U — s VfT^I tv^y> ^.tfOJIlVDJO^ ^(^OJIIVDJO^ 1^ 1^ 54\EUKIVERiy4 ^lOSAH 3 ^ AllFOff^ 5,W[UKIVERS/A .^WMINIVERJyA ^lOSANCElCf^ 3 ^l-UBRARY|3^ ^,\M-UBR/ ^•OFCAllFOMj^ ^OFCAll »AMv«anvJ^ ^. L/ CO ■ so ^1-UBRARYQa ^OFCAUF(% ^OFCAIIFOR^ 5. s" ^fJUWSOl^^ AMFl)NIVERI/A ^rjijuvxiii^ ^lOSAM %JI3AIN .^WEUNIVERS/A ^lOSANCEUn> ^t-UBKARYQ^^ A^vSlUBR/ <«^OKvsoi=^ "^/saaMNiuwv ^AoJiivDjo'*^ ^ ^tfOillV ^^OJUVDJO"^ .^OFCAUFOftfe; ^J5l33KVSm=<^ 1^, -< ^•OPCAllFORjl^ <^5i\M)KIVERSy^ ^I^UDWSOl^ .5j\EUNIVERSyA &AMvaan-^^ >&AavaaiH'^ ^lUBRARYQr, 4^1-UBRARYQr S 1 Irf-^ ^ .ijAEllNIVfRSyA. ^lOSAWlEl^^ o ^OJIWJJO^ ^.tfOJITYOJO'^ '^iSUONVSOl'^ "^SWAINfl 3WV" ^OFCAllFOff^ ^OFCAllFOff^ ^OAavaaivi^ av\eukiverj/a ^J^iaoKvsoi^ ^lOSANCEl^^ v/sajAiNrt-JWv AWEUNIVERy/A f vvlOSANCEier;> "^/sajAiNnawv Photo by Strauss, St. Lout's, taken Ma'ch nth, 1004 Rummer (Bxtttin^s from 3(ajpan W. L. SHELDON PRIVATELY PRINTED TO HIS MANY WARM FRIENDS IN THE ^t. Houii^ €ti)ical ^ocietp this volume is affectionately dedicated by his wife Anna H. Sheldon .»r. o- «^ f w _J.. f LIBRARY "Till each man finds his own in all men's good, And all men work in noble brotherhood, Breaking their mailed fleets and armed towers, And ruling by obeying Nature's powers, And gathering all the fruits of earth and crowned with all her flowers." — Tennyson My Dear Anna : Thank you for the privilege of seeing these letters before they are put into print. Surely the saying is most true, that what a man gets from a situation depends first and chiefly on what he himself brings to it. To those of us who had been long in Japan, and were conscious how slowly, and through what mistakes and misconceptions, we had reached to such knowledge as we dare claim of Japan- ese thought and character, — to us there was something as- tonishing, almost miraculous, in the flash-light quality of Mr. Sheldon's perceptions, and the depth and clearness of insight with which he looked through fact to idea and mo- tive, during the few short weeks that he spent in the East. It must be a little less than two years since the letter came from you, telling of your husband's proposed visit to Japan, and with it a characteristic little note in which Mr. Sheldon explained something of the object of his visit and the sort of people whom he hoped to meet ; some of whom he already knew, such as the Hon. T. Yokoi and Dr. Mitsu- kuri, and others to whom he was bringing letters, or whom he knew by reputation only. To some of these Mr. Shel- don presented himself soon after arriving in Tokyo ; with others my friend and housemate Miss Tsuda interested her- self to put him quickly in touch, particularly with a group of University professors, including Dr. Yamakawa, Dr. Anesaki and others, who welcomed Mr. Sheldon as a kin- dred spirit and leader in thought. By the further intro- ductions of these friends, Mr. Sheldon was able in the few weeks he spent in Japan not only to see far more than is 5 LETTERS FROM JAPAN revealed to the ordinary tourist, but much that is hidden from many long resident in the country. It was evident that Mr. Sheldon had before him one definite object of study — the people and their thoughts and ideals. The charm and novelty entertained him — the toy houses, the swarms of merry children, the picturesqueness of streets and temples and villages, and the beauty of early summer landscape on the few expeditions into the country, which alone brought him something of relaxation and refresh- ment. But art, history, politics, daily life and even reli- gious ideals and modern progress all interested him just in so far as they threw light on the one great problem of the mean- ing of the race. And whatever he could reach of fact or con- clusion was gathered up in that great storehouse of his brain to be taken back to his people at home — his beloved people in St. Louis, who, it seemed to me, were never out of his thoughts. On the other hand, I was often struck by the impression he made on those with whom he came in contact at the University Club or the Tokyo Ethical So- ciety, or among the students before whom he made ad- dresses ; an impression due not more to the words spoken than to the man himself, to the sense he conveyed of force and intense earnestness for good. Certainly among our young girls in the Tsuda school, with whom he spent hours chiefly of relaxation, the impulse left was for effort, for pressing onward to do and be something for mankind. How much intimate knowledge of men and things in Japan Mr. Sheldon had gathered, these spontaneous home letters show ; how warmly he was welcomed and appreci- ated I sometimes doubt if he himself realized. With many 6 LETTERS FROM JAPAN it was truly a meeting of kindred spirits, a fresh proof that the highest thought knows no distinction of race, and a new link in the chain binding East and West ; and I know that to many besides myself, with the personal sense of loss there came an intense regret that the interpretation of Ja- pan to the West for which we had hoped could never be given. In giving these letters to his friends, you are doing all that can be done to make up this loss. They will go east as well as west, showing to all who read them with what magnificent force will triumphed over body in those last weeks of labor; not for ambition, but to interest, to strengthen, to uplift in future seasons those to whom Mr. Sheldon had devoted his life. Your affectionate cousin, Anna C. Hartshorne. April, 1908. ***>)= FIRST LETTER R. M. S. " Empress of India" Tuesday afternoon, May 2 2d, 1906. "\ II JE are sailing along quite smoothly on the real Pacific. It is as cold as "Greenland's icy mountains, " but otherwise all right. There are six ladies among the passengers, instead of four, as I at first counted. One of them is the biggest woman, outside of a museum, I ever saw in my life. Perhaps she is going to an Oriental museum: Surely she would be an exhibit in Japan. Last night all the "dumb waiters" (Chinamen) appeared at dinner dressed in long starched white nightgowns right to their heels. This morning they had on sky-blue night- gowns of the same pattern. We have breakfast at 9 o'clock, bouillon and sandwiches at 11, lunch at i, tea and biscuits at 4.30, and dinner at 7. Whether they serve supper at 10 I do not know, as I went to bed at 9. The articles on the menu are numbered, and you give the numbers. But it does not always work. This morning I ordered number 31 (jam tart). He brought me cold tongue. I ate the tongue, and then ordered 31 again, but again came more tongue. That was too much. The passengers are not exciting. There is one " Excellency " (an ex-Japanese minister to Brazil), various business men, but apparently no missionary. A newspaper man asked me to say what / was. I told him I was really too tired to explain. Have "The Jungle" along to read for a 9 LETTERS FROM JAPAN cheerful diversion. It has been recommended as an anti- dote for sea-sickness. It makes you feel so miserable in mind you forget the other sensations. It sustains its repu- tation. Have tried to find some one to play whist, but no one seems to play cards of any kind. They just smoke pipes. I took some good pictures at Banff. Will try to print some on deck to send you. We stopped at Victoria about midnight. I was in my berth, but I thought the whole Chinese Empire was in disruption. I never heard such a racket. The Chinese voices are fearful when they are excited. There is a good library on board, but I feel too tired yet to read. I am sitting here in the corner of the smoking-room writing. The steerage Chinese have disappeared. I hear they will not come on deck again till we strike land. Am thinking of getting out my winter overcoat to-morrow. May 23. Did I tell you that we had quail-on-toast the first day at lunch ? They came from China. I knew they had come from a "distance," without the "enchantment." The weather has changed. Rain and a little rough. Great excitement walking the deck ; passed a small steamer, probably for Alaska. Have been watching the gulls, trying to make out how they fly. The table is good, all but the coffee, which is vile. I like these Chinese stew- ards, they make so little noise. Well, I had breakfast at 8.30, bouillon at II, and now at 12.30 am as hungry as a bear. A. C. H. writes she will meet me if we get in on Sunday, but not if on Monday. Next week we skip a 10 LETTERS FROM JAPAN day. This vessel does not shake like Atlantic steamers, but it rolls. Am writing in the smoking-room again. The passengers are a fearfully serious lot of people. There is not even a poker-player among them. But they grow interesting. Our " Doctor " always takes the curry dish at dinner. I did it last night. Won't do it again. Too much night-mare in the rice. But the puddings they give are enough to entice one all the way to the Pacific. We are due in Japan a week from next Sunday. Friday, the 25 th. Oh for one good hot day with a warm south wind, so that I could get my feet warm. The sun shines, and I wear my winter overcoat, but my fingers are stiff with the cold. The only time I am thoroughly comfortable is in bed, or in a hot bath. Yesterday evening we all had flowers at our places. It was Empress Day. My journalist acquaint- ance asked me the other evening if I had ever heard of the "Ethical Culture Movement." I said, "Yes, some- thing." "Well," he said, "I know all about it." "So!" I said. " Yes," he went on. " It consists of a school of men led by Felix Adler." I looked a little surprised. I said I had the impression they were not a school, but each independent. " No," he said, " not at all ;" they were a school, and thoroughly organized, with societies in Boston, Chicago, Pittsburg, Philadelphia, etc, "But," I re- marked, "I had the impression they had no definite creed." "Oh yes, they have," he said; and then he went on to tell me what the creed was. He said Felix Adler was a Jew, and a good many Jews were in it. LETTERS FROM JAPAN "Yes," I answered, "so I understand." It was all highly instructive. I feel quite posted now on the school of "Ethical Guitarists." Surely, for imparting knowl- edge (?) to the world, a journalist deserves the prize. The poker crowd have appeared. They play in the doctor's room. Have played whist, shuffleboard, quoits, etc.; also have reread " Huckleberry Finn " and "The Rudder Grangers Abroad. " It is great fun to see the Japanese play cards. They have such a jolly time over it. I can- not get used to calling " Boy" for steward, but it is the regular way. The sea is very smooth. Everybody is on deck, trying to keep warm. The two stately Chinamen have not warmed up yet. I hope they will thaw before the voyage is over. Have seen " Mother Carey's Chick- ens, ' ' but no whales. At Vancouver I saw some black gulls. I never saw the like before. Sunday, May 27th. Have just been out watching land on the horizon. We are right in the middle of the Pacific. But it is land, nev- ertheless. Snow-clad mountains that suggest Arctic re- gions. My fingers were stiff with the cold as I watched them. The sunshine up here , at latitude 52° is not any good. It is the Eleutian Islands we have sighted. You can find them on the map. To-morrow we shall begin to go down hill (I mean Tuesday — there is not going to be any to- morrow). " No Monday at all? " I asked my young lady neighbor. "What about washday, and the maid's day out the latter part of the week ? Things will be all mixed up." She said I was quite up on housekeeping affairs. 12 LETTERS FROM JAPAN By the way, she brought her father out to dinner last night in full evening dress. He looked very uncomfortable, as if he was yearning for his game of poker. He is better off in his other clothes. Cow-boy style, he is suggestive of the cattle-ranches of the Canadian Pacific. We saw some whales spout yesterday, quite near. I had never seen that before. But the most curious thing is to see " Mother Carey's Chickens" literally swim on the water. Last evening we would overtake them apparently asleep on the water, and they would scoot, leaving a wake behind them, just like little boats, seemingly using their wings for paddles. On Friday afternoon we had great excitement. We were having afternoon tea when the fire-alarm sounded. All the Chinese "boys" rushed pell-mell up the gang- way, and we after them. Then they stood in line holding buckets, while the sailors were rushing wildly around, knocking the lifeboats loose from their chains. (I hear it said the boats are full of holes, and would sink at once if they fell into the water). The Chinamen seemed to be enjoying the excitement hugely. The cook was there from the galley in his dirty apron along with the rest. It was all only make-believe, and they knew it. Am writing in the library, the one comfortable spot in the vessel. Have been reading A. C. H.'s books on Japan, which grow more interesting as I get nearer Japan. Have talked some with the Japanese. My journalist ac- quaintance hates them all, root and branch (for commer- cial reasons). The Englishmen are getting up " sweeps" and "pools," as usual. These smaller vessels have no vibration ; it is much pleasanter than on the big ones. 13 LETTERS FROM JAPAN Sitting here, you would not know the boat was moving at all. Should like to see a daily paper. Wonder what Kaiser VVilhelm and Roosevelt are up to just now. . . . By the way, I actually got off a joke yesterday. My Englishman (from Shanghai) was speaking of the old- fashioned greenback, and said it was a * ' thing of beauty' ' and a "joy forever." I added, " No, not a joy forever." It brought down the whole table. Tuesday, May 29th. English propriety held up till the middle of yesterday afternoon — some of it even went to church, but by three o'clock it had settled down to bridge again. We were watching snowy peaks and gorges of the Eleutian Islands all day yesterday. My, but they did look cold ! I no- ticed the thermometer as it came out of the water yester- day. It was 37° Fahrenheit. That has been the average. The last of the peaks (6,000 feet high) we passed just be- fore sunset in the evening. But we shall see no icebergs. They never come south of the Eleutian Islands ; so the mariner never has that anxiety on the Pacific. We are starting southwest now, I believe. It seems to be settled that we shall arrive Monday morning. They could arrive Sunday, but it costs more, for some reason, for the ship to land on Sunday. I am ready for Japan. I sigh for a bed to sleep in. Hope I can get one there. If you hear me calling out to a table-waiter when 1 get back " Boy ! Boy!" do not be alarmed. But the hand clapping to emphasize it I have not yet adopted. By the time that this letter is ended, you will wish you had not given me LETTERS FROM JAPAN this pen, I fear. It is easy to write when there is nothing else to do. Wednesday, May 30th. Am keeping better track of the days now, as we are on the " home stretch." I feel more refreshed this morn- ing than at any time since leaving St. Louis, and so I am ready for Japan. I asked the doctor yesterday how often these Chinamen shave the fronts of their heads. He said about once a week. It makes them look as if they wore wigs. I was playing quoits with a young Japanese yester- day, who has been in Europe for seven years, and is now returning home. He is the greatest dude on the vessel. You ought to see the stunning trousers he wears. I think he must have them pressed every day (you can get that done on board, if you wish). About the most interesting person among the passengers is an Englishman who has been in the East for twenty-four years, living in various places as manager for a bank. He was telling about Java, where he was stationed for seven years. He said once in a great while in the winter, in the night, the thermometer would drop down to 74° or 73° Fahrenheit, and then everybody would say how delightfully cool the night had been, and how they had been obliged to pull up the blankets. He was telling how, on the warm nights, he would have a man " pulling" a fan over him all night (something like the fan we saw in Gilette's play, "The Admirable Crichton"). He is very fond of reading, es- pecially poetry, his favorite poet being Milton. He knows lots of " Comus" and "Paradise Lost" by heart. Now IS LETTERS FROM JAPAN he is established in Yokohama. My Canadian young lady neighbor has plenty of attention. I fancy she yearns for a game of poker, but is afraid to say so. She is taller than I am, by the way, though considerably more slender, with a brilliant complexion (natural), but her normal place is on the plains, riding a steed bareback. Have lost all track of what time it is in Philadelphia — or day of the week, for that matter. Am wearing two pairs of socks, and it is a great improvement. Thursday. I asked my Jap * ' dude * ' yesterday, when walking with him, whether he would not find it hard to go back to the custom of sitting on the floor ; he said yes, he would, especially as there were various ways of doing it. But he said he thought it was still the custom of the home-life of Japan. We were talking German part of the time, as he understands that better than English, having lived in Munich five years. My stately Chinaman cannot thaw out, even if he does wear the American shoes. He seems to talk only his mother tongue. My " boy" brought me my coffee this morning at 6.30, without my ringing. He is learning my ways. So with my table "boy." The journalist was telling how yesterday he had left two gold pieces of $20 each under his pillow till noon. There they were, however, perfectly safe. He said he would feel just the same about his " boy" in Shanghai. But he did own that his fat bedroom "boy" had been trying the contents of his whisky-flask — but then he had made the mistake of treating the "boy" at the beginning. We sat at the 16 LETTERS FROM JAPAN dinner-table for half an hour, some of us, swapping stories. Well, we are getting near the shores of Asia. In this whole voyage, I do not think we go more than 500 miles from land. We average about 250 knots a day. My stock of winter clothes is getting low. The weather must change. I should like a bed six feet wide, with elegant linen sheets, a mattress that cost $150, and springs that cost $200, and pillows to match, to sleep and roll around in for a week. Friday, June ist. We may get in on Sunday, after all. There was some mistake about what the doctor said concerning extra ex- pense to the ship in landing that day. The only ex- citement yesterday was the fog-whistle, and the fact that we changed to spring overcoats. There has been little or no sunshine all the way over. I tried to print a picture one day, and it took two and a half hours. It seems strange to think that for eight days we have not sighted a vessel of any kind. It shows what a solitary place this Pacific Ocean is. A hundred years hence it will be crowded with life from all quarters of the globe. We were sailing past the shores of Kamchatka yesterday. What odd feelings that name brings up from my school geogra- phy days; then it seemed as far away as Jupiter or Nep- tune. It belonged to the antipodes, where men walked upside-down. Have been studying these Chinamen's pig- tails, trying to make out where the hair ends and the braid begins. It evidently depends on the head. The English- man opposite says that it is said that Li Hung Chang had 17 LETTERS FROM JAPAN ordered the execution of 100,000 people while viceroy at Canton. Hope they are getting after him ?ww. We had a shuffle-board tournament yesterday. Needless to say, I did not win the prize. Well, by the time this letter reaches you it will be the latter part of June. I can hardly realize it. Saturday, June 2. It has come ! It has come ! We have left the moun- tain of Purgatory, the region of cold feet, stiff fingers and overcoats. We are in a Paradise of perfect temperature and beautiful skies — all in a single night. This was what 1 dreamed of, in wanting the voyage to last three months. The next time I come over here, I will come by way of the tropics. It has been a smooth voyage. The passen- gers have been congenial and pleasant, and have been a very good introduction to the Orient through my talks with them. Most of them know it well. I was talking with one yesterday who had lived in China twenty years. He had, not very long ago, made a trip from Burmah to China alone, first going 1,100 miles in fifty days in a sedan chair, with six Chinamen helpers; then 1,100 or 1,200 miles more by water on the rivers. He was telling how perfectly safe it was, and how kindly he had been treated all the way. I was asking quite a little about Chinese Buddhism, and what it meant to the plain people. I ques- tioned him about Li Hung Chang. He said he was a bad man. They all tell how rapidly Chinese affairs are being transformed by the Japanese now. It is blissful outdoors this morning. It will be letter-writing day for everybody, LETTERS FROM JAPAN I suppose. It is hard to realize that to-morrow I shall be in Japan. We must be close to the shore now, sailing southward, though we do not see land to-day. Sunday A. M., June 3d. This will be packing day. By noon to-day shall be in summer clothing. We saw porpoises yesterday. One dived right under the ship. The sea is almost like glass. My journalist has shown me an original poem by himself, not yet published. It is really an exceedingly good piece of work. We do not land till Monday morning, after all. Have been trying to make out what time it is with you. It is 7.15 A. M., Sunday, here. I have set my watch back about eight or nine hours, so it must be about four in the afternoon with you, and yet for some mysterious reason it is only Saturday where you are. Have looked this letter over, and think it is a psychological phenomenon — sixteen closely written pages, with nothing to write about, and I have not even quoted poetry. The Japanese begin to get excited ; they are nearing home. Yesterday I got the doctor to take me through the steerage. It was a sight to behold — mostly Chinamen. They seemed just to live in their bunks. Until yesterday scarcely one of them had come on deck to get the air. They will be home in about a week. Not a vessel have we sighted yet. The engine has not stopped once. It will be twelve days this after- noon. This is the end of my ship letter. 