Chapter 10

At Asakusa, the great popular temple of Tokyo, the fortune-telling business is so brisk that two or three priests are busy at it all the time

At Asakusa, the great popular temple of Tokyo, the fortune-telling business is so brisk that two or three priests are busy at it all the time. The system is simple. The diviner shakes a lot of numbered sticks in a box, draws one out, and takes a paper from a little drawer which bears a number corresponding with that on the stick. Your fortune is written on the paper, in multigraph. I paid two cents for mine, and when it was translated to me I felt that I had paid too much.

Yuki, when she saw that I was disposed to take the matter lightly, seemed a little disappointed, and when later several of us decided to give the necromancers one more fling, she herself escorted us to the establishment called Hokokudo, at number 3 Chome, the Ginza, where father, son, and grandson successively have told fortunes for the past hundred and twenty years. Here we paid one yen each for our fortunes, but though theekishatook more time to the job, examining our hands and faces, rattling his divining rods and making patterns with his Chinese wooden blocks, he didn't do much better than the priest had done for two cents. Yuki was impressed when he predicted a sea voyage for me, but the prophecy did not seem to me to constitute a remarkable example of divination.

The visit to the ekisha was however, an experience. The little house was picturesque, and it was interesting to see the stream of Japanese coming in, one after another, intent on learning what the future held in store for them. Also, while Yuki's fortune was being told I got a good photograph of the ekisha examining her hand through his magnifying glass.

While Yuki's fortune was being told I photographed her

Another superstition is exampled in theema, votive offerings in the form of little paintings on wood, which are put up at Shinto shrines by those in need of help of one kind or another. For almost any sort of affliction an ema of suitable design may be found, though the meaning of the grotesque design is seldom apparent to the foreigner.

While in Japan I collected a number of these curious little objects and investigated their significance. Among them was one which Yuki recognized as an appeal for relief from eye trouble.

"That very good ema," she told me. "I use one like that once when I have sore eyes."

"Did it cure you, Yuki?"

"Yes—in two weeks. I put it up at shrine and I promise the god I no drink tea for two weeks. In two weeks my eyes all right again."

"And you are sure the ema did it?"

"Yes, sir, I sure."

"You didn't do anything else for your eyes?"

"No, it just like I say. I put up ema for god and not drink tea. Then I wait two weeks."

"Did your eyes hurt you during the two weeks?"

"Oh, yes. They hurt so much I have to wash them two three times a day with boric acid, while I wait for ema to make cure. But when end of two weeks comes they not sore any more. That ema work very good."

CHAPTER XXVII

Our Difficulties with the Language—The Questionable Humour of Broken Speech—"Do You Striking This Man for That?"—"Companies, Scholars, and Other Households"—Curious Correspondence—Japanese Puns—Strange Laughter—The Grotesque in Art—Japanese Colour-Prints—Famous Print Collections—Monet's Discovery of Prints at Zaandam—Japanese Prints and French Impressionism

The complete dissimilarity between the Japanese language and our own, referred to in an earlier chapter, of course adds greatly to the difficulty of communication in all its various forms.

In Tokyo and other cities I attended many luncheons and dinners organized for the purpose of discussing relations between the United States and Japan, and promoting a friendly understanding between the two nations, but though Japanese statesmen and men of affairs spoke at these gatherings in fluent and even polished English, I never met with one American who was equipped to return the compliment in kind. The Americans, even those who had lived for years in Japan, always spoke in English, whereafter a Japanese interpreter who had taken notes on the speech would arise and render a translation.

The linguistic chasm dividing the two peoples isnot, however, entirely a black abyss. If one wall is dark, the other catches the sun. Practically all Japanese students now study English in their schools, our language being considered next in importance to their own. And though, as I have said, many of them have perfectly mastered English despite the enormous difficulties it presents to them, there are many others whose English is imperfect, and whose "Japanned English," as some one has called it, achieves effects the unconscious grotesqueness of which startles and fascinates Americans and Englishmen.

To be honest, I have been in some doubt as to whether I should touch upon this theme or not; for it has always seemed to me that humour based upon the efforts of an individual to express himself in a language not his own was meretricious humour, inasmuch as it makes fun of an attempt to do a creditable thing. It is a kind of humour which is enjoyed in some measure by the French and the British but which is relished infinitely more by us than by any other people in the world, as witness entertainments in our theatres, and stories in our magazines, depending for comedy upon dialect: German, French, Italian, Irish, Jewish, Cockney, Negro, or even the several purely American dialects characteristic of various parts of the country.

This dubious taste of ours doubtless springs, to some extent at least, from the polyglot nature of our population; but whatever its origin it is a bad thing for us in one important respect. We findthe English dialect of foreigners so funny that we ourselves fear to attempt foreign tongues, lest we make ourselves ridiculous. Wherefore we are the poorest linguists in the world.

Even after the foregoing apology—for that, frankly, is what it is—I should still hesitate to present examples of "Japanned English" had I not discovered that Professor Basil Hall Chamberlain, perhaps the greatest of modern authorities on Japan, a man whose writings reveal an impeccable nicety of taste, had already done so in his most valuable book, "Things Japanese."

One of the examples given by Professor Chamberlain is quoted from a work entitled: "The Practical Use of Conversation for Police Authorities," which assumes to teach the Japanese policeman how to converse in English. The following is an imaginary conversation intended to guide the officer in parley with a British bluejacket:

What countryman are you?I am a sailor belonged to the Golden Eagle, the English man-of-war.Why do you strike this jinricksha-man?He told me impolitely.What does he told you impolitely?He insulted me saying loudly, "the Sailor the Sailor" when I am passing here.Do you striking this man for that?Yes.But do not strike him for it is forbidden.I strike him no more.

What countryman are you?

