The distinguished writer, Kaibard, protested loudly against the barbarian novelty; he compares it with tea and with saké—a beer made from rice—and roundly condemns tobacco-smoking, saying, that far from yielding benefit to anyone it injures the consumer in many ways. It is not worth while, he considers, to chide the common people for smoking, but he expresses surprise and indignation that gentlemen and superior persons should take pleasure in a custom imported from over the seas and taught them by strangers. On the other hand, a learned treatise called ‘Ensauki,’ translated by Sir Ernest Satow, enumerates some of the excellences discovered in the weed. These are:
(1) It dispels the vapours and increases the energies.
(2) It is good to produce at the beginning of a feast.
(3) It is a companion in solitude.
(4) It affords an excuse for resting now and then from work, as if in order to take breath.
(5) It is a storehouse of reflection, and gives time for the fumes of wrath to disperse.
But on the other hand are objections to its use such as the following:
(1) There is a natural tendency to hit people over the head with one’s pipe in a fit of anger.
(2) The pipe comes sometimes to be used for arranging the burning charcoal in the hibacki.
(3) An inveterate smoker has been known to walk among the dishes at a feast with the pipe in his mouth [the dishes resting on mats ranged along the floor].