19 - o > f SECOND LETTER Hotel Metropole, Tokyo, Japan Wednesday, June 6, 1906, rj> ffi f^ r^ ■\TI7'ELL, I rang up " Bancho 195" yesterday afternoon, and heard the familiar voice of your cousin, A. C. H., over the phone. Then for the first time I felt sure I was in Japan. Up to that time I was not sure whether it was a reality, or whether it was the inside of a picture book; but of one thing I am positive : all the Japanese dolls on sale at Wanamaker's must have been shipped to Tokyo and come to life — every one of them — on the streets of this city. I used to think those dolls were exaggerations, but it was a mistake ; they are the living, speaking reality — and just millions of them. Early yesterday morning the pas- sengers on the vessel were called out for inspection. The saloon was a sight to behold. The men were not dressed for parade. Anything that would pass for clothing was in evidence ; and then the roll was called, and we walked past the doctor. And so we steamed into the harbor. We had been watching the mountains and shores all Sun- day afternoon, and toward evening sighted the first light- house. What would Commodore Perry say to that^ I wonder ? None of us slept much that night. Early in the morning we steamed into the harbor, and the sampans (big row-boats, paddled from the rear) swarmed round us. Then the porters and carriers swarmed on deck. Upon my soul, the comic opera was not in it at all. The sights LETTERS FROM JAPAN and faces and costumes I saw in thirty minutes would fill a picture book of 400 pages. All the fantastic genius of the cleverest stage managers in America could not have rivaled it. Japan is a real thing, and no mistake. After break- fast I was sent for. A youth stood there, clad in specta- cles, a long robe, wooden shoes (bare shins), an American straw hat, and carrying a small volume on Rembrandt in his hands. He handed me a letter from A. C. H. She had sent him down from Tokyo to look after me. He was a student from the Department of Philosophy, I made out, but his English was limited. Everything was true to the books. Of course it was pouring rain, and verj' warm. I had on my last collar. By the time we were through the customs, although they did not even open my trunks, my collar was done for — melted down to nothing. We climbed m\.o J ifirikis has a.nd hustled away to the station. At two places I tried to buy collars. They had plenty in stock, but none as big as 175^. I realized the truth of the say- ing that the Japs are the " Diamond Edition" of human- ity. Apparently they thought I wanted a horse-collar. So the melted one had to carry me through to the hotel at Tokyo. By the time I had reached the hotel here, at 10.30, I had seen enough to fill me up for ten years. It seems all right out of the picture-books, only a million times more of it — babies strapped on the backs of their ten-year-old sisters or sixteen-year-old mothers, with their heads half sheared, and wobbling as if they would drop off; men tramping along on their two-heeled or -soled wooden shoes ; costumes in color and some in no color, with hats of every style under heaven ; women in kimonos; LETTERS FROM JAPAN people going by in jinrikishas ; carts hauled by men in- stead of horses ; streets all street and no sidewalk ; shops just the way they look in the books, people sitting on the mats waiting for customers. But it just occurs to me that in two days, neither in Yokohama nor in Tokyo, have I . seen any drinking, nor a single saloon, nor a drunken man, nor any people quarreling. The hour's ride on the train to Tokyo was really fascinating : the landscape, the people at work, their costumes, the gardens, the houses, the rice- fields, the trees, the hedges, the thatched roofs — it was all a sight to behold. The rain had let up for a while. But there was one touch of America. They have adopted some of the advertising methods one sees between Phila- delphia and New York, though fortunately it was mostly in Japanese. If there was any sake advertised, I could not know it. By noon I had made up my mind that, so far as the mass of the people are concerned, this country is still Japan. It may be Martianized (for ought I know), but it is not Europeanized by any manner of means. " His Ex- cellency' ' appeared this morning in a long flowing robe, and I congratulated him. I told him I envied him — he looked so thoroughly comfortable. We had talked together some on the steamer. He is an ex-minister to Brazil, I think. He and several others who were on the steamer are at the hotel. In the afternoon I took a rikisha and went to see A. C. H. She lives in a very swell neighborhood, right near the Emperor's palace, yet neither he nor the Empress has ever invited her over to afternoon tea. It does not seem at all neighborly. I told her all the news I could think of, and stayed to dinner, as she had written she 23 LETTERS FROM JAPAN would expect me to-day. Was disappointed that she was not dressed in a kimono, and that we sat in chairs for din- ner. Miss Tsuda was there also, and a Bryn Mawr gradu- ate. They looked really Japanese, and we had a jolly time. I asked them if the potatoes were " dwarfed " po- tatoes, like the trees. They said no, and wanted to know if I had never seen new potatoes. We had lots of fun over some images of a certain blind " Wish God." You promise him one eye, and he will give you a wish. Then you put in an eye, and he will give you another wish for the sake of getting his other eye (one of the images, how- ever, had lost part of his nose from the ferocity of the rats). It all seemed highly idolatrous. But the bob-tailed white kitten A. C. H. was petting was a real thing, and quite according to Chamberlin and the Guide Book. I had read about them. A. C. H.'s house, however, is quite American. Miss Tsuda' s house was quite like her kimono — screens, mats and all. I do like their wooden shoes, and I wish I could import them for street crossings at home. Then I came in a rickisha, with the man in front jogging along holding his paper lantern. Once it went out, and he had to stop to light it. I slept soundly for eight hours last night, and in consequence felt this A. M. as if I had taken two gallons of cheap whisky the last few days. It was a fearful reaction after the voyage. To-day I have just traveled the streets and watched the people. Oh, the sights one sees ! I walked the whole length of the great street, the "Ginza. " One place I saw the printed sign, " Tranks and Bags for Sale." It was English as she is Japped. But it was the people I 24 LETTERS FROM JAPAN kept looking at. It would seem as if the whole populace lived by just shopping from one another. There are shops by the million. I went out this afternoon to take some pictures, especially of children. The youngsters enjoyed it hugely. They would group in bunches for me, or stand in rows ; but it was hard to make them stand still. Have seen goldfish and dwarf trees, but I do not see any fans. I thought every Jap man or woman always carried a fan, winter and summer, day and night. I asked A. C. H. about it. She said the weather for fans had not arrived yet. Judging from the way my collar melted the first morning, I thought it had. In some things the comic opera is misleading, evidently. Then, too, I have not seen any Japanese bead curtains as yet. I went to the bank and got some money, and left my watch and chain in their keeping. I bought a new watch for $2.50. This morning's paper says there are 8,000 Chinese students in Japan (but it gently hinted that they are a troublesome lot). Had an amusing time taking pictures — street scenes. The people seemed quite to enjoy it. The market was im- mensely interesting and picturesque — mostly fruits and vegetables. Last night I suddenly felt the bed tipping up sideways. It was an awful sensation. Then I remem- bered that A. C. H. had said they were having earth- quakes now every week or two. I said to myself I did not want any more earthquakes, in Japan or anywhere else. But this morning, after mature reflection, I realized it was not that, but something I had eaten for dinner. So I do want to feel one real earthquake, provided it comes after I have eaten a light meal (which, by the way, 25 LETTERS FROM JAPAN is rather seldom). I went to see A. C. H. again this af- ternoon. This time I was loaded with questions, and she was primed with answers. In referring to Japan she uses the editorial "We." I said that I should tell on her. It seems that the reason why I do not see any real painted ladies on the street (as she in her lecture in St. Louis, five years ago, said one did) is because, during the last five years, charcoal paint and whitewash for the face have nearly gone out of fashion. Verily things do change fast in this country. It seems, too, that the big thing on the back of the kimono is not for carrying things, nor a cushion to sit on, but strictly for ornament. It seems that the reason there are so many shops is that the people quite largely make the things they sell. It seems there is less quarreling and drunkenness among the people here, firstly, because this is Japan ("We," editorially,) and not America ; and secondly, because they eat rice, and not meat. A. C. H. says if she feeds the dog bones instead of rice he gets quarrelsome (fancy "Moosal" eating boiled rice. Perhaps he would stay at home if we tried it ; but I fear he would go mad, just with indigestion). It seems that you don't turn to the right, but to the left, when walking the streets. I had noticed that other people and I had had some disagreement or confusion on that point. It seems they do not have " City Hospitals," be- cause you are a member of a family ; and, if you get sick, your forty-seventh cousin must take care of you, if that is the nearest relative, because vaii belong to his family. My, but A. C. H. does know a lot with that editorial " We !" Then we went down to the " Ginza. " I had to change 26 LETTERS FROM JAPAN my new watch because it would not go. We also went through one of the bazaars — a kind of department store, where one man owns the whole building and each man owns his own department. We came down in a trolley- car, and for once I saw a big Japanese. He wore a collar as big as I do, though I think he was not so tall ; but he looked vastly more important, and more of a person ; and so he was, for he was a Japanese wrestler. The only per- son whom I have seen, so far, who looks as important as the wrestler, is the Japanese university student. 1 can spot him every time, with his air of " Me and the Emperor." Am waking up and beginning to see things, and shall soon organize a campaign. Shall probably enclose with this letter my first snap-shot in Japan. 27 THIRD LETTER Hotel Metropole, Tokyo, Japan Friday, June 8, 1906. * * * * "\T7"ELL, I did have an experience last night. A. C. H. had told me to go out after dinner and see the streets. It was weekly shopping night, and it was a sight to behold. All the world (and his wife and babies) was out to make the family purchases. Some of the streets were literally jammed with people. The ground was turned into sales- rooms. The vendors spread their stuff out on the streets, and the crowd surged along. Perhaps most interesting of all was one street taken up almost entirely with flowers and plants. Verily this people does know how to appre- ciate and value the little beauties which count for so much. It was novel to see the display of goldfish — long rows of tubs — black (coal black) goldfish, and red goldfish, and white goldfish ; big ones, little ones, fat ones and lean ones ; one-tailed ones and ten-tailed ones — each tub with its special price. I watched one little girl making a selec- tion for the family. She chose out three with the greatest care, though, poor thing, she had to choose from the cheapest tub. But of all strange things was the substitute for canary-birds. I found cages, tiny things about four inches long, of fine wicker work. And what do you sup- pose they have to sing in them ? I looked and was puzzled until I heard the music, and saw them in the larger cage — crickets ! — live crickets ! ! They keep insects to sing for 29 LETTERS FROM JAPAN them, just as we keep birds. Next I saw another vendor with other little cages made of wire, and he had fireflies for sale, and firefly cages. At the corner stood the police- man with sword on one side, and holding a Chinese paper lantern on the other ; and everywhere one heard the click- clack, click-clack of the wooden shoes, while over all the din was the noise of the Salvation Army, singing camp- meeting tunes in Japanese, with the usual crowd standing around listening. Occasionally I would nearly knock some one over when I would forget to turn to the left, but they were such a good-natured crowd — no quarreling, no angry tones. I shall always remember that night. This afternoon I went out for a tramp with A. C. H., first stop- ping to take a picture of Miss Tsuda's garden, and then of the indoor scene, with one of the pupils seated on the floor. We went walking, and riding in the street-cars, talking all the time, as I plied my questions. Why did I not see any barefoot children? " Because it is against the law in the city to go barefoot. It is supposed that one may catch the plague-germs by that means." Do the peo- ple keep Sunday, or stop for rest one day in the week ? " No; they work right on, week-days or Sundays. There is no difference. But there are about one dozen national holidays in the year, when they do quit work." The ''official" world does keep Sunday, she says, but I don't quite know what she means. We went to the temple, where are inscribed on tablets the names of the soldiers who perished in the late war — 60,000 of them. It was a truly solemn sight to watch the people come up and bow, as before an altar, perhaps repeating a prayer. Even the 30 LETTERS FROM JAPAN children did it. They came or paused to pay respect to the spirits of their dead. It seemed far more impressive than our Memorial Day festivities. I could see that it affected A. C. H. very much, for she had lived through it all the last two years and knew what it meant. We passed almost entirely around the outer and inner moat of the Im- perial Palace. This moat, with its walls, sloping banks and beautiful trees, is perhaps the most pleasing sight in Tokyo. The water usually is of a delicate shade of green, the reflection from the sward which slopes up to the wall surrounding the palace enclosure. The arrangement of the trees makes it all a work of art. Most of the public build- ings are ugly in the extreme — about as bad as the St. Louis post office — with the exception of the Parliament Building. But these only make a small portion of Tokyo. I saw nearly the whole city yesterday from a tower near Shiba Park. It was curious to look over those thousands and thousands of low houses, and not a chimney among them anywhere — no tall office buildings, nothing huge anywhere. Down below was an old Buddhist cemetery, and the grave stones looked much like those in the old Trinity churchyard in New York, save for the occasional lantern-like figure at the top. This morning I went to the Botanical Garden. It was a long jinrikisha ride. It was a fascinating spot — not so much the flowers as the trees and shrubs, and enough to make Prof. Trelease envious, if he could see it. One felt as if hundreds of years of work had gone into it. I could see how they straightened up the trees by bracing them with poles of bamboo. They deal with a tree or a shrub as a father is supposed to do 31 LETTERS FROM JAPAN with his boys. I was amused watching long rows of school children being taken through the gardens — little things about nine years of age or less — the future soldiers of Japan. Afterwards, down by the lake, the children were turned loose to play, and they did have a glorious time. Of course there was a lake, an island and a bridge. I tell A. C. H. that Miss Tsuda's garden is lacking in one thing : it has no bridge, though it has a pond. The day before was a full one. In the afternoon I went to Shiba Park, to the temples and tombs of the Shoguns. I don't know see much about the architecture, although they are in the characteristic Buddhist style. But what moved and surprised me was the solemn religious atmosphere about them. Each one is shut in by a beautiful grove of trees, approached by the characteristic gate — a picture of one of which I bought and will send you. I had supposed the Japanese were not a religious people. Yet, no church or cathedral I have seen in Europe has more of the " dim religious light ' ' than the temples I see here, and their lo- cation in the groves of trees is fairly inspiring. The park itself, for tree landscape, surpasses anything I have seen at home. I shall go there again and linger among those groves of trees around the temples, just for the poetry of it. In the morning I was in Ueno Park, and visited another of the temples there, also of the Shoguns, and likewise saw the tomb. Then for a little while I went into the Zoo, saw some animals, sat down on a table, and had some tea (apparently at these restaurants you do not sit down on a chair, but on the table). The tea was green, but not of the kind that would keep one awake at nights. 32 LETTERS FROM JAPAN It was a hot morning, and I did not enjoy that excursion much. I tried to take a street-car back, and must have traveled all over creation. However, I kept saying *' Ginza," and I finally landed on the Ginza. But this tea-chest language is awful. If they would make English print out of it, then it wouldn't be so bad. But A. C. H. says it wouldn't work, because sometimes there would be forty words all spelled just alike. When a Japanese can- not make himself understood as to which word he means out of the forty, he spells it out with his finger in the air in tea-chest signs, and then his friend comprehends. I suppose it is like our "their" and "there," only multi- plied by twenty. Saturday evening, June 9th. This has been a red-letter day. A. C. H. took me for a jaunt into the country, and I believe now in the beauty of Japan. It was out among the farms, and ?7iight have been hundreds of miles from Tokyo. We went first to the suburbs by trolley and steam (traveling third class. I en- joy traveling third class, because it gives me a chance to count the variety of hats). I asked A. C. H. if the women did up their hair a la Japanese every day. She said no, not if it was done up elaborately — then it was done once or twice a week. Then Ave took rikshas and trav- eled several miles into the country, and oh it was fascinat- ing ! No language can describe the charm and beauty of the landscape. Every farmhouse was a picture. It was cloudy all day, and that is said to be the true Japanese sky ; but it was all that people say of it and more. The LETTERS FROM JAPAN trees, the rice and grain fields, the rolling country, the houses with their thatched roofs, the pretty, narrow lanes lined with verdure — it was something I shall never forget. Every now and then I would stop to take a picture. Sev- eral times we would pass a temple, with the characteristic red gateway. Sometimes we would stop and go in to see it. There would be the man with prayers for sale. You buy a prayer and paste it up on the wall, and there it stays to say itself till the rain washes it away. But always there was the picturesque, quiet, solemn grove as a setting. Once we stopped at an inn, and then I had my first expe- rience of a Japanese garden. It was simply fascinating, and I just sat and looked and looked till my eyes were tired. Of course there was the mother with baby strapped to her back (a big baby, two or three years old), the little bridge, the lake, the stone images of the gods, the arbor. We had tea and took some pictures ; then we went to see the temple close by, but did not buy any prayers. At last we came to the goal, the celebrated Ikegami monastery and temples of one of the sects of the Buddhists. It was on a high hill, and exquisitely located. We took off our shoes and entered two of the temples, to see the gorgeous shrines, and I tried to take one or two pictures of the in- teriors. I got a pretty good one, I hope, of the high pa- goda at the end of the alley. A priest was chanting the service in monotone most of the time, while every now and then there would come the soft and solemn tones of the tower bell. Then we went down the hill to the village and went to another inn with an even more beautiful gar- den, and then we had the sandwiches A. C. H. had 34 LETTERS FROM JAPAN brought, and some tea from the inn (and some of their beer, which was good), and feasted our eyes on the gar- den. I think A. C. H. enjoyed it almost as much as I did. We ended the afternoon by going to the iris-garden near by, which is the next to the largest around Tokyo, getting back about five o'clock. It was a delightful day. [Yet every rose has its thorns ; ' ' they ' ' do bite — and a third-class compartment is the place to catch them.] 35 FOURTH LETTER Hotel Metropole, Tokyo Sunday, June lo, 1906. ^ ^ ^ #fC A LL the Japanese ladies were out to-day in high-heeled shoes and light umbrellas. Perhaps you think they were on parade. No ; it means that it was a drizzly, muddy, rainy day. They have two kinds of shoes : one with the double heels about one inch high, and one with the heels about three and a half inches high. They use black umbrellas for sun shades, but mostly white (oiled silk) for rain. The tea-chest signs on top mean the name and address of the owner. That is a great scheme. It identifies the person and the umbrella also. They also have toe protectors to keep off the mud. I went by rik- sha to the museum this A. M. in the rain, and the cos- tumes were immensely interesting, especially the rice-straw overcoats. The museum is still young, but has some fine lacquer and old bronze, and interesting historic costumes. I saw some stuffed roosters with tail feathers over three yards long (the Guide Book says 14^ feet). They were honest fowls, a species from somewhere south. In all other respects they looked like plain Vermont roosters — but to drag a train three or