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| author | nfenwick <nfenwick@pglaf.org> | 2025-02-06 15:48:51 -0800 |
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| committer | nfenwick <nfenwick@pglaf.org> | 2025-02-06 15:48:51 -0800 |
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diff --git a/old/53327-h/53327-h.htm b/old/53327-h/53327-h.htm deleted file mode 100644 index 183fbc7..0000000 --- a/old/53327-h/53327-h.htm +++ /dev/null @@ -1,8918 +0,0 @@ -<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" - "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> -<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> - <head> - <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8" /> - <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> - <title> - The Project Gutenberg eBook of Samurai Trails, by Lucian Swift Kirtland. - </title> - <style type="text/css"> - -body { - margin-left: 10%; - margin-right: 10%; -} - - h1,h2 { - text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ - clear: both; -} - -p { - margin-top: .51em; - text-align: justify; - margin-bottom: .49em; -} - -/*Modified horizontal rules to fix ePub display issue*/ -hr { - width: 33%; - margin-top: 2em; - margin-bottom: 2em; - margin-left: 33.5%; - margin-right: 33.5%; - clear: both; -} - -hr.tb {width: 45%; margin-left: 27.5%; margin-right: 27.5%;} -hr.chap {width: 65%; margin-left: 17.5%; margin-right: 17.5%;} -/*End modified horizontal rule CSS*/ - -table { - margin-left: auto; - margin-right: auto; -} - -/*Table of Contents format*/ -table.toc { max-width: 30em;} -td.tocchapter{ text-align: right; vertical-align: top; padding-right: 1em;} -td.toctitle { text-align: left; vertical-align: top; text-indent: -1.3em; padding-left: 1.3em;} -td.tocpage { text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom; padding-left: 1em;} - -.pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ - /* visibility: hidden; */ - position: absolute; - left: 92%; - font-size: smaller; - text-align: right; -} /* page numbers */ - -.center {text-align: center;} - -.smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} - -.caption {font-weight: bold;} - -/* Images */ -.figcenter { - margin: auto; - text-align: center; -} - -/* Transcriber's notes */ -.transnote {background-color: #E6E6FA; - color: black; - font-size:smaller; - padding:0.5em; - margin-bottom:5em; - font-family:sans-serif, serif; } - -/*CSS to set font sizes*/ -/*font sizes for non-header font changes*/ -.xlargefont{font-size: x-large} -.largefont{font-size: large} -.smallfont{font-size: small} -.boldfont{font-weight:bold} -.titlefont{font-size:medium} - -/*CSS to force a page break in ePub*/ -div.chapter {page-break-before: always;} - -/*Half-title page CSS*/ -#half-title -{ - text-align: center; - font-size: x-large; -} - -@media screen -{ - #half-title{ - margin: 6em 0; - } -} - -@media print, handheld -{ - #half-title{ - page-break-before: always; - page-break-after: always; - margin: 0; - padding-top: 6em; - } -} -/*End half-title page CSS*/ - -/*CSS markup for handhelds -- put at end of CSS*/ -@media handheld -{ - img {max-width: 100%; height: auto;} /*Limit width to display*/ - - h2.no-break - { - page-break-before: avoid; - padding-top: 0; - } -} -/*End CSS for handhelds*/ - - </style> - </head> -<body> - - -<pre> - -The Project Gutenberg EBook of Samurai Trails, by Lucian Swift Kirtland - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - - - -Title: Samurai Trails - A Chronicle of Wanderings on the Japanese High Road - -Author: Lucian Swift Kirtland - -Release Date: October 20, 2016 [EBook #53327] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SAMURAI TRAILS *** - - - - -Produced by Craig Kirkwood and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive.) - - - - - - -</pre> - - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 548px;"> -<img id="coverpage" src="images/cover.jpg" width="548" height="850" alt="Cover" /> -</div> - -<div style="margin-top:2em"> -<div class="transnote"> -<h2 style="margin-top: 0em">Transcriber’s Notes:</h2> - -<p>There is a <a href="#Page_299">glossary of Japanese words</a> at the end of the text. The -first use of each of these words in the text is linked to the corresponding -glossary entry</p> - -<p><a href="#TN_end">Additional Transcriber’s Notes</a> are at the -end.</p> -</div></div> - - -<p id="half-title">SAMURAI TRAILS</p> - -<div id="Ref_Frontispiece" class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"> -<img src="images/i004.jpg" width="600" height="559" alt="" /> -<div class="caption"><p class="center">FOREIGNERS</p></div> -</div> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<div class="chapter"></div><!--Page break for ePub--> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_iii" id="Page_iii">[iii]</a></span></p> - - - - -<h1>SAMURAI TRAILS</h1> - -<p class="center xlargefont"><em>A Chronicle of Wanderings on the<br /> -Japanese High Road</em></p> - -<p class="center" style="margin-top:2em">BY<br /> -<span class="largefont">LUCIAN SWIFT KIRTLAND</span></p> - -<p class="center" style="margin-top:2em">ILLUSTRATED</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 100px; margin-top:6em"> -<img src="images/i005.jpg" width="100" height="102" alt="Publisher logo." /> -</div> - -<p class="center largefont">NEW YORK<br /> -GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY -</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<div class="chapter"></div><!--Page break for ePub--> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_iv" id="Page_iv">[iv]</a></span></p> - -<p class="center smallfont">COPYRIGHT, 1918,<br /> -BY GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY</p> - -<p class="center smallfont" style="margin-top:4em">COPYRIGHT, 1918, BY HARPER & BROTHER</p> - -<p class="center smallfont" style="margin-top:1em">PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<div class="chapter"></div><!--Page break for ePub--> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v">[v]</a></span></p> - -<p class="center largefont">TO<br /> -H. W. J.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"></div><!--Page break for ePub--> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[vii]</a></span></p> - - - - -<h2>FOREWORD<br /> -<span class="titlefont">FROM THE ALHAMBRA TO KYOTO</span></h2> - - -<p>It was spring and it was Spain. Sunset -brought the white-haired custodian of the Court -of the Lions to the balcony overhanging my fountain. -His blue coat bespoke officialdom but his -Andalusian lisp veiled this suggestion of compulsion. -His wishes for my evening’s happiness, -nevertheless, were to be interpreted as a request -for my going. The Alhambra had to be locked up -for the night.</p> - -<p>I was lying outstretched on the stones of Lindaroxa’s -Court with my head against a pillar. -The last light of the April sun had scaled the -walls and was losing itself among the top-most -bobbing oranges of Lindaroxa’s tree. To dream -there must be to have one’s dreams come true, -some inheritance from Moorish alchemy.</p> - -<p>Despite the setting, I was dreaming nothing -of the Alhambra, not even of Lindaroxa. I was -thinking of a friend of irresponsible imagination -but of otherwise responsibility. I was wondering<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii">[viii]</a></span> -where he could be. On the previous summer we -had walked the highroads of England and I had -found him a most satisfying disputatious companion -of enquiring mind. We had talked somewhat -of a similar wandering in Japan, a vagabondage -free from cicerones and away from the show -places, but although we had treated this variety -of imagining with due respect, we had never an -idea of transmuting it into action.</p> - -<p>The Alhambra had to be locked up for the -night. The custodian bowed low, and I bowed -low, in unhurried obligation to dignity, and I -walked away to my inn. There I found a cablegram -from America. It read:</p> - -<p>“Can meet you Kyoto June two months’ walking.”</p> - -<p>It was signed by the other dreamer of the Two-Sworded -Trails.</p> - -<p>I cabled back, “yes.” The message gone, I -awoke to the reality of time and space. All Europe, -Siberia, Manchuria, and Korea spread out -their distances on the map and were lying between -me and the keeping of my promise.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>It was in the darkness of midnight and it was -raining when I stepped off the express to the -Kyoto platform. For a month the world had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_ix" id="Page_ix">[ix]</a></span> -been revolving giddily under railway carriage -succeeding railway carriage until it seemed that -the changing peoples outside the car windows -could be taking on their ceaseless variety only -through some illusion within my own eyes.</p> - -<p>I stood for a while in the shelter of the overhanging, -dripping roof of the Kyoto station -awaiting some providential development, but probably -the local god of wayfarers did not judge my -plight worry of special interposition. Finally I -found a drenched youth in a stupor of sleep between -the shafts of his ’ricksha. His dreams were -evidently depressing, for he awoke with appreciation -for the escape. We bent over his paper -lantern and at last coaxed a spurt of flame from -a box of unspeakable matches. (The government -decrees that matches must be given away and not -sold by the tobacconists. Japan’s spirit of the art -of giving should not be judged by this item. The -generosity is in the acceptance of the matches.) -I climbed into the ’ricksha and stowed myself -away under the hood, naming the inn which had -been appointed by cablegram for the meeting -place. The boy pattered along in his straw sandals -at full speed through the mist, shouting -hoarsely at the corners. At last he dug his heels -into the pebbles and stopped, and pounded at<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_x" id="Page_x">[x]</a></span> -the inn door until someone came and slid back -the bolts.</p> - -<p>Yes, the clerk answered my question, a guest -with the name of Owre had arrived that day at -noon and had sat up for me until midnight. He -had left word that I should be taken to his room. -Thus I was led through dark halls until we came -to the door. We pushed it open and called into -the darkness. Back came a welcome—somewhat -sleepy. The clerk struck a match and I discovered -my vagabond companion crawling out -from under the mosquito netting of his four-poster. -Between us we had covered twenty thousand -miles for that handshake.</p> - -<p>“It’s the moment to be highly dramatic,” -he said with an eloquent flourish of his pajam’d -arm, and he sent the clerk for a bottle of native -beer. It came, warm and of infinite foam, but -we managed to find a few drops of liquid at the -bottom with which to drink a toast. The toast -was to “The Road.”</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"></div><!--Page break for ePub--> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xi" id="Page_xi">[xi]</a></span></p> - - - - -<h2>CONTENTS</h2> - - -<div class="center"> -<table class="toc" border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" summary="Contents"> -<tr><td class="toctitle smallfont" colspan="2">CHAPTER</td><td class="tocpage smallfont">PAGE</td></tr> -<tr><td class="tocchapter">I.</td><td class="toctitle">The Quest for O-Hori-San</td><td class="tocpage"><a href="#Page_19">19</a></td></tr> -<tr><td class="tocchapter">II.</td><td class="toctitle">The Ancient Tokaido</td><td class="tocpage"><a href="#Page_26">26</a></td></tr> -<tr><td class="tocchapter">III.</td><td class="toctitle">“I Have Eaten of the Furnace of Hades”</td><td class="tocpage"><a href="#Page_56">56</a></td></tr> -<tr><td class="tocchapter">IV.</td><td class="toctitle">The Miles of the Rice Plains</td><td class="tocpage"><a href="#Page_72">72</a></td></tr> -<tr><td class="tocchapter">V.</td><td class="toctitle">The Ancient Nakescendo</td><td class="tocpage"><a href="#Page_104">104</a></td></tr> -<tr><td class="tocchapter">VI.</td><td class="toctitle">The Adventure of the Bottle Inn</td><td class="tocpage"><a href="#Page_127">127</a></td></tr> -<tr><td class="tocchapter">VII.</td><td class="toctitle">The Ideals of a Samurai</td><td class="tocpage"><a href="#Page_157">157</a></td></tr> -<tr><td class="tocchapter">VIII.</td><td class="toctitle">Many Queries</td><td class="tocpage"><a href="#Page_173">173</a></td></tr> -<tr><td class="tocchapter">XI.</td><td class="toctitle">The Inn at Kama-Suwa</td><td class="tocpage"><a href="#Page_188">188</a></td></tr> -<tr><td class="tocchapter">X.</td><td class="toctitle">The Guest of the Other Tower Room</td><td class="tocpage"><a href="#Page_200">200</a></td></tr> -<tr><td class="tocchapter">XI.</td><td class="toctitle">Antiques, Temples, and Teaching Charm</td><td class="tocpage"><a href="#Page_212">212</a></td></tr> -<tr><td class="tocchapter">XII.</td><td class="toctitle">Tsuro-Matsu and Hisu-Matsu</td><td class="tocpage"><a href="#Page_223">223</a></td></tr> -<tr><td class="tocchapter">XIII.</td><td class="toctitle">A Log of Incidents</td><td class="tocpage"><a href="#Page_243">243</a></td></tr> -<tr><td class="tocchapter">XIV.</td><td class="toctitle">Concerning Inn Maids and Also the Elixir of Life</td><td class="tocpage"><a href="#Page_263">263</a></td></tr> -<tr><td class="tocchapter">XV.</td><td class="toctitle">The End of the Trail</td><td class="tocpage"><a href="#Page_271">271</a></td></tr> -<tr><td class="tocchapter">XVI.</td><td class="toctitle">Beach Combers</td><td class="tocpage"><a href="#Page_287">287</a></td></tr> -</table></div> - - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"></div><!--Page break for ePub--> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xiii" id="Page_xiii">[xiii]</a></span></p> - -<h2>ILLUSTRATIONS</h2> - - -<div class="center"> -<table class="toc" border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" summary="Illustrations"> -<tr><td class="toctitle">“Foreigners”</td><td class="tocpage"><a href="#Ref_Frontispiece"><span style="margin-left:-5em"><em>Frontispiece</em></span></a></td></tr> -<tr><td class="tocpage smallfont" colspan="2">PAGE</td></tr> -<tr><td class="toctitle">Kyoto Back Streets</td><td class="tocpage"><a href="#Ref_28">28</a></td></tr> -<tr><td class="toctitle">The First Rest Spot of the Second Day</td><td class="tocpage"><a href="#Ref_48">48</a></td></tr> -<tr><td class="toctitle">The Kori (Ice) Flag of the “Adventure”</td><td class="tocpage"><a href="#Ref_84">84</a></td></tr> -<tr><td class="toctitle">We Came Upon a Wistful Eyed, Timid Fairy of the Mountains</td><td class="tocpage"><a href="#Ref_128">128</a></td></tr> -<tr><td class="toctitle">“In the Fourteenth Year of My Youth I Took the Vow that My Life Should Be Lived in Honouring the Holy Images of Buddha”</td><td class="tocpage"><a href="#Ref_142">142</a></td></tr> -<tr><td class="toctitle">We Decided to Take the Most Attractive Turn, Right or Wrong</td><td class="tocpage"><a href="#Ref_168">168</a></td></tr> -<tr><td class="toctitle">Is it Idolatrous to Worship Fuji?</td><td class="tocpage"><a href="#Ref_184">184</a></td></tr> -<tr><td class="toctitle">The Boys Must Be Taught Loyalty; the Daughters of the Empire Must Be Taught Grace</td><td class="tocpage"><a href="#Ref_226">226</a></td></tr> -<tr><td class="toctitle">We Bought Paper Umbrellas</td><td class="tocpage"><a href="#Ref_248">248</a></td></tr> -<tr><td class="toctitle">O-Shio-San in the Bosen-ka Inn Garden</td><td class="tocpage"><a href="#Ref_278">278</a></td></tr> -<tr><td class="toctitle">Slowly the Harbour of Yokohama Was Curtained and Disappeared Behind a Brightly Glistening Mist</td><td class="tocpage"><a href="#Ref_290">290</a></td></tr> -</table></div> - - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<div class="chapter"></div><!--Page break for ePub--> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span></p> - -<p class="center largefont">SAMURAI TRAILS</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"></div><!--Page break for ePub--> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span></p> - -<p class="center xlargefont boldfont">SAMURAI TRAILS</p> - -<h2 class="no-break">I<br /> -<span class="titlefont">THE QUEST FOR O-HORI-SAN</span></h2> - - -<p>After our melodramatic toast of the night before -it would have been only orthodox to have said -good-bye to our Occidental inn at sunrise and -to have sought the road. But we had a call to -make. The fulfilling of the obligation proved to -be momentous. There is one never-to-be-broken -rule for the foreigner in the Orient: He must consider -himself always to be of extreme magnitude -in the perspective, and that any action which concerns -himself is momentous. If Asia had possessed -this supreme self-concern, she might to-day -be playing political chess with colonies in Europe. -The details of our call are thus set down in faithful -sequence.</p> - -<p>“If ever you come to Japan, be sure to look me -up.” This had been the farewell of Kenjiro Hori -when he said good-bye to his university days in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span> -America. Hori’s affection for America had had -the vigour which marks the vitality of Japanese -loyalty. He had always singled out our better -qualities with gratifying disregard for opposites.</p> - -<p>We were, however, without an address except -that we thought he might be in Kobe; but it -seemed unreasonable that after travelling all the -way to the Antipodes we should then be baulked -by a mere detail. In the faith of this logic we -took an early train to Kobe, and the first sign -that we saw read: “Information Bureau for -Foreigners.”</p> - -<p>The man in uniform peering out of the box -window was so smiling and so evidently desirous -of being helpful that whether we had needed -information or not, it would have been exceedingly -discourteous not to have asked some question. -We inquired the address of Dr. Kenjiro Hori. -The information dispenser thumbed all his heap -of directories. He appeared to be unravelling -his thread by a most intricate system of cross -reference. Then he looked at us with another -smile.</p> - -<p>“Did you find it?” we asked.</p> - -<p>“I find no address,” said he, “but I tell ’ricksha -boys take you. Ah, so!”</p> - -<p>Such a challenge was impossible to refuse.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span> -We got into the ’rickshas and the men bent their -necks and jerked the wheels into motion with -strange disregard for any bee-line direction to -any particular place. It appeared to be a most -casual choice whether we took one corner or -another. This rambling went on for some time. -Suddenly they held back on the shafts and said: -“Here!” We were at the door of a wholesale -importing house. No one within had ever heard -of O-Hori-san. When we came back to the -street with this information the coolies seemed -not at all surprised. They shrugged their shoulders -at our mild expostulation as if implying, “Of -course, if he isn’t here he must be some other -place.”</p> - -<p>After another panting dash they stopped and -said: “Here!” It was obvious without inquiring -that Hori could not be in that shallow, open-fronted -shop. “Very well,” the shoulders answered -us and on we went. We stopped for -another time with the now familiar “Here!” We -had traversed half Kobe. Our futile questions -seemed to have nothing to do with any next step. -Strangely, instead of having lost our faith it had -been growing that by some system the coolies -were following the quest. At this stop, when -we looked inside the entrance, there was the name<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span> -of Dr. Kenjiro Hori on a brass plate. We walked -up the stairs and rang a bell and inquired for Dr. -Hori of the boy who came.</p> - -<p>We asked him to tell O-Hori-san that O-Owre-san -and O-Kirt-land-san would like to see him. -Of all arrangements of consonants (w’s, r’s, k’s, -and l’s) to harass the Japanese tongue, our two -names stand in the first group of the first list of -impossibles. We could overhear the distressed -boy’s struggle with “O-Owre-san.” I was impressed -that from that instant Alfred Owre became -“O-Owre-san.” It was a secular confirmation too -positive to be gainsaid.</p> - -<p>Small wonder then that Hori had not the slightest -idea who was waiting at the door; but his surprise, -when he appeared, was so smoothed out and -repressed in his formal <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja"><a id="a-samurai" href="#samurai">samurai</a></i> welcome that we -were tempted into moody thinking that through -some psychosis the frightful slaughter of our -names had destroyed his remembrance of our -rightful personalities.</p> - -<p>Friends appeared and were introduced with -ceremonial formalism. We sat in a circle and -sipped iced mineral water. Hori inquired politely -of our plans and then sat back in silence -behind his thick spectacles. The icy temperature -of the mineral water was the temperature<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span> -of the verve of the conversation. The day itself -was rather hot; a damp, depressing heat. I tried -to fan off the flies which stuck tenaciously with -sharp, sudden buzzings.</p> - -<p>Of all varieties of uncreative activity, the analyzing -of moods brings the least compensation—but -that does not mean avoidance. During that -hour a disturbing remoteness to everyday reality -rasped as if something untoward had been conjured -up. O-Owre-san and I talked, trying to -explain our plans. We repeated that we hadn’t -any desire to visit the great places, but our saying -so sounded childish and impertinent,—very -tiresome. A dignified ancient kept forcing us -into a position of defence. To put us out of -ease was his most remote wish, of course, but he -did insist with patriotic eloquence (suggesting -a Californian defending his climate) that the -show places deserved to be paid respect. We -insisted that our tourist consciences had been -appeased long before, and that we now intended -to run away from foreign hotels, from the Honourable -Society of Guides, from the Imperial -Welcome Society, from all cicerones, and from -all centres where the customs and conveniences -of our Western variety of civilization are so cherishingly -catered to.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span></p> - -<p>“But,” interrupted Hori, “you do not understand. -You will find no one prepared for foreigners. -You will find not one word of English. -You must not do such a thing.” With Japan so -earnestly providing the proper accommodations -at the proper places, it was not playing the game, -so to speak, to refuse.</p> - -<p>When an argument of policy is between an -amateur and an expert (particularly so when -between a foreigner and a native) the tyro can -afford to compromise on not one atom of his -ignorance. If he concedes at all he will be overwhelmed -completely. We refused Hori’s warnings, -remaining impervious to any advice which -did not further our plan of action exactly as -outlined.</p> - -<p>“Very well, then,” said Hori, “I shall have -to go with you.”</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Under the excitement of talking plans Hori -slipped out of his formalism, and became exactly -his old-time self. Until the following week, however, -he would not be able to turn his solicitude -into action. He did not lose his cataclysm of -positive doubt over entrusting the Empire in our -hands, but as there was no escape from leaving -us to our own devices for those days (and we<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span> -made known a certain vanity in our own resources) -he at length agreed to meet us in Nagoya, -and we planned a route which would bring us there -with our rendezvous at the European hotel.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"></div><!--Page break for ePub--> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span></p> - - - - -<h2>II<br /> -<span class="titlefont">THE ANCIENT TOKAIDO</span></h2> - - -<p>It was the morning of our last sleep in <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja"><a id="a-seiyo-jin" href="#seiyo-jin">seiyo-jin</a></i> -beds. I dreamed that I was still dreaming in -Lindaroxa’s Court. O-Owre-san shook my four-poster -and begged me to consider the matter-of-factness -of rolling out from my mosquito netting -and taking a bite of cold breakfast. The sensuous -breeze of the East, which comes for a brief hour -with the first light of the sun, was blowing the -curtains back from the window. I was willing -to consider the getting up and the eating of the -breakfast and I was willing to call both endeavours -matter-of-fact, but the imagination that it was -to be the first day on the highroad belonged to -no such mere negativity of living.</p> - -<p>I began packing and was inspired to improvise -a wonderful ballad. It was concerned with the -beginning of trails. O-Owre-san was busy and -was uninterested in my stanzas. He might very -well have served genius by taking them down. -The all-inclusiveness embraced, I remember, a -master picture of cold dawn in the Rockies, with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span> -pack ponies snorting, biting, and bucking; and I -sang blithely of every other sort of first morning -start, embroidering the memories of their roaring -language and their unpackable dunnage. But in -Japan one does not roar—or one roars alone—and -I had known just what was going into my -rucksack for weeks.</p> - -<p>Our route was to be the famed Tokaido, that -ancient road running between the great capitals -of the West and the East, from Kyoto to Tokyo. -We were to find its first stretch at the turn to -the left when we should cross the bridge over the -Kamo-Gawa. This river cuts Kyoto between -two long rows of houses built on piles and overhanging -its waters. In summer the stream is most -domesticated and gives, charitably, a large area -of its dry bed as a pleasure ground for <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">fêtes</i>, but -when the snows are melting back in the hills in -the days of spring and blossoms, it becomes temperamental -and the peasants say that it has drunk -unwisely of <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja"><a id="a-sake" href="#sake">saké</a></i>. It is then that the water winks -rakishly and splashes the tips of its waves at -pretty <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja"><a id="a-geisha" href="#geisha">geishas</a></i>, who come to scatter cherry petals -on the current. But we saw only the summer -domesticity on our June morning. A school of -children were wading in the shallow current, fishing -with nets. Their <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">kimonos</i> were tied high above<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span> -their sturdy fat legs. We leaned over the rail -and they squinted back into the sun at us and -called out good-morning. Then we stepped off -the bridge and our boots were on the long road -that leads to Tokyo.</p> - -<div id="Ref_28" class="figcenter" style="width: 494px;"> -<img src="images/i029.jpg" width="494" height="650" alt="" /> -<div class="caption"><p class="center">KYOTO BACK STREETS</p></div> -</div> - -<p>Hokusai has pictured the Tokaido in his prints—the -villages and the mountains, the plains and -the sea, the peasants and the pilgrims, the <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja"><a id="a-ronin" href="#ronin">ronins</a></i> -and the priests. He did add his immortal overlay -to the tradition of the highway’s immortality, -but even the great Hokusai could only be an -incident in the spread of its renown. The Tokaido’s -personality was no less haughty and arrogant -long centuries before the artist. It was built by -the gods, as everyone knows, and not by man. -This may be the reason why it has fallen upon -hard days in these modern times, now that the -race of man has assumed the task of relieving -the weary gods of so many of their duties. Axes -have cut down the cryptomerias for miles because -the trees interfered with telegraph wires; and -furthermore, a new highway has now been built -between the capitals, a road of steel. For most -of the way this new road follows alongside the -old, although sometimes departing in a straighter -line. The vaulting arrogance of all was when -man took the name “The Tokaido” for a railway.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span> -The trains pass by the ancient shrines of -the wayside with no tarrying for moments of -contemplation. To-day a <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">samurai</i>, with a newspaper -under one arm and a lunch box under the -other—his two swords have been thus displaced—goes -from Kyoto to Tokyo in as few hours as -were the days of his father’s journeying.</p> - -<p>When the feudal emperors made this pilgrimage -they were carried in silk-hung, lacquered -palanquins, and fierce-eyed, two-sworded retainers -cleared the streets and sealed the houses so -that no prying eyes might violate sancrosanctity. -As for our pilgrimage we appreciated that we -were not sacred emperors and that we were coming -along without announcement. The inhabitants -kept the sides of their houses open and stared out -upon us. We felt free, discreetly, to return their -glances from under the brims of our pith helmets, -but occasionally this freedom felt a panicky restraint -within itself to keep eyes on the road.</p> - -<p>In the legend of her famous ride, Lady Godiva, -I believe, had the houses sealed before her approach -as did those deified Nipponese emperors. -We doubted, that early morning, whether the -dwellers along the Tokaido, if they had been -told Lady Godiva’s tale, would have had appreciation -for her chastely wishing not to be seen, except<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span> -as a mystifying and whimsical eccentricity. -To preserve a deity from mortal eyes—yes, that -might have been conceded as a conventional necessity; -but our surety grew after a short advance -that if the fulfilling of a similar vow by a Nipponese -Lady Godiva should have its penance depending -merely upon the absence of attire, she -could ride her palfrey in the environs of Kyoto -inconspicuously and without exciting comment. -At least such costuming would be in local fashion -the first one or two hours after sunrise.</p> - -<p>A mile is a mile the first day, and we had had -three or four miles in the silence which comes -from the feeling that one is really off.</p> - -<p>“It’s a good morning for boiling out,” remarked -O-Owre-san, by way of breaking the spell.</p> - -<p>We were in a narrow valley walking head on -into the sun. It was an excellent morning for -boiling out.</p> - -<p>I suggested that it was a good time to take -the first rest. We found a spot in a temple garden -up a flight of exceedingly steep stone steps. -Usually to throw off one’s pack is to achieve the -supreme emotional satisfaction of laziness, but -on this first essay we failed to relax. It was -perhaps partly that we had not yet boiled out our -Western restlessness among other poisons, but<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span> -also there was to be counted in as opposed to the -quietude of the garden a most unrestful suggestion -contributed by a conspicuous sign written in -English and nailed to a post. It read:</p> - -<p>“Foreigners Visiting Must Dismount Horses -and Not Ride Into Temple.”</p> - -<p>There are visitors in the East whose idea of -sightseeing the heathen gods might not preclude -their riding their horses up onto the lap of the -bronze Buddha of Kamakura; but how the priest -imagined that horses were to be urged up those -stone steps was a mystery veiled from our understanding. -It even created a pride in our alien -blood that we were a race thought to be capable -of such magic.</p> - -<p>The Tokaido winds through the city of Otsu. -It enters proudly as the chief street but escapes -between rows of mean houses, becoming as nearly -a characterless lane as the Tokaido can anywhere -be. The town is the chief port of Lake Biwa of -the famed eight views, and it is just beyond this -town that the upstart railway takes itself off, together -with its cindery smoke, on a straighter line -than the Tokaido. The highway bends to the south -in a swinging circle and wanders along for many -a quiet mile before the two meet again. At the -angle of the parting of the old and the new we<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span> -stopped at a rest house for a bottle of <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja"><a id="a-ramune" href="#ramune">ramune</a></i>. -This beverage is a carbonated, chemically compounded -lemonade. Its wide distribution does -possess one merit. The bottles may often be -used as a sort of guide book. Almost every little -shop along the road has a few bottles cooling in a -wooden bucket of water. Thus, if a stranger is -walking from one town to another and if, as is -inevitable, he has been unable to learn anything -about distances along the way, he may at least -judge that he is approximately half through his -journey when the labels on the bottles change -the address of their origin to that of the town -which he is seeking.</p> - -<p>The <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">ramune</i> which we had at Otsu was warm -and the shop was stifling and the flies were sticky. -My clinging flannel shirt was unbuttoned, my -sleeves were rolled up, and I had tied a handkerchief -about my head. We carried our bottles out -to a low bench to escape the baked odours of the -shop, and while we were sitting and sipping two -Japanese gentlemen came down the road, looking -very cool under their sun umbrellas and in their -immaculate <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">kimonos</i>. Orthodox ambition in the -temperate zone aims for respectability, power, and -property, but in the tropics any temporary struggle, -whether in war or trade, has as its lure the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span> -reward of a long, aristocratic, cooling calm. Our -Japanese gentlemen, superiorly aloof to the perspiring -world, appeared to be amusedly observing -the habits and customs of the foreigner as exhibited -by us. Their staring rankled. Until then -I had been happy in the exact condition of my -perspiration. Their observance now chilled the -beads on my back. Any number of coolies could -have come and stared, and called us brother—for -all of that—but we were being made to realize -suddenly that in the Orient the lower the blood -temperature the higher the caste mark. The parent -germ of all convention in the world is “not to -lose face.” It has been most highly developed -by the Chinese and the Anglo-Saxon. For the -Chinese it is personal, but it makes the renegade -Anglo-Saxon, despite himself, keep on trying to -hold up his chin in a blind call of blood loyalty to -his own mob when facing the Asiatic.</p> - -<p>We picked up our packs and started off. It -was either to retire or nihilistically to hurl the -packs at their immaculateness. Just as we began -to move one of them said: “Do you speak -English?”</p> - -<p>The truth must be told that we recanted much -of our wrath after the friendliness of a half-hour’s -roadside palaver. The meeting, however, had a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span> -uniqueness of experience far beyond anything -merely casual. It allowed us the extraordinary -record that we once did acquire local information -from a Japanese whose conception of daily time -and highroad space had some coincidence with -our Western science of absolute fact. Mr. Yoshida, -he who had called after us, knew that corner -of Japan and he told us about it.</p> - -<p>O-Owre-san says: “Certain Japanese inexplicabilities -are extremely ubiquitous.” He thus -confines himself to six words. I cannot. I require -a paragraph. Despite the ubiquitous mystery, -there is always one certainty: Whatever may be -the thought processes of the Japanese concerning -hours, distances, and direction, the inquirer may -be sure of this: the answer will not be concerned -with answering the question. The courteous answerer -earnestly uses his judgment to determine -what reply is likely to be most pleasing. If you -appear weary, or in a hurry, then the distance to -go is never very long. If you appear to be enjoying -your walk, then the distance is a long -way. The village which has been declared just -around the bend of the road may be two <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">ri</i> off. -This is the desire to please, inculcated by the -<i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja"><a id="a-bushido" href="#bushido">Bushido</a></i> creed of honourable conduct. It may be -thought that such paradoxical solicitude becomes<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span> -extremely irritating, but rarely does it. The wish -to help is real, at least, and is not merely the -carelessness of superficiality. The peasant may -tell you that you have but a step to go, but if -you are lost he will turn aside from his own -path and show you the way, though it be for -miles.</p> - -<p>We noted down Mr. Yoshida’s details concerning -the inns and villages which we should find -along the way to distant Nagoya. Experience -soon told us to hold fast to his information, no -matter the contradictions that were agreeably -offered in its stead.</p> - -<p>We shouldered our packs and again were off. -After a time O-Owre-san said: “I met Mr. Yoshida -once at a dinner in America.”</p> - -<p>“Why didn’t you tell him so?” I gasped.</p> - -<p>O-Owre-san seemed surprised at my amazement. -As nearly as I could determine he must -have completely disassociated the metabolic Owre -sitting on the bench in front of the rest house, -drinking warm <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">ramune</i>, and the Owre of practical -America. Perhaps the Japanese believe in -the “unfathomable mystery of the American -mind.”</p> - -<p>We had six hours through the hills ahead of us -if we were to keep on that night to Minakuchi.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span> -Our mentor had told us that one of the most -luxurious of all the country inns in Japan was sequestered -there. To hurry to any particular -place was against our code, but this time it seemed -reasonable to make an honourable exception.</p> - -<p>The sun went down behind the paddy fields. -The muddy waters of the terraces caught the -gleaming yellows and reds, but our backs were -against this suffusion of colour. Into the darkness -ahead the narrow road led on and on. Says -the essayist: “The artist should know hunger and -want.” But surely not the art patron. He cannot -perform his function of appreciation unless -comfortably removed from immediate pangs. If -I were to be an enthusiast over that wonderful -sunset—as O-Owre-san persisted in suggesting—I -needed food. It had been fifteen hours since our -cold breakfast and I thought of the inn with an -ardency of vision.</p> - -<p>When we did see the town it sprang up -abruptly out of the fields. All along the streets -the lights were shining through the paper walls. -We made inquiry for the <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja"><a id="a-yado-ya" href="#yado-ya">yado-ya</a></i> and in a moment -were surrounded by volunteer guides. They -are always diverting, the Japanese children, running -along on their wooden clogs and looking up -into your face.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span></p> - -<p>Maids without number came running to the -entrance of that aristocratic inn, and dropped to -their knees. They bowed until their glossy black -hair touched the ground. The auguries all appeared -auspicious. Then came the mistress. -There were many polite words, but no one took -our rucksacks and no one invited us in. Every -second’s waiting for the bath and dinner was very, -very long.</p> - -<p>My Japanese of twelve years before had been -but a few words. Days on the Trans-Siberian -of grammar and dictionary study had not even -brought back that little, but now suddenly I began -to understand what the mistress of that inn -was saying. I had no vanity in my understanding. -The understanding was that we were not wanted. -I had been tired and I had been hungry when -we reached the door, but now I knew the unutterable -weariness of smelling a dinner which -may not be eaten.</p> - -<p>The crowd was amused, but it showed its -amusement considerately and with restraint. -Nevertheless two <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">seiyo-jins</i> had lost face. Apparently -the mistress did not wish such suspicious-looking -foreigners, grimy, dustless, and coatless, -to remain even in the same town. She called two -’rickshas. She named the next village. She had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span> -this much magnanimity that she purposed giving -us the chance of orderly retreat.</p> - -<p>I tried to continue smiling with dignity and affability. -It is somewhat of a strain on diplomatic -smiles when the subject of discussion is vitally -concerned with one’s own starvation. Nevertheless -I did smile. I explained that whatever we -did we were not going on to the next town. I -knew the word for “another,” and the word for -“inn,” and how to say, “Is it?” And thus I -asked: “Another inn here, is it?” There was -little incitement to believe that she understood except -that her mouth pouted ever so slightly as if -in surprise that I should imply that the mistress -of such a superior inn could have any knowledge -concerning mere bourgeois caravansaries.</p> - -<p>O-Owre-san, during this parleying, had put on -his coat and in other subtle ways had transformed -himself into a conventional foreigner. After that -he had settled into repose and silence. I looked at -him. I searched for a flaw. I declared by the -great Tokaido itself that with such a fright-producing -handicap as his ultra-Occidental beard -we should never find resting spots outside the local -jails.</p> - -<p>“Humph!” said he. “Stop talking for a minute -and put on your coat.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span></p> - -<p>I succumbed. “All right, then,” I said. -“Here’s for the magic of that vestment of respectability.”</p> - -<p>I sat down on the ground and untied the bag. -The prophecy of magic was too feeble by far -for the prestidigitation which followed. I shook -out the folds of the garment which is called a coat, -a mere two sleeves, a back and a front and a few -buttons. The circle came closer. But it was not -the coat after all which caused our audience so -graciously to begin giving back our lost faces to -us—it was the supermagic of one leg of a pair of -silk pajamas. A black-eyed jackdaw, a trifle -more daring in her curiosity than the others, discovered -the hem of that garment tipping out from -a corner of my pack. She gave it a jerk, and -then another. Next she looked up with coaxing -persuasion, suggesting encouragement to tug -again.</p> - -<p>O-Owre-san had insisted that I have those -pajamas made in Kyoto. He has theories about -the necessity of silk pajamas. I never, even remotely, -followed the dialectics of his reasons, -but I must add to the credit side of such theorizings -that pajamas are a most intriguing garment -to pass around for the benefit of an inn courtyard -crowd. The maid gave the next tug and out<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span> -they came. Everybody reached forward a finger -and a thumb to feel.</p> - -<p>Between the time of the discovery of the silk -pajamas and their repacking—I cold-heartedly -refused to exhibit a putting of them on—we rose -from nobodies to persons of importance in Minakuchi. -Even the mistress hinted that she had mentally -recounted her space for guests and had -thought of a luxurious corner of amply sufficient -dimensions to spread two beds. There was, of -course, no sane reason why we should not, then -and there, have taken advantage of this altered -atmosphere, but for me the inn had lost its savour. -Anyone who has ever had some similar twist of -psychology will appreciate the inside of my irrationalism. -Others will not or cannot. I moved -over to the ’rickshas. O-Owre-san remained lingering. -He, too, had noted the change in the mistress’s -attitude.</p> - -<p>“How about making one more overture?” he -suggested.</p> - -<p>“Perhaps so,” I answered, “but don’t you feel -that any experience which this inn might now hold -for us would be an anti-climax after our present -dramatic triumph?”</p> - -<p>O-Owre-san regretfully sniffed the fragrant -steam drifting from the kitchen braziers.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span></p> - -<p>“No, I decidedly don’t feel so,” said he, “but -of course, if I have to save your dilettante soul -from anti-climaxes, I suppose I can sleep in a rice -field—but whatever you do, do it!”</p> - -<p>I threw our bags into the ’rickshas and we -climbed in after them, and were off to the other -inn.</p> - -<p>We made our impact against this objective -much more catapultic. There was nothing tentative -in our kicking off our shoes and getting well -under the lintel before any mistress of authority -could appear. Our onslaught paralysed the advance -line of receiving maidens, and we settled -down on the interior mats and assumed a contemplative -calm. We continued to sit thus oblivious -to the excitement heaped upon excitement. We -were islands of fact in the midst of an ocean of -conversation. After the ocean had dried up -because none had words left, we were still obviously -remaining, and there was nothing left to -do but to make the best of us. A maid picked up -our bags and bowed very low. She retreated -toward the inner darkness and we followed, first -along a corridor and then up a flight of railless -stairs to a room open on two sides against a courtyard -garden.</p> - -<p>To have been in harmony at all with the ancient<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span> -traditions of the Tokaido, coolies should have -been carrying our luggage in huge red and gold -lacquered chests. The room to which we were -taken would have been a room of dignity even -for a <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja"><a id="a-daimyo" href="#daimyo">daimyo</a></i>. The maid placed our two dusty -Occidental rucksacks on the shelf under the <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">kakemona</i>. -Their very presence piped a chanty that -our possessing that room was ironic comedy. We -began to laugh. A <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja"><a id="a-ne-san" href="#ne-san">ne-san</a></i> is as ever ready to -laugh as water is to flow, and with no other -grand cause than just the doing. Our maid began -laughing with us, and up the stairs came all the -other maids in curiosity. Ensconced, their interest -seemed permanent. Our vocabulary was very -far from being sufficient to protect our Western -prudery. As a last resort we took them by their -shoulders and turned them around and urged -them in this unsubtle manner from the door.</p> - -<p>I began undressing at one end of the room, -leaving my garments in my wake as I rolled over -the soft matting. When I reached the <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">kakemona</i> -shelf, I slipped into my silk pajamas. When we -went below to find the honourable bath we at least -left the room looking not so bare as our meagre -luggage had predicted.</p> - -<p>We returned from the bath and banked our -cushions on the narrow balcony overhanging the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span> -garden. A slight breeze stirred the branches -of the trees and started swinging the paper lanterns -which hung over a stone fountain. Other -guests of the inn had finished their dinners -and it was their toothbrush hour. Dressed in -their cotton <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">kimonos</i> they stood bending over shining -brass basins filled from the well fountain. It -would probably be useless to ask any Occidental -to imagine that the function of teeth cleansing -with long, flexible handled brushes may be a -social and picturesque addendum to garden life; -we have too long looked upon ablutions as being -merely necessitous.</p> - -<p>Dinner came. Whether strict philosophical -truth lies in the belief that every sensation is -unique, or whether in the contrary that no experience -can be other than a repetition of some situation -which has been staged over and over again -in the turning of the cosmic wheel, I shall continue -to maintain that a wanderer who has gone -from half after four in the morning, fortified -only by a mouthful of cold breakfast, until nine -at night, and has walked something more than -twenty-five miles under a hot sun, and has had -one dinner snatched away from him, and then -finds himself risen from a bath and sitting in the -slow, warm, evening air in a room of simple harmony,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span> -and then a small lacquer table is placed -before him with the alluring odours of five steaming -dishes ascending to his nose—yes, I shall -continue to maintain that such a wanderer has a -human right to protest that such a situation is -an event.