Glimpses of an Unfamiliar Japan, vol 2

Glimpses of an Unfamiliar Japan,
vol 2

Project Gutenberg's Glimpses of an Unfamiliar Japan, by Lafcadio
Hearn #7 in our series by Lafcadio Hearn
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Title: Glimpses of an Unfamiliar Japan
Author: Lafcadio Hearn
Release Date: May, 2005 [EBook #8133] [Yes, we are more than one
year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on June 17, 2003]

Edition: 10
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GLIMPSES
OF AN UNFAMILIAR JAPAN ***

Produced by John Orford

Glimpses of Unfamilar Japan Second Series by Lafcadio Hearn
CONTENTS
1 IN A JAPANESE GARDEN
2 THE HOUSEHOLD SHRINE
3 OF WOMEN'S HAIR
4 FROM THE DIARY OF AN ENGLISH TEACHER
5 TWO STRANGE FESTIVALS
6 BY THE JAPANESE SEA
7 OF A DANCING-GIRL
8 FROM HOKI TO OKI
9 OF SOULS
10 OF GHOSTS AND GOBLINS
11 THE JAPANESE SMILE
12 SAYONARA!

Chapter One
In a Japanese Garden
º1 MY little two-story house by the Ohashigawa, although dainty as a
bird- cage, proved much too small for comfort at the approach of the
hot season--the rooms being scarcely higher than steamship cabins, and
so narrow that an ordinary mosquito-net could not be suspended in
them. I was sorry to lose the beautiful lake view, but I found it
necessary to remove to the northern quarter of the city, into a very quiet
Street behind the mouldering castle. My new home is a katchiu-yashiki,

the ancient residence of some samurai of high rank. It is shut off from
the street, or rather roadway, skirting the castle moat by a long, high
wall coped with tiles. One ascends to the gateway, which is almost as
large as that of a temple court, by a low broad flight of stone steps; and
projecting from the wall, to the right of the gate, is a look-out window,
heavily barred, like a big wooden cage. Thence, in feudal days, armed
retainers kept keen watch on all who passed by--invisible watch, for the
bars are set so closely that a face behind them cannot be seen from the
roadway. Inside the gate the approach to the dwelling is also walled in
on both sides, so that the visitor, unless privileged, could see before
him only the house entrance, always closed with white shoji. Like all
samurai homes, the residence itself is but one story high, but there are
fourteen rooms within, and these are lofty, spacious, and beautiful.
There is, alas, no lake view nor any charming prospect. Part of the
O-Shiroyama, with the castle on its summit, half concealed by a park of
pines, may be seen above the coping of the front wall, but only a part;
and scarcely a hundred yards behind the house rise densely wooded
heights, cutting off not only the horizon, but a large slice of the sky as
well. For this immurement, however, there exists fair compensation in
the shape of a very pretty garden, or rather a series of garden spaces,
which surround the dwelling on three sides. Broad verandas overlook
these, and from a certain veranda angle I can enjoy the sight of two
gardens at once. Screens of bamboos and woven rushes, with wide
gateless openings in their midst, mark the boundaries of the three
divisions of the pleasure-grounds. But these structures are not intended
to serve as true fences; they are ornamental, and only indicate where
one style of landscape gardening ends and another begins.
º2
Now a few words upon Japanese gardens in general.
After having learned--merely by seeing, for the practical knowledge of
the art requires years of study and experience, besides a natural,
instinctive sense of beauty--something about the Japanese manner of
arranging flowers, one can thereafter consider European ideas of floral
decoration only as vulgarities. This observation is not the result of any
hasty enthusiasm, but a conviction settled by long residence in the
interior. I have come to understand the unspeakable