Demy 8vo. Fully Illustrated.
A WOMAN IN CHINA. By MARY
GAUNT. 155. net.
THROUGH UNKNOWN NIGERIA.
By JOHN R. RAPHAEL. 155. net.
IN THE BALKAN COCKPIT. By
W. K. CRAUFURD PRICE. los. 6d.
net.
MY BOHEMIAN DAYS IN LONDON.
By JULIUS M. PRICE. IDS. 6d. net.
MY BOHEMIAN DAYS IN PARIS.
By JULIUS M. PRICE. los. 6d. net.
SARUWAKACHO
The Theatre Street near the Asakusa Temple, in the
Age of Yedo.
THE NIGHTSIDE
OF JAPAN
BY
T. FUJIMOTO
With forty Illustrations in colour and tone^ specially
executed by Japanese Artists.
LONDON
T. WERNER LAURIE, LTD.
8 ESSEX STREET, STRAND
PREFACE
MANY books have been written on Japan
by the Europeans, but as everything was
observed with their European eyes, the true
features of the country of the "Rising Sun"
could not be satisfactorily exhibited by them.
This book is written by one of the Japanese,
and although the subjects treated in the book
are often trifling matters and belong to things
not very important, yet it is sure the reader
will find neither fallacies nor misunderstand-
ings, into which foreigners are liable often to
fall.
THE AUTHOR.
\The Publishers had the thought of giving this manuscript
to a literary man to correct, but on consideration decided
that revision would have destroyed much of its quaint
charm and oriental atmosphere.]
Vll
324468
CONTENTS
CHAP. PAGE
I. ASAKUSA AND HIBIYA PARK I
II. THEATRES AND YOSS& (VARIETY HALLS) . . 13
III. YOSHIWARA 20
IV. THE GINZA STREET 28
V. HOTELS, INNS, AND FREE LODGINGS ... 43
VI. GEISHA: RESTAURANTS AND MACHIAl . -55
VII. PUBLIC BATH-HOUSES 70
VIII. THE SHIMBASHI STATION TO SHINAGAWA . . 77
IX. AMATEUR WRESTLING IN SUMMER EVENING . 85
X. GREAT FIREWORKS AT RYOGOKU .... IO2
XI. AUTUMN NIGHT 113
XII. MARKETS NEAR THE END OF A YEAR . .123
XIII. CONFLAGRATION 137
XIV. WINTER NIGHT :
A. Kammairi, or Temple Visitors in the Coldest
Season 151
B. Otakara-uri, or Sellers of Treasure-boat
Sheets 155
' C.Sobaya, or Buckwheat Shops . . . 1 59
D. Amma, or Shampooers 160
ix
CONTENTS
CHAP. PAGE
XV. WINTER NIGHT (continued)
E. Nabeyaki-udon^ or Hawkers of Macaroni
cooked and served in pots . . .164
F. Yakiimoya, or Shops of Roast Sweet Potato 166
G. In the Age of Yedo 169
H.Mochi-Tsttki 172
XVI. THE KARUTA-KAI (MEETING FOR CARD-PLAYING
IN A JANUARY NIGHT) 175
XVII. KAMEIDO NOTED FOR PLUM AND WISTARIA
FLOWERS igi
XVIII. CHERRY BLOSSOMS AT PARK UYENO . . . 188
XIX. THE RIKZSHA-MAN IQ _IJ
XX. KYOTO 205
XXI. OSAKA ... 221
INDEX 235
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
'REET IN ASAKUSAj-
BIYAf
SARUWAKACHO. THE THEATRE STREET NEAR
THE ASAKUSA TEMPLE, IN THE AGE OF
YEDO .
THE ASAKUSA TEMPLE
THE CINEMATOGRAPH STREET
PARK J
THE FLOWER GARDEN IN HIBIYA PARK
THE POND AND SUMMER-HOUSE IN HIBIYA
PARK J
THE NIOMON GATE IN ASAKUSA PARK . \
THE JUNIKAI (TWELVE - STORY TOWER) INJ-
ASAKUSA PARK J
GIRLS SINGING IN THE VARIETY HALL (YOSS)
KOSHIRO I ACTOR OF THE TEIKOKU GEKIJO .
THE TEIKOKU GEKIJO (IMPERIAL THEATRE) |
THE KABUKIZA THEATRE /
RITSUKO : ACTRESS OF THE TEIKOKU GEKIJO\
BAIKO : ACTRESS OF THE TEIKOKU GEKIJO)
A YOSHIWARA GIRL IN FULL DRESS
A FAVOURITE IN HER PROCESSION UNDER
CHERRY BLOSSOMS AT YOSHIWARA .
A FRONT WINDOW IN A YOSHIWARA HOUSE .
THE NAKAMISE STREET IN ASAKUSA PARK
THE STREET OF GINZA
A SUSHI STALL ....
A TOBACCO PIPE MENDER
A MENDICANT FRIAR
XI
N ASAKUSA PARK \
Frontispiece
To face p. 4
8
10
12
14
16
18
20
22
24
28
30
44
46
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
MARIKO, A STAGE ON THE HIGHWAY OF
TOKAIDO, IN THE AGE OF YEDO
A BARRIER ON THE HIGHWAY OF TOKAIDO,
IN THE FEUDAL AGE
UMEGATANI, A CHAMPION WRESTLER, WITH
HIS TWO DISCIPLE WRESTLERS, AND AN
UMPIRE
A K&RIYA, OR ICE-SHOP
STALLS OF KUMADE AT TORINOMACHI (GOD
EAGLE'S FESTIVAL)
THE COAST OF SUSAKI IN THE AGE OF YEDO
THE GREAT CONFLAGRATION AT KANDA
THE KAMMAIRI
THE TEMPLE OF FIVE HUNDRED BUDDHA'S
DISCIPLES, IN THE AGE OF YEDO .
THE YAKIIMOYA) OR SHOP OF ROAST SWEET
POTATOES
PLAYING OF THE POEM CARDS
THE DRUM BRIDGE AND WISTARIA TRELLISESl
AT KAMEIDO
LAKE SHINOBAZU, THE LOTUS POND BELOW
THE HILL OF UYENO .
CHERRY BLOSSOMS AT UYENO PARK ; THE
IMAGE OF BUDDHA AND THE BELL TOWER
A RIKISHA-WLAN
THE OPEN FLOOR ON THE RIVER KAMO,
KYOTO
THE COURT NOBLE'S VEHICLE IN ANCIENT
TIMES
DANCING-GIRLS IN THE EVENING, OSAKA
To face p. 78
80
86
1 02
124
128
138
152
164
166
178
1 88
196
206
208
222
Xll
THE NIGHTSIDE OF JAPAN
CHAPTER I
ASAKUSA AND HIBIYA PARK
THE Asakusa is the centre of pleasure in Tokyo.
People of every rank in the city crowd in the park
day and night old and young, high and low, male
and female, rich and poor. It is also a haunt of
ruffians, thieves, and pickpockets when the curtain of
the dark comes down over the park. All houses and
shops along each street in the park are illuminated
with the electric and gas lights. The most noisy
and crowded part is the site of cinematograph halls.
In front of a hall you see many large painted pictures,
illustrating kinds of pictures to be shown in the
hall, and, at its entrance, three or four men are
crying to call visitors : " Come in, come in ! Our
pictures are newest ones, most wonderful pictures !
Most lately imported from Europe ! " Men of
another hall cry out: "Our hall gives the photo-
graphs of a play performed by the first - class
actors in Tokyo ; pictures of the revenge of Forty
Seven Rdnme/" Tickets are sold by girls in
a booking - box near the entrance of each hall ;
they are dressed in beautiful uniforms, their faces
painted nicely, receiving guests with charming smiles.
Most of the Japanese carry geta (clogs) under their
feet, instead of shoes or boots, and specially so
are the females. When you come into the door
I A
THE NIGHTSIDE OF JAPAN
of a hall, tickets are to be handed to the men,
who furnish you zori (a pair of straw or grass-
slippers) in place of your geta, and you must not
forget to receive from them a wood-card marked with
numerals or some other signs the card being the
cheque for your clogs. When you step on upstairs
you are received by another nice girl in uniform,
who guides you to a seat in the hall. Now the
hall is full of people; it seems that there is no
room for a newcomer, but the guide girl finds
out a chair among the crowd and adjusts it to you
very kindly. Pictures of cinematograph are shown
one after another, each being explained by orators
in frock or evening coat. Between the photograph
shows performance of comic actors or jugglers is
given. After the end of each picture or performance
there is an entr'acte of three or five minutes, and
in this interval sellers of oranges, milk, cakes,
sandwiches, etc., come into the crowds, and are
crying out : " Don't you want oranges ? Nice cakes !
New boiled milk ! etc., etc." The show of cinemato-
graph is closed at about 12 P.M., and all people flow
out of the hall. Where will they go hence? Of
course most of them go to their home, but a part
of them young fellows among others runs to the
Dark Streets of the park, or Yoshiwara, the licensed
prostitution quarter near the park.
Leaving the cinematograph hall at about eleven,
you will visit a small restaurant in a street just
behind the cinematograph ground, and find many
people drinking and eating ; glasses of Japanese
sake (wine), beer, whisky, and all kinds of liquors
are served very cheap. Near the counter of the
bar the host or hostess is standing, and some six
or seven young waitresses, all sixteen to twenty
years old, are attending the guests. People who
come to the restaurant are almost all below the
middle class, and women come very rare. You
can have dishes of European food with very nice
2
ASAKUSA AND HIB1YA PARK
taste, which are very cheap ten to fifteen sen 1 per
dish. After satisfying your appetite with these
cheap wines and dishes you again go over to another
quarter of the park beyond the Asakusa Pond.
Both sides of the streets of the quarter called the
Dark Quarter or Streets, for no lamps allowed
within shops here, except entrance lanterns are
arranged with rows of small houses almost all equal
in size and equipment. The common names of these
houses are Meishuya (Drinking - shops), Shinbun-
jiiran-sho (Newspaper Reading Halls), and Kitchaten
(Tea-shops), whose open occupations are to sell
wine, read papers and serve tea respectively; but
their real business is taken by courtesans. In each
of these houses there are at least three or four,
sometimes six to ten, girls who are said to serve
wine or tea; they are all young, from fourteen to
twenty, dressed in silk clothes. If you stroll down
a street screams of the girls dash out of the windows
of each house : " Come in, gentlemen, come in ! I
know you, Mr ! Wait a bit, come in, I want
to speak you, sir ! " At the door of a shop two
young fellows in style of workman are whispering
with a girl, and after a few minutes go into the shop
and disappear into a room behind the shop, or up-
stairs. Some contracts have been fixed up between
them. The hostess is avaricious, and if a provincial
is caught into the trap his purse shall be emptied
in a few hours. The quarter of the park, together
with the compound of cinematographs and other
show halls, is generally called the Rokku (Sixth
District) of Asakusa.
After going round the dark streets, in spite of
showers of girls' screams, you come to another road
north to the Rokku^ and here many smaller Japanese
restaurants or eating - houses are to be found ;
tempura-ya (fry), soba-ya (buckwheat or maccaroni),
sushiya (boiled and vinegared rice mixed with
1 A sen is equal to an English farthing.
3
THE NIGHTSIDE OF JAPAN
fish, eggs and vegetables), gyu-ya (beef and pork),
etc. At the east end of the street there stands
a tall hexagonal brick building in twelve stories ;
its name is the Ryounkaku (Tower piercing through
clouds), and popularly called Junikai (Twelve Story
Tower). When the tower was first built the elevator
was furnished for visitors ; but shortly afterwards
as there happened an unfortunate event, owing
to incomplete adjustments of the machine, it was
abolished by order. You step up to the top of
the tower by the spiral steppings and, in rooms
of each story, various kinds of toys and other
articles are sold, or fine pictures and photographs
are hung against walls. In 1911, one winter night
at about eleven, a young man jumped down over
the balcony of the eleventh story of the tower
and killed himself, crushing his body upon the
ground. After this event the windows and balconies
above ten story are entirely covered with wire-nets.
Stepping down the tower you enter a beef shop
(gyu-ya) just below the tower ; it is now one o'clock
A.M. and there some twenty or thirty labourers or
workmen of the lowest class are drinking sake,
and devouring beef, pork, or even horseflesh from
the boiling pans on square tables arranged in a
broad, dusky room. When you enter the room your
nose is attacked by the stinging smell of bad sake
and boiling flesh, mixed with the odour of cheap
tobacco smoke, which fills the room and whirls
like dense clouds. Maid-servants of ugly face and
on rusty garment carry bottles of sake and plates
of flesh, and their chattering and laughing with
customers are noisy and disgusting. Among
these customers there may be thieves, pickpockets,
and gamblers, who have come in this house in
triumph for their victories. They drink and drink
till morning, and it is not seldom that they make
quarrels at last, throwing bottles and breaking
porcelains.
4
THE ASAKUSA TEMPLE.
THE CINEMATOGRAPH STREET IN ASAKUSA PARK.
ASAKUSA AND HIBIYA PARK
Getting out of the gyu-ya you pass the bridge
over the pond and come to a quiet quarter. The
quarter is dark, the sky concealed by dense leaves
of trees and two or three lamp lights seen in the
distance. In this part of mimic wood a few benches
are set down, and old men and boys are sleeping
upon them. To the north of the wood a large
building of the Kwannon Temple, the patron of
Asakusa people, or rather of the whole Tokyo, stands
like a giant. It is wonderful that if you approach
the temple, and look in under the floor of its broad
veranda, you would find some four or five dozen
of men, women, and children are in sound sleep,
with no covers over their bodies, and embracing one
another if they can get any cover it is old straw
mat ! Where have they come from, and why are
they lying in such a place? They are beggars
and outcasts ; it is not rare that boys are picked
up by pickpockets and cultured to their honourable
profession.
In another quiet quarter, just behind the temple,
there is the nest of so-called Asakusa geisha (singing-
and dancing-girls) and, around the quarter, you can
find a number of rather bigger restaurants, where
these girls of singing and dancing are seen going in
and out night and day.
In the same quarter, to the back of the temple and
in neighbourhood of the geisha nest, you see a group
of small photographers' studios. At the entrance of
each shop a number of various photos are shown in
a large frame hanging against the wall, and a man is
standing near the door. If you approach and look
at these photos at once he comes to you and per-
suades to try a piece, priding that you can have one
in an instant, as they are prepared with the latest
camera, and that the price is very cheap, only fifty sen
per set of cabinet (three pieces per set). When you are
led by him into a room of the photographer's house
he shows you two or three albums on the table as
THE NIGHTSIDE OF JAPAN
specimens, and you find all photos in these books are
nicely taken. Being led into another room to take
photo, you would be surprised to find that everything
in the room is of old fashion, the apparatus itself
appearing to be one of half a century ago. When
you get out of the room and look on your watch it
took twenty minutes in the room I Further you are
compelled to wait thirty minutes more in a gloomy
room, served with only a cup of cold tea, and wearied
by the long time, and angry with the cold treatment,
you are about to leave the shop paying money and
without photo, when the photographer appears with
photos in his hand, apologising for the unsatisfactory
result owing to bad adjustment of rays, and excusing
himself for having taken so long time. When you
take the photos and look on them, you cannot help
to burst out laughing. What a queer and funny face,
like a monkey ! You run out of the house, casting
out fifty sen silver on the table. No wonder, the so-
called specimen photos in their albums and show
frame have been brought from some other studio !
You come round to the front of the Asakusa Temple.
The entrance street or royal road to the temple is
famous under the name of Nakamist (arcade within
the limits of the temple domain), which is a long
straight road paved with stones, and on each side a
row of small brick buildings all in two stories are in
a very regular line. Shops of toys, cakes, and haber-
dashers occupy the red matchboxlike establishments,
which attract girls and children assembling here night
and day. The north end of the street leads to Nio-
mon (Gate of Devas), the red great gate of the temple.
The merchants of the arcade shut up their shops
at 12 P.M.; after the hour the street is dark and
lonely, just in contrast to deafening noise of the day-
time throng.
South end and threshold of the Nakamise street
has a popular name of the Kaminari-mon (Gate of
Thunder God) ; at present there is no trace of the
6
ASAKUSA AND HIBIYA PARK
gate, but people call the point by the old name of
the gate, which was burnt down by a fire some fifty
years ago. About twenty yards east to the so-called
Thunder Gate there is a famous cabaret called the
Kamiya Bar. It is a new bar established by Mr
Kamiya, a brewer, three years ago, and gives satis-
faction to drinkers by supplying very cheap liquors
brewed at his own brewery ; the drinks most popular
and peculiar to the bar are electric brandy, Keiran-
shochu (a kind of egg-nog), and whisky. If you visit
the bar about the time the electric lamps in streets
are lighted, you find the seats in the bar are fully
occupied, mostly by the lower middle-class people,
who have just dropped in here on their way home
from their day-work. It is funny to read a notice
on the wall of the saloon : " Up to 3 glasses of
Electric Brandy, Keiran-shochu or Whisky can be
served, and Never More."
The backside of the long bar is entirely glazed with
big glasses, and long tables covered with white porce-
lain slates are disposed in four lines below the bar.
Drinks are served by bar boys, but no waitresses ; as
for relishes, sausage, kon-nyaku, boiled beans, or bean-
curd can be preferred. At the middle part of the first
table there is a group of three navvies, one of whom
already emptied up his three glasses of brandy and two
plates of beans and two of bean-curd. His stomach
being not yet satisfied, he orders more relishes and
more drinks, but a boy politely tells him that he can
take more food, but that the drink over three glasses
cannot be served according to the regulation of the
shop. The drunkard seems to be unpleasant by the
refusal, and is grumbling against the boy. After a
few minutes his eyes gleam and, suddenly calling
one of his two comrades, he groans out : " I say,
Kuma, you are always weak to drinks, and this
evening you took two glasses already. That's queer !
I think you want no more. Let me have your spare
glass ! " Mr Kuma consents at once and orders his
7
THE NIGHTSIDE OF JAPAN
glass. One glass full of purple brandy is instantly
brought by a boy before Kuma, and the drunkard
takes it in exchange with his empty glass. The
latter is very proud of the success of his stratagem.
A girl about ten years old is peeping into the hall
from the entrance, and a bar boy having perceived
her beckons her to enter. She comes in, and the boy
asks her what she wants. The little girl, dressed in
dirty clothes and with tousled hair, is shy by the
brightness of light in the saloon, and hardly speaks
to the kind boy. " I've come to find out my papa.
Mamma told me he is in this bar." She is looking
round the crowd, but could not find out her father.
The boy brings a stool to one end of the hall and
let the girl stand upon it easily to see faces of
people in the room. Having found out her father
at last, she jumps down the stool and, running up to
a man sitting by a table and drinking whisky, plucks
him by the sleeve. Alarmed by the sudden attack,
the man of some forty years old, and in costume of
fishmonger, looks back and, finding his daughter
standing by him, he stands up and comes to a vacant
space at a corner of the hall. Being somewhat
intoxicated, he asks her : " What's the matter ? Why
have you come here ? " " Mamma and I," whispers
the daughter, with tears in her eyes, "have been
waiting for you come back. We don't take supper
yet. Mamma told me you must be in this bar again,
and to find and take you home. Come home with
me at once, papa." The father awakes from his
dream and, after paying accounts, he drops out of
the bar, accompanied by his obedient daughter.
Next evening you will visit the Hibiya Park. The
park is situated just in the central part of the capital,
and entirely different from Asakusa in its aspects.
Leave tram near the east gate of the park, and
stepping in the entrance you get upon the mound
near by. It is nine o'clock in the evening, and the
8
THE FLOWER GARDEN IN HIBIYA PARK.
THE POND AND SUMMER HOUSE IN HIBIYA PARK.
ASAKUSA AND HIBIYA PARK
broad streets along iron fences on the east and north
sides being bright with electric and gas lamps standing
high on the road, trams, autos, carriages, and rikisha
are running with noises of thunder. On the contrary,
inside of the park is so dark and quiet that even no
sound of footsteps can be heard. Towards north of
the mound, and through the leaves of trees, twinkling
lights far distant can be recognised ; the lights come
from a restaurant named Matsumato-ro. Just below
the mound there is a pond, in which an artificial
fountain is spouting water among a cluster of massive
rocks at the centre. Stepping down the mound, you
come to the bank of the pond, and by the twilight
of stars find a summer - house near the margin.
Approaching the summer-house, you observe two
black shades sitting close on a bench under the roof.
They are talking so secretly that you cannot hear
what they speak. When they noticed somebody
coming near them they seem much surprised, and
suddenly leave the house and disappear into the
dark. You can judge by their figures that one is a
young gentleman and the other a damsel.
Turning round a corner along the pond you come
to the quarter of flower gardens. You go on the
walk, enjoying the strong perfume of flowers, but find
nobody there. A policeman come round and, lifting
up his lantern and after giving his keen looks upon
your face, he steps on his duty. Passing out the
garden quarter you arrive at an open space which is
limited for the play-ground for football, baseball,
cycling, etc. On the north side of the ground there
stands a music hall; in summer evening concerts of
military and amateur bands are held here every
Saturday and Sunday. To the west of the ground
rows of benches are regularly set. When you
approach these benches, again you would find some
four or six groups of men and women seated on them,
and a pair on each bench talking and embracing
each other. If they see flash of policeman's
9
THE NIGHTSIDE OF JAPAN
lantern, or hear his footsteps, they run away or take
refuge into the bushes of azaleas behind the benches.
What kind of people are they that visit the park at
night and dare tete-a-tete in such a dishonourable
place ? A policeman told that some of them do not
only belong to higher middle class, but he had once
caught a lady of some notable family.
Pass a curving lane in the azalea bushes and there
appears a large entrance to the restaurant Matsumato-
ro. It is limited from the outside with hedges of
evergreen trees. In the yard around the building
a number of tables and chairs are arranged in each
table name of a waitress is mentioned, such as Hana
Um, Take", Kiyo, etc. It is a rule of the restaurant
that when a visitor takes a seat at any of these tables,
the girl of the name mentioned is to attend him.
Now it is about eleven o'clock in night. All tables in
the yard are occupied by customers ; near each table
the appointed waitress is attending, smiling and
chattering in response to chaffing and bantering
of her habitue. Most of visitors take beer and sake ;
whisky and cognac are the liquors for young swells,
and those mixed with soda water are often welcomed
by them.
A graphophone put on a large table is performing
in its highest tone a piece of joruri song (a kind of
opera song); but none of people seem to listen to
it. At one corner of the yard you find a young
lady and an old gentleman sitting by a small round
table between them. The lady is on her Japanese
dress a la mode and the man on European clothes.
On the table four or five dishes emptied and plates
of oranges and cakes can be seen ; an emptied
bottle of soda water and a cup full of coffee stand
before the lady, and the man, who keeps a glass of
beer in his hand and is very red on his face, is
secretly appeasing her : " All right, you are quite
right. Then what you want for me to do? eh?"
The lady's face is very pale and her answer escapes,
10
THE NIOMON GATE IN ASAKUSA PARK,
THE JUNIKAI (TWELVE STORY TOWER) IN ASAKUSA PARK.
ASAKUSA AND HIBIYA PARK
faintly from her hard-tied lips : " Take me to
O by the last train, and I shall come back to-
morrow evening." "All right," agrees the old
fellow, " I shall send telephone to my house and tell
my family that I have some business at O early
to-morrow morning." He then claps his hands
(this is the Japanese habit to call maid-servant) and,
enquiring the place of telephone to the maid, he goes
for it. The lady left alone looks after him and, with
some derisive smiles on her face, takes up her cup of
coffee and empties it up at one draught. A few
minutes after the man comes back ; his face is
bright with satisfaction for his success, and he speaks
proudly, taking seat on his chair : " Everything is
right. Now let us start." He pays the bill, gives a
tip to the waitress, and the couple hurries for the
Shimbashi Station. The waitress, with fifty sen
silver in her hand, whispers to her comrades in the
bar, and all their eyes are turned on the backs of the
two now getting out of the restaurant gate. What
are they ? the drunkard and the belle ! A big old rat
has been caught by a small mild cat !
The downstairs saloon is a large room of Japanese
style, with the floor covered with mattings, on which
some six or eight low square tables are adjusted, with
a certain distance from one another. The alcove and
walls are decorated in pure Japanese fashion ; a
picture of rural scenery is hung against the wall of
alcove, on whose elevated floor flowers of the season
are thrown in a pot, and a large advertisement
picture of belle's portrait is hung on the wall of
opposite side. All tables are occupied by men and
women ; at a table near the alcove three provincials
are taking supper, and at another table, next to them,
a young American, who sits down on the matting
like others (no chairs prepared in the room), speaks
fluent Japanese and drinks Japanese wine (sake) in
company with three Japanese gentlemen and two
ladies. The country folks are much surprised to see
II
THE NIGHTSIDE OF JAPAN
the Yankee very well trained in handling Japanese
chop-sticks. He seems to be very fond of sashimi,
among other dishes, and as often as he takes it he is
taking sake. Sashimi is pieces of raw fish flesh,
which is eaten after soaking in soy, and it is so much
admired by the Japanese, and so important dish
among others that it can never be lacked in dishes
prepared for any feast ; consequently there is no
Japanese banquet which is served without sashimi.
