The Kindliness And Courtesy Of
The Coolies To Me And To Each Other Was A Constant Source Of
Pleasure To Me.
It is most amusing to see the elaborate politeness
of the greetings of men clothed only in hats and maros.
The hat is
invariably removed when they speak to each other, and three
profound bows are never omitted.
Soon after leaving the yadoya we passed through a wide street with
the largest and handsomest houses I have yet seen on both sides.
They were all open in front; their highly-polished floors and
passages looked like still water; the kakemonos, or wall-pictures,
on their side-walls were extremely beautiful; and their mats were
very fine and white. There were large gardens at the back, with
fountains and flowers, and streams, crossed by light stone bridges,
sometimes flowed through the houses. From the signs I supposed
them to be yadoyas, but on asking Ito why we had not put up at one
of them, he replied that they were all kashitsukeya, or tea-houses
of disreputable character - a very sad fact. {8}
As we journeyed the country became prettier and prettier, rolling
up to abrupt wooded hills with mountains in the clouds behind. The
farming villages are comfortable and embowered in wood, and the
richer farmers seclude their dwellings by closely-clipped hedges,
or rather screens, two feet wide, and often twenty feet high. Tea
grew near every house, and its leaves were being gathered and dried
on mats. Signs of silk culture began to appear in shrubberies of
mulberry trees, and white and sulphur yellow cocoons were lying in
the sun along the road in flat trays. Numbers of women sat in the
fronts of the houses weaving cotton cloth fifteen inches wide, and
cotton yarn, mostly imported from England, was being dyed in all
the villages - the dye used being a native indigo, the Polygonum
tinctorium. Old women were spinning, and young and old usually
pursued their avocations with wise-looking babies tucked into the
backs of their dresses, and peering cunningly over their shoulders.
Even little girls of seven and eight were playing at children's
games with babies on their backs, and those who were too small to
carry real ones had big dolls strapped on in similar fashion.
Innumerable villages, crowded houses, and babies in all, give one
the impression of a very populous country.
As the day wore on in its brightness and glory the pictures became
more varied and beautiful. Great snow-slashed mountains looked
over the foothills, on whose steep sides the dark blue green of
pine and cryptomeria was lighted up by the spring tints of
deciduous trees. There were groves of cryptomeria on small hills
crowned by Shinto shrines, approached by grand flights of stone
stairs. The red gold of the harvest fields contrasted with the
fresh green and exquisite leafage of the hemp; rose and white
azaleas lighted up the copse-woods; and when the broad road passed
into the colossal avenue of cryptomeria which overshadows the way
to the sacred shrines of Nikko, and tremulous sunbeams and shadows
flecked the grass, I felt that Japan was beautiful, and that the
mud flats of Yedo were only an ugly dream!
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