KUMAMOTO, June, 1892.
DEAR PAGE,--To-day, second of June, your kind letter came,
enclosing a draft for £163; and I write in haste to catch the mail....
And now, ten thousand thanks, from the bottom of my much-scarified heart.
I am sorry I did not get the _T.-D._, as it would have helped me to get
out my book quicker,--my first book. It ought to be out this Fall; and
I think it will be tolerably large,--a little larger than "Two Years in
the French West Indies;" but it is only an introductory book.
Really, it is very queer; but you seem to be the best friend I've got
outside of Japan. You really do things for a fellow--great big things;
and nobody else seems inclined to do much of anything....
I send you to-day a better photo of my little wife, and some other
things; and you will shortly get a copy of Chamberlain's "Things
Japanese" I have ordered for you.... As for making a present to Setsu
(that is her name in Japanese; in Chinese Chi-yo, or Tchi-yo[1]), I
don't think you could send her anything Western she would understand.
And I would not wish you to take so much trouble. The best thing you
can do to please her is to be good to me. She has really everything she
wants (you know Japanese women wear no earrings, necklaces, or jewelry
as ours do); and what she really wants is only made in Japan; and I am
wickedly trying to keep her as innocent of foreign life as possible.
So whenever she shows a liking even for foreign textures (many are now
thrown on the market) I persuade her that Japanese goods are twice as
pretty and durable, and for fear she might not believe me I usually
manage to find some Japanese stuff that really is much better than the
foreign article on sale....
[1] (Like Tchi-Nim?)--It means "Life-for-a-Thousand-Years,"--a
name of good omen.]
Oh, about distances. I am in Kyūshū, the southern island, you
know,--very far from Tōkyō, and by the route much farther than as
the crow flies. What I meant by 2000 miles south of Tōkyō was the
Loochoo Islands. You know they belong to Japan, but perhaps I am wrong
as to distance. The Loochoo Islands compose what is called _Okinawa Ken_
(ken is province).... I find I shall not be able to go to Loochoo this
summer, however; I must make studies somewhere else for a new book. Of
course you will get my book as soon as it comes out.
In that book you will find a good deal about what you ask in relation
to my way of living, etc. But as to eating, I have said very little.
The fact is I lived for one year exclusively on Japanese food, which
Europeans, among others Mr. Chamberlain, consider almost impossible.
I must confess, however, that it broke me down. After twelve months
I could not eat at all. You know Japanese food is raw fish and fresh
fish, rice, bean-curds (they look like custard), seaweed, dried
cuttle-fish,--rarely chicken or eggs. In short, of five hundred
Japanese dishes, the basis is rice, fish, beans, lotus, various
vegetables, including bamboo shoots, and seaweed. Confectionery is
eaten between meals only, and sparingly. Tea is never allowed to become
strong: it is a pale straw-colour, without sugar or milk, and once used
to it, you cannot bear the sight of European tea any more. But I had to
return to the flesh-pots of Egypt. I now eat Japanese food only once a
day; and morning and evening indulge in beefsteak, bread, and Bass's Ale.
One becomes fond of Japanese sake (rice-wine); but it can only be eaten
with Japanese food. A barrel of the best costs about $3.50. It is
extremely deceiving. It looks like lemonade; but it is heavy as sherry.
Happily it has not the after-effects of sherry. There is no liquor in
the world upon which a man becomes so quickly intoxicated, and yet none
of which the effects last so short a time. The intoxication is pleasant
as the effect of opium or hasheesh. It is a soft, pleasant, luminous
exhilaration: everything becomes brighter, happier, lighter;--then you
get very sleepy. At Japanese dinners it is the rule to become slightly
exhilarated; but not to drink enough to talk thickly, or walk crooked.
The ability to drink at banquets requires practice--long practice. With
European wines, the rule is, I believe, that hearty eating prevents the
drink from taking too much effect. But with Japanese sake it is exactly
the opposite. There are banquets of many kinds, and the man who is
invited to one at which extensive drinking may be expected is careful
to start in upon an empty, or almost empty, stomach. By not eating one
can drink a good deal. The cups are very small, and of many curious
shapes; but one maybe expected to empty fifty. A quart of sake is a good
load; two quarts require iron nerves to stand. But among the Japanese
there are wonderful drinkers. At a military officer's banquet a captain
offered me a tumbler holding a good pint of sake,--I almost fainted at
the sight of it; for it was only the first. But a friend said to me:
"Only drink a little, and pass it back"--which I did. Stronger heads
emptied cup after cup like water. "Oh, that is nothing," my friend said;
"wait till you see an old-fashioned cup." He showed me something like
a wash-basin for size,--a beautiful lacquered bowl, holding, I should
guess, at the very least a quart and a half. "A valiant warrior was
expected," he said, "to swallow this at one draft, and wait for more." I
should not like to attempt it, unless I were suffering very badly from
chills and fever. When very tired and cold, one can drink a great deal
of sake without harm.
About my every-day life. Well, it is the simplest and most silent of
lives,--in a simple Japanese house. I use one chair, only for writing at
a high table on account of my eyes. Most of my life I spend squatting
on the floor. Europeans can seldom get used to this; but it has become
second nature to me.
I always wear Japanese clothes in the house, of course. We rest, eat,
talk, read, and sleep on the floor. But then, you do not know, perhaps,
what a Japanese floor is. It is like a great soft mattress: the real
floor is covered by heavy mats, fitted to one another like mattresses
set edge to edge; and these cannot be lifted up except by a workman:
they are really part of the building. Then this floor is spotlessly
clean. No dust is ever suffered upon it,--not a speck. Therefore we
live barefooted in summer, or wearing only stockings in winter. The
bed consists of a series of heavy quilts of pretty colours--like very
thick comforts, piled one upon the other on the floor. By day these are
rolled up and stowed out of sight. So in a Japanese house you see no
furniture,--only in some recess, a graceful vase, and one _kakemono_,
or hanging picture painted on silk. That is all--except the smoking-box
(_hibachi_) in the middle of the room, surrounded by kneeling-cushions.
In the evening the Japanese bath is ready. It is _almost_ scalding
always--hard to get used to; but the best in the world because you can't
take cold after it. It consists of an immense tub, with a little furnace
_in_ it which heats the water. For amusements we have the Japanese
theatres, the street-festivals, visits of friends, Japanese newspapers,
occasional pilgrimages to curious places, and--delight of delights in
some cities--_shopping_, Japanese shopping.
Bad boys,--and not obliged to give good and great moral
examples,--people who are not strictly moral in their virtues like you
and me,--sometimes hire _geisha_ or dancing girls to amuse them....
At all banquets--except those of teachers here--there are _geisha_. When
you sit down (I mean kneel down) to eat, a band of beautiful girls come
in to wait upon you, with exquisite voices, and beautiful dresses, etc.
These are _geisha_. After a while they dance. If you wish to fall in
love with them, you may....
In Matsue I often saw _geisha_ dance: they were at all banquets. But at
teachers' banquets in Kumamoto they are not allowed. We are strictly
moral in Kyūshū....
Lo!--it's nearly time to close the mail for the outgoing steamer. So,
dear Page, I must conclude for the moment in great haste.
With best regards to Mrs. Baker, best remembrances and gratitude to you,
excuse this scrawl, and believe me ever faithfully
Your friend,
LAFCADIO HEARN.
Really, it seems to me as if I hadn't thanked you at all. You are simply
divine about doing kind things. My little wife sends you this greeting
with her own hand,--
[Illustration]