The Ravine Grew More And More Beautiful, And An Ascent
Through A Dark Wood Of Arrowy Cryptomeria Brought Us To This
Village Exquisitely Situated, Where A Number Of Miniature Ravines,
Industriously Terraced For Rice, Come Down Upon The Great Chasm Of
The Kinugawa.
Eleven hours of travelling have brought me eighteen
miles!
IKARI, June 25. - Fujihara has forty-six farm-houses and a yadoya -
all dark, damp, dirty, and draughty, a combination of dwelling-
house, barn, and stable. The yadoya consisted of a daidokoro, or
open kitchen, and stable below, and a small loft above, capable of
division, and I found on returning from a walk six Japanese in
extreme deshabille occupying the part through which I had to pass.
On this being remedied I sat down to write, but was soon driven
upon the balcony, under the eaves, by myriads of fleas, which
hopped out of the mats as sandhoppers do out of the sea sand, and
even in the balcony, hopped over my letter. There were two outer
walls of hairy mud with living creatures crawling in the cracks;
cobwebs hung from the uncovered rafters. The mats were brown with
age and dirt, the rice was musty, and only partially cleaned, the
eggs had seen better days, and the tea was musty.
I saw everything out of doors with Ito - the patient industry, the
exquisitely situated village, the evening avocations, the quiet
dulness - and then contemplated it all from my balcony and read the
sentence (from a paper in the Transactions of the Asiatic Society)
which had led me to devise this journey, "There is a most
exquisitely picturesque, but difficult, route up the course of the
Kinugawa, which seems almost as unknown to Japanese as to
foreigners." There was a pure lemon-coloured sky above, and slush
a foot deep below. A road, at this time a quagmire, intersected by
a rapid stream, crossed in many places by planks, runs through the
village. This stream is at once "lavatory" and "drinking
fountain." People come back from their work, sit on the planks,
take off their muddy clothes and wring them out, and bathe their
feet in the current. On either side are the dwellings, in front of
which are much-decayed manure heaps, and the women were engaged in
breaking them up and treading them into a pulp with their bare
feet. All wear the vest and trousers at their work, but only the
short petticoats in their houses, and I saw several respectable
mothers of families cross the road and pay visits in this garment
only, without any sense of impropriety. The younger children wear
nothing but a string and an amulet. The persons, clothing, and
houses are alive with vermin, and if the word squalor can be
applied to independent and industrious people, they were squalid.
Beetles, spiders, and wood-lice held a carnival in my room after
dark, and the presence of horses in the same house brought a number
of horseflies. I sprinkled my stretcher with insect powder, but my
blanket had been on the floor for one minute, and fleas rendered
sleep impossible. The night was very long. The andon went out,
leaving a strong smell of rancid oil. The primitive Japanese dog -
a cream-coloured wolfish-looking animal, the size of a collie, very
noisy and aggressive, but as cowardly as bullies usually are - was
in great force in Fujihara, and the barking, growling, and
quarrelling of these useless curs continued at intervals until
daylight; and when they were not quarrelling, they were howling.
Torrents of rain fell, obliging me to move my bed from place to
place to get out of the drip. At five Ito came and entreated me to
leave, whimpering, "I've had no sleep; there are thousands and
thousands of fleas!" He has travelled by another route to the
Tsugaru Strait through the interior, and says that he would not
have believed that there was such a place in Japan, and that people
in Yokohama will not believe it when he tells them of it and of the
costume of the women. He is "ashamed for a foreigner to see such a
place," he says. His cleverness in travelling and his singular
intelligence surprise me daily. He is very anxious to speak GOOD
English, as distinguished from "common" English, and to get new
words, with their correct pronunciation and spelling. Each day he
puts down in his note-book all the words that I use that he does
not quite understand, and in the evening brings them to me and puts
down their meaning and spelling with their Japanese equivalents.
He speaks English already far better than many professional
interpreters, but would be more pleasing if he had not picked up
some American vulgarisms and free-and-easy ways. It is so
important to me to have a good interpreter, or I should not have
engaged so young and inexperienced a servant; but he is so clever
that he is now able to be cook, laundryman, and general attendant,
as well as courier and interpreter, and I think it is far easier
for me than if he were an older man. I am trying to manage him,
because I saw that he meant to manage me, specially in the matter
of "squeezes." He is intensely Japanese, his patriotism has all
the weakness and strength of personal vanity, and he thinks
everything inferior that is foreign. Our manners, eyes, and modes
of eating appear simply odious to him. He delights in retailing
stories of the bad manners of Englishmen, describes them as
"roaring out ohio to every one on the road," frightening the tea-
house nymphs, kicking or slapping their coolies, stamping over
white mats in muddy boots, acting generally like ill-bred Satyrs,
exciting an ill-concealed hatred in simple country districts, and
bringing themselves and their country into contempt and ridicule.
{10} He is very anxious about my good behaviour, and as I am
equally anxious to be courteous everywhere in Japanese fashion, and
not to violate the general rules of Japanese etiquette, I take his
suggestions as to what I ought to do and avoid in very good part,
and my bows are growing more profound every day!
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