,theirs are types of types2 they are not1 as with us1 persons1 and the pursuit of beauty in the individual has not been followed apparently by the art of the far ,east4 ,the personal love and preference of the artist embodied in another person their art does not show2 nor have their artists given a nameless immortality to certain human beings1 so that for ages their types1 their images1 their moods1 their characters1 their most transitory variations of beauty1 have been proposed to us as an example4 ,have you ever reflected how the nameless model reigns in the memory of man with a personal fame more intimate than that of ,cheops1 or ,helen1 or ,csar1 because the artist has been obliged to build upon this person his own dream of the world--as with the ,roman girl who is the ,madonna of ,san ,sisto8 444 ,so1 again1 the ,eastern artists have suggested1 and implied1 and used light and shade1 and perspective1 and anatomy1 and the relations of light to color1 and of color to light1 only so much as they could take into their previous scheme4 ,in many cases their success is still an astonishment to us4 ,certainly their records of motion1 their construction of plants and flowers and birds1 we have all appreciated2 and their scientific1 easy noting of colored light in landscape made even ,rousseau dream of absorbing its teaching into his pictures1 which certainly represent the full ,western contradictory idea1 in the most complicated acceptance of every difficulty4 ,the artist here1 then1 has not made separate analytical studies of all the points that trouble us1 that have cost at times some acquirement of the past1 in the anxiety for working out a new direction2 as to-day1 for instance1 in learned ,france1 where the very art of painting1 as a mirror of the full-colored appearance of things1 has for a quarter of a century been in peril1 under the influence of the academy drawing-school1 the model in studio light1 and the vain attempt to rival the photograph4 ,and perhaps it is needless to repeat again how we have lost the sense of natural decoration and expression of meaning by general arrangement of lines and spaces1 so that again in ,france we are astonished at ,m4 ,puvis de ,chavannes1 who uses powers that have once been common to almost all our race4 ,here the artist does not walk attired in all the heavy armor which we have gradually accumulated upon us4 ,his learning in side issues is not unnecessarily obtruded upon me1 so as to conceal the sensitiveness of his impressions or the refinement of his mind4 ,as for us1 we have marched on in a track parallel to science1 striving now for centuries to subdue the material world--to get it into the microcosm of our paintings4 ,each successive great generation has taken up the task1 heavier and heavier as time goes on1 halting and resting when some new find has been made1 working out a new discovery often with the risk of the loss of a greater one4 ,but how often the processes have covered up what is most important1--to me at least1--the value of the individual1 his aspirations1 and indeed the notions or beliefs that are common between us4 ,sometimes this covering has been sordid and mean1 pedantic or unesthetic1 sometimes most splendid4 ,but how difficult it has been always for the many to read1 for instance1 in our great ,rubens1 the evidences of a lofty nature1 the devout intentions of a healthy mind6 ,not that we can turn back to-day and desert4 ,from the time when the ,greek first asserted in art the value of personal manhood to the date of the impressionist of to-day1 the career has been one4 ,and certainly in the art of painting a vaster future lies before us1 whenever we are ready to carry the past4 ,but remember that whatever has been really great once will always remain great4 ,even if ,i were competent to make more than approaches to reflection1 this place of dreams is not well chosen for effort4 ,i feel rather as if1 tired1 ,i wished to take off my modern armor1 and lie at rest1 and look at these pictures of the simplicity of attitude in which we were once children4 ,for1 indeed1 the meaning of our struggle is to regain that time1 through toil and the fullness of learning1 and to live again in the oneness of mind and feeling which is to open to us the doors of the kingdom4 ,illustration #e ,carved button used for suspending the tobacco-pouch to the belt4 #f ,a nest of small boxes carried suspended from the belt4 ,,sketching ,,nikko ,,san1 ,august #ab4 ,the enchantment of idleness is no longer to be lived in1 of mere enjoyment of what ,i see4 ,i have now to feel the bitterness of work1 of effort of memory and analysis1 and to become responsible to myself for what ,i see1 and for the accuracy with which ,i see it2 just as my quieting inhalation of the ,buddhist air is disturbed by the intellectual necessity of giving to myself some account of formulas1 and later1 unfortunately1 of rendering to you this same account of my impressions4 ,and yet ,i feel so delightfully lazy1 so much as if ,i were in a ,newport in which all should be new4 ,all this place has become more and more enchanting4 ,i am sure that ,i shall go with the regret of not having painted whatever ,i shall leave untried2 all so preferable1 undoubtedly1 to what shall have been done4 ,everything here exists for a painter's delight1 everything composes or makes pleasant arrangements1 and the little odds and ends are charming1 so that ,i sometimes feel as if ,i liked the small things that ,i have discovered better than the greater which ,i am forced to recognize4 ,and1 then1 all looks wild and natural1 as if undisturbed by man2 but no one can tell in a place where nature is so admirable1 so admired1 and so adored4 ,i like the old roads between yashiki walls1 broken up with torrents and bridges2 and the small shrines and sacred trees1 which have no great point but that they are pretty1 and so far away--in the infancy of the world4 ,stones and rocks that are sacred--why and wherefore no one exactly knowing2 only that it is so1 and has been so for a long1 long time4 ,three thousand years ago ,europe was so1 with paganism--the peasant or earth belief--gradually lost to our comprehension except through hearsay4 ,so we are accustomed to write of the sacred grove2 and here it is1 all about me1 as if history were made living4 ,the lovely scenery reminds me continually of what has been associated with it2 a civilization which has been born of it1 has never separated from nature1 has its religion1 its art1 and its historic associations entangled with all natural manifestations4 ,the great ,pan might still be living here1 in a state of the world which has sanctified trees and groves1 and associated the spirit-world with every form of the earthly dwelling-place4 ,i feel as if ,i were nearer than ,i can be through books to the old world we try to rebuild by collation of facts and documents4 ,could a ,greek come back here he would find his soul-informed rocks1 and all that he thought divine or superstitious1 even to the very impressions of ,aphrodite4 ,the sacredness that lives here in mountains would seem all natural to him1 as would the stories of mountain gods who ages ago met here the advance of the ,buddhist priests4 ,for ,buddhism has joined with the earthly faith in attaching religious value to solitary places and mountain heights1 and many are the stories which link these two beliefs from the early times4 ,as1 for instance1 when ,shodo ,shonin in his wanderings came here and opened up the mountains of ,nikko4 ,for this saintly discoverer1 dwelling in early youth among sacred caves1 and a devout reverer of the native and ,buddhist deities1 had long dreamed of wondrous things on distant mountains1 of celestial or spiritual beings1 visible even to the eye1 and pursued his search according to holy vows and under celestial guidance4 ,illustration3 ,,bed ,,of ,,the ,,dayagawa1 ,,nikko4 ,where the red lacquer bridge now goes over the ,dayagawa1 ,shodo ,shonin first crossed upon the fairy snake bridge1 which1 like a rainbow spanning the hills1 was thrown over for him by a mysterious colossal god of the mountain4 ,here1 a few yards off1 he built the shrine in honor of his helper1 the great ,king of the ,deep ,sand4 ,this was in the year #gfg of our era2 and in #ghb1 after much previous exploration1 he reached the summit of ,nan-tai-san1 and met the tutelary gods of ,nikko1 who promised to watch over the welfare of ,japan and the progress of the new religion4 ,these three gods were long worshiped thereafter at the foot of the mountain1 on the bank of the lake named ,chiuzenji1 by him1 along with the ,buddhist incarnations whose temple he established there4 ,so that these primordial divinities were looked upon by certain ,buddhist eyes as what they named temporary manifestations of the great essences known as ,amida1 ,buddha1 and ,kuwan-on4 ,last evening1 near the back of the rock upon which is the tomb of ,iyyas1 ,i followed some zigzag stone steps that lead up to a little shrine1 dark among the trees1 in which is the figure of an old man with powerful legs--the master pilgrim ,enno-,sho-kaku4 ,why his shrine was exactly there ,i have not clearly made out2 but certainly1 as a mountain spirit1 his being here is appropriate4 ,for1 born a miraculous child1 he loved from infancy the solitariness of woods far up the mountains4 ,the rain never wet him2 no living things of the forest were ever hurt by him1 even through chance2 he lived1 as they might1 on nuts and berries1 clothed in the tree's own dress1 of the tendrils of the wistaria4 ,thus he passed forty years among mountains and waterfalls1 under directions received in dreams1 to bring the wild places beneath the dominion of ,buddha4 ,two hill spirits served him and provided him with fuel and water4 ,the life of nature became his1 and he moved through water or through air as easily as his mind dwelt in the present and in the future4 ,naturally1 too1 when he touched the world of men he was maligned and persecuted2 but even then1 when exiled to an island in the sea1 he could fly back at night to revisit his mother1 or ascend his beloved mountains1 while submitting obediently in the daylight to the presence of his guards4 ,naturally1 too1 his evil days came to an end1 and he was freed1 and finally flitted away toward ,china1 and has never reappeared4 ,with him in the little shrine are his faithful imps1 painted red and green1 and out of the darkness his wooden image1 with a long white beard1 looked absolutely real in the rainy twilight4 ,enormous iron sandals hung on every side1 offerings of pilgrims anxious to obtain legs as sturdy as those of the pilgrim patron4 ,had ,i been able to leave my own ,i should have done so1 for never have ,i felt as weakened and unenergetic as ,i have become in this idle climate4 ,we could just see the white stone steps of the little road as we came down the steep hill through the wood to the gate of ,iymits's tomb4 ,august #af4 ,the languor that oppresses me does not disappear1 and ,i live with alternations of exertion that reflect the weather4 ,there has been an immense amount of sunshine and the same amount of rain1 compressing into a single day as much as would suffice at home for weeks of summer and winter4 ,suddenly1 from hot blue skies1 come down the cloud and the wet4 ,the lovely little hills or mountains opposite our house round out1 all modeled and full1 in glossy green1 to be painted in another hour with thin washes of gray1 thickened with white1 as in the single-colored designs of the old ,limoges enamels4 ,then their edges grow sharp and thin1 and are stamped against further mists1 like pale prints of the ,japanese designs1 making me see those pictures increased to life-size4 ,and ,i realize how accurate these are1 even to the enlarged appearance of the great trees which fringe their tops and edges1 as these are seen through the broken1 wet veil of moisture4 ,and even here1 again1 ,i am puzzled as to whether art has helped nature4 ,illustration3 ,,mountains ,,in ,,fog ,,before ,,our ,,house4 ,august #ag4 ,yesterday ,i suffered seriously from the heat4 ,i had gone to the little flat table-land that lies to the north behind our house1 through which runs a small road1 untraveled and grass-grown1 connecting somewhere or other with the road of the great temples4 ,i had intended to study there1 for several reasons2 one1 among others1 because ,i saw every day1 as ,i looked through my screens1 a little typical landscape-picture of ,japan4 ,near by1 a small temple shrine all vermilion in the sun1 with heavy1 black1 oppressive roof2 then a stretch of flat table-land1 overgrown with trees and bushes1 from which stood up a single high tree1 with peaceful horizontal branches2 on each side1 conical hills1 as if the wings of a stage-scene2 far beyond1 a tumble of mountains behind the great depression of the river hidden out of sight2 and above1 and farther yet1 the great green slopes that lead to the peak of ,nio-ho4 ,it was very hot1 and all the clouds seemed far away1 the sun very high in the early noon1 and no shade4 ,i passed the new priests' houses of the old temple near us1 where are billeted1 to the inconvenience of the owners1 many sailor boys sent all the way from the navy yard of ,okotsuka1 so that they escape the cholera1 as we are doing4 ,they are usually washing their clothes in the torrent that runs under the bridge of three carved stones1 which ,i have to pass to get into the little path1 frequented by gadflies1 that takes me up to my sketching-ground4 ,were it not for the amiably obtrusive curiosity of these youngsters in their leisure hours1 ,i should pass through their courtyard into the shady spaces near the little temples and the three-storied pagoda1 which the priests' houses adjoin4 ,i am always courteously saluted by the priests1 and one of them1 living there in vacation1 ,i know4 ,he is off duty at the temples of ,iymits1 and ,i have seen him at the home of our friends4 ,i send you a sketch of his face1 which appears to me impressed by sincerity and a certain anxiety very sympathetic4 ,when ,i sketch near the pagoda ,i see him occasionally ringing the hanging-bell or cymbal1 with the same step and air of half-unconscious performance of habitual duty that ,i remember so well in ,catholic priests whom ,i knew as a boy4 ,here the memory of ,shodo ,shonin comes up again1 with a confusion of intention in the assembled worship of ,buddhist and native divinities4 ,for the opener of mountains built the temple here to the same god1 with the never-ending name1 whom he met on the summit of ,nan-tai-san4 ,and the adjoining chapel1 dedicated to ,kuwan-on1 means that she was in reality the essential being1 behind the temporary manifestation1 that assumed the name and appearance of this mountain god1--the genius loci4 ,and the ,latin words bring back the recollection of curious stones in the mossy green shade1 to which is attached the meaning of the oldest past2 for they are male and female--emblems and images of earliest worship1 empowered to remind1 and perhaps obscurely to influence4 ,seated at last under my umbrella1 ,i could feel the hot moisture rising from the grass beneath me4 ,the heated hills on each side wore a thin interlacing of violet in the green of their pines4 ,the mountains across the river were frosted in the sunlight1 with the thinnest veil of a glitter of wet4 ,between them great walls of vapor rose from the hidden river1 twisting into draperies that slowly crawled up the slopes of the great mountain4 ,far off1 its top was capped with cloud1 whose mass descended in a shower over its face and between its peaks1 and kept all its nearer side in a trembling violet shadow4 ,illustration3 ,,portrait ,,of ,a ,,priest4 ,above the peak the great mass of fog spread to the farthest mountains1 letting their highest tops shine through with a pale-blue faintness like that of sky4 ,but the great back of the long slope was distinct1 and of a vivid green against the background of violet mountains4 ,so solid and close-packed it looked under the high light that one might forget that this green was not of turf1 firm under foot1 but was a trackless waste of tall grasses high as a man's head4 ,farther on against the northern sky the eastern slope was golden and sharp4 ,in the highest sky of fiery blue large cumulus clouds shone above and through the fog1 whose ragged edge blew like a great flag toward the south4 ,the little temple blazed in vermilion1 one side all lighted up1 its black-tiled roof hot in the sun4 ,in the shadow of its porch the columns and entablature were white and pale gold and green4 ,my attempt to render the light and heat lasted for two or three hours3 my damp umbrella seemed penetrated by the light1 my skin was scorched and blistered1 and a faint dizziness kept warning me to get back to a larger shade4 ,when ,i yielded1 ,i was only just able to reach my welcome mats1 saved from something worse by my very scorching4 ,since yesterday ,i have been ill2 not sleeping1 but dreaming uncomfortably2 and visited and comforted1 however1 by our fair hostess and the ,doctor4 99 99 99 99 99 ,murmurs of ,buddhistic conversation remain in my mind3 vague stories of life in ,southern monasteries1 of refined ascetic life1 of sublimated delicate food1 of gentle miraculous powers1 known to the favored few that behold them at times2 of ascensions and disappearances like those of the pilgrim saint of whom ,i was telling you yesterday--all of which talk mingles with the vague intent of my painting4 ,for ,i had proposed to make my studies serve for the picture of the ,ascension2 to use the clouds and the wilderness for my background2 and to be1 at least for moments1 in some relation to what ,i have to represent2 that is to say1 in an atmosphere not inimical1 as ours is1 to what we call the miraculous4 ,here1 at least1 ,i am not forced to consider external nature as separate and opposed1 and ,i can fall into moods of thought1--or1 if you prefer1 of feeling1--in which the edges of all things blend1 and man and the outside world pass into each other4 ,illustration3 ,,old ,,pagoda ,,near ,,the ,,priests' ,,houses4 ,august #ag4 ,and so1 often1 ,i like to think of these trees and rocks and streams1 as if from them might be evolved some spiritual essence4 ,has not akyamuni said that all 7living7 beings possess the nature of ,buddha1 that is to say1 the absolute nature4 ,the sun1 the moon1 the earth1 and the innumerable stars contain within themselves the absolute nature4 ,so for the little flowers1 the grass1 the clouds that rise from the waters1 the very drop of water itself2 for they are begotten of nature absolute1 and all form a part of it1 however great1 however small4 ,absolute nature is the essence of all things1 and is the same as all things4 ,this absolute nature will be as are the waters of the sea1 if we picture it1 and its modes will be as the waves1 inseparable from the waters4 ,thus the absolute and all things will be identical1 inseparable views of the same existence4 ,this nature will be both essence and force1 and appearance and manner4 ,and so my friends here1 of the sect which holds the temple1 might teach me that the little plants1 the great mountains1 and the rushing waters can become ,buddhas4 ,in these pantheistic sympathies ,i dimly recall that another sect finds three great mysteries in its esoteric view of the world4 ,the wind whistling through the trees1 the river breaking over its rocks1 the movements of man and his voice1--or1 indeed1 his silence1--are the expression of the great mysteries of body1 of word1 and of thought4 ,these mysteries are understood of the ,buddha1 but evolution1 cultivated by the true word1 or doctrine1 will allow man1 whose mysteries are like the mysteries of the ,buddhas1 to become like unto them4 ,but since the path is open for all to ,buddhahood1--since these animals that pass me1 this landscape about me1 can become divine1--why1 alas6 are not men more easily carried to that glorious end8 ,it is because we are living in the present2 and as that present must have had a past1 since nothing is lost and nothing disappears1 so it will have a future2 and that future depends on the present and on the past4 ,changes and transformations are only a play of cause and effect1 since spirit and matter are one in absolute nature1 which in its essence can neither be born nor be dissolved4 ,actual life is absolutely determined by the influencing action of merit and demerit in past existence1 as the future will be determined by present causes2 so that it is possible for the soul to pass through the six conditions of the infernal being1 the phantom1 the beast1 the demon1 the human1 and the celestial1 and1 through painful transmigration1 to reach the supreme salvation of ,nirvana4 ,then will end the universal metamorphoses1 the trials1 the expiations1 the unceasing whirlwind of life4 ,illusion will cease1 and reality last1 in the complete calm of absolute truth4 ,,nirvana ,have ,i told you my story of the word ,nirvana1 as used by the reporter at ,omaha1 who managed to interview us8 ,the association of a reporter with any of the four states of ,nirvana may seem impossible to you--but this is the way it happened4 ,owing to ,a----'s being the brother of the president of the road1 we were naturally suspected of business designs when we acknowledged that we were going to ,japan1 and1 in my shortsighted wisdom1 ,i thought that ,i should put to rout our interviewer by allowing that the purpose of our going was to find ,nirvana4 ,i had misjudged the mind of the true reporter1 and did not expect the retort1 ,are you not rather late in the season8 ,whether he knew or builded better1 he had certainly pointed out the probable result4 ,i often recur to this episode when1 as now1 ,i enjoy1 in dreaming action1 that ,nirvana which is called conditioned2 that state of the terrestrial being who understands truth by the extinction of passions1 but who is yet1 indeed1 very much tied to the body--if ,i may speak so lightly of what is a contemplation of1 and an absorption in1 eternal truth1 a rest in supreme salvation4 99 99 99 99 99 ,of all the images that ,i see so often1 the one that touches me most--partly1 perhaps1 because of the ,eternal ,feminine--is that of the incarnation that is called ,kuwan-on1 when shown absorbed in the meditations of ,nirvana4 ,you have seen her in pictures1 seated near some waterfall1 and ,i am continually reminded of her by the beautiful scenes about us1 of which the waterfall is the note and the charm4 ,were it not that ,i hate sightseeing1 ,i should have made pilgrimages1 like the good ,japanese1 to all the celebrated ones which are about4 ,exercise1 however1 during the day is difficult to me1 and ,i don't like being carried1 and the miserable horses of the peasants are awfully slow and very stumbly4 ,we go about in single file1 perched on the saddles upon their humped backs1 each horse led by the owner1 usually a trousered peasant girl4 ,lately on our visits to waterfalls we have passed the wide bed of the second river1 which makes an island of our mountain--a great mountain-river bed filled with stones and boulders1 through which the waters1 now very low1 divide into rushing torrents2 while in the winter this is a tremendous affair1 and in flood-times the very boulders are carried away4 ,far down at ,imaichi1 some six miles off1 is shown one of the long row of stone ,buddhas1 several hundred in number1 which line the right bank of the main river1 the ,dayagawa1 near the deep pool called ,kamman-ga-fuchi4 ,it was there that ,i drew the biggest of them all1 on one of my first days here1 a statue of ,jizo1 with ,nan-tai-san half veiled in the distance behind him--a great cedar shading him1 and all but the little path and the bridge of a single stone overgrown with weeds and bushes4 ,these gods along the river are all ugly and barbarous1--country gods1 as it were1--alien as possible1 while the nature about them1 though strange1 is not so far away from me4 ,illustration3 ,,statue ,,of ,,oya ,,jizo4 ,their ugliness was accentuated by a sort of efflorescence1 or moss growth1 curled and ragged by weather1 made of innumerable slips of paper pasted upon them by troops of pilgrims to the holy places1 who make a point of thus marking off their visits to each successive sacred object4 ,fortunately1 they are what the ,japanese call wet goods1 that is to say1 unprotected by roof or temple1 and the rains of heaven cleanse them and leave only the black and white of the lichens4 ,they always worried me like a bad dream when ,i passed them in the evening1 on my way home from work1 and ,i can sympathize with the superstition which makes it impossible to count them4 ,but this is on the ,dayagawa1 the main confluent which rushes down from ,lake ,chiuzenji4 ,our path led through the other river1 over causeways and bridges1 up to the hills on the other side1 and to a high moorland from which the immense southern plain and distant mountains appeared swimming in light4 ,two faint blue triangles in the air were the peaks of ,tskba2 nearer on the west1 the mountains of ,nikko were covered with cloud1 through which the sunburst poured down upon their bases4 ,as we rode we passed beneath plantations covered with water1 so that their mirror1 at the level of the eye1 reflected the mountains and clouds and upper sky in a transparent picture1 spotted with innumerable tufts of brilliant green4 ,and then we dismounted at a little tea-house1 and sat under a rustic arbor1 while our feminine grooms1 stripping to the waist1 wiped and sponged their sweating arm-pits and bosoms1 in unconcernedness of sex4 ,yet when they noticed my sketching them1 as if ,i did not take their nakedness for granted1 sleeves and gowns were rapidly pulled over the uncovered