"I wonder what those little houses are where they pay their visits,"
Reggie said.
"Oh, those are the hikité chaya" said Yaé glibly, "the Yoshiwara tea-houses."
"Do they live there?" asked Asako.
"Oh, no; rich men who come to the Yoshiwara do not go to the big houses where the oiran live. They go to the tea-houses; and they order food and geisha to sing, and the oiran to be brought from the big house. It is more private. So the tea-houses are called hikité chaya, 'tea-houses which lead by the hand.'"
"Yaé," said Reggie, "you know a lot about it."
"Yes," said Miss Smith, "my brothers have told me. They tell me lots of things."
After a stay of about half an hour, the oiran left their tea-houses. The processions reformed; and they slowly tottered back to the places whence they had come. Across their path the cherry petals were already falling like snowflakes; for the cherry-blossom is the Japanese symbol of the impermanence of earthly beauty, and of all sweet things and pleasant.
"By Jove!" said Geoffrey Harrington to the world in general, "that was an extraordinary sight. East is East and West is West, eh? I never felt that so strongly before. How often does this performance take place?"
"This performance," said Reggie, "has taken place for three days every Spring for the last three hundred years. But it is more than doubtful whether it will ever happen again. It is called Oiran Dochu, the procession of the courtesans. Geoffrey, what you have seen to-day is nothing more or less than the Passing of Old Japan!"
"But whom do these women belong to?" asked Geoffrey. "And who is making money out of all this filth?"