Part 14

--'At all events,' she replied, 'there being no socialistic party in Japan, as you say, is it not all the more strange that no cordiality seems to exist between Japan and the French Nationalists, whose notions and ideas resemble those of the Japanese.'

--'We can have no sympathy, still less concern, with any political aspiration of a section of other people as far as their domestic politics are concerned. But I do not see why the Japanese should not be willing to be friendly with the Nationalist section of the French people. Of late, the Japanese have not seemed to be _persona gratæ_ with your Nationalists, if there be any such section. But it is not our fault. They have shown through their partiality to our opponents much antipathy to Japan. It is another reason why the contrast between the Socialists and other sections of the French people has become, or rather, once became, so manifest as regards their attitude to my country.'

--'But the Nationalists are not enemies of Japan. In fact, it was the Nationalists who disapproved ten years ago the action of the Government, which joined in the combination of the three powers against Japan.'

--'Maybe,' I said, 'but the general tendency of that section, since the outbreak of the present war, has not been so favourable to us as you would have liked.'

--'But you must make some allowance for the fact that France is the ally of the other side.'

--'I do so, but the contrast in tone between different journals is so marked, and the papers which are most bitter against us, at one time were those reputed as the organs of the Nationalists.'

--'That may have been so,' said the duchess, 'and there have even been some which were rather misleading. I confess I was rather surprised when once asked by a member of a respectable family, "how it was that the Japanese were near Moukden, whilst we had been informed by the press all these months that the Russians had been constantly gaining victories." Probably that family happened to take in some exceptional journal, and perhaps only one. But you cannot read journalistic opinions only and regard them as the real views of the Nationalists. They have, in reality, very little influence over the papers; I wish they had more. Journals generally go their own way: I cannot and must not explain why. Besides, the socialist journals also have not been friendly to Japan from the very beginning. They became so only when the contrasts between the belligerents had become somewhat manifest. They were shrewd in the matter: the Nationalists were slow; one had to awake them.'

--'I was not here at that time,' said I, 'so I cannot offer any observation thereon. But, madam, is it too impertinent for me to ask if French interest in Russian bonds are much in the hands of Nationalists?'

--'Oh no,' answered the duchess. 'I wish they were; but you see our old families are not like those of some other countries. The interest of the Russian bonds mostly concerns petty people who have invested in them their hard-earned savings. It is, therefore, all the more unfortunate that the present war should be protracted.'

--'I envy France,' I said, 'that she has such a saving people: it is in consequence of this that she has, as I am told, some billions of surplus francs every year.'

--'That, I believe, is the case,' said the duchess.

--'As to the friendly relations between your country and mine, let us hope that a time happier than the present may arrive soon, and the sooner the better.'

--'I hope so, too,' said the duchess, 'and we must try to make it so.'

VI

The age of the Japanese--Ito and Inouyé--Intermarriages--Commander Hirosé--Some abuse of the Japanese nationality--The climate of Japan--Chrysanthemums--Japanese rain--The two great currents--How Japan developed--Summer resorts of foreigners--Spring and autumn-- Picnics--Sports--A letter by an American--Pastimes of the Japanese gentry--Description of the Japanese chess and the game of 'Go'--Description of Japanese cards--Poem cards--Flower cards--Pierre Loti--Public baths--An interview on common and military education in Japan--George Washington and Nelson--The cause of Russian defeats according to the wounded

I found myself once more in a group of people, including some ladies. The group was very incongruous, as is usual in dreamland. The conversation went on merrily and very light-heartedly.

--'Now, baron, it is your turn. You must now tell us something interesting,' said one of those present.

--'I have nothing worth telling,' I answered.

--'But you must: you were in Europe for many years, when quite young, I have heard. You must have had some experiences to interest us.'

--'Well, I can remember only one or two amusing incidents. I once knew a charming young lady, called by her friends "the modest Violet." She lived with her mother and sisters in a country home near London. I was often invited there to take tea and play tennis, or accompany them for a drive. On one occasion, I was walking with her round the garden, when we came to a nook where there was a garden seat. We sat down. But the seat, being old, the part on which I sat gave way all of a sudden, and I found myself flat on the ground, the other part of the seat remaining intact.'

--'Does she still remember you, or rather, have you seen her since your arrival in Europe this time?' asked another.

--'Yes! I have seen her, and I noticed when I visited her she was still using on her table a silver trinket, of which I made her a present years ago, on the occasion of her wedding.'