flesh4 ,so true it is that conduct depends upon the kind of attention it calls for4 ,nor was the universal standard of feminine propriety unrespected by them1 when1 on our return1 my guide1 who had1 in every possible way that ,i could imagine1 expressed her adherence to the ways of nature1 met with the disaster of having her back hair come down2 for then1 with a shriek1 she dropped the rein1 and retired1 blushing1 behind the nearest tree1 where1 in equal hurry1 another girl guide proceeded to console her1 and to re-arrange the proper structure of shining black hair and ivory pins4 ,then we descended by a narrow path1 over which hung tree-camellias1 still spotted with their last white blossoms1 whose edges were rusted by the heat4 ,the main fall of ,urami-no-,taki drops into a deep basin1 edged by rocks1 from a hollow in the highest hill1 over which hang great trees4 ,on each side lesser cascades rush or tumble over the rocky faces1 and under the main column small streams slide down1 or drop in thin pillars to join it4 ,there is a path1 frequented by pilgrims1 which passes behind and underneath the fall1 so that we can stand behind and look through it1 whence its name4 ,all is wilderness2 but a high relief of the protector ,fudo1 guardian and friend of such places1 is carved on the rock behind the falls1 and shows through the rumpled edges of the water4 ,all was shade1 except where the sun struck in the emerald hollow above the fall1 or where a beam lighted up here and there a patch of the great and small cascades1 or the trees and rocks about them4 ,and here1 again1 the intense silence1 broken by the rush of the waterfall1 recalled the pictures of ,k'wan-on1 whose meaning and whose images bring back to me the ,buddhistic idea of compassion4 ,the deity1 or goddess1 seated in abstraction by the falling waters of life1 represents1 ,i suppose1 more especially an ideal of contemplation1 as the original ,indian name indicated1 ,i think2 but her name to-day is that of the ,compassionate ,one4 ,illustration3 ,,peasant ,,girls ,,and ,,mountain ,,horses ,,of ,,nikko4 ,of the divinity's many incarnations one has interested me as typical1 and will amuse you4 ,it is when--in the year #fif ,b4 ,c41 though the precise date is not exactly material--this power is born as a girl1 daughter to one of the many kings of ,china4 ,then follows a legend like that of ,saint ,barbara4 ,she is in no hurry to follow her princess's duty of getting married1 and pleasing her parents thereby4 ,she is satisfied with a virgin life1 and makes delays by persuading her father to build palaces for her bridal to come2 and when all this has been done1 and there is no final escape1 she ends by an absolute refusal of marriage4 ,at which1 evidently from a long experience of the uselessness of argument with her sex1 her father cuts her head off1 and ,i regret to say that she thereupon goes to ,hell4 ,i suppose that she goes there1 because1 however laudable and high her ideal of life might have been1 it should have been confined within the views of her country1 that is to say1 of obedience to parents first and foremost4 ,however1 she went there1 and put up with it1 and that so admirably that the divinity who rules the place was obliged to dismiss her1 for her contentment with her lot was spreading as an example to the damned1 and threatened the very existence of ,hell4 ,since then her appearances again in this world have been on errands of compassion and of help4 ,nor is this constant willingness to act on behalf of others1 and thereby to leave the realm of absolute peace1 incompatible with that continual contemplation of which her pictures or images offer an ideal1 enchanting to me4 ,for1 indeed1 the fourth ,nirvana is that state of truth in which supreme salvation is not distinct from sorrowful transmigration1 and for these blessed beings this is ,nirvana2 that1 possessing the fullness of wisdom1 they cannot desire to delay in transmigration1 nor do they renter ,nirvana1 because they feel the extreme of compassion for other beings4 ,for1 in the ,buddhist doctrine1 compassion is the first of all virtues1 and leads and is the essence of the five cardinal virtues1 which are--note the sequence--pity1 justice1 urbanity1 sincerity1 and wise behavior4 ,to the ,buddhist1 the pitiless are the ungodly4 ,hence the teaching of kindliness to all living beings1 which is one of the pure precepts of the greater vehicle1 and through which all beings can obtain salvation4 ,for the happiness1 which is the aim of ,buddhism1 is not limited to the individual1 but is to be useful1 to be of profit1 to all mankind--a happiness which can only be moral1 but which must act on the body as intimately as the soul is united with it4 ,these are the aspirations of higher ,buddhism--its supreme end1 to achieve the happiness of this life and of the future one--of the individual and of humanity1 but differently1 according to times and circumstances and human powers4 ,in its full ideal here below civil and religious society would be the same2 the continual rest of ,nirvana becoming finally inseparable from our transmigrations--our passions living together with complete wisdom1 and our further existence not demanding1 then1 another world4 ,and if civilization shall have finally perfected the world of mind and the world of matter1 we shall have here below ,nirvana1 and we shall dwell in it as ,buddhas4 ,,sketching4--,,the ,,flutes ,,of ,,iy,,yas ,august #bd4 ,in the afternoon ,i go through the little road toward the west1 whose walls are spotted with mosses and creepers1 and where the gutters are filled with clear1 noisy torrents1 echoing in answer to the general sound of waters4 ,rarely do ,i meet any one--perhaps some trousered peasant girls1 drowsily leading pack-horses2 or naked peasants1 with muscles of yellow bronze1 carrying brushwood on their backs4 ,the sun is at its hottest4 ,above the beat of the waters rises the perpetual strident1 interminable cry of the locusts1 like the shrill voice of mourners in this abode of tombs--the voice of dust and aridity4 ,i turn a corner of high wall and tall trees and enter1 through a dilapidated gateway and up some high steps in the wall1 an open space1 whose unknown borders are concealed behind the enormous trunks of cryptomeria4 ,for weeks carpenters have been slowly repairing a temple building in this court1 the big beams and planks of freshly-cut wood perfuming the place with the smell of cedar4 ,in the grass and on the broken pavement lie moldering fragments of the older work1 still with a waxy covering of the red lacquer which holds together the dark1 dusty fibers4 ,a little bell-tower1 lacquered red1 stands near the other entrance1 to which ,i pass4 ,that one has its wall and high fence all lacquered red1 and a gateway also red and spotted with yellow and gray mosses4 ,down its big steps ,i go1 seeing just before me1 through the gigantic trees and their gray and red trunks1 the face of the tall pagoda1 which flanks one side of the court before ,iyyas1 and whose other side turns toward the avenue of ,iymits4 ,the road upon which ,i come is the avenue of ,iyyas4 ,three different slopes lead within it to the paved court1 where stands the high ,torii of stone1 through which one goes by the middle path to the high steps and the wall1 the boundary of the temple4 ,two great banks1 blocked with great dressed stones1 separate the three paths--the central path being cut into wide steps which lead up to the ,torii4 ,on each of these masses of earth and masonry grow great cryptomeria trees1 each of their trunks almost filling1 from side to side1 the entire width of the surface4 ,they are planted irregularly4 ,as the further ends of the banks are less high from the ground1 ,i climb up1 and sit to sketch against one of the ragged and splintered trunks4 ,for all these late afternoons but one all has been the same4 ,far above me1 through the needle branches of bright or shadowy green1 large white clouds roll and spread in a brilliant1 blotty1 wet1 blue sky4 ,the court is framed in dark green1 all above dazzling in light4 ,the great ,torii stands in the half shade--the edge of its upper stone shining as if gilded with yellow moss1 and stains of black and white and rusty red contrasting with the delicate gilded inscriptions incised on the lower part of the two supporting columns4 ,illustration3 ,,our ,,landlord ,,the ,,buddhist ,,priest4 ,beyond1 the white wall and steps of the temple inclosure are crowned with white stone palings and a red lacquer wall behind them1 and the red lacquer and bronzed-roofed gateway4 ,here and there gold glitters on the carvings and on the ends of its many roof-beams4 ,near it the great gray tree-trunks are spaced1 and out of the green branches shows the corner of the stable of the ,sacred ,horses4 ,its gray walls are spotted in places with gold and color4 ,beyond it are the red walls of one of the treasure houses1 made of beams with slanting edges2 and in the gable under its black eaves two symbolic animals1 the elephant and the tapir1 are carved and painted gray and white on the gilded wall4 ,at this distance the bands of many-colored ornament make a glimmering of nameless color4 ,farther back in the trees spots of heavy black and shining gold mark the roofs of other buildings4 ,the great trees near me almost hide the great pagoda1 and ,i can see of it only a little red1 and the green under its many eaves1 which melts like a haze into the green of the trees4 ,all these effects of color and shape seem but as a decoration of the trees1 and as modes of enhancing their height and their stillness4 ,the great court becomes nothing but a basin with highly-finished edges1 sunk into the mass of mountain greenery4 ,the ,torii1 alone1 stands lonely and mysterious4 ,on the space between its upper stone beams is placed a great blue tablet with gold letters that designate the sacred posthumous name of ,iyyas4 ,it is late in the year1 and the place is no longer filled with pilgrims4 ,i look down1 occasionally1 on a few stragglers who come up the steps below me--a few pilgrims in white dresses2 peasants1 sometimes with their children2 ,japanese tourists1 who1 even here1 at home1 seem out of place4 ,this afternoon a couple of women1 earnestly whispering1 sailed across the court and turned the corner of the avenue of ,iymits--with toes turned in1 as is the proper thing in this land of inversion4 ,their dresses of gray and brown and black had all the accentuated refinement of simplicity in color which is the character of good taste here1 and which gives one the gentle thrill of new solutions of harmony4 ,our own absurdities were not unknown to them1 for their velvet slits of eyes were partly hid under eye-glasses1 in emulation of ,boston or ,germany4 ,they might have been ladies3 ,i am not sufficiently clear yet as to limits3 perhaps they were gei-shas1 who now1 ,i understand1 learn ,german and affect the intellectual look of nearsightedness4 ,if they were1 they were far above the two little creatures that posed for me yesterday--with all the impatience of girls who1 knowing what it was all about1 still could not put up with the slow ways of ,european work1 when their own artists would have been as agile and rapid and sketchy as themselves4 ,the gei-shas are one of the institutions of ,japan1--a reminder of old1 complete civilizations like that of ,greece4 ,they are1 voluntarily1 exiles from regular society and family1 if one can speak of consent when they are usually brought up to their profession of the gay science from early girlhood4 ,they cultivate singing and dancing1 and often poetry1 and all the accomplishments and most of the exquisite politeness of their country4 ,they are the ideals of the elegant side of woman4 ,to them is intrusted the entertainment of guests and the solace of idle hours4 ,they are the hetairai of the old ,greeks--and sometimes they are all that that name implies4 ,but no one has the right to assume it from their profession1 any more than that all liberties are bordered by possible license4 ,the two who consented to pose for me1 at the same price and no more than ,i should have paid them had ,i called them in to entertain me and my guests with singing and dancing1 were1 the one a town1 the other a country girl2 and little by little they showed the difference1 at first very slight to a foreigner1 by all the many little things which obtain everywhere4 ,it was a source of quiet amusement for me to see them posture1 in what they call their dances1 in the very room of our landlord the priest's house1 where ,i have so often watched him sitting while his pupil bent over his writing1 an antique picture1 like so many ,eastern scenes of the ideal of contemplative monastic study4 ,but our little priest is away1 on service at the temple of ,iymits1 and his house is kept for him in his absence by some devout lady parishioner1 who lent us the apartment more convenient than ours1 and who undoubtedly shared in the amusement herself4 ,and ,i asked myself if there had been a secret ceremony of purification afterwards4 ,i saw1 too1 lingering at the corner of ,iymits1 the litter of a great lady1 said to be the beauty of the court2 but ,i was content to have her remain mysterious to me1 and tried not to regret my indolence1 when my companion twitted me with his presentation to her1 and to associate her only with the clear porcelains that bear her princely name4 ,and then1 again1 the priests of the temple of ,iyyas came down to meet some prince1 looking like great butterflies in green and yellow1 and capped with their shining black hats4 ,the youngest waved his fan at me in recognition1 and gaily floated back up the high white steps and into the sunny inclosures beyond1 more and more like some winged essence4 99 99 99 99 99 ,then the temple attendants brushed with brooms the mosses of the pavement about the ,torii1 and the gates were closed4 ,and ,i listened1 until the blaze of the sun passed under the green film of the trees1 to the fluting of the priests in the sanctuary on the hill4 ,it was like a hymn to nature4 ,the noise of the locusts had stopped for a time2 and this floating wail1 rising and falling in unknown and incomprehensible modulations1 seemed to belong to the forest as completely as their cry4 ,the shrill and liquid song brought back the indefinite melancholy that one has felt with the distant sound of children's voices1 singing of ,sundays in drowsy rhythms4 ,but these sounds belonged to the place1 to its own peculiar genius--of a lonely beauty1 associated with an indefinite past1 little understood2 with death1 and primeval nature1 and final rest4 ,the last beams of the sunset made emerald jewels of the needles in the twigs above me--made red velvet of the powdery edges of broken bark1 when the distant flutes ceased1 and ,i left my study4 ,as ,i came out from the giant trees a great wave of the funereal song of the locusts passed through the air1 leaving me suddenly in a greater silence as ,i came home4 ,then ,i could hear the rise and fall of the sound of our little waterfall in the garden as ,i stretched myself at the flattest on the mats1 and ,kato brought the tea and put it beside me4 ,,sketching4--,,the ,,pagoda ,,in ,,rain4 ,august #be4 ,this afternoon ,i returned to the entrance of ,iyyas1 and sketched under the great trees of the central avenue4 ,the great white clouds were there again in the blue above1 colored as with gold where they showed below through the trees2 then they came nearer1 then they melted together2 then suddenly all was veiled1 the rain came down in sheets1 and ,i was glad of the refuge of the tea booths along the eastern wall4 ,it was late1 almost evening2 no one there2 a few pilgrims and attendants and priests scurried away through the court1 disappearing with bare reddened legs and wet clogs around the corners of the avenues4 ,and the rain persisted1 hanging before me like a veil of water4 ,i had in front1 as ,i sat in the booths1 already damp and gusty with drafts1 the face of the tall red pagoda behind its stone balustrade and at right angles to the great ,torii that ,i had been painting4 ,the great trees were all of one green1 their near and far columns flattened out with the branches into masses of equal values4 ,through them1 below1 in the few openings to the west1 the sky was colored with the sunset1 as if it were clear far over ,nan-tai-san4 ,the gold of the roofs' edges and of the painted carvings below was light and pale as the sky far away4 ,higher up the gold was bright and clear under the rain1 which made it glisten2 it glowed between the brackets of the lower cornices and paled like silver higher up4 ,all the innumerable painted carvings and projections and ornaments looked pale behind the rain1 while the great red mass grew richer as it rose1 and the bronze roofs1 freshly washed1 were blacker1 and the green copper glistened1 like malachite1 on the edges of the vermilion rails1 or on the bells which hung from the roof corners1 against the sky or against the trees4 ,the green1 wet mosses spotted with light the stone flags below1 or glowed like a fairy yellow flame on the adjoining red lacquer of the temple fence1 so drenched now that ,i could see reflected in it the white divisions and still whiter lichens of the stone balustrade4 ,below it the great temple wall was blotched with dark purple and black lichens1 and the columns of the ,torii were white at the bottom with mosses4 ,its upper cross-arm glistened yellow with their growths as if it had caught the sun4 ,but the heavy rain was drenching all2 and now from all the roofs of the pagoda poured lines of water1 the one within the other1 the highest describing a great curve that encircled all the others1 and the whole high tower itself1 as if with a lengthened aureole of silver drops4 ,it was as if water had poured out from the fountain basins1 one above the other1 which the ,italian ,renaissance liked to picture on tall pilasters1 even as this one was profiled against the sky and distant rain4 ,below1 a yellow torrent covered the great court with an eddying lake1 and its course rushed down the great steps or made a crested1 bounding line along the gutters by the walls4 ,i watched for a time the beautiful curves dropping from the roofs of the tower1 until all grew dark and my coolie arrived to carry paint box and easel1 and we managed to get home1 with sketching umbrellas1 wet1 however1 through every layer of clothing4 ,,from ,,nikko ,,to ,,kamakura ,,nikko1 ,august #bg4 ,yesterday1 ,i went out in another afternoon of blazing sunlight1 up to the corner of the temple inclosure and along its outside edge1 where the rocks of the mountain1 covered with trees1 make a great vague wall4 ,under the damp trees runs a path paved with small blocks of stone1 slippery with moss1 or1 when bare1 smoothed by ages of treading4 ,this road leads to the little cascade which supplies the sacred water-tank of the temple of ,iyyas1 that square block of water under the gilded and painted canopy in the great courtyard4 ,the waterfall drops over rocks into a hollow between the hills2 high trees stand along its edge near a black octagonal shrine1 with great roof1 green and yellow with moss4 ,on this side of the water1 a diminutive shrine1 red-painted1 with columns and architrave of many colors and a roof of thatch all green1 out of which are growing the small stems of young trees4 ,in front1 a ,torii1 just tall enough to pass under1 of gray stone1 all capped and edged with green1 velvety moss4 ,a curved stone1 cushioned with moss1 in front of it1 spans the water-course that gives escape to the waters of the pool4 ,the doors of the shrine are closed1 as if to make more solitary yet the quiet of the little hollow4 ,higher up1 past the black building and above high steps1 on a platform edged by walls1 stand black buildings1 shrines of ,buddhist divinities1 whose golden bodies ,i can see through the grating of the unfastened doors4 ,i feel their amiable presence1 while ,i sit painting in the damp sunlight1 and the murmur of the waters seems their whispered encouragement4 ,on my return ,i looked again toward the abrupt rocky hill to find a little monument we had passed at its foot1 just off the road4 ,through the inevitable ,torii a little path of rough flagging1 all broken up and imbedded in moss1 leads across the small bridge of two large stones1 one of whose parapets is gone1 and up high steps1 half natural1 to a little altar of big stones with a heavy balustrade around three sides4 ,a little stone shrine with a roof stands upon it1 and behind it a tall gray rock upon which is incised and gilded a device of five disks forming a circle4 ,all around about the path and shrine are trees covered with moss2 the rocks1 the shrine1 the path1 are spotted with green and yellow velvet2 all looks as if abandoned to nature1--all but the gilded armorial bearings in the mossy stone1 which ,i take to be those of the divinized mortal in whose honor this little record has been built1 ,ten-jin ,sama1 known and worshiped by every schoolboy in ,japan4 ,he is the patron of learning and of penmanship1 and was during his life a great scholar and minister of state under the name of ,michizane4 ,this was just before the year nine hundred4 ,a faithful minister1 a learned and just man1 he naturally gave great umbrage1 especially to a younger associate whose sister was ,empress1 and who succeeded through malicious slander in bringing about ,michizane's banishment4 ,in his place of exile1 separated from wife and children1 he died two years later4 ,there1 ,i suppose1 he rode about on the saddled bull1 upon which ,yosai has placed him in his drawings1 as also he was seen by ,motonobu in a dream1 of which ,i have a drawing4 ,there the great artist has represented him1 faithful1 ,i suppose1 to what he really saw1 as a younger man than he really could have been1 galloping swiftly and bending down to avoid the branches of the trees above4 ,bulls of bronze and marble adorn his temple in ,kioto1 recalling how the bull that drew him to the cemetery refused to go further than a certain spot1 where he was buried in a grave dug hastily4 ,misfortune and remorse followed his enemies1 with the death of the ,imperial heir2 so that the ,emperor1 revoking his banishment1 reinstalled the dead man in the honors of his office1 and bestowed a high rank upon his ghost4 ,since then his worship has grown1 as ,i said above4 ,as you see1 the ,mikado has been the fountain of honor for this world and the next2 and ,i cannot help being reminded of the constant relations of ,chinese and ,japanese thought in this unity--this constant joining of that which we separate4 ,the forms of ,china may be more bureaucratic2 no such national prejudices and feelings can belong to the idea of the sovereign there as must exist in ,japan1 with a dynasty of rulers as ,japanese as ,japan itself4 ,but there has been here1 as there1 a sort of natural duty in the ,government to look after all the relations of those intrusted to its care4 ,in ,china1 all religion or religions must depend upon the sanction of the ruling powers2 nothing is too great or too small to be satisfied with2 official approval may attend the worship of some local heroine1 official disapproval may be shown to some exaggerations of ,taoist superstitions4 ,the source of this right and this duty is always the idea that in the ruler all is centered2 he is responsible to ,heaven1 and is the tie between the powers above and the deities below4 ,hence there is nothing absurd in his following the governed after death4 ,in ,japan1 the forms of this power may be different1 but its workings will be similar1 and hero-worship1 combined with the respect and worship of ancestors1 has had a most important part in the development of life here1 in encouraging patriotism and lofty ideas1 and in stimulating the chivalrous feeling1 the ideas of honor1 that seem to me the peculiar note of the ,japanese4 ,however misapplied1 however mistaken1 however barbarous some forms of these ideas may appear to us1 ,i cannot make for myself a definition of the national character1 nor see a clue to many of their actions unless ,i bear in mind the ruling power of this feeling4 ,while we are in this place1 where ,iyyas's name is so important1 let me cite a trifling anecdote4 ,it is said that on some occasion he accompanied ,hideyoshi1 the great ,taiko ,sama1 each with few attendants1 upon some visit1 and all were afoot4 ,now1 among the retinue of ,iyyas was one ,honda1 a man of preternatural strength1 who hinted to his master that this might be an opportunity for an attack upon his great rival4 ,but ,taiko guessed the danger1 and1 turning round1 said to ,iyyas3 ,my sword is heavy1 for me unaccustomed to walking1 so may ,i not ask your servant to carry it for me8 ,for ,taiko knew that it would have been considered a disgrace to attack a man unarmed when he had intrusted his sword1 not to his own servant1 but to the servant of his enemy4 ,and ,iyyas understood this appeal to the idea of honor4 ,august #bh4 ,two more days and we shall be gone4 ,as ,i sketch in the temples or about them1 everything seems more beautiful as it grows to be more a part of my daily existence4 ,though ,i am perpetually harassed through feeling that ,i cannot copy everything1 and through trying to force my memory to grasp so as to retain the multitudinous details of the architectural decoration1 ,i have drawn the curve of this1 and the patterns of that1 and noted the colors1 but ,i wonder1 if the thread gets loosened that holds them together1 whether ,i shall ever be able to separate one from another in their entanglement4 ,and then ,i still do not wish to work4 ,there are so many places that ,i should like to look at again without the oppression of an