Glimpses of an Unfamiliar Japan, vol 2 | Page 4

yellow sand, smooth as a
surface of silk and miming the curves and meanderings of a river
course. These sanded spaces are not to be trodden upon; they are much
too beautiful for that. The least speck of dirt would mar their effect; and
it requires the trained skill of an experienced native gardener--a
delightful old man he is--to keep them in perfect form. But they are
traversed in various directions by lines of flat unhewn rock slabs,
placed at slightly irregular distances from one another, exactly like
stepping-stones across a brook. The whole effect is that of the shores of
a still stream in some lovely, lonesome, drowsy place.
There is nothing to break the illusion, so secluded the garden is. High
walls and fences shut out streets and contiguous things; and the shrubs

and the trees, heightening and thickening toward the boundaries,
conceal from view even the roofs of the neighbouring katchiu-yashiki.
Softly beautiful are the tremulous shadows of leaves on the sunned
sand; and the scent of flowers comes thinly sweet with every waft of
tepid air; and there is a humming of bees.
º4
By Buddhism all existences are divided into Hijo things without desire,
such as stones and trees; and Ujo things having desire, such as men and
animals. This division does not, so far as I know, find expression in the
written philosophy of gardens; but it is a convenient one. The folk- lore
of my little domain relates both to the inanimate and the animate. In
natural order, the Hijo may be considered first, beginning with a
singular shrub near the entrance of the yashiki, and close to the gate of
the first garden.
Within the front gateway of almost every old samurai house, and
usually near the entrance of the dwelling itself, there is to be seen a
small tree with large and peculiar leaves. The name of this tree in
Izumo is tegashiwa, and there is one beside my door. What the
scientific name of it is I do not know; nor am I quite sure of the
etymology of the Japanese name. However, there is a word tegashi,
meaning a bond for the hands; and the shape of the leaves of the
tegashiwa somewhat resembles the shape of a hand.
Now, in old days, when the samurai retainer was obliged to leave his
home in order to accompany his daimyo to Yedo, it was customary, just
before his departure, to set before him a baked tai [6] served up on a
tegashiwa leaf. After this farewell repast the leaf upon which the tai had
been served was hung up above the door as a charm to bring the
departed knight safely back again. This pretty superstition about the
leaves of the tegashiwa had its origin not only in their shape but in their
movement. Stirred by a wind they seemed to beckon--not indeed after
our Occidental manner, but in the way that a Japanese signs to his
friend to come, by gently waving his hand up and down with the palm
towards the ground.
Another shrub to be found in most Japanese gardens is the nanten, [7]
about which a very curious belief exists. If you have an evil dream, a
dream which bodes ill luck, you should whisper it to the nanten early in
the morning, and then it will never come true. [8] There are two

varieties of this graceful plant: one which bears red berries, and one
which bears white. The latter is rare. Both kinds grow in my garden.
The common variety is placed close to the veranda (perhaps for the
convenience of dreamers); the other occupies a little flower-bed in the
middle of the garden, together with a small citron-tree. This most
dainty citron-tree is called 'Buddha's fingers,' [9] because of the
wonderful shape of its fragrant fruits. Near it stands a kind of laurel,
with lanciform leaves glossy as bronze; it is called by the Japanese
yuzuri-ha, [10] and is almost as common in the gardens of old samurai
homes as the tegashiwa itself. It is held to be a tree of good omen,
because no one of its old leaves ever falls off before a new one,
growing behind it, has well developed. For thus the yuzuri-ha
symbolises hope that the father will not pass away before his son has
become a vigorous man, well able to succeed him as the head of the
family. Therefore, on every New Year's Day, the leaves of the yuzuriha,
mingled with fronds of fern, are attached to the shimenawa which is
then suspended before every Izumo home.
º5
The trees, like the shrubs, have their curious poetry and legends. Like
the stones, each tree has its special landscape name according to its
position and purpose in the composition.