I am a sailor belonged to the Golden Eagle, the English man-of-war.

Why do you strike this jinricksha-man?

He told me impolitely.

What does he told you impolitely?

He insulted me saying loudly, "the Sailor the Sailor" when I am passing here.

Do you striking this man for that?

Yes.

But do not strike him for it is forbidden.

I strike him no more.

One curious aspect of the matter is that so much of this weird English creeps into print, appearingin guidebooks, advertisements, and on the labels of goods of various kinds manufactured in Japan.

Thus in the barber shop of the ship, going over, I found a bottle containing a toilet preparation called "Fulay," the label of which bore the following legend:

"Fulay" is manufactures under chemical method and long years experience with pure and refined materials. It is, therefore, only the article in the circle as ladies and gents daily toilet.

And on a jar of paste I found this label, which will be better understood if the tendency of the Japanese to confuse the letterslandris kept in mind:

This paste is of a pureness cleanliness and of a strong cohesion, so that it does not putrefy even when the paste grass is left open. Though written down on paper or the like immediately after pasting, the character is never spread. This paste has an especial fragrance therefore all of pasted things after using this are always kept from the frys and all sorts of bacteria, and prevents the infectious diseases. This paste is an indispensable one for the banks, companies, scholars and other households. Please notice for "Kuchi's Yamato-Nori" as there are similar things.

The circular of one firm, advertising "a large assortment of ladies' blushes," might have been misinterpreted as having some scandalous suggestion, had it not gone on to discuss the ivory backs and high-grade bristles with which the "blushes" were equipped.

Another circular was that of a butcher who catered to foreigners in Tokyo. After stating that his meats were sold at "a fixed plice" this worthy merchantmentioned the various kinds of beef he could supply. There were, "rosu beef, rampu beef, pig beef, soup beef, and beard beef"—which being interpreted signified roast beef, rump beef, pork, soup meat and poultry—the word "beard" being intended for "bird."

In the admirable hotel at Nara I saw the following notice posted in a corridor:

REMARQUEParents are requested kindly to send their children to the Hotel Garden for when weather is fine. When it is bad weather I will offer the children the small dining-room, except meal hours, as playing room for them, therefore please don't let them run round upstairs and downstairs at all. Please kindly have the children after dinner in a manner quiet and repose.Manager, Nara Hotel.

REMARQUE

Parents are requested kindly to send their children to the Hotel Garden for when weather is fine. When it is bad weather I will offer the children the small dining-room, except meal hours, as playing room for them, therefore please don't let them run round upstairs and downstairs at all. Please kindly have the children after dinner in a manner quiet and repose.

Manager, Nara Hotel.

From a friend, an official of a large company, I got a number of letters revealing the peculiarities of "English as she is wrote"—at least as she is sometimes wrote—in Japan. All these letters are authentic, having come to him in connection with his business.

The first one, written by a clerk to the office manager, refers to an admirable Japanese custom which in itself is worthy of brief mention.

Throughout Japan there is housecleaning twice a year under police supervision. Certain districts have certain days on which the cleaning must be done. The shoji are removed, the furniture is carried out, and the mats are taken up and beaten. The streets are full of activity and dust when this isgoing on, and there is a pile of rubbish in front of every residence. Meanwhile police officers pass up and down, wearing gauze masks over their noses and mouths to protect them from the dust, and at the end they inspect each house to see that the work has been properly done, after which they affix an official stamp over the door.

Wherefore wrote the clerk to the office manager:

Mr. S——:Excuse my absent of this morning. All of my neighbourhood have got instruction to clean out nest.Sida.

Mr. S——:

Excuse my absent of this morning. All of my neighbourhood have got instruction to clean out nest.

Sida.

A more serious dilemma is revealed in the following:

To General Manager.Dear Sir,My wife gave birth this noon and as it happened nearly a month ahead than I expected, I much rather find myself in painful situation, having not yet prepared for this sudden ocurrence.Up to this day, unfortunate enough, I am destined most unfavourably for the monetary circumstance, and consequently have no saving against worldly concerns, I am forced to ask you for a loan of ¥ 25.00 to get rid of the burden befallen on me by the birth.I know it is the meanest of all to ask one's help for monetary affair but as I am being unable to find any better way than to solicit you, I have at last come to a conclusion to trouble you but against my will. I deem it much more shamefull to advertise my poor condition around my relatives or acquaintances no matter wheater it will be fruitfull or fruitless.Yours obediently,Y——.

To General Manager.

Dear Sir,

My wife gave birth this noon and as it happened nearly a month ahead than I expected, I much rather find myself in painful situation, having not yet prepared for this sudden ocurrence.

Up to this day, unfortunate enough, I am destined most unfavourably for the monetary circumstance, and consequently have no saving against worldly concerns, I am forced to ask you for a loan of ¥ 25.00 to get rid of the burden befallen on me by the birth.

I know it is the meanest of all to ask one's help for monetary affair but as I am being unable to find any better way than to solicit you, I have at last come to a conclusion to trouble you but against my will. I deem it much more shamefull to advertise my poor condition around my relatives or acquaintances no matter wheater it will be fruitfull or fruitless.

Yours obediently,Y——.

The subjoined was received from one of the company's agents in another city:

Dear Sir,We have the honour to thank you for your having bestowed us a Remington typewriter which has just arrived via railway express. We will treat her very kindly and she will give us her best service in return. Thus we can work to our mutual satisfaction and benefit.Thanking you for your kindness we beg to remain,Yours very truly,O—— I——.

Dear Sir,

We have the honour to thank you for your having bestowed us a Remington typewriter which has just arrived via railway express. We will treat her very kindly and she will give us her best service in return. Thus we can work to our mutual satisfaction and benefit.

Thanking you for your kindness we beg to remain,

Yours very truly,O—— I——.