obligatory record4 ,this evening ,i must take another look at the neglected graves of the followers of ,iymits who committed suicide1 as my ,japanese account has it1 that they might accompany him in his dark pilgrimage to the future world4 ,at least it says this of ,hotta ,masemori and of three others2 while the graves1 as ,i remember them1 are twenty-one in number1 and about this ,i have never thought to ask1 but ,i must do so4 ,and then there may have been retainers of retainers4 ,it is a pleasure to me anyhow to set down at least one name and to help to keep this memory clear when ,i think of the neglected spot in which they lie4 ,it is not far from that part of the land where stood the residence of their master's family1 now destroyed1 through the days of turbulence which closed the last moments of their reign4 ,broken fragments of fencing still lean against the little inclosures of stone posts1 balustrade1 and gate that surround each memorial pillar4 ,they stand in two rows in a little clearing1 the valley sunk behind them1 hidden in part by much wild growth4 ,o---- was telling us some little while ago of the feudal habit which gave to a chieftain the vow of certain retainers who undertook to follow him faithfully even beyond the grave4 ,it was expected of them in war that they should be about him sharing in his struggle1 and if he died in peace1 near or far1 they should be ready to go too4 ,and as death is the most important thing in life1 ,i cannot help thinking over the condition of mind of any one who looked forward to such a limitation of its lease4 ,when age had changed the view of life1 had created more ties1 more duties1 had made the term nearer and more capricious1 while everything else became more fixed1 did this bond1 with its promise of payment to be met at any moment's demand1 become a heavy burden of debt8 ,i can occasionally conjure up a picture--perhaps erroneous1 because my imagination of the circumstances may displace them1--of some older man settled in pleasant places1 rested in secure possessions1 with dependants1 with friends1 with affections around his life1 learning at any moment of the probability that the call might come4 ,he might be summoned from any festivity or joy as if by a knocking at the door4 ,how curiously he must have watched the runners of the mail who might be bringing into his town the news from the court1 or wheresoever this other life--which to all purposes was his own--was perhaps ebbing away4 ,how then he would have known what to do1 even to its most minute detail1 and be but part of a ceremonial that he himself would direct4 ,vague memories come up to me of places set apart in the garden1 and the screens and the hangings and the lights that belonged to the voluntary ordeal4 ,but as ,i keep on thinking1 ,i feel more certain that my fancy displaces the circumstances of former times and of a different civilization4 ,for instance1 the concentration of the feudal territory1 habits of clanship1 the constant attendance1 must have narrowed the circle and made the individual more like a part of one great machinery1 one great family1 than he can ever be again4 ,the weakness1 the insufficiency of the individual1 has been stiffened by the importance of the family1 of the clan1 as a basis of society2 and ,i could almost say that ,i discern in this one main-spring of the peculiar courtesy of this nation1 which seems to go along with a great feeling of a certain freedom1 so that the obedience of the inferior does not seem servile4 ,the servant who has done his duty of respectful service seems afterward ready to take any natural relation that may turn up4 ,the youth trained in respect to his betters and elders1 and silent in their presence1 will give his opinion frankly when asked1 with a want of diffidence quite unexpected4 ,the coming years are certain to bring changes that cannot be arrested4 99 99 99 99 99 ,while ,i was being baked to-day1 at my work that ,i could not leave1 my companions have been away on a visit higher up the mountains1 to the hot baths on the lake1 and1 at least for part of the time1 have had the weather almost cold4 ,they have much to say about the baths1 and the fullness of visitors1 and the difficulty of getting place1 and one of them has gone to her bath in the native dress1 and another cannot yet quite get over the impression made upon him by the pretty young lady near whom he stood under the eaves of the bath-house1 where he had taken refuge from the rain1 and whose modest manners were as charming as her youthfulness1 and had no more covering4 ,here everything is still hot and damp1 though our nights are cooler and ,i am able to make out more conveniently my notes and my sketches and my memoranda of purchased acquisitions4 ,on the lower floor boxes are being filled1 and to-morrow evening horses and men will stand in our garden to be laden2 we shall follow the light of their lanterns down the road1 and they will seem to be carrying parts of us away from ,nikko4 ,,nikko ,,to ,,yokohama ,,near ,,utsunomiya1 ,august #cj4 ,we left ,nikko this morning2 a hot1 moist1 quiet1 lovely morning4 ,we dawdled at our friends' house and breakfasted1 and said good-by to our worthy landlord4 ,yesterday he had found fault with my sketching him in his ordinary yellow priest's dress1 while he had vestments as beautiful as any painter or clergyman could desire2 in proof of which he had rushed into his house and reappeared in those lovely things and moved about the green of the garden looking as radiant as any flamingo4 ,but ,i knew not of these possessions of his1 and regretted quite as deeply as he could himself not having painted him in them4 ,it was a sad moment--that of leaving his little garden for good1 and walking down the road to the enormous steps under the trees by the river1 where we reversed the picture of our arrival six weeks ago4 ,there stood the naked runners1 and our hostess above us1 as we sat in the kurumas1 but this time the doctor was not with us1 except to bid us good-by4 ,his place was filled by the professional guide and factotum1 who sat anxious for departure in his own kuruma1 and who for days had been packing and labeling and helping to make lists1 and receiving instructions1 and bustling about at times when he was not sleeping--and generally making life a misery4 ,we rattled over the bridge1 passed the children going to school1 and the polite policeman with spectacles and sword1 who looks like a ,german ,rath of some kind or other1 and the woman of the ,eta class#g who has sold us skins of monkeys and of badgers1 as well as two baby monkeys1 whom we have disrespectfully named ,sesson and ,sosen1 after the painters who so beautifully portrayed their ancestors4 ,soon we had entered the long avenue of cryptomeria and kept on through shadow and sunlight1 with our runners at their fullest gait1 for we had to be in time for the afternoon train at ,utsunomiya1 and it is twenty-two miles from ,nikko4 ,but we were more than in time1 and had to wait at an inn near the station4 ,i am absurdly stupid and fatigued1 so that ,i have given up watching the landscape and merely make these notes4 ,besides1 there is a missionary near us so self-contented that ,i feel like withdrawing into my own self and dreaming of the times he was not here4 ,i recall a little story of ,utsunomiya1 connected with my associations of ,nikko1 which ,i shall try to tell you2 though1 at the very start1 ,i find a difficulty in my having heard it told in several different and contradictory ways--and ,i can only travel one at a time4 ,as ,i shall tell it1 it represents a legend believed at least in the theater1 which1 as we know1 everywhere makes a kind of history4 ,the story is about the shogun ,iymits1 whose temple1 you know1 is at ,nikko1 and who was near missing the honor of being divinized there later1 owing to a plot arranged by his enemies1 the scene of which was this little town of ,utsunomiya4 ,at that time he was but a boy1 the heir-apparent1 and was on his way to ,nikko1 as was his official duty1 to worship at the tomb of his grandfather ,iyyas1 lately deceased4 ,in this story ,iymits is not in the legitimate line of descent1 but is made the heir by the decision of the great ,iyyas4 ,his father1 ,hidetada1 was shogun1 as you know1 having succeeded ,iyyas1 during the latter's lifetime1--the old man remaining in reality the master1 though absolved from external responsibilities4 ,now1 ,hidetada's wife was of the family of ,nobunaga1 on her mother's side--and bore him a son1 who was named during his childhood ,kuni ,matsu4 ,another son1 whose boy name was ,take ,chiyo1 was the son of ,kasuga ,no ,tsubone1 a remarkable woman4 ,each son had tutors1 people of importance1 and around each boy gathered a number of ambitious interests1 all the fiercer that they were dissembled and depended for success upon the choice of either heir as shogun1 to succeed father and grandfather4 ,the claim of the other son was favored by the father and more generally accepted2 but the son of ,kasuga was superior in looks1 manners1 and intelligence1 and his mother hoped to influence in his favor old ,iyyas1 the grandfather4 ,iyyas was then living in retirement at ,sunpu1 that is now called ,shidzuoka1 which is on the road called the ,tokaido4 ,kasuga took advantage of a pilgrimage to the shrines of ,ise to stop on her road1 and naturally offer homage to the head of the family1 the grandfather of her son4 ,besides the power of her own personality1 she was able to place before ,iyyas very strong arguments for choosing as the heir of the line a youth as promising as her ,take ,chiyo4 ,iyyas advised her to continue her pilgrimage1 and not to go out of her woman's business1 which could not be that of interfering with questions of state2 and she obeyed4 ,but ,iyyas revolved the entire question in his mind1 and decided that there was danger in a delay that allowed both parties to grow stronger in antagonism4 ,so that he came at once to ,yedo1 which is now ,tokio1 and visited ,hidetada1 asking to see both the boys together4 ,they came in along with their father and his wife1 and took their accustomed places4 ,now these were on the higher floor1 raised by a few inches from the floor on which kneels the visitor of lower degree1 in the presence of his superior3 a line of black lacquer edges the division4 ,thereupon ,iyyas taking the boy ,take ,chiyo by the hand1 made him sit by him1 and alongside of his father1 and ordered the other son1 ,kuni ,matsu1 to sit below the line1 and said3 ,the ,state will come to harm if the boys are allowed to grow up in the idea of equal rank4 ,therefore1 ,take ,chiyo shall be shogun1 and ,kuni ,matsu a daimio4 ,this decision gave to the line of the ,tokugawa a brilliant and powerful continuity1 for ,take ,chiyo1 under his manhood name of ,iymits1 was as an ,augustus to the ,csar ,iyyas4 ,and1 indeed1 ,iyyas had certainly made sufficient inquiries to warrant his decision4 ,if he consulted the abbot ,tenkai1 of ,nikko1 who was a preceptor of the boy1 he must have heard favorably of him4 ,for1 according to the judgment of ,tenkai1 as ,i find it quoted elsewhere1 ,iymits was very shrewd and of great foresight1 and in his presence the great abbot felt1 he said1 as if thorns were pricking his back4 ,not but that he was also fond of luxury and splendor2 and one glimpse of him as a youth shows a quarrel with a tutor who found him dressing himself1 or being dressed1 for ,no performances1 or private theatricals1 and who proceeded thereupon to throw away the double mirrors1--in which the youth followed his hair-dresser's arrangements1--with the usual1 classical rebuke1 condemning such arrangements as unworthy of a ruler of ,japan4 ,there are many stories of ,iymits more or less to his advantage--and a little anecdote shows a young man of quick temper1 as well as one who insisted upon proper attendance4 ,iymits had been hawking in a strong wind1 and with no success4 ,tired and hungry1 he went with some lord-in-waiting to a neighboring temple1 where lunch was prepared for them by his cook1--a man of rank4 ,iymits1 while taking his soup in a hurry1 crushed a little stone between his teeth2 whereupon he immediately insisted upon the cook's committing suicide4 ,the cook being a gentleman1 a man of affairs1 not a mere artist like poor ,vatel1 hesitated1 and then said3 ,no soup made by me ever had stones or pebbles in it2 otherwise ,i should gladly kill myself3 you gentlemen have begun dinner at once without washing hands or changing dress1 and some pebble has dropped into the soup from your hair or clothes4 ,if after having washed your hands and changed your dress1 you find any stones in the soup1 ,i shall kill myself4 ,whereupon ,iymits did as was suggested by the cook1 repented of his own severity1 and increased the cook's pay4 ,but the tutor and guardians of ,iymits watched over him carefully1 and the story ,i had begun to tell shows that they had no sinecure4 ,the tutors and guardians of the brother1 whom ,iyyas had decided to put aside in favor of ,iymits1 were naturally deeply aggrieved and sought for chances to regain their ward's future power and their own4 ,as my story began1 ,iymits1 representing the hereditary shogunate1 was called upon to travel to ,nikko and worship officially at his grandfather's tomb4 ,on his way it was natural that he should rest as we did1 at ,utsunomiya1 and in the castle of his vassal1 ,honda1 who was one of the tutors of his brother4 ,this was the son of the great ,honda ,masanobu1 of whom ,i spoke above as a champion of ,iyyas4 ,here was an opportunity2 and a scheme of getting rid of the young shogun was devised by his enemies that seemed to them sufficiently obscure to shield them in case of success or failure1 at least for a time4 ,this was1 to have a movable ceiling made to the bath-room weighted in such a way as to fall upon any one in the bath and crush him4 ,whether it was to be lifted again1 and leave him drowned in his bath1 or to remain as an accident from faulty construction1 ,i do not know4 ,to build this machine1 ten carpenters were set to work within the castle and kept jealously secluded1--even when the work was done1 for the young shogun delayed his coming4 ,the confinement fretted the men1 among whom was a young lover1 anxious to get back to his sweetheart1 and not to be satisfied with the good food and drink provided to appease him4 ,he told of his longings to the gatekeeper1 whose duty it was to keep him imprisoned1 bribed him with his own handsome pay and promise of a punctual return1 and at last managed to get out and be happy for a few moments4 ,the girl of his love was inquisitive1 but reassured by explanation that the work was done1 and that he should soon be out again2 yet not before the shogun should have come and gone on his way to ,nikko4 ,and so he returned to the gatekeeper at the time appointed4 ,meanwhile1 during that very night1 the officers of the castle had gone their rounds and found one man absent4 ,in the morning the roll-call was full4 ,this was reported to the lord of the castle1 who decided that if he could not know who it was that had been absent it was wise to silence them all4 ,therefore1 each was called to be paid and dismissed1 and1 as he stepped out1 was beheaded4 ,the gatekeeper1 getting wind of what was happening and fearing punishment1 ran away1 and being asked by the girl about her lover1 told her what he knew and that he believed all the carpenters to have been killed4 ,since her lover was dead1 she determined to die also1 having been the cause of his death and of the death of his companions4 ,she wrote out all this1 together with what her lover had told her of his belief and suspicions1 and left the letter for her father and mother1 who received it along with the tidings of her suicide4 ,the father1 in an agony of distress and fear1 for there was danger to the whole family from every side1 made up his mind to stop the shogun at all hazards1 and in the depth of the night made his way to ,ishibashi1 where one of the princes had preceded ,iymits1 who was to pass the night still further back on the road4 ,here there was difficulty about getting a private interview with so great a man as this prince1 whose name you will remember as being the title of the former owner of our friend's house in ,nikko3 ,ii1 ,kammon no ,kami4 ,the letter was shown to ,ii1 who despatched two messengers1 gentlemen of his own1 one back to ,yedo1 to see to the safety of the castle there2 the other one to ,iymits1 but by a circuitous route1 so that he might appear to have come the other way4 ,the letter was to the effect that the young shogun's father was very ill and desired his son's immediate return4 ,by the time that ,iymits could get into his litter1 ,ii had arrived and shown him the girl's letter4 ,then the occupants of the litters were changed1 ,matsudaira taking ,iymits's norimono and ,iymits ,matsudaira's4 ,this1 of course1 was to give another chance of escape in case of sudden attack by a larger force1 for they were now in enemy's country and did not know what traps might be laid for them4 ,the bearers of the palanquin pressed through the night1 so that1 leaving at midnight1 they arrived at ,yedo the following evening2 but the strain had been so great that they could go no further4 ,there was still the fear of attack1 and among the retinue one very strong man1 ,matsudaira ,ishikawa1 carried the litter of the prince himself4 ,but the gates were closed1 and the guards refused to recognize the unknown litter as that of the shogun2 nor would they1 fearing treachery1 open when told that ,iymits had returned4 ,delays ensued1 but at last admission was obtained for ,iymits through a wicket gate--and he was safe4 ,later1 after cautious delays1 the guilty were punished1 and ,i hope the family of the carpenter's love escaped4 ,when ,i first read the story1 years ago1 the version was different1 and there was some arrangement of it1 more romantic--with some circumstances through which the young carpenter and his sweetheart escaped1 and alone the father1 innocent of harm1 committed suicide4 ,the story sounded sufficiently ,japanese and upside down and was pretty1 but ,i have forgotten its convolutions1 so that ,i give you this one1 which ,i think has a pleasant local color4 ,it has local color1 and that charm of action which belongs to such histories as those of the great ,dumas--not to mention ,mr4 ,froude4 ,do not forget that these details are given for your amusement1 and not for your instruction4 ,i am quite uncertain as to the historical value of my information as soon as ,i come down to close particulars4 ,what little ,i really know comes down from early reading of the missionaries and of the ,dutch1 and that is mostly outside impression1 though thereby valuable1 because not based on theory or principle4 ,i do not know that critical history has yet begun here4 ,but in the historical place where we have spent our summer1 talk about the past was but natural and all to be listened to without much chance for us to distinguish what was of record and what was of legend4 ,what ,i have been writing about is legend1 and ,i am warned of its complicated incorrectness4 ,that has not prevented my setting it down4 ,you would like the pretty murderous story whose details reflect a peculiar past4 ,it would be nothing to you if it were not at all ,iymits1 but his father ,hidetada1 for whose destruction the famous plot of the ,hanging ,ceiling was hatched4 ,nor would you care if the ceiling and bath-room had never existed4 ,what is worth having is that many people thought that they saw themselves in the mirror of a period4 ,now see how re-arranging the atoms of which the previous story is constituted will give you quite another picture that ,i would spare you1 though it is a correct historical one1 but it has the advantage of being quite as strange in certain ways1 though not so fitted for the theater1 and of giving you again a picture of feudal ,japan4 ,as ,i said before1 the story as ,i have just told it has been kept in memory1 if not invented on purpose1 through a book written in honor of a ,japanese opposed to ,honda1 the master of the castle1 the author of the plot of the ,hanging ,ceiling4 ,there may have been such a story afloat at that time among people of low degree kept out from the many secrets of the court1 but knowing that things were being done2 at the same time1 there is nothing that would account for a sufficient reason2 and1 worse than all1 the date is impossible4 ,young ,iymits was not in any position at that possible date 7eighth year of the ,genwa7 to represent the shogunate4 ,his father ,hidetada would have been the proposed victim1 which is again impossible because of the devotion of ,honda1 the lord of the castle1 to ,hidetada4 ,that there was such an accusation ,i believe is understood4 ,it was met at the time and at once disproved to the satisfaction of the shogun4 ,it was the ,lady ,kano who had denounced ,honda1 and apparently invented the plot4 ,she was a daughter of ,iyyas1 and had1 perhaps1 some of the fierce strain said to have shown in her mother and sister4 ,her baby grandson had only just been deprived of this very fief for the advantage of ,honda1 so that she had at least this grievance4 ,and she was united in intention with the wife of the shogun ,hidetada4 ,this was a beautiful and wilful woman1--known to us by her after-death name of ,sogenin1 whose preference for ,iymits's brother1 her son also1 had met ,honda's resistance4 ,you can realize that ,i am not capable of even discussing the question1 and that ,i am only doing it to amuse you and to bring in more pictures4 ,as the shogun was to be received by the lord of ,utsunomiya1 new additions were ordered for his castle1 the bridges and roads were repaired1 which works required all the laborers1 skilled or otherwise1 of his domains1 and even obliged him to draw upon his retainers and soldiers4 ,such enormous preparations were1 of course1 noised abroad4 ,now1 it so happened that at one time ,honda's father had been concerned in an insurrection1 or levy of arms1 of certain members of the ,buddhist sect to which he belonged1 and had fought the great ,iyyas1 whom afterwards he served so faithfully4 ,among the upholders of the faith were fighting monks1 a variety of the militant church well known in the annals of ,japan4 ,at the close of this rebellion a band of these monks--something like a hundred--and a hundred other warriors were intrusted--,japanese-way--to the wardship of their former fellow partisan1 and there they were handy for use4 ,but they had retained something of both the clergyman and the warrior1 keeping their priestly names and wearing their hair unshorn1 and they refused to work1 which in their eyes would have assimilated them to common soldiers and laborers4 ,thereupon1--and this was thought to be queer even in those days1--the lord of the castle invited them to go about the country and report upon certain matters in various places1 at which places they were met by bodies of armed men1 who put an end to them4 ,i suppose that1 according to strict views of the country and time1 this was justifiable1 though excessive1 and this is one of the little pictures that ,i wish to frame4 ,you see how the unpleasantness of the occasion might help the later stories of assassination4 ,and now1 in correcting another error1 ,i can give you another picture of feudal ,japan1 a ,japan now broken up1 against whose last rulers1 the ,tokugawa1 ,i hear daily so much4 ,that lady in the story just given you1 where she is the mother of ,iymits and the concubine of his father1 the shogun1 was a very different person4 ,little ,iymits was the legitimate son2 moreover1 the one who by date of birth was the probable heir1 notwithstanding the preference shown by his father and his mother1 ,sogenin1 for his younger brother4 ,so that the succession was decided abruptly by the stern head of the family1 ,iyyas4 ,great attention was paid by the grandfather1 the great ,iyyas1 to the education of this grandson4 ,as a ,japanese friend remarked1 he believed that the important place in the generation was that of the third man4 ,so that three distinguished noblemen were appointed his governors3 ,sakai1 to teach benevolence2 ,doi1 to teach wisdom2 ,awoyama1 to teach valor4 ,besides these great professors for the future1 the little boy needed an immediate training by a governess good in every way4 ,kasuga1 a married woman1 the daughter of a well-known warrior of imperial descent who had lost his life in some conspiracy of the previous generation1 was chosen by the government for the position4 ,this was1 perhaps1 as great an honor as could be offered to any lady4 ,besides1 there was an opportunity to clear the memory of her father4 ,and she begged her husband to divorce her that she might be free to give all her life to this task4 ,so devoted was she that the boy being at one time at the point of death1 she offered herself to the gods for his recovery1 vowing never to take any remedy4 ,in her last illness she refused all medicine1 and even when ,iymits--now ruler--begged her to take a commended draught from his hand1 she merely1 out of politeness1 allowed it to moisten her lips1 saying that her work was done1 that she was ready to die1 and that her life had long ago been offered for the master4 ,nor would she allow the master to indulge her with regard to her own son4 ,he was in exile1 deservedly1 and the shogun asked her permission to pardon him1 in the belief of possible amendment4 ,she refused1 bidding ,iymits to remember his lesson3 that the law of the country was above all things1 and that she had never expected such words from him4 ,moreover1 that had he revoked the law for her1 she could not die in peace4 ,there is a ,spartan politeness in all this1 for which ,i think the stories worth saving to you4 ,and they will help to give ,iymits existence for you4 ,he seems too vague in the temple dedicated to him at ,nikko1 even when we look at his bronze tomb and are told that he lies there packed in vermilion3 our minds have become so far removed from the ways of thinking of ,japan that a divinized mortal is an empty phrase for us4 ,the details of such stories as ,i have told would not have seemed very antiquated across the seas1 at their date1 to those who remembered the days of ,queen ,elizabeth4 ,the change has been as great in ,europe as in ,japan1 but here it has been sudden1 like the shifting of the scene of the theater2 so that ,i can realize that when ,i was a boy such things as ,i am telling you would not have seemed very old-fashioned hereabouts4 ,and now ,i make my notes in this little railroad coach1 with the telegraph wires running in and out of the picture that ,i see through my window2 and1 indeed1 it is this implied contrast which ,i think has urged me most to tell you these more or less accurate anecdotes4 ,if you wished to learn more about ,iymits from the ,japanese biography that ,i have with me1 you might be puzzled4 ,one has felt so distinctly the all-powerfulness of the men whose names and stories are the outer history of ,japan4 ,so full is the impression forced upon one by the outside of the life of such a ruler as ,iymits1 bounded between the worship of his grandfather in golden temples and his own worship in almost equal splendors1 and filled in by despotic use of power1 that it leaves little place for the theory of all this power coming from the ,mikado1 who practically lived upon a narrow income apportioned to him by his lieutenant1 the shogun4 ,but in my little biography1 written evidently to keep to present views and theories1 ,i learn that toward the emperor our impatient hero was faithful and humble--and part of his story consists of visits to the emperor and of his receiving honors from this source of all honor4 ,thus1 upon his coming of age1 and having his hair trimmed1 cut1 and shaved in a manner to indicate this important event1 the emperor sends a great court officer to compliment him1 gives him the name of ,iymits1 honors him with the rank of ,junii1 and appoints him a ,go ,dainagon4 ,also1 later he appoints him to be the commander of the right wing of the imperial guard1 and also superintendent of the ,right ,imperial ,stable4 ,thereupon ,iymits calls upon his majesty at ,kioto to pay his homage1 and is made commander-in-chief of the army and navy1 and moreover ,naidaizin1 with the rank of ,shonii2 and he is also permitted to ride in an ox-carriage and to have armed body-guards2 the latter privilege one that he had been obliged to enjoy perforce from early days1 as we have seen4 ,whereupon1 says my chronicler1 ,iymits had the honor of presenting to his majesty a yearly income of twenty thousand bags of rice2 and this goes on until after his death1 when the emperor gives him these titles for the future1 the name of ,daiken-,in1 the rank of ,shoichi1 and the premier office of ,daijo-,daizin4 ,the favor of ,five ,imperial poems was also extended to the deceased4 ,iymits was fond of painting1 and studied under the instruction of ,kano ,tanyu4 ,he liked to paint the sacred mountain ,fuji1 and the same courteous chronicler tells me that some of his work was better than ,tanyu's4 ,but ,i should prefer seeing1 before deciding2 though ,tanyu's imperturbable security makes one not a little bored4 ,it is dark2 we are approaching ,iymits's city1 ,tokio1 formerly ,yedo1 the city of the ,tokugawa1 now finally returned to the emperor1 to whom they gave the thousands of bags of rice for income4 ,we shall sleep at ,no4 #bb ,yokohama1#h and look out on the water again4 #g ,pariahs4 ,their occupations were to slaughter animals1 tan leather1 attend at executions1 etc4 ,the class1 as such1 is now abolished1 but remnants of its peculiar dress may still occasionally be seen in the persons of young girls with broad hats who go about the streets playing and singing4 7,satow74 #h ,all of ,yokohama given to foreign settlement was laid out by numbering1 and retains it1 apart from any other designation4 ,,yokohama--,,kamakura ,,yokohama1 ,september #a1 #ahhf4 ,naturally we have again been wandering in ,tokio2 ,i don't know that we have seen anything more1 as we should certainly do if we had any energy in the heat4 ,it is more natural to fritter away time in little things4 ,besides1 there is a general feeling of discouragement accompanying the continuance of cholera2 and this is an unseasonable moment4 ,theaters are closed2 people are away4 ,if ,i had to give an account of my time1 ,i could not make it up4 ,i know that ,i went to see an engraver on wood2 that he showed me his work1 or his way of working1 of which ,i knew a little2 that he made me drink some cherry-blossom tea1 pretty to look at and of unseizable flavor2 that he took me to see some of his work printed2 that ,i climbed up a ladder1 somewhere into a hot room1 where a man1 naked but for his loin-cloth1 sat slapping pieces of paper with a big brush upon the block previously touched with color2 and that the dexterity with which he fitted the paper in proper place1 so that the colors should not overlap1 was as simple and primitive as his dress4 ,then ,i went to see the painter whose drawings had been engraved4 ,i can't explain just why the arrangement of his courtyard seemed what ,i might have expected1 and yet ,i still keep that impression without having noticed anything but the heat--the heat and the sun--the heat accumulated in this big dreary city of innumerable little houses4 ,we explained at the door our request1 and after a few moments we were told that the painter1 though he was ill1 would see us4 ,we entered1 and sat awhile1 during which interval a boy pupil1 occupied in copying sketches of the master1 looked at us surreptitiously through a circular opening in the partition that made him a room4 ,our artist came in and sat down1 evidently an ill man1 and offered us the inevitable tea1 and showed us his methods of preparation for the colored wood-blocks1 and got down examples from the great pile of rolls and bundles of papers and drawings that filled one side of the room1 among which ,i noticed many fragments of illustrated ,english or ,american newspapers4 ,and we dared not intrude any further1 and departed--just as the conversation had turned toward ,european art--with gifts of drawings from him and promise of exchange4 ,no2 what we have really done is again to call at shops and begin over again the pursuit of bric--brac4 ,it is so impossible to believe that we can find nothing in all the accumulation of all these shops4 ,but even if it be so1 the manner of hunting is an amusement1 as is the mere seeing of all this stuff in its own home2 and the little attentions of the dealer1 the being in a house with the privileges of tea and smoking1 and a lazy war of attack and defense2 and the slow drawing out of pieces from bags and boxes1 so that time1 the great enemy1 is put in the wrong4 ,and then1 what one is not expected to buy or look at is quite as good4 ,i know of one place to which ,i have returned to look out of the shoji screens into the garden1 where there is a big pottery statue of ,kwannon4 ,i don't intend to get it or to bargain about it1 but ,i intend to buy other things under its influence2 perhaps the daimio seats that we use in our visit1 or the lanterns that light us when we stay late1 whose oil will have to be emptied if they are sold4 ,and there are places where things are for sale to people versed in ,chinese ways of thinking1 but where amateurs on the wing like ourselves are not encouraged1 and that is certainly seductive4 ,still1 ,i am afraid that we shall miss a great deal that we wish to see1 because of this dawdling in shops4 ,and yet there is no sadness following these visits1 such as has come upon us when we have gone to see some of the modern workers4 ,from them we depart with no more hope4 ,it is like some puzzles1 like the having listened to an argument which you know is based on some inaccuracy that you cannot at the moment detect4 ,this about the better1 the new perfect work1 if ,i can call it perfect1 means only high finish and equal care4 ,but the individual pieces are less and less individual2 there is no more surprise4 ,the means or methods are being carried further and beyond1 so that one asks one's self1 ,then why these methods at all8 ,the style of this finer modern work is poorer1 no longer connected with the greater design1 as if ambition was going into method and value of material4 ,just how far this is owing to us ,i cannot tell1 but the market is largely ,european1 and what is done has a vague appearance of looking less and less out of place among our works1 and has1 as ,i said before1 less and less suggestion of individuality4 ,none of it would ever give one the slight shock of an exception1 none of it would have the appearance which we know of our own best work1 the feeling that we are not going to see more of it4 ,this statement applies to the best work2 the more common work is merely a degradation1 the using of some part of the methods2 just enough to sell it1 and to meet some easily defined immediate commercial needs4 ,i saw the beginnings years ago1 and ,i can remember one of our great ,new ,york dealers marking on his samples the colors that pleased most of his buyers1 who themselves again were to place the goods in ,oshkosh or ,third ,avenue4 ,all other colors or patterns were tabooed in his instructions to the makers in ,japan4 ,this was the rude mechanism of the change1 the coming down to the worst public taste1 which must be that of the greatest number at any given time2 for commerce in such matters is of the moment3 the sale of the wooden nutmeg1 good enough until used4 ,have ,i not seen through the enormous ,west any amount of the worst stained glass1 all derived from what ,i made myself1 some years ago1 as a step toward a development of greater richness and delicacy in the art of glass8 ,and my rivalry of precious stones had come to this ignoble end and caricature4 ,the commercial man1 or the semi-professional man whom we call the architect1 must continually ask for something poorer1 something to meet the advancing flood of clients and purchasers1 something more easily placed anywhere1 at random1 without trouble or responsibility1 and reflecting the public--as it is more easy to fit in a common tile than the most beautiful ,persian one--in the average of buildings made themselves to meet the same common demand4 ,and so with all applied beauty2 the degradation is always liable to occur4 ,japan is an exceptional place for studying these changes2 we can see them gradually evolved--all as if by vivisection of some morbid anatomy4 ,the study of these diseases and infections of art at home is attended with moral distress and intellectual disgust1 because we are all in part responsible2 but here we can see it disinterestedly1 and speculate dispassionately upon the degradation of good things resulting from the demands of business4 ,were it quite in the line of what you expect to-day from me1 ,i might make out for you the lines of the old scheme of civilization under which former work was done4 ,the feudal organization of ,japan divided the country into provinces of distinct habits and modes of work--more or less isolated1 partly by want of easy or general communication1 partly by the political interests of their rulers and of the main government1 partly by the permanence of the provincial feeling which prevented the inhabitant of one place moving to another to find occupation and employment4 ,the rule of the idea of the family1 which is still great in ,japan1 kept things in the same order1 preserved all traditions1 and at the same time offered opportunities1 by adoption1 to individuals who might increase or keep up the family reputation or influence4 ,here1 too1 ,i suppose1 is the basis of a certain dignity and personal independence in the manners of the people which runs in with their courtesy4 ,every one must have known what was expected of him1 and have felt quite free after that duty paid4 ,within this courtesy that ,i see all about me1 ,i feel something of what we might call democratic1 for want of a better name4 ,i recognize it in the manner of the subordinate1 who takes an apparently personal interest in things1 after his duty of politeness and obedience is paid4 ,and though there was no absolute caste1 as we understand it1 except in such a case as that of the ,eta1 the lines of life were strictly laid out1 until the new laws1 which have made things open more or less to all4#i ,with these changes1 with disturbances of fortune1 with the loss of power and of income on the part of the small rulers1 with a country all laid out now in prefectures1 with the necessarily increasing power of bureaucracy1 the whole tone of individual life must change1 must become less independent in any one thing1 more independent apparently in general--must flatten out1 if ,i may so express it4 ,and the artisan will have to follow the course of trade and its fluctuations until some general level has been established--some general level of manufactures1 ,i mean1 for there is no general level possible in art4 ,something will happen which will resemble the ways of ,france1 where art still exists1 but where things have been so managed that any artist out of the general level has had a very bad time of it--the whole live forces of the nation1 in trade and bureaucracy1 being against his living easily any life of his own4 ,when the forces of traditional taste and skill and habits of industry now existing in ,japan shall have been organized anew1 ,japan1 like ,france1 will have undoubtedly a great part to play in industrial trade4 ,art may live or may not in the future here2 nothing of what has been done elsewhere to grow it or foster it has made it stronger4 ,it has always come by the grace of ,god1 to be helped when it is here1 or choked out2 but no gardener has ever seen its seed4 ,some of my friends in ,japan are plunged in a movement to save what there is of the past in art1 to keep its traditions1 to keep teaching in the old ways1 without direct opposition to what may be good in the new4 ,they see around them the breaking up of what has been fine1 and the new influences producing nothing1 not even bad imitations of ,europe4 ,i know too little upon what their hopes are based1 but ,o----1 who is in the tendency1 sails with us for ,america and ,europe1 and ,i may find out more through him4 ,meanwhile he is to inquire with ,professor ,f---- into the education of the artist and artisan with us1 and to see how we do it4 ,i am deeply interested in their undertaking1 perhaps the most remarkable of all similar inquiries--if honestly conducted4 ,but ,i see vague visions of distorted values1 of commercial authorities looked upon as artistic1 of the same difficulties1 for instance1 that ,i might meet if ,i wished now to make an official report1 not to the public or to government1--that is always easy1--but to myself1 who have no special interest in being misled1 of the methods of art and industry that have been and exist in the ,east4 444 ,three days are wasted4 ,i do scarcely any work1 and there comes to me1 as a punishment1 a feeling of the littleness of a great deal here1 coming1 ,i think1 from the actual smallness of many details--of the sizes of the little houses1 of the little gardens1 of the frail materials1 of the set manners4 444 ,to-morrow we shall go to something great1 to the great statue1 the ,daibuts1 at ,kamakura1 and perhaps we may even push as far as noshima1 but ,i doubt it4 ,it will be our last day1 as we shall sail the following morning for ,kobe4 ,as ,i run along the streets of ,tokio in the afternoon1 with the feeling that ,i have tried to set down1 of things having narrowed as they become familiar1 comes the excited melancholy of departure1 and this same ugliness and prettiness have a new value as ,i look upon them for the last time4 ,i sit in the little tea-house near the station1 waiting for ,a----1 and drink the powdered tea1 which tastes better than ever1 as a stirrup-cup4 ,and ,i do not resent the familiarity of a big ,chinaman1 proud of his ,english1 and of national superiority here in size and commercial value1 who addresses me and seeks to find out whether ,i1 too1 have a commercial value4 ,my answers puzzle him1 and he leaves me uncertain as to quantities1 and walks off with the impudent majesty of his fellows among this smaller and less commercial race4 444 ,at dinner ,i see at the table near me a ,japanese gentleman1 not very young1 dining with his wife and another lady1 who1 ,i am told1 is a well-known gei-sha4 ,this information ,i receive from my more or less trusty courier1 who also gives me some confused intimation that this gentleman had participated in the murder of ,richardson1 the ,englishman1 many years ago1 under the old rgime1 for which murder somebody else was decapitated4 ,the wife is correct and immovable1 the gei-sha animated1 with a great deal of color and charm4 ,a ,german or ,russian sits at another table1 heavy1 diplomatic1 thick-bearded2 the gei-sha recognizes him1 rises1 goes over to his table1 and bends very low before him1 almost kneeling2 then speaks courteously and animatedly1 as if in compliment1 to which the diplomat1 without turning his head1 says a word or two distantly4 ,then the gei-sha bends again down to the table1 and walks respectfully backward1 and then swings back into her seat4 ,i am amused by this complete inversion of our own habits1 and am reminded of the manners and assiduous attentions of our men at the theaters when they call on the indifferent fair4 ,i see1 too1 that the points of attack and defense must be different4 ,the heat was still intense even in the night1 within fifty yards of the sea2 we went down to the quay and hired a boat with man and boy1 to drift out into the hazy moonlight4 ,the boy did the main part of the work3 we lay in the boat1 seeing nothing but this little body1 and the flapping of its garments1 and everything else a vague space of lightened shadow4 ,we rowed or sculled far away1 came near to a shore where there was a tea-house1 for women opened its closed sides and1 revealed by their lanterns1 came down and called to us4 ,but we pulled off and later1 in a far-off ocean with no shore nor sky1 came across a little summer-house built on piles1 through which the volume of the sea pressed and recoiled4 ,nothing could be more abandoned1 more improbable4 ,there was nothing in sight4 ,had we entered the little pavilion1 and moored our boat or let it float away1 we might have felt as if out in the distant sea4 ,we were the center of a globe of pearl2 no edges nor outlines of anything visible1 except a faint circular light above1 from which the pearly color flowed tremulously1 and a few wrinkles of silver and dark below2 no sound but a gentle sway of water4 ,and we came home1 having had the sense of the possibility of intense isolation in a fairyland of twilight4 ,,at ,,sea1 ,,off ,,izu1 ,september #c4 ,we sailed this morning on the ,french steamer4 ,it is now quite late in the afternoon4 ,the ,pacific keeps its blue under us1 and a blue sea haze separates us from the violets and greens of the mountains of the shore1 behind which the light is slowly sinking4 ,all is gentle and soothing2 but our captain says that he is not sure1 and that hors d',izu nous aurons la houle du ,pacifique4 ,while waiting for this long1 angry roll1 ,i shall tell you about yesterday1 of which there was little--for we had undertaken too much4 ,we left rather too late1 and drove a good way in the foggy morning1 passing much culture1 and under many trees1 of all of which ,i remember little4 ,it was late when we stopped to breakfast at the little inn from which we were to be taken by kuruma1 first to the big statue of ,buddha1 then wherever we might have time to go4 ,we left the place1 and reached the hollow between hills where the statue dwells1 after passing through a curious deep cutting right through the rocks1 which marks some old approach to the former city2 for these hollows and fields were once covered by a great city1 the city of ,kamakura1 the city of ,yoritomo1 and the great statue now out of doors was once in a temple of that city4 ,places are shown you in the dells3 this was where was once the mansion of such a hero1 here was that of the administrators of the military rule in the fifteenth century2 here stood the palace where1 with his two hundred and eighty last followers1 such a one retired to perform harakiri1 and perish in the flames1 when overwhelming forces had captured the great city which was once the other capital of ,japan4 ,trees and ordinary culture cover these spaces now4 ,and here was the temple4 ,sixty-three pillars supported its roof1 and many of their bases are still there4 ,but a great inundation from the sea1 now some miles distant1 destroyed the temple and its adjacent buildings4 ,this happened as far back as the end of the fifteenth century1 and the temple has not been rebuilt4 ,the desire of ,yoritomo to see the great statue made during his lifetime was not granted2 but one of his waiting-ladies1 after his death1 collected the necessary funds1 and it appears to have been cast in #abeb by ,ono ,go-r-ye-mon4 ,i know nothing about him1 but if he be the artist1 it is pleasant to record his name4 ,the image is made of bronze cast in pieces brazed together and finished with the chisel4 ,it is nearly fifty feet high as it sits2 and if these points help you to its size1 learn that its eyes1 for instance1 are four feet long1 the length across its lap from knee to knee is thirty-five feet1 and the circumference of the thumb is fully three feet4 ,but these measures1 though they show a large scale and great size1 do not indicate a proportion1 as we should understand it4 ,the whole modeling is for effect1 and the means and methods of the modeling are simple and elementary4 ,like all work done on archaic principles1 the main accentuations are overstated1 and saved in their relations by great subtleties in the large surfaces4 ,it is emphatically modeled for a colossus2 it is not a little thing made big1 like our modern colossal statues2 it has always been big1 and would be so if reduced to life-size4 ,we saw it first from the side through trees1 as we ran rapidly to the front1 where are a temple gate1 and a long courtyard still in order1 that leads up to the statue4 ,from the side one can see how it bends over1 and rough as it is from behind1 the impression of something real was strong as its gray form moved through the openings of the trees4 ,the photographs must long have made you know it1 and they also show the great base and the immense temple ornaments that stand upon it at the feet of the statue4 ,they show also the little lodge at the side1 where the priest in attendance lives1 and gives information1 and sells photographs and takes them1 and generally acts as showman4 ,we took many photographs from new points of view1 and we even removed the thatch of a penthouse so as to get nearer and under the statue to the side2 and ,i painted also1 more to get the curious gray and violet tone of the bronze than to make a faithful drawing1 for that seemed impossible in the approaching afternoon4 ,we did not know how long a time we had spent lingering about it4 ,the clouds had begun to open1 and a faint autumnal light filled the little hollow1 which has only small trees1 and no imposing monuments like the great cryptomeria1 which alone might seem fit to grow about here4 ,all1 on the contrary1 was gentle and small--the lines of the hills1 the trees1 the garden plants about us3 we might have been anywhere4 ,perhaps it is just as well2 the whole impression comes from the statue1 with the only objection or detraction that we can get near enough to it to see the mechanism1 the means1 and details of its expression4 ,an accident1 the breaking of its prison temple by a great cataclysm of nature1 a great wave of the sea coming far inland and destroying the great building1 has given to the statue something that it could never have had to the physical eye--in the degree it has now4 ,now1 freed from its shrine1 the figure sits in contemplation of entire nature1 the whole open world that we feel about us1 or its symbols--the landscape1 the hills1 the trees and fields1 the sky and its depths1 the sunshine playing before the eyes of the seated figure1 the air in which dance all the things that live in air1 from the birds that fly to the atoms of dust1 and the drifting leaves and blossoms1 the confusion or the peace of the elements1 the snow in crystals1 and the rain in drops4 ,all this world of ours1 which to the contemplative mind is but a figurative fragment of the universe1 lies before the mental gaze of the ,buddha4 ,unwinking1 without change of direction1 he looks forever2 his will is forever subdued and held beneath him1 as his fingers pressed together indicate his freedom from all the disturbances of that past of being which is subject to time and change1 and his cognition1 undisturbed1 envelops and images the universe in final contemplation4 ,astounding success of the artist in what he has really done1 for there is no trace of means2 the sum of realism is so slight1 the conventional has so great a part2 each detail is almost more of an ornament than of a representation4 ,one almost believes that the result may be partly accidental3 that1 as one cannot fathom the reason of the expressiveness of a countenance1 or of the influence of a few musical notes1 even though one knows the mechanism1 