One
Of Them Had The Brightest And Most Intellectual Face Which I Have
Seen In Japan.
They are of the samurai class, as I should have
known from the superior type of face and manner.
They said that
they heard that an English lady was in the house, and asked me if I
were a Christian, but apparently were not satisfied till, in answer
to the question if I had a Bible, I was able to produce one.
Hirosaki is a castle town of some importance, 3.5 ri from here, and
its ex-daimiyo supports a high-class school or college there, which
has had two Americans successively for its headmasters. These
gentlemen must have been very consistent in Christian living as
well as energetic in Christian teaching, for under their auspices
thirty young men have embraced Christianity. As all of these are
well educated, and several are nearly ready to pass as teachers
into Government employment, their acceptance of the "new way" may
have an important bearing on the future of this region.
I. L. B.
LETTER XXXI
A Travelling Curiosity - Rude Dwellings - Primitive Simplicity - The
Public Bath-house.
KUROISHI.
Yesterday was beautiful, and, dispensing for the first time with
Ito's attendance, I took a kuruma for the day, and had a very
pleasant excursion into a cul de sac in the mountains. The one
drawback was the infamous road, which compelled me either to walk
or be mercilessly jolted. The runner was a nice, kind, merry
creature, quite delighted, Ito said, to have a chance of carrying
so great a sight as a foreigner into a district in which no
foreigner has even been seen. In the absolute security of Japanese
travelling, which I have fully realised for a long time, I look
back upon my fears at Kasukabe with a feeling of self-contempt.
The scenery, which was extremely pretty, gained everything from
sunlight and colour - wonderful shades of cobalt and indigo, green
blues and blue greens, and flashes of white foam in unsuspected
rifts. It looked a simple, home-like region, a very pleasant land.
We passed through several villages of farmers who live in very
primitive habitations, built of mud, looking as if the mud had been
dabbed upon the framework with the hands. The walls sloped
slightly inwards, the thatch was rude, the eaves were deep and
covered all manner of lumber; there was a smoke-hole in a few, but
the majority smoked all over like brick-kilns; they had no windows,
and the walls and rafters were black and shiny. Fowls and horses
live on one side of the dark interior, and the people on the other.
The houses were alive with unclothed children, and as I repassed in
the evening unclothed men and women, nude to their waists, were
sitting outside their dwellings with the small fry, clothed only in
amulets, about them, several big yellow dogs forming part of each
family group, and the faces of dogs, children, and people were all
placidly contented! These farmers owned many good horses, and
their crops were splendid. Probably on matsuri days all appear in
fine clothes taken from ample hoards. They cannot be so poor, as
far as the necessaries of life are concerned; they are only very
"far back." They know nothing better, and are contented; but their
houses are as bad as any that I have ever seen, and the simplicity
of Eden is combined with an amount of dirt which makes me sceptical
as to the performance of even weekly ablutions.
Upper Nakano is very beautiful, and in the autumn, when its myriads
of star-leaved maples are scarlet and crimson, against a dark
background of cryptomeria, among which a great white waterfall
gleams like a snow-drift before it leaps into the black pool below,
it must be well worth a long journey. I have not seen anything
which has pleased me more. There is a fine flight of moss-grown
stone steps down to the water, a pretty bridge, two superb stone
torii, some handsome stone lanterns, and then a grand flight of
steep stone steps up a hill-side dark with cryptomeria leads to a
small Shinto shrine. Not far off there is a sacred tree, with the
token of love and revenge upon it. The whole place is entrancing.
Lower Nakano, which I could only reach on foot, is only interesting
as possessing some very hot springs, which are valuable in cases of
rheumatism and sore eyes. It consists mainly of tea-houses and
yadoyas, and seemed rather gay. It is built round the edge of an
oblong depression, at the bottom of which the bath-houses stand, of
which there are four, only nominally separated, and with but two
entrances, which open directly upon the bathers. In the two end
houses women and children were bathing in large tanks, and in the
centre ones women and men were bathing together, but at opposite
sides, with wooden ledges to sit upon all round. I followed the
kuruma-runner blindly to the baths, and when once in I had to go
out at the other side, being pressed upon by people from behind;
but the bathers were too polite to take any notice of my most
unwilling intrusion, and the kuruma-runner took me in without the
slightest sense of impropriety in so doing. I noticed that formal
politeness prevailed in the bath-house as elsewhere, and that
dippers and towels were handed from one to another with profound
bows. The public bath-house is said to be the place in which
public opinion is formed, as it is with us in clubs and public-
houses, and that the presence of women prevents any dangerous or
seditious consequences; but the Government is doing its best to
prevent promiscuous bathing; and, though the reform may travel
slowly into these remote regions, it will doubtless arrive sooner
or later. The public bath-house is one of the features of Japan.
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