The porter in a Japanese office not infrequently sleeps on the premises. But he must have the necessary equipment, as the following letter from an agent to a principal reveals:

Dear Sir,In accordance to your esteemed conversation of other day for lodging the servant at this office, we consider we must provide to him the bed or sleeping tools. Please inform us that you could approve the expense to purchase this tool.Awaiting your esteemed reply we are, dear sir,Yours faithfully,T—— A——.

Dear Sir,

In accordance to your esteemed conversation of other day for lodging the servant at this office, we consider we must provide to him the bed or sleeping tools. Please inform us that you could approve the expense to purchase this tool.

Awaiting your esteemed reply we are, dear sir,

Yours faithfully,T—— A——.

The next letter is from a man who wished to establish business relations with my friend's company:

Dear Sir,I am a trader at Kokura city in Kyushu, always treating the various machines or steels and the architectural using goods.I have known of your great names at Tokyo. Therefore I want to open the connection with each other so affectionately. Accordingly I beg to see your company's inside scene so clearly, please send me the catalogue and plice-list of good samples of your company.I am a baby on our commercial society, because you will lead me to the machinery society I think.I trusted,Yours affectionately,I am,K—— M——.

Dear Sir,

I am a trader at Kokura city in Kyushu, always treating the various machines or steels and the architectural using goods.

I have known of your great names at Tokyo. Therefore I want to open the connection with each other so affectionately. Accordingly I beg to see your company's inside scene so clearly, please send me the catalogue and plice-list of good samples of your company.I am a baby on our commercial society, because you will lead me to the machinery society I think.

I trusted,

Yours affectionately,I am,K—— M——.

One thing which sometimes makes these letters startling is the fact that they are couched in English which is perfectly correct save in one or two particulars. Thus the errors or strange usages pop out at one unexpectedly, adding an element of surprise, as in the case of a man who wrote to my friend applying for work:

Dear Sir,I beg leave to inquire whether you can make use of my services as a salesman and correspondent in your firm. I have had considerable experiences as a apparatus, and can furnish references and insurance against risk.Awaiting your reply, I amYours respectfully,K—— S——.

Dear Sir,

I beg leave to inquire whether you can make use of my services as a salesman and correspondent in your firm. I have had considerable experiences as a apparatus, and can furnish references and insurance against risk.

Awaiting your reply, I am

Yours respectfully,K—— S——.

I have often been asked whether the Japanese possess the gift of humour.

They do—though humour does not occupy a place so important in their daily life as it does in ours.

A light touch in conversation is uncommon with them, and those who have it do not generally exhibit it except to their intimates. Yet they are great punsters, and some of their puns are very clever. A case in point is the slang termnarikinwhich they have recently adopted to describe the flashy new-rich type which has come into being since the war.

To understand the derivation of this word, and its witty connotation, you must know that in their game of chess, calledshogi, a humble pawn advanced to the adversary's third row is, by a process resembling queening, converted into a powerful, free-moving piece calledkin. The wordnarimeans "to become"; hencenari-kinmeans literally "to becomekin"—which gives us, when applied to a flamboyant profiteer, a droll picture of a poor little pawn suddenly exalted to power and magnificence. The pun, which adds greatly to the value of this term, comes with the wordkin.Kinis not only a chessman; it also means "gold." Which naturally contributes further piquancy in the application to anouveau riche.

Moreover, through a play on the word narikin there has been evolved a second slang term:narihin—hinmeaning "poor"—"to become poor." And alas, this term as well as the other is useful in Japan to-day. War speculation has made some fortunes, but it has wiped out others.

My friend O——, a truly lovable fellow, once spent the better part of an afternoon explaining a lot of Japanese puns to me, and I was hardly more pleased by the jests themselves than by my friend's infectious little chuckles over them. At parting we made an engagement for the evening, but about dinner time O—— returned to say that he could not spend the evening with me.

"I have just heard that my best friend died last night," he said, "It is very unexpected. Imust go to his house." So speaking he emitted what appeared to me to be precisely the same little chuckle he had uttered over the puns.

The suppression of one's feeling is a primary canon of Japanese etiquette. To show unhappiness is to make others unhappy; wherefore, when one suffers, it is good form to laugh or smile. The foreigner who comprehends this doctrine must, if he be a man of any delicacy of feeling, respect it. But if he does not grasp the underlying principle he is likely to misjudge the Japanese and consider their laughter, in some circumstances, hard-hearted, apologetic, or inane.

The supreme proof of Japanese humour is to be found in the grotesqueries and whimsicalities of Japanese Art. You see it revealed everywhere—in the shape of a gnarled, stunted pine, carefully trained to a pleasing deformity; in the images of cats left in various parts of Japan by Hidari Jingoro, the great left-handed wood-carver of the sixteenth century; in the famous trio of monkeys adorning the stable of the Ieyasu Shrine at Nikko—those which neither hear, see, nor speak evil; in a thousand earthenware figures of ragged, pot-bellied Hotei, one of the Seven Gods of Luck, sitting, gross and contented in a small boat, waiting for some one to bring his abdominal belt; in the countless representations of the Buddhist god Daruma, that delightful egg-shaped comedian who will run out his tongue and his eyes for you, or, if not that, will refuse tostay down when you roll him over; in figurines without number, of ivory or wood; in sword-guards embellished with fantastic conceits; in those carved ivory buttons callednetsuké, treasured by collectors; and perhaps most often in Japanese colour-prints.

The hundred years between 1730 and 1830 was the golden age of wood-engraving in Japan.

During the lifetime of this art it was regarded as distinctly plebeian. Many of the fine prints were made to be used as advertisements or souvenirs. Some, it is true, were issued in limited editions, and these cost more than the commoner ones, but generally they were sold for a few cents.