four yards long — I don't see the utility of it. But I suppose it is to attract the fair sex. Speaking of the fair sex reminds me that A. C. H. says I am corrupting her " manners" by getting into a car be- hind her instead of in front of her (as Japanese etiquette 37 LETTERS FROM JAPAN would require), or making her go through the gate first — but the other way would corrupt mine ; so what is to be done ? We also went to the Zoo for a little while. But it is not a very big zoo, and they protect you from the tigers by making you look at them through glass windows. Not quite so many babies in evidence to-day ; but, take it alto- gether, this country is getting ready for war again. Fif- teen or twenty years hence they will have ' ' food for pow- der" enough to match all Europe, I am sure, judging from what I have seen in Tokyo. Evidently the Emperor has issued a decree : "No Race-Suicide in Japan." If one could just count the babies ! And such good babies — enough to make an American mother envious. This after- noon I went to a sort of "suburban garden," as we should call it at home {Asakusa), and it 7vas entertaining. Sun- day afternoon seems to be holiday time for a good many people, and they were there in spite of the weather. They had everything but a merry-go-round. My riksha man followed me around so that I shouldn't get lost. Mixed with it all was a lot of religion — a big Buddhist temple, the Kwannon, dedicated to the saint of mercy, and the people were there buying and mumbling their prayers in the temple or at the shrine of some saint. The clink of the money-changers could be heard amid all the din. This was not solemn nor impressive, but it did suggest wonderfully the whole paraphernalia of Catholicism in Italy. Change the names and the images, and I suspect the mental attitude of the people would be just about the same. I walked into a Japanese tea-house, and could see the people were having a jolly time ; but a Japanese 38 LETTERS FROM JAPAN maiden put her hand on my back and gently walked me out again. I think they did not like the camera in my hand. But I strolled into one of the bazaars, and spent about twenty-five cents on odds and ends — my first ex- travagance in shopping. These bazaars are cleverly ar- ranged. They are like a "maze" — if you go in you can't get out save by going through all the aisles, up-stairs and down, and coming out at the other end. A few of my pictures taken yesterday in the country were very good, especially the ones of the inn gardens. Well, my first week is up. Have seen a lot of the exterior of Japanese life, but naught yet of the interior. Tuesday evening. I was out strolling, just before dinner, along the river in front of the hotel, and saw some little girls trying to "jump the rope" — but it wouldn't work. Their skirts were too long, and their wooden shoes had no spring to them. It was evidently a new "game" they had heard of. Surely it is worth coming to Japan just to watch the children — these rice-fed children, for I begin to believe that is the secret of it. I just wonder if they ever do quarrel. Yesterday I began to get glimpses of the "inte- rior" of Japan. Miss Tsuda and A. C. H. turned their garden into a reception ground. The whole garden is about the size of the dining-room at Merion, or less ; but in one corner were seated about twenty people, and the other two-thirds was taken up with lake, rockery, trees, plants and shrubs galore. There were five university pro- fessors (all in their Prince Albert suits), including Prof. 39 LETTERS FROM JAPAN and Mrs. Mitsukuri (she was in her Japanese dress), Dr. Yamakawa (a former president of the University of To- kyo), Dr. Motora (professor of psychology and philos- ophy; also Dr. Motoda, an Episcopal clergyman ; Mr. Tomeoka (a prison official), and Mr. Sakurai, one of Miss Tsuda's teachers (happy, like Dr. Motoda, in kimono and toe-divided shoes), and several ladies. Especially im- portant to me was Mr. Yokoi, M. P., an editor of one of the papers here, a friend of Weston's. They all spoke English. I talked with them all, asked all sorts of ques- tions, while A. C. H. served strawberries, ice cream, lem- onade, etc. It was a novel experience, and I worked hard. But I made several appointments, and got my first start in coming into touch with living Japan. Alas, however, as one outcome, I have to lecture next Sunday afternoon to Japanese students and professors. It will be an awful experience. I told them that it was a serious proposition, but that I would "pray over it." Fancy me slowing down to fifty words a minute, when I naturally would speak at the rate of two hundred. To-morrow I am to have an in- terview with the Minister of Education through Mr. Yokoi. I stayed to dinner with A. C. H. and Miss Tsuda, and they had great fun with me. They served me with a Japan- ese dish to be eaten with chop-sticks, a kind of macaroni in a bowl. I broke down on the chop-sticks (which they all used with great facility) and tried a fork. That was even worse. I said that, much as I liked the dish, I would wait to eat it until I could be all alone. They seem to half suck it in ; but I could not manage it. The Japanese maid was nearly convulsed, and so were the rest. I asked 40 LETTERS FROM JAPAN Miss Tsuda how she would say, in Japanese, "a perfect dream of a hat." She said she wouldn't have to say it, because women here don't wear hats. Score one against me ! This morning I went out to see the tombs of the Forty-seven Ronins. The most impressive thing was to see men, women and children bring lighted incense sticks, and place them to burn at the base of the head-stones. One can see how, indirectly, the children get a certain re- ligion taught them, even if they have no church and no Sunday school. On the way back I stopped at a fascinat- ing bazaar, the largest and best in Tokyo. I wanted to buy out the whole jilace, but contented myself with buying fifteen cents' worth. As yet, my only extravagance has been picture-taking. Yesterday morning I roved for three hours, just trying to get snap-shots — street and temple scenes. The enclosed is a good picture, one I took at the inn the day I was out in the country with A. C. H. The weather has not been bad — only one really rainy day, and often quite cool. Sometimes in the riksha I am glad to wear an overcoat. Mr. Yokoi was in for a half-hour to talk with me this afternoon. I shall probably spend three weeks in Tokyo, as it is my best place to meet people. This hotel is a cosmopolitan place, though it is not large. On the two pages of the register I find a Russian, an Aus- tralian, a Parsee, an Englishman, a Chinaman, a French- man, a German, a Japanese, an American and an Austrian. 41 ■- c FIFTH LETTER Tokyo, Japan, Wednesday evening, June 13th. 'T* '1^ 'T* 't^ "\ TTENT interviewing this afternoon. First to see Count Okuma, an old man of sixty-nine, who has never been out of Japan, but he is a big factor inside of it. He has a beautiful place. Half his house is English and half Japanese. The grounds cover several acres and are a gem of gardening. As to the interview, it did not go off with a rush, because the Count does not speak English. He gave me an epitome of the history of Japan (in sections) for the last fifty years, and an interpreter took it (in sec- tions) and tried to make English of it. It was not very exciting, but it was interesting to watch the dear old man tell the story. He has been Prime Minister, and lots of other things. But he has spent much of his time in being in opposition. The grounds would have fascinated you. Then I went to the Minister of Education, and had an hour's talk with him. He talks elegant English with an air of real distinction. Mr. Yokoi was with me at this interview. I asked all sorts of questions. To-morrow I go to see the University. It is curious to find that Japan seems to have no such thing as religious education of the young, either in temples or schools (excepting, of course, among the Christian elements) ; all they get is from the home. Yet the Minister of Education said he thought there was a distinct revival of the religious spirit apparent 43 LETTERS FROM JAPAN among the Japanese people, especially among some of the young men, a spirit of inquiry, as if they wanted some- thing, which takes them either to the Buddhist temples or to the Christian churches. Coming back I did see some little girls jumping the rope all right, but they had on san- dals, and not wooden shoes. Most important, however, I do believe I did see a group of boys playing baseball. They did not do it with American vigor, for they were playing right in the middle of the street, and nobody was being hurt. The other day I observed some Japanese students playing it in full-fledged style — hence sotne Americanization is going on here. I went out to buy a Panama hat one morning, but as they cost 20 yen ($10) I am hesitating. Just now I am glad of a thick hat and an overcoat. The skies are lowering. Thursday, June 14th. Buying a watch in Tokyo is an experiment. However, I have one now which has gone for twenty-four hours, so perhaps this one is all right. It is number four. The dealer patiently gives me a new one each time I come, and I patiently give it a trial. They are Swiss watches, and he has had them in stock so long that they are full of dust. That is the secret of it. Have had about six hours at the Imperial University with Prof. Mitsukuri. It is a tremen- dous institution, and all a growth of only about twenty-five or thirty years. He took me over his own Natural History Building, showing me the valuable museum collection, with students at work making photographs of microscopic objects. It seemed strange to see on the table periodicals 44 LETTERS FROM JAPAN from South Africa, Germany, the University of Chicago, New South Wales (wherever that is). Their own archives are mostly published in English. We went through the big Engineering Building, including Architecture ; then through the Department of Geology with its museum ; af- terwards the Chemistry Building, where the Professor per- formed an experiment with raditan for me. We saw the physical laboratory, the professor of which told me he had been a pupil of Mr. Chaplin's. They make most of their physical apparatus, in a sliop which I saw. It was espe- cially novel to see a building set apart for teaching how to make weapons, armor, cannon, etc. /;/ tJiat they are surely without a rival. There is one whole new building going up, just for naval architecture. Most interesting of all was the Seismological Building, where they do nothing but study earthquakes. Prof. Mitsukuri showed me the in- strument by which they record them, and then let me see the record of the San Francisco earthquake, all accu- rately written out by these instruments, as the vibrations had crossed the Pacific to Tokyo, and also a second record as they had passed across America, Europe and Asia, and so reached Japan, in the reverse direction. They have Japan all mapped out in earthquake records, as we have America in records of geology. Prof. M. says if they have another big earthquake here while he is at work in his lab- oratory he is quite sure it will be the end of the laboratory and him, too. They cannot get earthquake insurance in Ja- pan, I understand. That must come hard for the people. Then we went to lunch. Prof. Mitsukuri had invited Dr. Hamao, the President of the University, the Professors of 45 LETTERS FROM JAPAN Chemistry and Zoology, Dr. Yamakawa (the former Presi- dent of the University, to whom Mr. Chaplin had given me a letter of introduction), and Prof. Mitsukuri's brother. Baron Kikuchi, to whom I also had a letter from Mr. Chaplin. It was really a delightful time, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The Baron was a most interesting man. He seemed to know American politics better than I did. I told them I had heard that some of the Chinese students had left because they had been required to take a bath twice a week. They fairly roared with laughter over it, but would not assure me that it was true. I was sitting in sliding slippers, for I had been obliged to take off my shoes at the door. They all wore clothes like mine, or better, but they wear a loose shoe without buttons or laces, which they can slip on or off easily. The lunch was first-rate, quite elegant, in fact, and they gave me good beer. The President knew only a little English, but the rest understood all right. The grounds of the Univer- sity had belonged to one of the great Daimios, and some of the original garden is left. After lunch we went to the Medical Department. Prof. M. says he calls it the Russia of the University, because it absorbs so much. It does occupy about two-thirds of all the grounds, especially on ac- count of the immense hospital, which covers several acres. We went through various parts of the hospital. The equip- ment, the completeness of it is something wonderful. It has 600 beds, about half of them free. The other half is arranged as first-, second- and third-class. The buildings are all one-story high, for safety, on account of earthquake or fire. I saw babies freshly arrived on this mundane 46 LETTERS FROM JAPAN sphere, and one (a few months old) which had 7ieither legs nor arms. Evidently not everyone has his forty-sev- enth cousin to care for him in sickness, judging from what I saw at this hospital. We looked into the laboratory building, where lots of students were busy reading. I spied Spencer's "Autobiography" on the shelves ; so they are quite up-to-date. We went into the Literature Build- ing (the Academic Department), where Prof. M. called my attention to a big announcement of the lecture to be given on Sunday by me — all in tea-chest characters. It might have been an advertisement for a new kind of tea for all that I could tell. We looked into one big room, where they are preparing a big history of Japan, to be issued in 400 volumes. They have been at work on it for years, and will be so for years longer. I think some thirty or forty men were occupied there, deciphering old manu- scripts, transcribing, etc. I was pretty tired when we got through, but it had immensely impressed me. It all seemed so wonderful to have done it, and done it so well, in such a short time. We had tea again for the fourth time (tea which won't hurt one, being only hot water with a faint greenish flavor). Then I voiced my gratitude, took a riksha, and started homeward, watching the children, as usual, on the way. To-morrow afternoon we have a theater-party ; doors open at i P. M. ; performance closes at 9 P. M. You get a lot for your money's worth. His- toric draina it is, I understand. Baron Kikuchi asked me whether I did not regard Roosevelt as the greatest presi- dent we had ever had, not excluding Washington. I looked dubious, but told him certainly Lincoln would come 47 LETTERS FROM JAPAN first, and suggested that we wait and let history decide. I noticed the party were not enthusiastic over Marquis Ito, yet I said in America we looked upon Ito about as he looked upon Roosevelt. Professor M. said that there had been 6,000 graduates from the University, and that, if they were taken out, it would take out a big slice of the new Japan. I mentioned the "women's university" here, but they would not acknowledge it to be anything but a girls' school. There is a rival university here, a private one, the Waseda University, founded by Count Okuma. I forgot to mention that we went to the place where the students practice jiu-jitsti and fencing. We saw them fencing with bamboo sticks. It looks fierce and furious. We also looked into a building elaborately fitted up for ex- perimental psychology. Professor M. had never seen this before, nor the hospital ; which was typical of the average university professor. I notice that even here when they want real tea with substance to it they drink Chinese tea, with milk and sugar. These names are awful to remember. They all sound like "kodak," only stretched to three or four syllables. 4S «jC tffC ^ ^ SIXTH LETTER Tokyo, Saturday evening, June i6th. T HAVE made a great discovery, and I hope you will take it to heart and feel cheered over it in the future. It turns out that I am an exceedingly slow eater, and that I take very, very small mouthfuls. If you could have seen those professors whisk away their food at lunch the other day you would have been astonished. Why, I did not get more than about half my lunch, for each time the waiter would snatch the plate away before I had finished. I hated to give it up, too, because it tasted good. But the others had finished, and would be waiting for me, so I reluctantly surrendered, though it was the best meal I had had since I had left America. However, it was all made plain last night, when I took dinner at a Japanese tea-house in the intermission of the theater performance. Miss Tsuda, Mr. and Mrs. Sakurai and myself went to a little room on the second floor of the tea-house. We all sat on the floor in our stocking feet. There were little tables four inches high in front of each of us. Tliey used chop-sticks, while I had a fork — but you can't cut cold fried eel with a fork, and the pieces were as long as my forefinger. The eel was good, first-rate (though it felt afterwards like fried chips of red cedar). But one had to bolt the pieces whole, and everything else likewise. The soup was too much for me. It was rank with fishiness. The chicken 49 LETTERS FROM JAPAN composition was not bad, provided you scooped up the right mouthful. I even tasted sake, one teaspoonful, but (low be it whispered) chop-sticks conduce to rapid eating, and big mouthfuls of everything excepting rice. On the whole, I really think the Japanese had better adopt knives and forks (though I should hate to have them give up the kimono, and I do not object to their sitting on the floor). Take it altogether, I trust hereafter you will look upon me as a model of propriety in ways of eating. My, but if you could have seen that food disappear ! As for the the- ater, I can't say much for the play or players, but the audience was extremely interesting. The parquet was arranged in squares, like a checker-board. Each square had a partition about eighteen inches high. There are no aisles. You walk on the edge of the partition to your square, which accommodates four sitters, for you sit on the floor. However, we had a square in the balcony among the swells. A. C. H. and I arrived at three o'clock. She bowed until her head fairly touched the floor to Mrs. S. (a Japanese lady). They sat on the floor, /was given a chair. People in the boxes or squares were eating rice and fried fish with chop-sticks, or drinking tea or smoking, but everybody having a good time. It was intermission. The performance had begun at 12, I understand. We dined at 6, but it was to go on till 10 o'clock, I believe. The house was packed, but it was airy, for the balcony opened right on the street. Of course, babies w^ere in evidence, though they kept still. As for the acting — well, it is the one thing, so far, that I have seen here for which I voice no enthusiasm. In fact, it decidedly suggests the bar- 50 LETTERS FROM JAPAN baric or the primeval — posing, voice screeching, "cake- walking" — my ears ache with the voices yet. But the costumes were stunning. As for the music — ye heavens and earth and seas and "all that in them is I" Oh ! Oh .'