All foreigners, however, cannot eat sashimi when they
come to Japan, and are served with the dish first.
The upstairs of the restaurant is divided into
several small rooms, all in European style. In the
centre of each room a table and chairs are put in
good arrangement and, in daytime, you can look
the greens of wood of the Emperor's Palace through
the windows of these rooms. People who come to
these separate rooms are mostly of rather higher
rank, and visit here for refreshment on their way of
taking walk together with their family. Thirsty boys
are satisfied by cups of coffee or tea ; small daughters,
tired up by walking, lean their back against the
chairs.
Besides Matsumato-ro, in the park there is another
restaurant Mihashi-tei, which is of pure Japanese
system in its construction and treatment, and more-
over you can find two or three smaller tea-houses at
different parts. All these restaurants and tea-houses
are shut up after 12 P.M.
12
". " ! *"*
GIRLS SINGING IN THE VARIETY HALL (YOSSfi).
CHAPTER II
THEATRES AND YOSSE (VARIETY HALLS)
THIRTY minutes before 5 P.M. men and women
crowd in front of the booking offices of the
Teikoku Goekijo (Imperial Theatre). The theatre is
situated thirty yards north to the Hibiya Park, and
built in three stories with white bricks. It is the
largest theatre in Tokyo most lately established in
European style. Besides over thirty actors belonging
to the old school of the Japanese drama, there are more
than fifty actresses solely dependent to the theatre.
The theatrical circles of Japan are classified into two
schools the old and the new. Actors hereditary
since ancient times are called of the old school, while
those sprung up out of young men, who received new
education, associate in a new school of so-called
new actors. In Tokyo there are more than thirty
theatres, and it is in the Imperial Theatre only that
the opera is performed, mingled with the dramatic
performances of comedy and tragedy. The most
eminent of the actors of the theatre are Koshiro,
Sojuro, Baiko, and Matsusuke, and those of the
actresses Ritsuko, Namiko, Kakuko, and Kikuye.
The theatre is opened at 5 P.M. every evening
throughout the year. The tickets are divided into
five classes : ist to 4th class, and the special. First
to 3rd and special class tickets can be purchased any
time since ten days before, and the 4th class only is
sold on the day. You get a ist class ticket, paying
13
THE NIGHTSIDE OF JAPAN
yen 1 1.80 for it, and are conducted by a guide-girl to
a chair in a box in front of the stage. A programme
is given by the girl. It is still ten minutes before the
play begins, and you come out to the corridor to have
interior sights of the theatre. On the left side of
downstairs there is a large European restaurant room
called Tdydken, and tables in the saloon are decorated
with beautiful flowers. Waiters on snow-white
jackets are very busy in preparation for reception of
customers. On the opposite side a Japanese restaur-
ant Kagetsu opens its shop ; the hall of the restaurant
is in pure Japanese fashion, and most of ladies come
here for tiffin. Along the long curved corridor on
upstairs various kinds of shops are opened : cafes,
bars, sushi, tiffin, shtruko, toys, pictures, and photo-
graphs. Third story is occupied by 4th class people.
In each story, three or four smoking-rooms are
arranged in situations of good prospects ; through
the windows of rooms facing to west and south you
can appreciate the views of the Hibiya Park, as well
as of the Emperor's Palace Entrance Gate.
Orchestra informs opening of the stage, and you
return to your seat. Now all boxes and parterres
are full of visitors, silk dresses and hair decorations of
ladies reflecting the flowery electric lights of ceiling.
At just five o'clock P.M., the satin curtain is rolled
up, and there appears on the stage a scene of the
drama of feudal age. Buzzing and murmuring of
people is silenced at once, and they are earnest to see
and listen the performance. The play in performance
is a tragedy in the dynasty of the Tokugawa
Shogunate. Acclamations are given when the art of
actors and actresses come to its top of skill. When
the first scene closed, and a figured crape curtain
hangs down, most of people goes out of their seats ;
men come to smoking-rooms, some take a walk in
the corridor, and some visit cafe or bars. Ladies come
to dressing-rooms in special accommodations for
them, or accompanied by children, buy picture books
1 A yen is about two shillings.
KOSHIRO I ACTOR OF THE TEIKOKU-GEKIJO,
THEATRES AND YOSSE
or photos of actors or actresses. The entSacte is
five minutes, and soon the next scene is opened.
After three or four scenes finished, there is given an
entfacte of twenty minutes, which is time for refresh-
ment. Restaurants and other eating shops are full
of people some gentlemen run to a bar and take a
glass of whisky ; a group of young girls from 3rd to
4th class seats, make a ring at a corner of the balcony,
and are criticising on their favourite actors and
actresses. The play is over at u P.M., and the
waves of crowd flow out of large exits on three sides
of the building.
Having forced out of an exit, you come round to
the back side of the theatre, and there you find the
gateway for actors and actresses. Near the gate you
notice motor-cars and carriages awaiting their masters
and mistresses. At about a quarter to 12 P.M., two
actresses of No. I class make appearance on the
gate, followed by three commissioners of the theatre ;
here they take leave from the commissioners and get
in a motor-car, which runs for the south instantly, its
two large dazzling eyes shining upon the dark road.
Have these two actresses gone home? No, having
been sent for by their patrons they have gone to a
restaurant at such the dead of night !
By the way, the theatre of pure Japanese system
will be explained. Except the Teikoku Gekijo and
two or three other theatres, all the theatres in Tokyo
still keeps their old system and habits since the last
century, though some of them made reforms in their
treatment for visitors, and in some trifling points.
The Kabukiza, Shintomiza y Meijiza, Ichimuraza,
Hongoza and Tokyoza (za means theatre) can be said
most eminent among the old school theatres. They
open at n A.M. to 3 P.M. and are closed at 10 to 1 1 in
night, so that at least eight to ten hours must be
sacrificed to visit such a theatre. The seats boxes
as well as pits are not prepared with chairs, but
covered with mattings, on which people sit down on
15
THE NIGHTSIDE OF JAPAN
their bent knees. Each person is furnished with
zabuton (a kind of small square cushion), which is
applied between the matting and knees (if the
European visit such a theatre of old Japanese system,
of course, chairs are served for them). A box has
room enough for six persons and, the pit being also
divided into hundreds of little small square boxes,
each pit-box can hardly contain four persons. Around
the theatre there stand rows of two-story houses
and they are called Shibai-chaya (tea-houses for the
theatre). The business of these chaya (tea-house) is
to guide theatre-visitors, and serve everything neces-
sary for them : such as programme, zabuton (cushion),
hibachi (charcoal brazier), tobacco, cake, fruit, tiffin,
dishes, wine, etc. Ladies and gentlemen of higher
class go to theatre through these so-called tea-houses,
while lower people buy tickets directly at the entrance
of theatre. It is a habit a very bad habit and lately
in question for its prohibition that people who
come to these guide-houses would pay to them a
tip of yen 5 to I o at least, besides the fixed fee for
guiding. Direct visitors, that is, those not assisted
by tea-house, are guided to their appointed boxes by
a guide-man called dekata^ who can supply anything
they want, and if they wish to get his careful treat-
ment they are to give him a silver coin of fifty sen
too. There are accommodations for refreshments,
and many shops in the interior of the theatre ; but,
instead of visiting these shops, most of people take
wine and meal at their own seats in boxes and pits
all carried in by maids of tea-house, or guide-men of
the theatre. The Europeans will wonder if they see
people smoking, drinking, and eating in their own
boxes. Is entr'acte very short and no time to go to
those shops or guide-houses ? No, on the contrary,
very long ; at least twenty minutes every interval, and
sometimes half an hour ! Why then don't they go
out? No reason at all, but a mere habit of play-
goers since ancient times !
16
THE TEIKOKU-GEKIJO (IMPERIAL THEATRE).
THE KABUKIZA THEATRE.
THEATRES AND YOSSE
The city of Tokyo is divided into fifteen wards,
and in each ward there are six or seven performance
halls named YossJ (Variety Halls). In these variety
halls the performances given every night are various,
as their name shows, and performers who attend a
hall are alternated fortnightly or every half a month
ist to 1 5th and i6th to 3Oth or 3ist each month.
Those who most commonly attend the hall are story-
tellers, jugglers, acrobats, top-spinners, joruri katari
(a kind of opera singers), te-odori (dancing-girls), and
so on. The variety hall is taken as refreshment
places in night for people in Tokyo, from the higher
middle class down to the lowest. After supper you
take a walk through a street near your house and,
finding a variety hall on the way, approach it and
read the names of performers mentioned on a
programme- board hung at the entrance of the hall.
By paying admission, twenty or thirty sen, you get
a wood cheque for your geta (clogs ; in yosse you
have to take off even the boots), and when you march
on into the hall, a hall-maid brings a zabuton (cushion)
and a small charcoal fire-box, for which you pay five
or six sen. The floor of the hall is covered with
mattings ; there are no boxes, visitors taking their
seats at any part of the room as they like. Some
halls are furnished with upstairs seats.
A hall can generally contain three hundred to five
hundred people. The front of the hall is the stage for
performers, about three feet high, six feet wide, and six
yards long, its back side being shut up with doors, and
right and left sides are passages. Above the stage two
electric lights hang down from the ceiling, and a fire-
box and a large square zabuton (cushion) are prepared
for the performer on the stage. Upon the fire-box a big
kettle is boiling, and steam jutting out of its beak ; and
a tea-cup is laid beside the box. The drum-beating
in the green room, situated just behind the stage, is
harbinger for opening performance. First their
appears on the stage a young fSltow^fiflrrying a small
17 B
THE NIGHTSIDE OF JAPAN
fan in his right hand, and kneels down upon the
cushion. He is a story-teller it is a fashion for story-
tellers to keep a fan in his hand. He bows down his
body for the audience and then, taking up the kettle
from the fire-box, pours hot water into the tea-cup.
After moisting his throat and tongue by two or three
sips he begins to tell a facetious story, handling his
fan, opening and shutting, and all audience laugh by
his jokes and funny gestures. When he finishes and
gets down the stage, a bamboo blind, framed with fine
velvet, in place of curtain, hangs down and covers the
stage. After a few minutes clappers beaten and the
blind rolled up. You see on the stage a beautiful
young girl in full dress bowing down, a diamond ring
glittering on one of her left fingers. She raises head,
her face is full of charming smile ; she stands up and
begins to dance a Japanese dance, in tune with the
samisen (Japanese banjo with three strings), in
performance behind the stage. Her long sleeves
wave and fly like butterflies, her feet on snow-white
tabi (socks), treading high and low on the stage.
Next comes another story-teller, who gives an
interesting legend, and then a Chinese acrobat follows
him. He is an expert in handling porcelain plates ;
he sets a large porcelain saucer at the tip of a stick
and spins it like a wheel. Next he throws high up a
dozen of small white plates with one hand, one after
another, and receives them with the other hand ; this
being continued very quick for several minutes the
plates seem just as white butterflies are flying in a
group, sometimes they being thrown alternately from
each hand. People claps hands at the top of his
skill. After this he sings Chinese songs and dances
his national dancing, both of which are very strange,
and all people laugh at them. He retires, and three
or four more different performers, male and female,
appear on the stage by turns. At about 10 P.M.
there comes entr'acte for twenty minutes ; vendors of
tea, cakes and fruits (and ice-cream in summer), come
18
THEATRES AND YOSSE
crying among the throng of visitors, and people take
these refreshments at their own seats, similar to those
at the old-fashioned theatre. EntSacte passes, and
three or four first-class performers appear in turn
again, most of them generally being story-tellers and
singing-girls. The hall closes at half past 1 1 P.M.
CHAPTER III
YOSHIWARA (PROSTITUTION QUARTER)
GETTING down from tram at the Thunder, Gate
(Kaminari Mori) of the Asakusa Park, you cross the
park and come to a street along its north side just
under the Twelve-Story Tower (Royun Kaku or Juni
Kai). Now it is ten o'clock in night. The street
Senzoku-machi leading from the park to Yoshiwara
is crowded with profligates and vagabonds, all in
expedition to Yoshiwara. One step out from the
boundary of the park into the Senzoku Street you
would be enveloped by rtkisha-men in touting, and
compelled to take a rikisha. All rikifha-meo. for
Yoshiwara are young and lively, and run very swift,
cleverly evading people swarming_on the road. It
takes a few minutes to reach the Omon y the entrance
gate of Yoshiwara, where you get down from rikisha
and pay twenty sen the fare. If you are generous to
give pourboire of twenty sen more, your rikisha-TCWb
would repeat his bows to show his gratitude for your
benevolence. Some twenty yards distant from the
gate you find a willow tree, which is named Mikaeri
Yanagi (Mikaeri = to look back ; Yanagi = willow).
In the feudal age of the Tokugawa Shogunate, it was
a custom for prostitute to accompany her customer to
the gate to see him off on early morning, but as she
could not get out of the gate even a step by order, he
was obliged to part from his sweetheart at the gate.
Stepping forth alone out of the gate, and coming near
20
A YOSHIWARA GIRL IN FULL DRESS.
YOSHIWARA
the point of the willow tree, he could not help to look
back at the girl standing by the gate, and was much
satisfied to meet her lovely eyes and see charming
smiles. This is said to be the origin of the name
of Mikaeri Yanagi.
In Tokyo there are six licensed quarters
Yoshiwari, Susaki, Shinagawa, Shinjuku, Itabashi,
and Senju ; and Yoshiwara is the largest and most
famous among them. The entrance gate called
the Omon (Great Gate) is the only passage into
the quarter, and no other gates nor passages are
allowed to use except on the occasion of extra-
ordinary events. In consequence, people who go in
and out the quarter have to pass the gate in any way,
and a police station is established near the gate.
When you enter the gate you come into a broad
street, on both sides of which you see regular rows of
two-story houses. The street is called Nakanocho
(Middle Street), and all these houses on both sides
are called Hikite-chaya (guide-houses for the visitors).
You would hear mellow tune of samisen and sound
of drums flowing down from the upstairs room of
some of these houses.
Before you try the guide - house, it would be
better to go round the streets and take the general
views of the prostitution quarter. There are six
main streets Ageyamachi, Sumicho, Yedocho No. I
and 2, and Kyomachi No. I and 2. Besides these
six great streets there are many narrow side streets,
where the smaller and lowest class open their shops.
At present there are in all one hundred and
seventy-five houses and more than three thousand
prostitutes in Yoshiwara. The broad street of
Nakanocho (Middle or Guide - house Street) runs
perpendicularly across the middle point of each of
six main streets, making a right angle with each
street. Turn to left the first corner of Nakanocho
and you come to the Sumicho street. Buildings on
both sides of the street are in two or three stories,
21
THE NIGHTSIDE OF JAPAN
their fronts being decorated either in Japanese or
European style. In some of them, a part of the
front is limited with wood fences and, within the
fence, photographs of harlots are shown in gilded
frames hung against the wall. At one end of the
fence there is the entrance, near which a booking
office stands, and tickets of three classes are sold
yen i, 2, and 5. You go on along one side of
the street and find many houses, whose front con-
sists of a large room, and the street side of the
room is protected with wood lattice ; you may call
it their " Showrooms." In the room, girls dressed
in red and purple sit down in a row, exposing their
painted faces for onlookers thronging by the lattice,
and shamelessly smoking their long bamboo pipe.
Such a kind of houses with " Showroom " is generally
of the third class, those of photographs being of the
second class. Two young men of student style
come along to an establishment with a " Show-
room." A girl in the room finds them out, calls
the name of one of the two, and they approach
the outside of the lattice. She and another girl,
both being in intimacy with them, come near the
lattice and persuade them to come up into the house.
The young fellows smoke the pipes given by the
sweethearts, and at last are obliged to accept their
entreaties ; they turn for the entrance and disappear
the two girls go out of the room at the same time
to attend their fellows.
At the end of the street there is a space of ground,
where you find some six or seven groups of people
surrounding stalls. Approaching them these are
odenya stalls which supply hungry loungers with
boiled taro, fish, and hampen (fish flesh crushed and
massed), and they can serve glasses of sake too.
Most of the stall-keepers in the Yoshiwara quarter
are young nice girls, who attract attention of passers-
by. One glass of sake costs ten sen, and a piece of
relishes two sen only ! Different kinds of stalls are to
22
YOSHIWARA
be found at every space along all the brothel streets.
You go on farther and arrive at another street
Kyomachi. It is the most prosperous and bustling
street among others, and beautiful young girls are
collected in the second class houses of the street.
You notice in the throng restaurant boys carrying
boxes of dishes, or maid-servants hurrying away
with bottles of sake. Looking into the shops and
criticising girls, you come round at another end of
Nakanocho again. You are now bold enough to step
into a hikite-chaya (guide-house), and the hostess and
maids of the house receives you very hospitably
and lead you to a room upstairs. New green mats
on the floor of the room, beautiful flowers full in a
large pot on the alcove, and a valuable old picture
hung against the alcove- wall everything in the room
makes you comfortable. A clever-looking maid
comes up with a tea-set and serves you a cup of tea
and cakes, and then asks you whether you want to
take sake and some dishes. After you gave order
about them, you add to hire geisha (singing- and
dancing-girls) and taikomochi (jesters), and the maid
hurries down the staircase, in compliance with your
orders. In another room of the house samisen is
heard, and guests are singing some fashionable songs,
and young girls seem to be dancing. In a few
minutes the hostess and two maid-servants, all in
stylish dresses, come up and bring a complete set of
utensils for sake. On a table several dishes are
arranged, and sake poured into a small cup. Not
long before there appear a singing- and two dancing-
girls and a jester in the room. First, you give a cup
to each of them and after several exchanges of cups
the singer takes up her samisen. She plays it and
the jester sings, two young dancing-girls waiting upon
you near your side. If you know any song you may
sing ; and now the dancing-girls begin to dance, and
at last the jester performs his funny dances, mingled
with the two little lasses.
23
THE N1GHTSIDE OF JAPAN
Now, it is near 12 P.M. and the hostess comes
and warns you it is late. Then you, guided by a
maid-servant of the house, and followed by three
girls and the jester, leave the house for the ultimate
end. The house where you are introduced is a
first-rate house called Kadoyebi-rd ; it is situated at
the first corner of Kyomachi Street and the building
in four stories with the European appearance is said
to have more than one hundred rooms. There lives
more than thirty girls in this house, all young and
beautiful. To each of them two young waitresses
and an old maid-servant are attached attending
their mistress on all business night and day.
When you enter the house you are first conducted
into a drawing-room ; the room is a very large one,
finely decorated in fashion. You sit down on a large
futon (cushion) of crape, and your followers singers
and jester take their seats behind you. As the
girl, who is to be your mate this night, is before-
hand appointed by yourself, or selected already by
the hostess of the guide-house, the two waitresses
of your girl are sent here to conduct you to her
own room. The abode of your mate consists of
three rooms on the second story ; the first room is
parlour, the second reception-room, and the third
bedroom. Guided by the two waitresses you enter
the second room, and are served tea and cake. The
singing- and dancing - girls and jester, who have
followed you up to the room, now take leave ; but if
you wish to take more sake here, and to have them
attend further, they are glad to remain and assist
your pleasure. If you are a new guest to your girl,
she does not appear until you get in bedroom, and
this is the general rule through the first-class brothels ;
but if you wish to see and talk with your girl in the
reception-room, and to take sake together with her,
you should pay yen 5 extra, which is called najimi-
kin (intimacy money). When you pay the money
she is licensed to come in your side, as you are now
24
YOSHIWARA
to be treated equal to her intimate customer, though
you are a new visitor first in this night. At i AM.
geisha and taikomochi leave the room, and you go to
bed. It is entirely given up to your own convenience
whether you will leave the house at 2 or 3 A.M. or
stay till morning. Anyhow, when you are to go
back, one of your girl's waitresses send telephone to
your guide-house, and then a maid-servant of the
guide-house comes again to receive you. You have
no need to pay even a sen here at the house. You
leave the girl's room, accompanied by the guide-
house's maid, and your girl and her waitresses come
downstairs to the entrance to see you off. Having
come back to the guide-house, you are to pay the bill,
in which all expenses since last evening are entered,
and at the same time you would be wise enough to
give tips to the house, as well as maids. A rikisha
is ready, you get in it, and the rikiska-m&n runs
away towards the Omon\ you hear at your back
showers of thanks poured out by hostess and
maid-servants standing and looking you off at their
shop.
The way above mentioned to take amusement at
Yoshiwara is one to be done by the Ai guest ; but if
you visit the second or third class houses the pro-
ceeding is utterly different, and very simple. No
need to go through guide-house; you may fix the
price at the entrance or buy ticket ; selection of girls
done by photos or among girls themselves in the
so-called " Showroom " ; sake and meals served by
the house itself; geisha can be called in lower rate,
if you like. One point, however, very important for
goers to lower-class houses is that they must be
always very attentive, otherwise his purse would be
squeezed out by clerks and maid-servants of the
place ; those in these houses, as well as girls
themselves, cannot be said honest and kind, and if
they see a guest to be a provincial or unaccustomed
to this quarter, their endeavours to put him into
25
THE NIGHTSIDE OF JAPAN
temptations are so dreadful that he would be at last
compelled to spend all money in his pocket.
A profligate, whose habit is to visit the quarter
every night, comes up t his acquainted house, and
next morning he has no money in his pocket. If his
intimate girl loves him, she would be kind enough to
advance for him ; but if not, she refuses to take charge
for his bill. On this latter case he must go out of
the brothel to make money, accompanied by a man
attached by the house. The man is nicknamed uma
(horse), which is a very obstinate fellow, and never
misses his captive until he gets the money for the
bill, however long it takes, or however far the poor
bird flies round the city to collect money. On the
contrary, sometimes a girl falls in love with her
patron. The young man spends all his money for his
sweetheart, and falls into the depth of debts ; the
girl, too, calls her lover by doing her best, increasing
her debt from the master of the brothel or pawning
all her dresses. By and by, the two can find no way
to support their meeting expenses ; the man is
troubled by his debts, and the girl blamed by her
master, never to meet him afterwards. At the
extreme of their mutual love they promise to die
together, and finally take poison or stab themselves
with a dagger. Next morning the two corpses are
found lying cold in the bed of the girl's room. Such
a tragical end of lovers together is called shinju.
Spring and summer nights are the most flourishing
seasons in Yoshiwara throughout the year. In
spring, several hundreds of cherry trees are planted in
the street of Nakanochd, and all branches of trees in
full blossom are illuminated with thousands of small
electric lights. At the foot of trees, paper lanterns,
each held on the top of its leg, about one yard long,
are lighted, forming a regular line-like fence around the
ground of cherry trees. When the night breeze blows
the blossoms, it is a very striking view to see white
petals falling down like snowflakes over the lanterns,
26
YOSHIWARA
Towards evening, the male and the female on their
way back from picnic to Uyeno and Mukojima (the
two places most famous for cherry flowers) pours in
here to see the night cherry flowers of Yoshiwara.
Specially wives and girls like to visit Yoshiwara in
this season, because it is the best opportunity for
them to have a full observation on brothels and
harlots, as they can go round the brothel streets in
company with their men.
In summer, several bands of Yoshiwara geisha and
taikomachi are associated to give special plays and
performances, which are called the Niwaka dancing.
Each of these bands plays on a movable stage, wheels
being fitted up under its floor. The stage, together
with dancers and musicians upon it, can be carried to
any place of Nakanocho, wherever it is requested to
come by guide-houses. It is in August that the
Niwaka performance is held, and every evening after
eight or nine o'clock these band stages appear one
after another in the street of Nakanocho. On this
occasion all guide-houses decorate their shops and
eaves with red curtains and painted round paper
lanterns, and invite thejr customers every night.
Just as in the cherry season, people crowd to see the
Niwaka dancing; when a stage stops in front of a
guide-house, and the band begin to perform its
dancing, three sides of the stage are pressed up with
throngs of spectators. Though there are several
bands of dancers, each is entirely different in its kind
of dancing, the comical performance of jesters' bands
being most funny above all. If you are a customer,
and invited to a guide-house, it would be very
interesting to call up a girl's band to your room in
the house, and see the flowery dancing of young and
beautiful geisha, accompanied by the concert of
drums, flutes, and samisen. It costs some yen twenty
to have a Niwaka band called up from its own stage
into the guide-house's room.
