KŌBE, February, 1896.
DEAR NISHIDA,--I should have answered your kindest letter before now
but for illness,--so I only sent a photo of Kazuo, as I had a cold in
my eyes, nose, chest, back; a most atrocious and damnable cold, which
rendered any work out of the question.
Mr. Katayama--dear Mr. Katayama--wrote a charming little poem. I am
going to have a large copy made of it, and have it mounted as a little
_kakemono_, for a souvenir. I love all these funny little things: they
are the real Japan--the humour and the kindness and the grace of it. As
for the so-called New Japan,--with its appearance of Occidentalism, and
its utter loss of the old poetry and the old courtesy--well, however
necessary it may be, it is certainly as much of a moral loss as it is a
material advance. I wish I could live somewhere out of the sight and the
sound of all that is new.
I had a letter from Ochiai, which I shall answer in a day or so;--for
the moment I am behind with all my correspondence. What can be the
matter with the lad? He did not tell me the nature of his sickness.
I am really sorry for him. Strangely enough, on the very same day,
I had a letter from one of the cleverest of the Kumamoto students,
who seemed a tower of strength, but who has broken down after a year
at the university. Some students I liked have gone mad; numbers have
died; numbers have had to give up. The strain is too great because
the hardship is too great,--the cold, the poor cheap food, the poor
thin clothes. "Hardy" the lads claim to be. So naturally they are--much
hardier than Europeans in certain respects. But some knowledge of
physiology seems to be needed in Government schools. No man--however
strong--can keep hardy while the heavy strain of study is unsupported
by good living. I think most of the lads I know who died or went mad
would never have even fallen sick if they had had only hard physical
labour. Physical labour is not dangerous, but strengthening. And in the
Government schools there is no feeling for the lads: everybody has to do
the best he can for himself. Those who do get through the mill are not
always the best--though they may be the strongest.
Ever, with best regards of all of us,
LAFCADIO HEARN (KOIZUMI YAKUMO).