Before They Went Away Tea And Sweetmeats Were Again
Handed Round, And, As It Is Neither Etiquette To Refuse Them Or To
Leave Anything Behind That You Have Once Taken, Several Of The
Small Ladies Slipped The Residue Into Their Capacious Sleeves.
On
departing the same formal courtesies were used as on arriving.
Yuki, Haru's mother, speaks, acts, and moves with a charming
gracefulness. Except at night, and when friends drop in to
afternoon tea, as they often do, she is always either at domestic
avocations, such as cleaning, sewing, or cooking, or planting
vegetables, or weeding them. All Japanese girls learn to sew and
to make their own clothes, but there are none of the mysteries and
difficulties which make the sewing lesson a thing of dread with us.
The kimono, haori, and girdle, and even the long hanging sleeves,
have only parallel seams, and these are only tacked or basted, as
the garments, when washed, are taken to pieces, and each piece,
after being very slightly stiffened, is stretched upon a board to
dry. There is no underclothing, with its bands, frills, gussets,
and button-holes; the poorer women wear none, and those above them
wear, like Yuki, an under-dress of a frothy-looking silk crepe, as
simply made as the upper one. There are circulating libraries
here, as in most villages, and in the evening both Yuki and Haru
read love stories, or accounts of ancient heroes and heroines,
dressed up to suit the popular taste, written in the easiest
possible style. Ito has about ten volumes of novels in his room,
and spends half the night in reading them.
Yuki's son, a lad of thirteen, often comes to my room to display
his skill in writing the Chinese character. He is a very bright
boy, and shows considerable talent for drawing. Indeed, it is only
a short step from writing to drawing. Giotto's O hardly involved
more breadth and vigour of touch than some of these characters.
They are written with a camel's-hair brush dipped in Indian ink,
instead of a pen, and this boy, with two or three vigorous touches,
produces characters a foot long, such as are mounted and hung as
tablets outside the different shops. Yuki plays the samisen, which
may be regarded as the national female instrument, and Haru goes to
a teacher daily for lessons on the same.
The art of arranging flowers is taught in manuals, the study of
which forms part of a girl's education, and there is scarcely a day
in which my room is not newly decorated. It is an education to me;
I am beginning to appreciate the extreme beauty of solitude in
decoration. In the alcove hangs a kakemono of exquisite beauty, a
single blossoming branch of the cherry. On one panel of a folding
screen there is a single iris. The vases which hang so gracefully
on the polished posts contain each a single peony, a single iris, a
single azalea, stalk, leaves, and corolla - all displayed in their
full beauty.
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