/ OH !!! I asked Miss Tsuda if the music was meant to be true to the times represented in the play (it was historic drama of the Shogun period). She said no, it was Japan- ese music of to-day. Well, it was not in keeping with the seismological observatory of their great university. It was awful — just awful — and it was going on nearly all the time, as a kind of refrain or recitative, and the instru- ments were of the primordial, prehistoric, primeval type. However, I admire Japan, and keep still, for A. C. H. ad- mires the theater. (She says nothing about the music.) I stayed two or three hours^ but did not go back after din- ner. I came back and went into dinner here. Don't tell on me. This morning I had an interview with the Mayor of Tokyo at the City Hall. He is a gentlemanly man. I asked him about "graft," of course. Behold, though he talked English, he had never heard the word. I shall tell that to Mayor Wells. They evidently don't know much of it here — and they do not change officials with change of party. He said when he came into office he did not make one change among the office force. He apologized for the condition of the streets. I told him the streets were spotlessly clean. I do not believe there is a city in the whole U. S. A. where the streets are so well kept. It is really remarkable. But they do have smells (not so very bad), for in this whole city of two million people there is not a single sewer, only gutters 5J LETTERS FROM JAPAN leading to the canals ; yet it seems a clean and healthy city — I suppose because the people are so thoroughly a cleanly people. This afternoon I went slumming. A young man took me to the poorer streets of the city where the rag-pickers live, and where they live eight or ten in one room. Yet it was not offensive even there. I went into narrow lanes and took pictures, with crowds of chil- dren thronging around me. They hung over me and around me and tagged after me — just millions of them. But everybody was good-natured. Not an unpleasant tone did I hear, or look did I see. Everywhere they seemed kind-hearted and good-natured. The slums were slums, but there was light and there was air, for the houses are all one-story ; but they often pawn their bed-clothing in the morning, and take it out from pawn again at night. But the naivete of the people here is positively amusing, especially with the children, and yet somehow it does not seem vulgar or offensive. With the little children nature is just nature, and apparently they are not taught other- wise. It does seem strange to go into the Mayor's office and sit down and talk with him as one would with a mayor at home and in one's own tongue. Of course we were served tea. Then Mr. Yokoi and I went over to the City Hall. It had the look of the usual city hall at home, save for the garments of the clerks, and the " tea-chest" signs. The Minister of Education left his card for me this morn- ing, but I was away at the City Hall. By the way, I saw the first crying child (save for the sick little-ones at the hospital) to-day, yet even it was not howling or kicking, only mildly wailing as it was led past by its mother. I 52 LETTERS FROM JAPAN have seen some ten thousand million children, but not one quarreling one. I tried to get pictures of some of them, but the trouble is that, when trying to get a snap-shot of two or three of them, a million or more rush in to see, and they upset the picture. I got five nice boys in a row to- day, and they enjoyed it immensely. Sunday evening. " Rats, rats, rats," to buy, 5 sen (2^^ cents) for a rat, "Think of it!" The city of Tokyo will pay 2^ cents for every rat brought to them, and they get about 5,000 a month. They used to get about 10,000. It is because rats spread the plague, and they are determined to exterminate them. Think what a sum of money American boys would make if they had that offer. Did I write to you about my trip to the iris-garden at Horikiri, on Friday? It took me out into the country among the rice-fields. The garden was just exquisite. The iris-blossoms were in their glory, and it was such a pretty effect, owing to the Japanese set- ting. I do wish you could have seen it. I sat down and had some tea, and the waiter brought me a present of a fan with an iris on it, which I will bring to you. On the way I passed two more school picnics, one of boys and one of girls, marching along. Each school in Tokyo must have two picnics a year, if they get nothing else, A. C. H. says. The young boys from eight to twelve are very pleas- ing to look at here. One often meets^ them with their arms over one another's shoulders in a pretty, affectionate way. I have never met a pert, disagreeable boy yet. Of course, my camera entertains them immensely, and they 53 LETTERS FROM JAPAN adore having their pictures taken. Occasionally I meet a drayage wagon ; but the driver never rides himself; he always walks on before or at the side of the horse, usually in front. Then, too, the little sales carts are so interest- ing, with their queer things in stock — very often something to eat. So, too, the men one often meets balancing a pole on their shoulders, with tubs, etc. , on either end, are pic- turesque, as they walk with a curious swinging grace. This has been a less interesting day. Of course, the lec- ture experience was not exciting. To talk to people who can only half catch what you are saying is not inspiring, but I did my best, and slowed down to about seventy-five words per minute, spoke very distinctly, and talked over an hour on ' ' Our Hopes for the Human Race. "* There were about one hundred and fifty present, mostly men — stu- dents, teachers, and a few professors. Miss Tsuda, A. C. H., and a few of their pupils were present. Dr. Yama- kawa, former president of the University, presided. Mr. Yokoi, Dr. Anasaki (Prof, of Comparative Religions), Dr. Nakajima (Prof, of Ethics), Dr. Motora (Prof, of Psy- chology), Baron Kikuchi (also a former president of the University), Mr. Naruse (president of the " Women's University"), are the only names I can recall of those present. Of course we had tea at the beginning and at the end. Then A. C. H., Miss Tsuda and I went to the Park, and I had some beer. Sunday afternoon is a most interesting time, for a good many people do seem to have a holiday on that day, even if Japan does not keep Sun- * See Appendix to letter on page 56. 54 LETTERS FROM JAPAN day, and "things" do not "close." The Park was crowded with people, and the little girls wore such pretty, bright kimonos. This morning I went for a little while to the War Museum. I was more interested in the people than in the exhibits. It was curious to see parents bring- ing their children, or young girls there. Evidently these people are fascinated with war and the subject of war. I saw groups of soldiers on the streets for the first time to- day, dressed in their dull-yellow uniforms. I suppose they were getting a Sunday half-holiday. A. C. H. says I have learned more about Japan in two weeks than some for- eigners who have been here ten years. She says it comes of meeting the right persons, and knowing how to ask questions. Here are my appointments so far for this week: Monday morning, to visit schools with someone from the Education Department ; in the afternoon, a reception by the Ethical Society at the University; Tuesday A. M., probably to see the Police General with Mr. Yokoi ; P. M., to go slumming again; Wednesday P. M., second visit to Count Okuma (I forgot Tuesday evening, dinner at the Friends* Mission); Thursday A. M., to visit Dr. Nanjio, a famous Buddhist and Sanskrit scholar ; that af- ternoon, to meet the Professor of Ethics, who wants to explain to me the course of instruction in morals in the public schools, as he was the chief one to work it out. Friday evening, to meet Mr. Wooyeno at A. C. H.'s, to learn about factories, etc. ; Saturday, to go for the day to Kamakura with A. C. H.; Sunday, to visit the prisons with an official. Whew ! I think I may as well ask for an interview with the Prime-Minister now and talk |iolitics. 55 LETTERS FROM JAPAN APPENDIX TO SIXTH LETTER A NOTABLE SPEECH (To THE Editor of the ''Japan Mail.") Sir : — A most interesting address was delivered last Sunday afternoon by Mr. Sheldon, of the Ethical Society of America, who is now on a visit to Japan, in the Hall of the Higher Commercial School, Tokyo. Prof. Yamakawa, ex-President of the Tokyo Imperial University, was in the chair. Among those who attended were Baron Dr. Kikuchi, ex-Minister for Education, Prof. Motora, Prof. Nakashima, Prof Anesaki, Mr. Yokoi, and many other scholars. Mr. Sheldon spoke at length on the unity of the human race, whilst he by no means ignored the significance of every nationality. On the contrary he laid stress on nationality, whose interests, however, should coincide in every respect with those of the whole human race. Both should fuse into one. He strongly deprecated the view that a certain race would in future become dominant over all other races, and powerfully denounced Nietzscheism. The audience seemed to be much moved by his remarks concerning a mother and her son whom he saw one morn- ing worshiping at the Yasukini shrine. He said he was not impressed with the material progress of Japan, but was greatly touched by the scene of the mother and her son. They were paying homage to the dead, who died not only for their country, but also for the United States of Amer- ica, for Russia, nay, for the whole human race. He closed his significant lecture with an emphatic insistence on the so-called ethical trinity, i.e., Truth, Duty, and Service to the Human Race. -r, r^ Tokyo, June i8, 1906. 56 SEVENTH LETTER * * * * Tokyo, Monday evening, June i8. "VT'OU may congratulate yourself that you are not in Japan. If you had been with me yesterday morning, it would have meant disaster for you, from which you would never have recovered. You would certainly have been obliged " to make an assignment," and might have been in the bankruptcy courts all the rest of your days. There were no "bargains," but anything in woman's line from $40 up. I dropped into a "swell" Japanese " Dry Goods Store." Had to wear slippers, of course. My eyes! ! but they did have beautiful things for sale ! Silks and em- broideries enough to make a woman's mouth water. I saw something I wanted at once — as it cost ^40, I let it alone. but you would have pawned everything and got into debt forever just to buy things. Happily for you, however, your purse is safe, and you are safely in America. The rainy season has begun, and it has drizzled all day, but my riksha man has pulled me around faithfully for long rides, and bows most gratefully over the fifty cents I give him. I went this A. M. to visit two of the primary schools, and it was very entertaining. One of them had a kindergar- ten, and the little tots, from three to six years of age, boys with their closely cropped heads, and girls with heads cropped in ten different ways, were going through the same plays one sees in St. Louis. In the other grades it 57 LETTERS FROM JAPAN did my heart good to hear the little girls singing real mu- sic, good, honest rag-time, or some other healthy jingle, that took away the memory of that theater-music. I heard boys sing the scale as if with one voice — real honest Amer- ican scales of the kind I can't sing (I forgot to say that at the Park yesterday there was a brass band playing our kind of music, and the crowds were enjoying it. Miss Tsuda said it was "educational." They closed with the Japan- ese National Air, as we were leaving). I went through various classes. It was all very much up-to-date. There was manual training, clay modeling, girls' sewing classes, history, geography, reading and writing. It was amusing to see the little ones writing Japanese. I wish I could show you how they hold their pens. The most entertaining classes were those in English. The children wrote better than I do. I saw in their copy-books, beautifully trans- cribed, " Every Man is the Architect of His Own Fort- une," but the words were too big for them to read aloud. However, one boy read aloud for me the story of a "hen. " By holding a book I could guess what he was trying to say, but it would have been hard work without. They do everything else well here, apparently, except their way of teaching English. There is a flaw in it somewhere. Two classes were having ethics lessons — one of them on con- duct between brothers and sisters, as I was told. It was amusing to see the children at recess — they play so heart- ily. How they did frolic ! ! I wish I could take about two million of these children back to America. The ma- jority of the teachers seem to be men, but there were some women teachers. Of course we had tea at both schools — 58 LETTERS FROM JAPAN I mean verdant hot water. Of course these children were all under twelve years of age. The girls wore a curious kind of overskirt, a kind of bag opening at top and bot- tom ; but they look cute in it. I enjoyed watching the girls practice gymnastics in the court. One would sup- pose they got enough of that carrying babies around on their backs. I am sure I have seen little girls of seven years with babies strapped behind ; yet they seem to thrive. Looking over the salary list of one of the schools, 1 no- ticed that one teacher (a man) gets as high as ^32.50 a month, the next one gets $16, and so on down to $8. The highest salary for a woman teacher is S16 or $17. Monday afternoon was the Ethical Society's reception at the professor's lunch or tea house in the gardens of the University. Of course it was pouring rain, but we had a good time. They actually allowed me to come in with my shoes on, though the rest went around clink-clank in loose slippers. I counted about forty persons, including A. C. H., Miss Tsuda and three ladies from the Friends' Mis- sion. The rest were men, of course. The Society has thirty or forty members (men) but no women. Sixteen of those present were members of the Society, others were guests. I met and talked with a good many of them. They were mostly teachers, college or university professors, including two members of the House of Peers, one M. P., two newspaper editors, two professors from the Imperial University at Kyoto, one professor just about to go to a position at Yale as lecturer on Japanese literature, a president of one of the private universities of Tokyo, the President of the Women's University, and five 59 LETTERS FROM JAPAN professors from the Imperial University here. They were all dressed in English style, of course. There were also various teachers from normal, high or tech- nilogical schools. I had to sit down at a table and tell about the Ethical Societies, and answer questions for about an hour. I enjoyed that better than the Sunday lecture, because it was a homogeneous group, and there- fore responsive. (I told A. C. H. she is getting a fearful dose of "Ethical Society.") Then, of course, we ad- journed to another room, where we had tea and cakes. I got them all to write down their names and positions, and it is a valuable record for me to keep. Of course I shall write Weston about it, as it will be news and gossip to him. The English daily paper here, the "Japan Times," has about half or three-quarters of a column report of my Sunday lecture. Naturally, it is imperfect, but could have been worse. I will mail you a copy of the paper. The worst of it is that now I have to address the students of that other university (it has a kodak name of six syllables, and I cannot remember it*), and also the Women's Col- lege. I suppose the presidents look upon it as a good practice in English for the students, but it is tiresome work, and hard on both sides. I pity them and myself. Mr. O. cut out the report of my lecture from the Japanese paper and had his secretary translate it. The secretary had true Japanese courage, and it was awfully funny. He had it down as the "Logical Society," and me as the president of the ' ' American Philosophical Association, ' ' * The Keio Gijiuku. 60 LETTERS FROM JAPAN and said I was fighting " Corruption in Municipal Auton- omy," whatever that is. Wednesday evening. Well, I am just awfully tired. Have been on the go from 8 A. M. to 6.30 P. M. (lunch included), most of the time in a carriage, with members of the Bureau of Local Affairs of the Home Department. Yesterday morning I I went to visit Miss Tsuda's school. The most interesting part was the dormitory. Of course I had to take off my shoes. The girls have their own garden, and take care of it. The furniture of their rooms was mostly mats and hid- den closets.* They pay $3.50 a month for board (and Miss Tsuda says that does just pay for their food) and one dollar a month tuition. The prettiest thing in their place was their flowers in the cubby-hole in the rear. They al- ways try to arrange the cut flowers as if they were growing. That is the regular custom here. I thought the irises were actually growing in a vase. Am sorry to hear that most of the girls have degenerated to American pillows, but a few of them keep to the original wooden variety. Of course I saw the classes. They have benches to sit on, just as at the public schools. That was a disappointment. I wanted to see them sitting on the floor, A. C. H. included. They showed me mostly English classes. One of them was reading "The Cricket on the Hearth." A. C. H. was unquestionably the best teacher of the lot. I intended to take a picture of one of the classes, but suddenly dis- covered that the camera had seemingly taken cold, and would not work. So A. C. H. and I undertook to take it 61 LETTERS FROM JAPAN to pieces to discover what was the matter, and then we broke a delicate screw down inside, and wished we had let it alone. I took it to a camera dealer. They are very ingenious, and he thinks he can repair it, but he said he would have to charge me a big price. I expected he would say $io or $15; but no, it was $1. So I told him I would give him $1.50 if he would do it in /wo days (he wanted ten). Going along in the riksha I met six or seven young girls of seven to eight years old, all hand in hand, singing some school song, and swinging as they went. They met a boy pulling a dray cart. He knew the song and joined in, and I enjoyed it hugely and wished I could help. The children do have to work ,' but if they do have to pull carts or carry babies on their shoulders, they get a lot of fun out of life. They tell me that a boy will play ball all the afternoon with a baby strapped on his back. Am sorry to say my riksha man tipped one young- ster over to-day. He was not hurt, but it must be owned that he was a true child, and set up a hearty yell. Evi- dently it hurt his feelings. He was three years old. It was the first time it has happened. The man did not stop, but I looked back, and saw that no harm was done. In the evening yesterday I went to dine at the "Friends' School" with A. C. H. It has a beautiful location. There were three ladies and one man — Mr. Bowles. We saw the school building, and then, in shoeless feet, went to the dormitory. The prettiest sight of all was to see about forty girls all squatting on the floor sitting on their feet, at study at their low tables beneath the electric light. They quite enjoyed being looked at, and it was a feast to 62 LETTERS FROM JAPAN the eye just to look at them. Of course there were Scrip- ture texts everywhere. We came back about nine o'clock. It is a feast to ride in the streets day or night. Thursday A. M. I was going to tell you about yesterday. First I went to see one of the baths for the public (there are no public baths). I believe they are all private (without much pri- vacy). It was monthly cleaning day, so they were not in use, and I could inspect them. These were of the middle grade — price i}(c. per bath, and one furnishes towel and soap. Of course the sexes are separated by a partition running half way up to the ceiling. The hot-water tank is not big ; one cannot swim in it. I suppose one would not want to, for it would scald one anyway. My guide said one-quarter of a minute was often long enough. He said the young men did not like the hot bath as much as the older people. He told me that working men took a bath every day ; women, and people of the better classes, about three times a week. Either he is mistaken or else it reverses the process as it is in America. Later I started for the Home Office, where I met four or five younger men of the Bureau of Something. They have supervision of all charitable organizations in Japan. They lamented that Japan had only 300 all told, whereas New York City alone has over a thousand. I tried to comfort them. They fell to talking about all sorts of things. I even sounded them about religion. " We do not think much about it," one of them answered, though they also said there had been a decided religious revival since the late war. They were 63 LETTERS FROM JAPAN talking about moral education, and were trying to find out who determined what was right and wrong in America. I said " My conscience." "In Japan," they said, ''it is the edict of the Emperor." The professor of ethics to- day was telling me the great distinction between teaching in Japan and China. In the latter country obedience to parents and loyalty to emperor are two virtues, the regard for parents coming first, but in Japan they constitute only one virtue. I asked him, " What if you had a bad empe- ror?" Evidently that was beyond him. He simply said they never had had a bad emperor. However, to go back to my young men. The Department had assigned them a carriage in my honor for the whole day ; so we drove first to see the School of Navigation. It was a big institution, also with a training ship (which had once been occupied by the Emperor). But it was all maps and mathematics to me, excepting the class in English, which was reading Lubbock's *' Pleasures of Life." The book was open at the topic '* The Happiness of Duty." I hope the young fellows in their white suits took it all in. We also stopped at the Commercial Museum, which would have fascinated you. It meant silks, lacquer, porcelain, carving, etc. Then we returned to the Department office and lunch on a desk in one of the offices. Ye gods and little fishes ! I wish I could describe that lunch to you. It was a memorable occasion. I have "camped" before, but this outdid all the camping I ever experienced. The Japanese as yet have not gone to the extreme in refined habits of eating. Each man dipped with his knife into a tin can of butter whenever he wanted any. There were 64 LETTERS FROM JAPAN no napkins, but a thin sheet had been spread down upon the green baize table cover. The young men left no crumbs. I was cautious, thinking of the sensation over canned meat now going on in America (that has been the only news from home for two weeks). Finally came a conference as to whether we had time to do all we had planned. They pulled out their watches, and fought it out for ten minutes. I never witnessed a funnier scene. It was a complete revelation of the peculiarities of the Japanese mind. Apparently they cannot work out mental arithmetic without their tables. Finally they announced to me it could not be done. Then I grappled with the problem in English. I asked three questions. Decided in half a minute that it could be done with time to spare, and then we started. First "we went to a most interesting place — a IVoman^ s Industrial School {Y>x\vz.i& institution). Hundreds of girls were at work making paper flowers, doing hand-painting of all kinds, sewing, making dresses, doing fancy embroidery work. I asked the teacher how long it would take to finish one piece (a peacock design). He said "about five months." They gave me a bunch of cherry-blossoms as a reward for my admiration, and I shall hope to bring them safely to you. From there we drove to the main object of my day's excursion, the big Sugamo prison in the suburbs, where there are i,8oo men convicts. It was a model of system and order, like everything else here, and spotlessly clean everywhere. There were two immense buildings of cells on the radiating plan. In one hall I saw a most curious sight — two long rows of men sit- ting facing their cells, as if in religious devotion. But it 65 LETTERS FROM JAPAN was punishment. There they had to sit all day long for I do not know how many days, fed on bread and water, for unruliness. They use no corporal punishment. There are six or eight men to a cell, with electric light burning in the cell all night. We went through all the shops. There are some thirty different trades or kinds of work car- ried on. In each shop as we entered there was a sudden call, every man took position, and then every head bowed solemnly in unison, and at once they all resumed work. As the average sentence is only two years, I asked the warden if any came back again. "Yes," he said, " most of them," especially for stealing. How many times? "Twenty," he answered. And so these people have not solved the prison problem, and they know it. They also have a chapel, where a Buddhist priest preaches every Sun- day. The warden spoke German, but no English, so that we got along in that language. Of course the grounds were like a beautiful garden of trees and shrubs, as everywhere else in Japan. In the kitchen there was rice, and lots ot it. Am sorry these people have nothing to teach us on the prison system. My guide, Mr. Tomeoka, was very well informed. He has charge of a Home Refortnatory for boys. That is up-to-date in idea. He knew all about Elmira and Mr. Brockway, and the system of the "indetermi- nate sentence." They will yet have it here, I am sure, for they know how to be up-to-date, even if they are not inventive. On leaving there, I came back for an hour's talk again with Count Okuma. This time I sounded hitn on religion, but I could not get much out of him on that subject. Well, good-night ! 