</p> - -<p>They replenished the tables with second supplies -of the first dishes and with first and second dishes -of new courses. We had two kinds of soup and -three varieties of fish; we had chicken and we -had vegetables and boiled seaweed; and we finished -with innumerable bowls of rice. At the -end they brought iced water and tea and renewed -the charcoal in the braziers for our smoking. -The tobacco clouds drifted from our lips. Only -one possible thought was worth putting into words -and that was the request to have the beds laid. -However, the evening was destined not for such -sensuous oblivion.</p> - -<p>Breaking in upon this godly languor came a -visitation by the entire family of the inn. The -family particularly embraced in its intimacy also -the maid-servants and the men-servants. Even -the baby had been wakened to come. In the beginning -O-Owre-san offered cigarettes in lieu of -conversation and I thumbed the dictionary for -compliments for the baby. The blue-bound book<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span> -of phrases proved to be rich in fitting adjectives, -and my efforts were rewarded with sufficient approval -to encourage us to go on with a search -for compliments for mother and father and all the -others. The baby crawled forward inch by inch -until one of the strange foreign giants courageously -picked it up. Our guests had first sat in a -very formal half-circle, but under the expansiveness -of growing goodwill the line was breaking.</p> - -<p>It was a night, however, of many visitations. -Hardly had we, as hosts, with the aid of the baby, -carried the attack with some success against rigid -self-consciousness when there came the sound of -a step on the stair. Immediately the mood of -laughter changed to one of marked quietness -and expectancy. The circle readjusted itself. -The mother snatched back the baby and by some -technic ended its expressions of curiosity and reduced -it, as only a Japanese baby can be reduced, -to a pair of staring eyes. We sat waiting the -coming of the intruder. The <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">ne-sans</i> bowed their -heads to the floor.</p> - -<p>The awaited one was a tall young man, with -round, pinkish, glistening limbs, and a round face. -He dropped heavily to his knees and bent over -until his forehead touched the mat, continuing this -salutation for some time. Then he sat up smiling<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span> -and satisfied. He had brought with him -three or four foreign books and he was, without -need of introduction, the village scholar, Minakuchi’s -representative of modernity, a precious and -honoured cabinet of wisdom newly come home -from the University. After his smiling expansion -he next composed his features to solemnity. He -adjusted his <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">kimono</i> taut over his knees. Then -he waited until the last quiver in his audience -succumbed into the extreme quietude of painful -tension. Even the breeze lulled. He spoke:</p> - -<p>“I—am—in—this—room!”</p> - -<p>The heads of the circle nodded and renodded -to each other. What had the foreigners to answer -to that?</p> - -<p>We tried to express a proper appreciation.</p> - -<p>“It—is—cold—to-day—but—it—was—raining—yesterday.”</p> - -<p>An opinion about temperature is more or less a -personal judgment, but the falling of raindrops -is a material fact. On the yesterday it had not -rained.</p> - -<p>This time the circle could not restrain itself but -sighed with positive and audible contentment. Minakuchi -had been vindicated. If the audience -showed content with its spokesman, it was as nothing -compared to his own contentment. The artist<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span> -in tongues now opened his books with a business-like -air and put on his spectacles. His visit was -not, then, purely social. The sentences which -followed were, as nearly as we could determine, -questions to us. They came, a word at a time, -out of his dictionary. The conventions of speech -which the Japanese employ in polite inquiry have -been moulded by symbolism, mysticism, and analogy -into phrases most remote from the original -rudiment. A word by word translation into English -carries no meaning whatsoever. We answered -by: “Oh, yes, yes,—of course.”</p> - -<p>The baby was growing restless. The scholar -took in this sign from the corner of his eye. His -dramatic sense was keen. He had no intention -that his audience should become bored and he -snapped shut the books with the pronounced -meaning that everything had been settled as far -as he was concerned. Then he clapped his hands -loudly. Instantly from below came more footsteps -and a clank-clanking of metal on wood, and -in a moment into the room walked an officer of the -police. His heavy dress uniform was white, with -gold braid twisting round and about the sleeves -and shoulders. His sword, the secret of the rhythmic -clanking, was almost as tall as himself. He -faced us rigidly and without a smile, then slowly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span> -sank to his knees and dropped his head to the mat. -I have faith that that man, without an extra heart-beat, -would have joined a sure death charge across -a battlefield, but his present duty brought the -red blush of painful embarrassment to his olive -skin from the edge of his tight collar to the fringe -of his black hair. He was silently and perspiringly -suffering in the cause of duty—but what -was his duty?</p> - -<p>I do not know just how we gained the idea, if -it were not through telepathy, but we decided that -he was discounting the abilities of the interpreter -down to an extreme minimum, although he listened -attentively enough to some long statement. -After the explanation, which seemingly concerned -us, the youth arose and with much dignity withdrew -from the room followed by many expressions -of appreciation from the inn family. Every -one of us who had been left behind, except the -baby who had gone to sleep, now waited for some -continuance of the drama, but nothing proceeded -to materialize. I grew so sleepy that if the policeman -had suddenly said that we were to be -executed at sunrise the most interesting part of -the information would have been the finding out -whether we could sleep until that hour. As I -did not know how polite it might be to say that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span> -<em>we</em> were tired, I found a phrase, “<em>You</em> must be -very tired,” to which I linked, “therefore <em>we</em> shall -go to bed.”</p> - -<p>This veiled ultimatum was as graciously accepted -as if they had been waiting those exact -words to free them to go their way. The <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">ne-sans</i> -ran for mattresses and prepared the beds. Then -they hung the great mosquito netting. After that -we all said our good-nights, all except the police -official who, image like, remained sitting against -the wall.</p> - -<p>By earnest beseeching we had persuaded the -maids not to close the wooden <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja"><a id="a-shogi" href="#shogi">shogi</a></i> around the -balcony. Thus, when we turned out the lamp and -stretched out on our beds, the starlight came in. -It shone on the white uniform. I had never happened -to have the experience of going to sleep -under the eye of a policeman but realism proved -that practice was unnecessary. Sinking to oblivion -was as positive as a plunge. The vast embracing -fluid of rest closed in over my head.</p> - -<p>I was dreamless until I awoke under a sudden, -crushing nightmare. I thought that an army of -white and gold uniforms had mobilized and was -tramping over my chest, taking care that every -heel should fall pitilessly. The one policeman who -existed in reality had been trying to wake me up<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span> -and he had evidently had a task, but as soon as -he was sure that my eyes were open to stay he -forwent further assault. He had lighted the lamp -and I could see back of him a naked coolie, convulsively -gasping for breath. The man was carrying -an envelope. The officer took the envelope -and then sent him off. He reeled to the stairs -holding his panting sides. The officer then took -out a sheet of paper and handed it to me. The -page was written in modified English but was quite -intelligible. While the sentences were nothing -more than a series of questions, at the same time -they gave a clue to the mystery of the evening.</p> - -<p>Our inn-keeper had had the inspiration to call -upon the scholar-interpreter to ask us the questions -which all travellers must answer for the police -record in every town where a stop is made for the -night. We had been correct about there being one -doubter in Minakuchi of the ability of the interpreter. -In a plot for his own amusement the police -officer had sent a runner to a neighbouring -town to have the conventional list of questions -translated into English, and thus to compare our -written answers with the answers given him by -the youth. There they were, the questions: who -were we—how old—profession—antecedents -whence and whither. If one is tempted into wayward<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span> -rebellion against such minuteness of interrogation, -it is wise to remember that the claim -of a sense of humour may be considered very -poor testimony in a Japanese court perchance -misunderstandings at any time arise and the -answers in the police records have to be -looked up.</p> - -<p>I wrote out the answers. With no one in the -room as a witness except ourselves, the officer -allowed a twinkle to come into his eye. He even -winked and pointed to where the youth had sat. -Then he shut up the paper in his register and -blew out the light and clanked off down the stairs. -Again we slept.</p> - -<p>The etiquette of an inn is that all crude appearance -of hurry should be avoided by waiting -in one’s room in the morning for one’s bill. The -Japanese do not travel hurriedly; if they wish -an early start they get up proportionately in -time. We had asked for an early breakfast and -it had been served at the hour which we had -named. We had happened to have good intentions -about not rushing. Nevertheless, of course, -we fell into an inevitable hurry. After breakfast -I had been so interested in sitting on our balcony -watching the waking up of the day that I forgot -to pack my rucksack. O-Owre-san said that he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span> -would pay the bill downstairs and wait at the -door.</p> - -<p>When I arrived under the lintel where we -had left our shoes I felt as if I were intruding. -The bearded foreigner was surrounded by the -inn family and each member was handing him a -present. There were blue and white Japanese -towels folded into decorated envelopes, and there -were fans and postcards. The cost of the gift -fans may have been little but the maker had taken -his designs from models of the best tradition, -and the fans to be found for sale are not comparable.</p> - -<p>The daughters of the house walked with us -until we came to the Tokaido and then they -pointed out our direction and stood waving farewells -until we could see them no longer. I waited -until then before making inquiry about the -amount of the bill. This detail was a matter of -distinct importance. When we met in Kyoto -we pooled our purses and the common fund was -entrusted to O-Owre-san’s care. Neither of us -had made much effort to acquire theoretical information -about what daily expenses might be. -We had just so much paint with which to cover -the surface of the definite number of days before -our steamer would carry us away, and this meant<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span> -that we would have to mix thick or thin accordingly. -Experience only could teach us what items -we could afford and what bargains we should have -to make. I thus awaited the answer about the -bill with flattering attention.</p> - -<p>“The bill, including extras for iced water and -cigarettes and getting our special dinner after -every one else had finished,” said the treasurer with -appropriate solemnity, “was three <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja"><a id="a-yen" href="#yen">yen</a></i>.” (A <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">yen</i> -is about fifty cents.) “And,” he concluded, “I -gave a full <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">yen</i> for the tea-money tip.”</p> - -<p>We waited until we sat down for the first rest -before we attempted a practical financial forecast. -We divided the number of remaining days -into the sum of the paper notes carried in a linen -envelope. The answer quieted our fears and exceeded -our hopes. Putting aside a reserve for -extra occasions, beyond our inn bills we would -be able to afford the luxury of spending along -the road twenty-five cents a day for tea, tobacco, -and chemical lemonade.</p> - -<div id="Ref_48" class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"> -<img src="images/i051.jpg" width="600" height="497" alt="" /> -<div class="caption"><p class="center">THE FIRST REST SPOT OF THE SECOND DAY</p></div> -</div> - -<p>There is something unnatural in such simplicity -of finance, as anyone must agree who believes at -all in the jealousy of the gods. I should have -been forewarned by an old Chinese tale that I -had been told only a fortnight before. It was -while sitting in a Peking restaurant. The teller<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span> -was a most revolutionary son of a most conservative -mandarin. A peasant once entertained a god -unawares. In the morning the god told the peasant -that any wish which he might name would -be granted, be it for riches, or power, or even -the most beautiful maid in all the dragon kingdom -to be his wife. But the peasant asked that -he might only be assured that until the end of -his days he need never doubt when hungry that -he would have food, and at the fall of night that -he would find a pillow on which to lay his head. -The god looked at him sorrowfully and said: -“Alas! You have asked the impossible. Such -favours are reserved for the gods alone.”</p> - -<p>We got up from our figuring blithely, indulging -ourselves in the idea that we could achieve -such evenness of expenditure. Think what an -upsetting of ponderous economics and competitive -jungle law there would be if the world could -and should abruptly take any such consideration -of its wealth!</p> - -<p>The payer of the bill had also added that he -had given a full <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">yen</i> for the tea-money tip. In -those large areas of Japan where the barbarous -foreigner has not yet intruded with his indiscriminate -giving, there is to be found the ancient -system of tea-money. The tea-money custom is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span> -founded on the belief that the wayfarer is the -personal guest of the host. When the guest -departs he is not paying a bill, he is making a -present, and to this sum he adds from a quarter -to a third part extra. This extra payment is -the tea-money and is to be divided by the host -among the servants. The departing guest is then -given a present. All in all, leave taking is a -function.</p> - -<p>A guest does not ask nor demand. He offers -a request and thereby confers a supreme favour -upon any servant fortunate enough to be designated. -All this pleasant service has not the embarrassment -that one must confine a request to -any particular maid so as to escape the necessity -of widespread tipping at departure. It is all -in the tea-money.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"></div><!--Page break for ePub--> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span></p> - - - - -<h2>III<br /> -<span class="titlefont">“I HAVE EATEN OF THE FURNACE OF HADES”</span></h2> - -<p class="center" style="margin-left:9em; margin-top:-1em; margin-bottom:1.5em">Vol. I, Sect. IX. The “Ko-Ji-Ki”</p> - - -<p>A very famous book in Japan is named the -“Ko-Ji-Ki,” and the word means “A Record -of Ancient Matters.” We thought on our second -morning as we walked through the hills that if -there should happen to be a modern chronologist -recording a present-time Ko-Ji-Ki those -hours of the sun’s approaching meridian would -be entered without dispute as The-Forever-Famous-Never-To-Be-Equalled-Day-Of-Fire. -In -the valleys there was no breeze; on the summits -there was no shade; and everywhere it seemed -probable that on the next instant the road would -blister into molten heat bubbles under our feet. -However—to anticipate—if such a postulated -chronicler had so styled that second day of our -walking as one without chance of peer among -historical days of heat, on the very next following -day he would have had to turn back to cross -out his lines. In the burning glare of the rice -fields, anything that had gone before was so<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span> -easily surpassed that we forever lost belief in -maximums, unless indeed kinetic energy might -continue on such a wild rampage of vibration -that it would shake itself completely out of -existence.</p> - -<p>Our first rest of the second day, as I said, -was devoted to the arithmetic of finance. At -that early hour the dew was not yet off the -grass, but when we began planning for another -rest the world had grown parched. Looking -about for some possible spot we saw through -the trees the roof of a small temple. We halted -at the entrance and tried to push open the gate. -It would not move. It was nailed to the ribs -of the fence, but the gate was low enough to be -vaulted. Our feet fell on the ghost of a path -that had once led to the shrine. Harsh brambles -and weeds had fought for the possession of the -path until they had almost conquered the flaggings. -If we thought at all we thought that -that particular walk must have been abandoned -for some other entrance and as the scratches -were not very serious we pushed our way through -until at last we stepped forth into the temple -yard. Not a sign of caretaking devotion was -anywhere in evidence nor was there a nodding -priest sitting in the temple door.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span></p> - -<p>Sometimes the Chinese desert their temples -but, when incense is no longer burned before an -altar, celestial practical sense leaves little that is -movable behind. We slowly walked up the -steps to the door, expecting to find the temple -rifled. The door was sealed by spiders’ webs. -We then walked around the balcony and peered -through the wide cracks in the <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">shogi</i>. No fingers -of man had rummaged there since the priests -had said the last mass, but the fingers of decay -had been busily working. The rotted fabrics -hung down from the altars of the shrines and -the ashes of the incense in the bronze bowls was -hidden by the blacker dust which the wind had -carried through the shutters. Surely we were -the first intruders to step upon the balcony since -the gate had been swung to and nailed.</p> - -<p>We walked around the corners until we had -seen everything that there was to see and then -we jumped down to a grassy slope on the shady -side of the temple and stretched ourselves out -in relaxation. It was very quiet. As I knew -O-Owre-san could sleep for ten minutes and -then wake up to the instant, I closed one eye -and then the other. They both came open together. -I had felt a soft dragging across my -ankles and I raised my head to see a very thin,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span> -long, green and grey snake raising its head up -between my feet to stare into my face. After -a beady inspection it wriggled away with slow -undulations into the grass. And then, from the -spot where that snake had taken passage over -my ankles, came the head of another. I jerked -my feet up under me.</p> - -<p>The instant before there had been an oppressive -quietness. The silence had been so supreme that -we ourselves had scarcely spoken. Now there -was a vast hurrying of little noises. Lizards -ran along the rafters under the roof and dropped -down the wall, as lizards do, to flatten themselves -away into corners. Huge buzzing flies rose from -the surface of the pond and bumped against us -aimlessly. Mosquitoes came from the shadows. -I had thrown my helmet on the grass. I picked -it up to find it beset with ants. I tried to beat -them out of the lining by pounding the hat -against the side of the temple. The effort broke -loose a roach infested board.</p> - -<p>We grinned at each other a little shamefacedly -when we were safely out into the sunshine of the -highroad. We had not stayed to argue in the -temple yard. As we stood thus vanquished and -ejected, two peasants came passing by. They -looked at us, then glanced hurriedly at the temple<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span> -roof above the low trees, and then eyed us again. -They mumbled a word or two. Perhaps they -were trying to tell us that an accursed goblin -had stolen over their shrine to be the abode of -insects and crawling things. I was not so sure -that I had not seen the glowing eyes of a goblin -staring malevolently at us from the cracks of -the <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">shogi</i> when I turned to look back over my -shoulder as we fled.</p> - -<p>For a long way my blood welcomed the sun. -The road led down into a broad valley to become -later little more than an interminable bridge -across the terraced paddy fields. The rice had -sprouted but had not grown rank enough to -block the mirror surface of the water from throwing -back the heat rays. Ahead were low-lying -hills with higher slopes beyond and from the map -we thought that over that barrier would be the -broad plain across which we would find the road -leading straight to Nagoya.</p> - -<p>There was one ambition to luxury which we -always possessed—when we chose a rest spot we -wished one of comfort and, if it could be included, -also that it should have a view. Curiously, -owners of land do not seem to endeavour to -provide such rest places for sensitive travellers, -at least to be obtrusive at any exact second when<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span> -desired. We had taken seven or eight miles -across the valley at an unusually accelerated pace -since our last attempt at a rest. Messages from -the cords of our legs were telling us to concede -some compromise to our particularity. However, -we continued walking and searching without paying -attention to the messages. The grass patches -always disclosed little ant hills upon close inspection -and the occasional heaps of stones to be -found were never under the shade. That obstinacy -of ours was of the stuff ambition should be, -and finally its persistency met due reward. We -found a wide, shady platform built against a -long building, half house, half granary. The -building flanked the road at a bend and as we -made the turn we could see the family of the -house lying on the floor. An old man was telling -an elaborate story and his listeners were so -intent upon the tale that none of them happened -to look up to see us. The platform was -out of their vision and we thought that we -might rest there with the comfortable feeling -that trespassing does not exist unless discovered.</p> - -<p>The tale that was being told was undoubtedly -humorous. The daughters of the family were -hard struggling with laughter. The men were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span> -emphasizing their approval by pounding on the -rim of the charcoal brazier with their iron pipes. -All were repeating a continuous <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja"><a id="a-hei" href="#hei">hei</a></i>, <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">hei</i>. But -there was a baby, and the baby was not so much -interested in the story as he was in a butterfly. -He suddenly betook himself to his dimpled legs -and circled into the road in pursuit. The whims -of the gyrations of the mighty hunter carried -him to a spot where the next turn left him facing -two foreigners on the platform. He stood with -feet apart and carefully lifted the corner of his -diminutive shirt to his mouth for more careful -cogitation, as any Japanese child should and -does do when confronted by a kink in the well-ordered -running of affairs.</p> - -<p>The mother called out an admonition but there -was no response from the <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja"><a id="a-akambo" href="#akambo">akambo</a></i>. She left the -story to find out what might be the enchantment. -She, too, began staring without responding to -admonitions. Another head bobbed around the -corner post and then another and another until -finally the teller of the tale himself forsook the -realm of fancy for fact and followed after his -audience. We said “<i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja"><a id="a-o-hayo" href="#o-hayo">O-hayo</a>!</i>”—which is good-morning—and -they said “<i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">O-hayo!</i>” After that -their rigid attention included everything from -our hats to our boots. Then in a body they<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span> -walked back into the house and were quiet except -for the most hushed of whispers.</p> - -<p>“Two trespassing strangers are about to receive -some mark of respect,” said O-Owre-san.</p> - -<p>“Respect of being told to move on, most -likely,” was my more worldly judgment.</p> - -<p>“How about betting a foreign dinner to be -paid in Yokohama before the boat sails?” asked -O-Owre-san.</p> - -<p>I took the wager, and lost.</p> - -<p>The old man who had been the teller of the -story now reappeared. He was somewhat embarrassed -but at each step of his approach he -had a still broader smile. He was short and -he was thin, with lean, knotted muscles. His -limbs had grown clumsy from heavy toil. -His face was squat as if in his malleable infancy -some evil hand had pressed his forehead down -against his chin. One piece of cloth saved him -from nudity. He was a coolie of generations -of coolies, but despite his embarrassment and -despite his clumsy limbs, the very spirit of graciousness -created a certain grace as he placed -a tray before us. He backed away with low -bow succeeding low bow. The tray held a pot -of tea and two cups and some thin rice cakes.</p> - -<p>Good man, he fortunately never knew what<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span> -an argument his gift precipitated! My opponent -began it all by suggesting that we leave a -twenty <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja"><a id="a-sen" href="#sen">sen</a></i> silver piece on the tray. I disputed.</p> - -<p>“A cup of tea is of such slight cost to the -giver,” was my eloquent and disputatious argument, -“that by being of no price it becomes -priceless and thus is a perfect symbol of a complete -gift in an imperfect world. Japan has this -tradition which we have lost in our own civilization. -This simplicity allows the poorest and -humblest to give a gift to the richest and -mightiest in the purity of hospitality. If we -leave money on the tray we are robbing the -peasant of his privilege.”</p> - -<p>O-Owre-san would have none of my transcendentalism. -“By leaving money,” said he, “a sum -which means no more to us than does the cup -of tea to the peasant, we are making an exchange -of gifts. We know that he is very poor. Twenty -<i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">sen</i> is probably more than the return for two -days of his labour. It will buy him a pair of -wooden <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja"><a id="a-geta" href="#geta">geta</a></i> or a new pipe, or a bamboo umbrella -for his wife, or such a toy for the baby as it -has never dreamed of. After giving our gift -we shall disappear down the road, leaving the -memory of two ugly but generous foreign devils.”</p> - -<p>There was no dispute between us about wishing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span> -to leave some gift. The final compromise -was somewhat on my side as we gave a package -of chocolate to the child. We carried the chocolate -for emergency’s sake and it had cost several -times twenty <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">sen</i>. I do not believe that Japanese -children like chocolate and there was more than -a possibility that this highly condensed brand -would make the baby ill. Surely the deposed -gods of the ancient Tokaido must have made -merry if the news of our analytics was carried -to their Valhalla. Nevertheless our present, -wrapped in a square of white paper according -to the etiquette of gifts, was received by the -family with as many protestations of appreciation -as if we had handed them a deed to perpetual -prosperity.</p> - -<p>The rays of the forenoon’s sun when we were -crossing the valley of the rice fields had sent up -heat waves from the dust of the road until the -road itself seemed to me to have a quaking pitch -and roll. We were now in the full glory of the -noontide. I was becoming somewhat disturbed -over certain phenomena. Trees and rocks and -houses fell into the dance of the heat waves with -an undignified stagger. Sometimes the bushy -trees reeled away in twos and threes where but -a moment before I had seen but one. The most<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span> -disconcerting part of the development was my -peculiar impersonal interest and study of my -own distress. I knew that my eyes were aching -and I knew that the trees were really standing -still. I had the perfect duality of being fascinated -by the day and thus not wishing to be -any place else in the world and yet, as I said, -of being extremely disturbed by the preliminary -overtures of a sunstroke. We had had about -two hours of climbing since we left the house -of the rice farmer and we were on the summit -of the last high hills. Immediately ahead the -rocky path dropped sharply down into the plain. -A rest-house marked the point where the climbing -changed to the descent. I suggested a halt.</p> - -<p>The rest-house was more than a peasant’s hut. -It was easy to believe that in more aristocratic -days it had been an inn of some pretension. -Now it was a spot for weary coolies to throw -down their heavy packs for a few minutes’ rest -in its shade by day or by night to curl up on -the worn mats. We walked into the deepest -recess of the entrance before we sat down. I -could look beyond a half-folded screen into the -kitchen. The polished copper pots and the iron -and bronze bowls were not of this generation; -probably to-morrow’s will find them on a museum<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span> -shelf or cherished in some antique shop. However, -I had no desire to discover curios nor did -I have any preference whether the inn was old -or new, nor whether it had been its fortune to -entertain <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">daimyos</i> or pariahs. We first asked -for something to drink. The hostess dragged -up a bucket from the well and brought us bottles -of <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">ramune</i> which had been cooling in the depths. -I drank the carbonated stuff and then pushed -my rucksack back along the mat for a pillow -and closed my eyes for a half-hour’s blissful -forgetfulness. When I awoke the throbbing -under my eyelids had passed away and for the -first time I really looked at our hostess. She -was kneeling beside us and was slowly fanning -our faces.</p> - -<p>Her teeth were painted black, as was once the -fashion for married women. She had known both -toil and poverty, but it was not a peasant’s face -into which I looked. Her thin fingers and -wasted forearms found repose in the lines which -the ancient artists were wont to copy from the -grace of Old Japan. Her calm face was -beautiful.</p> - -<p>It was time that we should make our way -down the rocky path. She brought us tea before -we went. The bill for everything, as I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span> -remember, was about seven cents. We left a -silver coin beside the teapot. She began to tell -us that we had made a mistake. We told her no. -Shielded by an unworldly, intangible delicacy, -I doubt whether any rudeness of her guests ever -became sufficiently real to her to disturb her -passivity or her emotions, but such a guardianship -presents a thin callous against sympathy. -As we said good-bye a sudden sense of human -mutuality smote the three of us, an experience -of sheer bridging-over intuition which sometimes -comes for a second.</p> - -<p>The absolute relaxation had so marvellously -driven out the devils from my eyes that I did -not even tell O-Owre-san of my hallucinations. -To make up for our lingering we pushed on -through the villages without stopping to wander -into temple grounds or to explore by-ways. -Between a misreckoning of miles on our part -and some misinformation which I gathered from -a peasant, we reached the rather large town of -Siki an hour earlier than we had hoped. As we -strolled through the main street, we saw several -inns which might well have given us comfortable -shelter, but I sensed that the traveller at my side -was waiting for some bubbling of inspiration. -I kept silent, an expiation for having carried<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span> -a disproportionate number of points that day. -We continued walking. I could see the fringe -of the first rice field ahead. My faith was beginning -to waver but before I erred by showing it -O-Owre-san stopped abruptly and inquired the -Japanese word for inn. He then asked for one -or two other words and adjectives. Thus armed -he stepped into a shop, the appearance of which -had perhaps been the stimulus to his inspiration.</p> - -<p>The shop had glass windows and a glass door. -It was the most metropolitan example of commercial -progressiveness which we had seen since -we left Kyoto. In fact, compared to the other -shops of Siki it had as haughty an exclusiveness -as any portal along New Bond Street seeks to -maintain over possible rivals. Looking through -the glass of the door we discovered that the floor -was not covered with matting. Such a last touch -of foreignism meant that one could walk in without -taking off one’s dusty boots. I do not remember -that we ever again found this detail of -Western culture outside the port cities. In the -heart of the most isolated mountain range the -most lonesome charcoal burner knows three -things about the foreigner: that he is hairy like -the red fox; that he has a curious and barbarous<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span> -custom known as kissing; that his boots are part -of his feet.</p> - -<p>Into this shop, then, O-Owre-san walked without -having to undo his bootlaces. There was -also an aristocratic glass counter and under the -glass, in show trays, were gold watches. Behind -this counter sat a young man in a <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">kimono</i> of black -silk. His face was pale, ascetic, and contemplative. -He smiled and bowed in formal hospitality. -The grace of such a bow comes from centuries -of saying <em>yes</em> instead of <em>no</em>. A cultured Japanese, -almost any Japanese, never flatly contradicts -unless to deny another’s self-derogatory statement. -The <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja"><a id="a-iiye" href="#iiye">iiye</a></i> (used as “no”) is rarely heard -and the carrying over of the omnibus <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">hei</i>, <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">hei</i>, or -the more polite <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja"><a id="a-sayo" href="#sayo">sayo</a></i>, into the English <em>yes</em> often -brings consternation to the Westerner seeking -accurate information.</p> - -<p>O-Owre-san said, “Please, good inn” (directly -translated). As if the pale and ascetic seller -of gold watches was accustomed daily to having -perspiring foreigners with packs on their backs -inquire for this information, he bowed again and -smiled and said, “<i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">Hei</i>, <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">hei!</i>” This time the <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">hei</i>, -<i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">hei</i> did mean yes. He drew his <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">kimono</i> tighter -about his hips and adjusted his silken <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja"><a id="a-obi" href="#obi">obi</a></i>, and -walked out of the shop with us. Apologizing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span> -for the necessity of going before, he piloted us -through turns of the street to the gateway of -an inn. Calling for the mistress he made a -dignified oration of introduction, and backed -away from our sight with innumerable appreciations -for the honour of being asked to be of -service.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"></div><!--Page break for ePub--> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span></p> - - - - -<h2>IV<br /> -<span class="titlefont">THE MILES OF THE RICE PLAINS</span></h2> - - -<p>The experiences of the second of our Japanese -Nights’ Entertainments were as impersonal, as -far as the inn’s paying special attention to us -was concerned, as the first evening’s had not -been. The police record was brought to us with -an English translation of the questions and we -wrote the answers without complication. The -incidents which may develop in one inn quite -naturally have a wide variation from the happenings -which may arise in another, but the general -machinery of hospitality differs but little. There -is, in fact, far less contrast in the essentials of -comfort between the ordinary provincial inn and -the native hotels of the first order in Tokyo or -Kyoto than there is to be found in a like comparison -of hotels in our civilization; even it might -be said that the simple and fundamental artistry -of the shelter which houses the peasant in Japan -has in its possession the root forms of the taste -which charms in the homes of the cultured.</p> - -<p>Immediately after we had applied ourselves<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span> -to the police record and had had our steaming -hot bath, a <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">ne-san</i> brought the small dinner tables. -If ever this particular maid had enjoyed the -frivolity of laughter for laughter’s sake, she had -long since banished any such promotion of irresponsible -dimples from the corners of her mouth, -although it should be stated that she was far -from having arrived at an age to provoke a solemn -and serious outlook upon life. Her eyes -wandered up to the ceiling and around the edges. -She was bored. Furthermore she appeared distressed -at having to witness the table errors of -ignorant foreigners. We insulted the honourable -rice by heaping sugar upon it and we drank -cold water when we should have sipped tea. We -asked for a few extras to the menu. She repeated -over our words, caught in amazement -that we could change the barking sounds through -which we found communication with each other -into the music of <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">Nihon</i> speech. We asked if -she were not afraid of barbarous foreigners, but -she rather contemptuously rejoined that she could -see no reason for being afraid in the shelter of -her own inn. I then concocted from the dictionary -an elaborate sentence which asked whether -her expectation of how fearsome a foreigner might -be was excelled by the examples in flesh and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span> -blood before her. The truth of her obvious conviction -and the sense of required politeness of -hospitality struggled each for utterance with such -disconcerting effect that she used her turned-in -toes to patter away down the flight of stairs and -we saw our disapprover not again until she came -to spread the beds.</p> - -<p>We had planned to explore the shops of Siki -by lantern light after dinner but the two beds -so aggressively allured us that we never stepped -over them. The coverings were the usual heavy -quilts buttoned into sheets. Such a combination -coverlet is generally long enough for the foreign -sleeper as the Japanese habit on cold nights is -to disappear completely under the layer, but at -the inn in Siki for some reason the length was -decidedly curtailed and the mattresses were correspondingly -short. However, at the end of such -a day of fire as we had had I was contemptuous -of such limitations. I expected to sleep on the -quilt and not under it.</p> - -<p>For an hour, covered only by my cotton -<i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">kimono</i>, I knew the comfort of airy rest. Then -I awoke to a sensation I had almost forgotten. -I was chilled through. I entered upon a campaign -of trying to get back to sleep by wrapping -the abbreviated quilt about my shoulders. The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span> -far from satisfactory result was that my legs -were left dangling in the chill drafts while the -protected upper surfaces melted. Next I essayed -a system of sliding the quilt up and down, executing -retreats from too copious perspiration. -This procedure met with some success but the -required watchfulness was hardly a soporific. I -called myself a tenderfoot. Some slight appreciation -of how ridiculous it all was destroyed any -high tragedy of self-sympathy but it could not -keep me from loathing O-Owre-san for breathing -so tranquilly. Finally I got up, determined to -force my ingenuity to find some balance between -such excesses. Then I saw that O-Owre-san’s -eyes were wide open.</p> - -<p>I know not what the temperature of that room -was in actual Fahrenheit degrees, but too many -truth-tellers have secretly confided to me that they -have found just such uncanny nights in Japan -to disbelieve that the midnight “Hour of the -Rat” has not at times a malignancy independent -of mere thermometer readings. That night was -neither cold nor hot; it was both and it was both -at the same instant. My skin had been flushed -to a mild fever from its long bath in the sun’s -rays, but the flesh beneath now grew iced when -not swaddled beneath the furnace of the quilt.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span> -My inspiration, after sitting for a time and -studying all the possible materials in the room, -was to build a tent. I was so successful that -I hurled a defiance at the “Hour of the Rat,” -and for another half-hour—perhaps it was—I -again knew the positiveness of sleep.</p> - -<p>The Japanese believe that they are a silent -people. That faith is one of the supreme misbeliefs -of the world. Before dinner, when we -were sitting on our narrow balcony, we had said -good-evening to a circle of young men who were -lounging on cushions in the large room next to -ours. Later they dressed and went out and we -forgot them. I awoke to hear through the thin -wall that they had returned. They were holding -a Japanese conversation. Such a conversation -can only be described by telling what it is not. -In rhythm it is neither the cæsura of the French -peasant woman retailing gossip, nor is it the -eluding tempo-harmonic tune of the Red Indian -drum beat; it is not the Chinese intoning nor -is it a staccato. At first the foreign ear does -not distinguish the beat of the cadences but once -captured the appreciation of the subtle metrical -wave is never again lost. We had the opportunity -of full orientation that night. The paper -wall was but a second tympan to our ears.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span></p> - -<p>Their conversation as an entity was a musical -composition effected without counterpoint and -played by the instruments in succession. First -there was a swing of phrases from one speaker, -and then after a decorous and proper dramatic -pause there was an answering swing from another. -No speaker was interrupted. The right -of reply was passed about as if it were as physically -tangible as a loving cup.</p> - -<p>There was one distinct suggestion from the -monotony of it all above every other impression, -a something absolutely alien to any Occidental -conversation. While they talked and drank tea -and drank tea and talked, I twisted about under -my tent puzzled to solve what that impression -was. Suddenly I found words to express to myself -the sought-for revelation. The effect of a -long Japanese conversation is that of <em>voiceful -contemplation</em>. Separated from them physically -only by a paper wall, we belonged to another -world, a world which has ordered its existence -without finding contemplation and its manifestations -a necessary adjunct.</p> - -<p>The mosquitoes, which all night had kept up -a noisy circling over our net, flew off at daybreak. -Some speaker spoke the concluding word -in the next room and for a few minutes the universe<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span> -was quiet. Then came the high shrieking -of the ungreased axles of coolie carts being -dragged to the rice fields. I took my quilt and -cushions out onto the balcony. The inn began -waking up. Down in the garden two kitchen -maids appeared. They were arousing their energy -by dipping their faces into brass basins of -cold well water. I left my balcony and wandered -below to find a basin for myself.</p> - -<p>The inn had filled during the night with guests -of all descriptions and ranks. They were coming -forth from under their quilts. A <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">ne-san</i> stepped -to the wellside and filled a basin for me and then -ran off to find a gift toothbrush. Another maid, -lazily binding on her <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">obi</i>, stayed her dressing for -a moment to pour cool water from a wooden -dipper over my head and neck. Getting up o’ -the morning is a social cooperation in a Japanese -inn.</p> - -<p>Breakfast came. After breakfast I sat down -on the balcony cushions to smoke and to breathe -the delicious morning air and I promptly went -to sleep. I wished to go on sleeping forever and -to let the world work, or walk, or talk, or do -anything it might choose to do, but O-Owre-san -appeared, saying that he had paid the bill. He -had stuffed our presents into his rucksacks and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span> -had had the dramatic farewells to himself. After -one has accepted a going-away present, one goes. -Tense good-byes do not brook recapture. The -super-wanderer is thus forbidden ever to retrace -his steps. For him alone, his life being always -the anticipation of the next note of the magic -flute, does the present become real by eternally -existing as a becoming. He will not pay the -price for contentment, which is to re-live and rethink -the past.</p> - -<p>When we at length reached Nagoya, where -the government bureau records temperatures -scientifically, we learned that the week had been -really one of extraordinary heat. Among other -symptoms of the week, deranged livers and -prickly irritation had inspired angry letters in -the readers’ columns of the foreign newspapers, -belabouring everything native, particularly the -casual discarding of clothing. A newspaper -editor told us that such attacks of hyper-sensitiveness -over nudity come not to foreigners newly -arrived nor to those residents who sanely take -long vacations back to their homelands (where -they may have the rejuvenation of themselves -being homogeneous with the masses), but to the -conscientious unfortunates who remain too long -at their posts. Round and about them for the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span> -twenty-four hours of the day and the seven days -of the week surges the sea of native life. The -feeling of lonesome strangeness, which can never -be entirely lost by the foreigner, feeds on its own -black moods and this poisonous diet suddenly -nourishes a dull hatred. Then come the bitter -letters to the press demanding that the Japanese -reform themselves into Utopian perfection and -threatening that unless they so do the foreign -guests of the empire will assemble in convention -and design an all-enveloping bag (with a drawing -string to be pulled tight about the neck of -the wearer) as a national costume for their hosts -for evermore.</p> - -<p>If hot days in the port cities, where there is -some mild regulation of costume, can bring such -disturbances of mind to anxiously missioning folk, -we thought that it was as well that they were not -walking with us that day through the villages of -the broad plain which slopes from Mount Keisoku -to Ise Bay. It was before we were out of -the hills that our road carried us through a grove. -A stone-flagged walk led into the shadows of -the trees and we could see at its end the beginning -of a long flight of stone steps which bespoke -some hidden and ancient shrine beyond. A small -stream flowed alongside the path and cut our<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span> -road under an arched stone bridge. We heard -shouts of laughter from the pines and the next -moment an avalanche of children came tumbling -along as fast as their legs could take them. -Some were cupids with bright coloured <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">kimonos</i> -streaming from their shoulders; some did not -have even that restraint. A tall, slender maiden -was in pursuit, and the pursuit was part of some -game. They dashed by us through the light and -shadow and were lost again in the pines.