MATSUE, August, 1891.
DEAR PROFESSOR CHAMBERLAIN,--Having reached a spot where I can write
upon something better than a matted floor, I find three most pleasant
letters from you. The whole of the questions in them I cannot answer
to-night, but will do so presently, when I obtain the full information.
However, as to cats' tails I can answer at once. Izumo cats--(and I
was under the impression until recently that all Japanese cats were
alike)--are generally born with long tails. But there is a belief
that any cat whose tail is not cut off in kittenhood, will become an
_obake_ or a _nekomata_, and there are weird stories about cats with
long tails dancing at night, with towels tied round their heads. There
are stories about petted cats eating their mistress and then assuming
the form, features, and voice of the victim. Of course you know the
Buddhist tradition that no cat can enter paradise. The cat and the snake
alone wept not for the death of Buddha. Cats are unpopular in Izumo,
but in Hōki I saw that they seemed to exist under more favourable
conditions. The real reason for the unpopularity of the cat is its
powers of mischief in a Japanese house;--it tears the _tatami_, the
_karakami_, the _shōji_, scratches the woodwork, and insists upon
carrying its food into the best room to eat it upon the floor. I am
a great lover of cats, having "raised," as the Americans say, more
than fifty;--but I could not gratify my desire to have a cat here. The
creature proved too mischievous, and wanted always to eat my uguisu.
* * * * *
The oscillation of one's thoughts concerning the Japanese--the swaying
you describe--is and has for some time been mine also.
There are times when they seem so small! And then again, although
they never seem large, there is a vastness behind them,--a past of
indefinite complexity and marvel,--an amazing power of absorbing and
assimilating,--which forces one to suspect some power in the race so
different from our own that one cannot understand that power. And as
you say, whatever doubts or vexations one has in Japan, it is only
necessary to ask one's self:--"Well, who are the best people to live
with?" For it is a question whether the intellectual pleasures of social
life abroad are not more than dearly bought at the cost of social
pettinesses which do not seem to exist in Japan at all.
Would you be horrified to learn that I have become passionately fond
of _daikon_,--not the fresh but the strong ancient pickled _daikon_?
But then the European Stilton cheese, or Limburger, is surely quite
as queer. I have become what they call here a _jōgo_,--and find
that a love of sake creates a total change in all one's eating habits
and tastes. All the sweet things the _geko_ likes, I cannot bear
when taking sake. By the way, what a huge world of etiquette, art,
taste, custom, has been developed by sake. An article upon sake,--its
social rules,--its vessels,--its physiological effects,--in short the
whole romance and charm of a Japanese banquet, ought to be written by
somebody. I hope to write one some day, but I am still learning.
* * * * *
As to Dr. Tylor and the anthropological institute. If he should want any
paper that I could furnish, I would be glad and consider myself honoured
to please him. As for your question about the _o fuda_, why, I should
think it no small pleasure to be mentioned merely as one of your workers
and friends. Though the little I have been able to send does not seem
to me to deserve your kindest words, it is making me very happy to have
been able to please you at all. Whatever I can write or send, make
always any use of you please.
About "seeing Japan from a distance,"--I envy you your coming chance.
I could not finish my book on the West Indies until I saw the magical
island again through regret, as through a summer haze,--and under
circumstances which left me perfectly free to think, which the soporific
air of the tropics makes difficult. (Still the book is not what it
ought to be, for I was refused all reasonable help, and wrote most of
it upon a half-empty stomach, or with my blood full of fever.) But to
think of Japan in an English atmosphere will be a delicious experience
for you after so long an absence. I should not be surprised should the
experience result in the creation of something which would please your
own feelings as an author better than any other work you have made. Of
course it is at the time one is best pleased that one does one's real
best in the artistic line.
By the way, since you like those Shintō prints,--and I might get you
others,--what about a possible edition of your "Kojiki" illustrated by
Japanese conceptions of this kind, colours and all? Such work can be so
cheaply done in Japan! And an index! How often I wished for an index. I
have made an imperfect one of my own. It is believed here that Hahaki is
the ancient name of the modern Hōki. I was told this when I wanted to
go to the legendary burial-place of Izanami.
As usual, I find I have been too presumptuous in writing offhand about
cats' tails. On enquiring, I learn that there are often, born of the
same mother, Izumo kittens with short tails, and kittens with long
tails. This would show that two distinct species of cats exist here. The
long-tailed kittens are always deprived when possible of the larger part
of their caudal appendage. The short tails are spared. If an old cat be
seen with a short tail, people say,--"this cat is old, but she has a
short tail: therefore she is a good cat." (For the _obake_ cat gets two
tails when old, and every wicked cat has a long tail.) I am told that at
the recent _bon_, in Matsue, cats of the evil sort were seen to dance
upon the roofs of the houses.
What you tell me about those Shintō rituals and their suspicious
origin seems to me quite certainly true. So the _kara-shishi_ and the
_mon_ and the dragon-carvings and the _tōrōs_,--all stare me in
the face as pillage of Buddhism. But the funeral rite which I saw and
took part in, on the anniversary of the death of Prince Sanjō, struck
me as immemorially primitive. The weird simplicity of it--the banquet to
the ghost, the covering of the faces with white paper, the moaning song,
the barbarian music, all seemed to me traditions and echoes of the very
childhood of the race. I shall try to discover the genesis of the book
you speak of as dubious in character. The Shintō christening ceremony
is strictly observed here, and there are curious facts about the funeral
ceremonies--totally at variance with and hostile to Buddhism.
By the way, when I visited a _tera_ in Mionoseki after having bought _o
fuda_ at the Miojinja, I was told I must not carry the _o fuda_ into
the court of the _tera_. The Kami would be displeased.
For the moment, good-bye.
Ever faithfully,
LAFCADIO HEARN.