1 must get up at midnight for a visit to the police-station. 66 EIGHTH LETTER Kamokura Saturday, June 23. SfC ^ ^ ^ tlERE I am for a little while at Kamokura, where A. C. H. has her summer home. We came down this morning, and shall go back to-morrow, Sunday evening. She is at her cottage, and I at the hotel. I feel like a boy running away from school. The last week has been just hard work, and I was tired out. We are down by the sea, and it is beautiful here, with rolling hills, beautiful pine groves and curving shores. We went first to see the great statue of Buddha, a picture of which Miss Bernays gave me, the Daibutsu, an immense bronze figure, some forty feet high, erected about nine hundred years ago. It is really very impressive and solemn, situated in a grove of trees. It had once been enclosed by a temple, but has been exposed to the weather for several hundred years. It represents "Contemplation." I caught a view of it from the side, which gives the slight droop of the head far better than from the front. The spirit for the statue really does not come from Japan, but from far away India. I really doubt whether these are a contemplative people. They import their contemplation from others. I do not believe the Japanese are Buddhi.sts by temperament. Yet this statue is something one will never forget. We looked in on the Goddess of Mercy (Kwannon) in a dilapidated Buddhist temble, but could only see it dimly, in all its 67 LETTERS FROM JAPAN rich gilding, by the light of two or three candles. In the afternoon I went to A. C. H. *s cottage. It has a glorious location on a hill overlooking the sea, built strictly a la Japanese — a simple frame structure of wood, screens and mats, with two chairs. One of the chairs was gloriously comfortable. So I sat or lay there, drank tea, and settled the universe and all its problems with A. C. H. The house and ground (which is leased for thirty years), and the well and furniture, cost just about §500. It would have cost $2,500 in America. But it is the " Simple Life," of course. Then we took a beautiful walk back into the country, through a narrow valley, watching the people transplanting the rice, men and women up to their knees in mud and water. A. C. H. would speak to them now and then. They all seemed cheerful and responsive. One cannot help loving this people. They work hard, and most of them are poor, but they do not seem to hate their work nor to hate work as such. I have not seen a mean, disagreeable face since I have been here. Even the convicts did not have the "convict look " as they would at home. We came to the end of the valley in a bamboo grove, and turned back. On the shore I stopped to look at the beautiful island of Enoshima. The night before, A. C. H. and I went to a concert by a Japanese orchestra of about thirty members, giving European music. We both agreed that they played very well and in unison, though, as A. C. H. says, their instruments are new and squeaky. The audience was mostly Japanese, and highly apprecia- tive. A. C. H. asked me if I had yet come to distinguish intellectual from uninteli^ctual faces. I had to say no, not 68 LETTERS FROM JAPAN yet. The riksha man often looked as intelligent as a uni- versity professor. She says it is partly because the latter are trained to hide or suppress their feelings, and it gives them a stolid look. It is not so with old Count Okuma. Friday morning I went to visit some Higher Grade schools. Apparently here the primary school is from six to twelve, and the high school from about twelve to seventeen years of age. I was disappointed in the Boys' High School. It was not up to the level of ours at home. The equipment was meager. There was no manual training, but the boys were all cadets and were obliged to wear a uniform (blue coat and white trowsers). I did enjoy hearing them sing. There is, however, another higher High School above this, which fits for the University, and that is probably much superior. By the time a man gets through the Imperial University here he must be thoroughly educated, though he may be twenty-five or thirty years of age. I believe that less than a third of the applicants get into the University at all ; so they go to other colleges, which are less severe. On the other hand, I did have a big surprise on going to the Girls' Higher Normal School. That simply astonished me. A more perfectly equipped institution I never saw in my life. I said, jokingly, " Surely the government favors the women," and that made them all laugh heartily. It is above the High School, more like a Girls' College, and is to fit women teachers to teach in Girls' High Schools, all over the empire (they have two kinds of normal schools, one to train teachers for Primary Schools, and one to train teachers for High Schools). This school has also a kindergarten and grammar school, where the pupils prac- 69 LETTERS FROM JAPAN tice, so that while there are about 300 pupils of the normal school, there are some thousand pupils, all told, in the two schools. But the education is not like that for men, al- though the Science Department seems splendidly equipped in all branches. But, besides, they have sewing, dress- making, drawing, painting, cooking, English, and every- thing else imaginable. Most interesting was the etiquette room, where I saw a girl going through bows and motions to two empty chairs and various kakimonas, under an in- structress. We went into the dormitory, and that, I told them, was a sign of degeneracy ; for they had big wards ivith cots (or htds. I asked, "Where are the mirrors? How can the girls do that elaborate hairdressing without mir- rors ?" They laughed, and showed me another big room, with mats, and big mirrors, and a tin basin for each girl. A. C. H. says it would be considered very untidy to do one's hair in one's bedroom. One of the head teachers con- ducting me had been at Wellesley for three years, and re- turned about a year ago, a Miss Okada. She wore Amer- ican clothes. Oh, if you co7^Id have seen the kindergar- ten, and those three-year-old children ! It was too pretty for anything. When those Normal girls come out of the school at twenty-one or twenty-two years of age, they are obliged to teach for five years. And then what if they get married? I asked. It makes no difference ; they must teach. But what if the husband objects ? It does not matter ; he takes her contract and all, and it must be ful- filled. There are only two of these schools in the empire. Of course there was a large and well-equipped gymnasium, but I did not see any swimming tank. I see by the papers 70 LETTERS FROM JAPAN that "Mr. Sheldon paid a visit to several of the metro- politan police stations at midnight, Thursday, with an in- terpreter, by arrangement of the Chief of Police." The papers were right. I rode for two hours in a riksha all over Tokyo in the dead stillness between twelve and two A. M. The city seemed well lighted with lanterns or Wellsbach burners. But where, oh where were the ten thousand million trillion children ? Not one in evidence. We went to three stations. They seem to be the same as in America, with cells, where they keep six or eight or ten together. I saw two or three arrested persons brought in and apparently sentenced for some petty offense to ten days' detention. The next afternoon the editor of one of the Japanese daily papers called to see me, saying he un- derstood I was connected with the metropolitan police in America, and wanting to know what my observations were. I corrected his error, but cautiously suggested that as Japan seemed to be almost as backward as other nations in the punishment of crime, she take the lead with new ex- periments and begin with having a separate cell for each person at the police station. Did I tell you of my interview on Thursday morning with the famous Buddhist priest, the greatest Sanskrit scholar in Japan, Dr. Nanjio ? He is a dear old man, and I got quite a good deal of information from him. He belongs to a sect which allows its priests to marry, and also to eat meat. He himself comes from a long line of hereditary priests, going back many generations. He con- fessed that Buddhism is sadly degenerate and formalistic in Japan. Very little of the literature is even translated 71 LETTERS FROM JAPAN into Japanese, and even that has been translated from the Chinese, as scarcely any of the priests know Sanskrit. I asked him how the temples secured candidates for the priesthood. He said certain families would often make one of their sons "a present to Buddha." One can see how to the common people Buddhism means a heaven and hell of rewards and punishments precisely as Catholicism does with us, though its doctrine of transmigration is pecu- liar to itself. I asked him if he thought people really stood in fear of becoming cats or dogs or tigers after death. He said, yes, the uneducated. I was trying to find out what takes the place of our " Thou God seest me," as it is said to the young, but that is the hardest question to get answered. The Professor of Ethics said a parent might say " Your ancestors see you," or "You must not dis- grace your ancestors. ' ' Of course that is Shintoism ; but the two run together with the masses, though the temples are quite distinct. Dr. Nanjio said the sects in Japan all belong to the "Larger Teaching," which makes of Nir- vana a state of positive blessedness in the future, rather than a negative extinction through freedom from passion. Yet he really thought the religion did have an influence on the lives of the people. He is to send me to another priest in Kyoto, where I may get a little further. On the afternoon of Thursday I had a long intervieAv at A. C. H.'s with the Professor of Ethics, who was explaining to me the system of moral instruction in the schools. The Education Department made me a present of the set of text books, with a request that I would reciprocate. But I will spare you an account of that, though it is very in- 72 LETTERS FROM JAPAN teresting and suggestive. Yet I was struck with his limi- tations. They do not seem interested here in the specula- tive problem, and I have my doubts whether they would be free, even if they were interested. No religious sects interfere with the researches of the men of science, but when it comes to sociology, history, economics, ethics, I fancy everything would be subordinated to the utilitarian question, " What is the safest thing to teach the people?" rather than " What is the truth ?" I could see they stand in mortal dread of socialism, though as yet from afar — apparently. The "divine discontent" has not struck this people. If it does, I shall feel sorry for the statesmen ; the factory system is sure to bring it. Well, you will be mighty sorry soon that you gave me this pen, for it writes on glibly from prisons to children, whether the matter is interesting to you or not. Am finishing this letter Sunday morning. It bids fair to be a rainy day, yet I have no reason to complain ; so far this climate has been libeled. In three weeks we have only had two hot days and four rainy ones. I go back to Tokyo this afternoon. Tokyo, Sunday. We had a jolly forenoon in spite of the rain, taking a trolley ride along the sea-shore, having tea at a tea-house, going to the beautiful island of Enoshima, which is sur- passingly beautiful, and getting back thoroughly tired, fearfully dirty, and ravenously hungry. I had to have fwo men pull me back over the last stretch in a riksha (one pulls and the other pushes). In a little cemetery I saw a tray with dishes at a gravestone, an offering of rice and 73 LETTERS FROM JAPAN sake to the dead. In the afternoon, on the way to the station, I went to see the Daibutsu again, which impressed me more than ever. I think of it as the "crucifix" of the Orient, though of a different significance. Then I went to a Buddhist temple, gloriously situated on a hill- side, the red tints contrasting beautifully with the mass of green. At the station I was looking at the roof of a new house being erected. Over it was placed a '*bow-and- arrow" pointed northeast, placed there to ward off evil spirits from the house, I am told. The rice fields are beautiful to look at, traveling along the railway. 74 NINTH LETTER Tokyo, Tuesday A. M. , June 26th. * * * * ■yESTERDAY afternoon I went to Miss Tsuda's school in a riksha to witness the fencing work of the girls. Miss Tsuda had a rather distinguished company. There were the British Ambassador and his wife, Sir Claude and Lady Mac Donald ; the Russian Ambassador ; the Vice- minister of Foreign Affairs for Japan ; Mrs. Buck, the wife of the former American Minister, and several other ladies. When the British Ambassador came to leave, he told Miss Tsuda that noiv he would forgive her all the hymns (they live just opposite, and get the benefit of the singing in summer time when the windows are open). A. C. H. and Miss Tsuda enjoyed that immensely. The fencing and poses were very interesting. Afterwards two of the girls played upon some extraordinary Japanese in- strument (the koto). When tea had been served and the swells were gone, I got the girls back into the room and took several pictures of their poses, including the musicians and their "harps." It had to be half a minute to a minute exposure, but the girls held their poses splendidly, much better than American girls would do, for they are less self-conscious. 1 do hope the pictures will come out right. If they do they will be something quite stunning. But the timing was wild guess-work, as it was pouring rain outside. 75 LETTERS FROM JAPAN In the morning I had to speak at one of the universi- ties (I can't pronounce the name. It begins with a *'K" and ends with a "u," with six syllables between, and sug- gests " Diogenes"*). It was in the oldest lecture-hall in Japan, crowded with about four hundred students and pro- fessors. The young men are older than American students, ranging from twenty-one to twenty-five years old. I talked to them for three-quarters of an hour on "The Love of Knowledge for Its Own Sake." For ten minutes I was plodding along at the rate of about seventy-five words per minute, wondering whether they understood a word, when suddenly I discovered they did understand. I told them that I assumed that when they graduated they would go home and say to their parents: " Look at me. See what an educated man I am !" At that there was a roar and a howl, and I knew that they had caught on. Afterwards the president took me over the University buildings, and I also met several of the professors. The institution begins with the kindergarten, and ends with the university course at about twenty-four or twenty-five years of age, having some 3,000 pupils. Most of the graduates go into commercial life or law. I asked the president if any of the universities teach Latin or Greek. He said no, he thought not, but that they teach Chinese, which he said (very cleverly) is the " Latin and Greek" for Japan. Tuesday evening. Mr. Okoshi was showing me a half-column or more of tea-chest signs in this morning's Japanese paper as a report Keiogijiku. 76 LETTERS FROM JAPAN of my talk to the students yesterday morning, but I did not ask to have his secretary translate it, for fear of ''Log- ical " Society again. This morning the president of the "Women's University," Dr. Naruse, sent a riksha for nie with two runners. It was a long "ride," but I got there about 11-30. (If it were called simply a Girls' College, I should think it a prodigy of growth for five years of life since it was started.) They have an excep- tionally fine series of buildings, and it seems remarkably well-equipped, but it is not a university. It seemed quite ecjual to the Girls' Higher Normal School, and it has large and beautiful grounds. Of course it teaches cook- ing and sewing and women's work of all kinds, but I saw a large class hearing a lecture on chemistry by a professor who had studied a number of years in Germany. The course ranges from kindergarten up to twenty-one years of age, the completion of the "college " work. I especially enjoyed watching the girls in the gymnasium (there were two gymnasiums, one for the high school, and one for the college students). The motions they practice are half- dancing, and seemed very graceful. Many of them wore leather shoes, and some of them sandals. They have three kinds of dormitories : one quite Japanese, where I saw the girls sitting on the floor at their studies ; another half Japanese, where they use chairs, and have a combina- tion study-desk-bureau-drawer-folding-bed arrangement, which seemed both clever and amusing. The girls served us an excellent lunch. Just before that, the older ones, ranging from seventeen to twenty-one years of age (some three hundred of them) assembled in the main hall at i 2 77 LETTERS FROM JAPAN o'clock, along with some of the professors and teachers. First they all stood up and sang their National Air at my request. Then began my talk, in seven parts. At the end of each part I would stop, and the president would in- terpret. It seemed quite amusing, though several times he waxed quite eloquent over it. I spoke on the " Meaning of Self-culture." The first thing I said to them was that my first thought on looking at them had been that some- time everyone of them would get married and have a good husband ; whereas, if they were in America, not more than half of them would ever marry. (I have my doubts whether the president put that into his part of the speech). The first row of girls were supposed to understand Eng- lish. At any rate, they were a nice lot of young women, and I just wish I could have had a chance at them in their own tongue. When I left, the president gave me a kakemono with drawings made by one of the High School pupils, and I told him I would take it to you. It has at last come off clear, a sizzling hot day. This afternoon I took a long walk, and visited another of the slums. It was something awful — far worse than the rag- pickers' street. The narrow lanes, with the diseased- looking children and half-clad people, with naked little ones, boys and girls, running about, and the smells, and the dirt — it was appalling. And yet I saw no drunkenness, no mean faces, heard no quarreling. They seemed cheerful, even there. My companion said they took me for a mis- sionary. Just before starting, Mr. Tucker, to whom your brother had given me a letter, came in from St. Paul's school. I had a pleasant talk with him. He seems clever, 78 LETTERS FROM JAPAN young and earnest, and altogether pleasing. The St. Paul's School is to be congratulated on their man. To-morrow I go to see the Prime Minister. Thursday evening. Have been busy most of the day getting off my " Sum- mer Greetings from Japan." A. C. H. and several of the pupils helped me at her home this afternoon. We mailed 702 envelopes at the office, with about 800 Greetings, with my signature. I had one of my iris-garden pictures plated and used that with a sentiment from Tennyson. My in- terview with the Prime Minister was interesting. On my way I was watching one of the big kites circling in the air in a most peculiar way. They float over Tokyo with their huge wings, like great vultures, though I have never seen one come to earth. But the crows seem quite at home in the city. I also passed a funeral procession — something quite different from what one sees in America. A large shrine-like structure passed by, draped in 7i>hite, and car- ried on men's shoulders, followed by a procession on foot or in rikshas. The Prime Minister speaks French, but not English. I did not risk French, but let Mr. Yokoi act as interpreter for the Marquis Saionji. It was really quite interesting. He was dressed in Japanese kimono, is a man about fifty-five years old, and very unpretentious. I asked him about his hopes for China, the Hague Peace Confer- ence, the lack of social unrest in Japan, whether the pres- ent Constitution was working satisfactorily, and also about reforms in the prison system. (Although as yet, judging from the face, I would not know a Count or a Marquis 79 LETTERS FROM JAPAN from a riksha man, I can honestly testify that these noble- men do smoke most excellent cigars). In the afternoon I went with A. C. H. to visit the Red Cross Hospital. It is a very "high-collar" institution, as she expresses it, and certainly rivals any hospital I have ever seen. The per- fection of the equipment is astonishing. The wards are all of one story. There are three hundred beds (sixty of them free), this without counting the so-called barracks, where the invalid soldiers are still housed by the hundreds. Miss Waters would be interested in the nurses' costume with its high cap (to fit the stately pompadour) and white skirt (made for use and not for beauty). Of course there were gardens. Especially interesting was the amusement hall for soldiers, where we saw a hundred or two hundred seated on the floor in white garments, and in various stages of invalidism, enjoying a lecture by somebody on Japanese history. In the wards one might eat one's breakfast using the floors as a plate, as I remarked, so spotlessly clean they seemed. The doctor stopped one limping soldier and had him take off" his bandage and show me the stump of his leg, almost healed. Last evening I had Miss Tsuda, A. C. H. and Mr. Sakurai to dinner