</p> - -<p>It was the reincarnation of a Greek relief. In -that flash of the moment in which we saw them, -the glistening nude body of the pursuing girl -running through the green and brown and grey -of the grove was passionately and superbly the -plea of nature against man’s crucifying purity -upon the cross of sophistication.</p> - -<p>I regretted to O-Owre-san the having within -me so much of that very sophistication that I -had begun immediately to moralize upon such -a sheerly beautiful vision. He, who had been -saying nothing, replied with an end-all to the -subject. “Your mild regret,” said he, “that -dispassionate analysis has displaced passionate -creativeness is the penalty you pay for the pleasure -of studying your own sadness.”</p> - -<p>The Greeks, I believe, had for one of their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span> -two axioms by which they covered the conduct of -wise living, “No excess in anything.” I had -very fearlessly compared the young girl to a -Greek relief, but when we were out of the hills -and were in the meaner villages of the plains -I began to feel the truth of that Greek dictum -that people can mix too much practice into a -theory, especially when it comes to an overwhelming -surrender to naturalness. I lost my enthusiasm -for my so shortly before uttered panegyric -of a world naturally and unconsciously -nude. I began to understand a new meaning -in the artist’s cry of “Give me Naples and her -rags!” Especially the rags! Upon some occasions -art and sensibility need the rags far more -than does morality.</p> - -<p>All this argument was with myself as O-Owre-san’s -dismissal of my tentative first offering on -the subject had not been encouraging to further -communication. I then proceeded to a further -step in my private debate and queried whether -in the selection of clothes, to be truly practical, -man would not be served better by trusting to -comfort rather than to either art or morality; -and then I came upon the thought that comfort -has no strength to resist convention when they -collide, and as convention, with the guile of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span> -serpent, always makes much pretension of riding -in the same omnibus with virtue, perhaps after -all the true wisdom of life is to stay close to -convention and thus one will be pretty sure to -reach Journey’s End in good shape. I mentioned -my change of heart to O-Owre-san as we -were sitting down in the shade of a <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">ramune</i> shop, -where unabashed nudity had gathered in a circle -to regard the foreigners. He did not seem to -be moved to interest by my reformation. I -heaped a malediction on his head. Surely if -I were willing to rearrange my opinions seven -times daily at some one stage he might agree.</p> - -<p>It was during this rest that I came upon the -happiest adventure that the mouth of man may -hope to experience in this imperfect world. I -had been thirsty from that first day in the East -when I had begun breathing in Manchurian -dust. In Peking I had tried to cool my throat -by every variety of drink offered through the -mingling of Occidental and Oriental civilizations. -In Korea, a certain twenty-four hours of wandering -alone and lost among the baked and arid -mountains had further augmented the parching -of my tongue—an increasement which I had believed -to be impossible. Along the Tokaido we -were free to drink as much chemical lemonade<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span> -as our purse could buy and, despite the warnings -of all red-bound guide books, we drank the water. -But never, since the beginning of my thirst, had -I found a liquid worth one word’s praise as a -quencher, neither water nor wine, neither <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">ramune</i> -nor tea. I have irreverently forgotten the name -of the village of the discovery.</p> - -<p>As we sat resting in the <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">ramune</i> shop I looked -about and saw some champagne cider bottles of -unusually large size. The quantity rather than -the flavour of that particular chemical combination -was the appeal. I asked for two of the -bottles, making the request to a maid who was -hoisting a flag over the door. The flag had a -single Chinese character printed on it. It was -a sign which I later learned to distinguish from -incredible distances. After flinging out the flag, -she took down two bottles from the shelf but -instead of opening them she smiled with a beaming -which came from the secure faith that she -was bearing good news.</p> - -<p>“<i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">Kori wa ikago desu?</i>” she asked.</p> - -<p>The concluding three words are among the -first to be learned from the phrase book and mean -“Do you wish?” The word <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">kori</i> I remembered -from its having been one of the extras of our -first night. It means “ice.” We said yes, that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span> -we would like ice, but in our ignorance we spoke -with no marked ebulliency. She smiled again -and sat down, folding her arms in her <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">kimono</i> -sleeves, an equivalent of that expression of contented -virtue shown when our own housewives -peacefully wrap their hands in their aprons.</p> - -<div id="Ref_84" class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"> -<img src="images/i089.jpg" width="600" height="522" alt="" /> -<div class="caption"><p class="center">THE KORI (ICE) FLAG OF THE “ADVENTURER”</p></div> -</div> - -<p>That the flag above the door had some definite -meaning for the villagers began to be most evident. -The shop was filling. Mob expectancy is -contagious and we found ourselves waiting tensely -with no clear idea what we were waiting for. -The shop was now quite full and all eyes were -turned to the street. We heard shouts from the -outside that were almost <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">banzais</i>, and a coolie -came running in. His face was aflame from the -happy look of completed service. He was carrying -a dripping block of ice in many wrappings -of brown hemp cloth. I do not know how far -he had come with the ice. Perhaps he had been -to some station of the distant railroad. The -maid took her hands from her <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">kimono</i> sleeves -and seized the ice. She pulled off the wrappings. -Next she took a saw and cut off an end from the -cake. Another maid re-wrapped the precious -remainder in the hemp cloth and buried it in a -pit dug in the floor. A third maid had been -standing by with a board which had a sharp knife<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span> -edge set into it. The first maid scraped the end -of the ice cake over this inverted plane and -shavings of sparkling snow fell into her hand. -She packed this whiteness into two large, flat, -glass dishes. She poured into the snow the effervescing -champagne cider and brought us the -“adventure.”</p> - -<p>An adventure is an adventure in proportion -to the emotion aroused. For days without end -thirst had been sitting astride my tongue. Just -as the Old Man of the Sea fastened his thighs -around Sindbad’s neck and then kicked the poor -man’s ribs mercilessly with his heels, so had my -parasite tickled my throat with his toes. To have -unthroned my tormentor at the beginning of his -companionship would have been a sensuous satisfaction. -To do so after having known the abysses -of abject slavery was an ecstasy exceeding the -dreams of lovers.</p> - -<p>I flushed the ice particles around in my mouth -until my eyes rolled in my head. O-Owre-san -was alarmed into protests. I had no time to -listen. I ordered another bowl of snow and another -bottle. It was costing <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">sen</i> after <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">sen</i> but -I knew in my soul that if I had to beg my rice -to get to Yokohama and had to sleep under -temple steps, even if the price for the snow thus<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span> -beggared me, the uttermost payment could be in -no proportion to the value.</p> - -<p>The fertile plain through which the Tokaido -now wound was crowded with the sight of man. -A few houses always clustered wherever a rise -in the ground could lift them above the water of -the rice fields. The paddy toilers, digging with -their hands around the rice roots, worked in long -lines, men and women, with their bodies bent flat -down from their hips against their legs. If they -noticed our passing and looked up, we would say, -“It is hot!” and they would say, “It is hot!” -Finally an avenue of scrub pines brought shade -and I declared for a siesta. Our first attempt -gave way before a horde of ants. We tried relaying -the top stones of a heap of boulders and -then climbed up on that edifice, going to sleep -quite contentedly. When I yawned into wakefulness -I looked lazily around the landscape -wondering where I was. I felt queerly and -strangely alone. It was not that the sound of -breathing from under O-Owre-san’s helmet had -ceased. He had not become a deserter, but while -we were sleeping every peasant in the fields had -disappeared. There can be, then, a degree of -heat under which a coolie will not labour, and -we had found the day of that heat.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span></p> - -<p>In the next village we discovered our labourers -again. They were lying on the floors of their -open-sided houses, the elders motionless except -for the deep rising and falling of their breasts -and an arm lifted now and then in desultory -fanning. The children, however, were restless -enough to be startled into gazing at the two -strangers who were walking the gauntlet of the -narrow street.</p> - -<p>We had seen an ice flag over a shop at the -very entrance to the town but O-Owre-san suggested -that there would surely be another shop -farther along. I accepted his reasoning but there -was not another <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">kori</i> flag to be found anywhere. -We had reached the last house. The sign over -the shop we had passed was at least a mile back -along that burning white cañon. O-Owre-san -stopped in at the last house to beg some well -water. I looked at the water and thought of -the ice.</p> - -<p>“If there ever was any ice back there,” said -he, “it’s melted by this time.”</p> - -<p>I was venomous. I left my luggage and -started back.</p> - -<p>The children, maybe, had been telling their -parents of the sight that they had missed, a sight -which might never come again. The grinding<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span> -of my heels this time brought a somewhat larger -audience to their elbows. They appeared appreciative -of my second appearance. I staggered -on and on, mopping my head with a blue and -white gift towel. I felt in my limbs the exact -strength that would carry me to that <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">kori</i> shop, -but to have had to go a foot beyond might well -have meant an experience in hallucinations which -I had no wish to know.</p> - -<p>An old man, who grinned toothlessly, dug -down into a sawdust pit and exhumed a fair-sized -cake of ice. He moved about his work -grotesquely as if he were an animated conceit -of carved ivory quickened into life for a moment -by the hyper-heat. He at last gave me a bowl -of snow with sprinkled sugared water over it. -I munched the ice for a full half-hour. As I -slowly grew cooler the crowd about me slowly -grew larger. They stood silently staring, always -staring.</p> - -<p>The change for the silver piece which I put -down was a heap of coppers. It must have weighed -half a pound or more. I might not have been -so generous if the wealth had been more portable. -As it was, I invited in two or three boys from -the circle of the crowd. A carpenter’s apprentice -had been sitting on the bench beside me.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span> -He had paid for one bowl of snow which he had -held close to his lips, tossing the sugar powdered -ambrosia into his mouth with dexterous flips of -a tiny tin spoon. He looked at the ice supply -about to disappear into the pit and I invited -him to a further participation. He glanced at -me intensely for a second as if he wished to solve -by that one glance every reason for my existence. -Then he turned his attention to his second bowl, -which I paid for. His hair was clipped close to -his skull. The fresh, youthfully transparent skin -of his face was stretched like a sheet of rubber, -the tension holding down his nose and allowing -his eyes to stare with an openness impossible to -optics otherwise socketed.</p> - -<p>Just how the round, cannonball head of the -Japanese boy evolutes into the featured physiognomy -of the Japanese man is puzzling. It must -be a sort of bursting. The schoolboy’s eyes betray -the passing moods of his emotions, but there -is always something beyond the mood of the -moment in his gazing, an intangible yearning for -infinity. It must at times be terrifying for an -Anglo-Saxon teacher or missionary to face those -eyes. Such a victim may find respite by swearing -in the court of all that is practical and material -that the mere physical strangeness of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span> -deep staring has bewitched him. He is wise if, -by clinging to analysis of the objective world, -he can restrain all passion to disturb such mysteries—otherwise -he may be led into a voyage -such as that of Urashima to the enchanted island. -And then, if ever he seeks to return to his Western -identity, he may find that the world which -he once knew has died and that he stands neither -wedded to the daughter of the Dragon King nor -possessing the substance of his former self.</p> - -<p>I was thus dreamily communing, studying the -face of the carpenter’s apprentice. It was he -who recalled me from such heat born, mental -wanderings by finishing his ice, picking up his -<i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">kimono</i> and throwing it over his shoulder, and -walking off with the air of, “Well, you ice -dreamer, I have been with you for a moment, -but now I have work to do in the world.” I -followed after him and walked out again into -the fiery street.</p> - -<p>I can swear that the ice had cooled me back -to the normal. I felt myself a part of the obvious -world. I had banished the disease known as the -imagination. I was doing the most practical -thing for the moment, going back to my rucksack. -But I can also swear that the real world was -most unfairly unreal. Great-grandfathers and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span> -great-great-grandmothers, who had passed so -far along on their journey through life that probably -they had given up hope of ever again seeing -anything new and worldly strange to interest -them, had been carried to the fronts of the houses -to behold the outlander. It was as if I had not -come to see Japan but Japan had been waiting -long and patiently to see me, a parading manikin -in a linen suit and yellow boots and a pith helmet. -The naked, old, old women, their ribs slowly -moving under their dried skin as if breathing -and staring were their last hold upon the temporal -world, knelt, supported by their children, on the -mats. Walking slowly by I felt that I was the -sacrificial pageant of the ceremony for their final -surrender. There was not a sound from their -lips. I began to have a sense of remarkable -completeness, that I was a single figure with no -possible replica. It was not until I saw O-Owre-san’s -blue shirt that I was able to snap the thread -which was leading me not out of but into the -tortuous labyrinth of such speculative folly.</p> - -<p>“I was just going back to look for you,” said -he, “I thought you must have had a sunstroke.”</p> - -<p>It seemed just then an unnecessary and a too -complicated endeavour to explain the minute difference -between standing with one’s toes on the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span> -edge of the calamity which he had feared for me -and the actuality of toppling over the precipice. -Thus I merely replied that I was feeling all -right.</p> - -<p>Some tribes of men have in their dogma that -the beard must never be trimmed. I am able to -imagine that O-Owre-san would carry a sympathetic -understanding always with him, no matter -among what races he might go adventuring, except -into the society of the disbelievers in beard -trimming. He demands an extreme exactitude -in the trimming of his own beard which proclaims -the existence of a certain precise flair of idealism. -This flair may be seen manifested in him also -in such croppings out as his appreciation for -flawless cloisonné. The fact that he had discovered -a barber shop and had not made immediate -use of his find was overwhelming proof that -he had been really solicitous about me. Now -that I had returned he made no further delay -but sat down in the chair. I stretched out on -the matting to wait. The barber’s daughter -brought cushions and placed them under my head -and then knelt at my shoulder to send scurrying -breaths of cool air from her fan across my -face.</p> - -<p>When I awoke O-Owre-san was paying the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span> -barber’s charge. It amounted, if I remember, -to three <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">sen</i>, or perhaps three and one-half <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">sen</i>. -Whatever it was the now properly trimmed -<i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">kebukei</i> foreigner left four <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">sen</i> and one-half from -his honourable purse, and there was another copper -or two as thanks to O-Momo-san for the -gentle medicine of her fan.</p> - -<p>The barber’s clippers, which he had used with -such art, had perhaps cost four <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">yen</i>. If so, they -would—as may be determined by simple division—require -at least one hundred similar payments -before the return to the barber of their initial -cost; and there were the razors, and the chair, -and the shining cups and bottles, all representing -capital outlay; and there must have been rent -to pay. There are three demi-gods of the East -and only under their reign lies the answer. Great -is rice, that it satisfies the hunger. Great is cotton, -that it clothes the limbs. Great is art, that -it can build the home from the simple bamboo. -The barber jingled the four <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">sen</i> and a half between -his palms, and the jingle was the music -that sings of the buying of the rice, the cotton, -and the bamboo. There is mystery and magic -in economics; and there is, in the submission of -man to recognize money as a medium of exchange -and in his cooperating to maintain that recognition<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span> -by law and force, the greatest story in the -world.</p> - -<p>The barber ceased jingling the coins and -dropped them into a drawer. His daughter remained -kneeling, her wistful, gentle head bowed -low in good-byes. She had been silent but I -imagined that I knew two of her thoughts—no, -I should say, two of her moods. One was quite -obvious. She had been amused (it was an adventure -in its way) to fan to sleep a foreign -guest. But the other mood, born of dreaming, -was asking where the road led, which those -strange visitors were striking out upon, stretching -away into the distance as does the march into -the beyond of life.</p> - -<p>We were talking idly one day with a maid -in a certain inn. Her name was O-Kimi-san, -and she was pretty in the flush of youth, and -“very pretty anyhow,” as O-Owre-san critically -observed. Her feet were quick as sunshine when -she ran for our dinner trays, or to bring tea -instantly to our room upon our coming in from -the street, or to fetch glowing charcoal to our -elbow if we should wish to smoke, and her fingers -were cunning in all the other little luxuries of -service. She was saving money, she said, for -the wedding which might be, but as she had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span> -neither father nor mother to arrange a marriage -she added quite simply that she was only hoping -to be married. She desired to wed a merchant, -with a shop of his own, having a little room -upstairs over the bazaar so that the good wife -might be able to run down and attend to customers -between domestic duties. She declared -an antique shop would be the best, for one can -buy nowadays from the wholesalers such wonderful, -not-to-be-detected imitations. But her -eyes grew sad. It was not within reason to hope -that a merchant with such a shop would ever -love a dowerless girl, and it was taking so long -to save the capital herself. Why, one of the -maids of the inn had been there sixteen years! -If she had only three hundred <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">yen</i> the heaven -upon earth might be hers.</p> - -<p>I know that O-Momo-san, the daughter of the -barber, when she sat wondering what lay beyond -the farthest distance she could see along the road, -was not imagining a little shop, where between -domestic cares she could take time to wait upon -customers.</p> - -<p>It is for the imagination of dreaming O-Momo-san -that the priests light the incense at the sacred -altar; it is for practical O-Kimi-san that they -read the traditional advice from the theology of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span> -moral maxims. The Marys and the Marthas! -The cherry blossoms are a bloom of mysterious -beauty for the daughter of the barber; they are -a symbol of gay festival time for the practical -maid of the inn. Will it be the end for the -daughter of the barber of Kasada to marry her -father’s apprentice and to live on in the little -shop, dreaming until dreams slumber and are -forgotten, knowing only this of the old Tokaido -that it leads away in a straight line until it is -lost in the brilliant blur of the sun on the waters -of the rice fields? Or will her imagining heart -know adventure in the world beyond the vision -of her doorstep? Perhaps the <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">sen</i> will come so -slowly to the barber’s drawer that the wistful -daughter will be sold to a <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">geisha</i> master, and in -filial piety, fulfilling the contract, she may go -even to Tokyo where she will be taught to sing -and to dance and to laugh gaily. She may find -that life is kind. Again, she may be sold to -another life—under the juggernaut of poverty—and -in the Nightless City knowledge will come -to dwell in the empty place where wistfulness -was.</p> - -<p>We walked away from Kasada along the unchanging -road; one blade of rice was like another, -one step was like another, finally one<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span> -thought became like another. Nagoya was many -miles ahead. O-Owre-san, the tramper, is of the -faith which holds that to give in to a stretch of -road just because it is dull is to surrender for -no reason at all. That is good doctrine. I have -something of it, but my hold upon the faith is -admixed with a Catholicism which does not preclude -the restful and inward harmony of maintaining -speaking acquaintance with several conflicting -beliefs. On the other hand O-Owre-san -will, simply and unostentatiously, subordinate his -preferences, but the surrender is so generous that -that virtue is usually a protection in itself against -applied selfishness. To escape any disagreeable -feeling of shame I thought it might be that -O-Owre-san could be induced to make the suggestion -himself that we take some more rapid -means of transportation. We were in the land -of <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">jiu-jitsu</i>. The fundamental idea of this system -is that you politely assist your opponent to throw -himself. I began by alluding to the thrills and -possibilities of the antique shops of Nagoya. If -we should continue walking we could not reach -there until late at night, and if we should find -Kenjiro Hori waiting for us and prepared to be -off early the next morning, when would there -be time for exploring? I then ventured casually<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span> -that the railroad would take us to Nagoya in a -couple of hours. Imagination began to work as -my ally. O-Owre-san at last queried directly -whether I would be willing to give up walking -in the country for exploration in the city. I -yielded. Thus, when the arrogant Tokaido of -steel crossed our road, as the map had told me -it soon would, two foreigners with rucksacks -found places amid teapots and babies, bundles -and ever fanning elders, and soon they saw the -tall smokestacks of modern Nagoya.</p> - -<p>Our kit of clean linen and clean suits had been -forwarded from Kyoto in care of the foreign -hotel. Perhaps we each had had the idea when -the bag was packed that we would be exceedingly -content to catch up with it again, not alone -for the contents but in anticipation that the finding -would mean that we would be again surrounded -by the comfort of Western standards -exotically flourishing. Alas for the stability of -our tenet! We were aware that our capitulation -to the simplicity of the native inns sprang partly -from the glamour of the new, but the conquest -had come from realization and not mere anticipation. -Dilettantes we were, truly, and as such -we acknowledged ourselves, but we should be -credited that we escaped the eczema of reformers.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span> -We had no obsession to hasten back to our own -land to argue the multitudes out of the custom -of wearing shoes in the house or sitting on chairs -instead of floors. Nevertheless when we walked -into the door of the hotel and up the stairs every -tread of our heavy, dusty boots struck at our -sensibility of a better fitness and order.</p> - -<p>We walked along the upstairs hall and passed -a room with wide open double doors. There -was Kenjiro Hori waiting for us; that is, a -semblance of O-Hori-san was there, his material -body. When a Japanese sleeps his absorption -by his dream hours is so complete that one is -tempted to believe that his so-called waking hours -(no matter how manifested in energy) may be -only a hazy interim between periods of a much -more important psychic existence. We walked -into the room and sat down and talked things -over and waited for the opening of Hori’s eyelids, -but they moved not. O-Owre-san at last -departed to seek treasure trove in the antique -shops and I decided for the laziness of a bath.</p> - -<p>I asked for a hot bath. The bath boy’s uniform -was starched and new, and he was starched -and new in his position as drawer of water. He -was very proud of such responsibility and was -very earnest and very smiling. In some other<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></span> -occupation he had picked up a little English. -He promised to hurry. Minutes went by. Above -the sound of the running of the water I could -hear a mysterious pounding and scraping. This -combination of noises continued with no regard -for passing time. Now and again I pounded -on the door in Occidental impatience. “Very -quick! Very quick!” would come his answer. -When the bolt did snap back I could see from -his perspiring face that he must have been hurrying -after some fashion of his own. He bowed -and pointed to the tub. I put in one foot—and -out it came. The water might have come from -a glacier.</p> - -<p>“I asked for a hot bath—<i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">o yu, furo</i>,” I shouted.</p> - -<p>There was no retreat of the smiles. They -even grew.</p> - -<p>“Japanese man, he take hot bath. Foreign -man, he take cold bath.”</p> - -<p>I now understood the scraping and pounding. -The hot days had attacked the water tanks of -the hotel until the faucets marked “Cold” were -running warm. The bath boy had been laboriously -stirring around a cake of ice in the tub. -Blandly came the repetition, “Foreign man, he -take cold bath.”</p> - -<p>For the sake of sweet courtesy and kindly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span> -appreciation I should have sat down in that -water, but I did not. I pulled out the stopper -and drew a hot tub. When the boy realized this -sacrilege against the custom of the foreign man, -he veritably trembled from the violence of the -restraint which he had to put upon himself, but -his idea of courtesy was so far superior to mine -that he retreated. I bolted the door against him.</p> - -<p>O-Owre-san returned from his field with enraptured -accounts. There is some sort of affinity -between him and a bit of treasure. He is the -hazel wand and the antique is the hidden water, -but as a human divining rod he does not merely -bend to magnetism, he leaps. My first initiation -to that knowledge had been so sufficiently -striking that no new evidences ever surprised me. -That initiation had come when we were riding -one Sunday morning on the top of a tram in the -cathedral city of Bath. We were in the midst -of a discussion. Half way through a sentence -he suddenly lifted himself over the rail and disappeared -down the side of the car. When I -could finally alight more conventionally I ran -back to find him with his nose against a dull -and uninviting window. From the top of the -tram he had seen within the shadows a chair. -There was no arousing the antique shop on Sunday<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</a></span> -and thus he left a note of inquiry under the -door and eventually that particular treasure, -wrapped in burlap, made its long journey to -America.</p> - -<p>He began discussing the treasures of Nagoya -when in walked Hori.</p> - -<p>“I don’t see how you got by my door,” said he.</p> - -<p>“Weren’t you asleep?” I asked.</p> - -<p>“Oh, just dozing,” he explained.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"></div><!--Page break for ePub--> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</a></span></p> - - - - -<h2>V<br /> -<span class="titlefont">THE ANCIENT NAKESCENDO</span></h2> - - -<p>We had an hour to kill before dinner and we -were irritably moody against the foreign windows -which gave us no breeze. “It’s housely -hot,” said O-Owre-san, and he sighed pathetically -for the cool mats of an inn floor where there -would be a pot of freshly brewed tea at his elbow -and a green garden to look out upon. I was -studying a map of Japan, tracing out its rivers -and mountains.</p> - -<p>I have an inordinate passion for maps. Surely -Stevenson had some such passion. I venture -that he first thought of the pirate’s chart of -“Treasure Island” and after that first imagination -the story simply wrote itself. Particularly -does passion find satisfaction in one of the old -Elizabethan maps, printed in full, rich colours, -the margins portraying the waves of the sea with -dolphins diving, and with barques straining under -bellied sails. Some are headed for the Spanish -Main, and others are striking out for the regions -marked “Unknown.” Those old Elizabethan<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span> -maps could have been drawn only in the days -of hurly-burly England when the deep-chested -seamen under Raleigh and Drake sang savage -sea songs in the taverns and the tingling life in -a man’s veins was worth its weight in adventure. -No wonder that to-day, with our pale, lithographed -maps telling us the exact number of -nautical miles to the farthest coral island we have -become analytic and scientific. As Okakura said, -“We are modern, which means that we are old.” -Nevertheless, a pale, errorless, unemotional map -is better than no map at all.</p> - -<p>The particular map of Japan which I was -studying had had a few mysteries added in the -printing which were not to be blamed upon the -geographer. The different colours had been laid -on by the printer with marked independence of -registration. It was difficult to trace even the -old Tokaido, but imagination from practical experience -told me that when it followed the coast -it led through miles and miles of rice fields. -Farther up on the map, in the mountain ranges -above Nagoya, I saw a blurred word and turning -the sheet on end I read “Nakescendo.”</p> - -<p>The word brought a remembrance. I began -trying to piece together what that memory was. -At last I assembled a forgotten picture of a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</a></span> -Japanese whom I had once met on a train. In -the beginning I had thought him a modern of -the moderns until he told me of his sacred pilgrimages. -It was my surprise, I suppose, in his -tale of his tramping, staff in hand, with the -peasants that had made me so distinctly remember -his earnestness as he mouthed the full word -“Nakescendo.” I rolled over on the bed with -my finger on the map and asked Hori if he had -ever heard of the Nakescendo.</p> - -<p>Hori looked up in surprise as if I had rudely -mentioned some holy name. “All day,” said he, -“I have been thinking of the Nakescendo.” Then -he told us how the Nakescendo road enters the -mountains through the valley of the beautiful -Kiso river and, following the ranges first to the -north and then to the east, takes its way to -Tokyo. In the era before railroads it was a -great arterial thoroughfare and in those feudal -days the <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">daimyos</i> of the north and their retainers -journeyed the Nakescendo route with as much -pomp as did their southern rivals along the -Tokaido. Nevertheless the Nakescendo now -exists in history as the less famous thoroughfare -of the two. Hori suggested that the dimming -of its fame may have come because its ancient -followers had cherished its beauty with such intensity<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span> -that they did not allow their artists to -paint it nor their poets to sing of it to the world, -in the belief, perhaps, that all objective praise -could be but supererogation.</p> - -<p>I had most of this imagining from Hori’s -understatements rather than from anything definite -that he said. He is of the <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">samurai</i> and his -ancestors learned the art of conversation in a -court circle devoted to the graces. The incompleted -phrase of the East so subtly makes one -an accessory in the creation of the idea involved -that we, of the West, who live in a world of -overstatement, find ourselves disarmed to deny. -One cannot discount words that have never been -uttered.</p> - -<p>I added to Hori’s words some definite phrases -from my own imagination. These were to influence -O-Owre-san if possible. I knew that it -had been his long held dream to walk the Tokaido -from end to end, but I had not realized until I -saw his dismay at my suggestion of a change -how ardent his dream had been. I had recklessly -prophesied the mountains of the Nakescendo to -be the abode of spring among other praises. It -could not be denied that whatever the Tokaido -was or was not, the rice fields that had to be -crossed would not be springlike.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span></p> - -<p>We slept over such argument as we had had. -The next day burst in the glory of a burning -sun, which was rather an argument on the side -of the mountain faction. The breakfast butter -melted before our eyes. O-Owre-san finished his -marmalade and pushed back his chair, and then -casually capitulated. “Well,” he said, “if we -are going to the mountains, what are we waiting -for?” What indeed? I ran upstairs to our -room and pulled off my hotel-civilization clothes -and stuffed them into the bag and labelled it -for Yokohama. There was to be no more formal -emerging into the <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">seiyo-jin’s</i> world for us until -we should reach that port of compulsion. -O-Owre-san was less exuberant in his packing -but he cheerfully whistled some air—which was -indeed forgiving—and as usual was ready before -I was.</p> - -<p>Hori’s travelling kit had evidently bothered -him not at all. A half-dozen collars, two or three -books, one or two supplementary garments, and -a straw hat were tied up in a blue and orange -handkerchief and this <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja"><a id="a-furoshiki" href="#furoshiki">furoshiki</a></i> was tied to the -handlebars of a bicycle. Until we met the bicycle -we had talked of the problems and plans -of the three of us, but from the instant of production -there was no gainsaying that there were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span> -four of us. Further, the really colourful and -unique personality among the four partners of -the vagabondage was that diabolical, mechanical -contraption.</p> - -<p>In making that machine, the manufacturer, -without possibility of dispute, had achieved the -supremacy of turning out the most consistently -jerry-built affair since the beginning of time. -He merits first immortality both in any memorialization -by the shades of jerry-builders who -have gone before and in the future from the -tribe as it expands and multiplies upon the earth. -The loose, and often parting, chain hung from -sprocket wheels that marvellously revolved at -nearly right angles to each other. When Hori -mounted into the saddle the wheels fearsomely -bent under his weight until their circumferences -advanced along the road in ellipses strange and -unknown to the plotting of calculus. The rims -scraped the mudguards in continuous rattle as -if there were not enough other grinding sounds -of despair coming from every gear and bearing. -In some way those abnormalities worked together, -acting in compensation. Any one of the single -errors without such correspondingly outrageous -offset would have been prohibitive to locomotion.</p> - -<p>The indomitable spirit of the machine to keep<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></span> -going should perhaps be praised, but its general -character was steeped in malevolency against all -human kind. It hated Hori no less violently -than it did us or strangers. It hated and was -hated and continued to leave a trail of hatred -in its path until a certain memorable day when -we came to a mountain climb. While we were -discussing what best could be done for its transport -the proud spirit overheard that it would have -to submit to being tied upon a coolie’s back. It -rebelled into heroic suicide at that prospect. It -committed <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">hara-kiri</i>. The entire mechanism collapsed -suddenly into an almost unrecognizable -wreck.</p> - -<p>“When the flower fades,” says Okakura -Kakuzo, “the master tenderly consigns it to the -river or carefully buries it in the ground. Monuments -are even sometimes erected to their memory.” -Hori gave a piece of money to the coolie -for a reverent burial of the demon wheel.</p> - -<p>Our breakfast had really been luncheon and -after our energy of packing and getting started -we so indulged our time in the shops on the -way out of the city that we finally decided that -if we were to get into the mountains before -night we should have to take the train over the -paddy fields. The bicycle, the rucksacks, and the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</a></span> -blue and orange handkerchief, together with the -owners, were crowded into an accommodation -train. The small engine puffed with the temperament -of a nervous pomeranian, throwing a volcanic -spume into the air which condensed into a -fine diamond ash to come back to earth and to -stream into the windows and then to drift, eddy, -and scurry about the seats and floor.</p> - -<p>An accommodation train has the verve of life -which the conventions of a through express stifle; -but whether it be a New England local with -bird cages, or the Italian <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">misti</i> with priests and -snuff boxes, nursing madonnas, garlic sandwiches, -and chianti bottles, or the stifling wooden boxes -of Northern India crowded with Afridi and -Babus, no train in all the world is as domestic -as the Japanese <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja"><a id="a-kisha" href="#kisha">kisha</a></i>. Friends and the friends -of friends come to rejoice in the dramatic formalities -of farewell. If perchance any individual -on the platform is neither the friend nor the -friend of a friend of some departing one he -takes an altruistic pleasure in smiling upon the -opportunities of others.</p> - -<p>We bought our pots of tea with tiny earthenware -cups attached and put them on the floor -as did everyone else; and we also bought our -<i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja"><a id="a-bento" href="#bento">bento</a></i> boxes, of rice, raw fish, pickles, seaweed,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</a></span> -and bamboo shoots, from the criers of “<i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">Bento! -Bento!! Bento!!!</i>” The train started. No one -was bored; the children were not restless; and -we of our carriage stayed awake or went to sleep -in every posture possible to the flexibility of -human limbs matched against the rigidity of -wooden seats. The babies came along and became -acquainted and we sent them back to their -parents carrying gifts of cigarettes.</p> - -<p>Curled up on the seat across from ours, with -her head resting on her luggage, was a girl about -twenty years of age. She was a Eurasian and -was beautiful rather than pretty. Now and -again her graceful arm raised her fan but otherwise -she did not move. Her dark eyes returned -no curious glances. Her mood of mind and soul -seemed as frozen and hard as the blue ice of a -mountain glacier. It was a passionate negativity, -her defence against the instinct of society, -which eternally wages war upon the hybrid. It -is instinctive, this struggle of the race mass mind -against the disintegration of its integrity. She had -learned the meaning of glances. The Eurasian -must expiate a guiltless guilt. She did not ask for -quarter in the battle; far back of that cold, defensive -gaze was the strength of two proud races. -Character makes fate, said the Greeks. Inevitability<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</a></span> -may make tragedy. We were to pick up the -threads of old tales of love and tragedy along the -valley of the Kiso, but in the life of that strange, -fearless, beautiful Eurasian girl was the web -and woof of a yet uncompleted story. When -we at last passed our bundles out of the window -at Agematsu she had not stirred.</p> - -<p>We had been carried out of the plains and night -was coming down. Hori voiced an inquiry about -our landing spot. It was indeed high time to -be located some place for dinner and the night. -Our indifference to particularization about our -landing had begun to harass him. In Kobe and -Nagoya when our surpassing indefiniteness had -come out he had nodded and said, “yes,” evidently -putting his faith in the belief that there would -surely be an eventual limit to such casualness. I -was slow to realize his worry but when I did some -primitive idea of justice told me that his breaking -into the inefficiency of our methods ought -to be more gentle and gradual. I whispered -this intuition to O-Owre-san and thus, when the -train halted at the next platform, out went our -luggage and we were left standing to watch the -fiery cloud of cinders disappear into the blue-grey -mist.</p> - -<p>It had grown cold. The rain was curiously<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[114]</a></span> -like snow, drifting through the air, seemingly -without weight. There was the beginning of a -path up a slippery clay hill, the upper reaches -of which were lost in fog and darkness. Even -the short distances of vision, which until then had -endured, succumbed before we had scrambled -up the hill. We made a careful reconnaissance -with hands and feet and found that the mountain -path at the top branched in several directions. -The town might lie in any direction. For more -meditative cogitation Hori carefully lowered the -bicycle to its side but unfortunately there was -no ground beneath and off it slid. We heard it -painfully scraping down the rocks. In Alpine -fashion we had to go after it. We crawled back -again to stand in a circle on the road, drenched -and mud covered.</p> - -<p>Dinner, bed, and bath might be within a hundred -yards but to take the wrong path might -mean to wander until sunrise. At least so we -thought. Such a variety of adventure is much -more interesting in retrospect than prospect. -However, it was worse to stand still. We started -on an exploration, craftily putting the bicycle -next to the precipice. On peaceful days the gears -often meshed in moderate quietness but at any -time when its companions failed in omnipotent<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</a></span> -judgment they would grind out a wailing reiteration -of: “I told you so. I told you so.” We -were shuffling along to the measure of that lamentation -when suddenly there was a sparkle of light -ahead. It was from a lantern. The bearer was -a peasant bundled up in a rush grass cape. He -lifted the light into our faces and then gave a -single sharp cry of fear. Next he shut his eyes -tightly and was speechless.</p> - -<p>A well-balanced consideration for the rights -of one’s brothers is intended for normal times. -Now that a guide had offered himself to us out -of the darkness we purposed to keep him, although -for a few minutes he seemed a rather useless -discovery. Hori managed at length to pry -the man’s eyes open with wet fingers and, then -with fair words sought to persuade him that if -we were not ghosts we obviously needed his help, -but that if we were, then any sense left in him -should tell him that it would be far better to -listen to our request to guide us to an inn and -to leave us there than to risk our trailing him -to his own home. He grasped Hori’s point. We -followed after our guide and, as we had suspected, -the distance to the village was only a few -steps. At the threshold of the inn our guide -bolted. If he had been cherishing a grudge he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</a></span> -should have waited to see our reception. It was -not pleasing to us.</p> - -<p>Hori advanced into the courtyard to engage -in Homeric debate. The fog sweeping in struggled -with the lights of the lanterns and candles. -The picture was a theatrical composition. There -were the three rain-soaked, laden intruders facing -the maid-servants. The maids’ <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">kimono</i> sleeves -were pinned back to their shoulders and their -skirts were gathered up through their girdles. -Their faces and limbs gleamed in the coppery -light. The door to the steaming kitchen opened -on to the courtyard and within its shadows the -pots and kettles hanging on the walls caught the -glowing flame of the charcoal. I suppose there -was not a more honest inn in all the land but -the wild, picaresque picture suggested an imagining -by Don Quixote painted by Rembrandt or -Hogarth or Goya. It was a point of immediate -reality, however, which concerned us, and that -point was that we were so far in the inn but no -farther, and no farther did we get.</p> - -<p>They gave a reason. They said that the inn -was full. It seemed so ridiculous to have had -such trouble in finding an inn and then to lose it -that O-Owre-san and I began laughing. We -laughed inordinately, but our barbarous merriment<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</a></span> -brought our listeners no nearer to changing -their conviction that the inn was full. There -was another inn farther down the street, they -said, and we borrowed a lantern and a coolie -from them and started. The coolie ran ahead -and when we arrived at the second inn the mistress -and all her maid-servants were at the door. From -the length of Hori’s argument I became suspicious -that we again were not considered desirable, -but after a time he turned and said: “It’s all -right.”</p> - -<p>As soon as we were in our room, hurriedly getting -ready for the bath, I tried to find out from -Hori what the long debate was about, but English -is evidently much more laconic than Japanese. -He summed it all up by saying that they -feared the inn was unworthy of foreigners. Admirable -<i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">bushido</i>! What inn in the wide world -could have been worthy of such bedraggled wanderers? -However, once we were allowed within -the walls and recognized as guests the spirit of -hospitality welled solicitously.