so it seems difficult to grant that there was once a choice in the other mind that caused it1 that there were once many paths opened before it4 ,and still more do ,i believe that the accident of the great tempest has given a yet more patent and subtle meaning to the entire figure4 ,once upon a time its details1 indeed1 if not its entirety1 must have looked more delicate in the reflected light of the temple building1 when the upper part of the figure was bathed in mysterious gloomy light1 while the lower glittered in answer to the openings of the doors4 ,but could anything ever have rivaled the undecidedness of this background of veiled sky and shifting blue1 which makes one believe at times that the figure soon must move8 ,as one looks longer and longer at it1 with everything around it gently changing1 and the shadows shifting upon its surface1 the tension of expectation rises to anxiety4 ,the trees rustle and wave behind it1 and the light dances up and down the green boughs with the wind2 it must move--but there is no change1 and it shall sit forever4 ,as we left1 and ,i walked down the long pavement in front of the statue1 in the early autumn sunshine and the rising freshness of the wind1 ,i turned again and again1 each time with the realization that the statue was still sitting1 until we turned out of sight1 a vague1 unreasonable sense of having left it alone accompanying me1 until other1 different1 light1 and gay impressions broke the influence and allowed me to think of what ,i had seen as a work of art1 such as ,i could understand and decompose--and1 if ,i wished1 make also4 ,and we lunched at ,hase1 near by1 and from the comfortable inn could see on the gray hill above the temple of ,kuwannon1 and its red buildings and balustrades4 ,after a very long lunch1 we walked up to the temple1 and from the platform in front looked toward the afternoon sea right before us1 and the plain of ,kamakura4 ,then we entered1 and were taken in behind the great screen doors to a narrow but high place--lighted only from the little entrance--wherein stood right by us and over us a standing figure of the divinity1 all golden in the dark4 ,it is over thirty feet high1 and whether it be great art or not1--for the darkness was too great to judge of form1--the glitter of a smile of gold far up above our heads1 in the obscurity of the roof1 was an impression that1 even so near to the great statue out of doors1 remains distinct4 ,it was late afternoon2 we dared look at no more statues1 nor at relics of warriors of ,kamakura1 and started for the beach1 partly with the hope of seeing ,fuji behind us4 ,but all was veiled in the sky2 we walked along the beach1 our kurumas dragging behind us1 and crossed a little stream1 and while ,a---- bathed in1 and thereby took possession of1 the ,pacific1 ,i walked up the sand-hills toward the little village at the end of the strand4 ,as ,i came near it1 an unfortunate distorted being1 scarred with some leprous disease1 plunged toward me in the twilight from some vague opening in the hills1 and begged piteously1 following me afterward with a thankful wail of ,o ,danna ,san6 ,danna ,san6 ,danna ,san6 that ,i hear yet4 ,we rentered our kurumas and drove in triumph to the inn of the little village4 ,i say in triumph3 ,i drove in triumph1 observed of all observers--,i had my usual costume and was clothed4 ,a----1 rather than wait to get dry1 rode along with only a partial covering of yukatta1 and attracted no attention4 ,had he had nothing on at all1 he would have been still more in keeping with many of our neighbors4 ,night was falling1 nothing more could be done2 we got back to our carriage and horses1 and drove back in the warm darkness to ,yokohama4 ,and ,i close as we begin to feel the roll1 la houle du ,pacifique4 #i ,the gentry1 the old ,samurai1 however1 still constitute the governing class to-day apparently1 and the aristocratic spirit stands in the way of indiscriminate rise of the plebeians4 ,,kioto ,september #af4 ,we came into ,kioto from ,osaka1 by rail1 one fine afternoon4 ,i had a half-childish hope of being surprised1 a memory of days when1 a boy1 ,i read of the great forbidden city4 ,only a few years ago it was still forbidden1 and now the little respectable car was hurrying us there as prosily as older life translates the verse of our early dreams4 ,we were in ,september heat and glare4 ,we passed over wide spaces of plain1 edged by sharp mountains1 looking hot and barren2 through great plantations and stretches of green1 with here and there a temple half hidden1--and over dried river-beds4 ,the station closed all views on our arrival1 and the sudden transfer to streets showing no ,european influences was as if we had passed through a city's walls4 ,the first sensation was merely the usual one of a whirl through innumerable buildings1 low1 of wood1 and more or less the same2 extremely wide streets1 all very clean2 many people2 a great bridge across the stony bed of a river almost dry2 then some trees and little gardens and corners of temples with heavy roofs1 as we turned through little roads and drove up to the gate of the hotel inclosure1 which is placed on the edge of the outside hills and looks down upon ,kioto4 ,we were high up1 in rooms1 looking over trees just below2 next to us the corner of temple grounds that rounded away out of sight4 ,illustration3 ,,kioto ,,in ,,fog--,,morning4 ,early on most mornings ,i have sat out on our wide veranda and drawn or painted from the great panorama before me--the distant mountains making a great wall lighted up clearly1 with patches of burning yellow and white and green1 against the western sky4 ,the city lies in fog1 sometimes cool and gray2 sometimes golden and smoky4 ,the tops of pagodas and heavy roofs of temples lift out of this sea1 and through it shine innumerable little white spots of the plastered sides of houses4 ,great avenues1 which divide the city in parallel lines1 run off into haze2 far away always shines the white wall of the city castle2 near us1 trees and houses and temples drop out occasionally from the great violet shadows cast by the mountain behind us4 ,before the city wakes and the air clears1 the crows fly from near the temples toward us1 as the great bell of the temple sounds1 and we hear the call of the gongs and indefinite waves of prayer4 ,occasionally a hawk rests uneasily on the thin branches below4 ,then the sun eats up the shadows1 and the vast view unites in a great space of plain behind the monotony of the repeated forms of the small houses1 broken by the shoulders of the roofs and pagodas of many temples4 ,but near us are many trees and tea-houses and gardens1 and we are as if in the country4 ,we have worked conscientiously as mere sightseers until all is confused as with an indigestion of information4 ,i could hardly tell you anything in a reasonable sequence1 for in and out of what ,i go to see runs a perpetual warp of looking at curios1 of which occupation ,i feel every day disgusted and ashamed1 and to which ,i return again as a gambler might1 with the hope of making it all right with my conscience by some run of luck4 ,this began on our very first day1 when at our first visit to an excellent merchant1 for whom we had letters1 we spent the hours after dinner looking at the bric--brac brought together for our purchase or amusement4 ,we had had the presentation and disappearance of the ladies of the house after their customary genuflections2 and a ,european dinner1 waited upon1 in part1 by lesser clients of our entertainer4 ,meanwhile his one little girl sat beside him1 half behind him1 and occasionally betrayed her secret love for him by gently pressing his leg with the sole of her little stockinged foot4 ,japanese children are one of the charms of ,japan1 and this one is a type of their stillness2 her sweet1 patient face watching the talk of the elders1 no change in her eyes revealing anything1 but the whole person taking everything in--the little delicate person1 which disappeared in a dress and sash not unlike her elders'1 except for color4 ,then there was a visit to another merchant1 in the oldest house of the city1 built low1 so that none might perchance look down upon the sovereign lord's procession4 ,display of family relics--marriage gifts and complete trousseaux of the past2 marriage dresses of the same time1 symbolical in color1--white1 red1 and finally black4 ,we are told to notice that the gold and silver fittings of precious lacquers are wanting1 because many years ago some sumptuary edict of the ,tokugawa government suddenly forbade the display or use of the precious metals in excess--a gradation to be determined by inspecting officials--for persons who1 like merchants1 should not pretend to pass a certain line4 ,then1 owing to other letters1 we have paid our devoirs to the governor1 and called1 and subsequently received the polite attentions of his intelligent secretary4 ,under his guidance we visit the ,school of ,art and see boys sketching1 and enter rooms of drawing devoted respectively to the schools of the ,north and the ,south4 ,and we visit the school for girls1 where the cooking-class is one bloom of peach-like complexions1 like a great fruit-basket2 where the ladylike teacher of gymnastics and child etiquette wears divided skirts2 where the rooms for the study of ,chinese classics and history contain a smaller number of fair students1 looking more reasonable and much paler2 and where1 on admiring in the empty painting-class a charming sketch of ,kioto wharves1 like the work of some lesser ,rico1 ,i am told that the fair artist has disappeared--married1 just as if it had happened with us at home4 ,but with a difference worth weighing gravely1 for our guide and teacher informs me that the aim of this education is not to make girls independent1 but rather to make more intelligent and useful daughters1 sisters1 or wives4 ,and in this old-fashioned view ,i come to recognize the edges of a great truth4 ,then temples1 for ,kioto is a city of temples2 and every day some hours of hot morning have been given to visits1 all of which make a great blur in my mind4 ,the general memory is impressive and grand2 the details run one into the other4 ,thus we are paying dear for sightseeing1 but it is impossible to set aside the vague curiosity which hates to leave another chance unturned4 ,and when again shall ,i return1 and see all these again8 ,now1 however1 all is associated with heat and glare1 and with the monotony of innumerable repeated impressions1 differing only in scale4 ,still1 probably1 when ,i shall have left ,i shall recall more clearly and separately the great solemn masses of unpainted wood1 for which early forests have been spoiled2 the great size of their timbers1 the continuous felicity of their many roofings1 the dreary or delicate solemnity of their dark interiors1 the interminable recurrence of paintings by artists of the same schools2 the dry and arid court-yards1 looked at1 in this heat of weather1 from the golden shadows1 where are hidden sometimes lovely old statues1 sometimes stupid repetitions2 images of the whole race of earlier shoguns2 the harsh features of the great ,taiko ,sama1 the sleek and subtle face of the great ,iyyas1 or the form of ,k'wan-on1 carved by early art1 leaning her cheek on long fingers2 or noble1 tapestried figures1 rich in color and intensity of spotting1 painted by the ,buddhist ,cho-,den-,su4444 ,i should like to describe the temple ceilings1 in which are set the lacquered coffers of the war junk of ,taiko1 or of the state carriage of his wife4444 ,i have sketched in his reception hall1 peopled to-day only by specters of the past--with gilt and painted panels on which may have looked the great ,iyyas1 who was to succeed him1 and the blessed ,xavier1 and the early ,jesuits1 and the chivalric ,christian lords who were to die on great battlefields4 ,and close to a great room1 where many monks bent over peaceful books1 the little closet1 with dainty shelves1 in which ,taiko looked at the heads of his dead enemies1 brought there for inspection4 ,and we have gone up into the plain little pavilion1 sacred to the ceremonies of tea-drinking1 where the rough and shrewd adventurer offered to grim1 ambitious warriors1 as honorific guerdon for hard service1 the simple little cups of glazed clay that collectors prize to-day4 ,i run over these associated details1 because certainly the question of the great buildings is too weighty for my present mood4 ,but the greater part of the romance of ,japan is called up at every moment by what we see just now4 ,at ,uji1 among the tea gardens1 we stopped on our way to ,nara1 the older capital1 to see the temple of ,bio-do-in and its ,phnix hall1 built in wood1 that is now over eight hundred years old2 its statues2 its half-defaced paintings of the ,paradise in the ,west2 its high1 dusty ceiling1 inlaid with mother-of-pearl2 and its sweet-toned bell4 ,and we saw the legendary bow of ,yorimasa1 which you will recall with me whenever you see a picture of the bow of the moon1 across which flies the ,japanese cuckoo4 ,it was here that he defended ,uji bridge1 with a forlorn hope1 against the army of the ,taira1 that his prince might have time to escape2 and here1 at ,bio-do-in1 while his last followers kept off the rush of the enemy1 ,yorimasa ran himself through with his sword1 as a final duty paid to the honor of ,japan4 ,on this side of the bridge1 as ,i walked up other temple steps1 hedged in by trees1 with our friend ,oye-,san1 the violet butterflies and blue dragon-flies crossed our path in every bar of sunshine4 ,at the monastery of ,kurodani1 on the edge of the mountain near us1 are shown the graves of ,nawozane and of the young ,atsumori1 whom he killed in battle4 ,we are shown the portrait of the victim1 painted in sorrow by the victor1 and the pine-tree still stands upon which the warrior hung his armor when1 tormented by remorse1 he carried out his vow of never more bearing arms1 and sought this place to enter religion and pray for the soul of the youth he had unwillingly slain4 ,strange flower of human pity1 blooming out of the blood of civil wars like some story of ,italy in the coeval day of ,st4 ,francis4 ,at that time the great war of the ,genji and the ,heike was devastating ,japan1 and in #aahd1 in a great battle by the sea1 ,yoshitsune1 the hero of romance of ,japan1 serving his brother ,yoritomo1 whose story ,i told you at ,nikko1 defeated the ,heike1 and the death of ,atsumori took place4 ,this delicate boy1 a prince of the ,heike1 scarcely sixteen years old1 met in the battle the veteran ,nawozane4 ,atsumori had fought bravely on the shore1 having at first fled1 and then returned1 forcing his horse through the water4 ,the greater strength of the older man prevailed1 and the child fell under the blows of the powerful man-at-arms4 ,when ,nawozane disengaged his enemy's helmet1 intending to take off the usual trophy of a head1 the sight of the youthful face recalled his own son slain in battle1 and he hesitated in inflicting on other parents a suffering like his own4 ,but if he did not kill him others would1 and his reputation would be endangered4 ,he killed him1 ,atsumori bravely meeting death1 and bore off the terrible trophy4 ,then1 in the revulsion of remorse1 he vowed himself to a religious life2 he restored to ,atsumori's father the son's fair head and his armor1 and1 going to ,kioto1 became a disciple in religion of the holy ,hnen ,shnin1 the founder of ,kurodani2 and there1 near its lovely garden1 are the tombs of the man and of the boy4 ,or1 while we are thinking of heads cut off1 ,i pass again and again a lofty monument1 under great trees1 on a wide avenue beautifully macadamized1 and kept in the trim of our ,central ,park1 along which ride officers in ,western uniform1 or pass the police1 in a dress whose type is borrowed from at least three ,european states4 ,under this tomb are buried the ears and noses of the ,koreans slain in the wars that ,hideyoshi waged at the end of the sixteenth century4 ,they were carried here as more convenient than the heads1 the usual evidence of work well done1 brought by the warriors to their commander4 ,the memory of what the great pile means serves to confuse still more my admiration of the ultra-modern success of the wide carriage drive on which it stands4 ,,osaka1 ,september #ah4 ,we have come to ,osaka to spend an entire day in bric--brac3 to arrive early at the big shop2 to have tea offered us in the little back room of the merchant1 which looks out and steps out upon his garden of a few trees and little pebbly walks and some stone lanterns--a garden that is for us1 which his own may or may not be4 ,then cigars1 and pieces of porcelain brought from the storehouses2 then more tea1 and an inspection of the many rooms full of odds and ends4 ,then more tea1 and more pieces slowly and reluctantly drawn from the storehouse1 as if we could not be so unreasonable2 then lunch and tea1 always in the house2 then adjournment to the upper rooms1 when the hundreds of kakemonos are unrolled1 one after the other1 to a crescendo of exasperation4 ,then rediscussion of matters below-stairs and visits to other rooms full of wares not spoken of before2 then more tea1 and the last pieces grudgingly produced from the same occult storehouses2 purchases amid final bewilderment2 tea again1 and departure4 ,we had come to ,osaka on our way back from ,nara1 and we again return to ,kioto1 which we left three days ago4 ,the trip to ,nara was fatiguing and delightful1 and ,i should like to recall it for you1 but ,i have no time and have made no notes2 and1 besides1 my memories are again beginning to merge one into another1 and they themselves to blend with what ,i see in ,kioto4 ,but certainly something floats over1 which a few lines can give4 ,we were out in our kurumas early in the morning1 each with three runners4 ,we found ,oye-,san waiting for us patiently1 outside at ,inari1 where he had expected us from the earliest morning4 ,it is from him that ,i get the little clay fox1 given me for good luck1 in a partnership with the one he retained4 ,i need not speak of the heat4 ,the roads were dusty and dry where they were not muddy and wet1 in the country paths we took4 ,we passed the edge of the city1 which ends suddenly in rice fields1 occupying what were once streets and houses4 ,for ,kioto is only a part of what it has been2 and even when it was larger1 not so many years back1 it must still have been only the remainder of a greater past4 ,as we get into what is really the country1 passing from broad road to narrow tracks1 our runners sometimes lifted us over soft1 wet places1 or bumped us over narrow ditches1 or guided us1 at full tilt1 on the edges of the stones that are bridges4 ,sometimes more patiently we halted to allow the files of black bulls to meander past us1 dragging loads on wheels or carrying bales4 ,illustration3 ,,peasant ,,woman--,,thresher4 ,rarely we met peasants1 and then usually women1 sometimes with horses of a larger breed than that we saw last month in the east4 ,once1 among rice fields in the basin of a circle of low hills1 ,i saw the grove which covers the tomb of some divine emperor of early times4 ,as we circled around the slope1 far away from this solitary oasis of trees1 we could see the grove on every side1 finished and complete and rounded by time1 as if sculptured in nature from some of those sketches that ,japanese artists make for carving when they give all four sides1 and the bottom1 and the top1 on a single page4 ,nothing else1 but perhaps some uninscribed stone1 marks the tomb of emperors1 dotted about the plains of this oldest province of ,japan4 ,strange enough1 even in this strange country1 is this evidence of the extreme of simplicity in death1 as in life1 of the oldest line of ,oriental despots1 absolute lords and masters1 ever-present patterns of the deity1 who make this one solitary exception of simplicity in history4 ,it is as if ,japan itself was their tomb1 as if they passed back into the nature of which their divine ancestors were gods--the gods of the sun and of the earth4 ,blue hills and pagodas1 and temples in the distance1 and we came into ,nara1 which is but a breath1 a ruin1 a remnant of what it was4 ,i had been told so often of the place1 as a ruin among rice fields1 that ,i was unprepared for the beautiful lay-out of what remains--for the well-planned roads and avenues1 such as may well have belonged to some great capital1 such as would have been heard of by travelers who1 returning in days of ,charlemagne from other ,eastern cities to ,byzantium1 might have talked of ,zipango4 ,nothing remains but a few buildings1 belonging to temples1 but their approaches are splendid1 even though there be often nothing more than the general grading and disposition4 ,i should have written to you from our inn1 where ,i looked1 in the evening and morning1 toward the slopes of distant hills1 and heard1 out of the darkness1 the sound of the great bell which rang first some eleven centuries ago1 and the singing of the frogs in the fields which were once a city4 ,it is now too late to begin to describe anything of what ,i saw2 anything of temple buildings1 from one of which to another we wandered1 or of the old statues and relics1 or of the religious dances of young girls which we looked at1 standing or sitting near the balustrade of the dancing-shed1 while inside1 in the greater shade1 they moved to the music and hymns of the priests--red and white figures1 with long tresses of black hair and chaplets of flowers2 with faces all painted white1 and brilliant1 indifferent eyes that saw me sketching clearly1 however1 and hands that waved1 in a cadence of routine1 fans and bunches of little bells with long streamers of violet1 blue1 green1 red1 and white4 ,or of the great park-like avenue1 that made me think of ,england1 through which still wander tame deer1 as did those that1 long ago1 served as models for ,okio the painter4 ,i fear that what ,i have seen will remain only as an embroidery upon the stuff that my memory tries to unroll4 ,it was late on a sweltering afternoon when we managed to leave ,nara1 and we reached ,horiuji for too short a visit2 for we were due in ,osaka the next day4 ,we wandered in the late afternoon and evening through its courts1 kindly received by the priests1 for whom we had the recommendation of a friendly name4 ,at least ,i had time to see the ,golden ,hall1 one of the earliest buildings1 now more than twelve centuries and a half old1 and the noble paintings on its walls attributed to some famous sculptor of that day4 ,their placid elegance1 the refinement of their lines1 their breath of religious peace1 explained those claims to a solemn and glorious past for ,japan1 which look like a conventional exaggeration in a to-day that is delicate and small and dry4 ,the recall of ,greek perfection was not forced1 and while still vaguely unwilling to confuse one excellence by referring to another1 ,i could not help again thinking of the ,greek and of ,tanagra images1 when ,i saw1 by the light of the torches1 in the great pagoda1 as old as the great hall1 groups modeled in clay by the same old sculptor1 whose name is given to the paintings--,amida1 and ,kuwan-on1 and ,monju1 and the scenes of the death of ,buddha4 ,an admirable antiquity was to be the continuous impression of the evening1 carried out into our last looks at the ,treasure ,house4 ,its very air of an old ,new ,england barn or crib raised upon posts1 its rough red painting1 the high wooden steps of entrance1 the gigantic wooden latch-key with which the guardian priest fumbled at its door1 gave the note of extreme early simplicity--the feeling of a persisting indifference to the adornments and changes of centuries of fashions4 ,it has been useless all along to detail anything1 but the impressions of the last things seen remain with me as types of all4 ,for there hung on the old walls of the ,treasure ,house a framed banner1 once carried in ancient battles1 its brocaded pattern exactly like that which we know in ,babylonian art3 the circles with the lilies between1 and in each circle the ,assyrian monarch struggling with lions--imitation or original of coeval ,sassanian ,persia1 ,i suppose1 but housed here all these thousand years1 and in its persistence of pattern connecting with that heavy and oppressive antiquity of ,nineveh which knows nothing older than itself for our story1 except oldest ,egypt4 99 99 99 99 99 ,but ,i was yet to find something old that would be directly meant for me1--a painting by the legendary painter of ,japan1 the ,cimabue of a thousand years ago1 inheritor or student of still older ,chinese art--,kose-no-,kanaoka4 ,the painting is still in fair condition1 though injuries of time reveal1 as usual1 the methods used by the painter4 ,and it was a delight in me1 in this mood of veneration for past greatness1 to recognize in the veilings and sequences of this painting of the lotus methods ,i had used myself1 working at such distance of time and place1 when ,i had tried to render the tones and the transparency of our fairy water-lily2 and ,i know you will forgive the superstitious sense of approval of my re-inventions from this indefinite past of art4 ,we wandered among the buildings until night had set in2 we signed on the register of visitors1 and contributed a small sum to the repairs of these decaying relics of the greatness of ,japan2 we received some little gifts of impressions and prints in acknowledgment1 and then rested in the neighboring inn1 waited upon by fat1 good-natured tea-girls1 most certainly belonging to to-day4 ,we had now to take a long night ride1 and at length we rushed out into the moonlight1 our fourteen runners appearing and disappearing as