Unfortunately, before the art-lovers of Japan perceived that the finest of these prints were masterpieces representing wood-engraving at its highest perfection, the best prints had got out of Japan and gone to Paris, London, Boston, New York, Chicago, and other foreign cities, whence the Japanese have lately been buying them back at enormous prices.

From a friend of mine in Tokyo, himself the owner of a very valuable collection, I learned that the collection of 7,500 prints assembled by M. Vever, of Paris, has long been considered by connoisseurs the finest in the world. This collection was recently purchased intact by Mr. Kojiro Matsukata, of Kobe, president of the Kawasaki shipbuilding firm. It is said that Mr. Matsukata paid half a million dollars for it. My Tokyo friend tells me that the collection belonging to Messrs. William S., andJohn T. Spalding, of Boston, is probably next in importance to the Matsukata collection, and that it is difficult to say whether the Boston Museum collection or the British Museum collection takes third place. For primitive prints, the Clarence Buckingham collection, housed in the Chicago Art Institute, is also very important.

How does it happen that it was in Europe that Japanese prints first came to be highly appreciated as works of art?

Octave Mirbeau, in his delightful book of automobiling adventures, "La 628-E8" (which, I believe, has never been brought out in English) tells the story.

The great impressionist, Claude Monet, went to Holland to paint. Some groceries sent home to him from a little shop were wrapped in a Japanese print—the first one Monet had ever seen.

"You can imagine," writes Mirbeau, "his emotion before that marvellous art.... His astonishment and joy were such that he could not speak, but could only give vent to cries of delight.

"And it was in Zaandam that this miracle came to pass—Zaandam with its canals, its boats at the quay unloading cargoes of Norwegian wood, its huddled flotillas of barks, its little streets of water, its tiny red cabins, its green houses—Zaandam, the most Japanese spot in all the Dutch landscape....

"Monet ran to the shop whence came his package—a vague little grocery shop where the fat fingers of a fat man were tying up (without being paralyzedby the deed!) two cents' worth of pepper and ten cents' worth of coffee, in paper bearing these glorious images brought from the Far East along with groceries in the bottom of a ship's hold.

"Although he was not rich at that time, Monet was resolved to buy all of these masterpieces that the grocery contained. He saw a pile of them on the counter. His heart bounded. The grocer was waiting upon an old lady. He was about to wrap something up. Monet saw him reach for one of the prints.

'No, no!' he cried. 'I want to buy that! I want to buy all those—all those!'

"The grocer was a good man. He believed that he was dealing with some one who was a little touched. Anyway the coloured papers had cost him nothing. They were thrown in with the goods. Like some one who gives a toy to a crying child to appease it, he gave the pile of prints to Monet, smilingly and a bit mockingly.

"'Take them, take them,' he said. 'You can have them. They aren't worth anything. They aren't solid enough. I prefer regular wrapping-paper.'"

So the grocer enveloped the old lady's cheese in a piece of yellow paper, and Monet went home and spent the rest of the day in adoration of his new-found treasures. The names of the great Japanese wood-engravers were of course unknown in Europe then, but Monet learned later that some of these prints were by Hokusai, Utamaro, and Korin.

"This," continues Mirbeau, "was the beginning of a celebrated collection, but much more important, it was the beginning of such an evolution in French painting that the anecdote has, besides its own savour, a veritable historic value. For it is a story which cannot be overlooked by those who seriously study the important movement in art which is called Impressionism."

CHAPTER XXVIII

Living in a Japanese House—The Priceless Yuki—The Servants in the House—The Red Carpet—Our Trunks Depart—Tokyo's Night-time Sounds—Tipping and Noshi—The Etiquette of Farewells—Sayonara

My last days in Japan were my best days, for I spent them in a Japanese home, standing amid its own lovely gardens in Mita, a residential district some twenty minutes by motor from the central part of Tokyo.

Through the open shoji of my bedroom I could look out in the mornings to where, beyond the velvet lawns, the flowers and the treetops, the inverted fan of Fuji's cone was often to be seen floating white and spectral in the sky, seventy miles away.

After my bath in a majestic family tub I would breakfast in my room, wearing a kimono, recently acquired, and feeling very Japanese.

While I was dressing, Yuki sometimes entered, but I had by this time become accustomed to her matutinal invasions and no longer found them embarrassing. She was so entirely practical, so useful. She knew where everything was. She would go to a curious little cupboard, which was built into the wall and had sliding doors of lacquerand silk, and get me a shirt, or would retrieve from their place of concealment a missing pair of trousers, and bring them to me neatly folded in one of those flat, shallow baskets which, with the Japanese, seem to take the place of bureau drawers.

Thus, besides being my daughter's duenna and my wife's maid, she was in effect, my valet. Nor did her usefulness by any means end there. She was our interpreter, dragoman, purchasing-agent; she was our steward, major domo, seneschal; nay, she was our Prime Minister.

The house had a large staff, and all the servants made us feel that they wereourservants, and that they were glad to have us there. With the exception of a butler, an English-speaking Japanese temporarily added to the establishment on our account, all wore the native dress; and there were among them two men so fine of feature, so dignified of bearing, so elegant in their silks, that we took them, at first, for members of the family. One of them was a white-bearded old gentleman who would have made a desirable grandfather for anybody. If he had duties other than to decorate the hall with his presence I never discovered what they were. The other, a young man, was clerk of the household, and enjoyed the distinction of being Saki's husband.

Saki, the housekeeper of some Japanese friends we visited, obligingly posed for me. The mattress is stuffed with floss silk, the pillow is hard and round, and the covering is a sort of quilted kimono

Saki was the housekeeper, young and pretty. She and her husband lived in a cottage near by, and their home was extensively equipped withmusical instruments, Saki being proficient on the samisen and koto, and also on an American melodeon which was one of her chief treasures. She was all smiles and sweetness—a most obliging person. Indeed it was she who pretended to be asleep in a Japanese bed, in order that I might make the photograph which is one of the illustrations in this book.