--'That is one--and another.'

--'Well, I was at Brighton one summer, and met there a young lady with whom I was acquainted. We went for a walk together on the Parade one bright afternoon and then went down to the beach. She sat on a small rock and leaned against the stone wall. She had a book of select poems in her hand and read a good many of them while I reclined on the sand by her side. When she rose from her seat, I noticed that the back of her white summer dress was stained green by the moss on the stone against which she had leaned, and she was obliged to go home with her sunshade open over her back.'

--'Let me again ask if you have met her since?'

--'No, I have lost trace of her altogether. She was the daughter of an astronomer. If she is still living, she will remember me when she sees my _Summer Dream_.'

--'What?'

--'I don't know.'

--'But I have heard you utter those words once or twice. Surely they must have a meaning.'

--'No! I think not. You must know that I was formerly a Deputy of the Japanese Diet.'

--'What has that to do with the subject?'

--'Well! Deputies often talk about things which they know nothing about. Just observe the deputies who talk most in the chamber. They are sure to be those who have never read through the documents they hold in their hands.'

--'What a pleasantry! However, we have had the second tale. What next?'

--'No more amusing ones. But I remember another which was somewhat chivalrous. In a large town in the north of France, there was a group of rich manufacturers belonging to the same family, originally English, though some of the younger members had been born in France. A bosom friend of mine, and another compatriot, were staying there, and they were both on intimate terms with all the members of the family. I spent several summer days in that town, and also in Dunkirk and Ostend, with my friends and most of the people I am referring to. They were all very cordial, and it goes without saying that I spent a very jolly time. There was a young lady belonging to one branch of the family, who in age, to say the least of it, was past the first bloom of youth. I noticed that she and the members of another branch of the family never spoke together, which aroused my curiosity, and as a result of discreet inquiry, I found that some discord existed between them, the cause of which was she had not married the man of her choice on account of the interference of an uncle, who was the head of the other branch of the family. I felt rather sorry about the matter, for it was the only rift in the family lute, otherwise most happy and harmonious. A strong desire came over me to bring about a reconciliation. One day at Dunkirk, I accompanied the young lady to the sea-coast, where, after a long persuasion, I obtained her consent to be reconciled. The chief individual having been won over, I had no great difficulty in persuading the others; and peace was proclaimed then and there at Dunkirk.'

--'But you were only a young man, then.'

--'Certainly I was younger than I am now, but I am not quite so young as you may imagine. The Japanese, as a rule, appear to European eyes many years younger than they are in reality. Thus, for instance, when Marquis Ito and Count Inouyé came over to England as students for the first time, they were both "over twenty," and Count Inouyé was older than the Marquis Ito by some years.'

--'Their relative ages, however, must have remained the same always,' said one jestingly.

--'That is so: but that is not my point. They were then considered as young students of seventeen or eighteen. When, therefore, they told their teacher that they would return to Japan and counsel their Prince to change his anti-foreign policy into a pro-foreign policy, he laughed at them, saying, "You boys, what can you do?" And Ito and Inouyé only succeeded, after great perseverance, to obtain the necessary consent. However that may be, I am glad to have heard since that the lady in question was happily married.'

--'Allow me to ask a very delicate question. Have you never fallen in love, or something like it, with any European lady during your long stay in Europe?'

--'Well, I have always preferred to keep my heart well in hand, so as not to be hampered in the more serious duties of life; and, moreover, I do not believe in the desirability of intermarriage between foreigners. There have, of course, been many intermarriages between the Japanese and the occidental races, and the results of some of them have been apparently very good, but there have also been many failures, and I do not think, in general, happiness can be secured in intermarriages of this kind, so much as those between people who have greater resemblance in customs and manners and everything else to each other. Even if the couple are happy, it often happens that it is not so between them and their relations. You know, perhaps, that the late Commander Hirosé was a bachelor. He was a man of stoical character. There is, however, a rumour about him that while he was staying over here he met a young European lady whom he liked very much. He did not propose to her but for one reason, and that was because he was afraid she might feel unhappy when taken to Japan for the reason I have just mentioned, in addition to the fact that he was a naval officer, in consequence of which he would have to leave her to herself more than ordinary married women--and that in a country to which she was a stranger in many things!'

--'But your success in the war will make your countrymen very popular among young ladies,' interposed another laughingly.