here, and had a good time informally. Did I tell you that the postal-card mania holds full sway in Japan ? I had wondered what all these many postal-card shops could mean ; there seem to be hundreds of them. It seems that young and old are eager to collect them, and the samples are often of European importation. They even collect postage stamps, just as we do. Am sorry to say that this excessive dampness is giv- ing me no end of trouble with my films, and has spoiled 80 LETTERS FROM JAPAN scores of them. The makers evidently did not allow for the Japanese climate. Yet I have c[uite a number of good pictures. I am thinking of going to the far north on Mon- day, a twelve hours' ride, to Sendai, the center of the famine region, returning to Nikko, and then going to Kyoto. I tell A. C. H. that if she knew how often her name occurred in my letters she might be astounded. I bought a straw hat to-day for ^3.25. It has got warm at last. I saw something this afternoon which would have entertained you immensely, but of that in my next letter. Si TENTH LETTER Tokyo, June 30, Saturday A. M. ^fC ^ ^ ^ npHAT novel experience I mentioned in my last letter was a "ceremonial tea." After we had gotten off the mail Thursday afternoon, A. C. H. and I went to pay an afternoon call on a wealthy and aristocratic Japanese lady. As she knew we were coming, she sent word she would en- tertain us with the "ceremonial tea." It was a high honor, and A. C. H. had a new pair of white kid gloves to grace the occasion. We were first ushered into the for- eign part of the house (as that is something all the best houses now have). Then we took off our shoes and en- tered " Japan." It was all so exactly like what the books describe, it seemed like a dream. The little lady was dressed with austere simplicity. It was a large house, built around a tiny garden about twenty feet square. The fur- nishings were in keeping with the lady's dress. In fact, they consisted of mats and thin cushions mostly (although she did have electric light, which was not Japanese). The rooms usually had a small square board fitted into the middle of the floor. Raise it, and there was a place for a charcoal fire in winter time. She had gotten out various odd kakemonos from the thirteenth century, and other curios, and old lacquer and pictures to entertain us with (as the custom is). We sat on the floor, and A. C. H. worshipped, and I tried to (I think A. C. H. must have a 83 LETTERS FROM JAPAN very strong spine, for I do not know how many times she touched the floor with her head. She just loves it all, I can see). When I gave the lady my card, she bowed sol- emnly to it, as though it were a person. She spoke no English, but we had one of the pupils along as an inter- preter. The solemn moment came when with religious awe we entered a retired part of the house and sat down in silence, in a tiny room where a kettle was slowly sim- mering, like incense, over charcoal. I cannot describe the details ; every motion the lady made is prescribed by rule. The dishes, of course, were all antique and most valuable (beautiful in idea). The tea is a powder kept in a tiny precious box of old lacquer. I was warned that it was furiously strong, so I took only one sip. It was thick, as if it were stewed spinach. When A. C. H. took hers, you would have supposed she was just going to be married, so solemnly did she behave, and she sipped with gusto, as a German baron would sip wine six hundred years old (you can make all the noise you please when sipping over here, whether it be soup or tea or macaroni). The thing the lady used each time to cleanse the cup is a piece of bamboo split into one hundred pieces. The cups we drank from were dark little bowls of old Korean pottery. We also saw the " larger garden," at the side of the house. It was all as the book describes it : the place for the water- fall, a running stream of water, pools for gold-fish, a rock- ery, stone lanterns, a hill, a bridge, old pine trees, shrub- bery, but almost no flowers ; they do not go with that kind of a garden. Finally we bowed, put on our shoes, and bowed ourselves out. I forgot to say that the twelve-year- 84 LETTERS FROM JAPAN old son appeared, and sat down solemnly in the tea-room. All the clothes he had on, inside and out, was a kimono, and something to tie it with. He did look happy. The two other sons are in America. The house, by the way, is just about adjoining Admiral Togo's. Yesterday I went first to visit the Courts of Justice, and sat down in the various rooms to see a little of the procedure in different trials. Two civil cases, two criminal trials. the Court of Appeals, and the Supreme Court. The law- yers all wear black cap and gown, and the judges likewise. It is the German system, with judges but no jurors. But it is all conducted with dignity and impressiveness. This was New Japan with a vengeance, in contrast with the af- ternoon before. (I forgot to say that in the tea-room of the Japanese lady's house there was also a small aperture through which the samurai had to crawl or creep, leaving his sword behind him. ) Then I had to go to Miss Tsuda's school and address the girls for half an hour, so I fell back on " Harry and the Circus " (he little knows how many times he has saved me). They laughed some. We had a lot of amusement trying to decide what was the plural for * ' rhinoceros ' ' — none of us knew. Afterwards I described the Old District School, and read them Whittier's "In School Days ' ' (telling them how I fell down once on spelling "which" as "whitch." They laughed vigor- ously at thaf). In the afternoon 1 paid a visit to the " Blind School " (also for deaf and dumb). There were about three hundred inmates, including some eighty blind. It was like those at home, and (juite up-to-date. One of of the girls, born deaf, read aloud something for me from 85 LETTERS FROM JAPAN the blackboard. Some most pathetic cases were those of soldiers who had had their eyes blown out by bomb ex- plosions in the late war. One of them was reading a book in physics as I entered his room. He read aloud something to me with his fingers for eyes. The deaf and dumb were busy at carpentry and other things (I even heard a piano in the building). On one of the walls of the lecture hall was hanging proudly a diploma from the Louisiana Pur- chase Exposition, awarding a gold medal for their exhibit ; also a picture of Graham Bell. I did see one of those kites swoop down right in front of me yesterday, and snatch something on the wing. The post office telephoned on Thursday at 9 P. M. that I had put twice too much postage on all those unsealed letters. It was too late to do anything, but it meant $7 gone to waste, and I be- grudge the money. The hotel clerk had misinformed me. Yet, as someone here said, Japan needs all the extra money she can get just now. Have seen just four automobiles in the month I have been here. Fortunate Japan ! Instead of automobiles this country is blessed with pine trees — glorious ones, in city and country alike. They are a won- derful ornament to the parks, and even in private gardens. They know how to value their tree -treasures in these isl- ands. I saw two magnificent trees in the garden of the Blind School yesterday, estimated to be over three hun- dred years old. Of course the moist climate helps a good deal. Just now the weather is all that the books say about it — hot, muggy, wet, rainy, sticky — all that is vile to the stranger, but all that is precious to rice growers and the rice farms in the country. Without rice these people would 86 LETTERS FROM JAPAN Starve. Every now and then I see someone happy with his chop-sticks over his bowl of rice, seemingly enjoying it as the American would relish a juicy beefsteak. But I doubt if he enjoys the weather exactly, though he does not seem to worry over it. Everything one picks up is soft with moisture. My plans have changed. Am going first south, twelve hours distance to Kyoto, in order to be there while the Nitobes are there. After that I may come north and go up to Sendai. I dropped in on Mr. Tucker this afternoon at the St. Paul's School. (Am writing now Sat- urday evening.) He certainly is a magnificent young fel- low. He was telling me of a school for the feeble-minded, co7iducted in the suburbs of Tokyo by the Japanese. He thinks this people are naturally charitable-hearted, and with a real spirit of religion of its own kind. I also called at Mr. Yokoi's office to say goodbye and express my grat- itude. He certainly has helped me very much. I suggest you write to the Westons and invite them to come over to Salisbury for a few days. I can tell them lots of interest- ing things, but I shall be too travel-weary to go to the Ad- irondacks. This has been more work than play so far. 87 * * * * ELEVENTH LETTER Kyoto, July 3, Tuesday. LJERE I am, twelve hours south, at Kyoto. It is beau- tifully located in the mountains. Am sitting on the balcony in front of my bedroom window, on a hill over- looking the city, with a mountain range just beyond, and the shadows playing over the ridges. I took a picture of the tree-tops a moment ago right from here. It is the Dresden of Japan, about 400,000 people, where they make fancy things with deft fingers, from bamboo boxes to fine embroidery, and where the people love most of all to wear fine clothes — so Dr. Nitobe con- tends — even if they have to go hungry to pay for them. Kyoto was for centuries the residence city of the empe- rors, and has beautiful old temples nobly situated in groves, as they used to be in the old Greek days. I went to one of them this morning. It was a long climb up two flights of stone steps to a big open court. I entered the tem- ple first to see the richly decorated altar, and then went around back to an historic building of the priests' rooms, and I was shown the mural decorations and priceless art treasures, and kakemonos, which the Japanese love so much. The very names of the artists they mention with a kind of awe. However, I am less interested in their art than in the way they feel for their art. But their birds I can envy, for they do paint living birds. The "stork" and " heron " and " chrysanthemum " rooms were within LETTERS FROM JAPAN my appreciation. Then there was a monster bell on a further hill, with history back of it. But the grounds and shrubbery and trees are all, oh, so fascinating ! I left Tokyo yesterday morning in a pouring rain. The hotel had become like home — I hated to leave it. My bedroom "boy" was a regular valet. I wish I had him in St. Louis. But the weather cleared up, and it was a most interesting day. To see Old and New Japan all mixed up one needs to make a long journey on an express train. The cars were lighted with electricity. We had a dining car cooled with electric fans, where I had an ex- cellent dinner for fifty cents. In the car close to me was the great Marshal Oyama, who was at the head of all the armies in the late war, and with him his son-in-law (a middle-aged lawyer). The Marshal was dressed in a plain tweed suit, and was without valet, and had neither private compartment nor private car, as he would have had anywhere else in the world. The only thing that made him look distinguished was that his clothes fitted him. It was amusing to see the Japanese ladies spread down their rugs on their seats, then draw up their feet underneath them, and settle down to Buddhistic repose. They cannot lean their heads back, for it would ruin the dress of their hair, and that has been done up for at least a week. One of them pulled out a cigarette, lighted it, and puffed the smoke through her nose like a veteran (which was not quite Buddhistic in the pristine sense). It must be also confessed that the son of the Marshal struck up a violent flirtation with My Lady of the Cigar- ettes (after his father had left) and coquetted with his fan, 90 LETTERS FROM JAPAN like an American girl of sixteen. At the other end of this car (where was the second-class compartment) the people were happy lunching with their chop-sticks out of their rice boxes, looking after their babies (which, of course, never cried), and being domestic generally. Some wore foreign dresses and some kimonos. The Marshal's son wore wooden clogs, and was dressed quite in the Japanese style. Everybody had his or her teapot and cup under the seat, and got it filled at the stations. When we stopped, men brought jugs of tea, as they do mugs of beer in Ger- many. I bought one for one and a half cents. They told me the pot and cup were included, but 1 was not sure about that, so I drank my " hot mixture" and left them behind. It was curious at the stations to see the long rows of wash-basins, and how the people would rush out to have a wash at the stopping places. The boys cry newspapers and drinks and sandwiches in a sing-song tone which is quite musical. The whole trip was a feast to the eye of picturesque scenes and beautiful scenery — an endless array of rice fields, the young rice standing in an inch ot water and growing in the oblong plots ; the people work- ing in the fields, in their big straw hats. Sometimes there was more clothing on the head than anywhere else. If it rained, they had on rice-straw overcoats, half hiding them from view. Occasionally we passed tea-pickers, and the bushes of tea on the sloping hill-sides. The farm-houses are usually in a nest of trees, and with their thatched roofs are very striking, but no chimneys disfigure them. Occa- sionally one sees the smoke from the family hearth coming out through the roof That is the only way it can get out. 91 LETTERS FROM JAPAN One scarcely ever sees a road, and never any cattle. The rice-ground is worth some $3,000 an acre, they tell me, and it must feed men, not animals, and be made to pay a big dividend. There are hills in plenty, and beautiful mountain ranges. Part of the time we were skirting the sea-coast. I do wish you could have made the trip ; but I can tell you it was jolly hot most of the day. There was an Englishman and his wife on the train, also going to Kyoto. (They have been at the Metropole, and nine weeks in Tokyo. ) He was telling me of the difficulties of starting business here, and smiled at the fear of the Amer- icans lest the Japanese cut into foreign trade. He found an air-pillow made of paper for 17)^ cents. He went to the maker and wished to give him an order for 100,000 of them at once. The man, or manufacturer, would take an order for 100, yes — but for 100,000? No. It would ruin him to think of it. He asked to have the order re- duced to 100. "That is Japanese business methods," said the Englishman. We did not see the great Fuji mountain, alas ! the chief sight in Japan — it was too cloudy. But I shall see it going back. Not to have seen that would be not to have been in Japan. My Englishman was telling me also of the difficulty of Christianity in conquering Japan, unless it readjusts it- self. A Japanese had mentioned the chief difficulty in the difference of attitude in the theory of the family. For these people loyalty to parents comes first. " But you say," says the Japanese, "that if a young fellow sees a pretty girl and marries her in two days, that tie be- comes paramount over duty to father and mother. ' They 92 LETTERS FROM JAPAN shall leave father and mother and cleave to one another, and become one flesh. ' That is thoroughly repugnant to all Japanese traditions." But I suspect the root of the difficulty goes deeper. In Christianity the unit is the in- dividual soul. "What shall a man give in exchange for his soul ?" Here it is \.\\q family soul " to be saved," not that of the individual. I was watching an old woman come up to a temple to-day right from the streets. She pulled a rope which rang a bell, then she knelt down and mumbled a prayer with folded hands, rubbing or half- clapping them. It was not a Buddhist temple, but a Shinto one, and the whole basis or principle of Shintoism is an- cestor worship, or veneration for ancestors. Sunday was my last day in Tokyo — a drizzling rain all day. In the morning I had a long and interesting talk with Prof An- esaki, who has the chair of the Science of Religion at the Imperial University. He is also one of the leaders of the Ethical Society ; but the latter is not a very active institu- tion here, though it publishes a monthly journal, and has lectures once every two months, with one hundred or a hundred and fifty attending, with a meeting for discussion afterwards, where there may be twelve or fifteen present, and they vent their differences. There are among them a few Buddhists, a few Christians and a few agnostics, all of a scholarly turn of mind, but not caring for practical work. I suggested that they start an agitation against the Tokyo slums I had visited, but he said the members were not in- terested that way. What impressed me much more was that there are other organizations springing up in Japan somewhat similar to the American Ethical Societies, but ot 9Z LETTERS FROM JAPAN another name. One has over 2,000 members, with branches all over Japan, which does philanthropic work, besides having lectures and publishing a journal. It is the Kotoso Society, and is founded on the teachings of Confuscius. I was also very much impressed with what Dr. Anesaki told me concerning a revival of Ethical Buddhism among stu- dents and young men, with organizations springing up in various directions. He said there was a most pronounced revival of the religious spirit going on just now, especially among the Buddhists, breaking away from the old formal- ism. So, too, he says, there is a rationalistic group, call- ing themselves Neo-Buddhists, but they are of a negative turn of mind ; also another group, of Pietistic tendencies, with a " Brotherhood House." The most novel statement he made is that the Minister of Education is opposed to re- ligious education in the schools, not on the grounds that we have for that course in America, but because religion is apt to have a demoralizing influence by developing a Hamlet-like state of mind — pessimistic, he termed it — but I think he meant '* subjectivistic," making them think about themselves rather than their country. Well, this is not very exciting, I admit, but I am learning a good deal about Japan this summer, and I thought you would like to share in it all. It may excite you more to know that I saw a woman with blackened teeth the other day, the only one I have observed, though there may have been many of them whom I have not noticed. It was a peasant woman from the rice-fields. It will also interest you to know that Prof. Anesaki said that domestic conditions were much im- proving in Japan, especially among the middle classes, 94 LETTERS FROM JAPAN chiefly owing to the higher education of women, and that the average husband from that class was apt tww to be faithful to his wife. As for those who had above $50,000 (which he said meant wealth in Japan) I inferred from his remarks that the conditions are about as they are supposed to be in America among the millionaires. Yesterday afternoon I astonished my riksha man by stopping him to buy a dried fish. I wanted it as a present for you. Just wait till you see it I I have engaged a man and a riksha here for my own exclusive use at fifty cents a day for a week. Last night I went through the shopping streets between eight and nine, and it was a sight to be- hold. They are a lively lot of people here at Kyoto. Less staid and steady-going than at Tokyo. I dropped into two of the cheaper theaters, where, as a special favor, I was provided with a chair. At one place there was mo- notonous dancing and hand-clapping by four girls, with some atrocious music, and at the other place it was some- thing like our comic theatre, with dialogue and jokes. (I suppose they were jokes, for the people laughed.) Of course there were babies and little children and tea-pots, and a general spirit of fellowship. But the streets were certainly a picture, and everybody out seemingly for a good time. Well, if you had a million you could easily spend it to advantage in this city, and then want to buy more. Here, especially, is where the clever fingers work. Happily for you, you are far away, but I do wish you could see it. Am finishing this letter Wednesday morning, wait- ing for breakfast. It is clearing off a glorious day, but it will be hot. 95 ^\ ;^3aBHB&/ .. ■ini^^K^^ ^k^Ka^ ^^.- t^ \iir TWELFTH LETTER Kyoto Wednesday, July 4th. 