_Wasuraruru
Mi naran to omo
Kokoro koso
Wasure nu yori mo
Omoi nari-kere_.
"To wish to be forgotten by the beloved is a soul-task harder far
than trying not to forget."--Poem by Kimiko.
I
The name is on a paper-lantern at the entrance of a house in the
Street of the Geisha.
Seen at night the street is one of the queerest in the world. It
is narrow as a gangway; and the dark shining woodwork of the
house-fronts, all tightly closed,--each having a tiny sliding
door with paper-panes that look just like frosted glass,--makes
you think of first-class passenger-cabins. Really the buildings
are several stories high; but you do not observe this at
once,--especially if there be no moon,--because only the lower
stories are illuminated up to their awnings, above which all is
darkness. The illumination is made by lamps behind the narrow
paper-paned doors, and by the paper-lanterns hanging
outside,--one at every door. You look down the street between two
lines of these lanterns,--lines converging far-off into one
motionless bar of yellow light. Some of the lanterns are
egg-shaped, some cylindrical; others four-sided or six-sided; and
Japanese characters are beautifully written upon them. The street
is very quiet,--silent as a display of cabinet-work in some great
exhibition after closing-time. This is because the inmates are
mostly away,--at tending banquets and other festivities. Their
life is of the night.
The legend upon the first lantern to the left as you go south is
"Kinoya: uchi O-Kata;" and that means The House of Gold wherein
O-Kata dwells. The lantern to the right tells of the House of
Nishimura, and of a girl Miyotsuru,--which name signifies The
Stork Magnificently Existing. Next upon the left comes the House
of Kajita;--and in that house are Kohana, the Flower-Bud, and
Hinako, whose face is pretty as the face of a doll. Opposite is
the House Nagaye, wherein live Kimika and Kimiko.... And this
luminous double litany of names is half-a-mile long.
The inscription on the lantern of the last-named house reveals
the relationship between Kimika and Kimiko,--and yet something
more; for Kimiko is styled Ni-dai-me, an honorary untranslatable
title which signifies that she is only Kimiko No.2. Kimika is the
teacher and mistress: she has educated two geisha, both named, or
rather renamed by her, Kimiko; and this use of the same name
twice is proof positive that the first Kimiko--Ichi-dai-me--must
have been celebrated. The professional appellation borne by an
unlucky or unsuccessful geisha is never given to her successor.
If you should ever have good and sufficient reason to enter the
house,--pushing open that lantern-slide of a door which sets a
gong-bell ringing to announce visits,--you might be able to see
Kimika, provided her little troupe be not engaged for the
evening. You would find her a very intelligent person, and well
worth talking to. She can tell, when she pleases, the most
remarkable stories,--real flesh-and-blood stories,--true stories
of human nature. For the Street of the Geisha is full of
traditions,--tragic, comic, melodramatic;--every house has its
memories;--and Kimika knows them all. Some are very, very
terrible; and some would make you laugh; and some would make you
think. The story of the first Kimiko belongs to the last class.
It is not one of the most extraordinary; but it is one of the
least difficult for Western people to understand.