Four or five coolies, excellent fellows, wearing blue cotton coats with the insignia of our host's family upon the backs of them, worked about the house and grounds; and several little maids were continually trotting through the corridors; with that pigeon-toed shuffle in which one comes, when one is used to it, actually to see a curious prettiness.

Sometimes we felt that the servants were showing us too much consideration. We dined out a great deal and were often late in getting home ("Home" was the term we found ourselves using there), yet however advanced the hour, the chauffeur would sound his horn on entering the gate, whereupon lights would flash on beneath the porte-cochère, the shoji at the entrance of the house would slide open, and three or four domestics would come out, dragging a wide strip of red velvet carpet, over which we would walk magnificently up the two steps leading to the hall. But though I urged them to omit this regal detail, because two or three men had to sit up to handle the heavy carpet, and also because the production of it made me feel likea bogus prince, I could never induce them to do so. Always, regardless of the hour, a little group of servants appeared at the door when we came home.

Even on the night when, under the ministrations of the all-wise and all-powerful head porter of the Imperial Hotel, our trunks were spirited away, to be taken to Yokohama and placed aboard theTenyo Maru, even then we found it difficult to realize that our last night in Japan had come.

The realization did not strike me with full force until I went to bed.

I was not sleepy. I lay there, thinking. And the background of my thoughts was woven out of sounds wafted through the open shoji on the summer wind: the nocturnal sounds of the Tokyo streets.

I recalled how, on my first night in Tokyo, I had listened to these sounds and wondered what they signified.

Now they explained themselves to me, as to a Japanese.

A distant jingling, like that of sleigh-bells, informed me that a newsboy was running with late papers. A plaintive musical phrase suggestive of Debussy, bursting out suddenly and stopping with startling abruptness, told me that the Chinese macaroni man was abroad with his lantern-trimmed cart and his little brass horn. At last I heard a xylophone-like note, resembling somewhat the soundof a New York policeman's club tapping the sidewalk. It was repeated several times; then there would come a silence; then the sound again, a little nearer. It was the night watchman on his rounds, guarding the neighbourhood not against thieves, but against fire, "the Flower of Tokyo." In my mind's eye I could see him hurrying along, knocking his two sticks together now and then, to spread the news that all was well.

Then it was that I reflected: "To-morrow night I shall not hear these sounds. In their place I shall hear the creaking of the ship, the roar of the wind, the hiss of the sea. Possibly I shall never again hear the music of the Tokyo streets."

My heart was sad as I went to sleep.

Fortunately for our peace of mind, we had learned through the experience of American friends, visitors in another Japanese home, hownotto tip these well-bred domestics—or rather, how not to try to tip them. On leaving the house in which they had been guests, these friends had offered money to the servants, only to have it politely but positively refused.

Yuki cleared the matter up for us.

"They should putnoshiwith money," she explained in response to our questions. "That make it all right to take. It mean a present."

Without having previously known noshi by name, we knew immediately what she meant, for we had received during our stay in Japan enough presentsto fill a large trunk, and each had been accompanied by a little piece of coloured paper folded in a certain way, signifying a gift.

In the old days these coloured papers always contained small pieces of driedawabi—abelone—but with the years the dried awabi began to be omitted, and the little folded papers by themselves came to be considered adequate.

Fortified with this knowledge I went, on the day before our departure, to the Ginza, where I bought envelopes on which the noshi design was printed. Money placed in these envelopes was graciously accepted by all the servants. Tips they would not have received. But these were not tips. They were gifts from friend to friend, at parting.

The code of Japanese courtesy is very exact and very exacting in the matter of farewells to the departing guest. Callers are invariably escorted to the door by the host, such members of his family as have been present, and a servant or two, all of whom stand in the portal bowing as the visitor drives away.

A house-guest is dispatched with even greater ceremony. The entire personnel of the establishment will gather at with profound bows and cries of "Sayonara!" the door to speed him on his way Members of the family, often the entire family, accompany him to the station, where appear other friends who have carefully inquired in advance as to the time of departure. The traveller is escortedto his car, and his friends remain upon the platform until the train leaves, when the bowing and "Sayonaras" are repeated.

Tokyo people often go to Yokohama with friends who are sailing from Japan, accompanying them to the ship, and remaining on the dock until the vessel moves into the bay. How Tokyo men-of-affairs can manage to go upon these time-consuming seeing-off parties is one of the great mysteries of Mysterious Japan, for such an excursion takes up the greater part of a day.

To the American, accustomed in his friendships to take so much for granted, a Japanese farewell affords a new sensation, and one which can hardly fail to touch the heart.

Departing passengers are given coils of paper ribbon confetti, to throw to their friends ashore, so that each may hold an end until the wall of steel parts from the wall of stone, and the paper strand strains and breaks. There is something poignant and poetic in that breaking, symbolizing the vastness of the world, the littleness of men and ships, the fragility of human contacts.

The last face I recognized, back there across the water, in Japan, was Yuki's. She was standing on the dock with the end of a broken paper ribbon in her hand. The other end trailed down into the water. She was weeping bitterly.

Wishing to be sure that my wife and daughter had not failed to discover her in the crowd, I turned to them. But I did not have to point her out. Theirfaces told me that they saw her. They too were weeping.

So it is with women. They weep. As for a man, he merely waves his hat. I waved mine.

"Sayonara!"

I turned away. There were things I had to see to in my cabin. Besides, the wind on deck was freshening. It hurt my eyes.