'f* ^t* 'f^ 'f* TT was hot, as I prophesied, but my riksha man took care of me, though I had to walk up the hills. I fancy you may have been fuming internally over my handwriting. You could punish me by not reading my letters. How- ever, I will try to reform, and enlarge a little. Have been to two great '* palaces" to-day — that of the Mikados and that of the Shoguns. I had secured a special permit from the American legation at Tokyo, otherwise they would have been closed to me. One has only to see those palaces to realize the absurdity of the notion that the Jap- anese were a barbarous or uncivilized people before the "Revolution." One realizes here what can be done in architecture by means of wood, as one sees these palaces and magnificent temples. There is a stern and austere simplicity about the palace of the Mikados in contrast with that of the Shoguns, but it is chiefly in mural decorations. As for furniture, there is none in either palace, save for the mats on the floor, for on the floor emperor and shogun alike must have .sat in true Japanese style. There is one exception — in the throne room there is a chair, which was occupied on occasions of state by the mikados. The Emperor's palace covers some twenty-six acres, in- cluding the gardens. Of course, everything is of one story. The great throne room, with its massive beams, is 97 LETTERS FROM JAPAN very impressive. The chief decoration is the art-work, or painting on the doors and panels, and some of this is truly beautiful. One can feel the truth of what Mr. Kurtz said, that the Japanese have discovered exactly how much to put on a panel and where to put it. Some of the rooms go by the names of the picture subjects in both palaces, as the "stork" room, the "chrysanthemum" room, etc. I went from this palace to that of the Shoguns, which is much richer, with vastly more gilding or gold for the background of the pictures. One realizes how much these people love the Pine Tree, in seeing the magnificent way in which the artist used this for a subject, in some instances with the trunk in full life size. I was hurried through both palaces in an exasperating way, for I should have enjoyed lingering there and looking at the rich color work, espe- cially birds and trees. One feels, in going through the Emperor's palace, that even the mikados shared the sim- ple life of this people, and it must mean a great deal for the future of Japan. I can begin to see why these people have such a peculiar veneration for the Emperor. "By the virtues of the Emperor," as Dr. lyanaga expressed it in quotation on Sunday morning. A. C. H. says he really is a good man, and the Empress a heroic little woman. I forgot to say that I was at the home of the Nitobes in Tokyo Sunday afternoon, along with about a dozen others, and stayed to dinner, by prearrangement, afterwards. They are perfectly charming people, and have a pretty and tasteful Japanese home in Tokyo, though they now reside here most of the time. Mrs. Nitobe was a Philadelphian, as you know, and an intimate friend of A. C. H. They 98 LETTERS FROM JAPAN are coming back here to-night, and I shall see something more of them. This afternoon I went to another of the temples, and then to the art museum. The latter is full of old treasures, especially rare old kakemonos, but I am afraid I am not quite up to some of these works. A clump of bamboos growing by the roadside, or an aged grand- father, with shaven head, carrying a baby on his back, or trundling it in a baby carriage, interests me more than all the richest old kakemonos I have seen. But the statues of the Buddhas always stir me, like the temples. There is something awe-inspiring about them both, though they are as remote from the real life of this people, just now, as the crucifix is removed from the daily life of the people of Europe. Only the higher natures have a feeling tor the meaning of it all. I bought to-day one of those bamboo sticks used in cleaning the cups at the Ceremonial Tea, as I thought it would interest you ; also the bamboo dipper with which the hot water is ladled out. I wish you were here to see all this. The shojjS would simply fascinate you. Thursday evening. This has been mostly a day of seeing shops. Just as I was signing my name at the Mikado's palace yesterday, and putting down the date, I realized that it was July 4th. It came and went, but I had no way of being patriotic. This morning I called first on Mrs. Nitobe. They have a pretty little rented place close by. It all has the Japanese effect, though they have European furniture. Mrs. Nitobe called my attention to the sound of a slowly tinkling bell. It was that of a pilgrim on his way to one of the temples. 99 LETTERS FROM JAPAN The bell must strike, but not repeat or rebound, as the pilgrim carries it. From the study window they have a striking scene of one of the picturesque pagodas on the hillside, with a background of trees and sky. One sees beautiful cryptomerias everywhere. They, along with the pines, give the character to the landscape, although every now and then one comes upon a pretty grove of the lighter bamboo. On leaving the Nitobes, I went up to another of the shrines, with a perfectly fascinating garden. It led me into an old Buddhist cemetery, nestled in among the thick foliage. Then I stopped in at one of the bamboo shops, where they make those delicate boxes, with little drawers and compartments. I went back and saw the workmen. The owner of the shop employs three men and pays them thirty cents a day each — skilled labor, which would command five or six dollars in America. I asked to see the home of one of the workmen ; so I was taken back a little way to a house of two rooms. There were profuse apologies about the dirt, but it was really clean. The mother was giving her little boy (of four or five) his dinner. He sat on the floor at his tiny table, eating vigor- ously with his chop-sticks, while she refilled his bowl from a tub of rice. The father was on the mat, waiting for his turn, while she stood near the cooking utensils, and the materials for his work were on a shelf close by. There was a shrine with images in the dining room. It was such a pretty scene, and the mother was so amused at my inter- est, but nothing checked the little boy from his eating. (They pay seventy-five cents a month for rent ; hence living is cheap. ) I have a set of doll dishes, which will make LETTERS FROM JAPAN everything much plainer. I purchased them for about three cents at a toy shop. The bamboo with which they work must be very old — a hundred years or more. They get it from old country houses. It takes one man a week to make one small set of boxes, but it is very fine work. Just across the way I went into an ivory work- shop, and saw pieces of carving some of which required several months each for making and finishing. It would astonish you to see the number of tools they must use. Two men were each making tiny groups of monkeys, re- productions of "the blind, the deaf, and the dumb" monkeys, a famous group at Nikko. These were working by the piece and not by the day. In the afternoon Mrs. Nitobe went with me to see some of the shops. Oh ! oh ! oh ! How you would have enjoyed it ! I did want to spend a thousand dollars right off! First the embroider- ies — such ex(|uisite work on linen, silk or velvet. It is wonderful how they will make elaborate copies of pictures complete in color and design. One sees, too, such rich goods in silks of every kind, and doylies to your heart's content. From there I went to a lacquer shop. I have no idea how many kinds of laquer there are — and how beautiful it is (some of it, for some of it is quite beyond me). One sees there the twenty stages or processes the wood has to go through in being lacquered, and then the six other stages, when the decoration is put on. No won- der the good lacquer costs money ! Two people stopping here at the hotel were looking at some small pieces costing from thirty to fifty dollars. The chrysanthemum design is especially pretty in the way they use it. But the true lOI LETTERS FROM JAPAN Japanese insists that he must have old lacquer. Like good wine, he will trust it only when there is age upon it. I saw some rich old lacquer at the art museum, and some of it was beautiful, and some quite out of my reach. From there we went to the Girls' School of the Doshisha, meet- ing there a Miss Denton, who knows all about Middle- bury, being a niece of Prof Parker. Coming back in the riksha, I met a woman with coal black teeth, the real ar- ticle, quite in keeping with what my school geographies used to tell me. The two people at the hotel who were buying lacquer to-day at the shop, had been through the whole San Francisco earthquake and fire, and lost all their things. One of them was showing me a lot of pictures she had taken of the scenes. By the way, if the mission- aries in America want to do one service for Japan, they might club together and send about two hundred million handkerchiefs to the children of this country. The people are wonderfully clean, but the children's noses do need attending to. Some of them evidently get wiped once a day, when the little ones get their baths. The only hand- kerchiefs they use here are of paper, and these are used only among the better classes. Happily the riksha men carry a kind of towel, with which they frequently mop their faces, and they must do it often when pulling me, for my avoirdupois is not the same as that of the Japanese. J y \ 1 ■.' ,'*^v'|?Jll--.-^>; i ^^«?r^ kL>.^^HkI^^^1 "5; ^ ■*' , ■§ ^ JV 1 1 f ■fS|'|?i;r.. i f J THIRTEENTH LETTER Kyoto Friday evening, July 6th. * * * * I T would startle you to catch a look at me to-night. I am lobster-red from a trip into the country, to make the famous descent of the rapids. An Englishman' from Hong Kong and I each took riksha men, and went fifteen miles into the country to the mountains. It was first through the roadless rice-fields, over paths wide enough for hand-carts, but not for teams. The mountain scenery quite suggested Vermont, though the landscape is quite different, of course, and far more picturesque, with pine groves and clumps of bamboo, and thatched cottages scat- tered everywhere. The Nitobes' adopted son, Yoshio, the nicest sort of a fourteen-year-old gentlemanly boy, went with us on his wheel. We went over a range of hills, and came to Komeoka. We asked Yoshio how long it took a bamboo tree to grow as high as a telegraph pole, and he said about a year and a half. It seemed fairly startling. He said there was a story about a Japanese man who lay down to sleep, leaving his hat hanging on a bamboo, and when he woke up, the hat was out of his reach. I could well believe it. We stopped at an inn and ate lunch which we had taken with us, and then hired a boat to take us down the stream with four men. We got in, rikshas and all, and it was really quite an exciting experience. You would have fairly screamed with terror, though it was safe enough. 103 LETTERS FROM JAPAN The stream (about 200 feet wide), winds down a narrow valley, with mountains close on either side, and every few moments it dashes in torrents down over rocks in quite a thrilling way. I never before knew what rapids really were. The ride lasted about two hours, and made a beau- tiful trip ; but it was baking hot, without a breath of air, and that is how I got so scorched. At the end of the trip, as we were still in the gorge, Yoshio and I went for a swim, and it was most refreshing. I hesitated at first, in fear lest people might come along on the opposite bank, but Yoshio reminded me that I was in Japan, and that if people did come along, they would think nothing of it. There was another riksha ride of seven or eight miles, bringing me back about 4. 30. I had some tea, and took a look at myself in the mirror. I was a sight to behold. Kyoto is a hot place and no mistake, with no breezes to cool the air, yet it is most interesting. We do not have dinner until 7.30, when the air has changed a good deal. I ordered some barley-water to drink yesterday, as the Kyoto water is not safe. With calm assurance they said, yes — nothing seems to " phaze " a Japanese. But it turned out to be thick barley soup. This morning I asked the "boy" (everybody is "boy" here, except the proprie- tor, it would seem) if he spoke English. He said, yes. So I told him to take a package of films to the kitchen, put them for a while where it would be warm, but not hot. I repeated the injunction twice, slowly. He said, yes. An hour afterwards he brought them to me all taken to pieces, unwrapped, exposed to the light and ruined, and asked if he was to put them into warm water. I wanted 104 LETTERS FROM JAPAN to throw them at his head, but it would have done no good. I suppose it was this same kind of courage or as- surance (under good leadership) which defeated the Russians. Saturday evening. Think of the bliss ! I am right in the wind of an electric fan, the first one I have felt in Japan. Surely, man is a discontented animal. Here am I, sighing for the cold decks of the steamer on the Pacific. An Eng- lishman here says if this cool (?????) weather keeps up, he will go on to Tokyo. But then he has just come from Hong Kong, where, as he says, you just sit in your chair and perspire. Well, it is downright sizzling, and no breezes to help out. These templed hills shut out the breezes. But I had an interesting morning visit to the workmen's shops, back of the sales shops. I looked in at the cloisonne works, where eight or ten men were working in metal. I asked the wages. The highest was seventy- five cents a day. An American photographer was taking a picture of the group for an American magazine, showing the various processes. It makes one value all this kind of art work much more, seeing the delicate labor. I also went to an embroidery factory. To my surprise, the few individuals at work were men. They were copying pic- tures on silk or velvet, doing pieces each of which would recjuire two or three months for completion. They only put women on the cheaper work, they said. "Highest wages paid ? ' ' Seventy-five cents a day. At the bronze factory, I saw only one man at work. They have a large 105 LETTERS FROM JAPAN factory in the suburbs, the men told me. But most inter- esting and fascinating of all was \.\\q potter^ s wheel. I had never seen one, much as I have read of them in song and story. It was positively wonderful to see the man work. He took a big lump of clay, and in less than two minutes turned out a dainty milk pitcher, handle and all, and in one minute more a pretty bowl. The shape seemed abso- lutely perfect. A boy turned the wheel for him as he worked. I shall remember that forever. I saw the glaz- ing, designing, coloring and baking processes. They make the finest Satsiima ware — frightfully expensive. Highest wages paid ? Seventy-five cents to one dollar. Somehow it made me rebellious — I felt it more than at home — for this is the choicest, finest skilled labor. These men ought to be the gentlemen, and not the barterers in the front part of the shop ; they are the artists, and de- serve the rewards. In the afternoon I went around for four o'clock tea to the Nitobes'. They were just sending Yoshio away for the summer to a Japanese family, so that he should keep up his Japanese. We sat upstairs, with the study open on both sides, looking out over the hills and temples. A beautiful pagoda, not far away, above the trees, made the landscape most picturesque, and every now and then we would hear the sound of the temple bell softly in the distance. I had a talk with Dr. Nitobe, who is a highly interesting and cultured man. I was asking him especially about the religious condition of Japan, and what was to be the future of Buddhism. He showed me a Socialist paper, published in Tokyo, quite emphatic in tone, and implied that Socialism was spreading here. But it will be many 1 06 LETTERS FROM JAPAN years before it becomes a serious factor in this country. The government is wonderfully sane, and may have the sense to adjust itself in time. They were telling me of two young people in love with one another, but whose parents would not allow them to marry, having tied them- selves together and hanged themselves on the hill just above the house a few days ago. The usual method, how- ever, in such cases, is drowning, they say ; and so the love passion burns furiously here also in Japan. I wish I could quote you something Dr. Nitobe read to me about ' ' The Forgotten Gods. ' ' Sunday A. M. Last evening a number of us at the hotel clubbed to- gether and arranged for a Geisha dance at one of the tea- houses. There were seven of us in all, and five Geisha girls to perform. It was novel, but not exciting, and my back did just ache, sitting on the floor. The background of candles, gold, screens and color was pleasing. They gave us arm-rests, but I wanted a back-rest. The dancing is usually dramatic — telling a story — hence it does not mean much without one has the story. The girls seemed like children — three of them being respectively thirteen, fifteen and sixteen. But it was novel, and worth seeing just once. I wish you could walk these streets and meet the ox-teams. They use oxen instead of horses, but only one to a team, just as with the horse-team, and they pro- tect the ox from the sun with huge fan-like mats, hung from above. I forgot to say that one of the performances of the Geisha girls was strictly musical, beating drums, 107 LETTERS FROM JAPAN and other extraordinary ear-piercing instruments. We lived through it — and it was interesting to see how won- derfully they kept together. After the flag dance, the girls sat down and smoked their pipes contentedly. It was not so dreadful. The pipe only held as much tobacco as you could balance on the end of the nail of your little finger. They got just two puffs out of it, I believe. It is about like their innocent tea. It is amusing to see how people spend money in the shops here. They just can't help it. The shop agents hover around the hotel, and fol- low people to their rooms, show them pretty things, and coax them into buying. I told the Englishman about the bamboo-shop. He went there and came back loaded down. I think he left fifteen or twenty dollars at the shop before he got through. I eat regularly here four poached eggs, along with steak or chicken, for breakfast, which shows my appetite is good. But then I am working. Just think of the appetite I have developed in writing these letters ! 1 08 [Photo. Enclosed in Fourteenth Letter^ Kyoto Children Playing "Store' FOURTEENTH LETTER Kyoto Monday evening, July 9th. 'TpHIS has been Buddhist day. I called first on the Governor of the Prefecture, who spoke French, but no English (so I had an interpreter). He gave me a good cigar, for which I was grateful, and a letter to the High- Priest (Takada) of the Zen sect. We had hoped to meet the priestess (the Princess Inoue), but she had a service to-day, and it could not be arranged. The interpreter went with me to Mr. Takada. We were ushered in sol- emnly, after removing our shoes, and sat in a room fur- nished with quaint old kakemonos. It was the priest's pri- vate home. I bowed in my style, but I cannot quite bring myself to go clear to the floor, in fear lest I might break in two. Then, too, there is an instinctive rebellion against stooping beyond a certain point. However, they do not expect it from me, fortunately. I asked various questions, but the interpreter knew mighty little of religion, and could not take me very far. I was asking of Nirvana. Apparently neither the priest nor the interpreter knew the word. Later Dr. Nitobe explained it. Their term is Nehan, which is probably Chinese for Nirvana. The lat- ter is Sanskrit (and scarcely any priest in Japan knows Sanskrit). But the priest himself was most interesting to watch. I felt the spirit of Buddhism, just in looking at him. It was the Asiatic face — the thin, far-away man- 109 LETTERS FROM JAPAN ner, and half- emaciated features and chest of one who practices the spiritual life as they understand it. Yet he could smile, or even laugh, in his way, but it was easy to see that he lived in another world. Yet even at this house I was served with tea, but am sorry to say that the bowl tasted of tobacco. These priests eat no meat, and are strict celibates, and are regarded as the most profound of all the sects in Japan. I shall always remember the inter- view, and the face of the priest, even if the interpreter knew as little of religion as a cow. They wear, the priests here, usually, a kind of dark crape, black or blue-black, over something white. In seeing him, I was still in the presence of a real Buddhism. In the afternoon I went first through the streets, picture-taking, with the usual amusing experiences, and inevitable curiosity. This whole race are like children in that respect. You feel it in every sort of a way. Mrs. Nitobe says it is conspicuously true of letters and postals. They read the postal cards, and study the outsides of letters to find out from whom they come, and pry into things in every imaginable way ; so I give them lots of chances to gratify the passion while I take pictures. Sometimes people are immensely pleased to have their pictures taken ; sometimes they run. Finally I went to call on another priest of the same sect as Dr. Nanjio of Tokyo. He spoke English, and I learned a good deal from him. I began, of course, about transmi- gration. It is a good starter. He used the mats on the floor for figurative purposes. I told him I was a teacher of ethics. Oh, yes, he said, and smiled ; so does Buddhism teach ; but ethics goes from this life to that life, while no LETTERS FROM JAPAN Buddhism takes you back further (pointing to the floor), in addition to the other mat, and carries you forward fur- ther, to the mat next. He was explaining to me the dis- tinction between his sect and the Zen sect. The latter be- lieves in self-help — saving oneself ; his sect teaches that help or salvation comes from Buddha. "You pray to Buddha?" I asked. Yes. " To the man Buddha ?" Oh, no, not at all — to Amita Buddha. "Then what was Gautama Buddha?" He was simply a manifestation, or an incarnation, of Amita Buddha. We pray to Amita Buddha, just as the Christian prays, not to the man Christ, but to Christ as the manifestation of God. "Then, is Amita Buddha about the same as what we mean in the West by the word God ?' ' Yes, a good deal the same, he thought. It was growing interesting. I asked him, " Do you believe in pre-existence?" Yes, certainly; he was sure he had lived before, and would live again. " Do you teach of heaven and hell ?" Yes. " And may a man rise from the one, or fall from the other ?' ' Yes, he answered. Hell, he explained, is a stage below the animal soul, the lowest stage to which a man could sink. I felt it was not the crude thing we ordinarily call transmigration that he was expounding. I did not try him on Nirvana. He was very polite. I asked him how old he was, and he said sixty-four. The young people of the family were peaking around the corners of the screens at me with persistent curiosity, which entertained me a good deal. It was the same naive childishness, though they were not children. I had more tea, of course. Fortunately, at both calls I was given a fan. The fan stage has arrived in Japan. Ill LETTERS FROM JAPAN You see men going by with umbrellas over their heads, held by one hand, while fanning vigorously with the other. But they do not carry bright-colored fans any more than the women carry bright-colored parasols. Those are for children. In that respect our comic operas are mislead- ing. It is the children who wear brilliant colors, as Dr. Nitobe says, here. They dress the children to please the children (surely not their heads). Tuesday, on the train, 3 P. M. Ages about seventeen and twenty-two years ; hair coal- black and plastered flat down over the ears — in one case with a bang, the other straight