--'I have no fear. Western young ladies are cautious enough. But, nevertheless, there is a slight danger of the name of Japan being taken advantage of. I heard a story only the other day that in California some Chinese cut off their plaits and dressed in European costumes while they were staying at an hotel, and were passing themselves off as Japanese. They were discovered when a real Japanese addressed them in his language, to which they were unable to reply. I have heard of another incident which took place in a town in the north of England. A foreigner, professing himself to be a Japanese, tried to take an apartment. The landlady, who had had some Japanese lodgers before, somewhat suspected the nationality of the man from his way of bargaining for the rent. She asked a Japanese to call in on her, and the foreigner was soon discovered to be a European whose nationality belonged to a country where the climate is very hot, and whose complexion alone bore resemblance to the Japanese.'

--'What is the Japanese climate like?' asked another.

--'Well, that is a question I am asked so often. You see Japan is a long, narrow country running from north to south-west; therefore, if you take the northern and southern extremities, there is much difference of climate, but as to Japan proper, that is to say, the middle part, the climate does not much differ from yours. The latitude there is much lower than England or France. The latitude of London is fifty-one degrees, one minute north; that of Paris, forty-eight degrees, fifty minutes north; whilst that of Yokohama, which is the port of Tokio, and about twenty miles south of the latter, is thirty-five degrees, twenty-six minutes; and, therefore, people taking an analogy from Egypt or Algeria often wrongly imagine that Japan is a tropical land, but it is not so. We have our seasons: spring, summer, autumn, and winter, at the same time as you. We have snow, frost, even hailstones, much similar to you. We have occasional rain and showers also, as you have, or perhaps a little more frequent. We have a rainy season in June, although we do not have so much fog as in England. The weather is generally fine; our summer lasts longer than yours, and is somewhat hotter, but not so hot as people generally imagine. Our autumn lasts longer and is finer than yours, because you seem to jump almost from summer to winter, and winter to summer. In fact, in Japan, we almost doubt which is the better season of the year, spring or autumn. In autumn, in many parts of the country, almost all the foliage, as well as the maples, turn to all shades of red and scarlet intermingled with yellow. It is the result of the brilliant sun shining on the frosted leaves--a grand sight, which you seem not to have in this quarter of the world.'

--'The chrysanthemums are also very fine too, I think,' said another.

--'Yes, but in that respect we cannot now boast so much, as it is cultivated so extensively in the West, and the blossoms are, as a rule, much bigger than ours. Everywhere in society nowadays chrysanthemums are plentifully used for table decorations. Indeed, people say the introduction of that flower was a great boon to the florists of Europe, as the chrysanthemum season happens to fall just at a time when the scarcity of flowers is most felt. There is, however, one difference in its cultivation between the Occidental and Japanese horticulturists. The latter strive to keep all the leaves fresh and green from the bottom of the stalk to the top, which is no easy matter, and do not trouble to produce very large blossoms, but in the West the size of the flower appears to be almost the only care, in consequence of which I have seen almost all the flowers exhibited at shows without any stalk at all. I may add a word concerning the rain in Japan, especially in Tokio. The shower is often very heavy, and falls in a slanting direction on account of a strong wind, which often prevails in Japan; therefore, the roofs of the buildings have long eaves; even the buildings in European style must have eaves and windows specially designed, differing from the ordinary Western architecture, otherwise the rain would soak through. The reason why the climate of Japan is temperate in comparison with its latitude is chiefly due to the effects of two great currents, one coming from the Behring Strait and the other coming from the south, one cold and the other warm; and between those currents is produced the climate of Japan. Strangely enough, in Manchuria and the northern parts of China proper, that is to say, the regions surrounding Pekin, the summer is excessively hot and the winter extremely cold.'

--'Do you say the climate in every part of Japan proper is pretty much the same?' asked one.

--'Pretty much, but not exactly. You see Japan proper has a range of mountains, which divides the country into two parts, one side facing the Pacific Ocean and the other the Sea of Japan. The former is more bright and cheerful, and conversely the latter is less bright and less cheerful. Perhaps, owing to that disadvantage in climate, the Japan Sea side is less advanced in all respects. Then, again, the development of Japan seems to have proceeded from west to east, beginning at the north-western part of Kiusiu, thence along both sides of the Inland Sea, thence along the Pacific Ocean on toward the Plain of Kwanto, where Tokio is situated. All travellers can discern this very easily by the general development of these regions in comparison with other parts of the country.'

--'Is the summer so hot as to be unbearable?' asked another.