THE END

INDEX

Abalone, diving for,304Actresses, increase of,96Architecture, democracy in,40Architecture and sculpture, horrors in,27Art, grotesqueries and whimsicalities,330Athletic sports, popularity of,103Back-end-formost methods and customs,48Bathing customs,52,65,289Beauty, artistic conceptions,163Beds, how arranged,299Bill of fare, luncheon,127Boasting, a cardinal sin,173Brides, outfitted for life,36Burglars, feared next to fire and earthquake,42;what to do when visited by,45Bushido, doctrine of,76Business methods, placidity in,228Butokukai—Association for Inculcation of Military Virtues,195Calendar, Chinese, adopted by Japanese,316California, Japanese issue in,244Calligraphy, a fine art,55Chafing-dish, cooking in,149Cherry Dance of Kyoto,144Children, in profusion,23China, American engineer among brigands in,10;compared with Japan,266Chinnung, Emperor, discoverer of tea,69Chop-sticks, lesson in use of,120Class, the distinctions of,140Colonization, efforts in,233Concubinage, still practised,85Cooking, chafing-dish,149Costume, regulated by calendar,33Courtesans, segregated,154Courtesy, the code of, in making farewells,340Crest, family, as used on kimono,34Customs changed to fit Western ideas,174Dancing girls, or maiko,119,135,137,141Daruma, mythological creator of tea,69Divorce customs,85Dress of women, uniformity of,31;cost of,35Earthquakes, influence of, in building construction,38,42;frequency and extent,39;best course to pursue during,43Efficiency and non-efficiency of the people,235Elder Statesmen, the,185Eliot, Sir Charles, on understanding Japan,75Ema, efficacy of an,320English as she is wrote,323Eri, neck piece worn with kimono,34European dress not popular with women,31,37Fashions, little variation in,36Feudal Era, the,70Films, kissing scenes cut,98Finley, Dr. John H., on reverential attitude of the Japanese,280Flower Arrangement, the study of,66;origin of,68;in connection with display of paintings,72Folk dances by maiko,137Foods and delicacies,129Foreign customs adopted,174Fortune tellers, well patronized,318Fujiyama, as seen from the sea,13;the "Honourable Mountain,"14Gardens, history and theory,167,177Gardens, diminutive,21Geisha, the best dressers,37;at a luncheon,116;various grades in,119;no rhythm in their dancing,132;what they really are,132;in Japanese romances,146;cost of entertainment,151Geisha, male, or comedian,156Great Britain's attitude toward Japan,268.Haori, how worn,35Hara-Kiri, privileges associated with,192Hearn, Lafcadio, on the Japanese language,56;on Japanese women,75,82;on the Tea Ceremony,81;Hiratsuka, Mrs. Raicho, efforts to improve marriage laws,84Honesty, Japanese and Chinese,278Hospitality, New York and Japan compared,258House cleaning, under police supervision,325Humour, extent of native,328Imperial Bureau of Poems, duties of,165Inouye, Jakichi, attributes bearing of Japanese ladies to study of Tea Ceremony,81International Affairs ignored by Americans,242Intoxication, prevalence of,123Italy, compared to Japan,163Japanese-American relations, letter from President Roosevelt to Baron Kaneko,223Jesuits, expulsion of,201Jiu-jutsu, in wrestling,112;taught to samurai,192;renascence of,193Jiudo, development of,193Johnson, Senator Hiram, agitator on Japanese question,256Kakemono, method of hanging the,72Kamogawa, visit to,288Kaneko, Viscount Kentaro, preparing history of Meiji Era,29;interviews with,212;visits at Roosevelt's home,213;Roosevelt's letters to,222,223,226,227Kano, Jigoro, revives art of jiu-jutsu,193Kashima Maru, voyage on,1Katsuura, visit to,284Kimono, use of,34Kipling, Rudyard, on understanding Japan,75Kissing, attitude toward,98Kodokwan, school of jiu-jutsu,194Kokugikwan, the national game building,104,107Korea, conditions under Japanese control,9Korean Emperor, anecdotes on,8Kyoto, Cherry Dance at,144Labor, abundance of,19;waste of,236Landscape gardening, history of,169Language, peculiarities of the,53;difficulties with,321Leprosy, extent of,90Lunch, the railway,276Maple Club, luncheon at,116Marquis, Don, on reformers,151Marriage customs,85,93Meiji Tenno, "Emperor of Enlightenment,",29"Melting Pot," overloading of the,251Militarism, slowly waning,232Mirbeau, Octave, on discovery of Japanese prints by Claude Monet,332Morris, Roland S., address on Japanese issue in California,244Mothers-in-law, dutifulness toward,93Mourning, costume for,36Muko-yoshi, adopted son-husbands,94Music, unmelodious to foreign ear,131Nabuto, visit to,302Naginata, the woman's weapon,196Namazu, "cause" of earthquakes,40Nara, luncheon party in,137,141Nesan, serving maids,117Nitobe, Doctor, on bushido,76Nodrama, masks used in,49;knowledge of, necessary in study of the people,75Nogi, Count, story of his death,197Nurses' occupation popular,96Obi, chief treasure of woman's costume,35;how worn,36Okuma, Marquis, Japan's "Grand Old Man,",185Old age, deference to,50Oriental Mind, the,57Partitions, removable,118Period of transition, beginning of,184Perry, Commodore, "knocking at Japan's door,",28;opens door to progress,184Physicians, women as,96Picture brides, no longer allowed to come to America,244Pipes, diminutive,130Placidity in business and home life,228Poems, annually submitted to the Imperial Bureau,165Politeness, Japanese ideas of,260Politics, lack of interest in,103Population, excess in,231,233;must be balanced by industrial expansion,234Prints, Japanese, important collections of,331;discovery of in Europe by Claude Monet,332Privacy, lack of in Japanese homes,298Public utilities, inefficiency in,238Race, unassimilability of,253Race problems of America,249Railroads, under government management,274Restaurant, cost of food and entertainment,151Riddell, Miss H., work with lepers,90Roosevelt, Quentin, Baron Kaneko's regard for,213,219,227Roosevelt, Theodore, on reign of Emperor Meiji,29;interest in jiu-jutsu,193;visit of Viscount Shibusawa to,210;Viscount Kaneko's regard for,213;letter to Baron Kaneko on our Japanese question,223;wise attitude toward Japan,270Sake, how served,121Samurai, strength of the,70;customs and privileges,192Sculpture and architecture.Self-made men,187.Segregation of vice,154Servants, courtesy of and to,117,336Shibusawa, Viscount Eiichi founder of school for actresses,96;interview with,188,201;anecdote of President Roosevelt,210;visit to grave of Townsend Harris,280Shimabara, courtesan district, Kyoto,160Suicide, prevalence of,51;the Oriental view of,199Sunday, as a holiday,114Superstition, prevalence of,318Tails, wild men with,7Tai-no-ura, and the Nativity Temple,287Tea, significance of,68;origin,69Tea Ceremony, or cha-no-yu,71,74,81.Tea Masters, veneration of the,73Teahouse, entertainment expensive,143,151Teaism, as a study,68Telephone service, inefficiency of,238Tipping, proper procedure in,339Tobacco industry, a monopoly,130Tokugawa, Prince, interest in wrestling,105Tokyo, growth,26;architecture and sculpture,27;adopting steel for building construction,38Tourists welcomed to Japan,263Tray landscapes, art of making,67Tuberculosis, extent of,90Vandalism at historic places,280Vice, commercialized,154Waseda University, now open to women,95;founded by Marquis Okuma,186W. C. T. U., activities,97Women, costume of,32;sedate gracefulness of,81;suffrage,83legal status,84;condition slowly improving,95;in business and professions,95;the "new woman,"97;husbands' attitude toward wives,100;position higher in early times,100Wood engraving, era of,331World, New York, editorial on Japanese issue in California,244Wrestling, the national sport,103Yajima, Mrs., leader in W. C. T. U.,97"Yellow Peril," the true,246Yokohama, the landing,16Yoritomo, legend of,303Yoshinobu, becomes shogun,202;held prisoner after conflict with Emperor,205;battle neither sought nor desired,207Yoshioka, Dr. G. founder of Tokyo School for Women,96Yoshiwara, courtesan district, Tokyo,154Yuasa, Commander, heroism at Port Arthur,195Zodiac, belief in the signs of the,317