27
CHAPTER IV
THE GINZA STREET
THE name of Ginza recalls to all minds the most
flourishing street in Tokyo. It is situated at the
centre of the city and closely connected with the
Shimbashi Station, the south gateway of the capital.
Buildings on both sides of the street are all in European
style, constructed of brick and stone. Large buildings
are all occupied by big merchants and watchmakers
jewellers, foreign goods' dealers, and bazaars are most
prominent among them. Towards the evening, stalls
of various kinds open their shops on the pavement,
and pursue their business till midnight ; they are a
peculiar contrast to those large beautiful stores in the
European buildings. About the time when the electric
lamps are lighted in all shops, you stand near the cross-
roads of Owaricho. Your ears are deafened by roars
of tramcars, and cries of newspaper boys. Electric
trams which come and stop here are overflowing with
passengers, because the cross is the point to change
cars for them from four directions. Two or three
policemen in black uniform are standing near the
halting-place of cars and endeavouring to restrain the
confusion of people, and, at the cross of tracks, a
signalman with a lantern of red and green lights is
signalising for cars. At the north-east corner of the
cross-roads there is the three-story building of the
Yamasaki tailor merchant, at the south-east the Cafe
Lion, and at the north-west the shop of the Hattori
watchmaker, with a high clock tower on the top of its
roof.
28
THE NAKAMISE STREET IN ASAKUSA PARK.
THE STREET OF GINZA.
THE GINZA STREET
Most of men and women who wander about the
street in the evening are rather of richer rank, and
come round here for shopping by the way of taking a
walk. While you are looking, the people pass the
cross-roads young gentlemen in European dress of
the latest style, beautiful daughters in gay garments,
accompanied by their parents or maid-servants, happy
couples in honeymoon, debauchees hand-in-hand with
geisha, etc., among them you catch a figure of a poor
old woman, on whose back a little girl of about three or
four years old is carried, and the two elder sisters of the
baby are walking close by the both sides of their
mother. The woman appears to be over forty years
old, and the clothes worn by her, as well as those by
girls, are of rather dirty, and her parched brown hair
is tighted up. One of the girls about nine years old
is looking into a shop of toys and, pulling a sleeve of
her mother, says, " O very fine ! O how nice ! Mamma
get me a doll. Get me one, mamma." The mother
silences the daughter ill-temperedly, " Be silent ! A
doll ? You have good dolls at home ; " and pointing
at another show window, " Look here gold watch, gold
ring, and diamond ! Better to take soba (buckwheat)
and go home, than to buy a doll." The poor three
large and small figures go down the street to south
and stealthily get into a sobaya (buckwheat shop)
named in Chojuan. The shop is full of guests, and
the three newcomers take their seats on the floor of
the right side. Shortly, there are brought before them
three bowls of soba, which appear for them to be
dainties, and are at once devoured up. One bowl
costs only three sen and, after paying nine sen, the
mother and the satisfied daughters get out of the shop.
They do not take tram, and go home on foot, passing
over the Shimbashi Bridge.
Having followed the poor mother up to the
Shimbashi bridge, now you turn the south-end corner
of the street and come near the Dobashi Bridge, which
is situated at the south-western end of Ginza. Under
29
THE NIGHTSIDE OF JAPAN
twilight of stars, you perceive two or three black
figures sitting down on the pavement of the bridge,
and leaning their back against the railing. They are
beggars. The metropolitan police is always troubled
by this kind of human beings, and however often it
drives them away from the streets of the city, they
come back like flies. Alarm bells &irikisha y bellowing
of motor-cars, roaring of carriages and tramcars, noises
of footsteps, steam whistles of trains these they
don't care of at all, but they crouch silently on the
bridge and are repeating the habit of entreating,
" Ladies and gentlemen of the east and west, favours
to the old sick one ! " On the knee of an old woman
beggar, a poor baby of two or three years old is
sleeping, inserting its one hand into her bosom to
grasp the teat, and a little girl of seven or eight
standing by the shoulder of the mother. The girl runs
to a gentleman passing the bridge and asks his mercy
by a pitiful tone, imitating that of her elders. Alas !
What a miserable sight, in contrast to the gorgeous
and extravagant scene at the main street near by !
You come back again to the bright street and go
up and down rambling and looking into the show
windows on the both sides. The largest stores are
watchmakers and foreign goods' dealers, among the
others the oldest shop of Kobayashi, Hattori of the
watch tower, Tenshodo in tempting adornment,
Taishodo, Takenouchi, Iseso, and Kyoya are the most
famous shops on watches and precious metal goods,
and Tenkado, Haikarado, Taya, Tamaya, Takiguchi,
Minotsune, Shinseido, and Sekiguchi are the notable
dealers in foreign goods, their show windows being
decorated with their best and fine articles hung
against the wall, such as hats, neckties, shawls, and
umbrellas, stimulating the desire of purchase. Near
the Shimbashi Bridge there is a large bazaar called
the Hakuhinkan, in whose three-story building more
than seventy large and small shops open and sell
foreign goods, toys, pictures and photos, fancy goods,
30
THE GINZA STREET
toilet articles, stationeries, and porcelain wares. When
it comes near the end of the year, here the great sale
of the bazaar is carried on, and various prizes are
distributed among purchasers by drawing lots. The
great sale is called The Nenmatsu Fukubiki Ouridashi,
which means " The Great Sale by the Distribution
of Lot Prizes at the End of the Year." Customers to
the Ginza shops are proud of what they have purchased
here, and all the goods and articles of Ginza being
believed to be of the first rank they don't care of
higher prices. Articles of the same kind and quality
can be bought at lower prices in the streets of Yatsuya
or Kanda district, and yet ladies living in the Bluff
quarters come down to Ginza in evening by taking
trams, or by rikisha to satisfy their vanity for their
neighbours and friends. If their clothes or articles are
wrapped in the paper with signs of any Ginza shops,
it is thought by them to be endorsement for the
goods of the first and best class.
Next you shall go round to examine the stalls along
the margin of the pavement. At a lane of a by-street
of Ginza there is " a God of Little Children " called
the Jizd, and on the yth, i8th and 2Qth of every
month the festival is held for the god. The day of
the festival is popularly called the ennichi. In the
city of Tokyo such festivals are celebrated every day
throughout a month, and there is not a day in the
year which is not crowned with the ennichi of a
certain shrine or temple, so that abundant kinds of
little gods, as well as Buddhistic temples, are
worshipped by religious citizens. In the evening of
such ennichi, stalls of smaller scale make rows along the
small streets near the shrine or temple on festival, and
these stalls are entirely different in their kind of shops
compared to the stalls opened every night in the main
street. This evening, it is the ennichi of Jizo god,
and, taking advantage of it, you shall try to examine
both kinds of the night stalls.
Theyomtse or night stalls of Ginza are a singular
THE NIGHTSIDE OF JAPAN
contrast to the large stores in the street. People can
have food, dresses, books, and everything from these
stores in the brick buildings, and yet small stalls
lighted with the oil or acetylene gas lamps attract
their customers every night. The furu-dogu-ya or
dealers in second-hand furniture are rather larger
stalls among the others and their merchandises con-
sist of tansu (chest of drawers), chadana (shelf for tea-
service), hombako (bookcase), toko okimono (ornament
kept in the al cove), jikumono (roll of hanging picture),
karakane zaiku (bronze furniture), etc. In smaller
stalls, shirts, hats and caps, soaps, perfumes, old
clothes, stockings, shoes and boots, clogs, sticks,
toilet articles and fancy goods for girls, all of inferior
quality and cheaper price are sold. There are also
the shops of fruits, cakes, and parched peas. Stalls
of pictures, picture cards, second - hand books and
magazines, are visited by students. Two or three
shops of hodzuki (ground or winter cherries) draw
the groups of little girls. At one corner of the street
a hawker of new inventions is giving explanation in
loud voice, and enveloped by the crowd of people.
It is from eight to eleven that the night stalls
are most crowded with visitors. In some second-
hand furniture shops you can find some articles
which cost yen 50 to 100 per piece, and the
dealers have as their customers the government
officers of high rank, or rich European gentlemen.
Though they are called the dealers of second-hand
articles, they are not limited to treat old things only,
and you cannot slight merchandises in these stalls.
The Ginza Street is not lacked of publishers and
bookstores, Keiseisha, Kyobun Kan, Kin-odd, Shuns-
hodo and Shimbashido, being large and famous shops,
and yet the night stalls of old pictures and second-
hand books sell very well, Besides these large and
flourishing stalls, you can see very small and miser-
able shops, where wives of poor day-workers expose
little things of one or two sen. The most interesting
32
THE GINZA STREET
contrasts are a stall of Buddhist scripture books,
situated against the door of the Salvation Army
Headquarters, and another stall of rings and chains
made of alloy just in front of a large watch stone.
These two stalls are full of guests a scripture book
being bought by an old lady, and a " gold " ring taken
by a young fellow in exchange with his five sen
nickel coin.
Now you turn a corner and enter the stall street of
the ennichi of the god Jizo. All stalls are small, and
most of visitors are children. Naturally the articles
sold in these stalls are those attract their attention
toys and cakes being most popular for them. Among
the children you find men and women wandering
about the street, and if you come to the shrine you
will find it strange that those who worship the god
Jizo are only one-tenth out of the visitors. What is
their object to come to the ennichi^ if they do not
think to make prayer to the god ? The most striking
views in the ennichi\s the shows of plants by gardeners
and, being collected at one part of the street, rows of
green leaves and flowers of the season exhibit a very
excellent sight. It is a curious custom that the
gardeners at the ennichi always blow an overcharge
of about nine times upon the actual price, and citizens
being well accustomed of the habit, they cut off nine-
tenths of the proposed value when they have to buy
a plant at the ennichi. Towards the midnight visitors
are gradually dispersed for their home, and the stalls
both in the front street and for the ennichi put up
their shops and go to their home or lodging. After
the stalls were cleared away, the pavement, as well
as the by-street on the ennichi, is found scattered
with peel of oranges, end of cigarettes, and torn
pieces of wrapping paper ; and under the dreary light
of the street lamps the stepping sound of a police-
man can only be heard.
The electric tram through the city of Tokyo runs
till about I A.M., and we can recognise the last car of
33 c
THE NIGHTSIDE OF JAPAN
the night by its red light fixed at its head and rear.
Being now past twelve, and feeling somewhat hungry,
you wish to take something. Coming again at the
cross-roads of Owaricho, you enter the Cafe Lion at
the south-east corner. Here you can prefer any kind
of wine, European and Japanese beer, Masamune
(genuine Japanese sake), whisky, liqueur, vodka, and
so on and may pine after the evening of Paris or
London, or dream of the pleasure at Berlin or St
Petersburg. Most of the guests assembled in this
house are young gentlemen of so-called new taste ;
a party of three or four comes by automobile, accom-
panied by young beautiful geisha (singing-girls) of
Shimbashi, and occupies a room upstairs. The
laughter of the girls echoes in the room, and their
crimson sleeves wave around the table. About the
middle of the staircase you meet a young lady stepping
down, and fragrance from her body strikes at your
nose at the moment of passing closely. Is she a
madam, daughter, or street-walker ? The saloon
upstairs is full of the confused odour of wine and
tobacco smoke. Here you see the young officers of
the Embassies and Legations ; famous lawyers and
politicians ; assistant professors of botany and
physiology ; authors and critics groups of these
various ranks take their seats round the tables and
are smoking, drinking, eating, and remonstrating.
The place most crowded in the Cafe is the bar down-
stairs, and here all classes of people from the higher
to the lowest are taking refreshment men of music,
stage, or brush ; merchants, students, workmen, and
labourers ; all come in and out by turns.
In the Cafe there are young waitresses, about twenty
in number, their breast being covered with snow-white
aprons. They are all beautiful, their white face
smiling on love, and their red hair ribbon flying in
show. There are not a few young customers who
come to the Cafe" every night and sue the waitresses,
and the manager of the shop was smiling when he
34
THE GINZA STREET
told once to a customer, " Our waitresses must be
young and beautiful, but these beauties do not stay
long and go home shortly on pretence of some family
reasons." It is the fact that the girls here are found
always to be renewing. Being sued by the hand of
young blood, the weak females could not refuse it.
Some of them may have been taken wives, but most
are perhaps fallen in the abysses of ruin, after a
momentary dream of honey-love.
Next evening you again visit Ginza and happen to
appear on the front gate of the Kqjunsha, one of the
largest social clubs in Tokyo. The club is situated
at Minami-nabecho, a second street to the west of the
main street. It is the European building of three
stories, and every evening you will find carriages and
motor-cars at the entrance, waiting for their masters.
At the vicinity of Ginza there are a great number of
social clubs, most famous among them being the
Kazoku-kaikan (the Club of Peers), the Gakushikai
(the Club of the Imperial University Graduates), the
Tokyo Club (the Club for Peers and Foreigners), the
Nihon Club (most of its members are the Government
officials), the Kuyshu Club (members limited to the
natives of Kyushu Island), the Tetsudo Kydkai (Rail-
way Association), the Bo-eki-Kyokai (Trade Associa-
tion), the Mitsui Club (of the Mitsui Co.), the Yusen
Club (of the Nihon Yusen Kaisha i.e., the Japan Mail
Steamer Co.), and the Jugo Ginko Club (of the No.
15 Bank). While members of these clubs are
limited to a certain rank or circle, the Kojunsha is
open for refined gentlemen of all classes. The
central strength of the club is consisted of the
graduates of the Keio College, and, among its
members, there are peers, scholars, statesmen, poli-
ticians, officials, merchants, lawyers, and journalists,
the total number of them amounting to seven hundred
at present. Any gentleman can be enrolled as a
member of the club by introduction of two members,
35
THE NIGHTSIDE OF JAPAN
and after the resolution of the standing committee.
Every member has the duty to contribute yen 30 at
first, and to pay yen 3 every month. The position
of the club being at the centre of Ginza and near
Shimbashi, it is a pride and honour for gentlemen to
be a member of the club.
At downstairs there are the billiard-room, bar; and
Japanese dance-room. Billiards is played till late in
night ; every day and in the bar you can choose any
kind of wine, red, blue, white, or yellow. A small
fixed stage is seen in the dance-room, and on ordinary
days there we find a number of shogiban (Japanese
chess-boards) and goban (Japanese checker-boards)
arranged in regular order. The walls are covered
with the pictures of beauties painted by Mitsuya and
Watanabe, the two famous artists, and four or five
groups of the members are pleasantly playing on shogi
(chess) and go (checker) under the bright electric
lights. On the second story there is a large dining-
room, and European dishes can be served there. The
third story is occupied by the library and the rooms
for conversation and smoking. You find a count and
a merchant prince talking by a table of the conversa-
tion room, and at another table a doctor gossiping
with an editor. Purple smokes are drifting about
over the heads of the crowds in the smoking-room.
The dark green colour of the library's walls sets the
readers' mind at rest, and desks near the windows
are furnished with letter-paper and envelopes. On a
long table, in the centre of the room, all kinds of daily
newspapers and periodicals are arranged in good
order. Though the club is situated in the bustling
street of Ginza, yet the noises outside do not reach to
the third story, only distant sound of the drum beaten
by the street pedlar occasionally disturbing the silence
of the room. Besides these rooms on the third story,
there is a barber's room at the corner, and old and young
gentlemen are found there shaving or cutting the hair.
Getting out of the club, you advance towards the
36
THE GINZA STREET
main street again. It is now past ten. You see a
crowd of people in front of a large shop, and approach-
ing them, you find they are listening the song thrown
out of a phonograph placed on a table in the shop.
Leaving here, you go on some fifty or sixty yards to
south, and, turning a corner to east, you come near
the river bank. The part of Ginza along the small
river is called Sanjukken-bori, and, though the
quarter is near the centre of Ginza, streets about here
are rather dark, all houses and shops being not so
much illumined as in the main street. You find a
number of houses very fashionably built, and furnished
with gates or doors of elegant form. On the roof or
gate lamp you can read the name of each of these
houses, and at times a rikisha with rubber tyre wheels
runs out of the gate, leaving in the air behind it the
perfume of white rose. What kind of business is
taken in these graceful houses? They are called
machiai or waiting - houses. In Ginza there are
many large and small restaurants, and the largest
and most famous among them are the Kagetsu,
Matsumatoro, Kinrokutei, and Fukkitei, amounting
to twenty-four or five in all. Around the quarters of
the restaurants and waiting-houses there are the
alleys of geisha, and six hundred and eighty-four
large and small so-called Shimbashi geisha (singing-
and dancing-girls of the Shimbashi circle) live in
their houses built in rows on the both sides of the
narrow roads called Itajim-michi, Nakadori, Komparu,
and Shigaraki-jimmichi.
It is not unreasonable that there we find a great
number of machiai, not only at Sanjukken-bori, but
also in all by-streets not far distant to those dens of
geisha, and these waiting-houses within the boundary
of the Ginza quarter are counted to sixty-six at present.
Profession of geisha is to wait upon guests in the
restaurants, and to assist their pleasure by singing and
dancing; but the so-called machiai are also their
favourite and important haunts. Besides the geisha^
37
THE NIGHTSIDE OF JAPAN
you often find young females, with the appearance
of a mixture of professional and unprofessional, come
in and out of machiai of lower class. What kind of
girls are they ? Details of geisha and the interior of
machiai will be explained under the chapter of
" Geisha and Restaurants."
You do not enter to try any of machiai this night ;
and your stomach being still full of food taken in the
Kojunsha Club, you stroll about to the western part
of Ginza. Crossing the main street again to the
west, and on one side of a street near the end of the
street Takekawacho, there stand a stall of " Ippin
Seiyo Ryori" (one dish European cooking), and
another stall of sushi (pickled rice covered or mixed
with fish, eggs, and vegetables) next to it. In square
boxes covered with glass on the sushi stall several
kinds of sushi are arranged in rows each small oval
mass of pickled rice being covered with red flesh of
tunny fish, yellow square piece of egg, pink and
white flesh of lobster or shrimp, pearl white slice of
cuttle fish, silvery flesh of saba fish (scomber pneu-
matophorus), or rolled up with parched laver. Three
or four young fellows of clerk form are standing near
each of the one dish cooking and the sushi stalls,
and those in the former eat cutlet or beef-steak and
drink wine ; but the lovers of sushi drink tea which
emits an agreeable perfume. At the dark corner of
the next street you see a group of all-night rikisha-
men, and when you pass by them, one who has been
yawning comes near you and asks you to take
rikisha by their habitual phrase, " Danna, Oyasuku
mairimasho " (Sir, I shall follow you by a cheap fare).
It is now twelve, and these dark by-streets are
visited by policemen and rikisha-mer\ only. The two
or three men perhaps driven out of a restaurant or
machiai appear and go towards the Shimbashi Bridge,
walking in zigzags, and a black lacquered rikisha
passes by you at its full speed. On the rikisha
you observe, by a dim light of a roof lantern, the
38
THE GINZA STREET
black hair and white face and shoulders covered with
a gaudy silk crape dress. Howling of a " oinarisan "
pedlar (oinarisan is a kind of sushi, and its pickled
rice is wrapped with a piece of fried bean - curd
flavoured with sugar and soy) and flute of a Chinese
buckwheat seller are faintly heard in a distant street.
No trace of beggars on the Dobashi and Shimbashi
Bridge can be seen now.
A little past i A.M., suddenly a powerful strange
sound begins to come out of a big building ; for
a minute it ceases, and then again confused, noisy,
strong sounds are heard continually. Two or three
dogs awake from their sleep and bark for the
dark. Similar miscellaneous sounds can be heard
at Yumicho, Takiyamacho, Hiyoshicho, Minami-
Nabecho, Yamashitacho, and near the Kyobashi
Bridge, the north end of Ginza, at the dead of
night. These noises are from the rotary presses
of the newspaper offices. In the Ginza quarter
there are eight newspaper offices the Yomiuri,
Yamato, Mancho, Nippon, Jiji, Chu-6, Kokumin,
and Asahi, and it is a pride of Ginza that the
quarter holds above one half of more than ten
larger daily papers in Tokyo. After two or three
hours the vicinity of the newspaper offices becomes
noisy by carts to transport the printed papers, and
with ringing of bells carried by distributers. It is
now near the dawn, and the first electric tram of the
morning full of people most of them being the day-
labourers runs on the main street, which is still
peaceful and lonely. The fare of morning trams
before 7 A.M. is at one half of the ordinary value.
Next evening you try to taste the fried fish of the
Tenkin, the most famous fried fish shop in Tokyo.
To take supper in Ginza there are many restaurants,
European and Japanese, and every kind of eating-
houses ; but so-called tempuraya (fried fish shop) is a
peculiar class of restaurants, where dishes are limited
39
THE NIGHTSIDE OF JAPAN
to fried fish only. In every part of Tokyo you can find
the fried fish restaurants, but there is no shop which can
supply more tasteful and delicate tempura (fried fish)
than the Tenkin. The fried fish shop is best for taking
supper in company of one's family, owing to its simple-
ness and cheapness. The position of the Tenkin is
near the cross-roads of Owaricho, and its building and
system inside are entirely in the pure Japanese style.
If you come near the front of the shop, you will first
see the entrance shut up with paper sliding-doors, on
which you can read the two large Chinese characters
Ten and Kin. Then you open the door, and at the
moment you step in your nose will be attacked with
the smell of boiling oil to fry fish in this restaurant
only sesame oil is used, and no others. The surface of
the staircase leading to the upstairs saloon is made
bright and smooth with gradually soaked oil. On up-
stairs, there are no special or separate rooms, but one
large saloon is only the room for visitors, no tables and
no chairs, but covered with the Japanese mattings.
You sit down on a futon (cushion) brought by a little
maid-servant, and give order to her for your dishes.
Leaning against the wall and looking round, there is
a couple to your right, and they seem to be impatient
with long waiting for their dishes, the husband killing
time by smoking. Nothing is more wasting time than
to wait at the tempuraya and unaginya (eel restaurant),
and it is inevitable to wait one hour at least to have
the first dish of fried fish furnished before you after
you get in the tempuraya^ specially in the Tenkin shop.
The object of visitors to the Tenkin is to eat but not to
drink, and when they are once served with their portions
they don't take long time to finish supper. Conse-
quently three hundred or four hundred companies of
guests go in and out of the restaurant by turns in three
or four hours every evening. One half of these guests
are citizens of Tokyo, and the other half provincials,
who come sight-seeing to the capital, and are attracted
by the fame of the restaurant. It is not rare that the
40
THE GINZA STREET
Shimbashi geisha of the first class make their appear-
ance in the saloon, together with their acquainted
customers, and take supper among confusion of the
crowded visitors. To your left, one boy and two girls,
accompanied by their parents, finished supper already.
One bottle of sake and four portions of fried fish and
rice have been taken by the company of five, and when
the father paid a little less than yen 3 for the bill
brought by a maid-servant, the mother was much
satisfied for the small payment ; the phrase, " Yasui
wa ne \ " (" very cheap ! "), escaping from her mouth
unintentionally.
Having finished supper at the fried fish restaurant,
you step down the smooth staircase and get out of the
house. Now it is about nine, and the street is crowded
by people as usual. This night you try to visit and
talk with one of the hairdressers for the females. The
Shimbashi geisha are of the first rank among all Tokyo
geisha with regard to their beauty and accomplish-
ments, and it is natural that the notable hairdressing
women (not men !) live in the vicinity of Ginza, and
answer the demand of those geisha, whose life it is to
have their hair dressed neatly every night and day.
The old Owaka of Yamashitacho is the most famous
hairdresser, and, through apprenticeship under her,
those excellent hairdressing women, Ochiyo of Sqju-
rocho, Obun of Minami-kinrokucho, and others, have
been produced ; besides them, Otake of Hiyoshicho
and Otora and Oto of Tojurocho are of the first rate
too. The forms of the hair bound, most popular among
geisha, are Shimsada, haikara, and ichogczshi, and
as there are different style of binding for each of these
forms, according to the device of each hairdresser, the
Shimbashi geisha can be classified to several parties
by their style of hairbinding, such as Ochiyo party,
Otora party, and Obun party. Customers of these
hairdressing women are not limited to geisha only,
but the hair of ladies and daughters of middle and
higher ranks is also decorated by their hand. It is
THE NIGHTSIDE OF JAPAN
common that the fashion of hair forms changes every
year, and the hairdressers must be very attentive to it.