--'I would not say "unbearable," but, of course, it would be far more comfortable if one went to good summer resorts. There are many places in Japan suitable for spending the summer, and are visited by a large number of Occidentals, not only from all parts of Japan, but also from most of the open ports of the neighbouring countries. For instance, Karuizawa, where I have a small villa, is over three thousand feet above sea level, and there nearly one thousand foreigners spend the summer every year. _Apropos_ to Karuizawa, I may tell you _en passant_ an incident which occurred there a few years ago. Early one morning I discovered two foreigners had got into a corner of my garden and were cutting down branches of my favourite trees; they were not very refined, and evidently belonged to some irregular mission. On my asking for an explanation, they told me the branches were for the decoration of the house of God. They did not know to apologise, but appeared to assume that they could do anything in the name of their mission. I had to explain to them that they were doing what they ought not to, and that if they did the same thing in the grounds of less tolerant people, trouble might ensue. I then formally gave them the branches already cut down, in order to exonerate them from any possible infraction of the Ten Commandments. I mention this incident in order that other people engaged in similar missions might take it as a warning. But to return to my subject: well-to-do Japanese also resort to the mountains or to the seaside places for their summer holidays. For the people in general, however, spring and autumn are the best seasons of the year. It is then that countless groups of men and women indulge in innocent picnic parties to see all sorts of flowers and tinted leaves, and to visit places of interest, with which the country abounds; indeed, some of the people who are more æsthetic and poetic often travel great distances simply for those objects. The fire-flies also are a sight in many parts of Japan.'

--'I have read some accounts of those excursions,' said one, 'and their fondness for hanging down from the branches of trees their quaint but simple and innocent effusions of poetic thought, written on slips of paper.'

--'But what are the general pastimes of the Japanese gentry at home?' asked another. 'Are they fond of open-air sports as the English are?'

--'No, I am sorry to say they are not. In England, more than elsewhere, all sorts of open-air sports have been invented and played, perhaps owing to the condition of the climate. Mr. Balfour, the Prime Minister, as everybody knows, is a great golfer. Professor Balfour, his brother, was a great cricketer. His premature death years ago, by an accident on the Alps, was lamented very deeply by the scientific world; and I, for one, grieved much, for he was very kind to me when I went up to Cambridge, and smoothed my way considerably for the University study. With us, however, outdoor sports have always been considered childish, and the rude sports of children have never been improved to suit grown-up men. In recent years, of course, Western open-air sports, such as base-ball or lawn tennis, are played by students very widely (at this moment some Japanese teams of base-ball players have gone to America to play against the Americans). But older people seldom indulge in that kind of sport. Billiards also is only of modern introduction.'

--'But surely you must have some kind of pastimes?'

--'Well, we have some, but before entering on that subject I will say a word about a letter written by an American on kindred subjects. It caught my eye accidentally in the _Japan Times_. It is rather interesting and, therefore, I will recite it to you _verbatim_. The heading of it is "Japan is a queer country."

'Such was the heading of an article in one of our American papers of recent date. As an example of the country being "queer" the writer stated among other things that "old men in Japan fly kites and spin tops, while children look on." Now, I for one have been in Japan a good while and have seen many flying kites and spinning tops. Yet I have never had the fortune of seeing the picture described above. It is easy to conceive how the kind-hearted Ojiisan might show his little grandson how to fly a kite or to spin a top while the little fellow looked on, but that is in no way peculiar to Japan. The same thing might be seen in almost any country.

'Again the writer says, "Japanese writers use paint brushes, not pens, and write from bottom to top," in which he has gotten his ideas more topsy-turvy than the Land of Topsyturvydom itself. And further, "in Japan there are no lawyers, and Japanese doctors never make any charges." Comment is unnecessary.

'These are only specimens of much that has for years flooded our Western newspapers about Japan. Not a great while ago I saw an article in which it was said that Japanese babies never cried, and if a dog barked at night he was taken off next day and killed. It is high time that Western people were beginning to have a few sane thoughts about Japan, and stop speaking of it as "an Oriental puzzle, a nation of recluses, a land of fabulous wealth, of universal licentiousness, or of Edenic purity, the fastness of a treacherous and fickle crew, a Paradise of guileless children, a Utopia of artists and poets." Japan has some superficial oddities, but what country is there that has not? To be a bit humorous, if people wish to say ludicrous things about Japan, it may not be so bad, but to put such things out as sober truth makes a false impression and does the people an injustice.