_Wasuraruru
Mi naran to omo
Kokoro koso
Wasuré nu yori mo
Omoi nari-keré._[1]
[1] "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 wood-work 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--attending 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.