Near the Kyobashi Bridge, the north end of Ginza,
there is a large fancy store called the Onishi Hakubotan,
and in the upstairs room there is held a competitive
exhibition of the new hair forms in spring and autumn
every year. There is a telephone in the house of each
hairdresser, and four or five young female apprentices
at least are working very busy under her from five on
morning till twelve in night every day. At a glance, a
girl can immediately perceive the style of the hair form
whether it was dressed by Ochiyo or Obun, so that
girls, specially geisha, are always very anxious of the
hair. Among the haikara forms invented by Obun,
S-moki, Roma, Kasugamaki, Nadeshiko^ Taishomaki,
and Kasumimaki are most popular ; the Nadeshiko
being suited for young girls often to fifteen years old,
and the Kasumimaki for young ladies. It is a habit
of Japanese ladies of higher class as well as geisha
that their hairs are generally dressed by the hand of
the hairdressing women, though women of lower class
bind their own hairs simply by their own hand ; and
there is a great number of these professional women
on hairdressing throughout the city of Tokyo.
42
CHAPTER V
HOTELS, INNS, AND FREE LODGINGS
You will spend one night in the Honjo and
Fukagawa Wards, the east part of the city, and these
quarters, as well as the Asakusa Ward, are the centres
of the inns or lodging-houses for the lowest class of
people. If you come to a street called Tomikawacho
in the Fukagawa district, you will find rows of square
paper lanterns hanging at the entrance of each house
on the both sides of the street, and all these houses
are the inns for the lowest class, under the general
name of kichinyado, which means the lodging-
house of the cheapest rent. Though they are called
the inns or lodging-houses, they are the dens of the
poor in fact. The quarters licensed by the police to
carry on the business of kichinyado are Shirokane
Sarumachi of the Shiba, Hiro-machi of Azabu,
Nagazumicho of Yotsuya, Asakusamachi of Asakusa,
Komme Narihiracho and Hanacho of Honjo, and
Tomikawacho of Fukagawa Ward, the last of which
Tomikawacho is said to be most popular and
flourishing, owing to its position very convenient for
labourers to come in and out. At present there are
one hundred and eighty-six houses of kichinyado
within the limit of Tomikawacho, and the quarters
to be ranked next to it are Asakusamachi and
Hanacho. Out of these lowest lodging-houses,
generally called the kichinyado y we can also classify
them into the higher, middle, and lowest ; the
43
THE NIGHTSIDE OF JAPAN
lowest is placed in a tenement house like a barn in
a dirty alley, while the higher has the appearance
much better than a small hotel often found in a
suburb of the city. The house called Sanoya in
Tomikawacho is the three-story building, its outside
being built in the European style, and it is very
famous by the nickname of " Kichinyado Hotel "
among kichinyado customers. Besides the Sanoya,
those of the higher class are the Kazusaya, Shimo-
saya, Yorozuya, and Furukawaya, all of them being
of the two-story building. Those of the middle and
lowest class are similar to one another in their
appearance and system.
At the entrance there is a yard of six to ten feet
square, and a counting-room is established along it.
In the counting-room the host or a clerk is sitting to
receive lodgers. The very lowest ones, however,
being in the tenement houses, it is rare that we
can find the counting-room in them, and all rooms
for lodgers are unclean, just like hog-pen. In each
house a large room called "Ohiroma" is prepared,
and common lodgers are to sleep in the room ; but
for special guests, who wish to sleep separately from
others, smaller rooms called "Betsuma" (separate
rooms) can be furnished. Most of the lodgers in
these kichinyado are day-labourers and night-stall
keepers, who live here as their dens through years.
One-night lodgers in such lowest and rather dirty
houses are travellers of poor purse, or profligates
invited by street-walkers. To classify the labourers
who are staying in these lowest lodging-houses,
according to the kinds of their work or business,
one half of them are stall-keepers who sell shinko-
zaiku (flowers made in kneaded flour), ame (wheat
gluten), nebuyaki-udon (hot maccaroni boiled in
a small pan), chameshi (rice boiled in weak tea),
yudedashi-udon (boiled maccaroni) shiruko (a dish
made of rice cake and sugared beans), inarisushi
(another name of oinarisan, which is a mass of pickled
44
A TOBACCO PIPE MENDER.
INNS AND FREE LODGINGS
rice wrapped up with a piece of fried bean-curd),
broken furniture, etc., and the other half collectors of
old clogs, menders of clogs, knife-grinders, fortune-
tellers in the street, hawkers of popular songs,
mendicant friars, strolling musicians, tobacco pipe
menders, navvies, ri&iska-men, coolies, etc.
If you stay a night in the large room, in company
together with these labourers, you have to pay only
eight sen for the rent, but eighteen to twenty sen
should be paid for a special separate room. Of course
no food is furnished for lodgers either in the general or
special room. Labourers in the separate rooms are
generally living with their wives and children, and it is
rare that bachelors or one-night travellers occupy one
room by paying the special rent. When you step in
the general room you find there, through the dim light
of a small lamp, a heap of dirty futon (beddings) at
one corner, and on the broken wall old trousers, caps,
and coats are disorderly hung down. Some of
coolies who are tired out by their hard work in day-
time are already in sleep, and other labourers gossip-
ing around a large but half- broken fire - box with
scanty charcoal fire in it, some smoking and some
eating a piece of rice-cake. The host and clerks are
very cool to treat the guests ; but if there comes a
man accompanied by a street-walker they are very
hospitable, and at once lead them into a separate
room, expecting to gain plenty of tips from the fool.
The day-labourers come back to their nest towards
evening, and generally fall in sleep soon, as they are
tired out by the hard work of the whole day ; the
night stall-keepers are very late to come back every
night, and go to bed as soon as they get in their room.
Thus, in fine weather, the kichinyado in night are
rather quiet ; but if it rains, they cannot go out for
their work or business, and a scene of disturbance
and misery is extended over the stage of the poor
inn. The amusement most favourite for the lowest
class is gambling, and almost all of them confined by
45
THE NIGHTSIDE OF JAPAN
rain assemble in the large room. The result of con-
testing is noisy quarrels or severe fightings. A
maiden is weeping at the dark corner of a small
separate room, where she has been kidnapped by
some roguish riktska-man. Quarrels are not rare
among the labourers and their unfaithful wives, and
the bloody disturbances take place often. The sake
drinking is followed by severe struggles, and some are
severely wounded. It is a strange custom of the
lowest kichinyado that after twelve every night the
host retires to his own room, locks it up, and goes to
sleep, the entrance door being left open. Conse-
quently, these lowest inns are free for thieves or
homeless fellows to steal in and pass the night under
the roof.
Those who live in the separate rooms with their
own family pay the room rent every day under a
special contract with the host. In daytime the
husband and wife go to their own work respectively,
and, when they come back, after the dark, they
collect each of their money earned on the day ; the
husband goes out to buy materials for supper and
the wife prepares for their poor cooking. If rain
continues four or five days they have no means to
pay the room rent and to purchase food. Some one
is compelled to borrow money from his inmate by
mortgaging his wife for three or four nights, and if he
cannot pay back the money in the due time, the
woman is taken to be the wife of the creditor
creditor for only yen 2 or 3.
The most miserable case is the wife of a labourer
abandoned by her husband. Owing to the continued
rain, both the husband and wife cannot find any way
to work, and as they cannot pay the rent the host or
his clerk urges for the payment without a slight mercy.
After quarrels between the husband and wife, at last
the man goes out to make money, but does not come
back to the inn forever. If the abandoned wife is
not very old the host comes to her, taking advantage
A MENDICANT FRIAR.
INNS AND FREE LODGINGS
of the opportunity, and persuades her to become a
courtesan of Asakusa Park, or of Yoshiwara or
Susaki. By this the host can not only recover
the room rent, but also grasps a certain amount
of money as commission.
Labourers who pass the night in the kichinyado
have no future aspiration for their life, but their mere
desires are to drink, eat, and amuse themselves.
Consequently, every night till midnight the streets in
vicinity of these lowest inns are full of small shops
and stalls of cheap food and drinks, awaiting the
customers from those kichinyado. Stalls of hot wine
and oden y inarisushi^ shiruko, mochi (rice - cake),
tsukeyaki pan (pieces of bread toasted and flavoured
with soy), yakitori (broiled chickens), kabayaki
(broiled eels), and nabeyaki-udon are most frequented
by them. The large and most famous shops of udon
are the Marusan, Asahi, and Kogetsu, where udon is
supplied by one and a half or two sen per bowl, and
the customers clothed with rags come in crowds.
Besides them, you can find many small eating-houses
and shops of boiled meat, raw fish flesh, salted fish
and greens. As for their amusement in night, there
is a variety hall (yosse) called the Naniwakan in the
street Tomikawacho, and by paying only three to five
sen for admission poor visitors are pleased to see the
cinematographs ; but those who cannot pay even the
price of the yosst are to flock together in a room of
the inn, and, under the gloomy light of a small
smoking-lamp, each of the lodgers plays his or her
own accomplishment. Saimon and Gidayu singings
narrate some historical or romantic stories, hokaibushi
is sung by accompaniment of a gekkin performance
(a moon-shaped guitar), and active songs of de-
generated students, and light melodies of the dodvitsu,
hauta, otsuye y tokiwadzu, and shinnai songs by young
wives are very interesting ; all these funny perform-
ances can cure them of the fatigue of their day-works.
47
THE NIGHTSIDE OF JAPAN
The kichinyado is the lowest inn for the lowest
class of people, but still more there are a few lodging-
houses established for those poorest persons who
cannot go even to the kichinyado. These houses are
called the muryo shukuhakujo^ which means " the free
lodging-house."
This house is to lodge free of charge those who
are unable to get their lodging place.
This house will assist to find work for those who
are out of employment.
This house refuses to lodge persons as follows :
1. Those who are got drunk.
2. Those who are in a contagious disease.
Refer to the office for particulars.
Date. The Muryo Shukuhakujo.
The board of a public notice above mentioned is
hung up on the fence near the gate of one of the
free lodging - houses. The house is situated at
Wakamiyacho, in the Honjo Ward, and was first
established in 1902. The president of the house,
who is carrying on such the charity work, is Ejitsu
Okusa, a high Buddhist priest of the Higashi
Honganji Temple in Asakusa. There is a large hall
on upstairs of the two-story building, and the large
windows are opened on its two sides of the east and
west, the floor of the room being covered with new
green mattings. To the front of the hall a Buddhist
altar is furnished on a high floor, and a brilliant image
of Amitabha is consecrated on the altar. On the
wall near the altar there are exhibited a copy of the
Imperial Rescript on "Encouragement for Habits of
Thrift," and its explanations, which are written by
Lord Abbot Koei of the Higashi Honganji Temple.
48
INNS AND FREE LODGINGS
On the wall of the right side, " To-day's Directions,"
by Doctor Nanjo, is shown as follows :
TO-DAY'S DIRECTIONS.
1. Don't forget Three Benefits and complain of Nothing
to-day.
2. Don't get Angry to-day.
3. Don't tell a Lie and don't act an Unreasonable Conduct
to-day.
4. Be satisfied to be living and endeavour to Work to-day.
The above are cautions for to-day.
Date. SEKIKWA.
{Nom-de-plume of Dr Nanjo.}
It is eight in the evening, and you come near the
gate of the free lodging-house. The vicinity of the
house is dense of smaller houses, and the street is
very busy with passers 7 by towards evening. Through
darkness of the road you can see two or three men
standing under the roof of a house, or crouching near
the entrance of a lane between houses, and all they
are the guests to the muryo shukuhakujo ; having no
money to a pay a rent of the kichinyado, they are
waiting for nine, the time for admission to the charity
building. You step in the gate and wait for the lodgers
who will come in shortly. All the rooms of the house
are bright with the electric lights, which are shining
like aureola of Amitabha.
A clock on the wall strikes nine. The first man
that comes in is a man twenty-eight or nine years
old, with large eyes and high nose on the dark brown
face. He is clad in an old dirty shirt, its colour
almost changed to brown, over which he puts on an
old black hanten (a kind of jacket for labourer), and
his dark blue momohiki (cotton drawers), is so worn
away that a number of holes can be seen on it. He
carries nothing but an old towel. When he is en-
quired of by a clerk of the office, he tells he is a
native of the town Tsuchiura in the Ibaraki Prefecture,
49 D
THE NIGHTSIDE OF JAPAN
and can find no means to get bread yet, since he
came to Tokyo. After cleaning the feet at the
washing-place behind the house, he is sent to the hall
upstairs. Next comes an old man about forty years
old. He is in a very old, old clothes like that of
rikisha-mzn, over which he wraps round a small
piece of old red blanket. He says he was born at
Takanawa of Tokyo, and at present he is employed
as a coolie for funeral. Though he can earn thirty to
thirty-five sen per day the money is spent up for
meal, and there remains nothing for the kichinyado.
The third man, of some thirty-six or seven years, puts
on a female's old clothes over a dirty white summer
clothes, and his belt is made of two old towels con-
nected together. The old clog put on his right foot
is different in form and colour from that of the left
foot. Being a native of the town Chiba, of the Chiba
Prefecture, he came to Tokyo last year, and was em-
ployed as a sentinel for an illicit prostitution house
at Asakusa, receiving fifty sen a day. A few days ago,
however, while he was taking a meal at a fried fish
stall, near by his master's house, the secret den was
suddenly surprised by policemen, and at once he was
driven out under charge of idleness for his duty.
These three are followed by porters, coolies for
landing, flag-bearers for advertisement, navvies, and
pushers of hand - carts, all being the excellent
samples of the heroes of extreme poverty. Up to
eleven of the night names of twenty-two men and
one woman have been entered in the office-book.
The hall upstairs is the resting-place for the male
only, and can receive more than one hundred at once ;
the room for the female being prepared downstairs.
In the middle parts of the hall there are two large
hibachi (fire-box) in which the charcoal fire gives
warmth to the unfortunate lodgers. In the large
closet of the hall about fifty or sixty sheets of futon
(beddings) are filed up, all these futon being clean
and warm, they can take quiet sleep even in the very
cold winter night. Before they go to bed every night
50
INNS AND FREE LODGINGS
they must offer prayers before the altar, and twice a
week the preaching is given for them by a priest sent
from the Honganji Temple. The average number of
lodgers every night is said to be twenty-four or five,
and almost all of them being men the women are
very rare to appear here. A clerk of the office tells
that the rate of female refugees is less than fifteen
per thousand males. This night you have noticed a
woman having come to take refuge in the house.
She has a lovely face, being some twenty-two or three
years old, but she seems to be much enervated by a
long sickness, the complexion being dark, pale, and
the breath not ordinary. Even a piece of comb
cannot be seen on her rumpled hair. Being asked
by the office clerk, she replies that she is a native of
the town Maebashi, of the Gumma Prefecture ; but
hesitates to tell further. After frequent enquiries by
the clerk, she at last is compelled to confess that, at
the time when she first came to Tokyo, three years
ago, she was employed as a waitress in a small
restaurant, and having been seduced by a villain, was
sold as a courtesan in the hell of Kakigaracho. Since
the last summer she has been suffering from illness,
and having been given up by the physician, and
driven out by the hostess of the hell, she has no home
to pass the night, and has come to ask mercy of the
charity house. The president of the house is much
sympathised with her, and, taking her into the female's
room, gives order to a servant to give her a cup of tea
and the charcoal fire in a fire-box. What a contrast
to receive a sentinel and a harlot in the house at the
same night !
One business of the free lodging-house is to help
to find work for those who are out of employment,
and at present more than thirty men have succeeded
in getting their suitable occupation. The most
notable among them is an editor of a certain
industrial newspaper. He came to Tokyo as a poor
student, and, having been unable to find the means to
get money for school, he made application to the
51
THE NIGHTSIDE OF JAPAN
house, and at last succeeded in the present
position.
All expenses of the house for the electric lights,
water-work, land rent, charcoal, salary for clerks and
servants are said to depend upon the contributions
of benevolent ladies and gentlemen of the city.
Now you got good experiences for the extreme
lowest class of the lodging-houses, and next you will
try to pass a night in a hotel of the middle rank.
This kind of hotels is for travellers to Tokyo from
local provinces, and most of them are situated near
the railway stations around the city. You can find
abundance of higher and middle-class hotels near the
Shimbashi, Shinagawa, Uyeno, and Manseibashi
Stations, and all these being of the pure Japanese
system, those for the Europeans, as well as the
Japanese ones of the first rank, are rather in the
interior parts of the city the largest and most
splendid European hotels being the Imperial Hotel
at Yamashitacho, very near to Hibiya Park, and the
two Seiyoken hotels, one at Tsukiji and the other in
Uyeno Park.
In disguise of a sightseer you enter a hotel of
middle class, near the Shimbashi Station, and being
received by an old clerk at the counter, ask him
whether there is a room for you to pass the night.
Then you are guided to a room upstairs, from a
window of which you can look down the thronged
street directly leading to the station front. The
room is of the six mats, 1 furnished with the tokonoma
(alcove) of three feet and the oshure (closet) of six feet
wide. At the centre of the ceiling there hangs an
electric light, and on the wall of the tokonoma a
painted hanging picture (kakemono) of birds and flowers
is hung ; a bronze ornament of the lion form and a tall
white vase filled up with wistaria flowers are arranged
1 In Japan it is a custom that we measure the extent of a room by
the number of mats put down on its floor, and the extent of one mat is
six feet by three feet.
52
INNS AND FREE LODGINGS
on the raised floor of the alcove. In the room of a
Japanese hotel the bed is not generally furnished ;
but beddings are prepared on the mat floor when the
guest is to go to bed. A servant maid comes in with
a tea service and a plate of cakes. After serving a cup
of tea, she asks you which class of lodging rents you
would pay for the night, and you answer that you pre-
fer the second one ; at the same time you give yen i
for the chadai (tea money, or the tip to the hotel),
and fifty sen for a tip to the maid. She thanks for
your beneficence, and goes out to prepare your supper.
The lodging rent of a Japanese hotel is commonly
classified into three ranks, the first, the second, and
the third, and an average rent of the middle-class
hotels is yen 2 for the first, 1.50 for the second, and
i. oo for the third class. The old habit of giving
chadai to the hotel is not yet generally abandoned,
and the hotel men expect to receive the money from
even a night guest ; if you do not give this you will
be treated very unpleasantly.
The maid-servant appears again and tells you to
take bath before supper, leaving a yukata (bath gown
and a towel). After putting on the gown and carry-
ing the towel you are led to the bathroom downstairs.
Entering the room, you find at one corner of the room
a large square wooden bath-tub, below which all the
floor of the room is boarded for the washing place.
When you get out of the tub, banto (wash-boy or
cleanser) comes into the room prepared with a soap
and a towel, and begins to clean your back. At one
side there are two clean hot and cold water basins,
from which you can get the water into a bucket for
washing your face and head. As soon as you get
back into your room a small table of the supper is
brought by the maid-servant. You take out a twenty
sen silver from your purse and ask her to give it to
banto of the bathroom as a tip for his cleaning work.
The tip-giving to the bathroom man is also a custom in
the Japanese hotel, and we are told that the banto
receives no salary from the hotel, living on the tips
53
THE NIGHTSIDE OF JAPAN
from the guests. If you wish to take drink in supper,
you tell the maid, who at once brings a bottle of
European or Japanese wine, whichever as you please.
While you are enjoying drink, there appear the clerk
of the hotel and the banto of the bathroom, to thank
you for the chadai and the tip respectively. You
finish supper, and the maid, after taking the supper
table out of room, begins to prepare bed at one
side of the room, futon and pillow being taken down
from the closet in the room. Then the maid retires,
bidding good-night. It is still too early to go to bed,
and you sit down on the zabuton (a small square
sitting cushion) and smoke, thinking how to spend
time or expecting some interesting event to happen.
The hotel is furnished with more than twenty rooms
in both up- and down-stairs, and this evening all the
rooms seem to be occupied by guests. In your next
right room there are three men who are natives of
the northern district, judging from their dialect, and
they are on their way back from Kyoto, where they
visited to worship the Imperial Mausoleum of the
late Emperor. They are taking sake, and talking
very loud with their queer dialect. The occupants of
the left room are a young couple. They seem to
have finished supper, and are whispering very secretly,
utterly unknown whether they are citizens or
provincials. You come out to engawa (balcony) and
look down the street. It is past ten now, and you
recognise carriages, motor-cars, and rikisha hurrying
to the station ; all these people are to catch the
express train for Shimonoseki. The advertisement
tower of " Club Washing Powder," illuminated with
electric lights of various colours, stands high in front of
the station, and can be seen just directly to your eyes.
The noises of throngs and sounds of running trams in
the Ginza street come to your ears in mixed confusion.
You keep awake near twelve, but as there occurs no
striking event, and all the guests in every room have
gone to their peaceful sleep, you go to bed at last too.
54
CHAPTER VI
GETSHA : RESTAURANTS AND MACHIAI
IT is an evening of spring season. Accompanied by
one of your friends, you drive a motor-car through
the waves of lights in the broad street of the
Nihonbashi Ward, and stop it at the entrance gate of
a restaurant called the Kurataya. When you enter
the porch of the house some four or five housemaids
appear to receive you, and one of them, leading to the
inner part, shows you to a large room of twenty mats.
The room is elegantly adorned at every point, and a
housemaid brings two zabuton (cushions) made of
figured satin ; and, putting them on the mat-floor in
front of the alcove, ask you and your friend to sit on
them. Then two round fire-boxes and tea-things are
carried in by other three maids. After the tea is
served the two small black lacquered zen (tables) are
prepared before the guests the tables flat and with-
out legs are called the kaisekai-zen.
By and by some six or seven dishes of pure Japanese
cooking are arranged on each table, bottles of sake
being held and served by the two young maids who sit
down before each of the guests. You tell one of the
maids to call a number of geisha and oshaku {geisha is
singing-, and oshaku dancing-girls). About half an
hour there appear five large and small girls three sing-
ing, eighteen to twenty- two, and two dancing, thirteen
or fourteen years old. They are girls belonging to the
party of the Nihonbashi quarter, the larger dressed in
stylish coloured crape clothes with the skirt trailing,
and the smaller in gaudy costumes with long ends of
55
THE NIGHTSIDE OF JAPAN
red brocade belt hanging down about to the heels.
The singing-girls are prepared with samisen (a kind
of guitar with three strings), and the dancing-girls
with tsuzumi (a drum shaped like an hour glass) and
mai-ogi (dancing-fan). Taking place of maid-servants,
the girls wait on at table, and if you give a cup to one
of them she receives it with thanks, and after empty-
ing it soon, pays it back to you ; of course the cup is
washed in a small silver basin called haisen, which is
filled with pure water and provided between the tables.
It is a rule in the society of girls that though they
can be a partner of guests on drinking, yet they are
not allowed to eat anything in presence of them.
To hire a geisha, the restaurant cannot directly
send for her, but she is indirectly called to the
restaurant through the office of the geisha guild of
each quarter, the guild office being called the
Kemban. When a girl is hired to a restaurant she
first comes from her house to the guild office, and
then goes to the restaurant escorted by a man of the
office ; the man is called hakoya, and carries the
samisen of girls. It is a habit for the hakoya to be
bestowed with a tip by guests when he sends a girl
to the restaurant. Now, singing-girls take up their
samisen and begin to play upon them, singing some
fashionable songs ; one of oshaku or young dancing-
maidens plays on the tsuzumi> and the other opens
her fan and begins to dance. After singing and
dancing they sit down again near the guests, taking
proper positions for themselves. Satisfied with a
good quantity of sake now, you are smoking, and ask
one of the older girls to tell the daily life of geisha
and their amusements. She smiles, and narrates the
real state of her society as follows :
" Our world comes after sunset every day through-
out the year, though we are rarely hired in daytime.
We pass every evening at restaurants or machiai
(waiting- house); but those unhappy girls who are
unpopular and compelled to stay at their own houses
56
RESTAURANTS AND MACHIAI
are ridiculed under the sarcastic name of ochahiki
geisha. Everyday life of our society's girls is various,
but we generally get up at six on the morning, except
those who were detained at machiai till very late in
the previous night, and keep sleeping to about ten or
eleven. Getting out of bed at six, and after washing
the face, we sit down before the mirror on the toilet
stand and begin to comb the hair it takes for comb-
ing more than half an hour. On the other side, oshaku
or smaller girls are already aroused and driven out of
bed by the mistress of the house, and very busy to
sweep and clean the rooms. When all the rooms are
cleaned up, they must offer lights to the God of Luck
on the altar honoured in^the mistress's room. As soon
as they finish breakfast they are sent out to the master
of dancing. When we finish breakfast it is about nine,
and most of younger geisha go out to their masters for
the exercise of samisen. The older girls who remain
at home read letters from their lovers or acquainted
guests, and those who were late last night are yawning
and hardly get out of bed at about ten. At eleven we
go out for the hairdressing, and there spend one hour
at least, chattering with girls assembled from various
houses. Coming back from the hairdresser, we go to
the bath-house ; the polishing instruments carried to
the bath are numerous at least seven kinds. Chatters
and twitters in the bath while cleaning and polishing
are very noisy. When we come back from the bath
it is past one, and we take tiffin. Sometimes we are
invited by the mistress of a restaurant or machiai to
the theatre, and much pleased to spend the afternoon
by seeing our favourite actor's performance. If we are
at home in afternoon we take up a samisen, and kill
time by playing on it ; but the accomplished older girls
are requested to teach or review dancing, singing, and
samisen for the smaller dancing-girls (oshaku} in the
leisure time every afternoon.