</p> - -<p>Listen, O dogmatists! The joy of the finding -is not always less than the joy of the pursuit. -If there are doubters let them seek the Nakescendo -trail and find the second inn of Agematsu, -there to learn that no dinner that they have ever<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[118]</a></span> -imagined can equal the realization they will discover -inside the lacquer bowls and porcelain -dishes which will be brought to them.</p> - -<p>The maid who had been assigned to administer -to our comfort accepted her duty as a trust. She -was unbelievably short, but was very sturdy. -Her broad face and the strength of her round, -unshaped limbs proclaimed the hardy bloom of -the peasantry. The physical, mental, and emotional -unity which comes as the heritage of such -unmixed rustic blood is in itself a prepossessing -charm. Our daughter of Mother Earth was as -maternal as she was diminutive. She might think -of a thousand services, her bare feet might start -of an instant across the mats to respond to any -requests, but never did she surrender one iota -of her instinctive belief that we, merely being -men, were only luxurious accessories for the world -to possess. She was so primordially feminine -that she inspired a terrifying thought of the possibility -of society being sometime modelled after -the queendom of the bees.</p> - -<p>She had never seen a foreigner but she had -heard much gossip of our strange customs. Her -inquiring mind was intent upon verifying this -gossip as far as possible. She was also very curious -about our possessions. She taught us how<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</a></span> -to hold our chopsticks and how to drink our soup. -She told us that we drank too silently. A little -more noise from our lips, she said, would show -that we were appreciating the flavour. She did -acknowledge in us some aptitude to learn, implying -that if a more advanced state of culture had -existed in the feminine family group of our homes -over the seas we might have been mothered into -some respectability. So saying, she arose sturdily -to her full height and bore away the dinner tables. -Then she returned to make the beds, struggling -with the mattresses as might an ant dragging oak -leaves.</p> - -<p>When the beds were finally laid she brought a -fresh brewing of tea and replenished the charcoal -in the <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja"><a id="a-hibachi" href="#hibachi">hibachi</a></i>. She lighted our after dinner -cigarettes for us by pressing them against the -embers. She sat waiting until we had dropped the -last stub into the ashes. Then guardian midget -rolled back the quilts, ordered us to bed, tucked -us in carefully, giving to each impartially a good-night -pat. Her day’s work finished, assuredly -her efforts entitled her to a quiet enjoyment -of one of the cigarettes! She sat down on -the foot of my bed and deeply drawing in the -smoke, blew it into the air with a sigh of contentment.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</a></span></p> - -<p>“I have been told,” she said, “that foreigners -marry for love. Can that be true?”</p> - -<p>We assured her that that custom existed.</p> - -<p>“Um-m-m,” she pondered. Our examination -was evidently of import. She took another step in -questioning.</p> - -<p>“But if you married for love how can you be -happy to travel so far away from your wives?”</p> - -<p>She gasped at our claim of non-possession.</p> - -<p>We made a second insistence regarding our -unsocial state. She did not put aside her good -nature but she berated us roundly for our unkindness, -our lack of taste, in thinking that we -could joke in such a way just because she was -a peasant girl in a country inn, but when we -further insisted upon repeating our tale she was -really hurt. There is a time, she said, for joking -to come to an end. If it were always thus our -custom to insist upon a joke long after it had -been laughed at and appreciated, then she did -not believe that she had excessive pity for our -wives and children in their being left behind -while we wandered.</p> - -<p>She then dismissed us from her questioning -and appealed exclusively to Hori. She could understand -that if we had been forced to marry -by parental social regulation and had been united<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</a></span> -to wives whom we did not and could not love, -perhaps it would be quite within reason that we -should wish to have vacations in singleness, but -to have had the privilege of marrying for love -and then to be wandering alone—oh, it was un-understandable.</p> - -<p>“Well,” said Hori mysteriously, “I think that -what they have said is the truth but it may not -be all the truth. In their country certain desperately -wicked criminals are not allowed the privilege -of marrying.”</p> - -<p>There is a glamour which hangs over the notoriously -wicked. The maid’s glances were now -modified by appropriate awe into distinct respect. -She got up, and endeavouring for dignity built a -tower out of the scattered cushions. She climbed -upon this shaky height and turned out the light. -Then she hurried away to the backstairs regions -with her tale.</p> - -<p>In the morning it was raining. When we got -up we could hear no sounds below and when we -went to the bath there were no maids to fill the -brass basins. Hori wandered off to the kitchen -to find hot water and we did not see him again -until after our maid, very heavy-eyed, had brought -the breakfast tables to our room. He came as -the bearer of two items of information which he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[122]</a></span> -had gleaned from the mistress. The first was -that there had been a council sitting on our morals, -presided over by our maid, which had lasted -through the hours of the night. The second item -was the truthful reason why we had been turned -away from the first inn and the confirmation of -our suspicions that we had gained admittance -where we were only by an extremely narrow margin.</p> - -<p>Once upon a time two foreigners had passed -through Agematsu and had been received as -guests in one of the inns. That advent had been -so many years before that a new generation of -mistresses and maids had succeeded the victims -of the marvellous invasion, but the legend of that -night of terror had been handed down undimmed. -“And what do you think was their unspeakable -atrocity?” Hori asked dramatically. “<em>They made -snowballs from the rice of the rice box at dinner -and threw them at each other and at the maids!</em>”</p> - -<p>From time to time, through the mountains, -we heard again the legend of those two remarkable -<i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">seiyo-jins</i>. We grew to have an admiration -for knaves so lusty in their revels that they could -leave behind such a never fading flower of memory. -They must have gone forth to their travels -minutely familiar with the code of Japanese<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[123]</a></span> -etiquette, so thoroughly were they skilled in fracturing -it. A riot might have been forgiven, and -forgotten, but not the throwing of rice on the -floor. The one constant forbidding under which a -child is brought up finally leaves no process of -thought in the brain that anyone could ever intentionally -offend against the cleanness of the -matting. It is less a <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">gaucherie</i> to set fire to a -friend’s house and burn it to the ground than to -spill a bowl of soup.</p> - -<p>We waited for the rain to clear away, but as it -did not we borrowed huge paper umbrellas and -wandered off down the valley. We were in the -midst of a silk spinning district and in almost -every doorway sat some woman of the household -busily capturing the silken threads from the cocoons. -We asked permission to rest in the door -of a carpenter’s shop which overhung the rocky -Kiso and was shaded by the tops of great pines -which grew from the sides of the valley bed. -The carpenter brought us tea and stopped for a -moment to point the view through the trees which -had been the companion of his life.</p> - -<p>Sometimes poverty seems to be an absolute -and unarguable condition; at other times one’s -ideas as to the what and when of poverty are so -shifting as merely to be interrogations. There<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[124]</a></span> -was the poverty in that valley of the struggle for -some slight margin above dire want; the silk -workers were speeding their machines for their -pittance; the carpenter was busy through every -hour of daylight. Economics and efficiency are -everyday words but what is their ultimate meaning -not in dollars but in life? What are the real -wishes of the leaders in Tokyo, the statesmen -who are planning policies and at the same time -must strive to please the great banking houses -of the world?—do they look forward to the time -when factories will fill the land and the spinners -will not be sitting in their own doorways but -the children of to-day’s workers will be standing -in long rows before machines? “We are taught,” -explained a Japanese, “to pay our heavy taxes -cheerfully so that the empire may expand and -develop. Wealth will be thus created and then -taxes can be reduced.”</p> - -<p>Hori had remembrance of a traveller’s tale -which he had heard long before of an ancient -tea-house along the Kiso famous both for its -noodle soup and its view of the spot locally believed -to have been the awakening place of Urashima -when he returned from the Island of the -Dragon King. Considering that the story explicitly -states that Urashima awoke on the seashore,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[125]</a></span> -the faith of the inland believers is really -more marvellously imaginative than the story itself. -The trudging coolies whom we stopped -had never heard of the tea-house. Therefore we -knocked at the first gate we came to in the bamboo -wall along the road to find that our footsteps -had magically led us to the famed spot itself. -We left our muddy boots at the door and -a maid showed us the way to the balcony of the -room of honour from which we could see the -tumbling river. The view is called “The Awakening.” -An islet emerges from the foam of the -waters and its rocks have been made to serve as -a miniature temple garden. There is another -view farther down the bank, from which the -dwarfed pines and stone lanterns of the island -may be seen to better advantage. Cicerones lie -in wait there for the sightseer. In delightful -contrast to the urgings generally experienced from -the tribe, these guides were quite shy in the presence -of foreigners.</p> - -<p>The daughter of the house, in a <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">kimono</i> of silk -and brocade, herself brought the tray of tea and <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">sake</i> and a pyramid dish of noodles. The porcelain -was old and of tempting beauty. The tea -was fragrant. Hori insisted that we should extemporize -poetry to express our appreciation of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[126]</a></span> -beauty of the Kiso, but O-Owre-san and I were -rather self-conscious in our rhymes. We had been -nurtured in a land of specialization where poetry -is entrusted to professionals. The sun came out. -We paid our reckoning, folded up our paper umbrellas, -and walked back to our inn for a long -night’s sleep.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"></div><!--Page break for ePub--> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[127]</a></span></p> - - - - -<h2>VI<br /> -<span class="titlefont">THE ADVENTURE OF THE BOTTLE INN</span></h2> - - -<p>In the morning Hori discovered that his military -survey map somehow had been mistaken for -a sheet of wrapping paper the day before. The -torn-off section had served to carry rice cakes in -my pocket. The tearing had strangely traversed -mountains, valleys, and rivers along almost the -line we purposed following. As Hori was still -unemancipated from the idea that not to know -where one is is to be lost, he was rather in a maze -for the next few days, as we continually wandered -off the edge of the map into unknown regions. -He must have marvelled at times over the kindness -of the Providence which had guided our -steps from Kyoto to Nagoya.</p> - -<p>The valley of the Kiso earnestly seeks to attest -the theory that the inhabitants of localities -with a similar climate and topography tend to -have similar ideas, especially in working out -ways of doing the same thing. The wide sweeping -view with the snow-topped mountains on the -horizon might have been Switzerland, and for a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[128]</a></span> -more decisive deceiving of the eye into thinking -so the cottages of the peasants had the overhanging -roof of the Swiss chalet with the same pitch -and the same arrangement of rows of boulders on -them. It is a province, also, of trousered women.</p> - -<p>We came upon a wistful-eyed, pink-cheeked, -timid fairy of the mountains. She was carrying -on her back a huge, barrel-shaped basket and she -bent forward as she slowly walked along, her eyes -fixed on a handful of wild flowers in her fingers. -Even our modest knowledge of the folklore of -the land told us that she must be a princess who -had been captured by ugly trolls. They had set -her to impossible labour as their revenge against -her beauty. A young man whose niche in the -world was beyond our determining—although we -thought he might be a student on a vacation walking -trip—had caught up with us a half-hour before -and had been measuring his step with ours. -When he discovered that I wished to take a picture -of the princess he assisted with such effective -blandishment of speech that she halted for an instant. -When I asked that I might also photograph -him, he laughed and vaulted up among the -rocks and disappeared.</p> - -<div id="Ref_128" class="figcenter" style="width: 469px;"> -<img src="images/i135.jpg" width="469" height="650" alt="" /> -<div class="caption"><p>WE CAME UPON A WISTFUL-EYED, TIMID FAIRY OF THE MOUNTAINS</p></div> -</div> - -<p>A little farther along we met the six sisters -of the princess. They were carrying burdens<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[129]</a></span> -equally as large and heavy as had she, but they -were not so pretty nor so wistful, albeit they were -just as timid. We never could find any key to -the mystery why our appearance along the highway -would sometimes be as startling as if we -were ghostly apparitions, and at other times it -would merely bring about a casual interest and -staring, if it brought any interest at all. Upon -this occasion it was a panic. The six maidens beheld -us, they shrieked in unison, and they jumped -from the road, trying to hide behind rocks and -trees. Their lithe limbs might have carried them -like fawns, if their shoulders had been freed -from the huge baskets, but, as it was, their flight -was more like that of some new and enormous variety -of the beetle tribe, evoluted so far as to wear -cotton clothes and to have pretty human heads -turbaned under blue and white handkerchiefs. -As a son of Daguerre, I should have tarried for -an instant to photograph their amazing struggle, -but an upsetting obsession of chivalry hurried us -on. By the time we turned to look back they -had scrambled to the road, all six princesses accounted -for. They, too, turned to look at us -and from the safety of distance began to laugh. -The comedy might thus have ended if it had not -been that at that instant Hori rounded the bend<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[130]</a></span> -of the road with his thumb pressed vigorously -against the strident bicycle bell. The beetles (or, -better to say, the wingless butterflies) again took -flight. We awaited their second reappearance. -This time they did not venture laughter until they -reached the curve and made sure of no further -dismay.</p> - -<p>Hori dismounted and pushed the bicycle along -and we entered into one of our unending discussions. -A subject sometimes in debate was O-Owre-san’s -and my intense interest—our curiosity—in -the conversations that Hori had with passersby -along the road or in the shops. Sometimes, -when we had made some simple inquiry in a -shop, Hori would ask a long question; the shopkeeper -would answer; Hori would enter a counter -dissertation; the shopkeeper would make his reply -to that; Hori would reply; the shopkeeper -would reply; Hori would reply; and then it might -be that the shopkeeper would have the conclusion. -Hori might then turn to us with: “He says -‘no.’”</p> - -<p>In the port city shops where English is spoken, -if there is but one clerk he will answer your -questions immediately. If there are two, every -question is thoroughly discussed in Japanese before -answering, and if there be three, four, or<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[131]</a></span> -five clerks, the debate goes on to extraordinary -length. Again and again we asked Hori for a -complete translation but it must have been that he -believed within himself that he had asked the -question in the simplest terms, for we seldom got -a verbatim translation.</p> - -<p>We were in the midst of some such discussion -when we looked up to see an old man standing -before us, leaning on a long staff. His white -beard fell benignly and his steady eyes carried -a message of goodwill. He returned our greetings -by a dignified inclination of his head. We -were at the peak of the road and, as often may -be found at such points, there was a small rest tea-house -for travellers. We asked the old man if he -would sit down with us and share a pot of tea.</p> - -<p>The iron pot, filled with mountain spring water, -steamed hospitably on the <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">hibachi</i> and the fragrance -of the tea was a friendly invitation to relax. -Our guest stood his long staff in the corner, sat -down on a cushion, and drew his feet from his -dusty sandals. After the true manner of happily -met travellers he was easily persuaded to tell us -the tale of his wanderings. The translation is -somewhat rhetorical but, as Hori explained, the -tale was told in the language of etiquette.</p> - -<p>“I was born,” said he, “in the forty-first year<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[132]</a></span> -of the rule of the Shogun Ienari. I was young -and am now old. My eighty and seven summers -have seen the downfall of the once mighty before -the rising to full glory of the Meiji, and now, -from the Palace of Yedo, shine upon us the divine -rays of the Way of Heaven. Great is the -Mercy of Enlightenment. The Eternal Glory is -the Way.</p> - -<p>“As a child I knew these mountains which you -see. The provinces of our land were then fortified -by many castles and these roads were -traversed by armed men. The castles have been -razed to the ground but the temples of the gods -still stand. The two-sworded warriors have gone -but I, a humble pilgrim, walk the roads they once -knew. The white clouds rest in the blue sky above -Fuji-san as when I looked upon them as a child. -The clouds will rest above Fuji when these eyes -shall see them not.</p> - -<p>“In the fourteenth year of my youth I took -the vow that my life should be lived in honouring -the holy images of Buddha, each and all as my -steps might find them, from the shrines erected -by the peasants to the bronze statues of the great -temples. I took the very staff which you see and -the clothes that were upon my back and bade my -family good-bye. Through the kindness in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[133]</a></span> -hearts of men, the lowly and the mighty, the gods -have provided me with food and rest. I have -travelled without illness and my spirit has known -the joy of the Way.”</p> - -<div id="Ref_142" class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"> -<img src="images/i151.jpg" width="600" height="629" alt="" /> -<div class="caption"><p>“IN THE FOURTEENTH YEAR OF MY YOUTH I TOOK THE VOW THAT MY LIFE SHOULD BE -LIVED IN HONORING THE HOLY IMAGES OF BUDDHA”</p></div> -</div> - -<p>In those years that his bowl had not gone empty -of rice, never, it may be believed, did anyone give -to him as a beggar asking. Japan is of the East, -possessing the intuition that the spiritual is a -mystic interflow.</p> - -<p>His eyes were young; they were not clouded -in contemplation of the abstract. They sparkled -from a delight in life. It had not been demanded -of him that his vicarious pilgrimage should be -one of tragic sacrifice. He had given and he -had received. While his theoretical faith might -be that life is an illusion and only the Way is -eternal, nevertheless he was born to love his -fellowmen and he could not escape from the practical -faith that was in him that this temporal life -must be of some use and of some meaning. I remembered -in strange comparison a sturdy British -unemployed whom I had once come upon. He -was lying under a hedge in Monmouthshire. He -borrowed a pipeful of tobacco and then turned -over onto his back to gaze into the blue sky. -After a time he said: “Activity is a fever. Therefore -it is a disease. Laziness is a promise. Rest<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[134]</a></span> -and forgetfulness are divine.” He did not make -the effort to add a good-bye when I left him.</p> - -<p>A path of our pilgrim led over the road which -we had just travelled. We parted, bowing many -times. Hori unfolded his ravaged map and found -a village named Narii a few miles farther along. -The railroad down in the valley according to the -map went somewhere near Narii. Hori’s nerves -had been rasped by the temperamental vagaries -of the bicycle on the steep slopes and he decided -to await a train, promising to meet us.</p> - -<p>After a time our path dropped down to the -bed of the river. Across a bridge the road forked, -one branch continuing along the valley and the -other winding off into the hills. The hill trail, -particularly as it led into the unknown regions -off Hori’s map, tempted, and we shouted down -an inquiry to some children playing in the water. -They were successfully attempting to get as wet -as possible while remaining as dirty as possible. -There is a mystery which overhangs grimy Japanese -children. When the little noses present a constant -temptation to the <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">seiyo-jin</i> handkerchief that -in itself is a caste sign that you will find the faces -of their fathers and mothers unhappy, dull, and -lustreless. When the children are brightly scoured -and polished there is a general appearance of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[135]</a></span> -happiness and contentment in the community. It -is not the simple equation that poverty equals -dirt; one village is scrubbed and the next one is -not—otherwise neither seems richer nor poorer -except in happy looks.</p> - -<p>When we called to the children in the Kiso they -splashed out of the water like wild animals and -scattered in all directions, but as two naked infants -too small to run had been left on the shore, -first the girls and then the boys began to edge -back. They remained to stare. We pointed up -the mountain path and asked if it led to Narii. -Their gestures evinced a fierce encouragement to -essay the ridges as if they had the contempt of -the untamed for anything as conventional as a -broad valley road. As a matter of fact they were -undoubtedly saying that the valley road did not -lead to Narii. We discovered this later when we -could look down from the heights. Hori’s railroad -tunnelled the hills.</p> - -<p>According to local belief our path carried us -over the “backbone” of the empire, and this -crossing spot is considered sacred ground. Accordingly -we should have paid special homage to -the local deity whose shrine we passed, but as we -were foreigners and in ignorance, the god perhaps -forgave us. Furthermore, we unknowingly passed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[136]</a></span> -a particularly renowned view of very holy Mount -Ontake. We probably did see the mountain, but -being uninformed, as I said, of this special view, -we did not hold ourselves in proper restraint -until reaching the exact spot for appreciation. -Instead we luxuriously and squanderously revelled -in all four directions of the compass. It is always -thus with the ignorant. Their indiscriminate -enthusiasm is more irritating to the intellectuals -than no appreciation at all. I was later -most depressingly snubbed for having missed the -sacred view by a scholar of things Japanese. He -knew it from prints and sacred writings. He said -that he himself would have journeyed to see the -reality if it had not been for the probable annoyance -of having to come in contact with so many -natives on the journey. He appeared to be -impatient that the British Museum does not commandeer -all views, temples, and abiding places of -art around the world and establish turnstiles -which will keep the natives out and let the scholars -in. When he actually grasped that our only reason -for having arrived at that particular spot -at all was that we had taken a turning to the -right instead of to the left, he declared that our -ideas of travelling evidence the same intelligence -as might the tripping of tumbling beans and that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[137]</a></span> -our very presence at sacred places was a sacrilege.</p> - -<p>We turned a corner that hung sharply over the -precipice. Around the bend the shelf spread -out into a miniature meadow. A peasant was -lying on the grass and his straw-bonneted ox was -leisurely nibbling. We sat down beside him -and O-Owre-san began searching in his rucksack -for a remaining cake of chocolate. During this -hunt the peasant kept his eyes carefully and -earnestly averted. I made the remark to him -that the view was <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja"><a id="a-kirei" href="#kirei">kirei</a></i> and he replied by a nervous -<i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">hei</i>. O-Owre-san found the chocolate and broke -it into three parts. He handed one of the -squares to the peasant. The fingers that reached -out for it were trembling.</p> - -<p>The man had imaginative eyes. It was plain -to see that he was suffering from some lively -remembrance of a mountain folklore demon story. -He knew that we were foxes or badgers who -had assumed human form, and that we had come -to him with no good intentions. He suspected a -subtle poison. But he had courage from one -thought. It is the common knowledge of the -countryside that while the demands of demon -badgers may not be directly refused, their evil -intent may often be thwarted by the crafty intelligence<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[138]</a></span> -of man. The immediate problem was -how to avoid the appearance of refusing to eat -the mysterious cake which was now getting soft -and moist in his hand. Suddenly he popped the -chocolate into his mouth, tin foil and all. Then -he pushed back the square into his hand almost -in the same movement. I pretended not to be -watching. He dropped his hand with elaborate -carelessness into the thickness of the grass. I felt -a sense of dramatic relievement myself.</p> - -<p>During those minutes the ox had been no such -respecter of enchantment as had his master. Instead, -he had stood sniffing at our boots and -pulling up bits of grass round and about our -ankles, all the time rolling a pair of red, angry -eyes. Asiatic beasts of burden find something -antagonistic to their complaisance in the odour -of the Caucasian and this individual ox was progressing -toward a positive bovine dissatisfaction. -Furthermore, we were sitting on the sweetest -and most tender tufts of grass remaining. We -courteously dismissed the peasant to go his way. -His marked alacrity was quite welcome.</p> - -<p>We lingered on the grass for a little while and -I told O-Owre-san my guesses. I elaborated -them into the hazard that the poor man—he -had not once turned to look back over his shoulder—might<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[139]</a></span> -even then be fearing that the slight -taste from the chocolate would turn him into a -frog and his ox into a stork to eat him up; or -perhaps he might be in distress that he and his -beast might grow smaller and smaller until they -would disappear into thin air.</p> - -<p>O-Owre-san had been examining the faintness -of the path. “I hope none of these things happen -until the man gets over the hills to Narii. The -hoof prints make an excellent trail,” he said.</p> - -<p>It was time to sling on our packs and follow. -When we reached the next turn we could see -the peasant’s straw hat and the ox’s straw bonnet -bobbing along just over the bush tops. We -maintained this distance without closing the gap. -As O-Owre-san had predicted, the hoof marks -were useful. The path often grew so faint that -it had no other resolute indication. We had -been sure, without thought of other possibility, -that the crest of the hill we were climbing would -be the summit of the range. When we reached -the crest we stood looking up at another peak -rising from a shallow valley at our feet.</p> - -<p>“Which way does the ox say to go?” I asked.</p> - -<p>The hoof marks were there in the soft earth, -but where our feet had stopped there they had -stopped. They stopped as absolutely as if the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[140]</a></span> -peasant and his ox had been whisked away in a -chariot to the sunset sky. The bushes were too -low for concealment. There was no cave, nor -hole in the earth.</p> - -<p>If there be no such thing as magic, in the -Japanese mountains at least, where did that man -and his beast go? The disappearance was as complete -as the most exacting enchanter could have -desired. We found no answer to the riddle and -the sun was sinking, adding the next question of -how we were going to get out of the hills in -the night time if we delayed for scientific investigation. -We succumbed to expediency and took -a five-mile-an-hour pace over such trail as we had -left, guessing at the turns. When we finally -reached the next crest, deep in the valley we -could see Narii. Before descending the steep, -dropping path, we sat down near a spring where -the birds had come to drink. They were singing -evening songs mightily. Bright wild flowers were -scattered in the open spaces between the intense -green of the fern patches. The world was lustily -at peace.</p> - -<p>When we did start we swung down the long -hill almost at a run and in a half-hour reached -the edge of the village to find Hori sitting under -a stone lantern in the temple yard. The evening<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[141]</a></span> -peace had made us positive that this is the best -of all possible worlds, but Hori was entertaining -a different idea. He looked exceedingly gloomy. -We were impatient of any discontent. If he -had said that men were starving for rice in the -village beyond, the fitting answer would have -seemed to us the historic words of the good queen: -“Give them cake.” Undoubtedly when the message -about the starving peasants was brought to -that Lady of France she was sitting under the -shrubbery at Versailles, and the birds were singing, -and it was springtime, and perhaps the fountains -were playing. Impellingly she realized with -an insight deeper than any historian has ever -appreciated that upon such a glorious day, if there -is any such thing as right or justice at all in -this world, a certain amount of cake should be -everybody’s inalienable possession.</p> - -<p>As it happened, Hori’s worry had nothing to -do with altruistic sorrow for starving villagers, -but existed from a lively interest in our own affairs. -The town was very poor, he explained, a -town come down in the world from ancient prosperity. -Its neck was hung with the millstone -of decayed graces and thinned blood. The inn -was so old that it was senile. Hori had established -some excuse before entering the door for inspection<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[142]</a></span> -which later allowed his rejection of the inn’s -hospitality, but it would never do for us in -turn to venture in for a glance around. That -would be needlessly raising the expectation of the -ancient host. We would find, he suggested, that -it would be only five or six or seven miles to the -next village. As we had had twenty-five or more -miles behind us and most of those had been along -mountain paths, we were not so inevitably tempted -at that hour of night to be particular in a choice -of roofs as Hori, who had come by train, was -imagining.</p> - -<p>The inn, in truth, was very old. By any law -of survival chances the wandering wings should -have burned to earth long ago. To greet us there -were no smiling and chattering maids gathered -behind a mistress; instead, an old man and a -very small girl, his granddaughter or more likely -his great-granddaughter, met us in the dark -entrance with protests that the house was unworthy -of our presence. We hastily denied -them their words. Hori could employ the polite -phrases of Japan. We impulsively, directly, and -bluntly told them “no.” It was not alone the -pathos of the two figures which appealed. It -was somewhat that their dignity had not surrendered -to ruin, and it was somewhat a something<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[143]</a></span> -else, indescribable, in the atmosphere that -charmed.</p> - -<p>We followed the master along a labyrinthine -corridor. The soft wood planks of the floor -had been polished to a deep reddish gleam under -the bare feet of generations of hurrying <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">ne-sans</i>. -He led us past inner courtyards to the farthest -wing. Our room hung over the river at an elbow -of the stream. Even with the <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">shogi</i> pushed wide -open we were hidden completely from the eyes -of the town by heavily leafed trees.</p> - -<p>The mats on the floor had turned a dingy, -mottled brown and black from their once light -golden yellow, but they were clean. The sacred -<i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">takemona</i> corner still compelled its importance. -It had been built in an age when the demand for -its existence was the ardent faith of the builders -rather than an architectural tradition. The room -was about thirty-five feet long and fifteen feet -deep, perhaps a little larger. The ceiling was -proportionately high.</p> - -<p>Hori was still doubtful, not gloomily so, but -from the knowledge that an inn is proved by its -service. The host was kneeling, as immobile as -a temple image, awaiting our orders. His skin -was as bloodless as the vellum of the painting -which hung behind him. His watchful eyes, however,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[144]</a></span> -were intensely bright in their deep sockets. -Hori began inquiries about dinner. The ancient -bowed his head to the floor, drawing in his breath -sharply against his teeth. Dinner was now being -prepared for his family, he said, but it would be -unworthy of his guests. The formal phrase of -polite deprecation carried this truth, as Hori -discovered by further questioning; it was not -that the dinner was or was not worthy—it was -the failure of <em>quantity</em>. We should not have long -to wait, said our host, but food would have to -be sent for.</p> - -<p>As we sat in a circle planning what we should -have, the old man smiled and pointed to a patched -square in the matting. Underneath the square, -he said, was a depression for holding bronze -braziers. When the nobility, in the old feudal -times, had travelled the Nakescendo trail, this -was the room of honour that had been given to -the <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">daimyos</i>. It had been often the custom for -the retainers of a <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">daimyo</i> themselves to prepare -his dinner over the braziers. Our sitting there, -planning what we should have, had reminded him -of the dead past. His words came slowly as if -between each word of recollection his spirit journeyed -back into the very maw of oblivion and -then had to return again to the world.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[145]</a></span></p> - -<p>“Are the braziers still hidden there?” Hori -interrupted.</p> - -<p>Yes, the braziers were under the floor or somewhere -to be found.</p> - -<p>Hori turned to us and put us through a questioning -until he rediscovered the word “picnic” -for his vocabulary. “That’s what we will have, -a picnic, right here,” he declared, and he turned -back to the host to explain. The old man almost -gasped, at least approaching as near to such -escape of emotion as he probably ever had at -the request of a guest.</p> - -<p>“But you will then have to have a special -waitress,” he said. “My granddaughter is indeed -too young for that privilege.” Always when he -used depreciatory adjectives about the child’s unworthiness -he failed lamentably to harden his -caressing tone. She was, however, as he had -said, little older than a baby. The services of -a maid we should have to pay for, but, under -the spell of the conjuring up of the memories of -those bygone revels in our room, what cared we -for saving our precious <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">yen</i>? We had become -reincarnations of the two-sworded swaggerers. -We waved our arms grandiloquently.</p> - -<p>“Tell him to send for fowls for the pot,” we -oratorically assailed Hori. “Let us mix rich<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[146]</a></span> -sauces and warm the <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">sake</i>. And tell him to remember -that for us there can be but one choice—the -maid to serve our dinner must be the prettiest -maid in all Narii.”</p> - -<p>I had not the slightest idea that Hori would -translate our exact words, but I found later that -such was his act.</p> - -<p>Thus the mountain village of Narii faced a -problem. Two foreigners, and a Japanese almost -as alien as a foreigner, had appeared from nobody -knew where, not preceded, ’twas true, by -retainers as had been the travellers of old, but -nevertheless demanded the old-time service with -as much gusto as if they were accustomed to -having what they wished. They had asked that -the prettiest maid in all Narii be called to the -inn to exercise the privilege of guarding the steaming -rice box. It was obvious that there could -be only one prettiest maid, and all Narii knew -with one mind that the prettiest maid was the -daughter of the Shinto priest. However, the -daughter of a priest is not a likely candidate for -service in an inn, even if the master has ever -been a faithful devotee of the temple. Nevertheless -there was the honour of the hospitality -of Narii at stake. Messengers (or even appropriately, -it might be said, heralds) were sent to explain<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[147]</a></span> -the problem to the maid and her father, -and to use, if necessary, the pressure of “the -state demands.”</p> - -<p>Thus came O-Hanna-san to the inn. (In all -Japan there cannot be a prettier, a more bashful, -or a more modest maiden.) Her eyes were downcast -behind long black lashes. Her soft cheek -flushed and paled—perhaps somewhat from the -excitement of the adventure. Neither she nor -her friends had ever seen one of that strange race, -the foreigner. And, indeed, even a priest’s daughter -may think that to be chosen as the prettiest -maid——!! Ah, her courage failed her to glance -up and words would not come to her lips to answer -their questions, but they did not seem to be -so very predatory nor so very fearsome—and they -were very hungry.</p> - -<p>Two great bronze braziers had been filled with -glowing charcoal. The foreigners and the outer-world -Japanese who could speak their strange -words were busily cooking the fowls, chopped into -dice, and they were arguing about their respective -talents and abilities, as do all amateur cooks. -Perhaps she could now look up for an instant -unobserved. No, a glance met her eyes -and she felt hot blushes grow again on her -cheek.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[148]</a></span></p> - -<p>While they feasted and laughed she had to -run many times to the kitchen for forgotten dishes. -When she passed along the hall by the entrance -to the street she was each time stopped and -besieged by the questions of the gathered mob. -(Some of those inquiring investigators had also -gathered outside the wall of my bath an hour -before. I had been suddenly aware of an eye -at every crack and crevice of the boards as I was -cautiously stepping into the superheated tub. -There was not a sound, merely the glitter of their -star-scattered eyes.)</p> - -<p>The foreigners put sugar on their rice and one -of them even put sugar in his tea. They handled -their chopsticks so awkwardly that it was marvellous -that they did not spill the rice grains on the -matting. She thought of the twenty rules in etiquette -for the proper and graceful use of chopsticks -and she imagined that if there had been a -ten score of rules they might have all been -broken. At last the three feasters finished their -mighty meal and stretched out on the cushions -to smoke in deep contentment. She doubted -whether they had even noticed that her superior -<i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">kimono</i> was not such as a maid of an inn would -possess. After the feast her quick feet, in spotless -white <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja"><a id="a-tabi" href="#tabi">tabi</a></i>, carried away the bowls and little<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[149]</a></span> -tables. Then she sat down by the door to await -any further clapping of hands.</p> - -<p>The host came in, moving silently across the -matting. He kneeled and bent his forehead to -the floor. Before the meal he had himself arranged -the flowers, in an old iron vase, to stand -in the <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">takemona</i> corner. We tried to express our -appreciation for the flowers and our admiration -of the vase.</p> - -<p>We asked him how old the inn was. It had -been his father’s before him, and his grandfather’s -before his father. Yes, in those days the Nakescendo -had rivalled the Tokaido, and yearly, on -the hastening to Yedo to give obeisance to the -Shogun, the great nobles of the northwest provinces -with their armed retainers had had to pass -through Narii. In the pride of their gifts to -the Shogun, in their numbers, in their courage, -they had never yielded place to the envoys from -the great families of the South. This now forgotten -inn had then been famous. Our room, -overhanging the river, he repeated, had been only -given to the <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">daimyos</i>. The <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">samurai</i> had crowded -the other rooms. The inn had boasted a score, -two score, of trained and pretty <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">ne-sans</i> to wait -upon those fiery warriors. (The modern <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">geisha</i>, -in many of her accomplishments, is daughter to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[150]</a></span> -the inn maidens of the feudal days who sang and -danced and played musical instruments in addition -to the graces of more domestic duties.) The -inn had then rung with shouting and laughter, -and sometimes the dawn of the morning start of -the cavalcade found the retainers still sitting -around the feast.</p> - -<p>On the road to Yedo their purses had hung full, -but the great city always plunged both its hands -into those purses filled from the rice taxes, and -it was often quite another story—the return journey -back to the provincial castles. No rare occurrence -was it indeed, for some haughty <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">samurai</i> -to declare in the morning that he could not pay -his inn bill, however modest it might be. Upon -one occasion a certain warrior had been forced -to leave in pledge the first mistress of his heart—his -sword. A <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">daimyo</i>, overlord of a province, -could, of course, never be in debt to an innkeeper, -although he might leave a <em>gift</em> for his host instead -of money. When such eventuality as that arose -the host would declare (wisely) that his hospitality -had been unworthy of any remuneration and -that he was a thousand times repaid by the magnificence -of the gift.</p> - -<p>Yes, went on the old man, once a noble upon -leaving the door had caused a vase to be unwrapped<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[151]</a></span> -from its encasements of one silken bag -after another and had given it to the inn. The -donor had written a poem of dedication with his -own hand. The vase was shaped like a bottle and -the inn had been called “The Bottle Inn” from -that day, seventy years in the past. Our host, a -youth on that day, had thought that the inn would -ever be rich and renowned. He sighed. The -tradition of its renown had faded and been forgotten -in this age of railways. No longer did -turbulent guests demand that the bottle be brought -out and shown.</p> - -<p>If his dramatic genius had been subtly leading -us toward turbulence, we obeyed the pulling of -the strings. We demanded to know whether the -vase was still under his roof. Our host smiled. -The sacred vase was hidden safely. Would we -like to see it?</p> - -<p>He returned, carrying an old wooden box. The -great-granddaughter dragged the unredeemed -sword after her. The well-worn scabbard of the -sword was of mediocre, conventional design, but -the blade had been forged by one of the famous -sword makers. Hori read the sword’s origin -from the characters carved in the steel. The old -man slowly slipped the sword back into the scabbard, -leaving us to ponder what might have been<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[152]</a></span> -the tragic fate of the <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">ronin</i> that he had never returned -for his pledge.</p> - -<p>No casket of precious metal can be so alluringly -suggestive of trove as the simple, unpainted, -pine boxes into which the Japanese put their -treasures. A woven cord clasped down the lid -of the box. The untying of it began the breathless -ceremony. When the lid was lifted we saw the -first silken wrapping, then came another, and another, -and another. Some were of brocade, some -were of faded plain colour,—red, blue, or rose. -Finally the drawing string of the last bag was -pulled open and the old man lifted the bottle. -It was of yellow pottery with a thick brown -glaze overrunning the sides. The mouth of the -vase was capped by a bronze and silver band -carved with an irregular motif.</p> - -<p>The trustee of the possession allowed us to -pass it from hand to hand.</p> - -<p>What was one of our reasons for being in Narii -at that very moment? It was that our eyes were -prying for those rarer treasures in Japan which -may be sometimes gleaned “away from the beaten -path.” Unaccountable chance had led us to the -inn. The old man was hopelessly beaten in his -contest with poverty. I knew that he did not -wish to sell, but if there should be the jingling<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[153]</a></span> -of a few <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">yen</i>—was it likely that he could refuse? -Our eyes were gleaming with desire. Surely, -even if it were a venal sin to take away the -bottle from The Bottle Inn the very greatness -of the temptation would have brought its own -special forgiveness. But because temptation and -conscience can generally be argued around to our -satisfaction, the gods have ironically added impulse -as the third part of us. It must have been -some such impulse which was the irrational lever -which moved us to action. We soared to the -heights. It was a superior endurance to any -flight that it is likely either of us will ever attempt -again. Truly such virtue is more regretted -than gloried in. We did not take the bottle with -us. It still functions in its environment, in harmony -with its tradition. Taken away it could -be only a superior vase with a history, an object -of art. In that old inn it is a living part, an -inspiration. In the forgotten village of Narii no -numbered museum tag hangs around its neck.</p> - -<p>The bottle dropped back into the brocade bag -lined with faded crimson silk. Then the other -wrappings, one by one, muffled it. It went into -the box, the lid was fitted into place, and the cord -was tied. Do we gain strength from resisting -such temptation? The writers of the Holy<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[154]</a></span> -Church of the Middle Ages said so. By refusing -that bottle I merely gained exhaustion. This -moment I am stifled by the dust of the ashes of -that murdered passion. My conscience replies -with no response. It has lost the vitality of recoil, -and thus, if ever such time may come, I may -yet glory in a greater vandalism, some supreme -Hunnish act, and there will be no rasping regret.