back — held flat on the head behind with a comb set with pearls ; rich gold brace- lets and rings ; noses small and cheeks fair, with high cheek bones ; eyes almost protruding, and coal-black, almond- shaped ; pretty chins ; small, light figures, rather graceful. Dress, lavender silk, over black silk skirt (in one case trimmed with blue); shoes, blue silk, about five inches long, sharply pointed. Feet, about three and a half to four inches long ; big, protruding front foot bones ; with pretty blue silk purses and pretty handkerchiefs (one white embroidered silk, the other blue-edged linen), both quite pretty. Rather tnessy in eating, spilling things around. One of them expectorates into a cuspidor, like a man. Maid kept constantly busy looking after them, especially the younger one. Father tall, dressed in long, light-blue silk nightgown over lavender pajamas. Head shaved half- way back, long pigtail hanging down behind. Family evi- LETTERS FROM JAPAN dently rich and important ; style the very antithesis of the Japanese. What does the above describe? It was what I was watching with amusement on the opposite seat out of the corner of my eye for half the morning on the railway train — chop-sticks and lunch-box included. The maid, fat and chubby, with big feet, feeds the fair-cheeked one, and on the sly tosses the banana-peels under the seat. They are gone now, and left their tea-pot behind them, with dim visions of stale banana-peel to greet my eye as I look that way. My neighbor, a scholarly Japanese, takes off his black silk wrapper {haoH), folds it as carefully as a lady would do, and puts it away in his valise, takes off his shoes, and settles down to a book in tea-chest ciphers. Two officers in dull yellow, with spurs on their shoes, which they have taken off (one in bare feet), are sound asleep. Another Japanese, dressed like an American, in light summer suit, is also asleep. Each person with his tea-pot (including myself) under his seat, and getting it filled, occasionally, out of the window, for two sen — one cent. Floor in a condition which would make you shud- der and draw your feet up under you like a Japanese lady, so as to keep clean (strewn with shoes, sandals, spilled tea, etc.). Each person is given a fan and sandals by the youth who acts as porter, and who is most polite and obliging. Have just come back from getting some after- noon tea in the dining car, and am hoping, if the weather keeps fair, to have a view of the glorious Fugi by and by. It has been a beautiful day, with glorious scenery. Have been on the other side of the car, and have had even "3 LETTERS FROM JAPAN more beautiful landscapes than I had coming down a week ago. Am writing on my valise for a desk, and all is wobbly. I wish it were possible for me to describe to you a novel experience of Sunday evening. The Nitobes in- vited me to a " court dinner." There is living in Kyoto the son of the caterer who used to serve the Emperor and his family, and he serves dinner (by special order) in the exact style in which his father used to serve the Mikado in the old days. It was up-stairs in a tea-house or restaurant. The other guests included Prof. Lombard, dean of the Do- shisha College ; a Dr. Saiki, an eminent physician of Kyoto ; Mrs. Nitobe ; and a Mr. Beddinger, teacher in the Peers' School in Tokyo. We sat around on the floor, of course, in our stocking feet. It was about seven o'clock in the evening. The teacher next to me was in the white, cool uniform of his school ; Dr. Nitobe and Dr. Saiki in dark kimonos, and Mrs. Nitobe in cool white, American style. We each had fans, and needed them. But the fans the people use here are more subdued in color than those in America. Dr. Nitobe had placed a vase of flowers in front of a gold screen to make them look as if they were painted there, as that is an old custom. There was a kakemono hanging near, decorated with a spray of maple leaves, and suggestions of a waterfall. First came a tiny table, decorated with a miniature pine tree, and filled with what looked like hard-boiled eggs, with the shells removed, and some candy. The eggs were in reality pastry. We began with sweets. The maid brought each table held high in the air (so that her breath might not touch the food), and as she laid each little table down before us she 114 LETTERS FROM JAPAN bowed low till her head about touched the floor. Then came table number two for each of us (with similar bows) , decorated with a symbol of the Rising Sun ; and so on, with about six dishes. One of raw fish, one of soup, one of lily roots (crowned with a tiny orange-tree), one of fried fish, one with fish sauce, one cup for sake, and a little tray for chop-sticks. I had put a fork in my pocket on the sly, but decided not to use it. To my astonishment, the nicest dish of the whole dinner was the raw fish. It was fearful work with the chop-sticks, but I hooked things with them. The porcelain was all (with one conspicuous exception) decorated with the royal sixteen-petaled chrys- anthemum. The tables were of plain, unvarnished wood, showing the simplicity of the old court life. You don't finish one course and go on to the next, but go back and forth as you please. Warm sake was poured — it is called beer (rice beer), but it is three times as strong as our beer — about like sherry. Afterwards tea was brought in and poured for us while the second table was on. Finally came a third little table, and two more bowls of soup, and another fish dish, an empty bowl, and some pickle, and a dish of jelly. The meat was diWJish, as you see, with three kinds of soup. This fish dish was served with a spoon in a plain earthen bowl. I snatched at the spoon, and used it on the sly for everything, for all three tables were now before me to eat from at my choice. Finally a lacquered jar was brought in, and the empty bowls filled with rice. When the rice was nearly finished, each bowl was passed to the maid, who poured tea over it, and with that one was supposed to finish the dinner. I have the first table, "5 LETTERS FROM JAPAN the pine tree and the orange tree as souvenirs to show you. In the old days the remnants from each guest's table were wrapped up in paper for him to take home to his wife and children. There was no bread, no butter, no milk served or used in the cooking (so I understand), also no water and no napkins. Then we sat around on the window-sill (to ease our knees) and chatted for a while. On coming back I stopped at a drug-store for safety's sake, but came through alive. That dinner was something to remember. Sunday morning I visited one of the temples, and also one of the lacquer shops, to see how the gold work and designing is done. Then I lunched with Miss Denton of the Doshisha Girls' School, who was a niece of Prof. Par- ker of Middlebury, and who wanted to hear about the people there. I was back in the primeval atmosphere of New England Congregationalism as it was twenty-five years ago. Then Prof. Hino, of the Theological Department of the Doshisha School, came in for a chat, and I talked Buddhism with him. I was much entertained as he told me of his childhood, and how his parents pictured to him the horrors of hell when he was naughty. His parents were Shintoists, and hell is Buddhistic (of the popular kind), but, as he says, among the people the two religions all run together. As we sat talking, there was a big thun- derstorm, the first I have experienced here. Monday evening I called at the Nitobes', to say good-by to them. Am finishing this letter Wednesday evening at Tokyo, where I have been resting up after seven days and eight nights of fearfully hot weather. It is delightfully cool here. I saw Fuji in its glory at six o'clock in the evening Ii6 LETTERS FROM JAPAN from my train, for about an hour. The clouds hung over its base, but it rose above them in all its majesty, a truly wonderful sight. The snow was mostly gone from its sum- mit. I was sitting in the Japanese sandals which the train boy had provided, and they were very comfortable for the feet. I am bringing a pair home. I saw the lotus flower in bloom on the way here. I wish you could see the won- derful wistaria vines I have seen in Japan — some of them over one hundred years old, and simply enormous. A. C. H. came over this morning to help me pack. I leave to- morrow for Northern Japan to visit Sendai. 117 HPI ^^^^^^^r^^:r^frimfy M ^J^P^-^f^ a| ^^^^^H|^>vH^^^P "~^ ^^^^^^^^^^k^ "'^C"'^ M ^^^mm^ Hh t ■ - ci FIFTEENTH LETTER NiKKO Sunday A. M. ■^ * * * TJERE I am, in a regular Japanese drizzle. Surely, they have no use for mucilage in this country at a season like this. All that one needs to do is to stick on the stamp with one's fingers, and it will hold forever. You get wet through just looking at the water. I feel like a fish breathing under water. I came down from Sendai yesterday, where there was lots of rain. The people there were watching the skies anxiously, for if the rain keeps up it means another famine here, and this time, as the mayor of one of the villages said to me, the people would liter- ally starve to death. I left the Metropole Hotel Thursday morning with a pang of regret — the mosquitoes had tor- tured me at night, the fleas had devoured me by day, the bed was as hard as a rock, the table was very monotonous, and yet I look back upon it as the nicest, pleasantest, most homelike hotel I ever stopped at in my life. 1 shall ad- vise all the world to go there. The train going north was not quite up-to-date. It was a combination compartment — day-coach, sleeper and diner — all in half of one car, but 1 settled down to stocking-feet and tea-pots with actual rel- ish, and quite enjoyed it. We had slippers instead of san- dals. I can pass my tea-pot out of the car window now like a veteran, though the stuff does still si)ill when you pour it. The diner part of the car had only two seats, 119 LETTERS FROM JAPAN but the food was good. I had omelette, cold meat, beef- steak and beer. But they 7vill not keep the beer cold, and so it has to be iced, like wine or water. One man on the train was reading Royce's " Spirit of Modern Philoso- phy," stretched out comfortably at full length. As I got further north I was in the region where the foreigner is mostly a missionary and a curiosity. A crowd of girls came in front of the window and stared, and laughed over me as if I were a giraffe. I laughed back, and quite en- joyed the novelty. But it is well you did not come to Ja- pan. You must wait ten years. You really could not have enjoyed it. Certain conditions would have spoiled all the pleasure for you. Japan is still a masculine world, though, by the way — the "boys" at this hotel are nearly all girls. Two girls carried up my trunk, last night, in very puffing fashion. It was nearly as big as they were. I got to Sendai in the rain at night. The Guide Book said a European hotel. You would have laughed to see it. First I was put down on a mat in a tea-room to await de- velopments. Finally, someone who could talk English said that in an hour they would get a room ready for me. So I had to take off my shoes, which was necessary every time I entered the house, if I went up-stairs. The " Euro- pean" part of the hotel consisted of a table and two chairs. There was a bed on the floor, covered with a huge mosquito netting, and a washstand in the hall-way, but a mirror was nowhere visible. I had no glimpse of my face while I was at that hotel. The walls were of paper screens. The first night three young men were in the room adjoin- ing, talking till midnight, and beginning again at five 120 LETTERS FROM JAPAN o'clock. The next night a husband and wife were on the opposite side. If I had understood Japanese, I could have known all their family secrets, beyond a doubt. But all went well. I got to see Dr. DeForest the next morn- ing — an elderly Congregational minister to whom Mr. Tucker had given me an introduction. The DeForests took me in at once in a fatherly and motherly way. Dr. DeForest arranged to go out to one of the villages in the country with me and his son-in-law, Mr. Fetters, who had just come over for missionary work. So we took six riksha men and off we went. The roads were in bad condition, so I set the fashion of walking occasionally. Dr. DeFor- est wanted to know who or what I was. I hesitated to tell him, for fear of bad effects. But it worked the other way. What, he exclaimed, you the man who has been lecturing at Tokyo? You should have seen his manner change. He almost bowed to the earth, and half treated me like a prince. A government guide went with us. We came to a village or group of villages of about i,ooo houses or 8,000 people, and called upon the mayor, who was fairly appalled at the distinction of our visit. But he gave us a lot of information. About one-half of the people of that village had been receiving relief. At first some had gone three days without food, and still more were getting only one slim meal a day, yet no one had actually died of star- vation ; though they were anxious now, lest disease should break out from the after effects. The figures showed that ^70 had come to that village from the American relief fund. Dr. DeForest had told me how wonderfully efficient the government had been in managing the relief, just as 121 LETTERS FROM JAPAN with everything else here. There had been no pauperiz- ing. Public works had been instituted, by which the peo- ple could labor, or earn something when possible. The left-over army rations had been turned to great use (I am bringing a sample home with me). The speculators had forced up the price of rice, but the government flooded the market with rice from foreign sources, and brought the prices even lower than usual. I saw the bags of it at the government headquarters ; also quantities of the " hard tack" (army rations). The mayor said the average wage for unskilled labor in the village was twelve and a half cents a day. There are about 3,000 acres of arable land around the village, about one-half owned by the villagers and one-half outside by landlords. The latter is worked on shares by the peasants. A few families had been broken up, but not many, and crime had not increased. Dr. De- Forest said that during the worst of the famine there would have been no sign of it to the external eye. Then the mayor took us to see the homes of some of the poorest people who had received relief. They all looked pretty poor. I took several pictures, and the mayor told the his- tory of several of the families to Dr. DeForest, who inter- preted to me. The people seemed perfectly willing to be visited. The homes did look squalid and pathetic. We went into the school house — a fine new building — and ate our lunch there. Around the walls hung the pictures used in the " Ethics Lessons " everywhere in Japan. The children were practicing gymnastics in the back yard. Finally we said good-by to the mayor and rode back. The rain had fortunately held up till evening. I took 122 LETTERS FROM JAPAN dinner with the DeForests, and was glad to get a New England meal. It was a pleasant home. Sendai has more Christians than any other city in Japan, I believe, in pro- portion to its size. There are four self-supporting churches there. Dr. DeForest showed me a Japanese bath-tub, the first I had seen. So far the missionaries have impressed me favorably. It was raining again yesterday. When I offered the young man who had been interpreter fifty cents he declined to receive it. He said he was connected with the hotel ; so I told him to give it to Dr. DeForest for the famine fund. I had a whole coupd and boy to ray- self yesterday to Nikko. This time there was no dinner. I had miscalculated. Finally I tried to get some boiled eggs. A man brought me some, and I took them in tri- umph, thinking I was safe till night — but it turned out they were raw. However, the boy warmed them in some hot water, and I was glad to stay my hunger with them. (I'm traveling now with flea-powder. ) The bed last night beat anything for humps I have ever experienced. Well, I will stop now, and take a stroll in the rain. This is the beautful and famous Nikko. In five days I shall be on the journey starting homeward. This letter may get there after I do. 123 SIXTEENTH LETTER NiKKO Monday, July i6th. * * * * 'IpAKE it all together, it can rain more here in twenty- four hours than anywhere else on the globe — at least judging from the parts of the globe I happen to have seen — and they say it has been raining here since last Thursday. Why it is that the valley is not full up to the top of the mountains, and it has not emptied on all the rest of the islands and buried them under the sea, I cannot under- stand. This is not the * ' rainy season' ' — this is the Deluge. And yet, in between the showers, yesterday, I saw enough to discover that Nikko is one of the most beautiful spots on the face of the earth. Nature and art unite to make of it a Florence and an Interlaken combined. I went up in a riksha along a rushing mountain stream, with glimpses of mountains on either side, and old shrines here and there along the way. Across the torrent I saw cut in the rock in one place an image of Buddha, and a line of statues reaching out from there in quaint fashion, all of them much worn by the elements. Wherever one stops one has to sit down and take tea, which is in place of drinking water. When it rained, I would put up the top of the riksha, and when it stopped I would open it again. I walked first down through the village, stopping at a shop to see the beautiful samples of wood-carving done here. It was novel to see a father at the bench with his 125 LETTERS FROM JAPAN two sons (one of them about nine years old), all working at the same trade. As I was afraid of the drinking water, I stopped at an inn (labeled "Palace Hotel") and got some tea (" cha ;" I have learned that word, and " Ko-cha " for black tea). Near the station it began to come down in torrents ; so I took two men and a riksha and went on my journey till lunch time. (Have had the springs taken out of my bed. There are no mosquitoes here, but there are fleas — confound them ! ) In the afternoon I strolled up on the hill among the temples. They are the finest in Japan and gloriously located. No wonder the Japanese smile at our having called this country a home of barbarians fifty years ago, with an art work which, of its kind, rivals that of Greece when Greece was at her best. Am writing on the porch, watching and listening to the Deluge. Have sent my camera to the kitchen, and put my remaining films in the dark room of the photographer across the way, to save them, if possible. I suspect all my clothes will be mildewed or rotten by the time 1 get home. Jerusalem ! How it does pour down ! One can hardly hear oneself speak aloud. I am glad I am on a hill, and cannot drown right off, anyway. The fishes must like this — but just now I don't. Tuesday afternoon, I was right. As I wrote A. C H., this is not the rainy season — ''this is the Deluge." The breakwater, which the villagers had built with such tremendous pa- tience, gave way yesterday morning, and the river turned into a roaring flood. I never saw the like. Banks were 126 LETTERS FROM JAPAN torn away ; the road by which we came to the hotel is gone as if it had never existed. Houses have disappeared, bridges have been swept away. The whole village was out in tremendous excitement. I saw one man lying dead, killed, I believe, by a falling pole. We were not allowed to cross the main bridge in the riksha, for fear it might give way, and we would be hemmed inside. And still the rain torrents come down. Two young men started for a distant lake, got within a mile of the place, and the bridge was gone. On returning, the bridge was gone at the other end, where they had crossed in the morning ; so the coolies improvised poles, and, at the risk of their lives, the fellows crawled over to the other side. I traveled around in the rain in a riksha in the morning, going to see one of the great temples, and saw the famous "blind and deaf and dumb monkeys" in wood carving. They are supposed neither to see, nor hear, nor speak, evil. In the afternoon, in a lull in the storm, I went down along the river, to see the awful wreckage. It is interesting to see the excitement of the people. It seemed more like a tre- mendous novelty to them than a disaster. It rained most of the night, but cleared off this morning, bright and hot, without a breath of air stirring. Tuesday evening. Have visited temples and traversed the country gen- erally to-day, up and down the river and in among the templed groves. No language can picture the beautiful effect of the dark roofs of the temples, rich with gilding, the red beams below, the occasional pagodas, the bell 127 LETTERS FROM JAPAN towers, the beautiful gateways — all in a magnificent set- ting of dark cryptomerias. These trees, many of them, must have been standing when the temples were first erected, some two hundred years ago. I have not tried to distinguish one from another, or to know them architec- turally — but I wonder where they got the idea of red for the rich coloring, and what first suggested the bell. From the hotel I hear, every now and then, the deep, solemn notes of the temple bells, as I did at Kyoto — only they seem more impressive here, along with this beautiful natu- ral scenery. The wreckage of the storm is a wonderful sight. This afternoon I was down at the station, and found that the breakwater had given way there, too. The tracks were flooded, and they were expecting the station to be washed away. The excitement in the hamlet is tre- mendous. Work seems to have stopped, as they stand in crowds and watch the river, and the little boys and girls go running around, lifting their one garment above their hips, fanning themselves, and keeping cool and jolly in the midst of the excitement. Well, this is the end of my visit to Japan. I have gained a great deal from it — far more than I expected. Wednesday I shall spend mostly in traveling, Thursday in Kamakura with A. C. H. , by the sea-shore, and Friday noon I sail for home. My clothes hang loosely on me. It has been hard work. 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