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  [Illustration: THE GREAT STATUE OF BUDDHA AT KAMAKURA]

  AN ARTIST'S LETTERS FROM JAPAN

  BY
  JOHN LA FARGE

  [Illustration]

  NEW YORK
  THE CENTURY CO.
  1897


  Copyright, 1890, 1891, 1893, 1897,
     By THE CENTURY CO.

  THE DE VINNE PRESS.




TO HENRY ADAMS, ESQ.

_My Dear Adams:_ Without you I should not have seen the place, without
you I should not have seen the things of which these notes are
impressions. If anything worth repeating has been said by me in these
letters, it has probably come from you, or has been suggested by being
with you--perhaps even in the way of contradiction. And you may be
amused by the lighter talk of the artist that merely describes
appearances, or covers them with a tissue of dreams. And you alone will
know how much has been withheld that might have been indiscreetly said.

If only we had found Nirvana--but he was right who warned us that we
were late in this season of the world.

 J. L. F.

  [Illustration: WHICH IN ENGLISH MEANS:]

AND YOU TOO, OKAKURA SAN: I wish to put your name before these notes,
written at the time when I first met you, because the memories of your
talks are connected with my liking of your country and of its story, and
because for a time you were Japan