Abalone, diving for,304

Actresses, increase of,96

Architecture, democracy in,40

Architecture and sculpture, horrors in,27

Art, grotesqueries and whimsicalities,330

Athletic sports, popularity of,103

Back-end-formost methods and customs,48

Bathing customs,52,65,289

Beauty, artistic conceptions,163

Beds, how arranged,299

Bill of fare, luncheon,127

Boasting, a cardinal sin,173

Brides, outfitted for life,36

Burglars, feared next to fire and earthquake,42;what to do when visited by,45

Bushido, doctrine of,76

Business methods, placidity in,228

Butokukai—Association for Inculcation of Military Virtues,195

Calendar, Chinese, adopted by Japanese,316

California, Japanese issue in,244

Calligraphy, a fine art,55

Chafing-dish, cooking in,149

Cherry Dance of Kyoto,144

Children, in profusion,23

China, American engineer among brigands in,10;compared with Japan,266

Chinnung, Emperor, discoverer of tea,69

Chop-sticks, lesson in use of,120

Class, the distinctions of,140

Colonization, efforts in,233

Concubinage, still practised,85

Cooking, chafing-dish,149

Costume, regulated by calendar,33

Courtesans, segregated,154

Courtesy, the code of, in making farewells,340

Crest, family, as used on kimono,34

Customs changed to fit Western ideas,174

Dancing girls, or maiko,119,135,137,141

Daruma, mythological creator of tea,69

Divorce customs,85

Dress of women, uniformity of,31;cost of,35

Earthquakes, influence of, in building construction,38,42;frequency and extent,39;best course to pursue during,43

Efficiency and non-efficiency of the people,235

Elder Statesmen, the,185

Eliot, Sir Charles, on understanding Japan,75

Ema, efficacy of an,320

English as she is wrote,323

Eri, neck piece worn with kimono,34

European dress not popular with women,31,37

Fashions, little variation in,36

Feudal Era, the,70

Films, kissing scenes cut,98

Finley, Dr. John H., on reverential attitude of the Japanese,280

Flower Arrangement, the study of,66;origin of,68;in connection with display of paintings,72

Folk dances by maiko,137

Foods and delicacies,129

Foreign customs adopted,174

Fortune tellers, well patronized,318

Fujiyama, as seen from the sea,13;the "Honourable Mountain,"14

Gardens, history and theory,167,177

Gardens, diminutive,21

Geisha, the best dressers,37;at a luncheon,116;various grades in,119;no rhythm in their dancing,132;what they really are,132;in Japanese romances,146;cost of entertainment,151

Geisha, male, or comedian,156

Great Britain's attitude toward Japan,268.