</p> - -<p>The breezes up among the snows of the mountains -came down into the valley for the night. -Wherever they were going they seemed to be -quite undetermined as to their path. They blow -from every side and into every corner of the -room by turn. Little by little, to escape the -draughts, we had kept pushing along the wooden -shutters until we were at length completely walled -in. It was not possible to imagine that a few -miles away, down on the rice plains, the millions -were nudely stifling while we were going to bed -to get warm. The daughter of the priest had been -dragging layers of bedding to the door and, when -we clapped our hands, she had innumerable mattresses -for each of us. For once it was unnecessary -to stretch the mosquito netting. There -seemed to be nothing left but to blow out the -lights and cry: “<i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">O yasumi nasai!</i>” to the retreating -patter of her footsteps.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[155]</a></span></p> - -<p>“What’s the midget granddaughter waiting -for?” I asked Hori.</p> - -<p>“She wants you to go to bed,” said he from -under his quilt.</p> - -<p>I jumped into the soft centre of my mattresses -as requested. Then the butterfly dropped on her -knees and crept backward around our beds. Out -of a box she was pouring a train of powder until -she had us each enclosed in a magic circle.</p> - -<p>“Why?” I demanded.</p> - -<p>Kenjiro laughed at me.</p> - -<p>“It’s <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">nomi-yoke</i>,” he said. “Insect powder—what -do you say in America? Bug medicine?”</p> - -<p>I insisted that I had not seen the sign of a -bug or an insect or a flea or anything looking like -a marauder.</p> - -<p>“Of course not,” Hori stopped me as if I -should have known better. “It’s just courtesy -to honoured guests, to show you that they would -wish to protect you if there were any. If there -were crawlers,” he concluded with some scorn, -“do you suppose they’d make such an effort to -call attention to the fact?”</p> - -<p>That <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">bushido</i> explanation satisfied Hori but I -was doubtful. For the sake of verification I carefully -destroyed the integrity of the rampart -around my bed by opening up passages through<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[156]</a></span> -the powder. I was willing to display a few bites -in the morning to prove the truth. I went to -sleep dreaming about two-sworded <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">samurai</i> who -looked like pinch bugs, and they were swaggering -around a wall of insect powder. However, the -morning proved that Hori was quite correct. The -delicate attention had been born of pure courtesy.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"></div><!--Page break for ePub--> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[157]</a></span></p> - - - - -<h2>VII<br /> -<span class="titlefont">THE IDEALS OF A SAMURAI</span></h2> - - -<p>In the morning we found great brass basins of -water waiting for us in the sunny iris garden. -One of the super-errors that a foreigner can make -in a native inn is to ask to have the basins -brought to his room. Such a request can be understood -only as a perversion, or a barbarity. -One reason why the houses and inns seem so -clean is that they eliminate so many of the chances -for their being otherwise; and this defence might -be added into the weighing when criticizing Japanese -nudity at ablutions.</p> - -<p>Breakfast was brought to us steaming under -the lacquer covers of the bowls, but the priest’s -daughter was not holding the wooden ladle for -the rice. It was a rather late hour when she had -returned to her father’s house, but the mothers -and daughters of a Japanese home are accustomed -to having their working hours overlap into the -night. In subtlety we brazenly accused each other -of having frightened the gentle <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">ne-san</i> into not -returning. The truth was—as it afterwards came<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[158]</a></span> -out—that we had each found opportunity to hint -to the host’s ear the night before that the maid’s -slumber by no means should be disturbed for our -morning’s start. Thus we each privately thought -we knew the secret of her non-appearance, but -just as we were tying on our shoes at the door a -breathless message was brought by her small -brother. She had overslept. It had not been -our late hour which was responsible. The family -of the Shinto priest had sat up almost until the -first light in the East to listen to the wonder -tale of their daughter who had endured such a -singular and daring adventure.</p> - -<p>The ancient host gave us presents and we gave -him presents. We said our farewells at the door -and then, after that, he and his granddaughter -walked along with us half through the village. -Finally we bowed our formal seven bows of farewell. -When we reached the end of the street -we turned and saw them still standing where we -had left them.</p> - -<p>The road led across a wide, flat valley. That -morning there was a truly extraordinary phenomenon. -The claret red of the sun flamed and -danced against the snows of the mountain wall -at our left. Finally our road broke up into a -delta of small paths. The soft earth had been<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[159]</a></span> -so cut into ruts by heavy carts that Hori was -forced to accede to the demands of the bicycle -that it should be assisted and not ridden, but he -did not surrender until the wheel had demonstrated -its malevolence by pitching him a half-dozen -times off the saddle. Thus we all walked -along together. The villages were rather mean, -with the air of having come down in the world. -Some of the towns, in the days before machinery, -had had special fame in the various handicrafts; -one had been known for its hand-made wooden -combs. Evidently there remain some conservatives -who have not yet countenanced modern vulcanite -innovations, as wooden combs were still -being made for sale. Entire families, from grandparents -to children, were the manufacturers, the -factories their own homes. We bought a boxful -for a few <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">sen</i>. In arriving at a selling price -they must have valued their time in the manufacturing -as a gratuitous contribution to the -arts.</p> - -<p>Every once in a while O-Owre-san and I had -had our pleasure in drawing the long bow of our -imagination concerning the architectural reason -for a certain peculiar type of house. A recurring -example is to be found in nearly every village. -These buildings are unusually substantial and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[160]</a></span> -the windows are always heavily barred and shuttered. -They give a suggestion of descent from -the castles of feudal days. As I said, we had employed -our elaborate imagining over the mysterious -buildings, but our guesses had never -brought us anywhere near to the truth. Hori -explained that they are the houses of the pawnbrokers. -Hori is the son of a <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">samurai</i>. (He has -the right to wear, if he wishes, the full number -of crests on his formal <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">kimono</i>.) The artists who -made the old colour prints used to give to the -eyes of the two-sworded <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">samurai</i> an expression -of warlike ferocity. When Hori spoke of the -pawnbrokers his eyes glared, and I was sure that -I detected his hand starting to reach for the -sword that has now gone from his girdle. However, -the ubiquitous bicycle just then swung -around and entangled him, as a reminder, probably, -that this is a new age, a mechanical and not -a feudal one, and that a <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">samurai</i> no longer has the -general and hearty acquiescence of law and society -to proceed to direct action against the loathed -money lender. The law of the land says to-day -that the pawnbroker must be considered as a free -and equal citizen, enjoying full rights under the -mercy of the Mikado; albeit (as the bars and shutters -of his windows show), the money lender still<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[161]</a></span> -wisely believes in keeping his powder dry even in -an age of enlightenment.</p> - -<p>When we had extricated Hori from the bicycle -and we had all got going again, he explained -why the pawnbroker is the most hated member of -Nipponese society. Here are some of the other -remarks that Hori made about pawnbrokers:</p> - -<p>They are always rich. (He meant the Asiatic -wealth,—hoards of gold, not a checking account -at a bank.)</p> - -<p>They are uncanny.</p> - -<p>They lead isolated, unhappy lives.</p> - -<p>They always have a beautiful daughter (one -only) to fall heir to the riches.</p> - -<p>This daughter dreams of noble lovers, but no -Japanese, whatever his rank, be it noble, humble, -or decayed (or, for that matter, no matter how -much in debt he may be to her father), would ever -throw away his pride to wed a pawnbroker’s -daughter. Thus she is left to grieve out her heart -in the midst of her father’s luxury.</p> - -<p>A Japanese believes certain things patriotically. -I know that Hori does not believe these same -things intellectually, for I was once rude enough -to continue an argument until he capitulated -intellectually—but for the love of country and -the required loyalty to what should be, he also<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[162]</a></span> -keeps to the beliefs which he should have as -a Japanese. After all, juxtapositioned to such -faith, mere intellectual judgment does seem lacking -in vital fluid.</p> - -<p>The hiatus in Hori’s Japanese life—the foreign -period and influence—began when he was of the -high school age and went to America. Thus, -at the time when the mind is supposed to be most -receptive, he was separated from the traditions -and ethical customs of his homeland, and he made -no return home until he had left his American university. -A peculiar duality may come from such -a training. It would be impossible otherwise, for -instance, that one individual should really appreciate -both a symphony orchestra and a <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">samisen</i>, -not so much from the angle of technical divergence -in the use of notes, tones, and scales as in -aesthetic comparison. To any human being with -emotional sensitiveness and response, not possessing -a dual personality, acknowledgment of the -rights of the symphony would seem to preclude -those of the <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">samisen</i>.</p> - -<p>I had lost my Japanese pipe. Those little iron -bowls continue to be a most admirable luxury -through all of the days that one is in the land of -their invention. When the traveller leaves the -shores of Japan he takes away with him packages<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[163]</a></span> -of silken tobacco and his pipe, only to find that -he never lights it again. The charm is broken -when the circle is broken, and the circle, I suppose, -is a unity when one is lying on the cushions -of a balcony overlooking a garden, and a maid -brings the charcoal <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">hibachi</i> and a pot of tea. -You touch the bowl of the pipe to the fire and -then—three puffs and a half. You knock the ash -into a bamboo cup. Perhaps the maid refills -the pipe, touches it to the charcoal, and hands it -to you again.</p> - -<p>Ordinarily these pipes are sold everywhere, but -at Narii we could not find them. When we were -walking into Shiogiri I asked Hori to help me -keep an eye on the shops as we passed. After a -time he said: “Here we are. Here’s a one-price -store.”</p> - -<p>We had not come upon just such a shop before. -While the stock and the arrangement was purely -native, the atmosphere of the place was distinctly -un-Japanese. A little of everything was for sale, -but instead of the selling being a social ceremony, -the shopkeeper and his wife and his sons and his -daughters were expeditious clerks and not hosts. -The entering customer asked for what he wished -to see, and a price tag told him the cost. That -was the beginning and the end of any bargaining.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[164]</a></span></p> - -<p>In the conventional shop the buyer sits down -leisurely, after removing his <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">geta</i>, and perhaps -has a cup of tea. If an ordinary utility is wished, -the negotiating is necessarily devoid of much opportunity -for extended approach, consideration, -and conclusion, but it is always to be remembered -that our idea of what is a waste of time may be -the Japanese idea of a valuably used moment. -The little shops have no opening and closing hours. -Literally, there is all the time there is. The -clerk does not sell eight, nine, or ten hours of -his day to his employer. He sells all of it. -As it is impossible to keep at high pressure for -maybe twenty hours of the twenty-four (and -twenty hours is not an exaggeration in some instances) -nature’s insistence for rest has to come -out of the working day. The fact that the workers -are not awaiting the striking of a clock for -their liberty, but are more or less taking it as -it comes, accounts for what is often a mystery -to travellers, the easy gaiety of a busy Japanese -street. Workmen put down their tools and stop -for a visit; the shopkeeper chats indefinitely -with a customer; the maids at the inns have -plenty of time to light pipes for the guests and -pour tea. Our idea is that the individual’s liberty -begins at the sharp demarcation of the hour<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[165]</a></span> -which ceases to belong to the employer. After -the wanderer has lived for a time in the midst -of the Oriental system, the impression comes that -time is a continuous flow and that it is not a succession -of intervals as it is with us. The people -of the East have even found a counteracting -thrust to oppose the tyranny of the railroad schedule. -By arriving at the station indefinitely early -they can show their contempt for definite departures.</p> - -<p>While we were buying my new twelve-<i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">sen</i> pipe -in the Shiogiri one-price store, Hori commented -with obvious emphasis several times that he was -pleased that the prices were so carefully marked -on the tags. As smoking may at any time become -a ceremony, I spent many minutes in my -selection, and through these minutes Hori kept -dropping his pointed comments, but I stored away -the impression of his satisfaction over the price -tags to be asked about later. An appropriate -time did not come for several days. An hour -came when we were lounging on an inn balcony -in the soft night air.</p> - -<p>It seemed that our method of shopping was the -disturbing pressure against Hori’s peace of mind. -We two foreigners undoubtedly had many flaws -which came to light under the wear of intimate<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[166]</a></span> -association, but it was this one which at last -drove Hori to the verge where he had to unburden -his feelings. In the curio shops, or wherever -we were making purchases, when we came -upon something that interested us, we immediately -asked: “How much?” It had been natural, -when Hori was with us, to rely upon him -to interpret rather than to employ our own -cumbrous methods of transmitting ideas. As -soon as we received an intimation of the bargain -price we proceeded to the bargaining and -continued until we arrived at what was presumably -the lowest compromise of the shopkeeper. -Hori had also noticed that we sometimes put off -deciding whether we really wished to purchase -until we discovered the eventual price. We quite -reversed the ceremonial purchase making enacted -by a Japanese gentleman. As Hori witnessed it, -the difference was meaningful. The Japanese collector -looks first of all at an object to see whether -it merits his attention. If it does, there follows -an extended conversation about its intrinsic excellence. -Every question as to artistic value, -authenticity, age, workmanship, uniqueness—these -are all settled before a word about the price arises. -If the object does not equal his demands of it, the -collector departs without inquiry about the money<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[167]</a></span> -value—for why should he be interested in the -cost of an article if not in the article itself?</p> - -<p>Hori shook his head sadly. “You always ask -right away: ‘How much?’” he said. “That -sounds very mercenary to us. It looks as if you -were more interested in cheapness than quality.”</p> - -<p>We had not suspected that Hori was writhing -when, under the pressure of our Occidental impetus, -he had been asking for us the questions of -price. As a matter of fact, be it to his credit -and our discredit, despite the simplification of -his quick interpreting against our imperfect use of -the few words that we did know, when it came -to the detail of price our efforts often seemed to -be able to effect a more extraordinary drop from -the original quotation than when such arguing -was put off until all other details were settled. -It is true that the merchants who have really -fine things will not show nor sell their best to -customers whose appreciation they doubt, but -it may also be true that as far as we did have -appreciation, we made up our minds more quickly -than does the Japanese collector, and thus the -stages of consideration which Hori missed were -not so much lacking as they were abbreviated.</p> - -<p>The standards of the <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">samurai</i> when he goes -forth to make purchases should not be confused<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[168]</a></span> -as being an index to the methods of modern -Japan in attacking the world’s markets. In such -trading there is no nation which is more intent -upon giving the customer what the customer -thinks he wants, and price and profit are sufficiently -an affair of cold business to be safely -refrigerated against any germs of sentimentalism. -Hori was speaking as the son of the civilization -which flowered in the feudal days. Whatever -that civilization was, it was not commercial. In -that old régime the shopkeeper was only a shopkeeper, -and a discussion of ethics in trade occupied -little space in the code of honour of the -nation. When Hori’s fathers stopped to buy a -fan or a bronze or a roll of brocade or sandals -for their feet, or whatever it might be that they -wished, bargaining stopped as soon as they -reached the end of their patience—and they were -most impatient warriors. They might arrogantly -pay what was asked, or, if their patience -was too far gone, they might lop off the head -of the obdurate merchant. The last probability -had a tendency to keep prices fairly near to an -equitable level when the two-sworded men were -purchasers.</p> - -<p>It is not an appreciated trait in the modern -world to have contempt for money. Japan’s nobility,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[169]</a></span> -when the <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">Shogun</i> ruled, had sincere contempt -for money. There is something dramatic, -even noble, in having such a contempt, but it -must be said that it is a much easier possession -to maintain if back of it the possessors have the -inalienable ownership of their landed estates. -The descendants of the ancient orders in Japan -do not own the land to-day and, examining their -position in the cold light of fact, their contempt -for any consideration of things commercial is -the sign-board finger pointing to their eventual -elimination. It was the miracle of all time when -those noble families responded to the necessity of -the new order, forced upon Japan by the outside -world, and gave up their feudal right to the land -to the Emperor for a more democratic distribution. -They not only surrendered their land in response -to the Emperor’s edict, but they metamorphosed -their sons into statesmen to help carry -through the ideal. Their children went to foreign -lands and laboured at menial tasks to learn the -ways of the <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">seiyo-jin</i>. Returning home they recognized -that the standards both of commerce and -ordinary trade had to be raised. Their encouragement -to their country to proceed along new -lines was practical and effective; nevertheless few -were the sons of the nobility who themselves entered<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[170]</a></span> -the world of commerce. Rather was it that -they encouraged a middle class to rise. Even -with no longer a perpetuation of power through -landed estates, the old aristocracy has so far -continued to exert the preponderating influence -in national leadership. Can they continue to -cherish a contempt of money and at the same -time withstand the power of the new commercial -class which is becoming richer every year while -they are becoming poorer? Can they prove that, -even in this age, honour and loyalty need not have -to go hand in hand with money, and that poverty, -second only to death, is not the great leveller?</p> - -<p>Curiously, indeed, the abandon which comes -from contempt for wealth by this class in Japan -has had a bullish effect in one small department -of world trade. Westerners first thought of -Japan as a nation so given over to aestheticism -that it used its hours in creating beautiful works -of art and then admiring them. In those early -days examples of their highest achievement in art -were to be found at incredibly low prices. For -a decade or two after its ports were forced open -by the foreigner, the country was absorbed in -adjusting itself to meet conditions unique to its -traditions. It was a revolution which had to endure -the strain of the uncompromising lavishness<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[171]</a></span> -of war without the excitement of war. In such -a period “priceless” art objects had their price. -Those objects of art had been so intimately associated -with the calm of the old order in its -social and religious system that when that order -gave ground the Japanese disregarded such possessions. -It was then that gold lacquer boxes -were either sold for a sum equal to the mere -salvage of the gold or else melted in the furnace.</p> - -<p>Those first years of readjustment presented the -glorious days for the foreign collector. Then -came reaction. To their own bewilderment the -Japanese awoke to find that their love for the -beautiful had not been merely an appendage of -the feudal system. They began to compete for -their own treasures. Prices began to advance to -the mystification of the foreign buyers. The Japanese -aristocrats were entering into collecting with -that abandon which can exist only through sincere -contempt for money. Thus it is that very few -fine things now come out of Japan. Japan is -poor, desperately poor, and it would seem that our -millionaires should easily outbid them, but to a -mind commercially trained, eventually there enters -a consideration of price. To the son of the old -Japanese nobility there is no such consideration -except the limit of his purse. I heard the story<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[172]</a></span> -of a young nobleman who desired a certain Korean -antique. His wealth was about six hundred -thousand <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">yen</i>. Like the Roman youth who shook -dice, hazarding himself to become the slave of his -opponent should he lose, this young Japanese entered -the bidding until it was his last <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">yen</i> which -bought the antiquity. The dilettante does not -bid successfully against that spirit.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"></div><!--Page break for ePub--> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[173]</a></span></p> - - - - -<h2>VIII<br /> -<span class="titlefont">MANY QUERIES</span></h2> - - -<p>In abrupt change as we neared Shiogiri the -people grew more prosperous and more smiling. -One housewife along the way was busy with a -gigantic baking in the sun. I have forgotten just -what she said the small cakes were which she was -patting out so expeditiously by the hundred. -Her hands coquettishly fell into error in her routine -when we wished her good-day. She had -an adventurous spirit behind the work-a-day -masque of her face. Inordinate questioners as -we could generally prove ourselves, it was she -who took and kept the lead in every kind of interrogation. -She wanted to know all about the great -world over the ridge of mountains which stopped -her sight. She followed this questioning with an -exposition of facts which she already knew about -foreigners. She could be quite sure, she said, -that the information which she had previously -collected through gossip had in no way been adulterated -by exaggeration. The proof was that -we looked exactly as she had hitherto imagined<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[174]</a></span> -foreigners. This comment was more interesting -than flattering. Her anecdotes about foreigners -were fluently parallel to the tales about pagans -which I used to hear as a child from the cook -when she returned from her missionary circle.</p> - -<p>I asked our hostess if she would let me take her -picture. My hesitation in asking was an unnecessary -contribution to the proceedings. She was -much pleased. She patted down her hair, rubbed -her cheeks with a pale blue towel until they were -rosy red, and then dusted her hands and arms -with rice powder. After that she ran into the -house to reappear without her trousers. Hori -told her quickly that foreigners are greatly -shocked to see women in skirts. We appropriately -pretended to be unseeing long enough for -the hasty redonning of the discarded trousers and -then the camera clicked.</p> - -<p>Foreigners, particularly missionaries, are by no -means unknown in the quarter of Shiogiri built -around the railway station. The town is a rather -important junction. At the new inn the servants -who met us at the door told us that they knew -just what the foreigner likes. We in our obstinacy -refused to like what the foreigners who -had come before us had said that they liked. It -was one of the least happy of all our rests.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[175]</a></span></p> - -<p>The service in the shiny new inn had lost the -spontaneity, the not-to-be-imitated bloom of the -<i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">yado-ya</i> which makes each guest believe that he is -the most honoured. It had resolved into the -inevitable mortification which comes from trying -to please two masters. When they asked whether -we wished native dishes or foreign dishes for -dinner, we kept insisting that we wished Japanese -fare, but the inn could not shake itself free from -compromises and we had a native dinner cooked -after some imagined foreign style; just as we -would have had a semblance of a foreign dinner -cooked in the native pots if we had consented to -act our proper parts as <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">seiyo-jins</i>. The trouble -with such in-between places is not so much that -they are jerry-built or that the ignorance of <em>why</em> -is naturally followed by an ignorance of <em>how</em>, but -that something essentially vital has been abstracted; -the fire has gone, and the result is a -listless lassitude.</p> - -<p>Across the street was the entrance to another -inn, with an electric sign at the gate and with -two rows of paper lanterns hanging over the -path. While we were taking a walk and looking -in at the shops Hori picked up the information -from someone that the rival establishment to ours -was half inn, half <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">geisha</i> house, that the maids, in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[176]</a></span> -fact, were country <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">geishas</i>. Every <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">geisha</i> must -have a <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">geisha’s</i> ticket from the government to follow -her vocation of innocent amusing. All <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">geishas</i> -are not innocent, but says the government, if -they are not they must possess another license. -Through its varieties and grade of licenses the -government relies largely upon maintaining order; -thus, much of the work of the police is devoted to -social regulation to prevent disorder rather than -to the otherwise necessity of curbing it after it -breaks forth. In any social system, whether the -general scheme reaches out for the ideal or not, -if the cogs fit in smoothly enough to work at all, -the logical conclusion reads that the better the -machine runs the more nearly have the everyday, -actual wishes of the people been satisfied. In -Japan the social regulations and the demands of -the popular moral standard appear to mesh without -much friction. This does not mean that the -social problem has been solved, but it does mean -that the compromise has measurably been made -with eyes open and thus some evils have been successfully -eliminated.</p> - -<p>The <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">geisha</i> tea-houses have their special licenses, -and inns have special licenses. While many combinations -of licenses are possible, it is contrary to -custom to issue a permit to a <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">geisha</i> house to have<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[177]</a></span> -all the privileges of an inn. Hori thought that -there might be licenses of that sort issued in the -smaller provincial towns such as Shiogiri. Whatever -the facts were, such a combination license -would seem to be contrary to the usual intent of -the regulations. The government proceeds about -its business of regulation without much sentiment, -but it does seek by its very system of labelling to -secure to the innocent the assurance of travelling -through the kingdom without unwittingly having -to come into contact with vice. The traveller is -supposed to be able to go to an inn without having -to inquire whether it is also a questionable -tea-house.</p> - -<p>It might seem that the easiest way to have -found out what was the exact status of the inn -across the street would have been to have walked -there and asked. Hori, however, was lukewarm -for any such investigation. I discovered in this -mood of Hori’s cosmos a trait more interesting -than the entire subject of licenses. The intuition -came suddenly in a wholeness. This trait might -have been called patriotic, a patriotism so very -broad that in the first inkling it seemed narrow. -He had a deep desire that we should understand -Japanese ideals, and his process of thought was -that while he believed that to understand Japan<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[178]</a></span> -we must see everything, nevertheless at all times -there should be a certain normality in the seeing. -As he explained, many Japanese customs and -modes of thought, puzzling at first, are quite -comprehensible when the entire fabric is examined. -He did not wish to have certain squares of the -embroidery held up to be criticized without the -offset of properly contrasting squares. Naturally -his own impetus often carried him a little beyond -that normal into looking for the bright and golden -patches and ignoring the dull ones. I think he -was theoretically right, but most of us have a -childish overconfidence in our maturity and we -do not wish to have it doubted that we are -capable observers even of the abnormal. Experience -has not trained us to follow, even if we -wished, an idealized instruction. Thus I am afraid -that O-Owre-san and I remained recalcitrant -observers most of the time and in our own way -used our philosophical microscopes in grandiose -attempt to disintegrate the atom and conclude -the infinite.</p> - -<p>It is true that the most balanced mind can be -poisoned by an impression. We are sensitized -to light and shade. The traveller who goes to -one of the great capitals of the world and endures -as his first impression a visit to the dregs of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[179]</a></span> -underworld forever finds the darkness of that -shadow over his concept of aught else. This comparison -is indeed putting a superlative exaggeration -upon Hori’s not wishing to go to the inn-tea-house -across the street. Just because I happened -to glean something of his attitude about our -excursion as a whole from that particular incident -did not mean that he was attaching particular -importance to it. The subject was dropped -and as we were all tired, we went to bed, and allowed -the double row of paper lanterns to swing -on in the breeze without our three figures casting -shadows on the path beneath, and the question -that interested me about what sort of a license -had been issued there was never settled.</p> - -<p>The next morning O-Owre-san and I were off -at an early hour, leaving Hori to follow on the -bicycle. The heavy dew had clotted the dust -and the cobwebs were glistening. It was so cold -that we fell into our fastest gait, but perversely -the town kept creating some new and picturesque -allurement to slow our stride at almost every -pace. Many of the most important houses had -the dignity of villas. I suppose the owners of -those houses look upon the town’s activity as a -railway junction not as a crowning glory but -as a deplorable disturbance. Before the railroad<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[180]</a></span> -was dreamed of, Japan’s aristocracy had cherished -that particular hillside overlooking the view of -the valley with the snow ridges beyond. The -prosperous shopkeeping streets were busy even -at our early hour; boys and girls were flushing -the pavements, fanning out the water from -wooden dippers; the fathers were taking down -the shutters; and the mothers were giving indiscriminate -directions while they rubbed their eyes -and pulled their <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">kimonos</i> straight. Many greeted -us with a cheery “<i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">O-hayo</i>.”</p> - -<p>At the edge of the town a temple gate stood -invitingly open and we entered the garden and -crossed a diminutive bridge to an island. We sat -down to listen to the birds, admire the butterflies, -and watch the gold and silver fish bob out of the -water. The silent temple, hidden in the shadows -of the trees, was built after the noble lines of the -Kyoto tradition and may have been contemporary -with that era. We were waiting for Hori. We -knew that we had several intricate turnings before -we should come to our mountain road to -Kama-Suwa, and we were indulging ourselves -that morning in unwonted conservatism over the -possibility of a mistake. We sat for some time -waiting to hear the jangling of the bicycle bell, -but as no such sound came from the distance and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[181]</a></span> -as the sun had not warmed the air, we decided to -take the most attractive turns that came, right or -wrong. The street that intrigued our fancy -wound delightfully between large country houses. -While there was nothing except the trees and a -certain pervading atmosphere to suggest the -English country, nevertheless there was the instinctive -feeling that within those screened, luxurious -houses the sleeping families were quality -folk, a class never forgetting that their position -carries responsibilities, duties, and privileges. To -meet a panting coolie dragging a ’ricksha along -an English lane would strike one not only as -strange but ridiculous. To have seen a gate open -that morning in the outskirts of Shiogiri and -to have had a shining British dogcart swing out -into the road atop the heels of a cob would have -seemed neither incongruous nor absurd. That’s -the reward the English achieve from their devout -worship of the correct. In any corner -of the globe when the beholder finds people -getting serious about form, his mind immediately -institutes a comparison with the British -standard.</p> - -<div id="Ref_168" class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"> -<img src="images/i179.jpg" width="600" height="468" alt="" /> -<div class="caption"><p>WE DECIDED TO TAKE THE MOST ATTRACTIVE TURN, RIGHT OR WRONG</p></div> -</div> - -<p>We walked on into a maze of hills. In the -age of chaos the mountain range had tried to -turn to the south but, meeting some powerful opposition,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[182]</a></span> -had been rolled back over on itself. -When we came to the meeting of a half-dozen -crooked paths there was no possible guess for -our direction. We sat down in the sun for a few -minutes, allowing that much time to good fortune -to send us help, if the god of luck should so -wish to aid, before attempting anything on our -own initiative. We were sent two farmers whom -we almost lost through their sudden surprise upon -seeing us spring up out of the bowels of the earth. -However, they had only been startled, and they -did not think we were transformed demons. They -entered into an energetic discussion of our route, -insisting that we take the trail which was the -faintest of all and which seemingly wandered off -in the most irresponsible way. It first crossed a -footbridge over the stream. One of the men -dug a map in the dust with his toe. We finally -parted with bows and protestations of gratitude -and they stood in the valley and directed us on -our climb as long as we could see them. Then -they waved a final adieu and started on their own -path.</p> - -<p>It was decidedly a short cut they had disclosed. -When we were on a summit we discovered Hori -far below wheeling over the long valley road and -undoubtedly wondering why he did not overtake<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[183]</a></span> -us. Probably a ’ricksha could get through those -hills by keeping to the lower paths, but neither -our generation nor that of our children’s children -will find those narrow trails made over into -motor highways. For generations the tramper will -have his “unspoiled” Japan. It is true that -east to west the mountains have been pierced by -two lines of railway and the foot trails sometimes -cross the steel, but now that the railroads have -been built the trains running through the valleys -and plunging into the tunnels seem to be as alien -to, as outside the lives of the mountain folk, and -as little considered in their existence as the invisible -messages hastening along the telegraph -wires. Japan has been opened to the world and -science has brought an infinite change to the -Japan that we think of, but over those mountain -paths long lines of coolies stagger with their loads -of merchandise as did they in the days before -wheels were invented. Many of the coolies are -women and girls. Over the steep miles the backs -of the little girls are bent under chests which, -thrown to the ground, would be large enough for -playhouses. I know nowhere else in the world -where faces do not grow stolid and stupid under -such strain, but these women and little girls often -turn upon you faces not only pretty but even<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[184]</a></span> -strangely beautiful as they raise their heads for a -quick glance. Their wistful eyes ask unanswerable -questions. You feel as if they were eternally -pondering the <em>why</em>.</p> - -<p>I do not mean that such glimpses can bring -more than a merest intuition of a people’s attitude -toward life. Such a gossamer web of intuition -is a personal speculation, but it may be not -too presumptuous for foreign eyes to make a -diagnostic examination of physical characteristics -and to believe that some truth may be reached -from accumulated observations. While the Japanese -nation is old in history and civilization, -and while time’s hammer has made the people as -nearly homogeneous as is synthetically possible, -nevertheless their predominant physical characteristic -is that as a race they are youthful in vitality. -The coolie bends his shoulders to as heavy a load -as he can carry, but also does the coolie of Southern -India. Existence seems to offer not much more -in prizes to one than the other beyond the promise -of the opportunity to labour day after day until -death, but in the Indian’s face one reads that the -draught of unquestioning acceptance of fate was -drunk by his fathers ages ago. That strong arch -of the Japanese jaw means <em>future</em>. The struggle -among nations for dictatorship may end in competition’s<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[185]</a></span> -giving the award to the people having -the best teeth.</p> - -<p>We passed two or three lonely, terraced farms -where the earth was being coaxed and coddled not -to run away, but through most of the hours of the -climb the mountain sides were a forest reservation -serving as a reservoir to save the water of the -streams for the lower valleys. When we came to -a spring gushing from the hill we drank, an action -which is sternly warned against, and probably -with absolute justification. However, with a -four-mile-an-hour pace under the July sun thirst -becomes positive. We mixed into the clear water, -against any lurking germs, the antidote of deciding -to consider ourselves immune. After a time -our trail brought us down again into the valley, -and it was not until then that Hori caught up -with us although he had been circling around the -base of the hills at full speed. He found us -locked in a bargaining struggle with a gooseberry -peddler. The man was carrying his produce in -a bucket swung at one end of a yoke across his -shoulders, and his pensive little daughter was -balancing the load by sitting in the other bucket. -Our first advances had unutterably confused his -wits, beginning with the logical wonderment why -two pedestrians miles from any town should wish<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[186]</a></span> -to buy green gooseberries. As the bargaining -continued his puzzlement was relieved by a sudden -lightning suspicion. We were not buying gooseberries, -we were trying to buy his daughter! It -seemed so discourteous to rob him of his hard -thought out solution that I urged O-Owre-san -strongly to adopt the child and carry her off in -his rucksack. It was just then that Hori arrived. -He jerked the demon bicycle to a stop and vaulted -to the ground. At first he was as uncomprehending -of why we wished to load up with green -gooseberries as had been the peddler, but that -night he fully acknowledged the value of our -whim when the berries, stewed in sugar, stood -before him.</p> - -<p>I had taken the camera out of my pack but -the man was most suspicious of it. We compromised -that I should stand up and show just -what taking a picture was. As soon as I made -the demonstration his quick refusal against such -devil’s work followed. Quite by chance the camera -had clicked during the demonstration.</p> - -<p>April-like showers had been tumbling upon us -now and again without disturbing the sunshine. -We had one more long climb and then found ourselves -with Lake Suwa far below. The town -of Kama-suwa rested on the farther shore of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[187]</a></span> -lake in a narrow line of houses. Despite the -rain flurries the day seemed very clear, but we -did not have the famous first view of O-Fuji-san -which sometimes gloriously greets the traveller -when he stands, as did we, suddenly on the heights -above the lake. On those rare days the mountain -rises against the blue sky, the vista coming through -a sharp gap in the granite hills, and casts its -image on the grey-blue waters. This is the view -from the north. The conventional view is from -the south, but the sacred mountain lessens never -in beauty as the worshipper circles the paths about -its base, north, south, east, or west. Like a -glorious and beautiful soul, its moods change -while it changes not.</p> - -<p>Is it idolatrous to worship Fuji? Is it pagan -to love its beauty, to feel one’s spirit freed for -a brief moment, forgetful of experience tugging -at one’s elbow, of caution, of fear, of expediency, -of pride?</p> - -<div id="Ref_184" class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"> -<img src="images/i197.jpg" width="600" height="584" alt="" /> -<div class="caption"><p class="center">IS IT IDOLATROUS TO WORSHIP FUJI?</p></div> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"></div><!--Page break for ePub--> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[188]</a></span></p> - - - - -<h2>IX<br /> -<span class="titlefont">THE INN AT KAMA-SUWA</span></h2> - - -<p>The railway train with its sly befuddling -through the luxury of speed has picked the traveller’s -wallet. Cooped behind a smudged window, -how can he sense the personality of the town he -enters? One should stand in isolation on the -heights above a city, and then follow down some -path until within the streets one is absorbed by -the throbbing life. (Hobo Jack, <i lang="la" xml:lang="la">ipse dixit</i>. And -is this not true?)</p> - -<p>To appreciate Kama-Suwa’s surcharge of culture, -prosperity, and importance, the reader should -think of a small city in Kansas (one of those -temperate, prosperous, ideal cities of which one -has a vividly exact idea without the proof or -disproof from having visited it). I say this, -knowing only the standardized impression of -those ideal cities, but often a common, standardized -impression may be more expeditious, not -to say more valuable, or even more truthful, to -communicate a comparison than the truth itself.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[189]</a></span> -Thus, by such a comparison let Kama-Suwa be -known.</p> - -<p>The Kama-Suwa streets are filled with good -citizens; the shops are superior, the town has -“as fine a school system as you could find anywhere”; -the temple is “well supported”; and -there are not any very poor people. Also the -town has famous hot springs and famous views. -In the age when Nature was distributing her -gifts she favoured Suwa with excessive partiality, -in anticipation, perhaps, of the future births of -to-day’s appreciative, virtuous, honest, and industrious -Kama-Suwans.</p> - -<p>We had had a good report of a certain inn in -the town and, after we reached the path around -the shore, Hori went ahead on the bicycle to -prepare the way. The machine’s parts were -working together with remarkable smoothness that -day, perhaps because its superfluous temper had -been cooled down through its having been left -out in a short, hard beating rain while we were -taking refuge under a tree. We promised Hori -to hurry, but we did not. The mountains overhanging -the lake were responsible in the beginning -for our forgetting our word, but we augmented -that beginning by finding some cause for -a violent argument, one of those tempestuous<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[190]</a></span> -discussions which gain their heat from the insidious -conceding of small points. An obstinate, -unyielding opponent who stays put is a far more -satisfactory antagonist. We were well into the -town before we discovered that we were hemmed -in by houses. The interruption which opened our -eyes was a polite pulling at our sleeves. One -waylayer, out of the many who had surrounded -us, had cast away in despair the usual Japanese -respect for not touching the person.</p> - -<p>Why our entry had created such excess of -excitement we could not imagine. We had grown -<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">blasé</i> in our role of being interesting exhibits. -One may even grow so accustomed to having an -interest taken in every detail that a lack of -acknowledgment of curiosity seems the abnormal. -This time mere curiosity did not appear to be -the factor. Each waylayer was trying to speak. -In the confusion I could not catch one familiar -word. I knew most of the names that are sometimes -cried at foreigners in the port cities, but -there was nothing hostile in the present attack. -As a sedative I tried to ask the way to the inn -but my simple question increased the babel. We -had no answer that we could understand. We had -been smiling and bearing the mystery, and there -was no choice but to continue so doing. Every<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[191]</a></span> -shopkeeper in the street was apparently out now, -helping to gesticulate if not to add words. We -had continued walking and we came to an open -space. All the brown hands simultaneously -pointed in a dramatic sweep across a swampy -field. On the roof of a large, new building stood -Kenjiro Hori. He had changed into a <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">kimono</i> -which he was modestly trying to hold around him -in the freshening breeze and at the same time -to wave a huge white sheet with all the energy -of his other wiry arm.