" Approaching the tea-time (3 P.M.) there are heard
cries of cake-pedlars in these geisha alleys, and small
57
THE NIGHTSIDE OF JAPAN
girls some eleven or twelve years old are seen to peep
out of their entrance door and buy something from
them ; please remember that all the younger and
smaller girls in our society, without exception, are
very fond of the sweet named the mitsumame (a mix-
ture of boiled beans and small pieces of rice-cake and
others, immersed in syrup). After four telephone
messages come from the guild office informing the
names of restaurants where we are hired to attend this
evening. If some of girls who have been appointed
are out to the theatre, the maid-servant of our house
at once send telephone to them to come back soon
and make preparations for the evening. About one
hour before the appointed time for attendance to
the restaurant, one or two hakoya (guild boys) come
to our house and help for preparations ; these
boys are very well trained to dress geisha.
" After the dark those girls who are not yet hired go
out for rambling in the ennichi street near their house.
When the girls, who have finished dressing, are on the
point to go out from their house for the restaurant, it
is a custom in our society that the mistress of the house
strikes sparks with flint and steal against the back of
the girls, wishing a good luck of the evening. We
first call at the guild office, and, accompanied by the
hakoya, go to the restaurant. You know very well
how we are after the appearance in presence of the
guests in the restaurants. We are very busy, and be-
come toilworn if we have to wait upon a great party
attended by a great number of guests. Sometimes
there is such a case that, according to a previous
promise, we meet with the customers at a restaurant or
waiting-house and set out from there for an excursion,
commonly to a hot-bath resort in an adjacent province.
On that occasion we are dressed like ladies or
daughters, and take the automobile or the train in
night. How happy we are to take pleasures quietly at
the mineral bath, while all the expenses for the hotel,
and the fees for ourselves, are paid by the customers !
58
RESTAURANTS AND MACHIA1
"On another occasion we have to spend up one
whole evening by attending to a Review Meeting
held by the master of dancing or samisen at least
twice a year. The meeting is called the Osarai, and
generally opened at a large hall of a famous restaurant ;
all the girls, old and young, trained by or under train-
ing of the master, have the duty to attend the meeting.
Competitions of the art among girls of different geisha
houses are very lively, and the reviewing is continued
from five or six to ten or eleven in the evening. The
girls compete not only for their art, but also emulate
one another for their dresses, being backed by her own
intimate customers. Elder girls endeavour to do best
for the younger girls of their own houses, and forget
everything for themselves till the meeting is closed.
Certainly, the attendance to the Review Meeting is an
extra work for the geisha society.
" If we are hired to the machiai, it is generally after
ten or eleven, and there is no need to tell further about
merriment there, as you know very well. The time
we can come back to home from the restaurant or
machiai every night is twelve ; in summer we feel
revived by the cool air on the way, but in winter
night how cold it is on the rikisha, as if the ears and
nose are frozen up by the cutting north wind. When
we get in our house it is near one, and, changing
clothes at once, we sit down near the fire-box. Talk-
ing one another about the events or guests in this
night, we take tea and cakes, and then go to bed.
Some go to sleep instantly, and some are smoking in
bed. In winter night we are often surprised by ring-
ing of the fire-bell, and look out for the fire through
the window. At last all of us fall in sound sleep.
Almost all the girls of our profession are offering
prayers every day to a certain shrine, and entreat the
prosperity of their business and the happiness of their
future. On the monthly festival days of the shrine
we never fail to get up very early at four, or five, and
go to the shrine to worship the god before breakfast."
59
THE NIGHTSIDE OF JAPAN
You are much interested with the long narration
on the geisha's daily life. It is now past ten, and,
after paying the bill and giving the chadai to the
restaurant and the tip to the housemaids, you and
your friend leave the restaurant.
By the way the famous Japanese restaurants in
Tokyo will be introduced here.
Restaurants are business for night, though a few
visit them in daytime by some unavoidable reasons.
The largest and most notable Japanese restaurants
are the Yaozen and the Tokiwaya ; the former
is situated at Sanya in Asakusa Ward, and so old
a shop that it exists since the feudal age of the
Tokugawa Shogunate, and the latter at Hamacho in
the Nihonbashi Ward, at present more popular than
the other. The first-class restaurants next to the
above two are the Kurataya at Himonocho, the
Hyakuseki at Yoshicho, the Owariya at Yokoyama-
cho, and the Tokiwa at Hamacho ; the last one
being commonly called the Ko-tokiwa (minor
Tokiwa) in contrast to the great Tokiwa -ya in
the same street. The Chukatei of the Shokusha
Jimmichi and the Shimamura at the side street of
Tori Shichome serve very nice dishes too. The
Okada of Hamacho, the Fukuir5 of Takasagocho,
the Daimata of Yagenbori, and the Kikuzumi of
Moto-daikucho are to be ranked among the first-
class restaurants in the Nihonbashi Ward. Near
Shimbashi, the Kwagetsu to the north and the
Kogetsu to the south of the bridge are the very
large houses, and the Matsumotoro of Owaricho lately
made a great success we are told that the quantity
of fish and other materials daily consumed in the
house are more than those of any other restaurants in
Tokyo, and that the house is most suitable for giving
a party. The Kinrokutei is very famous for the
excellent cooking, and the Midoriya near the Depart-
ment of Agriculture and Commerce has a splendid
building, and is very nice in its dishes. In the
60
RESTAURANTS AND MACHIAI
quarter of Tsukiji, the Hisago, the Shinkiraku, and
the Kosetsuken are very good, and the Nodaya is
very popular by the fame of its amateur cooking.
The Man-yasu of Kobikicho in the same quarter is
famous for its large buildings and splendid gardens,
and, being apt for parties and comparatively cheap
in its charges, is always flourishing similar to the
Matsumotoro.
Removing to the Yanagibashi quarter, the sphere
of influence for the Yanagibashi geisha circle, the
Kamesei at the foot of the bridge (Yanagibashi)
is one of the largest and highest restaurants in the
city, and the Ryukotei adjoining to it is also a very
celebrated one.
Asakusa Park is abundant of large and small
restaurants ; but there are very few which can be
mentioned as the good houses the Manbai and
the Ichinao being best among all. The Yakko,
near the back gate of the Higashi Honganji Temple,
and the Jubako of Sanya are excellent for their
cooking of eels and snapping turtles.
The Tokiwa - kadan, in Uyeno Park, is a large
restaurant occupying a very good position of the
park, and governing the whole views of the capital,
and the lyomon of Dobocho, near by the park, is
a very old house and renowned for its superior
cookery, these two being the notable houses in
the Shitaya Ward.
In the Kanda Ward, the Kaikaro, within the
precincts of the Kanda Myojin Shrine, and the
Kinseiro of Renjakucho have a great number of
rooms in their magnificent buildings, and are always
full of guests ; but as for cooking, the Hanaya of
Kobusho, on the opposite bank of the River Kanda-
gawa, has a higher reputation than the two.
In the so-called bluff quarter we hardly recom-
mend very good restaurants, but the Yaokan of
Tamachi is an old house in this quarter, and
most popular among others ; the Mikawaya of
61
THE NIGHTSIDE OF JAPAN
Tameike is very well both in building and cooking,
and can be said to be one of the first-class restaurants.
These two houses are located among the sphere of
influence of the Akasoka girls' circle.
The Koyokan (the Maple Club), in Shiba Park,
is a noted restaurant, at the gate of which a police-
box stands. The feast of nobles and the entertain-
ment of foreigners are often held in this club. This
aristocratic restaurant is excellent in everything
rooms, gardens, views, and waitresses. The " Maple
Dance," performed by the young and beautiful girls
of the club, is very famous and popular.
Along the shore of the Shinagawa Bay there are
the Takeshibakan, the Shibaurakan, and the Ikesu.
All these restaurants are good for the hot summer
season, and we can take sea-water bath there.
We have very celebrated restaurants in the
suburban quarters round the city the Matsuasa
of Omori on the seashore of the Gulf of Takye,
and the Yaomatsu and the Uyehan along the River
Sumida. On the upper reaches of the river there are
the branches of these last two restaurants. Both are
situated at the quiet and retired places the Yaomatsu
near the Suijin Shrine and the Uyehan at the back-
ground of the Mokuboji Temple, and frequented
by the stylish citizens of Tokyo. The Hashimoto
is of the high renown in the eastern suburb, and
placed very near Kameido Park and the Myoken
Temple of Yanagi-shima.
In Tokyo you are often told of some special
eating-houses, where a peculiar kind of food is served,
anti the fame of these houses is very high on account
of this peculiarity of dishes. At a turning in the
north side of the electric tram halting place of
Sudacho you will find an eating-house called the
Kaneman. The characteristic dish of this house is
the globefish flesh boiled in the pan. The Tokyo
citizens are not generally very fond of the globefish
flesh, because they fear its poison ; but in Kyushu
62
RESTAURANTS AND MACHIAI
provinces, and specially in its northern quarters, the
flesh of the fish is very popular among the natives,
and treated as the daintiest meat among all other
fish flesh. It is said among them that if the globe-
fish is well cooked there is no fear for its poison.
Now you enter the Kaneman and take your seat by a
small table in a large room. The room is brilliantly
lighted by the pale gaslights, and full of customers.
You give order to a maid-servant to bring a pan of
globefish flesh and a bottle of sake. To make assur-
ance, you ask the maid whether there is no fear for
poisoning, and the guests near by laugh for your
foolish question. Somewhat hesitated by fear, but
with great valour, you try the first piece and find
what a nice taste it has incomparable to any others
of fish flesh ! The dish costs only ten sen per pan.
The next peculiar eating-house rather of the lowest
class is the horseflesh shop. The largest and most
popular house is the Okada at Hatchobori in the
Kyobashi Ward, and the hall of the house is always
found full of at least thirty or forty customers every
evening. The people who visit the shop generally
consist of those who believe the horseflesh to be
effective for warming the cold constitution, or those
who have too poor a pocket to go to a beef-shop.
The flesh costs only seven sen per pan.
If you be asked by any one whether you are
acquainted with an eating-house called the Marugin,
perhaps you would answer by a negative. It is a
shop of oden. In this book you read often of stalls
of odenya, but the Marugin is a large house situated
at the cross-roads of Sudacho, and though it belongs
to the eating-houses of the lowest class, it may
probably be the first and largest odenya in Tokyo.
The room, lighted with electric lights, is furnished
with tables and chairs, in place of mats and futon, very
common in the shops of the lower rank. Oden is, as
previously explained, a special kind of food boiled
down with soy, its chief materials consisting of fish,
63
THE NIGHTSIDE OF JAPAN
bean-curd, konnyaku, and taro. When you visit the
shop you find a man of the European clothes and the
two young fellows of merchant costume ; all of them
seem to be much intoxicated already. You take a
chair by the side of a long table and begin to drink
masamune (name of a Japanese wine), taking oden of
kani (crab flesh) and suji (sinewy flesh of fish). The
young merchants sing some fashionable songs, and,
turning to you, beg your pardon for their noisiness ;
in return, you admire their skill of singing. Then
they present a glass of sake to you, and at once you
repay it. The man of the European dress is almost
inclined to be maudlin, and the two others are very
kind to tend him. They tell you that the man is
a clerk of a bank, and that he has yen 1,000 in his
bag. You understand they are tending him by in-
tention to accompany him to some interesting place
for this night ; but you leave the house shortly. You
know not what went on with them further in this
night.
It was an evening of autumn when a party of our
friends held a dinner at a certain restaurant near
Shimbashi. The garden of the restaurant was very
beautiful with the several flower-beds of chrysanthe-
mum full of large and small flowers of yellow,
white, red, purple, and golden colours. Our party
consisted of some thirty members, who occupied a
large room upstairs, and ten large and five small
geisha, mixed with eight maid-servants of the house,
were waiting upon the meeting. When it was past
ten, and now all persons being drunk and in their top
of pleasure, the feast was nearly to be closed. I called
an acquainted older geisha to my side and whispered
her to accompany me to a tnachiai, where I intended to
go this night after the close of the banquet. She
consented at once, and as the meeting was closed
near eleven I secretly escaped from the rest of our
party and drove a rikisha for a waiting - house,
64
RESTAURANTS AND MA CHI A I
followed by another rikisha of the promised girl.
The machiai, at the entrance of which our rikisha
stopped, was a house called the Tachibanaya at
Tsukiji, not far from the Shimbashi Station. Re-
ceived by the hostess and maid-servants, we were at
once shown in a room innermost of the house.
Business of the class of houses called machiai is to
receive guests who want to have a place for meeting,
and, as those who are to make a meeting wait each
other for their arrival at an appointed house, hence
the name machiai (waiting each other) is produced.
At present, however, most of the customers for the
machiai or rather all of them consist of gentle-
men who intend to make a private meeting with their
acquainted geisha, and consequently the mention of
machtai is always associated with attendance of the
girls. While the public meetings or banquets are
held at the restaurant, the guests to machiai go there
very privately, and naturally the rooms of any
machiai are arranged one another in such a con-
struction that one room is entirely isolated by the
others by the walls, intermediate gardens, or corridors.
Around any quarter of the city where there is a den
of geisha, there you find the street of machiai, so close
and inseparable is the connection between the geisha
and the machiai. Of course there are various ranks of
these waiting-houses from the higher to the lowest, and
those of the lowest class are said to be haunted even
by some kind of private harlots or courtesans. It is
strange that the machiai of the first rank strictly
refuse to receive unacquainted visitors, and, if you
wish to go to a house first, you must be accompanied
or introduced by your friend well acquainted with
the house. In a machiai you can drink and eat any-
thing as you please, just as in a restaurant, but as
there is no preparations of cookery in any machiai,
all drinks and food are supplied from a restaurant.
The fixed income of the machiai is the charge for
the room, which costs yen i or 2 per person for one
65 E
THE NIGHTSIDE OF JAPAN
evening, and you shall not forget to give the chodai to
the house and the tip to the maids, as done in the
hotel or restaurant. As the machiai is not a hotel,
it is not allowed to stay whole night for guests or
geisha^ and samisen playing or loud singing being
prohibited after twelve, these houses shut up the door
after twelve. But sometimes on early morning you
will find a gentleman going out of a machiai, and on
the other occasion a rikisha of a geisha-V&& girl
running out of the gate of the same house. I don't
know whether the man is a relative of the hostess or
the girl is a maid-servant of the house.
The room in which the two, I and the girl, were
shown was of six mats, nicely arranged with the stylish
decorations. I sat down by a square red-sandalwood
table, and the girl on my opposite side. Feeling
thirsty, I ordered a housemaid to bring a bottle of
beer, and when it was poured into a glass by my girl,
I emptied it at one draught. After ordering sake and
some dishes, I requested the girl to tell some interest-
ing stories regarding her circles. The following story
done by her will explain one side of the real features
of geisha :
" We girls of gay circles are altogether said to be
fickle, faithless, two-tongued, and plotful, and there
may be such a tendency among some of them, but
according to my impartial judgment I know the
true features of our circles very well, as I have grown
up and still live in them criticism or blames against
us should be done after the discrimination on the
kind or qualities of girls were properly done. The
girls who have suffered pains or experiences within
the society of geisha profession are much kinder and
more compassionate, and have greater inclination to
sympathise with the others, than the common, un-
professional girls.
" Men reproach us to be fickle, faithless, or plotful,
and the cause of these blames is founded upon our
profession after all. Every day we have to meet and
66
RESTAURANTS AND MACHIAI
wait upon guests who are not acquainted before, and
to appear kind and familiar equally to men of any
qualities. It is natural that charms and compliments
for every man become our habits. While waiting
upon guests, we must peep into the true state of each
of their characters, and the efforts to understand each
man gradually lead us to be suspicious for everything.
The girls in our circles are wonderfully developed in
their wit, and if the wit is further cultured, it is turned
to sympathy and compassion. Being very suspicious,
however, the tendency to sympathy and compassion
is suppressed down by ourselves, and thus they
reproach us to be faithless and cold-hearted. What
a nonsense to be subjected to such insult, in con-
sequence of misunderstanding upon our true spirit !
In order to explain whether the girls of the gay
circles are faithful or not, I shall tell you an actual
instance.
" It was a time when I was a dancing-girl (pshaku)
of only thirteen years old in my present house,
and, among many girls in this house, there was a
young geisha named Kohana, who was in love with a
young gentleman, a son of a rich merchant. One
day the mistress and all girls of the house went to
a theatre, but I, being sick on the day, was left at
home together with an old maid-servant. About
3 P.M. the girl Kohana unexpectedly came back
alone, and told me that, feeling a strong headache, she
could not help to be in the theatre. After less than
half an hour, her lover, the young gentleman, came in
too, and confined himself in a room upstairs together
with the girl. They seemed to be talking very
secretly, and after some twenty minutes suddenly
I was called by Kohana. When I went up to their
room, I was surprised to find that the little finger of
the young man's left hand was wrapped up with a
piece of paper, which was stained with bleeding.
Presenting a razor before my face, the girl said to me,
' I pray you to cut my little finger.' At a moment
67
THE NIGHTSIDE OF JAPAN
I understood that the man cut his finger himself, but
she could not be bold enough to cut that of her own
herself, nor he could be so cruel to do it for his
sweetheart. It is an old custom in Japan that the
lovers cut their little ringers for the sign of the true
love between each other, and the cutting is done by
the way of striking a razor put on the finger with the
wooden pillow of the female. Applying the razor on
her finger, the girl repeated, ' Please strike the razor
by the pillow with your all might ! ' But I, being a
little girl of only thirteen, was very afraid, and could
not do such a fearful act. I was trembling, and said,
* Neisan (older girl), I can't do such a dreadful thing ! '
Kohana insisted against me, but I refused by repeat-
ing, ' Excuse me, excuse me ! ' She appeared angry,
and pressed upon me, ' If you do not obey to my
request,' said she, ' I shall never protect you in future
when you are persecuted by the mistress or other
girls, and moreover never help you on your daily
reviewing ! ' I fell into great troubles, and was
compelled to decide at last to do as I was ordered.
I took up the pillow, and, shutting my eyes struck it
on the razor. When the blood gushed forth from her
white slender finger, she was gazing at the bleeding
finger. She smiled, but her face was as pale as a ghost.
I was struck with fright, and began to cry out. Her
lover turned away his face and could not see the
cruel scene.
" The cause of the finger-cutting was that the young
gentleman had to go to America on his business and
stay there for two or three years. To be parted for a
long time was very bitter for the two, and, in order to
show the unchangeable love between each other, the
girl proposed to perform the old method of oath to
show the firmness of mind. Thus the young lovers
parted with tears ; and it passed half a year, one year,
one and a half and two years, but there came no
letter from the man to the girl. She was always
thinking of her lover and waiting a good news from
68
RESTAURANTS AND MACHIA1
him ; she had been a very active and light-hearted
girl, but gradually became thoughtful and gloomy.
"Sir, how do you think if you know that going
abroad of the young gentleman was a lie? He did
not go to America, but on the contrary he married a
young lady ! One day, two years after the tragical
parting, Kohana, the abandoned girl, met with her^old
lover, accompanied by his wife, in the*street of Ginza.
She stopped, and felt her heart about to burst out.
But the cold-blooded brute turned away its face and
escaped off. What a pity was the girl deceived by
such a fox ! The honest girl cut the finger by her
true heart, but the man by his mere whim.
"What a good example it is to explain the fact
that a man is fickle and faithless. Of course I do
not conclude at a time that all men are faithless, but
I can say that the girls of our circles are not all
unkind, but that some are much more faithful and
honest than ordinary women. In a word, a geisha
does not love the man thoughtlessly, but if once she
loved, she does not hesitate to sacrifice even her life
for the lover."
CHAPTER VII
PUBLIC BATH-HOUSES
WE are told that one cause of the downfall of Rome
was to be ascribed to its bath-places, and the bathing
seems to be neither the habit of the German race nor
of the Chinese people, because it is very difficult to
take bath habitually in these cold continental countries.
There is a great difference in the principle of bathing
between the European and the Japanese. The
Europeans are compelled to take bath in order to
clean off the filth excreted over their body, and conse-
quently, if there is no necessity to bath, they are glad
to be without bathing ; but on the contrary, bathing
of the Japanese is far beyond the simple object of
cleaning their body, but it is so evolved that they take
bath to wash their life !
The Europeans wash their hand before they take
dinner or supper, and also comb their hair several
times in a day ; but they take bath or wash the
hair only once a week. If the Japanese take bath
with the object to wash their body and clean the dirt,
there is no need for them to bath every day nay,
nonsense for them who sometimes take bath on the
morning and evening of the same day ! Bathing of
the Japanese may be certainly called washing of the
life rather than cleaning of the body. In other words,
bathing is the supreme pleasure indispensable for the
Japanese.
The public bath-house in Japan is the paradise fo
70
PUBLIC BATH - HOUSES
labourers, and the real value of bathing can be appre-
ciated after their hard work of the whole day. By
bathing they cannot only forget all the fatigue of the
whole day, but also their idea is entirely changed
owing to the effect of the new and active circulation
of blood. At the moment when they begin to sing a
popular song cheerfully in the bathroom, any of them
is no more a carpenter, a cart coolie, nor a navvy, but
now he is a poet. An Englishman once said that
every Japanese is a poet, and his saying is proved
absolutely true in the bath-house. Bathing washes
away their discontent, and their disposition as
labourers is melted away in the bath-box ; they are
converted to optimists ; the love for their wives and
children are recovered or deepened in their mind.
Coming home from the bath-house, they drink by
attendance of wives, and, soon falling into sleep,
become the men of the peaceful paradise.
The public hot bath-houses in the city of Tokyo are
as numerous as there are a great number of barber
shops, and almost all the citizens, except those who
keep the private bathrooms in their own houses, go
to the public bath-houses every day, specially in the
evening from 8 to 12 P.M., after their daily business
is finished.
The bath-house is separated by the wall into two
parts, the bathrooms for the male and the female, to
each of which its own entrance is attached. When
you step in the male entrance, you find a large room
with the floor covered with mattings, and here you are
to take off your clothes, which is put by yourself in a
basket provided for each person. Next to the room,
and shut up with glass doors, there is the bathing
room. Now you, stark-naked and carrying a towel
and a soap, which you brought from your home, open
the glass door and march in the bathroom. The
floor of the room is smoothly boarded, its whole
surface being made in slight slope so as to give an
easy flow of water, and a large square box is fixed at
THE NIGHTSIDE OF JAPAN
the bottom of the wooden wall on the opposite side to
the glass doors. The box is filled with the hot water,
into which all persons are to sink and warm their
body. The bathroom is large, and can contain over
fifty men at once, while the bath-box is wide enough
for twenty. Along the wall bordering the female
room, there are two fixed smaller square boxes, one
filled with the hot and the other the cold water ;
people are not allowed to go into these boxes, but
they are to use the hot or the cold water by taking
into small tubs when they are about to go out of the
room after cleaned up their body. The walls of the
bathroom are generally glazed with large mirrors, so
that they can use them when they wish to shave at
the intervals of bathing. Along one side of the walls
you see a pile of small tubs, which you can take, and,
filling up with the hot water in the fixed box, use for
washing your body. The charge for bathing is only
three sen per person, and if you wish to have your
back washed by the bath-boy (banto), you shall pay
one sen extra. The bath charge is called the yu sen
("cost for the hot water") and the bath-boy fee the
nagashi (" to wash ").
Regulation for temperature of the hot water in the
large box is done by cocks furnished at one corner of
the box, and the bath-takers in the box can pour in
the hot or cold water from the cocks as they please.
