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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 to me. I hope, too, that some thoughts
of yours will be detected in what I write, as a stream runs through
grass--hidden, perhaps, but always there. We are separated by many
things besides distance, but you know that the blossoms scattered by the
waters of the torrent shall meet at its end.




  CONTENTS


                                                    PAGE

  AN ARTIST'S LETTERS FROM JAPAN                       1

  FROM TOKIO TO NIKKO                                 29

  THE SHRINES OF IYEYAS[)U] AND IYEMITS[)U]
    IN THE HOLY MOUNTAIN OF NIKKO                     52

  IYEMITS[)U]                                         85

  TAO: THE WAY                                        99

  JAPANESE ARCHITECTURE                              119

  BRIC-A-BRAC                                        128

  SKETCHING                                          159

  NIRVANA                                            175

  SKETCHING.--THE FLUTES OF IYEYAS[)U]               185

  SKETCHING.--THE PAGODA IN RAIN                     193

  FROM NIKKO TO KAMAKURA                             195

  NIKKO TO YOKOHAMA                                  202

  YOKOHAMA--KAMAKURA                                 216

  KIOTO                                              230

  A JAPANESE DAY.--FROM KIOTO TO GIFU                253

  FROM KAMBARA TO MIYANOSHITA--A LETTER FROM
    A KAGO                                           265

  POSTSCRIPT                                         280

  APPENDIX                                           281




  ILLUSTRATIONS


                                                    PAGE

  THE GREAT STATUE OF BUDDHA AT KAMAKURA.       FRONTISPIECE.

  THE KURUMA                                           5

  CASTLE, AND MOAT WITH LOTUS                          9

  AT THE WELL                                         11

  ANCIENT                                             15

  N[=O] DANCER WITH MASK, REPRESENTING THE SAKE IMP   19

  MODERN                                              23

  THE LAKE IN UYENO PARK                              28

  A TORII                                             32

  OUR RUNNER                                          36

  IN THE GREAT AVENUE OF CRYPTOMERIA                  39

  NIKKO-SAN                                           43

  THE WATERFALL IN OUR GARDEN                         47

  PORTRAIT-STATUE OF IYEYAS[)U] IN CEREMONIAL DRESS   53

  AVENUE TO TEMPLE OF IYEYAS[)U]                      55

  SKETCH OF STATUE OF IYEYAS[)U] TOKUGAWA             57

  STABLE OF SACRED HORSES                             61

  SACRED FONT                                         65

  YOUNG PRIEST                                        68

  DETAILS OF BASES OF CLOISTER WALLS, INNER COURT     71

  DETAIL OF CLOISTER WALLS, INNER COURT               75

  LINTEL, BRACKET CAPITAL                             77

  INSIDE THE "CAT GATE"--GATE TO THE TOMB             79

  TOMB OF IYEYAS[)U], TOKUGAWA                        83

  LOOKING DOWN ON THE WATER-TANK, OR
  SACRED FONT, FROM THE SECOND GATE                   87

  A PRIEST AT IYEMITS[)U]                             88

  IN THE THIRD GATE OF THE TEMPLE OF IYEMITS[)U],
  LOOKING TOWARD THE FOURTH                           91

  A PRIEST AT IYEMITS[)U]                             93

  KUWANON, BY OKIO                                    94

  ENTRANCE TO THE TOMB OF IYEMITS[)U]                 96

  PAINTING BY CHIN-NAN-PIN                           135

  SIGNATURE OF HOKUSAI                               149

  INSCRIPTION ON OLD LACQUER                         152

  INSCRIPTION FROM HO-RIU-JI                         155

  BED OF THE DAYAGAWA, NIKKO                         161

  MOUNTAINS IN FOG BEFORE OUR HOUSE                  165

  PORTRAIT OF A PRIEST                               169

  OLD PAGODA NEAR THE PRIESTS' HOUSES                171

  STATUE OF OYA JIZO                                 177

  PEASANT GIRLS AND MOUNTAIN HORSES OF NIKKO         181

  OUR LANDLORD THE BUDDHIST PRIEST                   187

  KIOTO IN FOG--MORNING                              231

  PEASANT WOMAN--THRESHER                            239

  A PILGRIM                                          247

  FUSI-YAMA FROM KAMBARA BEACH                       257

  FISHING WITH CORMORANTS                            261

  PEASANT CARRYING FODDER, AND BULL CARRYING LOAD    267

  A RUNNER IN THE RAIN                               275




  AN ARTIST'S LETTERS
  FROM JAPAN


                                             YOKOHAMA, July 3, 1886.

Arrived yesterday. On the cover of the letter which I mailed from our
steamer I had but time to write: "We are coming in; it is like the
picture books. Anything that I can add will only be a filling in of
detail."

We were in the great bay when I came up on deck in the early morning.
The sea was smooth like the brilliant blank paper of the prints; a vast
surface of water reflecting the light of the sky as if it were thicker
air. Far-off streaks of blue light, like finest washes of the brush,
determined distances. Beyond, in a white haze, the square white sails
spotted the white horizon and floated above it.

The slackened beat of the engine made a great noise in the quiet
waters. Distant high hills of foggy green marked the new land; nearer
us, junks of the shapes you know, in violet transparency of shadow, and
five or six war-ships and steamers, red and black, or white, looking
barbarous and out of place, but still as if they were part of us; and
spread all around us a fleet of small boats, manned by rowers standing
in robes flapping about them, or tucked in above their waists. There
were so many that the crowd looked blue and white--the color of their
dresses repeating the sky in prose. Still, the larger part were mostly
naked, and their legs and arms and backs made a great novelty to our
eyes, accustomed to nothing but our ship, and the enormous space, empty
of life, which had surrounded us for days. The muscles of the boatmen
stood out sharply on their small frames. They had almost all--at least
those who were young--fine wrists and delicate hands, and a handsome
setting of the neck. The foot looked broad, with toes very square. They
were excitedly waiting to help in the coaling and unloading, and soon we
saw them begin to work, carrying great loads with much good-humored
chattering. Around us played the smallest boats with rowers standing up
and sculling. Then the market-boat came rushing to us, its standing
rowers bending and rising, their thighs rounding and insteps sharpening,
what small garments they had fluttering like scarfs, so that our fair
missionaries turned their backs to the sight.

  [Illustration]

Two boys struggling at the great sculls in one of the small boats were
called by us out of the crowd, and carried us off to look at the
outgoing steamer, which takes our mail, and which added its own
confusion and its attendant crowd of boats to all the animation on the
water. Delicious and curious moment, this first sense of being free from
the big prison of the ship; of the pleasure of directing one's own
course; of not understanding a word of what one hears, and yet of
getting at a meaning through every sense; of being close to the top of
the waves on which we dance, instead of looking down upon them from the
tall ship's sides; of seeing the small limbs of the boys burning yellow
in the sun, and noticing how they recall the dolls of their own country
in the