2. “Pictures of Chinese, as also of birds, trees, landskips, and other things, upon white screens, done by some eminent master, or rather scratched with a few hasty, affected strokes, after such a manner that, unless seen at a proper distance, they scarce appear natural.
3. “A flower-vase filled with all sorts of curious flowers, and green branches of trees, such as the season affords, curiously ranged according to the rules of art, it being as much an art in this country to arrange a flower-vase as it is in Europe to carve, or to lay a table.[2] Sometimes there is, instead, a perfuming-pan, of excellent good workmanship, cast in brass or copper, resembling a crane, lion, dragon, or other strange animal. I took notice once that there was an earthen pot of Cologne, such as is used to keep Spauwater in, with all the cracks and fissures carefully mended, used in lieu of a flower-vase, it being esteemed a very great rarity, because of the distant place it came from, the clay it was made of, and its uncommon shape.
4. “Some strange, uncommon pieces of wood, wherein the colors and grain either naturally run after a curious and unusual manner, or have been brought by art to represent something.
5. “Some neat and beautiful network, adorning either the balcony and windows towards the garden, or the tops of the doors, screens, and partitions of the chief apartments.
6. “A bunch of a tree, or a piece of a rotten root, or of an old stump, remarkable for their monstrous deformed shape.
“After this manner the chief and back apartments are furnished in great inns, and houses of substantial people. The other rooms gradually decrease in cleanliness, neatness, and delicacy of furniture; the screens, windows, mats, and other ornaments and household goods, after they have for some time adorned the chief apartments, and begin to be spotted and to grow old, being removed into the other rooms successively, there to be quite worn out. The chief of the other rooms is that where they keep their plate, china ware, and other household goods, ranged upon the floor in curious order, according to their size, shape, and use. Most of these are made of wood, thin, but strongly varnished, the greatest part upon a dark red ground. They are washed with warm water every time they have been used, and wiped clean with a cloth; by which means they will, though constantly used, keep clean and neat, and in their full lustre for several years.
A Scene in a Tea Garden
“The small gallery or walk which jets out from the house towards the garden leads to the house of office and to a bathing-stove, or hot-house. The house of office is built on one side of the back part of the house, and hath two doors to go in. Not far off stands a basin filled with water to wash your hands, commonly an oblong, rough stone, the upper part curiously cut out into the form of a basin. A new pail of bamboo hangs near it, and is covered with a neat fir or cypress board, to which they put a new handle every time it hath been used, to wit, a fresh stick of the bamboo cane, it being a very clean sort of a wood, and in a manner naturally varnished. The bathing-place, commonly built on the back side of the garden, contains either a hot-house to sweat in, or a warm bath, and sometimes both. It is made warm and got ready every evening, because the Japanese usually bathe or sweat after their day’s journey is over, thinking by this means to refresh themselves, and to sweat off their weariness. As they can undress themselves in an instant, so they are ready at a minute’s warning to go into it; for they need but untie their sash, and all their clothes fall down at once, leaving them quite naked, excepting a small band which they wear close to the body about their waist. Their hot-house, which they go into only to sweat, is an almost cubical trunk, or stove, raised about three feet above the ground, and built close to the wall of the bathing-place, on the outside,—not quite six feet high, but about nine feet long, and of the same breadth. The floor is laid with small planed laths or planks, some few inches distant from each other, both for the easy passage of the rising vapors and the convenient outlet of the water. You go, or rather creep in, through a small door or shutter. There are two other shutters, one on each side, to let out the superfluous vapor. The empty space beneath, down to the ground, is enclosed with a wall to prevent the vapors from getting out on the sides. Towards the yard, just beneath the hot-house, is a furnace, part of which stands out towards the yard, where they put in the necessary water and plants. This part is shut with a clapboard when the fire is burning, to make all the vapors ascend through the inner and open part into the hot-house. There are always two tubs, one of warm, the other of cold water, for such as have a mind to wash themselves.
“The garden is the only place in which we Dutchmen, being treated in all respects little better than prisoners, have liberty to walk. It is commonly square, with a back door, and walled in very neatly. There are few good houses or inns without one. If there be not room enough for a garden, they have at least an old ingrafted plum, cherry, or apricot tree; and the older, the more crooked and monstrous, the greater value they put upon it. Sometimes they let the branches grow into the rooms. In order to make it bear larger flowers and in greater quantity, they trim it to a few, perhaps two or three, branches. It cannot be denied but that the great number of beautiful, incarnadine double flowers are a curious ornament to this back part of the house, but they have this disadvantage, that they bear no fruit. In some small houses and inns of less note, where there is not room enough neither for a garden nor trees, they have at least an opening or window, to let the light fall into the back rooms, before which, for the amusement and diversion of travellers, is put a small tub full of water, wherein they commonly keep alive some gold or silver fish; and for further ornament there is generally a flower-pot or two standing there. Sometimes they plant dwarf trees, which will grow easily upon pumice or other porous stones, without any earth at all, provided the root be put into the water, whence it will suck up sufficient nourishment. Ordinary people often plant the same kind of trees before their street-doors.