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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