we came in and out of the shadows in the long procession of our train4 ,we whirled past the houses of the small town1 indiscreetly close to the paper screens1 lighted from within1 against which were profiled the shadows of faces1 sometimes with pipes or cups lifted to their lips or the outlines of coiffures piled up on the head--all pictures more ,japanese than their very originals2 then between rounded hills on which stood masses of maple-trees2 then near to empty spaces of water2 then sank into dark hollows1 at the bottom of which rivers ran as fast the other way4 ,i watched and looked as long as fatigue allowed1 but fell asleep in the uncomfortable kuruma1 waked every now and then by some sudden jolt to my extended arm and head4 ,occasionally ,i had dreamy glances at what ,i remember as a vast plain1 with lofty1 colorless mountains at one side1 and perhaps ,i saw glimpses of the sea4 ,the night air was cool in the hollows after the sweltering day1 and ,i found my arm and face damp with the dew4 ,a ,japanese poet would have said that it was but the spray from off the oars of some heavenly boat which sailed that night across the starry stream of the ,milky ,way4 ,in the dawn we saw the white walls of the castle of the city of ,osaka1 and ran across its many bridges1 all silent in the morning4 ,september #ai4 ,we spent the late afternoon and early evening in the state apartments of the temple of the ,green ,lotus1 where we looked at strange dances and listened to curious music4 ,all was sacred and mystic1 according to traditions transmitted orally from early ages1 and all the more liable to disappear as the heredity of occupation which has been the mark of ,japan is more and more endangered by modern views and modern openings4 ,when we had wandered through those shady apartments in the long1 low buildings of the temple gardens1 and had seen the paintings of their screen walls1 and the carvings of their transoms1 we sat down in one of the largest rooms1 the wall screen was removed which divided us from another1 and we had then a ready-made stage before us4 ,light came in from the open veranda1 now stripped of all screens1 against whose platform many unbidden1 unofficial guests1 acquaintances of acquaintances1 and people about the temple1 leaned in a mass of heads and arms and busts4 ,outside the light was filtered green and orange through the trees1 and caught the edges of all forms in the shade within4 ,the orchestra of flutes and drums occupied a little recess1 from behind which the dancers appeared in turn4 ,behind the musicians1 a great violet curtain1 with three temple crests in white1 made a twilight background for their white and blue dresses1 gilded by the lights in the tall candlesticks on the floors before them4 ,with the sound of the instruments two boys came around the corner of the screen1 and1 saluting1 stepped off in short1 zigzag movements1 evidently learned by rote1 and which had a certain strange elegance4 ,they were performing the butterfly dance1 and made out very distinctly the crisscross flight of the insects4 ,when they lighted or poised before lighting their feet struck the ground and they swayed without stepping away4 ,they wore butterfly wings1 and wide sleeves melting into them1 and their silver diadems1 filled up with twigs of flowering plants1 made out a faint fringe of antenn4 ,they wore the ugly ancient trousers of yellow silk1 and long trains of embroidered green satin trailed on the mats behind them4 ,broad bands of blue and white across the chest1 and a white belt1 recalled the insect original1 and blue and white wings drooped over their wide green satin garments4 ,each carried a flowering branch in his hand4 ,it was all more strange than beautiful1 with a mysterious impression of remote antiquity1 as if invented for some prehistoric ,polynesian worship4 ,in some of the next dances1 whose names ,i do not remember1 and which were carried out by men1 the flat mask1 with a wide triangle for eyes and another for the mouth1 made out just this similitude4 ,in another dance two men glided about the room1 listening and finding their way2 then warriors in antique ,chinese costume1 with great helmets and halberds1 and coats of mail1 and long trains1 appeared singly and by twos1 and marched and counter-marched2 and finally1 standing by their lances1 laid at their feet1 drew and held up their swords1 while each other peaceful hand was extended in the gesture that we know as the pontifical blessing2 and this ended the dance of ,great ,peace1 probably some relic of early triumphant ,chinese dynasties4 ,it was now evening3 the blue light of the open veranda made large square openings in the golden room4 ,outside1 against the balustrade1 pressed dark forms1 with faces reddened by the light inside--the outside lookers-on4 ,inside1 the gold walls and the gilded ceiling1 the great gold temple drum1 the yellow mats1 and the white dresses of the musicians1 made a soft bloom like the hollow of a lotus1 when the last performer1 in rose-red and crimson1 glided into the room1 swinging from side to side1 and brandishing a gilded scepter4 ,uncouth gestures and enormous strides1 with no meaning that ,i could make out1 a frightful mask that hung far away from the face1 with loose jaw and projecting mane and a long red1 pointed hood1 made an impression as barbarous1 as meaningless1 as splendid1 and as annoying as what we might feel before the painted and gilded idol of some little known and cruel creed4 ,this was the dance of ,ra ,dragon ,king1 and closed the entertainment4 ,we exchanged some words with the late performers in their insignificant everyday clothes1 and rode home in the twilight through the little roads1 where ,kioto gentlemen were rushing their horses up and down1 wrapped in wide riding trousers1 which fluttered along the horses' flanks4444 99 99 99 99 99 ,we have also given a soire1--that is to say1 a supper1 with the proper trimmings of musical entertainment and dancing1 and were probably the most amused of all the people there4 ,the amusement consisted1 in great measure1 of our not knowing just what we were going to have1 for otherwise the details were simple to monotony4 ,we had one of the upper floors of a fashionable inn4 ,it was very hot1 and we were glad to find that we should be at supper in our loosest bath robes4 ,there was nothing unusual--though everything is novel to us--but the extreme smallness of the many gei-shas1 who sat between us at the end of the dinner1 passed the sak1 said witty things1 of which we understood not one word1 gave us much music on the samisen 7the three-stringed guitar7 and on the flute1 and sang1 and gave us dances4 ,but they were absolutely incredible in the way of littleness4 ,it did not seem possible that there were real bones inside their narrow little wrists and dolls' fingers4 ,what there was in most of their little heads ,i don't know1 but ,i could have imagined sawdust4 ,for the doll illusion1 for the painted face and neck and lips1 all done upon the same pattern from pure conventionality 7not at all like our suggestive painting71 and the sudden stopping sharply at a line on the little slender neck1 gave me the feeling of their having artificial heads4 ,the gentle little bodies disappeared entirely inside of the folds of the dress and the enormous bows of the sash4 ,and when the tall youngsters1 ,americans1 whom we had invited1 began to romp with the playthings1 late in the evening1 ,i felt anxious about possible breakage1 such as ,i remember1 in nursery days1 when we boys laid hold of our sisters' dolls4 ,illustration3 ,a ,,pilgrim4 ,but this artificial impression disappears as with all novelty in people1 and when one of the youngest of these child-women1 at some moment in the evening1 removed the mask of the jolly fat woman 7that you know by the prints71 behind which she had been singing1 the little sad face told its contradictory story as touchingly as with any of her ,aryan sisters4 ,and late in the evening1 when the fun1 ,i suppose1 was uproarious1 we went to the extreme of writing and painting on fans1 and one of our merchant guests wasted ,india-ink in mock tattooing of his bared arm and shoulder4 ,september #ba4 ,we leave to-morrow morning4 ,this has been ,sunday1 our last day in ,kioto4 ,i have been trundled all day in a fearful rain1 to see last sights1 to look up shops for the last time4 ,my runners have taken me to this or that place1 near the great temples1 where ,i hope finally to decide upon some little ,buddha or ,amida1 which have tempted me among other sculptures1 and ,i have dallied in the other shops that supply the small things that adhere to worship1 and finally ,i have made a long visit to the good lady who has sold me pottery1 and who once shocked my ,western prudery by dilating upon the merits of unmentionable designs and indescribable bric--brac4 ,at length ,i return in the gray noon1 giving a last look at each shop that ,i know2 at the long facade of the ,inn of ,great ,wealth1 at the signs and the flags of the theater2 at the little gei-shas trotting about in couples1 whom ,i recognize 7for how can ,i tell them from those whom ,i know872 at the quaint1 amusing little children1 always a fresh delight2 at the little pavilion near us1 where the archers shoot2 at the places where horses stand under the trees to be ridden by amateurs2 at the small tea garden's pretty gates2 at the latticed windows which open in the dusk2 and then1 with their coats sticking to their backs1 and wet1 stained legs1 my runners leave me at the gate of the hotel2 final settlement of purchases in boxes1 packing1 and receiving visits of departure4 ,in the late afternoon we go to the temples on the edge of the hill near us 7the temples of ,kiyomidzu7 with two of our good friends and their children4 ,our runners insist upon dragging and bumping us up many steps1 and finally escort us1 almost to the temple itself1 in a procession of double file1 which1 like a long tail1 halts when we stop1 and again waggles after us in uncertainty when we set off anew4 ,we walk along the ascending street and stop to bargain at the innumerable little shops1 full of little odds and ends1 half playthings and half religious emblems or images1 which are sold certainly to the pleasure of the many children who throng the place4 ,and ,i1 too1 feel pleased at having children with us1 and at having occasionally the timid little fingers of ,miss ,kimi in mine4 ,in her other small hand she holds a fan that ,i painted yesterday for her father1 and ,i wonder occasionally whether she wishes me to notice her possession4 ,i surmise that the foreign gentleman gives her sometimes a little doubtful fear1 as ,i catch her eyes looking up cautiously from below her bangs4 ,we talk1 exactly of what it would be hard to say1 for there is not with us enough of any one language to go round1 and our interpreter has been left out2 but we feel distinctly that we understand each other1 and our older companions explain quite a number of things in this partnership of a few words4 ,we ascend the high steps on one side of the tower and pass with the ,sunday crowd through the great hall1 like a corridor1 along which are seated on altar steps golden images of gods1 in a shadow dusted by the long beams of the afternoon sun1 that pour across it from one open side4 ,through this veil of dancing motes we see the statues and the great gilded lotuses and candelabra1 and the forms of attendant priests1 and the crowd that passes1 and that stops for a moment in prayer4 ,the words that they repeat come into cadence with the shuffling of their feet1 and the creaking of the planks of the flooring1 and the sounds of the dropping of offerings4 ,the crowd is quiet1 orderly1 but amused at being out4 ,the women smile out of their slanting eyes and walk leaning forwards1 and their black hair shines like lacquer1 and the artificial flowers in the great folds of the coiffure dance in the sunlight4 ,they are quietly dressed1 all but the young girls1 who wear bright colors and blue satin sashes4 ,the men slide about1 also in quiet silk or cotton4 ,a large part of them are dressed in every shade of blue2 occasionally the bare leg comes out1 but all wear holiday dress1 except our runners or their fellows1 who keep their workday looks4 ,and the children--they are all everywhere1 and all at home2 they are all dressed up1 with full1 many-colored skirts1 and showy sashes1 and every little head with some new and unexplainable spot of tonsure4 ,many of the crowd turn around the building1 or its veranda1 touching the columns with their hands and following tracks1 worn deep like ruts1 in the planking of enormous thickness4 ,oye-,san points this out to me1 and indicates its religious intention4 ,both he and our other companion clap their hands and pray for a moment4 ,a wave of seriousness and abstraction passes over their faces2 then again all is as before1 and we step out upon the wide balcony1 which1 built upon gigantic piles1 hangs over a deep hollow filled with trees and buildings1 all in the shadow now4 ,from below rise1 with the coolness of the green trees and grass1 the sounds of dropping waters4 ,in time we descend the path and the steps1 and drink from one of the streams which fall from gigantic gargoyles1 out of a great mass of wall4 99 99 99 99 99 ,but it is late3 we look again upon ,kioto from the temple above1 all swimming in light and haze1 and walk back to our kurumas1 a final good-by to the children1 but we shall see their parents again2 and then we return1 and look from our veranda for the last time at the city stretched out in the evening1 lost almost entirely in the twilight of a great lake of violet fog4 ,a few shapes are just felt in the misty space1 but no more than as waves in water1 or as greater densities in the undulations of the colored vapor4 ,so uncertain is everything that the nearest temple building loses its place1 and floats all below its roof2 but its wet tiles glitter1 reflecting the rose-colored drift in the highest pale turquoise sky4 ,below us1 the trees make a delicate pattern of dark1 wet lace4 ,then the rose-color deepens and dulls1 the upper sky becomes colorless2 all floats in unreal space1 and ,kioto disappears from before my eyes3 forever1 ,i suppose--as the charm of this scene1 which will never come again2 as the little maiden whom ,i met to-day1 only for an eternal good-by4 ,a ,,japanese ,,day4--,,from ,,kioto ,,to ,,gifu ,,nagoya1 ,september4 ,notwithstanding the long parting1 which kept us up very late1 the same courteous ,japanese friends were at the hotel in the morning to bid us a still more final good-by4 ,oye-,san alone remained faithful to his self-intrusted care of us1 and determined to see us as far as the land would allow1--that is to say1 to the shores of ,biwa ,lake4 ,the caravan was smaller now1 diminished by our parting with ,awoki1 the interpreter1 and the men necessary to trundle him about4 ,still we were a goodly company1--nineteen men in all1 of whom two were masters1 one the servant1 and the rest the runners who were to get us and our baggage to ,otzu on ,biwa ,lake long before noon4 ,there was to be no novelty on our road1 it being merely the highway from the capital to the lake4 ,it was a lovely morning1 the sun long risen1 and all the places and buildings now a part of our memories glistening in the shadow and the dew4 ,we turned our backs for the last time on ,kiyomidzu1 and ran through the great gate of the temple near us2 then1 bumping down the steep steps under it1 skirted the great wall of ,dai ,butzu and the interminable side of the ,sanjiu sangendo 7the hall of the thirty-three spaces71#aj along which in old times the archers used to shoot4 ,then we gradually got out of the city1 into the road filled with traffic going both ways4 ,there seemed to be no break between town and country4 ,here and there the mountain side1 covered with trees1 descended to the road4 ,but the effect was that of a long street1 deep among hills1 and continuously spotted with buildings4 ,long trains of beautiful black bulls1 drawing lumber or merchandise1 or carrying straw-covered bales1 streamed peacefully along4 ,we passed peasant women1--hardy1 tall1 sometimes handsome1 with scarlet undergowns held up2 occasionally one riding on a pack-horse1 or in her place a child perched on the hump of the wooden saddle4 ,or1 again1 peasants bearing loads on their backs1 or carriers with weighty merchandise swung between them on poles2 priests1 young and old1 stepping gravely in their white1 or yellow1 or black dresses--some with umbrellas open1 others1 whose quicker step meant that they had not far to go 7perhaps only to some wayside temple71 protecting their shaven heads with outspread fan4 ,or a kuruma1 usually with one runner1 taking into town1 economically1 two women together1 one old1 one young1 and followed by another kuruma carrying some old gentleman1 very thin or very fat1 the head of a family4 ,kurumas carrying ,japanese tourists or travelers1 with hideous billycock hats1 or ,anglo-,indian helmets1 or wide straw hats la mode de ,third ,avenue1 these abominable head-pieces contrasting with their graceful gowns1 as did their luggage1 wrapped up in silk handkerchiefs with their ,european traveling rugs4 ,or1 again1 other kurumas carrying unprotected females in pairs1 with the usual indifferent or forlorn look2 or couples of young girls more gaily dressed1 with flowery hairpins1 the one evidently a chaperon to the other2 then a ,government official1 all ,european1 with hurrying runners2 sometimes1 but rarely1 the ,japanese litter1 or kago1 or several if for a party1 their occupants lying at their ease as to their backs1 but twisted into knots as to their feet1 and swaying with the movement of the trotting carriers4 ,bent to one side by the heavy ridgepole1 which passes too low to allow the head to lie in the axis of the body1 sweet-eyed women's faces1 tea-rose or peach-colored1 looked up from the bamboo basket of the litter4 ,with proper indifference their lords and masters looked at us obliquely4 ,on the roofs was spread a miscellaneous quantity of luggage4 ,from time to time troopers or officers1 of course in ,european costume1 mounted on ,japanese chargers1 cantered past4 ,two hours of this2 then the sides of the road1 which had risen and fallen with hill and valley1 melted away1 and the harbor of ,otzu and ,lake ,biwa and blue mountains over the water1 and others sketched in the air1 were spread before us in the blaze of sunlight seen through the cool shadow of the mountains4 ,we rode down the hill to a little jetty1 marvelously like a ,north ,river dock1 with big sheds where passengers were waiting1 and a little steamer fastened to the wharf4 ,we bade good-by for the last time to ,oye-,san1 who said many things that we appreciated but did not understand the words of1 and who pointed to the square ,japanese sails glittering in the far-off light1 saying1 ,fune1 ,fune6 7,the boats1 the boats67 ,we dismissed kurumas and kurumaya and sailed off with ,hakodate 7the courier7 alone4 ,we stretched ourselves on the upper deck1 half in sun1 half in shadow1 and blinked lazily at the distant blue mountains and the great sea-like lake4 ,two hours later we had landed at a long jetty1 in a heavy sea1 with tossing dark blue water1 different from the quiet azure of our sail4 ,the brisk wind1 blowing the white clouds over the blue sky1 was clear and cold4 ,we got out of its reach1 as ,i felt neuralgic1 and tried to sleep in a little tea-house1 waking to the screams of the tea-house girl1 ,mairimasho6 and ,i had but time to get into the train4 ,whether it started from there or had arrived there1 ,i never knew4 ,i had been glad to forget everything in dreamland4 ,i remember little of my railroad ride1 what with neuralgia and heat1 and the effects of the dance of the little steamer on ,lake ,biwa4 ,there were mountains and ravines1 and vast engineering protections for our path1 and everywhere the evidence of a struggle with the many running waters we crossed or skirted4 ,the blue and silver of the lake that we had crossed1 and the sweetness of its air1 were shut out in the dust and the heat of mountain sides4 ,we had not seen the ,eight ,beauties of ,biwa ,lake4#aa ,the ,autumn ,moon from ,ishiyama had set long before we passed1 and the idea of other temples to be seen brought out ,a----'s antagonism to more climbing1 only to be rewarded by promenades through lanterns and shrines and confused struggling with dates and divinities4 ,the ,evening ,snow on ,hira-yama was not to fall until we should be across the ,pacific2 nor could we ask of that blue ,september morning ,the ,blaze of ,evening at ,seta nor ,the ,evening ,bell of ,mii-dera--though we heard the bell early1 and wondered whether it were still uninjured1 from the time when big ,benkei carried it off and exchanged it for too much soup1 exactly seven hundred years ago2 nor ,rain by ,night at ,karasaki1 the place of the famous pine-tree1 which was growing1 they say1 twenty-four hundred years ago1 when ,jimmu was emperor4 ,there ,i might have met1 perhaps1 the ,old ,man and the ,old ,woman you have seen over and over again in the pictures and on the fans4 7,they are the spirits of the other old pine-trees of ,takasago and ,sumiyoshi1 and they are fond of visiting each other47 ,nor did we see ,the ,wild ,geese alighting at ,katada1 but ,i felt as if ,i had seen ,the ,boats sailing back from ,yabase and ,the ,bright ,sky with a ,breeze at ,awadzu4 ,if ,i had not1 ,i still had seen boats sailing over and under as lovely a blue as can be spread by early ,september days4 ,i suppose that our friend ,oye-,san was trying to recall these last classical quotations to me when he bade me good-by at the landing in ,otzu4 ,an ocean rolls between his ,parnassus and ours1 but he lives much nearer to the mood that once made beautiful the names of ,tempe and ,helicon and the winding ,meander4 ,illustration3 ,,fusi-,,yama ,,from ,,kambara ,,beach4 ,with all this dreaming ,i fell asleep1 and woke free from pain1 but stupid and unimpressionable1 as our train stopped at the little station from which we were to ride to ,gifu4 ,this was a little1 new way-station 7of course ,i don't remember its name71 so like1 and so unlike1 one of ours1 with the same look of the railroad being laid down--imposed--on an earth which did not understand what it all meant--grass struggling to get back to the sides of filled-up ditches2 timbers lying about2 new1 astonished buildings1 in one of which we washed1 and waited1 and dined4 ,meanwhile ,hakodate went after the runners who were to drag us on our afternoon ride1 and then1 if we suited1 to run with us the whole week1 thirty-five miles a day1 along the ,tokaido1 back toward ,yokohama4 ,when all was ready it was late afternoon1 and our procession ran along what seemed to be a vast plain of tableland1 with high mountains for an edge4 ,all seemed as clear and neat as the air we rode in4 ,somewhere there we must have passed the hill of ,the ,turning ,back of the ,chariot3 this means that1 long ago1--that is to say1 about #adgj1--the regent ,yoshimoto1 while traveling here1 found that the inhabitants1 to do him honor1 had put in order1 neat and trim1 the thatch of every building4 ,what the prince was looking for is what we call the picturesque4 ,to miss all the charms that ruin brings was too much for his esthetic soul1 and he ordered the wheels of his chariot to be turned for home4 ,so did not we4 ,neater and neater grew the inclosures1 farms1 and villages2 the fences had pretty gates1--curious patterns of bamboo pickets1--a far-away1 out-of-the-world flavor of ,holland or ,flanders4 ,even the ordinary setting out of wayside trees1 in this province of forestry1 insisted on the analogy1 confused perhaps with a dream of ,lombard plains and mountains in a cool blue distance1 for the mind insists on clinging to reminiscences1 as if afraid to trust itself to the full sea of new impressions4 ,as ,i rode along1 so neat and clean was each picture1 framed in sunlight if we were in shadow1 or in clear shade when we were in sunlight1 that ,i thought ,i could remember enough small facts for sketches and notes when ,i should get to ,gifu4 ,we reached ,gifu in the early twilight1 and had no special one impression2 we were framed in by the streets1 and confused by turning corners1 and disturbed by anxiety to get in4 ,but we had one great triumph4 ,our guide was new to the place--as we were2 and we chose our inn at our own sweet will1 with a feeling of authority and personal responsibility delicious to experience after such ignominy of guidance4 ,up we went to our rooms1 and opening the shojis#ab looked out upon the river1 which seemed broad as a great lake4 ,our house was right upon it1 and the open casement framed nothing but water and pointed mountains1 stealing away in the obscure clearness of a colorless twilight4 ,the running of the river1 sloping down from the hills on a bed of pebbles1 cut off the noises of the town1 if there were any1 and the silence was like that of far-away country heights4 ,in this semi-painful tension the day's pictures disappeared from my mind4 ,i was all prepared to have something happen1 for which ,i should have been listening1 when suddenly our host appeared1 to say that the boats were coming down the river4 ,the chilly evening air gave us new freshness1 and off we started1 deaf to the remonstrances of ,hakodate1 who had prepared and set out his very best for supper4 ,we rushed past the artist in cookery1 whose feelings ,i could yet appreciate1 and plunged after our host into the dark streets4 ,in a few minutes we were by the riverside1 and could see far off what we took for our boat1 with its roof and lanterns4 ,the proffered backs of our lantern-bearing