</p> - -<p>When we reached the door Hori had come -down from the roof. He was very expeditious -in his instructions to the servants and our shoes -were off and we were in our room before we -had a chance to ask a question.</p> - -<p>“Now that we’re <em>settled</em>——” Hori began with -a slight accent on the “settled.” He then hesitated.</p> - -<p>“Yes?” we inquired.</p> - -<p>“Oh, I was just going to ask whether you -wouldn’t rather dry your clothes and take a bath -before we go exploring around the town.”</p> - -<p>As O-Owre-san had been answering that question -by hanging up his wet clothes and getting -into a cotton <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">kimono</i>, it did not seem to require -argument.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[192]</a></span></p> - -<p>“Is the bath ready?” he asked.</p> - -<p>“It’s always ready—natural hot springs,” Hori -answered.</p> - -<p>I stacked up some cushions and stretched out -in comfort along the balcony. I sipped tea and -smoked until I was sure O-Owre-san would not -be returning for something forgotten. I had been -suspecting that Hori’s nonchalance had clay feet.</p> - -<p>“O-Hori-san,” I asked, “what did you say -was the name of this inn?”</p> - -<p>O-Owre-san was always off to the bath as soon -as his feet were inside an inn. This time I had -marvelled that the habit was so strong that he -could put off attempting to solve the mystery -of our reception, especially as Hori’s naïve casualness -suggested that he knew the kernel of the -mystery.</p> - -<p>“It’s a new inn. Very good, don’t you think?” -Hori answered my question.</p> - -<p>“What is the secret?” I demanded. It was -evidently very dark and if the facts had to be -modified in the telling, I thought that perhaps -they might come forth less modified for me than -for O-Owre-san. The other inn had been one -of our few planned quests. “Why didn’t we -go to the other inn?”</p> - -<p>It may have been most unfair to use such a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[193]</a></span> -direct method of questioning, especially the distressing, -bee-line “hurry-up.” I was trading -upon my being a foreigner from a land without -the tradition of the proper ceremony of questions.</p> - -<p>Yes, Hori had visited the inn of which we had -had the superior report. It was a most superior -place. He paused. Then he vouchsafed the information -that it was expensive. That was indeed -a serious objection. He thought that the bill -there might have come to three, four, or even five -<i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">yen</i> a day. That explanation should have been -final enough for me. It was, in fact. I would -have accepted it. I merely happened to ask -whether he had looked at the rooms.</p> - -<p>“Yes,” said he, and then he suddenly threw -discretion away. “And what do you think? -<em>They had rocking-chairs and American bureaus -in the rooms.</em>”</p> - -<p>Poor Hori! He had been having to listen -to us inveigh in American exaggeration against -the infamous inroads of modernity. I cannot -imagine that he took our chants of hatred against -innovations actually at their word value, but he -had had much reason to become weary and bored -from their repetition. He implied that his reason -for leaving the other inn was for our aesthetic -protection, but be it said he was wise in his own<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[194]</a></span> -protection. There is not much doubt that if we -had reached the presence of those rooms there -would have been another merry-to-do of wild -epithets against machine-made American export -furniture bespoiling native simplicity for him to -listen to. The tourist animal is truly a snobbish -beast, and natives should occasionally be given -dispensations for outright murder.</p> - -<p>Once I was chatting over tall iced lemon -squashes with a Japanese physician. In a surge -of confidence, and also in burning curiosity, he -told me about his trip to America. He had -learned his English in Japan. While visiting a -family whom he had known in his homeland, he -met one of America’s daughters who asked him -to call. He was somewhat startled by the invitation -but he remembered that he was not in the -Orient. He described the conversation to me in -awed phrases.</p> - -<p>“She had a box of chocolates. ‘Do you -know,’ she said, ‘I am mad about chocolates, -simply crazy.’</p> - -<p>“I thought,” he explained, “that she was confessing -to a craving appetite and wished my -assistance and advice. I imagined, then, that I -knew the reason of my invitation. I was a -physician from a foreign land and, as I must<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[195]</a></span> -soon return to my own country, her secret with -me would be as good as buried. I explained -that I could do nothing for her without the full -confidence of her father and mother. She took -this natural suggestion as if it were meant to -be humorous. When she had stopped laughing -she told me that the Japanese are perfect dears -and horribly cute. Then she asked me if I didn’t -love—what was it she asked me that I loved? -I forget. You see we Japanese have few words -to express the affections and use those sparingly. -And now,” he leaned eagerly forward, “I want -to ask you whether that young lady was charming?”</p> - -<p>I tried to evade by asking him what was his -idea of charming.</p> - -<p>“That’s just what I don’t know. I was told -that she was beautiful and charming. I could -see that she was beautiful. Then I asked people -what charming meant. They all told me something -different.”</p> - -<p>“You can’t define charming,” I hazarded. -“It’s something different from a mere attribute. -Foreigners always say that Japanese women are -charming.”</p> - -<p>“Then she wasn’t charming,” he decided judicially.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[196]</a></span></p> - -<p>Several times I have been so rash as to try -to explain to men of other nations how much -an ordinary American conversation should be discounted. -I fear that they did not accept my -formula but held to the extremes, either continuing -to take us literally or not believing us -at all.</p> - -<p>After Hori had discovered the untoward action -of the first inn in adding rocking-chairs and -bureaus to its equipment, he hurried down the -street and warned the shopkeepers whom he could -find to stop any two wandering <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">seiyo-jins</i> and -direct their attention to the new inn. They must -have been impressed that the affair was one of -moment.</p> - -<p>We heard O-Owre-san, the feared critic of -varnished, golden-oak-pine bureaus, coming up -the stairs. A striped, blue <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">kimono</i> made in -Japanese standard length somehow does not suggest -dignity when worn by a more than six-foot -foreigner with a beard, but O-Owre-san came so -solemnly across the mats in his bare feet that his -ominous repression created its own aura of dignity. -Something had happened, but he was not -inviting questions.</p> - -<p>Hori started in turn for his bath. I remained -on my cushions. I sat and sipped my tea.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[197]</a></span> -O-Owre-san sat and sipped his tea. Hori with -his secret of the rocking-chair inn had not been -impregnable to questions. O-Owre-san was too -dangerously calm. I waited.</p> - -<p>He began by alluding to the excellence of the -rooms we had. They were excellent, the best -in the inn, being a part of an extra cupola story -and giving a splendid view across the lake. Then -he restated the known fact that the baths were -served by natural hot springs. “The water -comes pouring in through bamboo pipes,” he said.</p> - -<p>“Well,” I spoke for the first time, “and then -what happened?”</p> - -<p>The honourable <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">seiyo-jin</i> drank another cup -of tea.</p> - -<p>“I got into the wrong bath,” he said.</p> - -<p>It was news that there could be any such thing -as a wrong bath in a Japanese inn.</p> - -<p>“You see,” he continued, “the baths for the -guests of the inn are just under us, but I didn’t -notice them when I walked by. When I got to -the other end of the hall I found a large bath -room. Those are the public baths, but I didn’t -know that then. There were several big tubs -with the water tumbling in all the time from the -pipes. There was nobody else there nor a sign -of anybody. I made myself at home and was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[198]</a></span> -floating in one of the tubs when suddenly I heard -a monstrous chattering out in the hall and then -right into the room walked twenty girls. Maybe -there were twice that many. I don’t know. -Well, I’ve called upon my practical philosophy -to recognize the extenuating virtues of—ah—the -natural simplicity of the traditional exposure of -the Japanese bath—so to speak—its insecurity—as -it were—but—but—h’m—yes—but this was too -much.”</p> - -<p>I shouted.</p> - -<p>He glared.</p> - -<p>“I was just thinking——” I tried to say.</p> - -<p>“I can see you are just thinking,” he interrupted, -“and I know what you are thinking. -You are thinking what a great story this will be -to tell when we get home. Believe me, if you -ever do——”</p> - -<p>“How could you ever imagine such treachery?” -I wedged in.</p> - -<p>“Well, and then what was I to do?” he demanded. -“I couldn’t jump out and run and -I couldn’t stay in that boiling water until I was -cooked. I relied upon some instinct of feminine -chivalry to give me a chance, but——”</p> - -<p>I tried to be sympathetically consoling. “A -very, very trying situation.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[199]</a></span></p> - -<p>“Huh! They were all stepping in and they -just naturally crowded me out. Of course they -paid absolutely no attention——”</p> - -<p>Hori’s step was on the stair. He came in and -sat down and poured a cup of tea. Then he -stretched out on his back and gazed innocently -at the ceiling. “O-Doctor-san,” he said, “you’ve -settled a disputed point in Kama-Suwa and everybody’s -much obliged.”</p> - -<p>“What’s that?”</p> - -<p>“Well, there’s been an argument for a long -time whether <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">seiyo-jins</i> are white all over——”</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"></div><!--Page break for ePub--> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[200]</a></span></p> - - - - -<h2>X<br /> -<span class="titlefont">THE GUEST OF THE OTHER TOWER ROOM</span></h2> - - -<p>Our tower wing of the inn at Kama-Suwa -had required no architectural ingenuity in its -design, but I do not remember ever having seen -a Japanese building planned in the same way. -The walls were open on the four sides and there -was no <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">takemono</i> corner. The only approach -was by a flight of stairs which belonged to it -exclusively. We thus had an isolation most unusual. -It mattered not the length and breadth -of the space given us, our few possessions were -always scattered over all the space available.</p> - -<p>We heard steps on the stair and our hostess -and a maid came up to us and bowed many -times and brought many apologies. Half our -space was to be taken away. This was only -following the very equitable custom that a guest -may have all of the extension of his floor until -some other traveller must be accommodated, and -then, presto! there are two rooms where one was -before.</p> - -<p>In a few minutes a double row of screens had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[201]</a></span> -been pushed along the grooved slides in the floor -from the head of the stairs, creating two complete -rooms with a hallway between. The new -guest, a woman, stood waiting to take possession. -From the quality of her <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">kimono</i>, the refinement -of her face, and the arrangement of her hair, we -could judge that she was of superior rank. We -questioned with some wonder why she was alone, -but as it was extremely unlikely that that question -or any other about her would be answered, the -passing query was dismissed. However, it came -about that we were to know one poignant chapter -in that woman’s life.</p> - -<p>We went exploring to find the kitchen, there -to deliver our gooseberries and our recipe. The -maids and cooks stood and listened. We proceeded -with our explanation until we reached the -point where one more suppressed giggle on the -part of the <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">ne-sans</i> might have burst forth into -full hysterics. We released them in time by -laughing ourselves and then left them to recover -as best they could and to experiment with the -stewing. Their irresponsible laughing for laughter’s -sake had infected us with the mood. We -went filing back to our room. The guest of the -second tower room was standing on the balcony -at the head of the stairs. She had changed from<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[202]</a></span> -her street <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">kimono</i>. Her eyes were shaded by -her hand and she was looking searchingly down -the road. As we walked by she stepped a little -farther out on the narrow balcony but did not -take her eyes from her quest.</p> - -<p>The maid brought our dinner. It had been -fourteen hours since breakfast and we had been -tramping mountain paths, but without the sauce -of appetite that dinner could have justified its -existence. There were fish fresh from the mountain -waters of the lake, and there were grilled -eels, and there were strange vegetables with -strange sauces. When the rice came we poured -our stewed gooseberry juice over the bowl. The -maid had left the screen pushed back when she -carried off the tables downstairs. At that moment -of our contentment I looked up to see the -lonely watcher step back from the balcony. Her -expression had changed to joyful expectancy and -radiant relief and trust. She went to her room, -then returned to the balcony, then ran again to -her room. In a moment or two the round, sleepy -maid stumbled up the stairs and whispered a -message. The message again brought the woman -to the head of the stairs and in a moment we -could hear a man’s step coming.</p> - -<p>The greeting of affection in Japan is not a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[203]</a></span> -meeting of the lips. Whatever the proper cherishing -expression may be, it cannot be such a -casual acknowledgment as was that man’s indifferent -greeting in the inn at Kama-Suwa. A -glance showed that he belonged to that new type -which modern Japan has produced, the mobile, -keen, aggressive, calculating, successful man of -business and affairs. He was about thirty-five. -Men of this new stamp are seldom met with in -the provinces where the old order has changed -so little but in Tokyo and the port cities their -ideas are the predominant influence. Their aggression -and ability have taken over the business -and industries which the foreigner established. -When one thinks of Old Japan one can believe -that the thought action of this type of man by -the very virtue of his being understood by us -is enigma to those who still seek their inspiration -in the ideals of the order that was.</p> - -<p>“Well, I am here,” he said. “You sent for -me and I came.”</p> - -<p>The woman stood, making no answer.</p> - -<p>“What’s it all about?” he went on. “Your -message was very mysterious. It cannot be that -you have been so foolish—so unthinking—as absolutely -to make a break with your husband?”</p> - -<p>“You are tired from your trip,” she said.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[204]</a></span> -“Come! Sit down! Your dinner is waiting to -be brought.”</p> - -<p>He sat down and the woman clapped her hands -for the maid. When the stumbling, awkward -girl came the man changed the order and told -the <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">ne-san</i> to bring <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">sake</i> first of all. He sat in -silence until the hot rice wine came. He drank -several of the small cups. Then the maid brought -the lacquer tables with the dinner dishes. The -man lifted up one or two covers and then suddenly -jumped to his feet and declared that he -was going to take a bath.</p> - -<p>The maid led the way to the large room for -baths which was just under our rooms. The -woman sat before her untasted dinner. Soon -there was a sound of laughing and chattering -from below. There was the man’s voice and the -maid’s laugh. Finally the woman arose, walked -out into the hall, tentatively put a foot on the -stair, then slowly walked down. She waited outside -the sliding paper door. The maid had committed -no breach against custom in lingering idly -after carrying in towels and brushes. It was -for no personal bitterness against the stupid maid -that tears had gathered in the woman’s eyes. -There was nothing vulgar in the words of the -bantering chatter she heard. It was the fact<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[205]</a></span> -that the man was accepting the moment so carelessly, -so unfeelingly for her anguish, knowing -as he must unquestionably that every word of -his indifferent greeting to her had carried a torturing -thrust of pain.</p> - -<p>The dinner was brought up again, warmed -over. We heard the order for another bottle -of <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">sake</i>. We could not escape hearing through -the paper wall. We had intended taking a walk -but a misty rain had come down. The mosquitoes -arose from the beaches of the lake. We -sent for the maid and asked for the beds and -mosquito netting. In the meantime Hori and -I were tempted into taking another luxurious -sinking into the hot baths. O-Owre-san had -turned out the light before we came back. In -the darkness we crawled carefully under the omnibus -netting and I went to sleep immediately. I -awoke in about an hour. The misty rain had -been blown away and the moon was shining so -clearly that when I turned over I could see that -Hori’s eyes were wide open. I heard the maid, -stumbling as always, come up the stairs with -another bottle of <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">sake</i>. I asked Hori whether -he had been asleep. He said that he had not, -that after the woman had begun talking she had -not stopped. I could hear her low, ceaseless<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[206]</a></span> -tones. The man was smoking one pipe after -another. He would knock out the ash against -the brazier—four staccato raps—then there would -be a pause for the three or four puffs from the -refilled pipe, and then the staccato raps again.</p> - -<p>“If we are ever going to get to sleep,” said -Hori, “we’ll have to complain to the mistress. -Guests haven’t any right to keep other guests -awake.”</p> - -<p>“Why wouldn’t it be better to make some -such suggestion to them without calling in the -mistress?” I asked.</p> - -<p>Hori shook his head. That was not the way. -However, we delayed sending for the inn mistress. -Hori translated some of the conversation that he -had heard before I woke up. The woman had -that morning left her home and her husband. -She had sent a message to the man now in the -room with her, but her news had evidently been -one of his least desired wishes. Before he sank -into the silence of tobacco and <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">sake</i> he had said -his disapproval.</p> - -<p>“I thought you had more sense than to do -anything so absurd, so almost final. Don’t you -see that it will be almost impossible for you to -go back now? How will you make any explanation -that he can accept?”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[207]</a></span></p> - -<p>“But,” she interrupted, “I came to you as -you have so often said that you wished I could. -That was the only way I could be even a little -bit fair to him—to leave his house.”</p> - -<p>“Everything was all right as it was.”</p> - -<p>“No! No! I could not live that way.”</p> - -<p>“I can’t see why. I don’t see it. Now you’ve -pretty nearly ruined both of us. However, we’ve -got to think of some way for you to go back.”</p> - -<p>“But I can’t. I’ve lost the possibility of that. -If I had not thought you wished me, I might not -have come to you, but I could not stay there.”</p> - -<p>“That’s foolishness. Anyhow, you can go to -your own family, and when he finds that is where -you are, he’ll want you to come back.”</p> - -<p>Her mind was dully grasping that here, with -this man, she had no refuge, but her heart would -not believe.</p> - -<p>“I wished to make it complete,” she repeated. -“I wanted to give up everything for you.”</p> - -<p>What folly, what sheer childish folly, he told -her, that she had listened seriously to his idle, -passing phrases. Why, always, she must have -known that he was merely answering her vanity. -Any woman should have known and accepted that.</p> - -<p>The ceaseless words and the staccato rapping -of the pipe continued. We dismissed from our<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[208]</a></span> -minds any intention of sending for the mistress, -but not from prying curiosity. Our sleeping, or -our not sleeping, was not of importance. In -merciful pity (at least as we thought) for the -woman, we knew that that contest must be settled -as it was being settled. “But,” Hori whispered, -“it would be a mighty big satisfaction to mix -in a little physical argument.”</p> - -<p>“No one at this inn knows who I am,” the -man continued. “No one has any idea that you -have more than the slightest acquaintanceship -with me. No one would ever be convinced that -you ran away to meet me.”</p> - -<p>She ceased the argument that she had come -to him in willing sacrifice of all else—the supreme -gift of her love for him. She began to plead. -He did not answer. His pipe struck against the -brazier and now and again the maid brought -<i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">sake</i>. Once she began to weep hysterically but -this surrender to her agony was only for a short -moment.</p> - -<p>It was now almost morning. The rapping of -the pipe stopped. The man got to his feet somewhat -noisily. Passionately and despairingly the -woman begged him not to leave her. Then as -suddenly she ceased all words and said nothing -as he made his preparations for going, nor did<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[209]</a></span> -she call after him when he left her. Her unbeating -breast imprisoned her breath through one -last moment of hope. The spark of faith died -but the torture of life remained, and her breath -was released in a long, low moan. Until morning -broke she sobbed, lying there on the floor.</p> - -<p>She had not pushed back the wall panel which -the man had left open. When we went below to -our baths she drew in her outstretched arm which -still reached gropingly into the narrow passageway. -She dressed before we returned. We met -her on the stairs. She started to cover her face -with her <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">kimono</i> sleeve, and then, listlessly, -dropped her arm.</p> - -<p>“Where will she go?” I asked Hori.</p> - -<p>Hori did not know. In the old régime, he -explained, when a woman of the aristocracy left -her husband she went to her family, but it had -been only under extreme duress that a woman -would leave her husband. There is much talk -to-day in Japan that the social institutions are -crumbling. One is told that the “new woman” -movement is a result of the crumbling of the -old order; and again one is told that the crumbling -has come from the new woman movement. These -latter critics say that so many women are leaving -their homes that if any proper discipline is to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[210]</a></span> -be retained and maintained, the tradition that -a woman’s own family may receive her into their -house must be uncompromisingly discouraged as -a declaration of warning to others.</p> - -<p>Hori, himself, now that the tragedy had ceased -to be so present, was somewhat inclined to look -upon the history of the night in its relation to -collective society rather than as the drama of two -individuals. A Japanese instinctively regards a -family as a family, and not as a collection of -units. Loyalty is the basic idea of that philosophy -and not the importance of the individual -soul.</p> - -<p>“There is one thing quite sure,” he added, -“she was obviously from a sheltered home and -Japanese ladies know precious little about the -realities of the outside world. I don’t believe -you could understand. Why, they don’t even go -shopping like American women. The shopkeepers -bring everything to them. If she hasn’t -some place to go—well, you can guess what will -happen to her. She could never earn her own -living any more than a baby.”</p> - -<p>“It may end with suicide,” I suggested.</p> - -<p>Hori doubted that. Suicide is an escape often -appealed to in Japan, but he thought that if her -temperament had been impulsively capable of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[211]</a></span> -seeking such release, she would have made the -attempt immediately.</p> - -<p>“But,” I objected, “isn’t your other alternative -impossible? Isn’t there a rigid law that no -woman of the <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">samurai</i> class can enter the <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">yoshiwara</i>?”</p> - -<p>“Oh, yes,” said he, “but an agent can easily -arrange to have her adopted into some family -of a lower order and then she loses her rank and -its protection.”</p> - -<p>O-Owre-san came up from his bath and asked -us what we were talking about. He had slept -through the night.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"></div><!--Page break for ePub--> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[212]</a></span></p> - - - - -<h2>XI<br /> -<span class="titlefont">ANTIQUES, TEMPLES, AND TEACHING CHARM</span></h2> - - -<p>For many days we had been passing through -villages which yielded no good hunting among -the antique and second-hand shops. It should -be known that the lure of the curio carries poison. -Two friends who have lived blithely in affection, -confident that no brutal nor subtle assault could -ever avail against the harmony of their intimate -understanding, perchance step through the doorway -of a shop. Presto! A candlestick, a vase, -a box, a tumbledown chair, whatever it may be—the -desire for the thing magically energizes perception. -We suddenly and clearly perceive that -the one-time friend at our side is hung with many -false tinkling cymbals. We never break the rules -of the game; it is the friend who always errs. -Thus I was always learning O-Owre-san’s abysmal -depths, while he was encountering my superlative -virtues of unselfishness. However, as his chief -fiendishness was for cloisonné and my interest -was in carved iron and bronzes and old Kyoto<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[213]</a></span> -ware, we were spared from too many overdoses -of poison.</p> - -<p>The little shops of Kama-Suwa really had -curios. There were strange, imaginative odds -and ends which had been made to please the -whims of the eccentrics of a vanished and now -almost un-understandable age. Of such whimsicality -were the costumes and the heap of personal -adornments which we discovered that had once -been fashioned for a famous wrestler of Kama-Suwa. -Even his sandals were there. He must -have been a giant, truly, if his feet filled those -<i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">geta</i>. Everything for the hero had been made -in faithful exaggeration to many times the size -of the conventional. His leather tobacco pouch -was as big as our rucksacks. Every detail of -the decorations of the pouch, such as the <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">netsuke</i>, -was increased to correct proportion. In the -stockings for his feet the threads were as thick -as whipcord. The grain of the shark skin binding -the handle of his sword had come from some -fish of the Brobdingnag world. When fully -equipped, that famous man—they spoke of him -reverently—must have given the effect that he -had been blown into expansion by some marvellous -pump.</p> - -<p>After we had shaken a dozen or so curio shops<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[214]</a></span> -through our sieve we wandered off into the rain -seeking the village temple in the hills. By festivals -and gorgeous pageants the people around -the shore of Suwa still celebrate their faith and -belief that its towns were built by the gods in -the beginning of time. The upkeep of the -temples, I suppose, must now come from the -worshippers or the state as there are no longer -lavish feudal patrons with immense incomes of -rice. Nevertheless these temples do not seem to -suffer poverty.</p> - -<p>We easily found the path. A spring bursts -from the rock of the precipitous hill back of the -temple garden and its waters keep green the -shrubs and grasses and the bamboo, and cherish -the flowers. Perhaps the garden has achieved -its perfection by minute alterations through hundreds -of years, but its appeal bespeaks the original -conception of its first master artist, who, by -creating a subtle absence of formal arrangement, -offered the supreme compliment to the beholder -to carry on through his own creative imagination -that approach to the ideal perfection which can -never be reached.</p> - -<p>After a time the rain, which had begun falling -in torrents, drove us back from the dream garden -to the shelter of the overhanging temple roof.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[215]</a></span> -A sliding door opened behind us and we turned -around to see an old woman kneeling on the matting. -She bowed low and then arose to disappear -and to return again with tea and rice cakes and -fruit. She placed the dishes on a low, black -lacquer table. We untied our muddy shoes and -moved in onto the mats. The rain fell in dull, -droning monotony on the tiles of the roof far -above our heads; back in the deep shadows our -eyes could see the gleaming of the reddish gold -edges of the lacquered idols. Every suggestion -was hypnotic of sleep and I had been awake -almost all the night before. I grew so sleepy -that even the touch of the cup in my hand had -the feeling of unreal reality. Between the raising -of the cup to my lips and the putting of it -down I actually plunged for an instant into sleep, -then came to consciousness with a start. I looked -at Hori. His eyes were blinking waveringly and -with much uncertainty. Were there ever such -guests of a temple? I vaguely remember that -our hostess put a cushion under my head, and -then came a rhythmic coolness from her fan over -my face. I would have slept on the rack.</p> - -<p>We slept until we awoke to find the sun shining. -Our hostess, with immobile, gentle face, -was still fanning us. We were abjectly, guiltily<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[216]</a></span> -remorseful. We sat up and she brought fresh -tea. We appealed in a roundabout way for -forgiveness by praising the teacups and the teapot. -They were very fine. She explained that -they had been the gift of some <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">daimyo</i>, she -thought. Whoever he was, he had made many -rich gifts to the temple. She pushed back panels -and brought out bowls and vases, and told us -romantic legends. The legends were colourful -rather than of plot. I knew then that I could -never remember more than their impression. The -old woman’s own personality had drifted into -limbo and she had absorbed in its place a reflection -of those dark, mysterious temple rooms. -She held out robes and porcelains before us and -then carried them away quickly. She led us -through the shadows, stopping to light incense -at the feet of the Buddhas with the reverence -that such acts were her life and not her task.</p> - -<p>We said good-bye and walked away, following -along the crest of the hill. The temple roof disappeared -behind the treetops and we were again -in the modern world, for at that instant across -the valley we saw a huge, nondescript, barracks-like -building. It had been erected in the worship -of efficiency, and was more completely mere walls -of windows with a roof above than even an American<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[217]</a></span> -factory. As we stood watching, a man paced -out of the gate and behind him stepped a girl, -and then another girl, and another, until it was -a long procession. The line pursued a twisting -way, sometimes in measured steps, sometimes in -undulating running. At last the line formed a -serpentine coil in an open space.</p> - -<p>The building was the high school for girls and -the man leading the line was the physical instructor. -The pupils wore the distinguishing universal -reddish-purple skirt of the high schools -which are bound over the <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">kimonos</i>. These skirts -look heavy and uncomfortable. They must have -been designed by some minister of education in -those days of translation when the demand for -modern ideas included always that they must be -served raw. It was believed with loyalty and -devotion that the principle at the base of the -secret of foreign success was the axiom that -nothing useful can be ornamental.</p> - -<p>The physical instructor was inhumanly military -and dignified—and so overwhelmingly efficient in -his instruction that it was annoying to see such -perfection. Secretly perhaps, but always, the -male animal instinctively protests and resists that -women should unite into solidarity to do things. -To his roots he begs that if they do so do, they<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[218]</a></span> -shall not achieve success in the essay. Man has -always run in packs, but woman has been the -eternal individual. Our wrath was against the -traitor in sleeveless gymnasium shirt and tight -foreign trousers who was teaching so systematically -and effectively to that line of girls the secret -of team work. By the sorrow of his eyes it could -be seen he acknowledged to himself his infamy -to his sex, but his loyalty to his Emperor was -that he must conduct that exercise drill and conduct -it professionally.</p> - -<p>Hori suggested that we visit the school, insisting -that such a visit would be considered a great -compliment. It seemed to us more like an impertinence -of vagrants, but Hori continued firm -that it was our duty as itinerant foreigners to -interrupt the machinery. He took a couple of -our visiting cards, mere innocent slips of pasteboard, -and proceeded with his fountain pen to -make them pretentiously formidable. He raked -up all the detritus of our past lives. We did -have sufficiency of conventional shame to cough -apologetically when Hori read aloud the outrageous -qualifications of our scholarship and degrees -which he had added after our names. We -learned that it is a mistake to believe that there -can be no utilitarian value in a college degree:<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[219]</a></span> -letters after one’s name are seeds ready to burst -into useful bloom under an exotic sun, and the -flowering may be a pass into a provincial high -school for Japanese maidens.</p> - -<p>A servant took those remarkable cards from -Hori’s hand and walked off down the long corridor. -The result was that a smiling diplomat -came to us empowered to minister to our entertainment -and instruction. We were honoured as -the first courtesy by <em>not</em> being allowed to remove -our heavy walking shoes. Every step that I -took on those shining, spotless floors made me -feel as if I were perpetrating a clownish indecency. -The remorse that follows one’s own wilfulness -can never be so keen as the agony when -sheer fate ordains unavoidable vulgarity. Still, -in leaving heel marks in the polished wood, there -was the saving humour of the idea that our hosts -thought they were honouring us by encouraging -our foreign barbarity.</p> - -<p>There were unending rooms of maids in purple -skirts. They were studying every sort of subject -from the abstract to the practical, and from -the aesthetic to the ethical. There were girls with -the refinement of profile which one seeks and -finds in the ideal drawings by the great Japanese -artists; and there were those other faces, the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[220]</a></span> -round, good-natured O-Martha-sans. We looked -over their shoulders at their paintings of flowers, -at their embroidery, at their arithmetic sums, their -maps, and their English composition. The Japanese -say, “Perhaps rich nations can afford to -economize in education and to exploit ignorance, -but we, being very poor, must be practical. We -cannot take such risk of ignorance.”</p> - -<p>A modicum of truth lies in the statement that -the Japanese have taken up education as a new -religion. (And some of the bumptious youthful -devotees in Tokyo impress one that it was a -mistaken bargain to have allowed them to exchange -pocket shrines for text-books.) Theories -of education have many splits everywhere in the -world and the Japanese fervour has not escaped -having to face the necessity of certain decisions. -One difference of opinion, which might almost -be called theological, rests in the question whether -the youth should be educated to think according -to conviction or to think according to conformity; -to think or to be taught what to think. A Japanese -told us that the government must risk its -last penny to-day to guarantee the future, that -the people are being educated to understand -national policies in the faith that understanding -will breed willing cooperation and willing self-sacrifice.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[221]</a></span> -When I asked him which he meant, -whether students were being taught to understand -the policies of the state or whether they -were being taught to believe in them, I rather -thought that he considered my question argumentative -and perhaps unfriendly. However, -without his having answered the question, it is -obvious that Japan is trusting its fate to the -system of educating toward solidarity, the impulse -to think alike.</p> - -<p>After our noisy boots had been in and out of -many rooms we were taken to meet the head of -the school. He was not in his administration -room, but he entered in a few minutes. After -the formal introduction he clapped his hands for -tea. His appearance and his dignity were of -ancient Japan. His thin divided moustache fell -in long pencil-like strands from the corners of -his lip, as do those of the sages in the ancient -Chinese paintings. His <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">kimono</i> was silk. We -smoked and drank tea and talked abstractedly -about education. It was a girls’ school but he -talked of boys. We strayed from Montessori -methods to industrial training. After he had -used some such phrases as “a sound education,” -O-Owre-san asked how many years of a boy’s -life he considered should be given over to his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[222]</a></span> -schooling. His eyes had been of passive light. -They now gleamed like those of a warrior.</p> - -<p>“Until he has been taught loyalty to his Emperor!”</p> - -<p>It perhaps may be a debatable question for -the other nations of the world, that question of -Socrates whether virtue can be taught, but the -headmaster of the high school in Kama-Suwa -declared that in Japan a teacher is not a teacher -unless he can teach loyalty. The boys must be -taught loyalty; the daughters of the Empire must -be taught grace. (And by grace I think he -meant also charm.) To exemplify, we were led -to the “flower-arranging room.” The Japanese -arranging of flowers is a ceremony and there is -commingled in it both the suggestion of the actual -in life and the ideal of the perfect. The room -which we were shown was an attempt to achieve -the supreme inheritance of Japanese art in architecture -and decoration—rhythm, harmony, and -simplicity. Something of the spirit of didacticism -must ever hang over a room so built but, -in the room that we were shown, charm and -beauty had surprisingly survived the inevitable -refrigeration of being labelled “classic.”</p> - -<div id="Ref_226" class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"> -<img src="images/i241.jpg" width="600" height="529" alt="" /> -<div class="caption"><p>THE BOYS MUST BE TAUGHT LOYALTY; THE DAUGHTERS OF THE EMPIRE -MUST BE TAUGHT GRACE.</p></div> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"></div><!--Page break for ePub--> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[223]</a></span></p> - - - - -<h2>XII<br /> -<span class="titlefont">TSURO-MATSU AND HISU-MATSU</span></h2> - - -<p>In the same town of Kama-Suwa where the -barracks-like high school for girls spreads its -wings there also rises the tiled roof of a <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">geisha</i> -house. Under its protection other daughters of -the Empire are also being rigorously trained to -duties—the life of amusing and entertaining. -The position of the <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">geisha</i> cannot be illuminated -by comparisons. There are the “sing-song girls” -of Peking and the nautch dancers of India, and -there were in the days of the fruition of Greek -civilization the sisters of Aspasia; the life of the -<i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">geisha</i> might be considered to be somewhat -parallel to their lives in so far as it is a response -to the demand of highly civilized man for the -romance of idealized anarchy; the inhibitions of -custom, or dogma, having precluded the expression -of inborn romantic desire in his conventional -life. Men whose minds have realized some measure -of freedom through imagination and culture -instinctively seek idealistic companionship with -women. When realization is compressed by such<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[224]</a></span> -custom as marriage by family arrangement this -desire finds expression in some direction where -there is at least the illusion of freedom. Human -nature is like the human body, if pressure is -applied in one spot, unless there is some equitable, -compensating bulge elsewhere, the compression is -likely to be vitally destructive. If the highest -ideality has as its cornerstone responsibility, then -when marriage is an institution by arrangement -and the sense of responsibility is not created -through the freedom of choice, feminine companionship -and charm will inevitably be sought -in the romance of some more voluntary arrangement. -Who will absolutely deny that when the -endeavour to save poetical yearning from defeat -is such companionship as the almost classical ceremony -of watching the white fingers of a <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">geisha</i> -pour tea into a shell of porcelain, a sort of mutual -sense of responsibility to save the fineness of life -may enter into the relationship as a redeeming -grace against the professionalism of the <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">geisha’s</i> -life?</p> - -<p>We turned from the street into the gate of -the principal tea-house. There was a clapping -of hands by the first servant who heard our steps -on the gravel path and in a moment the mistress -and all the men-servants and maid-servants were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[225]</a></span> -at the door to greet us. It was at an hour in -the afternoon when the tea-house did not expect -guests. We took off our shoes and were led to -the floor above. There were four or five rooms -but they soon became one, the maids removing -the sliding screen panels, and we were given the -luxury of unpartitioned possession. One side, -entirely without wall, overhung the garden.</p> - -<p>The maids brought cold water and tea and -sherbets and iced beer and fruits and cakes, and -there were dishes on the table of which we did -not even lift the covers. Then they knelt and -awaited our orders whether they should send for -<i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">geishas</i>. They explained that at that hour there -might be the rude annoyance to our honourable -patience of having to endure an unavoidable -delay. It would not be likely that the <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">geishas</i> -could come immediately. We told them that our -honourable patience would suffer the delay.</p> - -<p>When the French builders and decorators tried -to attain the ultimate for the housing of royalty -in the age of the Grand Monarch, their success -approached close to the realization of what the -imagination of the period asked. Versailles was -built with the idea of reaching theoretical perfection -through the completion of detail. The -imagination of the beholder was supposed to find<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[226]</a></span> -complete satisfaction in what he saw and not to -feel the urge of the possibility of still higher -flights. If the beholder was not content with -this “perfection,” he was indeed in a plight, for -there was no next step except to begin all over -again. The rhythm of the art of the Japanese -tea-house is not dependent upon regularity nor -balance. Its perfection can never be completed. -The last word cannot be spoken. It is like life.</p> - -<p>We walked over the soft mats examining the -work of the craftsman builder who had made his -material yield its beauty through the grain and -line of each plank, board, beam, pillar, and panel. -I moved a cushion to the balcony and sat down -to study the room in deeper perspective. I never -followed out this sedate contemplation, for instead -I happened to look over the balcony. Across -the court of the garden I saw into an open room -of a wing. Three little girls, from about five -to seven years of age, were being trained in the -arts of the <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">geisha</i>. At that moment their instruction -was in the dance.</p> - -<p>The work was being gone through seriously but -the teachers were sympathetic and encouraging. -A dancing master assumed the general superintendence: -several older girls, full-fledged <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">geishas</i>, -sat offering suggestions from their experience.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[227]</a></span> -They were in simple, everyday dress and not in -<i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">geisha</i> costume. The novitiates sometimes begin -their training even younger than five years. -Quite often such children are orphans who come -into the profession by legal adoption; others are -the children of parents who have apprenticed their -daughters under an arrangement which virtually -amounts to a sale. Naturally the <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">geisha</i> master -does not select children who do not possess the -promise of grace, beauty, and charm. The long -training is expensive and it is intended that there -shall be a return on the investment. The little -girls, whom we could see, were practising over -and over again the steps of some classical dance -to the music of a <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">samisen</i>. From the expression -of their faces to the position of their fingers in -carrying their fans, every possibility of technic -which should enter into the dance was receiving -the minutest attention.</p> - -<p>For many years, Hori whispered, the training -of those little girls must go on to one end—to -interest, to entertain, and to amuse men. They -will be taught to wear the gorgeous silks and -embroideries of the <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">geisha</i>; they will be taught -that every movement of the hand and arm in -pouring tea or passing the cup should be an art; -they will be taught when they should smile, when<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[228]</a></span> -they should laugh, and when they should sympathize; -they will be taught how to converse, how -to repeat the classical tales and the tales of folklore -and how deftly to introduce merry stories -of the day. After all this training the graduation -comes when they enter actively into the life -of the <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">geisha</i>. In this budding a girl may amuse -partly by the mere gossamer fragility of her -youth, but later maturity brings the capital of -acquired experience, not only in the art of entertaining -but through having learned that the charm -of woman is largely the solace that she can bring -through sympathy and understanding.