Up to about thirty years ago the construction of
the bathing-room was entirely different and much
more conservative than the simple and open system
at the present time. The bath-box was not open as
at present, but its approach was covered with a large
board hanging down from the ceiling, so that those
who were to come into the box were to bow down
their body and pass under the board. The inside of
the board was full of steam, a small lamp inserted in
the wooden wall throwing a dim light ; so it was very
hard to see how many men were in the box. It was
an etiquette for the bath-takers, when they were to
72
PUBLIC BATH-HOUSES
come into the box, to say, " I beg your pardon ; I am
a rustic," and in winter they said, " This is a cold
thing." These complimentary expressions were given
for fear that he might touch the other's body, because
the inside was dark and he could not exactly see the
men there. In these few words we can find the trace
of the pure Yedonian spirit Yedo is the old name
of Tokyo in the Tokugawa age, and the spirit of the
Yedo citizens is the incarnation of gallantry and
chivalry. Besides the bathroom, there was a special
system for the dress-room too. The lattice doors
were shut at the entrance of the bath-house, and if
they entered the door, in front there was a large
staircase which led to a room upstairs. On upstairs
there were two or three large rooms, and here they
found three or four nice young girls, who supplied
them with a bath-gown. Putting off their clothes
and taking the gown, they went down the stairs, and,
throwing off the gown into a basket at the down-
stairs room, they went into the bathing-room. After
they finished bath, they put on the gown, and coming
up again to the upstairs room, one of the girls served
them a cup of tea or sakurayu (sakuraya is the hot
water in which two or three cherry flowers salted down
are floating). What a nice taste and fragrance
the sakurayu had, being seasoned with light salt
emitted out of the flowers and flavoured with their
perfume ! Guests would take cakes which could be
supplied by the girls. In these rooms chess and
checkers were furnished, and the customers to the
house would be glad to play games. Young men
were very happy to gossip with the waitresses, and
spent their leisure time in the evening. These girls
in the upstairs of the bath-house seem to have been
selected out of the beautiful maidens, and we often
found among them such belles that even geisha of the
age could not match them in their charm and beauty.
At present these girls for tea-serving in the up-
stairs rooms of the bath-house are prohibited. In
73
THE NIGHTSIDE OF JAPAN
common hot bath-houses people come to take bath
simply, yet every evening all houses are crowded
with visitors specially very flourishing after nine
or ten. Two or three small tubs filled with hot
water are kept by the side of each visitor, who
washes and polishes their face, body, and limbs,
and fragrance of soap fills the room, mixed in the
vapour floating up out of the large bath - box.
Some are washing their head with the water fall-
ing down from the taps fixed high above on the
wall ; and others, who are about to get out of the
room, pouring down the clean hot water over their
body and then wiping off the wet with the towel
the fresh hot water having been drawn in tubs from
the smaller hot-water box. Three young fellows,
who seem to be carpenters by their expressions
one of them has his back tattooed with a coloured
picture of a beauty under cherry blossoms are
now in the midst of their good humour in the
bath-box, and a song loudly and skilfully sung by
one of them is followed by another song alternately
done by the other two.
Noise and confusion in the female room are still
greater. Most of the women who come to the
bath-house in night are wives of merchants and
labourers, and they are generally accompanied by
two or three children. Wives living in neighbour-
hood happen to meet in the bathroom, and their
mutual chatters are ceaselessly echoing here and
there, while sharp cries of babies deafen the ears
of silent bathers. Women use the nukabukuro, as
well as soap, for polishing the face and body ; and
the nukabukuro is a small cotton -cloth bag filled
with rice bran (nuka), which is used after dipping
into the hot water. Young wives and daughters
who have finished their polishing sit before the
mirror in the wall and powder the face and neck.
Banto or bath-boys are very busy in the female
far more than in the male room, for most of the
74
PUBLIC BATH - HOUSES
women need have their back washed by them ; and
banto are happy to be busy, as they can earn one
sen per person for their work.
The public hot bath is opened at 5 A.M. every
day, and closed at 12 P.M. The old dirty hot water
in the bath-box is thrown out every night as soon
as the house is shut up, and the preparation of
new water for the next morning is done by the
bantd) who thus have to work sleepless by turns.
Besides the common hot bath-houses, there is
a special kind of bath-houses where business of
restaurant is taken together at the same time ; they
are called the onsen-rydri, which means the bath-
restaurant. One summer evening you visit a bath-
restaurant called the Ikaho near the Uyeno Park,
around which some three or four famous onsen-rydri
are situated. At the entrance of the Ikaho there
stands a large wooden gate of the pure Japanese
style, and the courtyard of some ten yards long
leads from the gate to the door of the house. A
large two - storied building is divided into many
rooms, to one of which you are shown by one of
the waiting - maids. First of all she brings a bath-
gown (yukata) and asks you to take bath if you
please. A part of downstairs of the building is
made a large bathroom, furnished with the dress-
room next to it. The bath-box is filled with the
hot water similar to the mineral hot spring of
Mount Ikoho in the Kodzuke Province, made by
mixing the flowers fetched from the original spring.
A banto serves tubs of pure hot water, and washes
your back with soap. After you get out of the
room and put on the bath-gown, you come to the
toilet-room connected with the dress-room and give
a touch to your hair. Coming back to your room,
you sit down on the zabuton and try to smoke.
Just then the waitress appears again, and prepares
a table of dishes and sake. The views from the
upstairs room is very fine ; fireflies are going to
75
THE NIGHTSIDE OF JAPAN
and fro over the meeds on the bank of a small
stream, the twinkling lights of street lamps can
be seen through the dark wood of the park. At
times noises of trains are heard like distant thunder,
and they are the trains of the North-Eastern line,
which runs a long distance of four hundred and fifty-
six miles between Uyeno and Aomori. Cool breezes,
which come through the green leaves of the wood,
and after touching the ripples in the stream, are
constantly stroking your face and breast. In a
room beyond the courtyard sound of samisen and
voice of singing are heard, and your maid tells
you that three beautiful geisha from the Yanagibashi
circle are attending the guests of that room. In
another room there is an old gentleman, accom-
panied by his wife and children, and taking supper
sitting in a merry circle ; in the hall downstairs
a dinner-party of young students seems to be at
the height of pleasure. Through all seasons citizens
of every rank come to the bath - restaurants, and
are fond of making merry after washing away the
dirt of daytime. Some of these bath - restaurants
are taking business of hotel at the same time. If
you have no leisure to visit a distant local quarter
of the mineral spring, you may be satisfied to stay
some two or three days in one of these bath-hotels.
The most popular bath-restaurants in Tokyo are
Ikaho, Isobe, Shiobara, and Kusatusu all these
names being derived from the appellations given
upon the original springs in local quarters.
CHAPTER VIII
THE SHIMBASHI STATION TO SHINAGAWA
AROUND the city of Tokyo there are the five terminus
stations the Shimbashi, the Manseibashi, the Uyeno,
the Ryogoku, and the Asakusa; but as the great
central station is now in course of construction and
will be completed in the next year (1914), the lines
from these five stations will be concentrated into the
new station. Among these five stations at present,
the Shimbashi, which is the starting-point for the
Tokaido line, is always crowded by passengers, and
specially those who are going to travel to Osaka,
Kobe, or Shimonoseki of the Sanyo line, take the
express train in night. It is about seven in the even-
ing when you make appearance in the station to see
ts general aspect. By one side of the stone steps
leading to the front entrance there stand three
automatic telephone boxes, each of which is occupied,
one by a girl and the other two by gentlemen. Close
by one of the telephone boxes a money-changer box
is found, and an old woman in the box busy on her
business of exchange. Ascending the stone steps,
you pass the entrance and fall into the whirlpool of
people. Pushing through the throngs, you approach
the first- and second-class waiting-room, where you
find ladies and gentlemen in travelling costume, some
leaning on the sofa and reading papers, some talking
with friends standing by the large table at the centre,
magazines and papers being furnished on the table by
the station master. Porters of red caps are carrying
77
THE NIGHTSIDE OF JAPAN
bags and trunks for the train. In the lady's waiting-
room, on the opposite side, you can see some six or
seven young and old ladies of the peer's rank, attended
by their chambermaids. Then you come to the large
waiting-room for the third-class passengers ; men and
women who constantly come in and out of the room
are about to shock with you, and their chatters and
idle talks with loud voice are raising a confused noise
within the room. Most of people assembled in this
room are rustics ; some dangle a cotton bag from their
neck, and some carry baggages on the shoulder. Near
the door of the room there is standing a policeman, to
whom an old man shows his bald head, by taking off
the old ruffled soft hat, and, after bowing down, politely
enquires where to buy his ticket. There are two large
booking offices fronting each other at the centre of the
station ; in one of them there are opened the windows
for the first- and second-class and platform tickets,
and in the other those for the third-class only. These
windows being classified according to the kind of
ticket for short and long distance in the Tokaido
line, and for the Tanyo, the Tan-in and the Kyushu
lines all tickets are sold by young female clerks.
Coming round into the spacious part of the station
which leads to the wickets, newsboys are crying for
the evening press, and at one corner of the place
you find a nicely-decorated shop of miscellaneous
articles at the shop passengers buy cigars, matches,
magazines, handkerchiefs, and the like. On the wall,
near the shop, large square looking-glasses, with
advertisement pictures on their broad frames, serve
for dandies to touch on the hair or the tie, or on
arranging dresses. The western side of the part is
made the way out of the station, and along the wide
frontage here rikisha, carriages, and motor-cars are
prepared in rows and waiting for guests. At one side
of the frontage you find a box of rikisha tickets, and,
if any one buys a ticket at the box after appointing
his destination, he can take a rikisha to any quarter
78
THE SHIMBASHI STATION
of the city without troubles to fix the fare himself
directly with the rtkisha-mzn.. You come back again
near the first-class waiting-room, and, along the wall
of its entrance, there can be seen a large bending
staircase ; now stepping it up, you arrive at the door
of a restaurant.
On entering the door there is a bar, and farther
inside there are two large rooms, in each of which a
number of tables are furnished. In the restaurant
both the Japanese and European dishes can be served.
In the bar six young clerks of a firm make a circle
round a table, and are taking beer, whisky, or sake
according to choice of each. They seem to have
happened to meet here on their way back from
Yokohama and other places after finished their
business, and now, being much intoxicated, are
discussing for an expedition to a certain gay circle.
You take a seat by a table near these young fellows,
and, giving order to the waiter to bring a glass of
beer, listen what they speak. " I have yen 1 5 here
in my pocket," says the oldest one among them, some
twenty-five years old, "and I can spend yen IO this
night. How much can you all contribute from your
purse?" After some minutes of conference among
the rest, the youngest one replies, " We all can make
yen 20, and, adding your yen 10 into ours, the war
fund amounts to thirty." "That will do," says the
first one ; " but there is an important matter which
you all must not forget, and that is we should go
home before twelve this night, nobody shall stay
till later than midnight. Now let us start at once,
the earlier the better." " Then shall we go to Shina-
gawa by train again?" asks another one. "Yes, it
is nearest to here," echoes the ringleader ; " we must
save time." You determine your mind to follow them
to Shinagawa, the south end of the city, where a
prostitute quarter is established. In the meantime,
while they are still emptying the glasses, you leave
your seat and try to look into the inner rooms. There
79
THE NIGHTSIDE OF JAPAN
you find some four or five companies of ladies and
gentlemen, the European and the Japanese, taking
drinks and some dishes ; these guests are all for the
next train, and have come to take refreshment, utilis-
ing a few minutes before the time.
Following the six clerks, you descend the stairs,
and, when you are going to approach the ticket
window across the crowds of people standing in
rows, you are suddenly interrupted by a policeman.
Being bewildered by the unexpected obstruction, you
are told by a gentleman by your side that H.I.H.
Princess K has come back by the train just
arrived. In a few minutes the princess, guided by
the stationmaster, and followed by the steward and
chambermaids, passes through the way between the
rows of loyal citizens, who all take off the hats and
bow down the head. She is dressed in a pure
Japanese costume, and, getting in the carriage wait-
ing at the front entrance, goes away for her palace.
Having missed your games now by this sudden
hindrance, you look for them among the throngs,
but could not find them. You buy a ticket and
hasten into the platform. Looking into each box of
the train through the window, at last you could dis-
cover the band of expeditionists, who are laughing
and talking loudly. You get into the same box and
take a seat at the opposite corner ; at this moment
your watch shows just nine. A flute of the station-
master and a steam whistle at the engine the train
begins to run for the Tokaido. Ten minutes and the
train arrived at the Shinagawa Station, the next
one to the Shimbashi Station. Getting down the
train quickly, you follow them with strict care never
to miss them again. It is less than half a mile from
the station to the Shinagawa Street. They come to
a large brothel called the Shimasaki-ro, and enter its
door at once. Now you give them up and begin to
take a walk through the street to see the general
state of the quarter.
80
THE SHIMBASHI STATION
Shinagawa is the southernmost part of the city of
Tokyo ; in the period of the Tokugawa government
a barrier was established at the north end of the
road, and those who come from the west were not
allowed without the passport to pass the gate of the
barrier, the throat of the city of Yedo. The brothels
of Shinagawa were very flourishing by travellers in
the age of Yedo, and at present a little more than one
hundred houses are still on the both sides of the
street, those on the eastern side governing the
magnificent views of the Bay of Shinagawa. The
front view of these houses here are different from that
of those at Yoshiwara ; the so-called showrooms are
not opened for the street, but if you want to see the
girls, you have to step in the entrance of the house,
and there can have a sufficient look upon them. In
this street a great number of restaurants and smaller
eating - houses open their shops mingled among
brothels. Just below a large brothel building you
find a small eating-house, at the entrance of which a
long square paper lantern hangs, and four large
Japanese characters, Ha-ma-na-be, are written on the
lantern's paper the hamanabe is the name of a dish
made of clam-flesh boiled in a pan. You enter the
house, and, taking a seat on a zabuton, order to bring
a bottle of sake and a pan of hamanabe. A little
maid-servant brings a small square fire-box, on which
a little pan filled with clam-flesh is put, the dish
being arranged so as to be gradually cooked on the
fire-box. At one part of the room there is a group
of stalwart fishermen, who live in the fishing-village
along the Shinagawa Bay ; they guzzle sake and
devour dishes of clam and others. " It was about the
middle of last night," groans out one of them, with
the eyes like an eagle upon the copper-coloured face,
"when we discovered and picked up the drowning
young couple into our boat. It was very dark, the
sky being covered with dense clouds, and the waves
were very high, not easy to pull the boat as we please."
81 F
THE NIGHTSIDE OF JAPAN
" How it happened to you to rescue them in such a
dark night?" asks a young fisherman in earnest; "and
were they both still alive when you found them?"
" No, the man was almost breathless and the girl
already fainted. It was on our way back from the
fishery last night when one of our companions dis-
covered a black mass floating upon the waves, and,
approaching the boat to it, we recognised the form
of two human bodies tightly bound each other. At
once I ordered to take them up into the boat, and
no sooner the two bodies were laid down on board,
than we hastened for the shore with full speed. On
the shore we burnt straw and warmed them by the
fire for some ten minutes, when the two could
recover their breath, and at the same time threw up
a quantity of water from the mouth. They were
taken to the police-station, and this morning I heard
that enquiries were made upon them by a constable.
Both they are young, and the girl very beautiful."
" And have you been told of details why they did
such an indiscreet conduct ? " enquires another one,
holding a cup of sake in his left hand, and putting
the chopsticks in his right hand into the boiling pan
of hamaguri (clam flesh). "Yes, before they were
sent to the police-station," answers the first one, " I
was told by the young man as follows :
" The young couple were the natives of the town
Uraga, in the Saitama Prefecture, some twelve miles
north to Tokyo. The man is twenty-five years old,
and betrothed to the girl, who is eighteen years old.
The father of the girl, a merchant of dry goods, was
unfortunate to ruin lately by his miscarriage on
business, and compelled to make a certain amount
of money by sending away his daughter to a geisha
house in Tokyo. Having been told of the father's
intention, the girl was much surprised, and in the
night ran to her future husband, who was a clerk of
a bank in the town and living in a short distance from
her house. After consultation throughout the night,
82
THE SHIMBASHI STATION
the two eloped for Tokyo by the first train of the next
morning, but they were prepared with a small sum of
money in their pocket. They took refuge in an inn
near Uyeno Park, and were staying there for about a
week. The money was spent up soon, and could find
no means to get work as they had no acquaintances
in the city. At last they resolved to die together,
and, after wandering away to Shinagawa last night,
attempted to drown themselves in the bay." All
fishermen are silently listening, some sympathised
with the unfortunate couple, and the others taking
pity on their foolish conduct.
After paying the bill, you come out of the house.
It is now eleven o'clock, and you begin to stroll
down the street to the north farther. Passing a
stone bridge, under which the Tokaido railways
run, you arrive at the south extreme of the electric
tram of the city, and see multitude of people pouring
in and out of the cars, halting here. You do not
take the tram, and walk farther on along the pave-
ment. After twenty minutes you arrive at the
corner of the entrance road to the Sengakuji, the
very famous temple for the graves of the "Forty-
seven Ronins," who revenged for their lord, Naganori
Asano, and all committed suicide (harakiri^ cutting
the abdomen) at once, in the feudal age of the
Tokugawa Government two hundred years ago, and
try to visit the tombs in night. The road leading
to the Temple Gate is very dark, while by day the
shops of souvenir articles for the loyal retainers
are opened in rows on its both sides and crowded
by the visitors. Entering the gate, you turn to the
left and come to the well called the Kubi arai Ido
(the Well washing the Head), which it is said was
used by the ronins to wash the head of Yoshihide
Kira, the enemy of their lord, Naganori. Near the
well there stands a large stone monument for Rihei
Amanoya, a chivalrous merchant who made and
supplied all arms and costumes necessary for the
83
THE NIGHTSIDE OF JAPAN
invasion of the loyal retainers of Asano. Advancing
farther on the dark narrow lane under the thick
wood, you reach a black wooden gate of the grave-
yard, and the dense smoke of the burning sticks
of incense offered by the visitors in daytime can
be seen curling up in the air. The gate being locked
up in night, you cannot enter the graveyard, but
over the fence and through the dark you can observe
the tombstones of the forty-seven heroes, standing in
square rows surrounding the two large tombs of
their lord, Naganori Asano, and his wife. After wor-
shipping these monuments of the Japanese bushido,
you come round towards the front of the temple, the
doors of which are now shut up, and the glimmering
lights in the hall of the main building can be hardly
seen through the opening of doors. The sound of
wind blowing over the roof of the large temple
and through the wood behind the building make
you feel horrible ; at this moment a large dog
appears from under the temple floor and loudly
barks at you. You note a round lump on the
ground just under the eaves of the building,
and close by your feet begins to move suddenly
and slowly, and gazing at it, find it is a beggar,
covering his body with an old straw matting, and
perhaps awakened from sleep by barking of the
dog. You get out of the gate and come back
again into the street. It is now near twelve, and
passers in the street are rare. You catch a tram
just come from Shinagawa, and go home peacefully.
CHAPTER IX
AMATEUR WRESTLING IN SUMMER EVENING
IN the hot summer evening, when the burning sun
sets below the horizontal line of the west, the Shiroto-
Zumo, or Amateur Wrestling, takes place at various
parts of the city. If it approaches six in the evening,
happy - go - lucky old men, who are glad to take
troubles for young men, appear to a vacant land in
their neighbourhood, and construct a temporary
wrestling-ring with materials which consist of bamboo
rods, timbers, and boards collected from the inhabi-
tants in the quarter ; on the four large pillars called
the Shihon-Bashira, at the four corners of the ring, old
earthen teapots filled with the oil and with the
burning fire at their beaks, are hanging in place of
lamps. Around the ring multitude of naked amateur
wrestlers and spectators are crowded, a part of them
sitting down on the straw mats stretched on the
ground, and the rest standing behind them. Some of
the wrestlers are fat and stout, but most of them pale
and slender all these so-called wrestlers being sons
of merchants, school boys, or young labourers living
in the streets near by. On the ring you would find
two slender wrestlers, severely, but funny in some
points, fighting each other, and an umpire called the
gvdji is inspecting the match, standing at the right or
left side of the fighters.
The wrestling of amateurs has lately become very
popular, not only in the city of Tokyo, but also
85
THE NIGHTSIDE OF JAPAN
throughout all parts of Japan. During summer
every year young men are very fond of competing
their strength, and wherever you visit a town, a
village, or a harbour, you will find the wrestling
youths, some of whom have such an excellent
physical make that even the professional wrestlers of
the second or third rank are surpassed by their
appearance.
To enumerate the most influential circles of
amateur wrestlers in Tokyo and its vicinity at present,
the first and oldest one is the Hachiman-ko^ consisting
of more than fifty warriors in the suburbs of Minami
Adachi and Minami Katsushika, and the champion
wrestler of them is called Matsuno-oto. The next
circle is the Yotsume-ko, the alliance of heroes in
the Honjo and Fukagawa wards, the man called
Kozakura taking charge of the director of the associa-
tion and its members, amounting to over eighty.
The most famous and popular champion of the
Yotsumeko is a man named Hamachidori ; he is the
proprietor of the Fukagawa Fish Nursery, and,
though he is an amateur, his body weighs more than
200 lb., and his art on wrestling is so well trained
that even the professionals are often defeated by him.
Besides him, Kinugawa and Miyakomatsu, who
were once the professional wrestlers of the second
rank, are joined in the circle, and in the tournament
with another circle the Yotsumeko has always been
victorious. In the quarter of Mukojima there is
another body called the Futabakai in which Raiden,
a mighty man of the Tanioka Dye Works, occupies
the position of the champion wrestler. A band in the
Asakusa Ward is very powerful under the leadership
of the two champions Dangoyama and Ryogoku, and
patronised by Ichinao, the restaurant in Asakusa
Park ; Ryogoku is the ex-professional who was once
called Manazuru as a disciple of the old great wrestler
Oguruma, and the other two popular members,
Midorigawa and Asamayama, are the graduates of
86
AMATEUR WRESTLING
the Higher Industrial College. Besides those above
mentioned, there are still numerous bodies of amateur
wrestlers, and among the rest the most interesting
one is the body whose members consist of men of
letters under leadership of Sui-in Emi, a novelist.
Schools in Tokyo have their own wrestling parties ;
the Tengu Club of the Waseda College is very famous,
and its members are trained by Isenohama, a
champion among the professional wrestlers, who is
engaged as the teacher of the art for students ; the
Keio and the Meiji College employ the professionals,
too, as their leaders, and we are told that a son of
Doctor Tatsuno, the student of the First Higher
College, is the most accomplished wrestler among all
students of the College.
Before entering the details of the Amateur
Wrestling in summer evening, a short story on the
Professional Wrestling at present will be given :
The art of wrestling in Japan has its origin in the
match between the two men Taima and Nomi in
23 B.C., and is followed down to the present. By the
two great experts Takasago and Ikadzuchi, the art
became most flourishing near the end of the nineteenth
century, and is still recommended by all the Japanese
as the national and heroic accomplishment. Lately
a gigantic iron building called the Kokugikan (the
National Art Hall) has been constructed at Ryogoku,
on the east bank of the River Sumida, as the per-
manent establishment for the wrestling performance,
and its large dome can be seen from every part of the
city. Indeed, the wrestling is the king of all per-
formances for pleasure in Tokyo, and the flower of all
arts carried on in the great city.
In the street Motomachi of the Honjo Ward, there
is the Great Wrestling Association (Ozumo Kyd-kai),
which is the central office for the wrestling business
in Tokyo, and in the office rooms members of the
Association are always busy on taking business. The
representatives of the Association are called the
87
THE NIGHTSIDE OF JAPAN
Toshiyori (elders), who are veterans, powerful and
meritorious, among their society. In the feudal age
the number of the Toshiyori were limited to thirty-six,
in accordance with the number of gates of the Yedo
Castle, but at present they are increased to eighty-
eight. The most powerful among these elders are
called Tarishimari (directors), the next Rensayaku
(inspectors), and all business of the Association is
classified and taken among all these Toshiyori.
The great wrestling performance in the Kokugi-
kan is held only twice in a year, in January and
May, and the period for one performance is limited
to ten days. By the result of these two short but
important performances, the position and salary of
all wrestlers are promoted and increased, and during
the rest of the year, except January and May, the
wrestlers go out for travels to the eastern or western
provinces, where they are to show their performances
to the country people, and at the same time to train
their body and art in preparation for the formal com-
petition at the Kokugikan in the next year. The
formal performance at the National Art Hall of Tokyo
is called the Hombasho Zumo (Wrestling at the Head-
quarters), and those performed at other quarters of the
city and local provinces the Hana Zumo (Flower or
Prize - wrestling). While the wrestlers are out for
prize - wrestlings, the Kokugikan is utilised for
exhibitions of various performances or shows, such
as a circus-riding, chrysanthemum flowers, bazaars,
etc., etc.
Around the great Hall there are a number of the
guide-houses called the Sumo-jaya (Tea-house for
wrestling), just equal to those to the theatre called
the Shibai-jaya (Tea-house for the theatre). Per-
formances of theatres being carried on through the
year, their guide-houses can take their business with-
out pauses ; but as the great wrestlings are performed
only twice a year and for ten days a period, how can
the guide-houses to the wrestling manage to lead
88
AMATEUR WRESTLING
their life for a year ? Of course the fees for guidance
and arrangement of seats or profits by supplying food
and drinks are trifling, but the so-called chadai (tea-
money or tips) given by customers amounts to a
tremendous sum. We are told that the smallest
sum of the tip given by a customer is no less than
yen 20 at a time, and that ladies and gentlemen are
not rare that leave the gift of yen 50, 100, or 200
on the counter of their intimate guide-houses.
