Umi hara-no-hate-made
Akiva-Sumi-watare,
which when translated runs thus:
"As far as the sea extends
The autumn moon spreads her beneficent light."
According to the explanation which I received the piece points out that the autumn moon spreads her beneficent rays as far as to that place in the high north where we wintered. After the above-quoted verse came the following addition in Japanese: "Written by Machimura Masanavo, Governor of Kioto-Fu, to Professor Nordenskiöld, on the occasion of a dinner given to him during the autumn of 1879." The whole besides was signed with the author's common, as well as his poetical, name, and had his seal attached. His poetical name was RIO-SAN, which may be literally translated "Dragon-Mountain."
The poetry of the Japanese is so unlike that of the Western nations that we find it difficult to comprehend the productions of the Japanese poets. Perhaps they ought more correctly to be called poetical mottoes. They play a great part in the intellectual life of the Japanese. Their authors are highly esteemed, and even in the homes of the poorer classes the walls are often ornamented with strips of silk or paper on which poems are written in large, bold, pencil characters. Among the books I brought home with me are many which contain collections of the writings of private poets and poetesses, or selections from the most famous of the productions of Japanese literature in this department. A roll of drawings which turned up very often represents the sorrowful fate of a famous poetess. First of all she is depicted as a representative Japanese beauty, blooming with youth and grace, then she is represented in different stages of decay, then as dead, then as a half-decayed
corpse torn asunder by ravens, and finally as a heap of bones. The series ends with a cherry-tree in splendid bloom, into which the heroine, after her body had passed through all the stages of annihilation, has been changed. The cherry-tree in blossom is considered by the Japanese the ideal of beauty in the vegetable kingdom, and during the flowering season of this tree excursions are often undertaken to famous cherry-groves where hour after hour is passed in tranquil admiration of the flower-splendour of the tree. Unfortunately I was so late in getting the explanation of the beautiful poetical idea that ran through this series of pictures, some of which were executed with execrable truth to nature, that I missed the opportunity of purchasing it.
I was obliged to leave Kioto too early in order to be present at a fête, which was given to us at Kobe by the Japanese, Europeans, and Chinese who were interested in our voyage. The entertainment was held in a Buddhist temple without the town, and was very pleasant and agreeable. The Japanese did not seem at all to consider that their temple was desecrated by such an arrangement. In the course of the afternoon for instance there came several pilgrims to the temple. I observed them carefully, and could not mark in their countenances any trace of displeasure at a number of foreigners feasting in the beautiful temple grove whither they had come on pilgrimage. They appeared rather to consider that they had come to the goal of their wanderings at a fortunate moment, and therefore gladly accepted the refreshments that were offered them.