</p> - -<p>What is the end? It may be better or worse, -tragic or domestic, marriage, shame, servitude, -modest anonymity, or the retirement to the teaching -of her art to another generation. Her life -is one obviously wherein the path has many by-ways -to temptation. There is much that must -be insincere and tinsel. If many a little heart, -sweet, modest, and unhardened, is crushed, nevertheless -if there be forgiving gods among those -to whom she prays, surely those gods must know -that these Mary Magdalenes are (so a poet of -the <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">yoshiwara</i> wrote) in the greater truth as the -flowers of the lotus. Though their feet have -touched the black mud of the stagnant pond,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[229]</a></span> -“the heart of the <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">geisha</i> is the flower of the -lotus.”</p> - -<p>We heard a footstep at the door and turned -to see a <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">geisha</i> standing there. She was tall and -slender. The delicate paleness of her face was -even whiter through fear. She saw us, barbarians, -sitting in the refinement of the tea-house -room. The carmine spots on her lips shone -brightly, giving to her expression the unreality -of the frightened look a doll might have if suddenly -brought to life. She was carrying a <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">samisen</i>. -Her fingers tightly clutched the wrappings. -She came across the room toward us and as her -knees bent against the skirt of her <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">kimono</i> I could -see that they were trembling. She sat down and -tried to smile. The duty of a <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">geisha</i> is to smile. -She smiled with the same last effort of loyalty -which carries the soldier into a hopeless -charge.</p> - -<p>I felt an abysmal brute to be there. Absurd -perhaps, but it was as if the command of some -strange, scornful, hitherto unheeded, almost unknown -spirit of justice was calling me to name -some defence why man in his arrogance has -assumed the right to pluck the beauty of the -flowers and has assumed the justification that the -reason for the perfume and the beauty is that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[230]</a></span> -they were created for him. It was a strange beginning -for the gaiety of a <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">geisha</i> luncheon.</p> - -<p>Tsuro-matsu drew back the fold of her sleeve -to her elbow and raised the teapot. The spout -trembled against the rim of the cup which she -was filling. She handed the cup to Hori and -until that moment I do not believe that she had -noticed that he was a Japanese.</p> - -<p>“The child is frightened to death,” said -O-Owre-san. “Say something, Hori, quick! If -she wants to go home——”</p> - -<p>Tsuro-matsu had read the meaning of the words -from their tone before Hori tried to translate. -She smiled and this time her lips parted from -her pretty teeth spontaneously. Then she said -that Hisu-matsu, a second <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">geisha</i>, would soon -come. When the messenger had arrived for them -they had first to send for their hair dresser. The -messenger had told them that the guests at the -tea-house were foreigners. Thus her frightened -anticipation had had its beginning before she had -entered the room. We asked what had been her -fears.</p> - -<p>Tsuro-matsu did not wish to say. She had -once before seen foreigners but only from her -balcony. We still persisted in our question. -When she realized that the truth would please<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[231]</a></span> -us more than compliments, even if the telling -somewhat offended against the etiquette of hospitality, -she ventured slowly to repeat some of -the tales which had been passed along by imaginative -tongues until they had eventually reached -the <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">geisha</i> house of Kama-Suwa. We sat waiting -to hear some legend truly scandalous, but -there was nothing of such atrocity. She had not -heard of Buddhist children being stolen for sacrifice -on Christian altars. Our barbarities of the -Western world that worried the <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">geisha</i> sensibility -were departures not from mercy but from manners. -We were wild and rough and of much -noise, always in a hurry, and knowing nothing -of the refinements, such as tea drinking, and we -were always to be discovered dropping rice grains -from our chopsticks onto the floor. And, as a -conclusion, the foreigner, such was her information, -had no appreciation for gentle conversation, -nor for any of the arts of social intercourse of -which the <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">geisha</i>, in her vocation, is the guardian -priestess.</p> - -<p>Of all the intricacies of thought in modern -Japan, the most interesting is the side-by-side -existence (without its possession seemingly arousing -any astonishment in the mind of the possessors) -of two completely different conceptions<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[232]</a></span> -of the foreigner. A Japanese may sometimes -sincerely render honour to a foreigner for superior -attainments and yet sustain the old feudal idea -that the foreigner must be a barbarian even in -those very attainments. It is quite possible when -the frightened Tsuro-matsu left the <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">geisha</i> house -in her ’ricksha that she not only felt that she was -going to an ordeal where she would suffer from -the crudities of the <em>inferior</em> foreigner, but that -she was being singled out for the distinct honour -of entertaining the <em>superior</em> foreigner. In one -way, for the common people, this paradox may -be partially explained by the fact that their -leaders order them to honour the foreigner for -his practical achievements, and in their unhesitating -loyalty they do as they are told. It is -much easier to accept such authority than to -puzzle out how the knowledge and experience of -their worshipped ancestors could have been of -such superior brand and yet been of such ignorance.</p> - -<p>Tsuro-matsu was telling us something of her -fears when Hisu-matsu entered. Upon what -scene she had expected to come, I have no imagining, -but her surprise at the state of intimate peace -which did reign proved that she had been thinking -of a different probability. Her surprise dissipated<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[233]</a></span> -her timidity, and she began to laugh at -Tsuro-matsu’s earnestness. Hisu-matsu was somewhat -older. Her <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">geisha</i> dress was perhaps richer; -quite likely her skill in conversation and in playing -the <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">samisen</i> was superior—but she was not -so exquisitely fragile in her beauty.</p> - -<p>Japan is the court of Haroun al-Raschid in -the love of hearing stories. Always we were -being asked for stories, stories of romance, love, -and adventure, “such as you tell at home when -sitting on the mats drinking tea.” Perhaps the -elevation to chairs has subtly sapped away from -us the art of tale spinning beyond the briefest -of anecdotes and jokes. There was no more of -a response in us when Tsuro-matsu asked us to -tell a story than there had been when Hori had -asked us to extemporize poetry in the valley of -the Kiso. We scored a failure as always but a -moment later chance gave us a second opportunity -for the vindication of Occidental accomplishments.</p> - -<p>O-Owre-san had picked up a <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">samisen</i> and was -searching for some harmonies in the long strings. -In the mystery of the night, coming out of the -darkness, the music of Japan has a certain functioning -charm harmonizing with the rhythm of -the wings of insects beating their way through -the shadows; but to hear the love song of a strident<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[234]</a></span> -cicada coming from the white throat and -red lips of a <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">geisha</i>—at least that is not our -melody of passion. It was Hisu-matsu this time -who made the request. She asked O-Owre-san -to sing a song, “as you sing songs in America.” -This was the chance to redeem our failure. The -hills of Norway gave O-Owre-san a birth-gift of -melody. His whistling is like a bird call, clear -and true. Hori and I insisted that he must -whistle. It was the air of a folksong that he -remembered. It had the Viking cry of the Norse -wind and the lust of storm and battle. The two -girls tried to listen.</p> - -<p>“Change to Pagliacci,” I whispered. The -music of the North had failed. I was in duress -to save our faces.</p> - -<p>Again they tried to listen. Then they looked -at each other in astonishment and in each pair -of eyes there was annoyance. They began talking -to each other in disregard of Pagliacci and -everything Italian. It was an obvious disregard. -At first they had thought that he might be practising, -but when he continued the distressing -sounds, then they were sure that we were making -fun of their request. They were trying to save -their own faces. They had begun talking to -prove that they could not so easily be taken in.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[235]</a></span> -Hori had the brilliancy to retreat. He hastened -to ask them to sing and play again. By sitting -raptly while the strings of the <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">samisen</i> were rasped -by the sharp ivory pick and their voices followed -in accompaniment, we were able in a measure to -atone for the barbarity of our own music by showing -that we could listen appreciatively to good -music when opportunity granted.</p> - -<p>The hour came to pay our reckoning and -to depart. We said good-bye over the teacups, -but when we were sitting at the door putting on -our shoes we heard the sound of the <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">geishas’</i> -white <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">tabi</i> on the stairs. Their two ’rickshas -wheeled up to the entrance for them, but they -hesitated. They stood whispering to each other -for a moment and then turned to us and suggested -that they would walk as far as our inn -gate with us if we wished. O-Owre-san and I -were nonplussed. Hori hurriedly told us that -their suggestion was a marked compliment, that -we should accept it with thanks, and that he -would explain later. Sometimes—and the occasions -are supposed to be so sufficiently rare as -to be of complimentary value—a popular <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">geisha</i> -will drag the hem of her embroidered <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">kimono</i> -along the street in this custom of courtesy by -which she shows her appreciation for her entertainment.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[236]</a></span> -It should be remembered that a <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">geisha</i> -is traditionally a guest. In Tokyo, said Hori, -a young blood who has spent his last spendthrift -<i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">sen</i> on a gorgeous dinner will await such approval -as the hallmark upon his artistry as host. If it -is denied he reads in the answer not a mere feminine -caprice but an impartial, critical disapproval. -He seeks for the reason by trying to remember -any errors in his own hostly proficiency. It is -to be imagined, however, that while the bestowal -of this approval may theoretically only be employed -for the maintenance of the rigid standard -of etiquette and artistry, in practice it is not always -confined to such rarefied judgment.</p> - -<p>The five of us started on the long walk to -the inn gate. I am afraid that the gentle <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">geishas</i> -had not given thought to the composition of the -picture. Tsuro-matsu was rather tall for a Japanese, -but Hisu-matsu was not, and the <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">seiyo-jins</i> -were somewhat over six feet each. In the daylight, -also, the <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">geisha</i> costume noticeably brightens -a street. Walking abreast we made a cordon -stretching across the road to the utter bewilderment -of Kama-Suwa.</p> - -<p>We had found before this that the crowds -which gather in provincial towns are seldom intentionally -annoying, although sometimes they do<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[237]</a></span> -jam around a shop door, shutting off the light -and air. The steadfast staring may be unpleasant, -but the foreigner soon learns to think little -about naïve curiosity. Our march through Kama-Suwa -certainly did attract attention, but the -crowds separated and allowed us to pass without -following at our heels, and I believed Hori when -he said that this heroic restraint of curiosity arose -from their innate feeling that its manifestation -would be discourteous and inhospitable. This -sense of consideration was not a sufficiently quick -reaction, however, to prevent inordinate amazement -when anyone met us suddenly. A boy on -a bicycle, coming round a corner, forgot his own -personal existence entirely and his unguided wheel -carried him directly into a shop door, somewhat -to the disturbance of the ménage and himself. -Our progress continued slowly as the toed-in -sandals under the long <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">kimono</i> skirts of the -<i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">geishas</i> did not take steps measuring with our -usual stride. We found that dictionary conversation -could not be pursued expeditiously in the -street, and after a few attempts to make known -words do the work of unknown with discouraging -results, the advance proceeded silently and rather -solemnly, although I received flashes from those -two demure maids that they had a sense of humour.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[238]</a></span> -The corners of their mouths did twitch -in mischievous enjoyment of the situation.</p> - -<p>When we reached the shores of the lake we -sat down on the rocks and watched the boats. -The rising breeze roughened the surface into a -long path of flame against the red sun. Hisu-matsu -had been dissatisfied all afternoon with -the hurried effort of her hairdresser. She drew -out the large combs and the heavy strands of hair -fell over her shoulders. She told us a queer, -whimsical story about the birds that were flying -over the reeds. They said good-bye to us and -walked away and we turned in at our inn lane.</p> - -<p>Our dinner was very late. Finally the stumbling -maid came, rubbing her eyes and yawning. -She was, as always we had seen her, on the immediate -point of going to sleep. She had been -carrying <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">sake</i>, all the night before, but she had -been almost as sleepy on the previous day. Now, -in serving dinner, she went definitely to sleep -every time there was a lull in her duties. She -had one hiatus of lukewarm wakefulness in which -she mumbled some appeal to Hori, but he declared -to us that the words had no sense. We began -fearing for the few faculties she appeared to have.</p> - -<p>Hori listened more carefully. “I believe she -is saying something,” he decided.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[239]</a></span></p> - -<p>Little by little we learned that she had a favour -to ask the foreign doctor. Just how she had discovered -that O-Owre-san had medical wisdom was -a mystery. She said that all Japan knows that -foreign doctors can do anything. She begged -for a drug to keep her awake, something that -she could swallow so that she would never feel -sleepy again, or better than that, some drug so -potent, if there were any such, that she would -never even have to sleep again.</p> - -<p>“H’m,” said the foreign doctor. “Tell her -there isn’t any such drug. Tell her to get a good -night’s sleep. She will feel better about it in -the morning.”</p> - -<p>Her disappointment was pitiful.</p> - -<p>“But I shall never have a night’s sleep,” she -said. “If I ask for time to sleep I shall be -told that there are many maids who will be glad -to take my place.” She knew, she went on, that -she was very stupid, but she maintained that she -was not so stupid when she was not so sleepy.</p> - -<p>It is outside our comprehension and experience -how the Chinese and Japanese can labour on and -on, more nearly attaining a wakeful condition -for the full round of the day than the individuals -of other races would consent to endure even if -they could continue life under the strain. In all<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[240]</a></span> -inns the maids work long hours, nor do the mistresses -spare themselves. The mistress of the inn -at Kama-Suwa seemingly lacked the usual kindly -sympathy for her maids and was unusually demanding. -O-Hanna-san (the irony of calling -her a <em>flower</em>!) could not dare the risk of attempting -to escape from her slavery. It was for the -sake of her fatherless child that she dared not, -she told us. She, the clumsy, stumbling, stupid, -sleepy maid, had had her tragedy as had had the -pale, forsaken daughter of the nobility whom she -had waited upon the night before.</p> - -<p>After her disappointment that she could obtain -from us no sleep-dispelling drug she toppled -again into unconsciousness. We could at least -give her temporary help. We sent for the mistress -and asked her for a full night’s sleep for -the girl. For the maid’s sake it was necessary -to put our demand on the ground that we must -have better service in the morning. This saved -the face of the mistress. After the mistress had -consented and had gone, poor O-Hanna-san’s -affectionate thanks were embarrassing.</p> - -<p>On a point reaching into the lake and under -our balcony stood a small, one-storied shrine. -It was sheltered by a tiled roof pitched on four -columns. We saw from our room two figures<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[241]</a></span> -in white walking along the shore. They stopped -at the shrine and knelt for some time. When -they arose the bright moon suddenly revealed -that the two figures were Tsuro-matsu and Hisu-matsu. -Hori went down to speak to them and -in a moment their three heads appeared up the -stairs. The <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">geishas</i> had changed the silks and -brocades of their costume for simple white <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">kimonos</i> -and their hair was not now arranged after -the elaborate style of the professional hairdresser. -Instead of this simplicity detracting it quite -startlingly bespoke the charm of their delicate -beauty.</p> - -<p>They were embarrassed and they were blushing. -It was one thing to have it their duty to -be whirled in ’rickshas to a tea-house to meet -strange patrons, but to pay an informal visit at -our rooms, especially at that hour, was quite another -affair, and most unconventional. They -were shocked at their own impulsiveness in having -run up the stairs and they were very much afraid -that someone in the inn would discover their -presence. The little shrine, it appeared, was in -especial favour with the members of the <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">geisha</i> -house where they lived, and they often came, -particularly if the moon were shining in the early -evening, to worship before their duties called.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[242]</a></span> -We opened our rucksacks and found some odds -and ends which we made do for presents. They -chatted for a moment and then ran off into the -night.</p> - -<p>Later Hori told me that as they were going -they had asked us to be their guests at the theatre—there -was a performance of one of the classic -dramas by a travelling troupe from Tokyo—and -afterwards to have supper at the tea-house.</p> - -<p>Hori’s explanation of his refusal was rather -intricate and elaborate, but stripped of <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">bushido</i> I -think the inner simplicity was that he had suffered -enough for one day from the conspicuous exhibition -of our long legs and he had no desire for -being responsible for taking them into a crowded -Japanese theatre.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"></div><!--Page break for ePub--> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[243]</a></span></p> - - - - -<h2>XIII<br /> -<span class="titlefont">A LOG OF INCIDENTS</span></h2> - - -<p>It was dark and threatening the next morning -but we decided to be on our way. We bought -a couple of paper umbrellas. We soon found -that when we needed them at all that day we -needed a roof much more. Hori was off on his -bicycle and we arranged to overtake him at the -village of Fujimi. We were hardly out of Kama-Suwa -before we had to make our first dash for -shelter to escape drowning in the open road. The -thatched house which we besieged for shelter -would probably have been most picturesque on a -sunny day but it was exceedingly primitive for -a storm. Our hostess was a very old woman, -diminutive and smiling. The rain pounded -against her hut and discovered every possible -chance to force its way in. She tried to start -a fire from damp sticks and charcoal and succeeded -after a long effort. The fire was to heat -the water for our tea. It was useless to protest. -No guests might leave her house unhonoured by -a cup of tea.</p> - -<div id="Ref_248" class="figcenter" style="width: 528px;"> -<img src="images/i265.jpg" width="528" height="650" alt="" /> -<div class="caption"><p class="center">WE BOUGHT PAPER UMBRELLAS</p></div> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[244]</a></span></p> - -<p>Japan never seems so remote from the West -as when seen through the rain. Fishermen, in -straw raincoats, were wading in the creeks with -hand nets. The children in the villages were -wading in the gutters.</p> - -<p>The towns seemed self-sufficient and prosperous. -They had captured the mountain streams -and had led them away from their channels to -run in deep, wide canals through the streets. -Innumerable waterwheels drew upon this energy -for the miniature factories. We were walking -through one of these towns—the sun was shining -brightly at the moment—when there was a -sprinkling of giant drops. We knew that that -meant another cloudburst and we turned in at -the first door. It was a barber’s shop. We -asked permission for standing room, but the men -who had been sitting around a large brazier lifted -it away and insisted upon giving us their places -on the matting.</p> - -<p>The chairs, the mirrors, the shampoo bowls, the -razors, and all the rest of the elaborate paraphernalia -looked so immaculate and usable that I -expected O-Owre-san to decide that it would be -discourteous for him to waste such an opportunity -of having his beard trimmed. He surprised -me by suggesting that we toss up to see<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[245]</a></span> -which one should make the experiment of the -complete surrender to all the inventions. Perhaps -he was tactfully suggesting that my unkemptness -showed the greater necessity, but the -turn of the coin made him the adventurer.</p> - -<p>The rain was now falling so that it swept the -streets in a flood. The thunder was shaking the -hills. A thunderstorm, for me, is the most soporific -inducer in the world and my eyes began -to waver and soon I was many times asleep. -When I awoke, under O-Owre-san’s urge, the -sun was out again. My joints were stiff, I was -sleepy, and I was old, but the world seemed -very new after its scrubbing, and nothing less -than jauntiness could express the state of transformation, -brought about by clippers, shears, hot -towels, and everything that went with the treatment, -in the appearance of my companion. The -barber and his two assistants, with their huge -palm fans, were bowing and smiling with an air -of complete satisfaction. I was out of sympathy -both with refurnished nature and the revamped -man. I remarked irritably that his pursuit of -beauty would be the ruination of our joint purse.</p> - -<p>“Yes,” he said, “and the fees equalled the -bill. I had to pay some rent for your taking up -the entire floor for your siesta.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[246]</a></span></p> - -<p>The bill had been five <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">sen</i> and the fees had -been five <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">sen</i>, so that altogether we had squandered -five cents of our money.</p> - -<p>Fujimi is little more than a hamlet. It is -tucked away in a fold of the hills off the main -paths of the trail. Its days are probably as ancient -as the worship of Fuji. The view of the -sacred mountain from Fujimi is a paradox of the -beautiful. The sudden sight of the blue outline -of the mountain against the sky comes crushingly -into one’s consciousness as an extraordinary -awakening and quickening, and yet the emotion -is deep, reverent, and silent. Maybe it was our -undue imagination but the peasants of the valley -seemed marked by quietude. While Fuji-yama -was cloud hidden that first day, on the long walk -of the next we found the lonely labourers of the -isolated farm terraces often staying their work -for a moment, their consciousness lost in passionate -gaze toward the sacred slope.</p> - -<p>It was only by much questioning of the peasants -whom we met on the road that we were able -to find the hamlet. Once when we were unable -to understand the answer, with a quick smile to -disarm our protests, the questioned one turned -back his steps until he could point out the path. -We had been swinging along at our best pace in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[247]</a></span> -the hours between torrents and it was not long -after mid-day when we found Hori’s bicycle outside -an inn. O-Owre-san declared that our sixteen -or so miles had not aroused him from the -sluggishness brought on by a full day’s rest at -Kama-Suwa and he was for going on, but as -the rain was now falling again, this time in a -settled drizzle, he had to be a martyr to enduring -a roof over his head or else to seek his own -drenching.</p> - -<p>The inn was the most meagre in ordinary -equipment of any that we had found. It was -not much more than a rest-house, although it had -evidently at one time been of more pretence. -The fear expressed by our host that his house -was unworthy had the ardour of conviction. In -order to know better what to borrow from his -neighbours for the entertainment of the <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">seiyo-jins</i> -he suggested a scale of three prices. We chose -the middle quotation of one <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">yen</i>, twenty <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">sen</i> (sixty -cents). The fire was then started in the kitchen.</p> - -<p>Japanese architecture is said to be in direct -line of descent from the nomadic tent of Central -Asia. Just as the roof and the four corner posts -are the essentials of the tent, in the building of a -Japanese house, the corner posts are first set up -and the roof is built next. Our inn might have<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[248]</a></span> -served this theory of descent as an admirable -example. The roof was the chief reason for its -existence. There were no wings. The stairway -was on the outside, coming up through the balconies -which ran completely around the two upper -floors. In winter days when wooden shutters -enclose and darken the rooms the bare simplicity -may grow dreary. The wind is then the father -of shivering draughts which creep over the floor, -but for the days of summer, when the green valley -of Fujimi lies in the shelter of the great -granite ranges, the memory of the stifling cave-like -rooms of our Western architecture seemed -barbarous and of dull imagination in comparison. -The philosophy of Japan’s housebuilding appears -to be that it is better fully to live with nature -in nature’s season of wakefulness than to invent -a compromise shelter equally reserved against -nature through the revolution of the year.</p> - -<p>O-Owre-san had gone exploring to find the -bath. A few minutes later our host excitedly came -up the stairs to warn us that the bearded foreigner -was tempting destruction. Rumour that foreigners -have experimented with cold baths and have -discovered reactions within themselves to endure -such rigour had not reached Fujimi. When the -impatient foreigner had learned that the hot<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[249]</a></span> -bath was not ready, he filled the tub with the -icy water that came spouting through a bamboo -pipe. In the midst of our efforts to calm our -host, O-Owre-san, himself, appeared, red and -beaming. Nevertheless, neither his rosiness nor -his exhilaration could allure Hori and me into -following his recommendation to go and do likewise. -We decided, instead, to take the host’s -advice. He sent us to the public baths. Armed -with towels, and in borrowed <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">kimonos</i> and borrowed -wooden <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">geta</i>, we set forth. My <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">kimono</i> -came to my knees, no lower, and it was restricted -in other dimensions. For the women and children -sitting in the doorways our progress through -the street may have brought some interest into a -rainy and perhaps otherwise dull afternoon.</p> - -<p>The baths, housed in a low, small, ramshackle -building, were famous for leagues about. The -keeper of the baths was a “herbist.” He went -out into the mountains—on stealthy and secret -excursions which the cleverest tracker had never -followed—and brought back sweet-scented hay -which his wife sewed into bags and threw into -the hot water. Everything about the discovery, -she said, was their own secret. Whatever was the -secret of the herbs, the natural, delicate perfume -was pleasing. The two tubs for the men were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[250]</a></span> -fairly large tanks. They had been freshly filled -with heated spring water just before we entered. -It was not yet the men’s hour, but a half-dozen -women were in their half of the building, either -busily pouring water over themselves on the scrubbing -platform or sitting placidly up to their -chins in the hot water. The mistress was most -energetic. She had a pair of large scrubbing -brushes which she was applying to their backs. -Back scrubbing in Japan is an ancient institution -and the practice may have some real physiological -merit. At least the vigorous scrubbing up -and down the vertebrae produces a soothing and -restful reaction.</p> - -<p>A phrase that I had come across in my dictionary -had stuck in my memory. Translated, it was: -“Will you kindly honour me by scrubbing my -back?” I asked Hori whether my remembrance -and pronunciation of the Japanese words were -correct.</p> - -<p>“Pretty good,” said he, and then I saw a slumbering -twinkle in his black eyes. “But why do -you practise on me? Why don’t you say it to -the mistress to see whether she will understand?”</p> - -<p>“Stop!” I spluttered. But it was too late. -He had called out to the busy mistress to ask -the foreigner to ask to have his back scrubbed.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[251]</a></span> -Until that moment we had been inconspicuous -in our dark end of the room, but now everybody -looked up and edged along for the entertainment -of hearing a foreigner speak Japanese. I was -responding, but my phrases were directed at Hori -and had nothing to do with back scrubbing.</p> - -<p>There are exigencies of fate which come down -upon one like an avalanche. The revenue to the -busy mistress from the use of her scrubbing brush -was three <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">sen</i> from each person, which was a full -<i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">sen</i> more than for the bath itself, and thus business -was business and a serious matter with her. -She descended upon me with her three-legged -stool and scrubbing brushes and proceeded to -earn the extra <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">sen</i>. I was completely cowed by -her determination.</p> - -<p>We sat parboiling ourselves in the tub for -some time. All the customers had now either -been scrubbed or had not asked to be scrubbed, -and the mistress could sit down for a moment to -rest and to talk. Particularly did she talk. She -talked on and on, exploiting the merits of the -local advantages of Fujimi. Ah, where could one -go to find Fujimi’s equal? Such views! And -we must promise to visit the tea-house. It was -unfair to refuse that to Fujimi. The maids, it -was true, were not <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">geishas</i>, but they were every<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[252]</a></span> -whit as talented as any <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">geisha</i> of Tokyo, and sang -and played and danced far better than provincial -<i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">geishas</i>.</p> - -<p>Back in our inn the extra twenty <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">sen</i> apiece -above the minimum rate had wrought marvels -in the kitchen. We were hungry. We were -always hungry. And we had learned always to -expect the inn dinners to satisfy our demands. -That night we truly had marvellous dishes. The -bamboo shoots were as tender as bamboo shoots -can be. Whether supreme genius or chance was -responsible for the sauce for the chicken, the result -was perfection. Dinner was very early. -After the meal I found a longer <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">kimono</i> and, -as the rain had stopped for an interval, Hori -and I walked to a hill to see the sunset. On our -way back we passed the tea-house which had -been so enthusiastically recommended by the mistress -of the baths. We went in. Green peaches -were brought to us to nibble at, and tea and warm -beer to sip.</p> - -<p>The house was indeed gorgeous with its gold -screens and polished wood. The decorations almost -kept within traditional taste, and simplicity -had not been too grievously erred against; but -the atmosphere of proportion and rhythm had -been missed by that narrow margin which perversely<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[253]</a></span> -is more irritating inversely to the width -of the escape. We may possibly have had the -added impulse to this critical judgment by the -insidious predilection of the mosquitoes for us -rather than for the two maids who were paring -the peaches. One of them explained that the -mosquitoes of Fujimi are famous for preferring -outsiders.</p> - -<p>Two of the rooms were crowded with supper -parties, of wine, women, and song, but compared -to the revelries of bucolic bloods in other lands, -something might be said in praise of such restraint -as prevailed in the Fujimi tea-house. It -may be no honour nor compliment to the spirit -of refinement to wish vice as well as virtue clothed -in some modicum of grace and retirement, but -it does make the world easier to live in.</p> - -<p>The soft rain stopped dripping from the eaves -some time in the night and the sky was clear -when the sun leaped above the mountain ridge, -as if impatient to find the radiance of the glorious, -virginal day. The green of the valley was a -glowing emerald and the mountains were sharp -and grey with no shielding haze.</p> - -<p>Our host sent his daughter to lead us through -a short cut in the hills to the main road. Hori, -with his bicycle, had to take the conventional path.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[254]</a></span> -The little <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">musume</i> trotted along at our side with -a full sense of responsibility, her feet twinkling -down the rocky pitches, her <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">kimono</i> sleeves fluttering -out like wings. Suddenly she pointed the -way and then, before we could thank her, ran -back. Skipping and dancing she ran, reaching -out her hands to the leaves on the bushes or -waving them to the flying insects.</p> - -<p>The rain clouds had hidden Fuji-san the day -before. On this morning as we came through the -sharp cut in the rocks which led to the main road, -outlined against the sky we saw the long purple -slope. We climbed to a terrace on the side of -a granite block and sat with our feet dangling -and our chins in our hands. There was one white -cloud, no bigger than a man’s hand. It floated -slowly toward the crater and then hesitated above -the snow ribs on the sides. Then came another -cloud across the sky, then another and another, -until the summit was hidden by the glowing veils. -We slid down from our rock and walked on toward -the mountain.</p> - -<p>From the day that we left the plains and turned -into the hills our tramping had been long climbs -but now the road again dropped away toward the -lowlands. We had easily forgotten the hours of -dancing heat waves, but, with a start, I began<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[255]</a></span> -to remember Nagoya, of the rice plains, of those -stifling nights and brazen days. The memory -had also grown dim of my once rhapsodical joy -in finding shaved ice to slake my dusty thirst. -If I had never known anything but the quiet, -velvet smoothness of water from wells and springs -and the knowledge of the grind of ice particles -against my tongue had been denied me, then I -might well have mistaken affection for passion. -There was no spring nor stream to be found. -The lower path of the widening valley was growing -into a road but we were following a trail -higher up on the ridge. Down under the leaves -of the trees we thought we saw a thatched roof. -If there was a house there, there would be water. -We found a path downward by making it, and -we were rewarded by seeing a house under the -trees.</p> - -<p>An old woman was reeling silk from the cocoons -which she had floating in a bowl of hot -water. She glanced up casually when she heard -our step, but when she saw what she saw her -mouth and eyes opened and the cocoons dropped -from her fingers. It was the purity of absolute -surprise without admixed fear or any other diluting -emotion. I began to doubt that she would ever -have another emotion but at last the need for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[256]</a></span> -breath racked her, and the resulting gasp freed -her from the spell of silence which, indeed, was -a most unusual state. She assailed us with a -deluge of questions. With every possible variation -of the query she demanded to know if we -were really foreigners. I was repeating, “<i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">Hei, -hei, seiyo-jin</i>” as best I could when I heard -coming through the valley the welcome rattle of -the demon bicycle.</p> - -<p>I turned over my task to Hori and he took up -the assurance to the old woman that she was actually -in the presence of flesh and blood foreigners. -With his every reiteration the wider became the -smile of her satisfaction. She stood on one foot -and then the other and clapped her hands and -finally ran across the road to another house. She -called into the door and a young woman came out. -The girl was the wife of her grandson and the -explanations had to be made over again for her. -Then we sat down on the floor and she brought -tea and cold water and red peaches. The questions -still came. Our wrinkled hostess was a delighted -child. She stared at one of us and then -turned to stare at the other. At last she settled -a continuing gaze upon me. She was enduring -some restraint but it could be humanly endured -no longer. She walked over to me and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[257]</a></span> -naïvely unbuttoned the top buttons of my flannel -shirt.</p> - -<p>“It is so,” she said to her granddaughter-in-law, -“they are white all over.”</p> - -<p>When we got up to go I asked permission to -take her picture. We all stepped into the road -together. When the camera clicked and was again -in my rucksack, she dramatically raised her eyes -to the mountain tops and gave us her <i lang="la" xml:lang="la">vale</i>.</p> - -<p>“I am eighty years old. I have never seen a -foreigner. I have wanted all my life to see a -foreigner. Now that I have seen foreigners I can -die happy.”</p> - -<p>We gave her one of our paper umbrellas as a -remembrance so that if she should wake up the -next morning with a doubt that it had all really -happened there would be that visible evidence -standing in the corner. The testimony of our -visitation in the shape of a fifteen-cent umbrella -was evidently appreciated. She took it cherishingly -in her arms as if it were newborn and of -flickering life.</p> - -<p>It is fourteen miles by railroad from Fujimi -to Hinoharu. The railroad would be the shortest -distance for a crow, but even that bird might -find himself the blacker if he should essay the -long, sooted tunnels. We found many extra miles<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[258]</a></span> -by exploring the up-and-down paths for the -changing views of Fuji, but nevertheless it was -early in the afternoon when we reached Hinoharu. -I then discovered two shaved ice shops, one after -the other, and the intoxication pitched my mood -to full ebulliency. For one day O-Owre-san -could have as much walking as he could digest -as far as I was concerned. We shouldered our -rucksacks and Hori coasted off down the hill -with the promise of a welcome of shaved ice and -a hot bath at the best inn in Nirasaki.</p> - -<p>Some distance out of Hinoharu and well into -the country we discovered two brothers of the -road. They were trying to manufacture a cup -out of a piece of bamboo to reach into the recesses -of the rocks to get at the water of a trickling -spring. We offered them the aid of our aluminum -cup. Japan may affirm, as she does, the non-existence -of any variety of native hobo, but I am -sure that either of our new friends would have answered -to the call of “Hello, Jack!” After salutations -and thanks were passed, O-Owre-san and I -climbed up the bank to the plot of grass in front -of a wayside temple and sat down for a contemplative -rest in the shade. We always tempted -calamity, it seemed, when we tried to rest under -the shadow of a temple. The two Jacks came<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[259]</a></span> -tumbling after and shared our cigarettes with -Oriental appreciation. They were rather picturesque -individuals. Their cotton clothes were not -only in tatters but were imaginatively patched. In -a land where there is nudity and not nakedness -patches do seem an affectation of the imagination.</p> - -<p>I was sleepy from the sun and I dropped back -in a natural couch between the roots of a tree -and pulled my cork helmet down over my face to -keep off the flies, leaving to O-Owre-san the study -of the habits and customs of the Nipponese tramp. -As I lay there in drowsy half-sleep one of those -companions, so I judged from the sounds which -crept under my hat into my ears, was suffering -from a mood of restlessness. Also he was afflicted -with a strange, gasping wheeze. I had just -reached the point of being interested enough to -look out from under my hat when a panting -breath was expulsed over my neck, and my hat -arose from no effort of mine. I was left lying -between the roots to look into a pair of pitiless, -yellow eyes.</p> - -<p>It took me a frigid moment to discover that -my vis-à-vis was a horse. The animal stood over -me, holding my hat in his teeth just beyond any -sudden swing of my hand. After he had had -sufficiency of staring he tossed his head, still holding<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[260]</a></span> -fast to the hat, and ambled off towards the -road. I jumped to my feet and followed. As -soon as the bony, ill-kempt creature stepped out -of the temple grounds his malevolence vanished. -He dropped the hat into the gutter and jogged -away to find a more conventional pasture. We -could now add animals to the list of uncanny -powers that from time to time had driven us from -resting in temple grounds. I had no temper left -for facing the laughter of the two Japanese -tramps. I called back to O-Owre-san that I was -on my way and he kindly brought my rucksack.</p> - -<p>Instead of the usual sharp differentiation between -city and country, Nirasaki has an indefinite -beginning of straggling houses. The town -lies along the shore of the Kamanashigawa river, -which has cut its way through the granite rocks -of the valley, a strong current flowing a thick, -whitish grey colour. As we were entering the -outskirts we heard the shrill whistle of the reed -pipe of a pedlar and a moment later we saw him -coming out of a gate carrying his swinging -boxes of trays hung from a yoke across his shoulders. -He was so abnormally tall for a Japanese -that we quickened our step to have a look at him. -He dropped the reed from his lips to sing-song his -wares—odds and ends of shining trumpery. The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[261]</a></span> -words were Japanese but the intoning called us -back to China, and when we saw his face we were -sure that he was a Manchu. He knew the last -ingratiating artifice that has ever been accredited -either to pedlar or Celestial. We delayed to appreciate -his technic, to see him approach the -women of the open-sided houses, and to fascinate -them by the intensity of his will to please, and -also by his ingratiating gallantry.</p> - -<p>“Take care!” we felt like saying oracularly -to all Japan. “Take care that you never attempt -the conquest of China. China may be conquered -but never the Chinese. They will rise up and slay -you not by arms but by serving you better than -you can serve yourselves.”</p> - -<p>We found Hori resting in an ice shop. He -had judged truly that the easiest way to find us -was to let us find him, trusting that as long as I -had a <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">sen</i> I would never pass a <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">kori</i> flag. The -very pretty maid had her <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">kimono</i> sleeves tied -back from her graceful arms. I do not know what -story Kenjiro Hori had concocted to tell her but -after she had handed me my cupful of snow she -watched me steadily with the air that she expected -black magic at any moment. I caught a glimpse -of Hori’s twinkle. I was filled with suspicion. -Finally the maid turned upon Hori in exasperation<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[262]</a></span> -and said many things. Some strange tale -told about foreigners must have been one of Hori’s -best creations, but in some way we had failed to -live up to our heralding. She was exceedingly -pretty and a pretty girl in a pretty tempest is just -as interesting and bewitching in Nirasaki as in -any other spot in the world. However, any translation -of his tale to her Hori refused absolutely.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"></div><!--Page break for ePub--> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[263]</a></span></p> - - - - -<h2>XIV<br /> -<span class="titlefont">CONCERNING INN MAIDS AND ALSO THE ELIXIR OF LIFE</span></h2> - - -<p>The native inn is such an interweaving of -privacy with no privacy at all that if the traveller -has a sympathetic liking for the hospitality it -should be put down to his temperament rather -than to his reasonableness or unreasonableness. -Calling upon all his reasonableness, the foreigner -may still be miserable amid Japanese customs if -he were born to a different crystallization. Hori -considered the inn at Nirasaki to be rather superior -to the average, meaning, I judged, not the -luxury of the furnishings so much as the excellence -of the service. The house was crowded. -At most of the country inns which we had so far -found we were the only guests, and the entire -family of the host had usually requisitioned itself -into service. Willingness and interest had made -up for the few lacks but this home-made machinery -might well have broken down if there had been -a sudden descent of other guests. At Nirasaki, -despite the crowding, we had not to wait an instant<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[264]</a></span> -for the carrying out of any request. At all -times two maids were listening for our handclapping -and, for some of the time, three. They added -to the customary willingness the knowing how of -training. They were, in fact, trained inn <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">ne-sans</i>, -a class whose manners and morals have been commented -upon with some frequency by casual travellers, -and it is possible that the outside world’s -popular judgment of Japanese women has sprung -largely from such observations.