At the centre of the Hall there is the wrestling-ring,
or arena, called the Dohyo, which is made of eighty-
two sand-bags most firmly heaped up on the ground,
and the four strong pillars called the Shihon Bashira
are erected on the four corners of the ring, all
wrapped up with coloured cloths ; the east pillar,
twined with the blue cloth, symbolises spring ; the
west, with the white, autumn ; the south, with the red,
summer ; and the north, with the black, winter. Near
the foot of each pillar a bale of salt and a large tub
of water are furnished, these to be used by the com-
batants for purifying their mouth and body before
they begin to fight when they come upon the arena.
The programme for the Grand Wrestling Tourna-
ment at the Kokugikan is published by the Associa-
tion on the day previous to the first day of the
performance in January or May each year, and being
fixed after the conference among the directors, the
inspectors, and other Toshiyori^ it is kept very secret
to all wrestlers up to the date when it is published.
Wrestlers who have come back from their tour
receive the programmes from the Association and
distribute them to their patrons and customers. As
soon as the performance of each day is closed, the
report of matches is sold at the entrance of the Hall,
and at the same time men are running to sell the
reports through all streets of the city, loudly crying,
" Ozumo-Shobu-zuke^ Ozumo Shobu-zuke\ " (Report for
the Grand Wrestling Tournament!), just as news-
boys running for extra news.
THE N1GHTSIDE OF JAPAN
As there are several ranks of wrestlers, classified
according to their strength and skill, so are there the
ranks for the umpires of wrestling. When an umpire
(Gydji) comes on the arena to take his duty, he
carries a wooden fan named the Gunbai Uchiwa
(war-fan) in his hand, and uses it to appoint the
victor when the match is settled. To the handle of
a fan a tuft of silk thread is attached, and the ranks
of the umpire are distinguished by the colour of the
tuft : the umpire of the highest rank is called the
Tategydji and uses the crimson tuft, the next, the
mixed one of red and white, the third, that of blue
and white, and so on. The training of the young
umpires is done likewise by their elders during the
time when wrestlers train themselves in the per-
formances during the travels to localities.
There is another kind of men called the Yobidashi
(crier) who do not belong neither to wrestlers nor
umpires, and their business is to cry out the names of
wrestlers who are to come up and combat on the
ring. The voice of the Yobidashi is so strong and
clear that none of people fails to hear him however
distant a corner of the Hall they may be at. Besides
calling out the wrestlers' names, they have sundry
works to do in the Hall.
When the season of the great tournament approaches
you will find a very tall tower temporarily built up
near the Kokugikan. It is the drum tower, and the
drum on the tower is called the Yagura Daiko ; the
height of the tower is fixed to 57 feet, the extent at
its bottom being 9 feet square, and the top, where the
drum is set, 6 feet square, all being built with long,
strong logs only. During the period of the
performance, every morning, very early, before dawn,
each of the Yobidashi appears by turns on the top of
the tower and beats the drum for about one hour,
notifying the citizens of the wrestling performance of
the day. The drum-beating on the high tower is an
old habit of the wrestling formalities.
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AMATEUR WRESTLING
All wrestlers are divided into two parties, the east
and the west, and the matches are performed between
these two parties, a pair of wrestlers for a match being
called upon the arena in turn from each party.
When the Honbasho Zumo, or Headquarters Wrest-
ling, at the Kokugikan begins, the Yobidashi (criers)
go round to awake wrestlers in their rooms by strik-
ing wooden clappers (Hydskigi) on very early
morning before dawn at 3 A.M. ; and, when the matches
between those of the lowest rank are to be carried on,
the Kensayaku (inspectors) appear on the arena, and,
taking the seats at the foot of the four pillars, take
their charge to inspect the result of matches,
superintending the judgment of the Gydji (umpire).
At the present time the champion wrestler of the
east party is Umegatani, and that of the west
Hitachiyama, both being crowned with the laurel of
the highest honour called the " Yokozuna" which is
to be bestowed upon the strongest and the most
meritorious wrestlers among champions. Among
many great Japanese wrestlers who ever lived,
Hitachiyama is the only one that was abroad ; while
most of the wrestlers are dull in their nature, he! has
a knowledge and intellect not inferior to ordinary
persons, and is worthy to be proud of the complete
development of his constitution every inch in the
trunk and limbs, so that he can be said a specimen of
the beauty of human body. In contrast to the great
champion of the west, Umegatani of the east is his
competent enemy. By his countenance he seems to
be dull and ignorant, but he is a clever and skilful
fighter ; his body is big and round like an elephant,
and specially the most strangely developed part is his
large and projecting belly none of strong wrestlers
can defeat him if one's body is taken on and pushed
by his large and tight belly. Certainly the two
great heroes must be said a pair of kings among the
circle of the Japanese wrestlers and the honour for
the Tokyo Wrestling Association, as well as for the
91
THE NIGHTSIDE OF JAPAN
citizens of Tokyo nay, the living decorations of the
Empire at this present age !
To return to the Amateur Wrestling.
One summer evening you visit an amateur
wrestling body consisting of men of letters. The
body is called the Bunshi Zumo (Men of letters'
Wrestling), whose matches take place every evening
on the ring constructed at the back yard of the house
of Sui-in Emi, the novelist, the ring being covered
with a roof supported by the four pillars. It is five in
the evening, and when you enter the gate of Emi and
come round near the arena, you find a number of
so-called wrestlers assembled near the ring, all being
students, but the time being still too early, matches
are not yet commenced. Emi, the founder of the
Bunshi Zumo> tells you that, when the band was first
established, most of the members consisted of literary
men Shunro Oshikawa, Tenkei Hasegawa, Kiku-u
Saiki, Sagoromo Kurishima, Keigetsu Omachi,
Kakuhan Kamiya, Namiroku Chinunoura, etc., all
being novelists, essayists, journalists, or dramatists.
Once there happened such a funny event that, when
Sui-in, the founder, and Kakuhan, the journalist, were
fighting, the latter was pushed away out of the ring ;
but he was not aware of his being defeated, and,
without setting free his hands from the enemy's body,
continued to struggle at the outside of the arena ; at
last, the two bodies falling down into a large dust-bin
put by the side of the house, the game was hardly
settled. At present most of these literary wrestlers
were replaced by students, among whom most hopeful
champions are Hakuryu Inouye, of the Fine Arts
School, and Kishi Shigeo, of the Dentist School the
total members amounting to more than sixty.
Now it becomes dark, and lamps are lighted on
the pillars. The members of the band having almost
assembled now, the competitions on this evening
are to be commenced. It is very lucky for you that
this evening all notable fighters of the circle have
92
AMATEUR WRESTLING
made their appearance : Tamano-o, famous for his art;
Tamausagi, excellent for overthrowing the enemy;
Inouye and Kishi, the two champions ; and the
Captain Kametaka, celebrated for his merit of having
extinguished the fire in his steamer during her
voyage in the Indian Sea last year (1912) all can
be found among the group of wrestlers.
The first match is fought by Tamano-o and
Tamausagi ; when the two come upon the ring,
each behaves just as the professionals do before
he enters fighting, gargling with water and purify-
ing the body by sprinkling pinches of salt. When
both stand up to fight, their postures are very
funny : each is standing a few minutes apart from
the other in order to catch the opportunity for
attack, waving up and down his both hands and
crying, " Yoh,ydk!" Finally they come to grapple,
and after some minutes of severe struggle, Tamano-o
gets the honour of the victor. Taking the place of
Tamausagi, the defeated warrior, Sui-in Emi, the
old champion, appears on the arena to fight against
the triumphant hero Tamano-o. When the two
stand up Sui-in suddenly raised up his hands high
above his head, just like a man who is shouting
" Banzai ! " (" Live forever ! "), and taking the oppor-
tunity, the enemy steps near him and grasps his belt.
You anticipate that, the belt being seized by the
enemy, Sui-in should be defeated, but he composedly
drops down his long arms, and no sooner he seizes
the knot of the belt at the enemy's back, than he
carries the enemy out of the ring by suspending
the body with his two hands, together with his one
cry, " Yoh I " Another wrestler is again defeated by
Sui-in with the same trick, this time overthrowing
the enemy by twisting his arms round the neck.
The student wrestlers, who are looking at the games,
whisper, " The way of our leader's wrestling is very
cruel ! "
Next the champion Hakuryu Inonye appears on
93
THE NIGHTSIDE OF JAPAN
the ring, and, in a few moments, throws down Sui-in.
Being desperate now, the latter tries another match,
but is again defeated. Coming down from the
arena, and after washing away the sand on his body,
Sui-in puts on the white summer clothes, and then,
coming to you, complains, " I wished to show you
how strong I am by defeating the rivals, but my
disciples do not hesitate to beat down their master.
Kakuryu, who threw me down twice just now, is so
mighty a hero that, once when Azabuyama, the
champion of the Azabu amateur band, came and
challenged the match against him, he defeated the
enemy thirty-nine times out of the forty successive
combats, and he, as well as all others, was at first
trained under my directions. Nevertheless, they
all forget my efforts done for them, and advise
me to be the toshiyort (elder) of the band now."
Meanwhile, on the arena the new game takes place
between Hakuryu and Kishi, another champion.
You expect the match to be most interesting,
because it is the great wrestling between the two
greatest heroes of the circle. You are sure that,
even if either of the champions fights with a pro-
fessional of the third rank, he can probably defeat
the enemy. The combat of the two gladiators
continues for about a quarter, and at last the umpire
sentences the drawn game. After many interest-
ing and funny matches further, the tournament of
this evening is closed at half-past ten.
You are told that, at Shin-ami of the Shiba Ward,
there is held an amateur wrestling every evening
this summer, and try to visit it at about 7 P.M.,
when the sky is already covered with a slight dark.
The quarter of Shin-ami is one of the notorious dens
of needy folks, and, when you come near the narrow
streets of poor small buildings, your nose is attacked
with the stinks floating in the air. Being told by a
boy of the position of the wrestling-ring, you step in
94
AMATEUR WRESTLING
a narrow alley only two feet wide, and are surprised
to find that all men and women in the houses on the
both sides of the alley, as well as those standing at
their entrances, are all naked ; and at the same time
you think that, even the women being naked here,
the wrestling must be very popular in the quarter.
Passing through the alley, you arrive at a large vacant
land, where you find a low wrestling-ring furnished
with the Shihonbashira (Four Pillars). Though a
room for wrestlers is not prepared, a shrine of Inari
(God of Harvests) at a corner of the land is utilised
for the depot of clothes and others taken off by
wrestlers. The land being situated near the Shiba
Detached Palace, and perhaps as the result of inter-
ference by the police, one side of the land fronting
the Palace is covered high with the large reed blind.
On the dark arena, where no lamps are yet lighted,
several pairs of small boys are wrestling in entangle-
ment. A naked wife runs up here, catches one of the
boys, and cries out, " This devil, you took father's belt
again ! " and, taking off the belt from the boy's body,
she hurries back with it to her house. The boy is
sobbing, and runs after the mother to recover the belt,
for he could not wrestle without it.
Near nine o'clock warriors of the quarter gradually
assemble around the arena, most of them consisting
of the inhabitants in Azabu, Akasaka, and Shimbori,
and they are rikisha-mzr\ } servants of rice dealers, cart-
pushers, and young masters of public houses. As the
quarter is swampy and dirty, spectators are attacked
by the army of mosquitoes, but the people living
hereabout being too poor to visit the professional
wrestling by paying a high admission, they are very
much pleased to see the free exhibition of voluntary
fighters, and giving noisy applause for their favourite
wrestlers, in spite of the severe assault of stinging
insects, which they hardly drive away by uchiwa
(round fan) carried in their hand. Mixed in the
crowd there can be seen a number of young girls, who
95
THE NIGHTSIDE OF JAPAN
are daughters of labourers in the poor houses at the
neighbourhood ; in daytime they were busy for the
jobs of handwork, making match-boxes or pasting
fan's paper, but now, having taken a bath and painted
the face, they have appeared to see the wrestling.
They criticise the countenance of wrestlers, and are
smacking their lips by taking tokoroten or mitsumame
(viands of the lowest class).
The Noryo Zumo is another name of the Shiroto
Zumo (Amateur Wrestling), and it means the Cool-
taking Wrestling i.e., wrestling under the cool breeze
of the summer evening. The place most appropriate
for the Cool-taking Wrestling is the reclaimed land
at the foreshore of Shibaura. Standing on the broad
vacant land, you can look the mountains of Awa and
Kadzusa provinces in front far beyond the calm sea,
and, on both the right and left sides, brilliant lights of
the prostitute quarters of Shinagawa and Susaki can
be seen distinctly. Every summer evening inhabi-
tants in the vicinity gather here, after finished supper
and bath, to have the cool breeze from the sea, and,
as the time passes on, the number of these cool-takers
is gradually increased to several thousands men,
women, and children, all clothed in white summer
clothes and carrying round fans. Among them there
are young men, who are very fond of wrestling, and
they begin to try matches. At a spot of the land near
the bath-restaurant Takeshiba-kan, there is a heap of
sand about three inches high and making an arena
most suitable for wrestling. Chief fighters wrestling
on the natural ring are young fishermen living along
the shore of the Shinagawa Bay, and you are told
that, as their fighting is very violent, the first son of
an old fisherman became lame last summer, and his
second son, having broken the right arm this summer,
is still lying on bed. Those who are wrestling now
jump into the sea when they are sweated, and, after
cooling themselves in the waves, come out and wrestle
AMATEUR WRESTLING
again ; repeating the swimming and the wrestling by
turns, they are entirely tired out, and at length lie
down on the ground near the fence of the restaurant.
On this occasion samisen and songs sound to their
ears from the Takeshibakan ; then these light-hearted
fellows begin to hum a song following the other's
samisen. It is said good professionals are often pro-
duced out of these amateur wrestlers. Sometimes
betting is done for the matches, and some successful
combatants win a wonderful sum of money in one
evening.
This evening you visit the wrestling at Akasoka.
The space is situated obliquely opposite to the theatre
Engiza, and, being near the quarter of the Akasoka
geisha circle, you find the scene to be gaudiest among
all the amateur wrestlings you have ever seen. The
ring is made within an enclosure, and cannot be seen
from outside. The wall of the entrance is covered
with hand-bills notifying the presents from the patrons
to the manager and the favourite wrestlers such
as : "3 Rolls of towels and 50 quires of Japanese
paper to the manager from Miss Kinko Omiya
(geisha)" \ "Yen 10.00 to Mr Arashiyama (wrestler)
from Yamadaya (patron)," etc., etc. The greater
part of wrestlers who appear here are young fellows
living in four streets of Tamachi in the Akasoka Ward,
the rest coming from Azabu and Shiba. Almost all
things necessary for the wrestling performance are
arranged here as done by the professional, Kensayaku,
Gydji, and Yobidashi being appointed among members
of the circle, and you are told that the champions of
the place are called Hana-arashi and Inanoheso.
In the enclosure the roof of the ring is covered
with red and white curtains, and the four pillars are
wrapped up with cloths of four colours, blue, white,
red, and black. It is now 7 P.M., and spectators
already assembled around the ring amounts to more
than one thousand. Sound of wooden clappers
97 G
THE NIGHTSIDE OF JAPAN
informs the beginning of matches, and boy wrestlers
prepare to come upon the arena by taking off
their clothes. Meanwhile three old men take their
seats by a table set near the box of spectators,
and bottles of soda-water, towels, paper, notebooks,
etc., are arranged on the table as the prizes for
conquerors. A tinker named Kinsan being appointed
the crier, he appears on the ring and asks the name
of the boy at the west party : " What is your name ?
Sunamoguri ? All right." Next coming to the east :
" Your name ? What, Hitachiyama ? This champion
Hitachi seems to have been ill and is very lean ! "
Then, standing at the centre, he cries out the two
boys : " On the east, Hitachiyama-a-a ! on the west,
Sunamoguri-i-i ! " When the two boys come upon
from both sides, the umpire appears on the ring
carrying a gunbai (war-fan) made of the plain wood
and clad in an old costume called the Kami-shimo.
At the instant when he takes his position between
the two small heroes, one of spectators cries :
"Hallo, tailor! Be an honest umpire!" The
tailor-umpire introduces the wrestlers again to the
audience, pointing with his war-fan at each of them
in turn : " Hitachiyama on the east ; Sunamoguri
on the west ! " As soon as his fan is withdrawn
the rivals struggle pell-mell, and after a few minutes
the slender Hitachi is thrown down. Matches are
carried on continually by successive pairs, and as
the time goes on all folks in the space, spectators,
wrestlers, and umpire, become much enlivened and
very noisy. Specially the activity of the tailor-
umpire is striking ; being over-enthusiastic with his
business, he overlooks a wrestler's false steps out of the
ring and often misassigns the defeated as the victor
sometimes, coming behind the body of a wrestler, he
is thrown out of the arena together with the defeated
hero. The warning is given to the umpire by some of
spectators : " Umpire, you must be steadier and more
attentive ! " Hearing this, the tailor with the war-fan
AMATEUR WRESTLING
becomes very angry, and, staring with his stretched
eyes, at once retaliates by crying out from the ring :
"Spectators have no right to say anything on the
match. Don't say such affected things ; I am not
an amateur as umpire ! "
Towards ten o'clock geisha and waiting - maids
of machiai and restaurants come to see the matches,
some geisha getting already drunk. Presented with
new gifts by these girls, the manager writes down
hand -bills at once and requests the umpire to
announce the new presents. In the professional
wrestling announcement of presents are done by
the crier at intervals of matches, but in this amateur
wrestling the umpire is entirely indifferent of the
match going on, and at once cries out in the
midst of the serious combat of wrestlers, " Yen so-
and-so, presented to the manager by so-and-so ! "
What an illegal, but an innocent conduct of the
umpire !
On the arena there is a boy about fifteen years
old, and he is so powerful that no boys can conquer
him. At this time, some five or six students, all
twenty-five or six years old, come into the place,
and one of them, who bears a mustache, says : " That
little fellow is too strong. All right, I'll try him."
At an instant he takes off his clothes and jumps
upon the ring. In spite of protestation by his friends
and the manager, saying, " A man is not allowed to
intrude among boys," he begins to fight with the boy-
champion ; the boy is overthrown at once, though
he made efforts against the " mustache," and, coming
down the ring and sobbing, goes to wash his feet.
The father of the boy is much excited, and, consol-
ing his son, " That fellow of ' mustache ' is making
fools of us. Don't weep ; I shall protest to him,"
and approaches the ring. There a quarrel has been
about to take place, but, being prevented and
soothed by inspectors and other persons, the
father is compelled to retire in peace to his seat.
99
THE NIGHTSIDE OF JAPAN
Unconcerned to such troubles, the student on the
ring continues to fight with boys in turn, and defeats
them all. Seeing this, men hate him, and some
wrestlers try to beat him down ; but, on the contrary,
the " mustache " is far obstinate to yield, and all
they are at a loss. In the meantime Inanoheso, the
strongest wrestler of the band, happens to appear,
and, being told of the details of the situation, he is
exasperated, and instantly goes up into the arena.
While friends of the student are crying his name,
" Dekoyama ! Dekoyama ! " the geisha, waiting-
maids, and other spectators pour out the shouts for
Inanoheso, because the latter has many friends and
backers at the quarter ; cheers and noises of all
persons in the space are so tremendous that a
hive has suddenly burst out no less than the great
tumult often seen in the Grand Wrestling at the
Kokugikan of Ryogoku. The rivals stand up"; first
Mr " Ina " tries a strong push, but Mr " Mustache "
sustains it. Then comes a body-to-body struggle,
and each hastening to beat down the other, Mr
"Ina" ventures a throw. Mr "Mustache" staggers,
yet he could hardly check from falling down,
and at once gives a throw to the enemy, vice versfi, ;
at this moment, as the result of his repeated severe
fightings, the belt of the " Mustache " is loosened
and falls down, and his legs being twisted round with
it, he tumbles down. The umpire appoints with his
war-fan Inanoheso as the conqueror, and thunderous
applause is poured upon him from all parts of the
space. The inspectors at the pillars, however, give
their verdict : " If his belt had not been loosed, he got
the victory." And the umpire is blamed : " It is the
umpire's error that the match was not suspended at
the moment when he found the belt was loosened."
Troubles on the match are thus settled by the judg-
ment of impartial inspectors, and then a recess for ten
minutes is announced by the umpire. A little girl
of a geisha-house comes in, and, approaching a box,
100
AMATEUR WRESTLING
speaks to a girl : " Kogiku-neisan, Ozashika desuyo ! "
( " Miss Kogiku, you are hired to a restaurant ! " )
Vendors of refreshments appear and go round the
spectators' seat ; they supply with cakes, oranges,
cigarettes, ice-cream, lemonade, sake, and beer.
101
CHAPTER X
GREAT FIREWORKS AT RYOGOKU
ALL newspapers in Tokyo report that an exhibition
of the great fireworks will be held at Ryogoku in the
evening of the 2nd of August, and you expect to
visit it. About six o'clock in the evening of the
appointed day you leave your house and take the
tram for Ryogoku. When it comes near the square
at the approach of the bridge Asakusa (Asakusa-
basht), which is about a furlong distant to the bridge
Ryogoku (Ryogoku-basht), it stops suddenly, and the
conductor apologises to the passengers by explaining
that, the road being entirely crammed up with people,
it is dangerous to go on farther, and that the police-
men forbid all trams to advance any more than this
spot. You then get down from the car, and are
surprised to see great multitudes of people over-
flowing on the streets leading to the bridge Ryogaku,
both on the pavement and the roadway. Pushing
through the throngs, you could hardly reach the
approach of the bridge. The fireworks are to be
carried out on the River Sumida, over which the
bridge is crossed, and five large flat boats are anchored
at the middle of the stream on each of the upper and
lower waters of the river ; in these boats all prepara-
tions for the fireworks of the evening are fully
arranged by the expert engineers of the art. On the
bridge policemen are standing along the railings of
both sides with a space of about two yards from
102
A KORIYA OR ICE-SHOP.
FIREWORKS AT RYOGOKU
one another, and prohibit people from stopping on
the bridge to look the exhibition; they are to pass
the bridge from the one to the other bank of the
river by taking the left side only, a big strong rope
being stretched along the middle line of the bridge.
All restaurants and other houses along the river
on the both banks are wide opened, and beautifully
decorated to furnish good seats for customers and
friends.
The night exhibition of the great fireworks at
Ryogoku is generally known under the popular name
of the Kawa-biraki, and annually carried out at the
midst of the hot summer. The Kawa-biraki means
" Opening of the River," and is originated from the
following fact :
In the age of the Tokugawa Government (since the
beginning of the eighteenth century) the Suijin Sat
(Festival of the River God) of the Sumidagawa
Shrine at Sui-jin-no-mori, on the east bank of the
upper waters of the Sumida River, was celebrated on
the 28th May (lunar calendar) every summer, and the
exhibition of fireworks was contributed to the
festival by the manufacturers called the Kagiya. On
and after the festival day of the River God the River
Sumida was crowded with boats, in which citizens of
Yedo (Tokyo) were pleased to take the evening cool.
In this age neither samurai of high rank nor rich
merchants knew to go up-country to escape the
summer heat, but their only means to avoid the heat
was the boat excursion coming to the river after
sunset. Thus, as the festival of the River God was
recognised to be done on the first day for the season
of boat excursion every summer, the festival was
called the Kawa-biraki, or " Opening of the River,"
and the fireworks always accompanying the festival,
the fireworks itself came to be called the Kawa-biraki,
Though the fireworks was at first exhibited by con-
tribution to the festival by the manufacturers, after-
wards it was given by the boat-letters living along the
103
THE NIGHTSIDE OF JAPAN
river, in order to flourish their business during
summer by drawing spectators. These boat-letters,
which were abundant up to some twenty years ago,
gradually disappeared, and at present the restaurants
in vicinity of the bridge Ryogoku have taken place
of them, the performance of the fireworks every
summer being taken in charge of these restaurants too.
You hardly pass over the bridge Ryogoku to the
east bank, where the Kokugikan, the great hall for
wrestling, stands, and, turning to the left, arrive at the
verge of the bank commanding the whole view of the
river. In Kamesei, Ryukotei, Fukagawatei, Nishuro,
Fukuiro, Ikuine, and other restaurants and machiai
(waiting-houses) on the both banks of the river, the
rooms both up and downstairs fronting to the river
are entirely open, all paper-slides and doors being
taken off, and thousands of electric lamps and red-
coloured round paper lanterns are hanging under the
eaves of each story of these buildings. These long
rows of lights being reflected upon the surface of the
river, ripples on the water appear like golden scales
of a large wriggling dragon. Large and small boats
filled with spectators almost cover the surface of the
river, rows of these boats occupying the length of
about a mile of the upper and lower waters on the
both sides of the Ryogoku Bridge ; they are all
decorated with paper lanterns, too, music being
played in some of them.