attendants gave the solution of how we were to get to it4 ,straddling our human nags1 we were carried far out into the shallow1 pebbly river1 landed into the boat1 and poled out into deeper water1 nothing to be seen but the night and the conical hills1 one of which ,i fancied to be ,inaba1 where was once ,nobunaga's castle4 ,some faint mists were white in the distance1 as if lighted by a rising moon4 ,at no great distance from us1 perhaps at a quarter of a mile1 a light flickered over the water4 ,on our approach we could distinguish a man connected with it1 who apparently walked on the dark surface4 ,he was evidently a fisherman or a shrimper1 and his movements had all the strangeness of some long-legged aquatic bird4 ,he knew his path1 and1 far out1 followed some track or ford1 adding to the loneliness as does a crane in a marshy landscape4 ,then ,i saw him no more1 for he headed up the river toward an opening between the hills4 ,suddenly a haze of light rounded the corner of the nearest mountain1 then grew into a line of fire coming toward us4 ,above the rustle of the river's course1 and our own against it1 came the beating of a cry in unison4 ,the line of flame broke into many fires1 and we could see the boats rushing down upon us4 ,as quickly as ,i can write it1 they came in an even line1 wide apart--perhaps fifty feet or so--enough for us to pass between1 whereupon we reversed our movement and drifted along with them4 ,in the front of each boat1 hung upon a bent pole1 blazed a large cresset filled with pine knots1 making above a cloud of smoke1 starred with sparks and long needles of red cinders4 ,below1 in the circle of each light1 and on its outer rim1 swam many birds1 glossy black and white cormorants1 straining so at the cords that held them that they appeared to be dragging the boats4 ,as they spread like a fan before the dark shadow of the bows1 the cords which fastened them glistened or were black in the night4 ,each string ran through the fingers of the master-fisher at the bows1 and was fastened to his waist and lost in the glittering straw of his rain-skirt4 ,like a four-in-hand driver1 he seemed to feel his birds' movements4 ,his fingers loosened or tightened1 or1 as suddenly1 with a clutch pulled back4 ,then came a rebellious fluttering1 and the white glitter of fish in the beaks disappeared--unavailingly2 each bird was forcibly drawn up to the gunwale1 and seized by the neck encircled by its string-bearing collar4 ,then a squeeze--a white fish glittered out again and was thrown back into the boat4 ,the bird scuttled away1 dropped back into the water1 and1 shaking itself1 was at work again4 ,they swam with necks erect1 their eyes apparently looking over everything1 and so indifferent to small matters as to allow the big cinders to lie unnoticed on their oily1 flat heads4 ,but1 every few seconds1 one would stoop down1 then throw back its head wildly with a fish crosswise in its mouth4 ,when that fish was a small one it was allowed by the master of the bird to remain in the capacious gullet4 ,each pack guided by a master varied in numbers1 but ,i counted thirteen fastened to the waist of the fisherman nearest to us4 ,behind him stood another poling3 then farther back an apprentice1 with a single bird1 was learning to manage his feathered tools4 ,in the stern stood the steersman1 using a long pole4 ,every man shouted1 as huntsmen encouraging a pack1 ,hoo6 ,hoo6 ,hoo6--making the cry whose rhythm we had heard when the flotilla bore down upon us4 ,illustration3 ,,fishing ,,with ,,cormorants4 ,ten minutes1 a quarter of an hour1 more passed as we kept alongside with motionless celerity4 ,i tried to sketch in the insufficient light--making sometimes one sketch right upon another1 so little could ,i see my lines in the treacherous light4 ,then the boats swerved off and were driven to the shore together1 or as far as we could get to it1 in the shallow water4 ,above us rose the steep green hillside1 the trees and rocks lit up in an arabesque of light and dark by the now diminished flames4 ,the birds rested1 standing in the water1 preening their oily backs and white bellies1 and flapping their ragged wings1 which seemed to have been clipped4 ,the apprentice caressed his bird1 the fishermen and the steerers laughed and exchanged jokes and chatted generally1 with all the good nature and making light of hard work which is so essentially ,japanese4 ,then the birds began to fight1 and to show that peace was not their pleasure4 ,fresh pine knots were thrown into the cressets2 each man took his place2 the polers pushed off2 the birds strained at the strings2 and all da capo4 ,a little longer we watched1 and then we let the boats glide past us2 the fires faded again into a haze of light as they went down the river toward the bridges of the town1 now dotted with people4 ,then we were carried to the shore as we had left it1 and were piloted home through the streets1 now filled with lanterns and movement4 ,we found our outraged artist in cookery still indignant over our neglect of food1 but he was gradually appeased1 and made up for his hungry masters a fairly sufficient meal4 ,cigars1 a scrutiny of my despairing sketches1 and a long look at the lovely melancholy of the river and mountains before we closed the shojis for the night4 #aj ,three hundred and eighty-nine feet long4 #aa ,omi-no-hakkei4 #ab ,sliding screens1 which take the place of our windows4 ,,from ,,kambara ,,to ,,miyanoshita--,a ,,letter ,,from ,a ,,kago ,september #bh4 ,i am writing in a kago4#ac ,you do not know what an achievement this is1 but ,i shall explain later on what a kago is1 why ,i am in it1 and why it is not exactly the place to expect a letter from4 ,to begin at the beginning1 we were yesterday afternoon at ,kambara1 on the gulf of ,suruga ,bay4 ,we had eaten there in an inn by the water1 while ,i watched through the screens the waving of a palm tree in the wind1 which was now blowing autumnally and had cleared the sky and enlivened us with a hope of continuous view of ,fuji4 ,along the beach1 as we rode away1 the breakers ran far up the sand1 and the water was green as emerald from the brown1 wet shore to the distant blue haze of the ocean in the south4 ,at the end of the great curve of the gulf stretched the lines of green and purple mountains1 which run far off into ,idzu1 and above them stood ,fuji in the sky1 very pale and clear1 with one enormous band of cloud half-way up its long slope1 and melting into infinite distance toward the ocean4 ,its nearest point hung half across the mountain's base1 more solid than the mountain itself1 and cast a long shadow upon it for miles of distance4 ,above1 the eye could but just detect a faint haze in the delicate blue of the sky4 ,best of all weather1 we thought2 a breeder of bad weather1 according to our men1 who1 alas6 knew more of it than we did4 ,for a mile now1 perhaps1 we ran along between the sea and the abrupt green wall of hills1 so steep that we could not see them1 and1 turning sharply around a corner1 beheld ,fuji1 now filling the entire field of sight1 seeming to rise even from below us into the upper sky1 and framed at its base by near green mountains2 these opened as a gate1 and showed the glittering streak of the swollen ,fujikawa1 the swiftest river in ,japan4 ,the lower eastern slope was cut off by clouds1 but its western line1 ineffably delicate in clearness1 stretched to the left out of our range of vision4 ,below its violet edge the golden slope spread in the sun1 of the color of an autumn leaf4 ,along the center of this province of space the shadow of the great cloud rested4 ,the marks of the spurs of the mountain were as faint as the streaks of the wind on a grain-field4 ,its cone was of a deep violet color1 and as free of snow as though this had been the day of poetic tradition upon which the snow entirely disappears to fall again the following night4 ,no words can recall adequately the simple splendor of the divine mountain4 ,as ,a---- remarked1 it was worth coming to far ,japan for this single day4 ,right into this marvelous picture we rode1 through green plantations and rice-fields1 which edged the bases of the nearest hills and lay between us and the river4 ,there we found no means of crossing4 ,all bridges had been carried away by the flood4 ,the plain was inundated2 travelers had been detained for a week by a sea of waters1 and were scattered there and in neighboring villages1 filling every resting-place2 and1 worst of all1 the police officials would not allow us to tempt the fishermen to make the dangerous crossing4 ,illustration3 ,,peasant ,,carrying ,,fodder1 ,,and ,,bull ,,carrying ,,load4 ,the occasion was a solemn one4 ,the police representative1 upon seeing us come in person to request help1 slipped off the easy ,japanese dress which he was wearing in these days of forced idleness1 and reappeared from behind the screen clad in his official ,european costume4 ,i have no doubt that our interpreter explained to him what important persons we were1 and what important letters we bore to important people of the land1 for he kindly suggested that we might sail past the mouth of the river1 from near ,kambara1 whence we had just come1 so as to land far away from the spread of all this devastation2 and he offered to send a deputy with a requisition for a junk and sufficient sailors from the nearest fishing-village on the bay--and so we returned4 ,while ,hakodate and the messenger went on to make all arrangements1 ,a---- and myself stopped at the place where we had had our view of ,fuji1 to make a more careful sketch4 ,you can have no idea of how much closer the clearer mind worked out the true outline of the mountain1 which my excitement had heightened at least a couple of thousand feet2 nor should ,i forget how my two-legged horse of a runner held my paint-box for me1 and seemed to know exactly when and where ,i wished to dip my brush4 ,it seemed to me that only a few moments had passed when the messenger returned to say that the boat was ready to launch1 and that we must hurry to be out at sea before sunset2 this too in view of the storm1 which we might escape if we hurried4 ,the implied threat made no impression on me4 ,the picture before us had not changed any more than if painted by man4 ,the great cloud hung fixed1 apparently1 in the same place4 ,all was still3 perhaps in the uppermost sky one could distinguish some outlines of white in the blue4 ,still we hurried off and arrived upon a scene of confusion and wild excitement4 ,a captain and a crew had been found2 their boat stood high up on the crest of the surf1 now beating on the shore1 and carried the line with which to pull out the small junk1 still far up on the beach4 ,the wheels of our kurumas had been taken off and their bodies had been placed in the hold4 ,as we got on board at least a hundred naked men pushed and tugged to start the junk upon the slope of sand4 ,the sun was setting suddenly behind the headland of ,shizuoka1 and the air was filled with the moisture from the sea2 a rosy bloom1 pink as the clouds themselves1 filled the entire air1 near and far1 toward the light4 ,on the other side the distance was fading into gray and violet mist4 ,the great mountain was still a great clear mass1 but colorless1 like the northern sky behind it1 while1 bathed in the color of fairyland1 we rose and fell over the breakers--the spray1 the waves1 the boat1 the bodies of the men1 glistening and suffused with pink4 ,no painter ever saw a more ideal light4 ,and suddenly it faded1 leaving us in a still brilliant twilight1 through which we looked at the tossing of the hazy sea4 ,the mast was lifted and set1 the great square sail was hoisted1 and the captain took hold of the ponderous tiller4 ,we stretched ourselves on the poop deck1 prepared for a dance of seventeen miles2 then under my protecting blanket ,i fell asleep--to wake and see before me a sheet of rain4 ,the predicted storm had flooded us2 we lay in the water that covered the deck1 our waterproofs insufficient1 and glad to be able to find some protection under the ,japanese rain-coats of straw1 whose merits ,i had not yet understood4 ,from under my shelter ,i could see that our mast was lowered1 and that the captain and the sailors forward were working at the heavy sweeps4 ,below1 under hatches1 ,i could hear the groaning of our seasick runners4 ,between the gusts of rain came the voice of the captain1 now in the straining agony of seasickness1 next keeping up a steady1 chanted talk with a mate forward4 ,a lantern was lashed to the post of the tiller1 and the captain's bare feet rose and fell with his steps at the great oar1 showing sharply the action of tendons and muscles4 ,i tried to sketch under my cover1 then dozed1--sleepy with the rocking and the cold and the wet1--and with every waking hearing the whistling of the wind and the continuous monotonous voice in a language not understood4 ,so passed the night4 ,we saw the morning break on a lonely1 high1 gray bank1 streaked by the sea lines of different tides1 and crowned with a line of pines of all sizes and shapes1 stretching for miles dark green against the white clouds which covered the base of the mountains behind4 ,out of these white banks stood dull blue peaks1 while the highest mountains were lost in cloud1 and all was gray and desolate with the rain4 ,the surf broke on the sand not more than a hundred yards from us4 ,we lay there some time1 waiting for more light1 for all wind had ceased2 then four men swam ashore with a rope1 and towed us along the bank4 ,the surf had abated1 but landing was too difficult1 and we were to be dragged1 while our other men worked at the big sculls and pushed us along4 ,we wore along four miles to a little bar1 over which we were pulled by the men now in the water into a singular little harbor with an entrance not more than a hundred feet wide4 ,on this the surf broke gently--white on the gray sea4 ,to our left the backs of two sand-spits dotted the water1 and on the right1 looking out to sea1 rose the edge of a grove of pines1 with four or five houses1 heavy roofed and thatched1 against its green darkness4 ,on the curve of the beach before it stood a high pointed rock almost touched by the water1 edged around and covered with pines--all but the perpendicular side facing the harbor4 ,on its summit stood a little red temple1 whose back we saw4 ,on the other side1 landwards1 as we left our boat and followed our guides ashore around its base1 a hundred steps ran straight up to the front of the little shrine--so steep and sudden that we could just look along their edge4 ,from the high rock1 recessed1 ran back the shore1 on which stood in a row three large junks with their sterns to the sea--behind them trees and houses4 ,on the opposite side of the little harbor four of our men1 up to their middle or up to their armpits in water1 slowly dragged our junk nearer to the shore4 ,all was quiet and gray--the men reflected in the moving water1 the boat creaking along slowly4 ,as ,i went up the beach1 following our guide and the boatmen1 ,i thought how like this was to the ,homeric haven--the grove looking out to sea and frequented by fowls maritimal2 the sacred rock2 the meadows and the little stream2 the long galleys drawn up on the beach4 ,the little houses of the fishing-village were surrounded by gardens1 and their walls largely made of plaited bamboo4 ,there was no inn1 but we found a house half shop1 and were welcomed to some tea and to a room which the family hastened to abandon for us4 ,there were only two rooms besides the entrance1 which was a large passage floored with earth1 and along one side of it a raised surface1 from which began the level of our flooring4 ,sliding partitions1 hurriedly run up1 made us a room1 but the outside screens were full of holes1 through which1 in a few minutes1 peered all the women and children of the village1 who occasionally even pushed aside the screens to see more completely4 ,the little passage in front of our open room was filled with girls and children intent upon our ways of smoking1 of taking tea1 and of eating--for we had biscuits with us1 and fifteen hours at least without food had made us fairly hungry4 ,meanwhile the men landed their wagons and the trunks1 and took their meal of rice1 hastily made up1 on the ledge of the platform on which we sat4 ,this they did in a row1 the whole twenty eating quietly but rapidly1--,i was going to say firmly1--shoving into their mouths the rice from the bowls1 and tearing with their fingers the fish just cooked4 ,meanwhile1 among all the ugliness around us in women1 shone out1 with beautiful complexions1--lost in the others by exposure to wind and sun1 by hard work1 and probably by child-bearing1--three girls1 who stood before us a long time1 with sweet faces and bright eyes and teeth4 ,they stared hard at us until stared at in return1 when they dispersed1 to watch us again like children from the doors and from the kitchen4 ,our hostess1 small1 fat1 good-natured1 and polite1 showing black-lacquered teeth between rosy lips1 like ripe seeds in a watermelon1 bustled about hurrying everything1 and at the end of our meal our host appeared--from the kitchen apparently--and knelt before us4 ,poor and ragged as the house was1 with ceilings black with age and smoke1 and screens torn and worn by rubbing1 the little tokonoma held a fairly good picture1 and a pretty vase with flowers below it4 ,but it was evidently one of the poorest of places1 and had never seen a foreigner in it4 ,this may have been the cause of the appearance of the ubiquitous ,japanese policeman within five minutes of our arrival4 ,he alone betrayed no curiosity1 and disappeared with dignity on getting our credentials4 ,the rain still held off4 ,we entered our kurumas1 now ready1 and hastened to the main road which we were to find at ,numadsu1 if that be the name of the place4 ,but1 alas6 the rain came down1 and my views were confined within the outline of an umbrella4 ,my only adventure was stopping at some hovel on the road to buy some more of that heavy yellow oiled paper which replaces the leather apron that we usually find attached to our ,european carriages4 ,by and by ,i consented to have the hood of my wagon put up1 through which ,i could see little more than the thatched backs of my runners1 their bowls of hats1 off which the rain spattered upon their straw cloaks and aprons1 and their wet brown legs1 lifted with the regularity of automatons4 ,it was getting cold1 too1 and women under their umbrellas wore the graceful short overcoat they call haori1 and tottered over the wet ground on high wooden pattens4 ,this ,i noticed as we came into ,mishima1 from which place we were to begin our ascent up the ,hakone ,pass4 ,on our way1 were it to clear1 we might see ,fuji again--at any rate1 if it cleared in the least we would enjoy the mountains4 ,meanwhile we shivered at lunch1 trying to get into corners where the wind would not leak through the cracks of the shojis1 and beginning to experience the discomforts of ,japanese inns4 ,and now my bashfulness having gradually abandoned me1 ,i could take my hot bath1 separated from the household by a screen not over high1 over which the fat servant-girls kindly handed me my towels4 ,excuse these trivial details1 but ,i cannot otherwise give you the local color1 and my journal is one of small things4 ,had ,i come here in the old days when ,i first fell in love with ,japan1 ,i might have met with some thrilling experience in an inn4 ,i might have had such an experience as our poor friend ,fauvel met with not far from here4 ,i might have met some young sworded men1 anxious to maintain their dignity and ripe for a quarrel with the foreigner4 ,do you remember that he jostled the sword of some youngster--the sword1 the soul of the ,samurai--which its owner had left upon the floor4 ,the insult would have been impossible to explain away had not some sensible ,japanese official decided that a man who was so careless with his sword as to leave it on the mat1 instead of on the reputable sword-rack1 had no right to complain of another's inadvertence4 ,i sometimes wonder which of the courteous persons ,i meet1 when age allows the supposition1 obeyed these rules when they were younger2 which ones now dressed in black broadcloth wore the great helmet with branching horns1 or strapped the two great swords at their waist4 ,and ,i am lost in respect and bewilderment to think that all this wondrous change--as great as any that the world can have seen--was effected with such success and accepted in such a lofty spirit4 ,illustration3 ,a ,,runner ,,in ,,the ,,rain4 ,we were now to give up the kuruma and to travel by the kago1 which1 you will remember1 ,i promised to describe4 ,the kago is a curious institution1 partly superseded by the kuruma1 but lingering in many places1 and necessary where the pack-horse would be unsafe1 and where one would otherwise have to walk4 ,it consists of a small litter hung by stiff bamboos from a great pole1 over which is steadied a little matted roof1 from which various protections from rain or sun can be dropped4 ,the kago has its discomforts3 one lies down in it all doubled up1 with legs crossed as far as they can be made to1 because the basket1 which is the body of the litter1 is only about three feet long2 and with head to one side1 because1 if one lifted it1 it might strike the ridge-pole4 ,the proper way is to lie not quite in the axis4 ,this is all the more natural1 as the men at either end do not carry it in a straight line1 but at an angle1 so that from one side you can see a little in front of you4 ,into the kagos we were folded1 and in a torrent of rain we departed4 ,i resisted my being shut up in my litter by the oiled-paper sides that are used in the rain1 and ,i depended upon mackintosh and blanket to protect me4 ,the rain came down in sheets4 ,we trotted uphill1 the men going on for a few minutes1 then changing shoulders1 and then again another pair taking their turn--four to each litter4 ,meanwhile they sang1 as they trotted1 something which sounded like ,hey1 hey1 hey1 het tue hey4 ,the road was almost all paved1 and in the steeper ascents was very bad4 ,and now ,i began to experience some novel sensations not easy to describe4 ,my feet were turned in upon the calves of the legs like an ,indian ,buddha's1 and ,i soon began to ache along sciatic lines2 then elsewhere1 then everywhere4 ,then ,i determined to break with this arrangement1 as anger seized me2 fortunately a sort of paralysis set in1 and ,i became torpid and gradually resigned2 and gradually also ,i fell asleep with the curious motion and the chant of the men1 and woke accustomed1 and so ,i am writing4 ,i can just remember large trees and roads protected by them2 some places where we seemed alone in the world1 where we left trees and stood in some narrow path1 just able to see above its sides--all else shut out of existence by the rain2 and ,i have all along enjoyed the novel sensation of moving on the level of the plants and shrubs4 ,we are now going downhill again1 and can look down an avenue of great trees and many steps which we descend4 ,we are coming to ,hakone2 ,i can see the lake beyond a ,torii1 and at the first corner of the road under the trees begins the village4 ,,miyanoshita1 ,september #bh4 ,again the kago1 and the rain as soon as we departed4 ,i turned as well as ,i could1 to find the lovely lines1 now lost in general shapes and values1 blurred into masses4 ,once the light opened on the top of some high hill1 and ,i could see1 with wild roses right against me1 some flat milestone marked with an image against the edges of distant mountains1 and a sky of faint twilight pink2 or again we pattered along in wet grass1 past a great rock with a great bas-relief image--a ,jizo 7patron of travelers7 sitting in the loneliness with a few flowers before him4 ,then in the rain1 and mingling with the mist1 thicker cloudings marked the steam from hot springs1 which make these parts of the mountains a resort for invalids and bathers4 ,soon the darkness3 then pine knots were lighted and we descended among the trees1 in a path like a torrent1 the water running along between the stones1 which the feet of the bearers seemed to find instinctively4 ,the arms of the torch-bearers were modeled in wild lights and shadows2 the hats of the men made a dusky halo around their heads2 the rain-coats of straw glistened with wet2 occasionally some branch came out1 distinct in every leaf1 between the smoke and the big sparks and embers4 ,the noise of torrents near by rose above the rain and the patter and the song of the men4 ,the steepness of the path seemed only to increase the rapidity of our runners1 who bounded along from stone to stone4 ,after a time anxiety was lost in the excitement of the thing and in our success1 but quite late in our course ,i heard behind me a commotion--one of ,a----'s runners had slipped and the kago had come down2 no one hurt--the kago keeps its occupant packed too tightly4 ,then the path left the wild descent2 we trotted through regular1 muddy roads1 stopped once on disbanding our torch-bearers1 and reached the ,europeanized hotel at ,miyanoshita1 where ,i intend to sleep to-night on a ,european bed1 with a bureau and a looking-glass in my room4 ,one little touch not quite like ours1 as a gentle lady of uncertain age offers me her services for the relief of fatigue by massage1 before ,i descend to drink ,bass's ale in the dining-room1 alongside of ,britons from the neighboring ,yokohama1 only one day's journey farther4 #ac ,you may pronounce kang'go4 ,,postscript ,this much of my letters1 or all but a few pages1 has been published at intervals in ,the ,century ,magazine4 ,i had hoped for time to add