</p> - -<p>In any argument about Japanese morals the -likelihood is that the simplest discussion will soon -march headlong into a controversy. There arises -in a critical comparison of their standards with -ours the temptation to assume as a basis our ideal -standard against their everyday practice.</p> - -<p>The Japanese maid, the daughter of the common -people, has been again and again condemned -for the easy lightness of her regard for her virtue. -I have not found that foreigners who have -lived in Japan and who have known the people -intimately join their assent to this sweeping judgment. -This charge has grown out of a confusion -of possibility with fact. Although we consider -that our Western individualism allows far more -freedom of choice than does the Eastern family -social regulation, particularly in the rigid customs<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[265]</a></span> -and traditions for women, nevertheless in the morality -of sex the guardianship of her chastity by an -unmarried Japanese woman of the lower classes is -a matter much more of her private concern and -nobody else’s business than social opinion deems -an advisable licence with us. But because the -Japanese woman has this freedom it is as absurd -to conclude that she makes but one choice as it -would be to believe that all order in our society is -maintained solely through the police and iron-clad -restrictions. When conduct shall be entirely determined -by rules, then it will be time to relegate -character to the museum.</p> - -<p>The duties of the maids of an inn have never -included that she must be self-effaced and a silent -machine. In the historic friendly relationship -between maids and guests there exists a certain -standard of manners and good taste, a subtle necessity -to the continuance of such existence. One -cannot compare the customs of a Japanese inn -with the traditions existing in an Occidental hotel. -The <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">ne-san</i> is unique. When simplicity and naïve -amusement are spontaneously natural, vulgarity -is starved.</p> - -<p>After dinner the three maids brought a fresh -brewing of tea and teapots filled with iced water. -They also brought the message that a travelling<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[266]</a></span> -theatrical troupe from Tokyo was giving both -new and classical plays at the Nirasaki theatre. -The actors and actresses were guests under our -roof and the mistress of the inn sent the suggestion -that the strollers would probably be pleased -to entertain us in our room with an act from one -of their plays and with dancing and music when -they returned at midnight. After our thirty miles -in the hot sun the hour of midnight sounded -grotesquely post-futuristic. However, it might -well have been possible, fortified by tea, iced -water, and tobacco, to have awaited the hour if -it had not been for another limit to our independence. -Temperamentally we might take little heed -of the morrow but we had also New England consciences -about paying our bills. We could not -invite the players to our room without inviting -them to a midnight supper, and we knew that -the joint treasury could not pay for such a supper.</p> - -<p>Thus we made the excuse to the <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">ne-sans</i> that -their laughter was more pleasing to us than the -sound of the <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">samisen</i>. (This statement was not -without truth in itself.) The responsibility of -amusing us did not seem to weigh heavily upon -them; in fact it was we who appeared to be amusing -to them. Stupid creatures, we, who could not<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[267]</a></span> -even play the game of “Stone, Scissors, and Paper!” -Our Occidental wits were always a fraction -of a second behind. Hori laughed at the -bearded O-Owre-san until the toxic of the paroxysm -made him delirious. At last we acknowledged -the sheerness of our defeats at every venture by -sending the victors for ice cream and cakes, and -the evening ended with the solemn ceremonial of -trying to move the small tin spoons back and -forth between plate and lips quickly enough to -make a transfer of the frozen mounds before the -heat of the tropical night levelled them into -liquid.</p> - -<p>To escape the mid-day sun in the short walk to -Kofu, we were off a little after sunrise. Kofu -is more than two thousand feet lower than Fujimi -and lies in the heart of a flat valley. It is an -ancient city and has not lost its ancient pride, -being the wealthy capital of the Kai province. -We had so much time for the walk that we delayed -continually, bargaining in little second-hand -shops where the entire stock could hardly have -been worth more than a <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">yen</i>, and stopping at the -coolie tea places where labourers rested to smoke -and to mop their faces with pale blue towels. -When we were entering Kofu we were again -tempted to halt upon seeing a <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">kori</i> flag floating<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[268]</a></span> -in the air, proclaiming that an ice supply had arrived. -We had not expected to see Hori before -we should meet at the inn, but by chance he came -wheeling along our street. We called out and he -came into our shade. Listeners gathered around -our bench, apparently not so much interested in -seeing foreigners as in hearing a Japanese speak -English.</p> - -<p>In the crowd was a very old man, so old that -his age seemed pathological rather than human. -He made progress by a slow pushing of his feet -through the dust. His red-rimmed, staring eyes -leered into ours as if we exerted a direct line -of magnetism. If we shifted our gaze he immediately -shifted around until he again came into -vision. Under his arm he carried a long glass -bottle, stoppered with a cloth-wound plug. He -held up the bottle before us. It was filled with a -dirty, pale yellow liquid. Pushed into the bottle -was a twisted root holding in the tangle of fibres -two or three stones furred with slime. The stones -looked somewhat like asbestos.</p> - -<p>“What do you think it is?” he asked mysteriously.</p> - -<p>We said that we had no idea.</p> - -<p>“I wouldn’t dare tell you the secret,” he went -on, “as the bottle is worth five hundred thousand<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[269]</a></span> -<i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">yen</i>. If you should pay me a hundred <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">yen</i> I -would not allow you one taste.”</p> - -<p>We expressed our happiness that he should -have such a fortune. Then he asked if we were -Americans and, upon hearing that we were, he -formally inquired for an answer as to whether -the American nation would buy the bottle. “I -can tell you this much,” he concluded, “it contains -the elixir of eternal life.”</p> - -<p>The ancient seemed to be such proof in himself -that he had lived forever that there was no arguing -about eternity with him. For the sake of -saying something Hori made the casual guess, -“Is it radium?” He was startled into palsy. -The crowd stared. Evidently they had heard of -radium and it meant magic. Alas! We had -gouged out the secret. “Ah-h-h!” said he, “since -you know so much, how can you resist the opportunity -of living forever?” We explained that -under the circumstances of our poverty it looked -as if we should have to die along with the rest of -the world.</p> - -<p>“I have been but testing your faith and knowledge,” -he said. “The radium of the rocks is -permanent. Listen! The bottle may be filled -again and again without losing its strength. For -only thirty <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">yen</i> you may drink.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[270]</a></span></p> - -<p>Forthwith he uncorked the bottle and there -escaped an odour so vile that if he had said the -tube was the sarcophagus of the lost egg of the -great auk we should have believed without dispute. -He poured a few drops into a glass and -said: “Drink, and you will live forever!”</p> - -<p>It is not alone honour that may make one choose -death.</p> - -<p>The crowd, however, sought eagerly for eternity. -They passed the glass around and touched -their tongues to the liquid. If any out of the -number of that circle escaped typhoid that fact -alone ought to convince them of their strength to -continue a long way on the road to eternity.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"></div><!--Page break for ePub--> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[271]</a></span></p> - - - - -<h2>XV<br /> -<span class="titlefont">THE END OF THE TRAIL</span></h2> - - -<p>Whether or no the Bosen-ka inn of Kofu does -possess a wide reputation for comfort, it should -deservedly have it. O-Shio-san was the name of -the maid. This means O-Salt-san, but we renamed -her “O-Sato-san,” which means Miss -Sugar. She said that she had been at the inn -for fifteen years, but until the day before there -had never come a foreigner, and now there were -two besides ourselves. I do not understand how -such immunity could have been possible in a city -the size of Kofu. However, the fact that there -were Occidentals under the roof of the hostelry -at that moment was proved by sight and sound. -After the many days of hearing only the Japanese -cadence, the sound of Western tongues was almost -startling. The large room, which became -ours, was in the main building and faced the garden. -We could look across to the wing where -the two foreigners were sitting on their balcony. -They were eating tiffin and talking vigorously. -One was a short, black-haired, merry Frenchman,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[272]</a></span> -the other a tall, blond, closely-cropped German. -They spoke either language as the words came. -Quite likely they had been in the same university -in some European city, and their travelling -was a leisurely grand tour. They could not have -been hurried or they would not have taken time -to search out Kofu. Their gay spirit was charming. -They looked into the eyes of the world with -a friendly gaze and the world smiled back at -them. Within the month, France and Germany -were to declare the implacable war.</p> - -<p>High-pitched footbridges linked together the -miniature islands of the garden and carried a -labyrinthine path over the lotus-covered pond. -Lying on the cool, clean mats of our room, sheltered -from the sun, the thought of antique shops -lured me not. I declared for contemplation, but -Hori and O-Owre-san wandered forth. O-Shio-san -brought fresh tea and a brazier of glowing -charcoal for my pipe. My contemplation began -and ended with a luxurious enjoyment of the view -of the garden. Through the quiet air came the -slow, deep tones of temple gongs. It was a day -of special masses. My thoughts found rest in -sensuous nothingness and I drifted tranquilly in a -glory of inaction. Another day of such devotion -to passivity might have started the unfolding<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[273]</a></span> -within me of the leaves of appreciation for the -philosophy of Nirvana, but in the morning some -illogical shame for such laziness urged me into -joining the pilgrimage of Hori and O-Owre-san -to the Sen-sho cañon.</p> - -<div id="Ref_278" class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"> -<img src="images/i297.jpg" width="600" height="572" alt="" /> -<div class="caption"><p class="center">O-SHIO-SAN IN THE BOSEN-KA INN GARDEN.</p></div> -</div> - -<p>The deep, sharp cleft in the granite through -which that mountain stream pitches has a rugged -beauty. Most perversely, if we had discovered -the grandeur for ourselves and had not been -over-persuaded by the innkeeper to take the long -walk, we would undoubtedly have been more enthusiastic, -but as it was we decided that we would -rather have spent the day wandering about in -Kofu. Even the unscalable cliffs took on sophistication -from the well-worn path below, which proclaimed -that the view had been the conventional -thing for centuries. Despite all the instruction -which the innkeeper had given us about distances -and direction, he had escaped correctness in every -detail. As often, there was no information obtainable -from the heavily-laden coolies tramping -along the way. If there is really any mystery -which separates East and West it is the East’s -oblivious indifference to time and space and our -complete inability to understand the working of -a mind which has over and over again been on a -journey and yet has never considered it sufficiently<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[274]</a></span> -worth while to take cognizance either of -the distance or the hours.</p> - -<p>As we were walking over the flat plain to the -beginning of the valley, we stopped for a few -minutes to watch a field drill of the conscript -army. It was a very hot day, but the uniforms -seemed designed for a Manchurian winter. A few -of the men had fallen out of the ranks from exhaustion. -We heard later that during that hot -week in one of the provinces some officer with a -new theory had issued an order against the drinking -of water during drill, and that the lives of a -number of soldiers had been sacrificed to sunstroke. -It stirred up an angry scandal. My -knowledge of positive thirst would have made me -a hanging judge if I had sat on the inquiring -court-martial.</p> - -<p>We walked on and had forgotten the drill when -four or five men and a panting officer overtook -us. They entered into a sharp debate with Hori. -Finally they dropped behind but followed us until -we were a mile away. They had suspected that -we were Russian spies.</p> - -<p>We lingered in Kofu for several days but at -last again took the old road which runs through -the long valleys to Tokyo. This trail from Kofu -on is rather closely followed by the railway just<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[275]</a></span> -as is the Tokaido in the South. I do not know -whether it was in honour of (or in disgust at) -all such modernities that feudal Yedo changed -its name to Tokyo. The capital was our destination -and we had intended keeping along the -direct road but upon a whim (and a look at the -map) we suddenly decided to climb the ridge -between us and Fuji-san, and then to encircle -the base of the sacred mountain until we should -find again the Tokaido which we had forsaken -at Nagoya.</p> - -<p>It was at the moment of this decision that the -demon bicycle collapsed utterly. If it had acquiesced -to the change of route it would have had -to submit to being carried on the back of a coolie. -I have not dared to record all the subtle ingenuities -of that mechanical contrivance which it had -concocted from time to time to achieve its ends. -Its soul had been factoried under a star hostile -to human dignity. It could bring about a loss -of face to the most innocent who crossed its path. -It had the pride of never having been successfully -outwitted, and its soul was as proud as the soul -of Lucifer. It had no intention of submitting to -the indignity of being packed on a coolie nor to -have the world see it with its wheels wobbling -idly in the air. In desperate determination it<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[276]</a></span> -committed <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">hara-kiri</i>. Its suicide was heroically -completed. As I recorded in the chapter when -the bicycle was introduced, Hori gave a shining -piece of silver to the coolie to see that the remains -had suitable interment. Peace be to those twisted -spokes and to that jerry-contraptioned frame!</p> - -<p>About noon we found a man with a horse. -The man hired himself out to run along behind -and Hori mounted the animal. The summit between -us and Fuji was only about three thousand -feet above our heads but as we continually had -to go down into deep valleys and come up again -our gross climbing took many steps. The -thatched villages were very primitive, and the -people were very nude. The homes which clung -desperately to the edges of the cliffs must have -had to breed a special race of children to survive -tumbles, just as in the villages underneath on -the shores of the small lakes, they must have -had to breed an instinctive knowledge of floating. -The houses of those peasants were as -much a part of nature as are birds’ nests, and -they so welded themselves into the unity of -the view from the ridges that we did not even -think to call them picturesque.</p> - -<p>Poor Hori had not a moment when he could -sit perpendicularly on his steed. The road was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[277]</a></span> -either a scramble or a slide. Finally he dismissed -the coolies and the horse. We were at -the beginning of a path which was built in sharp -zigzags up the side of the mountain. A half-dozen -coolie girls with huge chests strapped on -their shoulders stopped at a spring and sat down -for a moment to fan their flushed, pretty faces. -They told us that this was the last climb but they -were indefinite about the remaining distance or -the time that it would take. It had been our -plan to get to the top in time for the sunset view -of Fuji and the lakes. Perhaps the demon bicycle -had been granted one last diabolical wish. -We were within a few feet of the summit, the -air was seemingly clear, when down came a thick, -wet cloud from nowhere at all, and our expectation -for the crowning glory of the day vanished.</p> - -<p>All the way down the other side of the mountain -the fog hung over us but it lifted when -we reached the shore of Lake Shoji. A village -straggled along the water edge. We knew that -across the lake was a foreign hotel, but if we -had not known it we should nevertheless have had -some such suspicion. From the attitude of the -villagers it was evident that we had traversed -again into tourist territory. The mild, jocular<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[278]</a></span> -incivility of the natives of any tourist resort any -place in the world, except when there is some -restraint under the immediacy of employment, -is innate and needs no aggravation for its flowering. -We were tourists, therefore we must be -imbecilic. Derisive hooting followed our ears -when we started walking around the lake instead -of conventionally taking a boat. Between the -fog on the mountain top and our reception in the -village we were somewhat out of sympathy with -the last hour of the day, and we were even less -happy when we reached the hotel, and it was -brought to our attention that we had failed to -remember that foreign prices prevail at foreign -hotels. True, there were excellent reasons why -the charges should be higher than at the native -inns. The foreign supplies had to be brought -long distances on coolie back. This knowledge, -however, did not increase the number of <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">yen</i> in -our pockets. We were in a fitting mood for turning -away and pushing on to some isolated village. -Such a mood can drive a good bargain and the -end was that we were given a room with three -iron cots at a minimum charge. I must pay this -tribute to that iron cot: I relaxed on its springs -in an abandonment to sleep which I shall never -forget. But there were other things foreign<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[279]</a></span> -which were not so pleasant. To have to wait -until eight o’clock for a formal dinner when we -were accustomed to having meals served at the -clapping of our hands, and to have to thump over -rough board floors after we had known the refinement -of soft matting, and to have to endure -all the other half-achieved attempts at foreign -service—well, “going native,” as the Britishers -say in final judgment, “had been the ruining of -us.”</p> - -<p>Waiting until the late foreign breakfast hour -in the morning almost numbed the cheerfulness -that had risen in me from the exhilarating sleep -on the luxurious bed of springs, but the day was -shining in such perfection when we found an unfrequented -trail north of the chain of lakes, and -Fuji-san was resting so clearly in the crystal -air across the pine tree plain, that we quickly -dumped into a maw of forgetfulness any remembrance -of such mundane annoyances as foreign -hotels. It may have been that volcanic gases were -breaking through the clefts in the rocks and that -the fumes inspired us with a Delphic madness; -our mood became ecstatic. We unburdened ourselves -of wild and soaring theories of art and -religion, of love and life—and there were theories -that came forth which we had never dreamed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[280]</a></span> -existed in cosmos. We scattered these inspired -words in wanton waste as if we were on a journey -to some world where such wealth would be dross.</p> - -<p>The town which we found for the night was -on what is called “the Shoji route around Fuji.” -We avoided the semi-foreign hotel but that did -not save us from being tourists. The native inn -had ready for us in the morning a bill almost twice -as large as it should have been. In consequence -we added no “tea-money.” If we had, we should -have gone from the village penniless. In all our -wandering this was the first deliberate overcharge, -and in one way it may have been justified in the -opinion of the mistress. She had probably learned -from the semi-foreign hotel across the street that -foreigners know not the custom of tea-money and -ignorantly pay only the bill that is presented without -adding a suitable and proportionate present.</p> - -<p>Truly we were now in the domain not only of -the foreign tourist but of the native pilgrim as -well. All day we walked through the towns which -serve as starting points for the different routes of -ascent for Fuji. It was the height of the season -for the sacred climb and the towns, purveying -every imaginable necessity and souvenir, had -mushroomed into crowded camps. We were unworthy -guests. As far as our purchasing ability<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[281]</a></span> -was concerned, a postcard was an outside luxury. -When we reached Gotemba we sat down for a -conference, following the rule of “when in doubt -drink a pot of tea.”</p> - -<p>By rail to Yokohama was fifty-one miles. We -had leisurely covered about twenty-five miles that -day. Even if we should make ten or fifteen miles -more before night, there would be a sufficiently -long, scorching, penniless day to come. The -country was not new to us as we had both tramped -through the exploited Miyanoshita and Kamakura -districts. “Since these things are so,” I made -argument, “let’s use our remaining coppers to buy -tickets on the express to Yokohama.” As no one’s -pride sufficiently demanded that we had to take -the fifty-one miles on foot, this plan was our final -agreement.</p> - -<p>Our linen suits were perhaps not as freshly -laundered as those of the other haughty <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">seiyo-jins</i> -who were riding on the first and second-class -cars of the train, but otherwise our poverty did -not particularly proclaim itself. We walked to -our hotel in Yokohama and took rooms, relying -that future funds would come out of the letter -which was supposedly waiting at the bank for me. -In the meantime in the bag which had been forwarded -from Nagoya I found a two-dollar American<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[282]</a></span> -bill. This gift we cashed into <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">yen</i> and sat -through the evening on a terrace over the bund -along the water front, sipping forgotten coffee -and ordering long, iced, fresh lemon drinks. A -steamer had landed that day and at the next table -to ours was a charming group of American girls. -They were filled with enthusiasm for the exotic. -The soft, evening air, the passing life along the -street, and the gay tables carried me back to my -own first night in Japan, which had been spent -eleven years before on that very terrace.</p> - -<p>The hoped-for letter was waiting for me at the -bank. The amount above the exact sum necessary -for my steamship ticket had been intended for insurance -against extras. It was now necessary -for mere existence. We entered into an infinite -calculation of finance down to the ultimate <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">sen</i>. -Yokohama was no place for economy and we -shook off its dust for that of Tokyo and were -happy again in a native inn. With our linen suits -laundered, we called on old friends and shopped -betimes on credit. It was a rather queer sensation -to be bargaining for luxuries when a mere -<i lang="la" xml:lang="la">bona fide</i> payment of a ’ricksha charge meant a -most delicate readjustment of our entire capital. -Dealers were quite willing to forward boxes to -America with hardly more guarantee than our<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[283]</a></span> -promise to pay sometime. I felt that if we were -to ask them suddenly for ten <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">yen</i> in cash our -credit would have crashed to earth. Nevertheless -we were confident of our dole outlasting our needs. -We lived our moments gaily. We saved <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">yen</i> to -pay the inn bill, and our boat was scheduled to -sail on a certain day.</p> - -<p>Hori was determined that our last day should -be worthy and memorable. Through friends he -arranged that we should meet Count Okuma, the -Premier of the Empire. We had made most of -our visits about the city on foot, and on one of -the hottest days we had walked the round trip of -a dozen miles to have afternoon tea with a former -Japanese diplomat to America and his family, -trusting that his sense of humour would forgive -our perspiration, but one does not arrive thus at -a palace door. Great was the excitement at the -inn when ’ricksha men were called and our destination -was given out. We dashed away and -careened around the corners at tremendous speed. -It was at least the second hottest day of the year, -but the coolies realized that they were part of a -ceremony and that their duty was to arrive streaming, -panting, and exhausted.</p> - -<p>Count Okuma, on his son’s arm, entered the -small reception room into which we were shown.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[284]</a></span> -(The bullet of a fanatic shattered the bone of his -leg when he was a young man.) Count Okuma -is almost the last survivor of that group who -directed the miracle of transforming the Japan -of feudalism into the modern nation.</p> - -<p>We drank tea and asked formal questions. Following -some turn of the conversation—Count -Okuma was speaking of loyalty—we inquired, as -we had of the ancient schoolmaster of Kama-Suwa: -“Can virtue be taught?”</p> - -<p>The expression in the eyes of the Premier’s -great, handsome head had been passive as he -had acquiesced in what had been said up to that -time. Now his expression became positive. He -spoke slowly as if he were summing up the belief -and experience of a lifetime.</p> - -<p>“When Japan, after her centuries of hermitage, -had suddenly either to face the West and to compete -successfully with you, or to sink into being a -tributary and exploited people, our greatest necessity -in patriotism was to recognize instantly that -in the physical and material world we had to learn -everything from you. Our social, commercial, and -governmental methods were suited only to the organization -of society which we then had. We -discovered that your world is a world of commerce -and competition; that the achieving of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[285]</a></span> -wealth from the profits of trade demands training, -efficiency, ingenuity, and initiative. Our -civilization had not developed these qualities in -us. We could only hope that we had latent ability. -Furthermore, observation of you taught us -to realize the value of physical power. We saw -that mere superior cleverness and ability in the -competition to live is not sufficient until backed -by a preparedness of force. America was our -great teacher and we shall never cease to be -grateful. In the physical world we had everything -to learn from you, and to-day we must constantly -remember that we have only begun to -learn.</p> - -<p>“It was our overwhelming task to begin at the -beginning, and we should have had no success if it -had not been for the moral qualities of the Japanese -people. These virtues cannot be taught—merely -as they are required. They are the spiritual -and moral inheritage from the past. In the -avalanche of Western ideas which came upon us, it -was our great work to pick, to choose, and to -adapt. These ideas were the ideas of the commercial -world. There are those who say that -Japan in taking over these standards of materialism -relinquished the priceless inheritance of its -own spiritual life. No! We have had <em>everything</em><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[286]</a></span> -to learn from you in methods, but that -should not be confused with spiritual values. I -do not mean mere creeds and dogma, but to the -essence, the great fundamentals of all true religion.</p> - -<p>“It is possible that sometime in the future the -outside world may discover that it will have need -to come to us for the values that are ours through -our great moral inheritance of loyalty. In a material -way we can never pay back to you our -obligation for having been taught your material -lessons. But it may be that Western nations -have put too great faith in materialism and that -they will arrive at the bitter knowledge that the -fruit of life is death unless the faith of men -reaches out for something beyond the material. -Then, if we of Japan have humbly guarded our -spiritual wealth, the world may come to ask the -secret of our spiritual values as we went to you -to ask the inner secret of your material values.”</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"></div><!--Page break for ePub--> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[287]</a></span></p> - - - - -<h2>XVI<br /> -<span class="titlefont">BEACH COMBERS</span></h2> - - -<p>On the morning that the boat was to sail from -Yokohama we were up as soon as the sun first -came through the bamboo shades. We exchanged -presents with everyone in the inn and then walked -away to the station, and everyone from the aristocratic -mistress to the messenger boy stood waving -to us as long as we could turn back to see -them. Our packages and presents half filled the -car. Hori had had a telegram to hurry home. -The train was a through express to Kyoto and -we said “<i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">sayonara</i>” to him from the Yokohama -platform.</p> - -<p>We went to the bank and I exchanged my receipt -for the envelope which held the money for -my steamer ticket. In our treasury was left one -last Japanese note which we had been saving as -a margin. We now thought it was safely ours to -spend as we might choose. We went to find some -very particular incense and some very particular -tea which a Japanese acquaintance had discovered<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[288]</a></span> -and had given us the address of. We plunged -almost to the limit of the note.</p> - -<p>“Haven’t you heard that your boat has been -held up forty-eight hours in Kobe?” asked the -steamship agent.</p> - -<p>We had heard no such news, but we were interested. -To be able to have, when one might wish -to make the choice, the gift of forty-eight hours -in Japan would be one sort of a blessing. At -that particular moment the prospect had complications. -Until that instant our system of finance -had been the pride of our hearts. We had calculated -so admirably that we had retained just -one <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">yen</i> for porters’ fees at the dock.</p> - -<p>O-Owre-san had his return ticket. “Can’t I -pay for my ticket in part by cheque?” I asked.</p> - -<p>After consultation in the inner office the agent -returned and announced, “No, that isn’t done.”</p> - -<p>The agent and his advisers thought that if I -should happen to fall overboard there might be a -legal complication with my estate—if I happened -to have an estate.</p> - -<p>“Your records show,” I argued, “that my -friend has crossed on your line three times. Discounting -any other substantiality, at least that -proves that one of us has had practice in not tumbling -overside.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[289]</a></span></p> - -<p>Evidently my logic was at fault. From the -dubious looks that came across the desk I judged -that the agent was thinking that such fly-like -pertinacity of sticking aboard a vessel was suspicious -and unnatural in a passenger.</p> - -<p>“Well,” said O-Owre-san as we walked away, -“you’ve wondered what it would be like to be -an amateur beach comber. Now is your admirable -chance.”</p> - -<p>O-Owre-san seemed to forget that he was in -no better position than was I in regard to -funds.</p> - -<p>The day before we had had tea with the -Premier of Japan. Now we faced forty-eight -hours of starvation. Our horoscopes evidently -had been cast that we were to be beach combers, -the admirable chance of which O-Owre-san had -suggested.</p> - -<p>We did not deceive ourselves that our few hours -of homelessness made us professionals, nevertheless -we were given a picture impression of Yokohama -that could only have been bought by hunger -and sleeplessness. We saw the going to bed of the -city, and we saw its getting up. We saw Theatre -Street gay with lanterns and filled with merrymakers. -Hours later we saw the lanterns go out -and the waiters and waitresses come forth to crowd<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[290]</a></span> -into the public baths. We walked through the -glitter of the street which winds between the -houses of the wall-imprisoned <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">Yoshiwara</i> district. -There is but one entrance to this district—a long -stone bridge. We saw that bridge again, at the -hour of sunrise. It was then crowded with beggars -and loathsome hangers-on, waiting to importune -the exodus. Vice by grey daylight is horrible, -and those brilliant palaces of the night before -bulked in a row of dull and sinister ugliness -in the half daylight. Back and forth we explored -the streets of the city. We passed a foreign -sailors’ low dive, and a toothless old woman -and a leering youth grabbed at our arms and -invited us in. They spoke phrases of English. -There was wild laughter and music on the upper -floor.</p> - -<p>Sometimes the hours went quickly, sometimes -they lingered interminably with no seeming relation -between their speeding and the interest of -the moment. Sometimes we were hungry and -sometimes we forgot our hunger. We found a -small park near the foreign settlement with -benches admirable for sleeping if it had not been -for the diligence of the sand fleas and the gnats. -From the park we walked down along the bund -and on the promenade facing the harbour we<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[291]</a></span> -found two seats. A Japanese sailor was sitting -on one.</p> - -<p>We wished him good-evening and shared with -him our cigarettes. After a time we wandered -away to walk again through the streets of the -bright lanterns. We had been refusing ’ricksha -men for so many hours that the guild at last -seemed to remember us as non-possibilities, that -is, all except one man who persisted in turning -up at every corner. He spoke some English and -had a new suggestion for his every proposal. If -ever a coolie looked theatrically villainous, it was -that coolie; and furthermore, he was half-drunk -from cheap <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">sake</i>. Eventually he discovered a -companion and the two of them settled down at -our heels. Whenever we hesitated they threw -their ’ricksha shafts across our path. They -thought that we were officers from some ship and -they were counting upon our having to return -before the four-o’clock watch. I do not know that -officers ever do have to return at that hour, but -the coolies were sure that we had such necessity. -When four o’clock came they were mystified and -angry. Until then they had rather amused us. -We now told them to be off and we walked away -into the quiet streets. They still persisted in their -following. We tried indifference and we tried<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[292]</a></span> -invective. I could see that the police at the corners -were watching the procession. We might -have appealed to them, but one seldom appeals to -the police in a foreign land, especially in Japan, -if there is any question of time to be considered. -We had to take the boat the next morning. We -had no desire to be ordered to report the next day -at a police station; and for the matter of that, I -should hardly have felt like criticizing any officer -for deciding to lock us all up together. The coolies -might have appealed that we had hired them -and had not paid them. Anyhow, why should -two foreigners be wandering around in questionable -districts at such an hour of the night? If -there had to be a settlement with our pair of villains, -it was just as well to have it beyond the -eye of the law.</p> - -<p>Our next move was melodramatic. We drew a -line across the road and when our parasites -caught up we told them that they crossed that line -at their peril. Just what we should have done if -they had crossed the line I have no idea. We -walked along pleased with the result of our ultimatum -until, ten or fifteen minutes later, I happened -to turn around and again saw the two men, -this time without their ’rickshas.</p> - -<p>We were now headed toward the sea front by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[293]</a></span> -way of the foreign sections. The buildings were -absolutely dark but there was an occasional street -light. If there were any watchmen they were -within the walls. We had walked through the -narrow streets of that district so often that we -remembered the turns. We felt sure that the men -could not catch up with us except from behind. -We were well out on the bund before they came -out of the alley that we had left. They were both -carrying sticks, which looked like ’ricksha shafts, -and the second man had a knife.</p> - -<p>We walked along toward the benches where we -had been sitting earlier in the night. Steamer -lights were twinkling on the harbour and O-Owre-san -pointed out our ship waiting to dock at sunrise. -Years before I had been attacked in the -streets of San Francisco, but that assault had -been so sudden that there was no anticipatory excitement. -Our Yokohama anticipatory reflection -was the amusing idea that if the knaves should attain -the triumph of searching our pockets they -would have a most disheartening anti-climax -after all their evening’s trouble.</p> - -<p>Just as we reached the benches they came for -us. We stepped around the first bench to break -the charge. Outstretched on the bench was our -Japanese sailor whom we had helped out with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[294]</a></span> -cigarettes. He may have been asleep, but when -he jumped to his feet he was very wide awake. -Without waiting for particulars he whipped out -a clasp knife. We had been friends and this was -a chance to even up his obligation to us. The -two coolies stopped as if they had run against an -invisible wire. We stood facing each other, and -then, as stealthily as a great cat, the sailor began -moving forward. He walked very slowly but he -seemed to thirst to use his knife. Even with three -to two, I felt that the coolies, half-drunken, would -have tried to hold their ground if it had not been -for the sailor’s uncanny deliberation. They waited -for him to come no nearer. They fled. We -could hear them running long after the darkness -closed them in.</p> - -<p>We tried to express our appreciation to the -sailor for his interest. He made some answer -which sounded as if he were bored.</p> - -<p>One place and another we had found a little -sleep in the two days but the thought of a soft, -clean steamer bunk began to form itself in my -brain and the first sign of the sun was truly welcome. -We turned back to the city for one last -long walk over the heights. The town was sleepily -waking up. The streets that had been the darkest -in the night were now the busiest. Our walk<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[295]</a></span> -ended at the parcel room of the railway station -where we had left our rucksacks. The boy who -was sweeping out the station restaurant allowed -us to shave and scrub behind a screen and -make ourselves somewhat presentable for the -boat.</p> - -<p>Our luggage, which had been in storage, was on -the dock waiting for us. O-Owre-san thoroughly -shook the linen envelope which had so long been -our treasury but the yield refused to increase -beyond three silver ten-<i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">sen</i> pieces. I once saw an -Italian in Venice fee an entire hotel line with a -few coppers. He accomplished the act with such -graceful courtesy that seemingly the servitors -were appreciative of the spirit of the giving rather -than the value of the coins. I tried to distribute -our pieces of silver to the porters on the dock -with an air copied from my remembrance of the -Italian, and the Nipponese recipients entered into -the drama with sufficient make-belief to have saved -our faces if it had not been for the chill in the -critical eyes of two English sailors standing at the -gangplank. The implication of their Anglo-Saxon -hauteur was that it might be satisfying to -the heathen in their darkness to weigh in with the -heft of compensation such useless freight as -palaver and smiles, but as for them, they belonged<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[296]</a></span> -to a civilization preferring less manners and more -substance.</p> - -<p>As the boat swung from the pier and open -water began to show, a man came running down -the dock waving the copy of a cablegram. “Germany -has invaded France and England may declare -war,” he shouted. Yes, decidedly our days of -turning back the clock were over. We were no -longer <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">ronins</i> wandering in feudal Japan. We -had left the Two-Sworded Trails and were back in -the civilization of the two English sailors.</p> - -<p>Slowly the harbour of Yokohama was curtained -and disappeared behind a brightly glistening mist. -I stood against the rail trying to think of America -and Europe. My mind had that illusory, abnormal -clearness which sometimes follows days without -sleep. I stood, thinking, thinking, the first -beginning of that agony of trying to add a cubit -to our vision by thought.</p> - -<div id="Ref_290" class="figcenter" style="width: 418px;"> -<img src="images/i311.jpg" width="418" height="650" alt="" /> -<div class="caption"><p>SLOWLY THE HARBOR OF YOKOHAMA WAS CURTAINED AND DISAPPEARED -BEHIND A BRIGHTLY GLISTENING MIST</p></div> -</div> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<div class="chapter"></div><!--Page break for ePub--> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[297]</a></span></p> - -<p class="center largefont">GLOSSARY OF JAPANESE WORDS</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"></div><!--Page break for ePub--> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[299]</a></span></p> - - - - -<h2>GLOSSARY OF JAPANESE WORDS</h2> - -<div class="center"> -<table class="toc" border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" summary="Japanese words."> -<tr><td class="toctitle"><span class="smcap"><a id="akambo" href="#a-akambo">Akambo</a></span></td><td class="toctitle">Infant</td></tr> -<tr><td class="toctitle"><span class="smcap"><a id="bento" href="#a-bento">Bento</a></span></td><td class="toctitle">Luncheon Box Sold at Railway Stations</td></tr> -<tr><td class="toctitle"><span class="smcap"><a id="bushido" href="#a-bushido">Bushido</a></span></td><td class="toctitle">Code of Honourable Conduct</td></tr> -<tr><td class="toctitle"><span class="smcap"><a id="daimyo" href="#a-daimyo">Daimyo</a></span></td><td class="toctitle">A Noble of Old Japan</td></tr> -<tr><td class="toctitle"><span class="smcap"><a id="furoshiki" href="#a-furoshiki">Furoshiki</a></span></td><td class="toctitle">Large Handkerchief Used for Carrying Various Objects and Packages</td></tr> -<tr><td class="toctitle"><span class="smcap"><a id="geisha" href="#a-geisha">Geisha</a></span></td><td class="toctitle">Trained Entertainers, Singing and Dancing Girls</td></tr> -<tr><td class="toctitle"><span class="smcap"><a id="geta" href="#a-geta">Geta</a></span></td><td class="toctitle">Clogs</td></tr> -<tr><td class="toctitle"><span class="smcap"><a id="hei" href="#a-hei">Hei</a></span></td><td class="toctitle">Expression of Affirmation</td></tr> -<tr><td class="toctitle"><span class="smcap"><a id="hibachi" href="#a-hibachi">Hibachi</a></span></td><td class="toctitle">Brazier for Holding Charcoal</td></tr> -<tr><td class="toctitle"><span class="smcap"><a id="iiye" href="#a-iiye">Iiye</a></span></td><td class="toctitle">No</td></tr> -<tr><td class="toctitle"><span class="smcap">Kebukai</span></td><td class="toctitle">Hairy</td></tr> -<tr><td class="toctitle"><span class="smcap"><a id="kirei" href="#a-kirei">Kirei</a></span></td><td class="toctitle">Beautiful</td></tr> -<tr><td class="toctitle"><span class="smcap"><a id="kisha" href="#a-kisha">Kisha</a></span></td><td class="toctitle">Local Train</td></tr> -<tr><td class="toctitle"><span class="smcap"><a id="ne-san" href="#a-ne-san">Ne-san</a></span></td><td class="toctitle">Literally “Elder Sister,” Maid</td></tr> -<tr><td class="toctitle"><span class="smcap"><a id="obi" href="#a-obi">Obi</a></span></td><td class="toctitle">Girdle for Kimono</td></tr> -<tr><td class="toctitle"><span class="smcap"><a id="o-hayo" href="#a-o-hayo">O-hayo</a></span></td><td class="toctitle">Good-morning</td></tr> -<tr><td class="toctitle"><span class="smcap"><a id="ramune" href="#a-ramune">Ramune</a></span></td><td class="toctitle">Carbonated, Bottled Lemonade</td></tr> -<tr><td class="toctitle"><span class="smcap"><a id="ronin" href="#a-ronin">Ronin</a></span></td><td class="toctitle">Unattached, Wandering <i lang="ja" xml:lang="ja">Samurai</i></td></tr> -<tr><td class="toctitle"><span class="smcap"><a id="sake" href="#a-sake">Saké</a></span></td><td class="toctitle">Rice Wine</td></tr> -<tr><td class="toctitle"><span class="smcap"><a id="samurai" href="#a-samurai">Samurai</a></span></td><td class="toctitle">Military Class; Retainers of Daimyo (Feudal)</td></tr> -<tr><td class="toctitle"><span class="smcap"><a id="sayo" href="#a-sayo">Sayo</a></span></td><td class="toctitle">Formal “Yes”</td></tr> -<tr><td class="toctitle"><span class="smcap"><a id="seiyo-jin" href="#a-seiyo-jin">Seiyo-jin</a></span></td><td class="toctitle">Foreigner<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[300]</a></span></td></tr> -<tr><td class="toctitle"><span class="smcap"><a id="sen" href="#a-sen">Sen</a></span></td><td class="toctitle">Standard Small Coin Equalling One-half Cent</td></tr> -<tr><td class="toctitle"><span class="smcap"><a id="shogi" href="#a-shogi">Shogi</a></span></td><td class="toctitle">Sliding Screen</td></tr> -<tr><td class="toctitle"><span class="smcap"><a id="tabi" href="#a-tabi">Tabi</a></span></td><td class="toctitle">A Cloth Compromise Between Shoes and Stockings</td></tr> -<tr><td class="toctitle"><span class="smcap"><a id="yado-ya" href="#a-yado-ya">Yado-ya</a></span></td><td class="toctitle">Native Inn</td></tr> -<tr><td class="toctitle"><span class="smcap"><a id="yen" href="#a-yen">Yen</a></span></td><td class="toctitle">Currency Standard, Equalling Fifty Cents</td></tr> -<tr><td class="toctitle"><span class="smcap">O-yasumi-nasai</span></td><td class="toctitle">Good-night</td></tr> -</table></div> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<div class="chapter"></div><!--Page break for ePub--> - -<div class="transnote"> -<h2 id="TN_end" style="margin-top: 0em">Transcriber’s Notes:</h2> - -<p>Illustrations have been moved to paragraph breaks near where they are -mentioned.</p> - -<p>Punctuation has been made consistent.</p> - -<p>Variations in spelling and hyphenation were retained as they appear in -the original publication, except that obvious typographical errors -have been corrected.</p> -</div> - - - - - - - - -<pre> - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Samurai Trails, by Lucian Swift Kirtland - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SAMURAI TRAILS *** - -***** This file should be named 53327-h.htm or 53327-h.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/3/3/2/53327/ - -Produced by Craig Kirkwood and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive.) - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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