Haori, how worn,35

Hara-Kiri, privileges associated with,192

Hearn, Lafcadio, on the Japanese language,56;on Japanese women,75,82;on the Tea Ceremony,81;

Hiratsuka, Mrs. Raicho, efforts to improve marriage laws,84

Honesty, Japanese and Chinese,278

Hospitality, New York and Japan compared,258

House cleaning, under police supervision,325

Humour, extent of native,328

Imperial Bureau of Poems, duties of,165

Inouye, Jakichi, attributes bearing of Japanese ladies to study of Tea Ceremony,81

International Affairs ignored by Americans,242

Intoxication, prevalence of,123

Italy, compared to Japan,163

Japanese-American relations, letter from President Roosevelt to Baron Kaneko,223

Jesuits, expulsion of,201

Jiu-jutsu, in wrestling,112;taught to samurai,192;renascence of,193

Jiudo, development of,193

Johnson, Senator Hiram, agitator on Japanese question,256

Kakemono, method of hanging the,72

Kamogawa, visit to,288

Kaneko, Viscount Kentaro, preparing history of Meiji Era,29;interviews with,212;visits at Roosevelt's home,213;Roosevelt's letters to,222,223,226,227

Kano, Jigoro, revives art of jiu-jutsu,193

Kashima Maru, voyage on,1

Katsuura, visit to,284

Kimono, use of,34

Kipling, Rudyard, on understanding Japan,75

Kissing, attitude toward,98

Kodokwan, school of jiu-jutsu,194

Kokugikwan, the national game building,104,107

Korea, conditions under Japanese control,9

Korean Emperor, anecdotes on,8

Kyoto, Cherry Dance at,144

Labor, abundance of,19;waste of,236

Landscape gardening, history of,169

Language, peculiarities of the,53;difficulties with,321

Leprosy, extent of,90

Lunch, the railway,276

Maple Club, luncheon at,116

Marquis, Don, on reformers,151

Marriage customs,85,93

Meiji Tenno, "Emperor of Enlightenment,",29

"Melting Pot," overloading of the,251

Militarism, slowly waning,232

Mirbeau, Octave, on discovery of Japanese prints by Claude Monet,332

Morris, Roland S., address on Japanese issue in California,244

Mothers-in-law, dutifulness toward,93

Mourning, costume for,36

Muko-yoshi, adopted son-husbands,94

Music, unmelodious to foreign ear,131

Nabuto, visit to,302

Naginata, the woman's weapon,196

Namazu, "cause" of earthquakes,40

Nara, luncheon party in,137,141

Nesan, serving maids,117

Nitobe, Doctor, on bushido,76

Nodrama, masks used in,49;knowledge of, necessary in study of the people,75

Nogi, Count, story of his death,197

Nurses' occupation popular,96

Obi, chief treasure of woman's costume,35;how worn,36

Okuma, Marquis, Japan's "Grand Old Man,",185

Old age, deference to,50

Oriental Mind, the,57

Partitions, removable,118

Period of transition, beginning of,184

Perry, Commodore, "knocking at Japan's door,",28;opens door to progress,184

Physicians, women as,96

Picture brides, no longer allowed to come to America,244

Pipes, diminutive,130

Placidity in business and home life,228

Poems, annually submitted to the Imperial Bureau,165

Politeness, Japanese ideas of,260

Politics, lack of interest in,103

Population, excess in,231,233;must be balanced by industrial expansion,234

Prints, Japanese, important collections of,331;discovery of in Europe by Claude Monet,332

Privacy, lack of in Japanese homes,298

Public utilities, inefficiency in,238

Race, unassimilability of,253

Race problems of America,249

Railroads, under government management,274

Restaurant, cost of food and entertainment,151

Riddell, Miss H., work with lepers,90

Roosevelt, Quentin, Baron Kaneko's regard for,213,219,227

Roosevelt, Theodore, on reign of Emperor Meiji,29;interest in jiu-jutsu,193;visit of Viscount Shibusawa to,210;Viscount Kaneko's regard for,213;letter to Baron Kaneko on our Japanese question,223;wise attitude toward Japan,270

Sake, how served,121

Samurai, strength of the,70;customs and privileges,192

Sculpture and architecture.

Self-made men,187.

Segregation of vice,154

Servants, courtesy of and to,117,336

Shibusawa, Viscount Eiichi founder of school for actresses,96;interview with,188,201;anecdote of President Roosevelt,210;visit to grave of Townsend Harris,280

Shimabara, courtesan district, Kyoto,160

Suicide, prevalence of,51;the Oriental view of,199

Sunday, as a holiday,114

Superstition, prevalence of,318

Tails, wild men with,7

Tai-no-ura, and the Nativity Temple,287

Tea, significance of,68;origin,69

Tea Ceremony, or cha-no-yu,71,74,81.

Tea Masters, veneration of the,73

Teahouse, entertainment expensive,143,151

Teaism, as a study,68

Telephone service, inefficiency of,238

Tipping, proper procedure in,339

Tobacco industry, a monopoly,130

Tokugawa, Prince, interest in wrestling,105

Tokyo, growth,26;architecture and sculpture,27;adopting steel for building construction,38

Tourists welcomed to Japan,263

Tray landscapes, art of making,67

Tuberculosis, extent of,90

Vandalism at historic places,280

Vice, commercialized,154

Waseda University, now open to women,95;founded by Marquis Okuma,186

W. C. T. U., activities,97

Women, costume of,32;sedate gracefulness of,81;suffrage,83legal status,84;condition slowly improving,95;in business and professions,95;the "new woman,"97;husbands' attitude toward wives,100;position higher in early times,100

Wood engraving, era of,331

World, New York, editorial on Japanese issue in California,244

Wrestling, the national sport,103

Yajima, Mrs., leader in W. C. T. U.,97

"Yellow Peril," the true,246

Yokohama, the landing,16

Yoritomo, legend of,303

Yoshinobu, becomes shogun,202;held prisoner after conflict with Emperor,205;battle neither sought nor desired,207

Yoshioka, Dr. G. founder of Tokyo School for Women,96

Yoshiwara, courtesan district, Tokyo,154

Yuasa, Commander, heroism at Port Arthur,195

Zodiac, belief in the signs of the,317

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