some further notes on ,japanese art1 and some fragments of my journal1 but neither time nor health allows me more4 ,i should have preferred also to replace some of the drawings and photographs here engraved by some pages from note-books nearer to the feeling of the text--something more serious and less finished than suits a magazine4 ,with some regret ,i let these matters stand2 with less regret because my notes are merely impressions of a given date4 ,since then ,loti has written1 and ,mr4 ,lafcadio ,hearn has written and writes with his usual charm4 ,mr4 ,lowell has opened singular pages1 ,mr4 ,chamberlain's authority has been given to popular information2 ,mrs4 ,coates has written in laughter2 ,miss ,scidmore has adorned the guide-book1 ,mr4 ,parsons1 ,mr4 ,east 444 the list is too long4 ,i must thank ,mr4 ,h4 ,shugio for the grass characters of his elegant translation of my preface2 and ,mr4 ,m4 ,tsuchiya for much information4 ,,appendix ,i give as an appendix the ,suruga ,gobunsho1 the letter of ,iyyas to his daughter-in-law1 in which he defines the position of ,iymits's brother4 ,i have it at two removes from the original1 so that1 as a ,japanese acquaintance remarks1 ,recollecting the shadow of the original hanging in a corner of my memory1 ,i hardly recognize the energetic style of the 'old badger'--,furu ,danuki--as ,iyyas was called by his antagonists4 ,notwithstanding1 ,i give it with all these defects1 there being nothing fixed in history but documents2 and this document gives us the real mind of a great man1 his make-believe appearance1 his intimate resemblance to other great managers1 and a statement of the correct ideas of his time1 to which he gave a fixed form4 ,,letter ,,of ,,iy,,yas ,it is getting warmer daily1 and life is again quite pleasant4 ,how is it with you and your children8 ,when last ,i had the pleasure of visiting you ,i was charmed by the friendly reception which was given to me1 and ,i beg that you will present my thanks therefor to your lord4 ,it pleases me much to hear that both my grandchildren--,take#ad and ,kuni#ae--;have grown4 ,when ,i was with you ,i advised you to select a tutor for ,take4 ,have you already done this8 ,kuni is really very clever2 which is a thing to rejoice in1 and you ought to hold him especially dear4 ,i have had some experience1 and therefore proceed to communicate to you my views as to how you can bring him up to be a good man4 ,if a child1 however clever and gifted1 be allowed to grow up entirely free and without discipline1 it will become in riper age wilful and positive4 ,children are usually disobedient to their parents4 ,if they are made to obey their parents they will yet still less accommodate themselves to their surrounding4 ,but will they be able as men to rule over ,states8 ,not in the least1 since they have not been able even to rule themselves4 ,considering how nave is youth1 a severe education does not seem at first sight to be fitting1 but herein man resembles a plant4 ,of a tree1 for instance1 only a little sprig first shows2 with careful attendance little by little the branches and leaves are developed2 then a prop is given to the same that it may grow straight1 and the poor growths are cut off4 ,if each year one goes on carefully with this treatment one may obtain straight1 beautiful trees4 ,with man it is just the same4 ,as the child comes to be four or five years a prop is given him in the person of a good tutor who shall remove the bad growths1 shall subdue wilfulness1 and make a fine man out of him4 ,often this foresight of care is neglected1 allowing the child to grow up in freedom without protecting him against his own self-will4 ,only when the child can already think for itself do the elders begin their admonitions1 but then it is quite too late3 the branches of wilfulness are already too far grown1 and the stem can no longer bring forth new branches4 ,a good tree is no longer to be aimed at4 ,in this connection ,i have a lively recollection of ,saburo4#af ,when he was born ,i was still a young man1 and ,i was enchanted by the first child4 ,he was somewhat weakly1 and on that account ,i thought that he should be especially protected and given the greatest liberty4 ,i was not severe with him and allowed him all that he wished4 ,after he had grown up ,i often found occasion to blame this and that in him1 and to give him admonition and advice1 but ,i had no success therein1 because in his youth no one had taken trouble about his conduct and speech4 ,he had never learned to treat his parents with thoughtfulness1 and to respect them as filial duty ordered1 but behaved toward them as if they were his equals1 so that finally it had to come to a quarrel1 and the results are that he hates them now1 and is quite estranged from them4 ,warned by these evil experiences1 ,i undertook other rules for the education of other children4 ,for instance1 ,i chose persons to attend the child who themselves had been brought up from youth with the greatest severity1 and ,i ordered them to let me know at once when the slightest trace of wilfulness or other similar defect was discovered4 ,and ,i called the child to me1 gave him a rebuke1 and extended to him some few strong words of advice4 ,through following this education the child grew to be as faultless as a straight grown tree2 knew no self-will1 because he considered the will of his parents as the highest law4 ,he practised self-control and learned continually how one should best honor one's parents4 ,in the families of princes a child holds another standing1 and is subjected to other influences than in the families of subjects4 ,in provision of this and of the future position of the child1 his education must be different in certain points4 ,the parents should always oblige the child to follow the admonitions of those placed about him1 otherwise after their death the child would succumb entirely to its own wilfulness1 and at the end forfeit the throne1 as many examples have taught us before this4 ,therefore1 it is the duty of the educator to implant in his scholar from the earliest youth and before everything veneration for his parents1 the yielding of the will to ,providence1 gentleness toward subjects1 and high-mindedness2 only so can he bring him up to be a real man4 ,a separation between the lord and the subjects is certainly necessary for the upholding of social order1 and is commanded by the circumstances1 but the lord must also consider that he is the subject of his subjects4 ,my tutor1 ,abe ,okura1 repeated over and over again the following precept to me in my youth1 and ,i find it very well founded3 ,if in ordinary circumstances the subjects yield to their master1 even when he is unjust1 and follow his service even when he acts as a tyrant1 yet in extraordinary emergencies all this may change very easily4 ,therefore1 the ruler should behave compassionately toward his subjects and distribute impartial reward and punishment strictly and with justice2 he should see in these subjects the foundation of his government1 for without a ,servant there can be no ,master4 ,in order that they may have these truths before their eyes in riper age1 children should be trained in time to value the opinions of those about them1 and to be guided by them1 because out of the words and deeds of those who are nearest to us we can best judge the worth of our own deeds4 ,a wilful man is never contented1 for if he yields only to his own will he forgets the duty of reverence for his parents1 and earns in consequence both from them1 his relations1 his friends1 and even from his servants1 only displeasure and depreciation1 and finally he is unable to reach what he had proposed4 ,as he notices these failures1 he comes to hate the disposition of ,providence1 his fellow-men1 and finally himself1 and from discontent will become unsound in mind4 ,therefore1 we should always remind youth that it is given to no man to find in this world all his wish and will4 ,in a princely family the second son should also be made to notice that he stands in relation to the elder as a subject4 ,if the second son holds more power than the eldest1 dissensions in the family are inevitable4 ,in the education of the younger people one must attend to this1 that they acquire polite and dignified demeanor1 and1 before everything1 avoid rash and rude words2 yet not so exaggerated importance should be attached to a dignified carriage that a disregard of inferiors should arise2 otherwise an understanding of the real position is lost1 and a compassionate feeling for the ills of dependents cannot exist4 ,as often as an opportunity may occur one should explain to the children of sovereigns the use of certain things1 out of what country they come1 that they are of this or that province1 what prince rules there1 what fortunes the ruling house has passed through1 and so forth4 ,also1 with their own subjects one should try to make them acquainted in a similar way1 naming1 for example1 a prominent man as descended from a famous general1 relating that his family has been for centuries in the land1 and on account of its great services has good fame4 ,and such like things4 ,in this way the youth will learn to estimate his subjects and1 when a man1 to take the correct position toward them4 ,besides1 every prince should be carefully trained in youth to all knightly arts1 such as riding1 drawing the bow1 and fencing4 ,of course the descendant of a princely house needs not to go deeply into the studies of a scientific education4 ,it is sufficient that he be made acquainted by professional men with the main features of the particular branches of science4 ,but it is important and necessary that he be informed of the deeds of great generals and faithful subjects1 and conversely of the fate of faithless officers who misled their superiors1 brought mischief to their country1 and finally ruined houses which had reigned for centuries4 ,from such examples1 detestable or worthy of imitation1 he can draw the best lessons for his own acts4 ,one ought not to judge one's own doing or not doing after one's own view of right and wrong1 but ought to look at it in the mirror of the people's opinion4 ,but you cannot keep this mirror like one made of metal1 brilliant by polishing its outside2 you can only keep it clean and bright through the purity of your own heart4 ,evil conduct makes the mirror lose its power of reflection4 ,it remains then clear only when we listen to the judgment of our fellow-men upon our acts4 ,if a ruler is pleased that one should make him mindful of his own faults1 if he strives to put them aside and recompense those who have done him this service1 then that mirror will always shine in brightest splendor1 and the ruler will recognize in it his own image truly rendered2 and1 besides1 he will also see which of his subjects think ill and which well of him1 and what opinion of him the people have in general4 ,if he wishes to hear only his praise from every mouth1 his hypocritical surrounding will try to please him with suitable flattery1 while his really loyal subjects will draw near to him only if he be willing to see his faults discovered and to receive admonition willingly4 ,a ruler should always consider this1 and never be contented with a surrounding perhaps clever1 but over-flexible and complying1 and wanting in deliberation and sincerity4 ,if he mistake1 then doors and towers are open to his hypocritical inferiors1 loyal outwardly but traitorous in heart4 ,ji ,hiobu talked little and listened continually whenever we were considering a matter1 on which account he made a mediocre impression on outsiders4 ,but as soon as he had acquired a clear view of the matter1 he handled it with a free mind4 ,quite especially was ,i pleased with him that face to face1 and privately1 he drew my attention to a possible mistake contemplated2 therefore ,i preferred mostly to consider everything alone with him first1 and then only to discuss the matter publicly4 ,tastes and talent are so separate that in some people they seem to be in opposition4 ,one man has the greatest liking for something which the other detests1 and this one acquires with ease by virtue of his gifts what the other1 notwithstanding diligence and energy1 cannot achieve4 ,in the judgment of the worth of a man and of his faculties one ought not to proceed rashly and one-sidedly1 as an example from the vegetable world teaches us2 each flower develops its full splendor in the season of its bloom1 and each one possesses some particular beauty for which we treasure it4 ,but there is a plant called the ,dokudami#ag whose ugly exterior and evil smell make us avoid it and consider it useless2 and yet it fulfils a very beneficent end4 ,for instance1 if you boil it quite long it becomes a remarkable remedy for lepers4 ,so it is with men4 ,many a man is misunderstood and neglected1 and yet each is gifted with certain faculties and can become an able and useful member of society if one understand how to employ him rightly2 to every one shall come a time wherein he fulfils his destiny4 ,we usually hold as useless and tiresome things that others study with zeal1 but which we do not like4 ,yet that is not reasonable1 especially with a ruler4 ,until my maturer age ,i could not understand the game of ,go1#ah and could not see how a man could busy himself with such a useless thing1 which gave trouble but no pleasure2 therefore ,i thought all people stupid who gave themselves up to it4 ,to-day1 since ,i have thoroughly understood the game1 ,i find it very amusing1 especially in rainy weather when ,i am not allowed to go out1 and ,i play now eagerly with those whom ,i once derided4 ,through this ,i have come to guess that what has not been handed down from old times is somewhat useless4 ,it is a great mistake to think that all that pleases us is good and what displeases us is bad1 and that one's own taste is the only right one4 ,it often happens that a child in its anger at hearing something unpleasant destroys the nearest available thing2 parents should not think that this is a consequence of worms1 and therefore let it go unpunished2 such indulgence works like poison on the character of the child4 ,if really a disease be the cause of such excitement one ought to use right away the suitable medicine4 ,he who in his youth has acquired such habits yields to them later when something displeases him2 then it will be seen what bad results unsubdued wilfulness can have4 ,the object destroyed often matters little2 but the spoiled child1 with time1 vents his wrath mostly upon those around him1 and often feels contented only when he has punished his victims with death4 ,parents can only prevent such excesses in the future by keeping down from the beginning every stirring of wilfulness and impatience in their descendants4 ,the most necessary and the most beautiful virtue of every man1 especially of a ruler1 is self-control4 ,whoever commands his own will with regard to any good thing will carry out the will of ,providence1 will live in harmony with his fellow-men1 will not forfeit lands and castles that his ancestors left him1 and will dispense rewards and punishments justly among the whole people1 both among those further away and among those just about him4 ,under all circumstances he will keep a promise once given1 and1 if he serves a master1 be ready to give his life2 he will not care first for himself and then only for others1 but he will unselfishly strive for the welfare of others1 and early and late keep the rules of high behavior4 ,he will not praise himself haughtily and depreciate others2 he will face his master without flattery or hypocrisy1 openly and honestly2 and his parents also1 as all other people4 ,he will not strive to do everything after his own opinion1 but will pay regard to traditional forms in every act4 ,in all five senses one can practise self-control3 as to the eyes1 in not allowing one's self to be deceived by beautiful dress1 a handsome face1 or by the exterior of anything4 ,as to the sense of smell1 by use one can get accustomed not only to pleasant odors1 but to the most singular stenches4 ,as to the sense of hearing1 one can push on bravely through the noise and tumult of battle1 reckless of the thunder of cannon or the hissing of arrows1 to obtain the rich rewards of war4 ,as to taste1 one can avoid excess in eating and drinking1 and not accustom the palate to luxurious meals2 finally1 as to the sense of feeling1 one can overcome sensitiveness1 and keep especially one's hands and feet entirely within one's control4 ,only he who through all his life thus tries to obtain control over himself shall upon the throne increase the glory of his house and establish peace in his country2 if he be a subject1 he shall rise and make his family happy and honored4 ,but one must persevere in self-control1 otherwise there can be no such results4 ,if1 for instance1 some one has to practise self-control in ten cases to obtain a known result1 and he is able to control himself nine times1 but on the tenth his strength leaves him1 then all his previous exertions were in vain4 ,many people who control themselves for a long time finally lose patience1 thinking it impossible to protract their mastery4 ,it might happen that some person might not really be strong enough1 but in most cases ,i should think it a person's own fault if he forfeits in such a case his life1 his position1 or his throne4 ,something like this is seen in shooting with the bow4 ,if one has taken the right position and attitude of the body1 if one has directed the weapon rightly and firmly and has the aim well in the eye1 but at the moment of discharge the hand is unsteady1 the shot goes wrong1 and all this trouble was in vain4 ,so also is self-command worthless and useless if it be not persevered in to the end4 ,i know of only one man until now in our history whose self-control reached this degree of perfection1 and that is ,masashige ,kusunoki4#ai ,a man1 on the contrary1 who had no self-command and confessed that he had not himself in his own power was ,katsuyori ,takeda2#bj hence his whole life was a tissue of failures1 and he ended by losing his power and his life4 ,nobunaga ,oda#ba was certainly a distinguished leader of armies1 marked for his courage and generosity1 and possessing in a high degree all faculties needed for a good ruler2 and yet his lack of self-control brought on that he was murdered by his retainer ,mitsuhide4 ,hideyoshi#bb was generous1 shrewd1 valiant1 and almost perfect in self-control2 hence he rose within twenty years from nothing to be the ruler of the entire ,japanese ,empire4 ,but his generosity went beyond rightful limits4 ,generosity is a noble virtue1 but it must fit the circumstances4 ,presents and gifts should not represent much over the value of the good deed whose reward they are meant to be2 but ,hideyoshi over-estimated the merits of those to whom he owed his position and behaved with more than generosity--with prodigality4 ,the way to obtain domination and to keep it permanently is not through prodigality1 but through close economy4 ,inferiors often think that the master appears strange in comparison with other sovereigns who toss about presents2 but history teaches that just the wisest rulers have been accustomed to make few presents1 and have avoided all luxury4 ,a master desiring good and obedient servants should be ready with admonition at every mistake committed4 ,my efforts since youth have been continually directed to this1 wherefor my servants have stripped off all their faults4 ,in any case one ought not to give up hope too soon1 and at once decide that somebody is incorrigible4 ,if in one's admonition the talk is only about the fault committed1 the result will be that the person admonished acquires an unjust aversion to his master2 and even servants who had served diligently before become careless and discontented2 the cause of this is to be sought in the manner of the admonition4 ,if this is to have any result1 the following method should be employed3 summon the culprit to one's presence1 and dismiss from the room every one else but one who is to play the part of the mediator4 ,then speak with milder words than usual about the former services of the subordinate1 make some recognition of his zeal1 both former and present2 in short1 try to make him as happy as possible4 ,thereupon show him with due regard his faults1 and explain to him that you did not expect them of such an attentive subject1 and that you must hope that in the future you will need no more to blame2 indeed1 that all the more you reckon upon his former solicitude and loyalty4 ,such an admonition brings any one in fault to yield1 to recognize his own defects1 and to correct himself4 ,the ruler of the house should make it his chief aim to make useful people of his servants1 in which he can succeed only by resenting every fault1 even if committed by a person of the lowest position4 ,it should even be difficult for the cleverest servants to obtain the full approbation of the master4 ,how much more should this be the case with the average person1 concerning whom the master should consider it his task to remove imperfections as far as possible4 ,he is to blame if oftener than is necessary faults come about4 ,from the manner of those about him one can easily draw a conclusion as to the manner of the master4 ,therefore1 he should keep a watchful eye upon the manner of his attendants1 especially that those whom he loves and distinguishes serve as an example to the other inferiors1 whether they be good or bad4 ,further than this1 it is very desirable that the master should be quite acquainted with the circumstances of his servants2 and that1 on the contrary1 these should get to know as little as possible about his affairs4 ,it is not favorable to health that one should give one's self up entirely to indulgence in time of peace4 ,if one has nothing to do habitually1 many bad things usually come up4 ,therefore1 for each moment from waking to going to sleep one should appoint a task1 and live conscientiously from day to day according to this plan4 ,further1 one should not eat only savory food1 for one becomes tired of that in time4 ,on ordinary days one should take as simple a meal as possible2 for it is enough1 ,i believe1 to eat two or three times a month something especially savory4 ,for several years ,i repeat my prayers every day #fj1jjj times4 ,many consider this exaggerated on the part of so old a man1 and they advise me to diminish somewhat the number4 ,it would indeed be a relief for me could ,i follow this advice2 but because ,i was born in times of war1 and as a commander ,i have caused the death of many men1 ,i should like to do penance in my prayers for my many sins1 and hence ,i keep to my old habit4 ,beyond this1 the quiet and idle life which ,i must now lead is hard to bear1 because from my youth ,i never had an hour of rest1 but was always overladen with work1 and as ,i can no more attend to other business1 so must ,i make work for myself in my prayers4 ,i rise early every morning1 and ,i go to bed in the evening not very early1 in consequence of which ,i have a very good digestion1 and believe that ,i should be thankful for this to my prayers4 ,an old proverb says1 ,if one wishes to know the manner of life of a man1 ask him if he have a regular time for rising and for going to sleep1 and if he can or cannot be moderate in eating and drinking4 ,that is also my way of looking at it4 ,courage is a virtue which every man should possess2 but too much courage can easily become dangerous1 as it seduces us very often to desire obtaining everything by force2 and then things go ill with us generally4 ,rightly says the proverb3 a hard thing is easily broken4 ,therefore one obtains better results through gentleness and generosity than by vehemence and recklessness4 ,advise your attendants in this manner that they may always have a composed demeanor2 and so teach your children that they always show due respect to every member of the family4 ,give this letter to ,kuni1 and impress upon him that he realize and lay to heart its contents4 ,finally1 my best greetings to all4 ,this #beth of ,february4 ,n4,b4--,i beg you once more to pay attention to ,kuni4 ,if you bring him up according to my advice ,i shall have no reason for anxiety about his future4 #ad ,the child-name of ,iymits4 #ae ,the child-name of the brother of ,iymits4 #af ,saburo was the eldest son of ,iyyas4 #ag ,honthuynia cordata #ah ,may be described as a form of the game of checkers4 #ai ,masashige 7first half of fourteenth century71 the type of unswerving loyalty to the throne4 ,it is interesting to note ,iyyas's estimate of a hero who died defeated1 and whose whole energy had been devoted to preventing the control of the ,empire by the shoguns1 of whom ,iyyas is the most complete type4 #bj ,takeda1 son of ,takeda ,shingen1 prince of ,kai1 committed suicide at ,tenmokuzan4 ,the story of his father's eccentric life is too long to be given here4 ,he was at times an ally1 at times an enemy of ,iyyas4 #ba ,nobunaga1 ,iyyas's former leader4 #bb ,hideyoshi1 his other general and partner4 ,transcriber's ,notes3 ,italic text is denoted by underscores4 ,obvious typographical errors were repaired1 as listed below4 ,other apparent inconsistencies or errors have been retained1 such as archaic spellings1 inconsistent hyphenation and application of accents4 ,original pagination maintained as closely as possible1 with these exceptions3 - ,illustrations moved in between paragraphs4 - ,blank pages which were counted in original page count1 were deleted4 ,page #ac3 corrected ,orienal to ,oriental4 ,page #acc3 retained original spelling of scorcerers4 ,page #bjd3 replaced not for no2 in typo3 tone which could no be matched4