Suddenly a bang echoes upon the water, and a
crackling in the sky notifies the opening of the
exhibition of fireworks. On the river boats of the
water-police are running, endeavouring to bring
spectators' boats in order and to avoid them from
danger of collision ; on the bridge and banks police-
men are making efforts to control the bustles and
pressures of tremendous crowds. At the entrance
of the Ryogoku Square, near the approach of the
bridge, and in two or three tents established along
the banks, police surgeons or physicians of the Red
104
FIREWORKS AT RYOGOKU
Cross Hospital make preparation to receive the dis-
eased or the wounded. Temporary galleries or boxes
constructed along the banks, and the rooms and
balconies of restaurants, are now quite full of
spectators. Every moment, when a firework is given,
voices of acclamation and cries of applause cover the
whole sphere of Ryogoku, both on land and water.
The fireworks exhibited in this evening are of
various kinds, all characteristic to Japan. They can
be classified into two parts the Uchiage and the
Shikake. The Uchiage is a ball, which is shot out
from a large wooden barrel and bursts up high in
the sky ; and the Shikake is a large framework erected
on the boat, and a skilful fireworks are twisted around
the bones of the frame. When a Uchiage ball bursts
out, it exhibits a large brilliant flower consisting of
fireballs of various colours, or sometimes, after the
momentary fire-flower extinguished, some five or six
fireballs of red, blue, green, and yellow tints are sus-
pended in the sky like stars, and floated away by wind,
sparkling in the air till it extinguishes at last. The
framework of the Shikake is made into a figure of a
large wheel, Mount Fuji, a magnificent building of a
palace, a flower-garden, a waterfall, or an airship, and
if the fire is set at one end of it, the whole frame is
instantly covered with the burning fires of various
colours, distinctly representing the expected figure
made of the beautiful firework. The large fire-wheel
turns and turns, pouring down the rain of beautiful
sparks. The gigantic Mount Fuji stands high in the
air, showing her splendid conical feature covered with
green fires as woods at the foot and with purple smoke,
as clouds near the top. A fire building represents the
Imperial Palace of Shishinden, at Kyoto; at the two
sides of its stairs leading from the yard to the high
floor there stand two trees, the cherry to the right and
the tachibana to the left, both in full bloom, and the
inner part of the building being fully decorated with
coloured doors. The flower-garden represents the
105
THE NIGHTSIDE OF JAPAN
whole view of that in Hibiya Park, clusters of autumn
flowers of all kinds competing their size and beauty.
The number of fireworks, both the Uchiage and the
Shikake, to be exhibited in this night amounts to
more than three hundreds.
Leaving the spot of the bank-side, you try to come
to the southern part of the same bank, and, hardly
passing the approach of the bridge through the press-
ing crowds, arrive at the front of the gate of the
restaurant Nishuro. You buy a ticket, which costs
one^;z, and enter the gate. Taking a wood check for
your footgear, you are guided by a girl into a hall up-
stairs ; the hall is of a pure Japanese style, the floor
being spread with fifty mats. The whole room is
fully occupied by spectators, most of them consisting
of young boys and girls accompanied by their parents
or brothers. The seats are regularly arranged in such
a way that those who are in the fore-side near the river
are to sit down on the zabuton, and those at the behind-
side are to take chairs. As often as a firework is shot
up into the sky, or burnt on the river, boys and girls in
the hall are applauding for its beauty and splendour.
At one corner of the hall a number of waitresses of the
restaurant are attending, and the spectators can have
from them any kind of refreshments as they wish
such as sandwich, bread, fruits, cakes, ice-cream, beer,
sake, etc. Some old men who seem to have come
here as guardians for their grandsons or grand-
daughters are drinking sake and gossiping one an-
other with their back to the riverside. They do not
care for the fireworks, but are pleased to be absorbed
in drinking and speaking. At this time a young
gentleman and his wife come in the hall and are
appointed by a waitress to the chairs at the rearmost
side, all other seats being already occupied. The
young lady is dressed in a summer clothes of rough
striped crape, tightening up the body, with the belt of
white hakata fabric ; she is very beautiful, and attracts
attention of all people near her. " Our position," she
106
FIREWORKS AT RYOGOKU
murmurs to her husband, " is too far from the riverside,
and we cannot have a good look for the fireworks.
Let us have a better seat, my dear." " It is too late
now," the husband replies, " to get good seats ; all
houses are already filled up with guests. I think it is
better to take a boat in the river than to search for
a good position on land." " Then let us go and hire
a boat ! " responds she. At an instant the couple go
down the stairs and leave the house for the river-bank,
where boats are waiting for spectators. You follow
them to the bank to try the boat too.
On the bank, more than twenty yards north to
the Nishuro, there stands a temporary booking-box,
which sells the boat tickets, and its five windows are
crowded with the purchasers of tickets. The tickets
are classified into three kinds, the first, second, and
third, and they cost fifty, thirty, and ten sen per piece
respectively. The difference of the value of tickets
is founded upon the arrangement of the boat : the
first-class boat is furnished with chairs and tables, and
guests on board each boat are limited to a small
number, thirty to fifty ; those on board the second-class
one are to sit down on the zabuton prepared on the
mattings, and amount to eighty to one hundred per
boat ; and nearly two hundred are embarked in the
third-class boat, and almost all of them are standing
on the mattings. All these boats are cabled along the
bank, and as soon as a boat is filled up with the fixed
number of guests, she is rowed out towards the middle
of the stream. The young couple could hardly buy
the first-class tickets and get into a boat of the
corresponding class. Then you also get the one of
the same class and hasten on board the same boat.
Not long before our boat is filled up and departs for
a suitable position.
Keeping a distance of some one hundred yards
around the boats of fireworks, the surface of the river
is entirely covered with all kinds of large and small
boats of spectators steam - launches, motor - boats,
107
THE NIGHTSIDE OF JAPAN
lighters, house-boats (yanebune), and fishing-boats
being all equipped to correspond to the demand for
this night. Each boat is decorated with a great
number of coloured paper lanterns (chochin\ and in
some boats sound of samisen and singing of girls can
be heard. People in their private boats come to see
the exhibition of this night together with their family
and servants, or those who have engaged the whole of
a house-boat are accompanied by their friends and
intimate geisha to make enjoyment of one night, taking
advantage of the Kawabiraki. It is said one boat
costs yen 5 to 20 to hire for this night, the rate being
arranged according to the kind and size of the boat.
Your boat is filled with some thirty men, women,
and children, who are taking chairs along five round
tables covered with white cloth. On each table a tea-
service is furnished, and a kettle containing hot water
kept on a gas lamp. Guests in the boat seem to be
of above the middle rank, and specially ladies are
dressed very neatly in summer clothes of various
light colours, all of them, as well as the gentlemen,
carrying small round fans in their hand. The young
gentleman and his wife whom you have followed take
their position at a table near the bow, and seem to be
satisfied to be able to have the good look for the fire-
works. The boat is rowed near the opposite bank
and anchored just below the balcony of the restaurant
Fukuiro, the position governing a good view for both
the Uchiage and the Shikake works. While you are
looking the continued performance of the fireworks,
small boats of vendors come to and fro, evading
among the mass of spectators' boats, and sell drinks
and eatings. Children in your boat request their
parents to buy fruits and cakes from these boat
vendors and, by the way, some of gentlemen take
bottles of beer or sake from them. You could have
the satisfactory sight on the exhibition of more
than one hundred fireworks of both Uchiage and
Shikake, and when it is finished, at about ten
1 08
FIREWORKS AT RYOGOKU
o'clock, your boat is rowed back to the landing-
stage, and you get upon the bank immediately.
Looking down on the river from the bank, confusion
of boats in a tremendous number is indescribable,
all hastening to go back for their own home, the cries
of boatsmen and whistles of steamboats echoing each
other ; the steam-launches and boats of the water-
police are flying among the bustles of the spectators'
vessels and endeavouring to keep order by all their
efforts.
Confusion of crowds on land is enormous. Pressing
throngs of people are flowing on like tidal waves in
all main streets at the quarter of Ryogoku, and ladies
and gentlemen who come out of the gates of
restaurants take their carriages or automobiles, but
cannot drive them for home until the dense crowd
of the street is a little reduced. Being pushed and
pushing, you hardly arrive near the east approach of
the Ryogoku Bridge, which is so dreadfully pressed
up with people that, taking its left side according to
the direction of policemen, you could pass over to the
west end as if at the risk of your life. Turning left
and pushing through the throng, you come at the east
entrance of the Ryogoku Square. Entering the stone
gate, you approach one of the public summer houses
in the square to take a rest for a few minutes, but
all these houses are found to be already occupied by
overflowing multitudes. While you are compelled to
wander about on the lane along the lawn, you find a
number of people standing on the way and discussing
one another. Drawing near and looking over their
shoulders, you see a little girl, some seven years old,
weeping bitterly. Making enquiry to one of the by-
standers, you are told that she has strayed from her
parents on her way home ; and then, pushing aside the
people, you approach the girl and very kindly ask the
name and address of her parents. She is very wise,
and could give particulars in reply to your questions,
though she is still sobbing. You take the girl to the
109
THE NIGHTSIDE OF JAPAN
police-station just behind the back gate of the square,
and when you meet a policeman and talk him of the
girl, you are told by him that there are more than ten
stray children who are protected in the station. Then
you are shown into a room where these children are
received ; they are boys and girls from five to ten
years old, and some are weeping, some eating cakes
given by policemen. The girl whom you brought
here is taken into the same room, and at the moment
when you are to leave the station there come in three
men with anxious face, and they make application
for discovery of their lost children. At once they are
shown into the room in which the children are kept,
and one of these three men, a man in costume of
merchant, instantly finds out the girl, whom you have
accompanied here just now, to be his own daughter,
and embraces her into his arms. He is very glad, his
eyes being moistened with tears of joy. Being told
by the policeman that his daughter has been relieved
by you, he comes to you, and, bowing very politely,
expresses his hearty thanks for your kindness, at the
same time apologising to the policeman for his
carelessness, and thanking for troubles of the police.
Then he goes out of the police-station, carrying his
little dear daughter in the arms.
Coming out of the police-station, you find the
street still full of the crowd, though it is somewhat
lessened in its density. On both sides of the street
you find many ice shops, which are all full of guests.
In summer, streets of Tokyo are abundant in ice
shops, which are generally called the koriya and
supply glasses of ice for those who wish to quench
thirst and avoid heat. There are several kinds of
these ice glasses the korimidzu is a glass in which
scraped ice is mixed with syrup, the yukinohana or
" flower of snow " is the scraped ice over which white
sugar is fully sprinkled ; glasses of ice flavoured with
lemonade, wine, orangeade, cinnamon oil, and boiled
red beans are called the kori-remon, kori-budo,
1 10
FIREWORKS AT RYOGOKU
kormtkan, kori-nikkei, and kori-azuki respectively.
Besides them, cider, ice-cream, and punch can be
got here too, if you please. These shops are
decorated with plants of green leaves, and benches
and chairs furnished around tables ; the waitresses
are young girls of nice complexion, clad in neat
summer dresses tighted with a red light belt. You
enter a shop to take a rest, and order to bring a
glass of ice - cream. The shop is also filled with
guests, all on their way home from the fireworks,
and the five waitresses are busy to attend them. At
the table next to yours there is a group of a family,
consisting of parents, two sons, and three daughters,
who are all taking glasses of the kori-azuki. The
two boys carry a bundle of small fireworks for sport
in their hand, these being the imitations of the
fireworks given in the exhibition of this night.
They are sold in the night stalls on the streets
near Ryogoku, and attract the attention of boys
who have come to see the exhibition. Boys who
have purchased the sport fireworks go home with
satisfaction, and are much pleased in anticipating
how excellent an exhibition of beautiful fires can
be given in their own yard, not inferior to those
shown at Ryogoku in this night.
After a repose of some twenty minutes, you leave
the ice shop, and go on for the tram's halting-place
near the bridge Asakusa-bashi. Now the confusion
in the street is almost cleared up, except those
who do not hasten for home and are slowly rambling
on. When you come near the halting - spot, you
could not help to be surprised by finding a great
mass of tremendous number of people standing by
the sides of the track. They are the visitors to
Ryogoku, and still waiting for tramcars by which
they are to go home. Trams come to the cross-roads
here in succession from four directions, and, being
filled up with passengers at an instant, they run
away for their destinations. Yet, only one-tenth of
in
THE NIGHTSIDE OF JAPAN
the whole mass being carried off, the rest have to
wait still longer. Whenever a new tram arrives
people struggle to get ahead into it, and the con-
fusion is so terrible that they are in the battlefield,
and it is very dangerous for the female and children
to get into any of the cars till after an hour or two.
You stand still for about twenty minutes witnessing
the bustles of the place, and at last decide to give
up the tram. Then, coming to a rikisha stand at
one corner of the square, you hire a rikisha and
go home safely.
112
CHAPTER XI
AUTUMN NIGHT
GENTEEL persons of Tokyo, including both the male
and the female, are fond of taking pleasures by listen-
ing singing-insects and looking moonlight views in the
autumn evening. They go out to a certain grassy
plain for mushi-kiki, or to listen the singing-insects ;
or to visit a hill for tsuki-mi, or to have moonlight
views. Thus the mushi-kiki and the tsuki-mi are
the two refined enjoyments of autumn for the Tokyo
citizens.
To experience these elegant amusements, you
leave your house at about six o'clock in a moonlight
evening at the middle of October, and come to a
quarter of the Asakusa district called Sanya. The
quarter Sanya is the most eastern edge of the
Asukusa Ward, limited by the River Sumida from
the Honjo quarter, and most of the buildings
standing along the stream on the bank of Sanya
and its connected quarter Imado are the villas
of peers, high officials, and rich merchants. A canal
called the Sanya -bori, which is opened in the
length of about one mile from a spot near the
prostitution quarter Yoshiwara, discharges its water
into the river at the south end of Imado, and there
is a small hill named Matsuchiyama on the south
bank of the outfall of the canal. Ascending the
stone steps, you come upon the tableland on the
top of the hill, where you find a shrine of God Shoden,
and one dozen of street lamps are standing on the
both sides of the pavement leading to the front of
113 H
THE NIGHTSIDE OF JAPAN
the shrine. At the interior of the shrine you can
see the sacred altar of God Shoden, around which
more than one hundred Japanese candles with paper
wick are brilliantly burning. A number of men and
women bow down before the altar and are earnestly
worshipping the god. Coming round to the back-
yard of the shrine, there you find several stone
monuments for the famous Japanese poets under
the dark shadow of tall trees, and, at the east brink
of the hill, there is an open tower for prospect
(chobo-dai), which commands the whole views of the
River Sumida and the long embankment of Mukojima
under clear moonlight. On the tower a number
of citizens in neighbourhood are gossiping and
enjoying the fine views of this evening.
After a few minutes you leave the tower and
descend the hill, then come to the ferry (wata-
shiba) near by the mouth of the Sanyabori Canal.
The ferry is very famous under the popular name
of the Takeya-no t watashi, and it is done with a
small Japanese boat rowed by a boatman to cross
the River Sumida from the side of Sanya to the
opposite bank of Mukojima. We are told that in
old times profligates were very fond of visiting
Yoshiwara by rowing up the canal with a small boat
called choki from this point of the river, and that
they could easily arrive at the Great Gate (O-mon)
by landing from the boat at a spot of the bank
called the Hatcho Dote. You now get into a boat
which is bound up with a rope to a post of small
pier, and find three men and one woman there in
the boat. Waiting some five minutes, there appears
an old boatman from a small cottage on the bank ; he
cries out, " Deru yd ! " (" The boat is leaving ! "), and,
standing on the stern of the boat, is looking out
any persons to come. At this moment sound of
running footsteps can be heard near the bank, and
a young man and a girl appear and jump into the
boat.
114
AUTUMN NIGHT
Now the boat leaves the bank, and is slowly rowed
out towards the middle of the stream. The clear
light of the autumn moon in the high blue sky shines
upon the ripples of the gentle stream, and throws
the shadows of the boatman and passengers at the
bottom of the boat. Looking to the lower waters to
the south, a long iron bridge, Azuma-bashi, across
the river, can be dimly seen in the fog, and, on the long
dike of Mukojima, on the opposite side to the Sanya
quarter, a long, long row of cherry-trees is standing
high like a thick wood covering the sky to the east.
At times two or three cargo-boats come rowing up
and down the river, crossing the route of your boat
near the bow or stern. When in daytime, and here
and there on the river, you can find groups of small
beautiful white birds, some swimming on the waters
and some flying in the air they are oyster-catchers,
popularly called the Miyako-dori (Birds of the City)
by the citizens of Tokyo. You strike a match and
begin to smoke. The young man who have come
latest into the boat, accompanied by a damsel, asks
you to lend the match, and, handing it up to him,
you try to speak him : " Where are you going, sir ? "
" We are going home," replies the young fellow. " This
is my sister ; we have been to Asakusa Park to see
the shows there." "Then you live in Mukojima?"
you say again. " I envy you to have a home in such
an elegant and quiet quarter of the city ! " " Yes, my
house is in a part of Mukojima called Terashima, and
I am a gardener." " Do you live together with your
parents and sister ? " " Yes, my father is a gardener
too, but now very old, and my sister is employed as a
waitress in the restaurant Irikin here." Turning to
the girl, the sister of the young gardener, who is very
pretty and some eighteen years old, you begin to
address : " Do you live in Irikin, neisan (miss) ? I often
visit the restaurant, but have never seen you hitherto.
When have you come to the house ? This evening I
am going to visit the Hyakka-yen (the famous flower-
THE NIGHTSIDE OF JAPAN
garden at Mukojima) to see the moonlight views and
hear insect-singing there. The garden is situated
next to your restaurant, and do you know any news
about the garden in this autumn ? " Being suddenly
spoken to by a stranger, she appears to be a little
perplexed, but at once resuming herself, replies very
politely : " I first came to Irikin at the beginning of
the last month, sir. This morning I have been told
that, at the Hyakka-yen garden, the annual meeting
of the Mushi-hanachi-kai (the Meeting of Setting
Insects Free) will be held for three evenings from
this day, and visitors welcomed by its members."
The Mushi-hanachi-kai is an interesting meeting
held at the flower-garden in the nights of every
autumn, and the members who assemble to the garden
have duty to bring singing - insects ; they set them
free into the bushes of the garden, and make enjoy-
ment by listening their songs. " I am very lucky,"
say you, "to meet this unexpected occasion of the
meeting this night." The three other men in the
boat tell you that they are going to attend the meet-
ing too, and each of them shows you a small paper
bag in which insects are hold they are regular
members of the meeting.
In the meantime the boat arrives at the landing-
spot under the bank of Mukojima, and, after paying
the fare to the boatsman, you, as well as the other
passengers, get on the bank. You find the road on
the embankment crowded with people, and under-
stand that they are all going to attend the meeting of
the Mushi-hanachi-kai. Looking to the opposite side
of the river, the moonlight sky over the Asakusa Park
is glowing with the illuminations of the shows, and the
five-story tower of the Asakusa Temple and the dark
wood of the Matsuchiyama Hill are distinctly, seen,
like a relief against the sky, high above the rows of
roofs. The long embankment of Mukojima is about
ten yards wide, its western side being washed by the
water of the River Sumida, and the plain land to the
116
AUTUMN NIGHT
east, far below the bank, spread with the streets of
Terashima and Komme, here and there scattered with
rice-fields. The road upon the embankment makes
a very long avenue of cherry-trees, as far as it is
extended in length of more than seven miles ; thus
Mukqjima is one of the noted places in the capital for
cherry blossoms in every spring.
It is about one mile distant from the landing-place
of the ferry to the flower-garden. On the way to the
garden there is a famous shop of the kototoi-dango
at a turn of the bank ; the dango is a kind of cake
similar to dumpling, and the title kototoi (enquiring)
is derived from a phrase of the old celebrated song
sung by Narihira Ariwara, a peer in ancient times.
The whole song runs as follows :
" Nanishi owaba 4
Iza koto-toivan
Miyako-dori,
Waga Omohito iva
Atiy a nashiya to"
[" Your name is the Bird of City (oyster-catcher) ;
I enquire you whether my sweetheart in the
city is still living or not."]
It is said the song was sung by the handsome
young peer when he came to the bank on his way
back from a long journey and saw the oyster-birds
on the river.
Though there are many kinds of the dango cake in
Tokyo, the kototoi-dango is most popular among
citizens for its excellent taste, and on Sundays and
holidays all the rooms of the shop are always crowded
with guests. As it is night now, the shop is shut up,
and the light of lamps can be seen through the
doors. Stepping on some twenty yards farther you
come to the front of a large bath-restaurant called the
Taiyo kaku (the Sun Hall). The hall is built with
wood in the European style and its entrance brilliantly
illumined with electric lights. You can see the
117
THE NIGHTSIDE OF JAPAN
visitors coming in and out of the entrance, and the
sound of samisen and the noise of laughter can be
heard from the rooms of a large two-story building
standing connected to the right side of the entrance.
The hall is noted for its spacious bathroom, and the
bath-box in the room is so wide that it can easily
hold more than two hundred persons all at once.
On the road you often meet groups of three or
five girls of the lower class, and they are spinners
of the Kanegafuchi Cotton Factory, situated at the
north end of the embankment of Mukojima. Along
the right side of the narrow road, below the dike,
you can see a row of small two-story houses, in
which the singing-girls belonging to the circle of
the so-called Mukojima Geisha are living. When
you arrive at the gate of the Hyakka-yen Garden,
it is now eight o'clock. On one side of the road, in
front of the gate, stalls of insect sellers make a row
to meet the demand of the visitors to this night's
meeting, and the singing voices of various insects
can be heard from the bamboo cages on the stalls.
Those who do not bring the insects from home
buy one or two bags of insects at these stalls, and
you too take a bag by paying a silver coin of
twenty sen. As you are not a member of the
meeting, you have to purchase a ticket for admis-
sion and then pass into the gate.
The Hyakka-yen, which means "The Garden of
Hundred Flowers," is a very old flower-garden, since
the time of the Tokugawa Shogunate, and very
famous for its cultivation of flowers and plants
through all seasons. If anybody visits the garden,
and sees abundant kinds of beautiful flowers at any
time throughout the year, he would understand that
Japan is well called " The Land of Flowers." Now,
as it is autumn, the whole garden is decorated with
fine flowers of the fall season, these flowering plants
being well known by the popular name of the Aki
no Nana-kusa (Seven flowering Plants of Autumn).
118
AUTUMN NIGHT
In the spaces among these plantations, tables, chairs,
and benches are properly arranged, and the round
or square coloured paper lanterns are lighted above
the tables, under the arbours of evening glory, and
in the summer-houses. In the flower-beds more
than three hundred larger lanterns, covered with
square or hexagonal paper mantles beautifully
painted in red, blue, and green, are shining high
above the poles. Besides these large and small
paper lanterns, bonfires are burnt at several parts
of the garden. About the centre of the garden
there is a large oblong pond, in which there are
growing several kinds of aquatic plants such as
lotus, reed, rush, kohone, etc., and along the circum-
ference of the pond long tunnels of bush-clovers
(or lespedeza) are constructed, their in and out
sides being covered with the red and white pretty
flowerets of the plant. Near the beds of flowers
or bushes of plants, and just under the large paper
lanterns, you find groups of people standing or
crouching here and there, and they are listening
songs of insects which they have let go on the
leaves of the plants. You note a number of young
girls all crouching before a thick bush of cockscombs
and other plants and whispering each other : " I let
go six suzumushi (insects singing with sound like
a golden bell)," says the youngest girl, of some eleven
years of age. "Do you think they have begun to
sing ? " "I put in four matsumushi and six suzumushi
a short time ago," replies another girl of fifteen or
sixteen, " and they seem to be singing now, together
with your suzumushi" The latter raises high up
a small round red paper lantern, which she carries
in her hand, and all girls are earnestly peeping into
the bush.
High up on a pillar, near the entrance to the
house of the master of the garden, there hangs a
special square paper lantern, and the notice, " Please
take a cup of tea, and, if you please, pickled prunes
119
THE NIGHTSIDE OF JAPAN
can be served," is written upon the white paper
of the lantern. A part of the house fronting to the
garden is opened in the form of a shop, where the
earthen wares baked in the furnace of the garden
and well known as the Sumida-wares are sold by
the gardeners. The shop is crowded with customers,
who purchase cups, bottles, bowls, or plates, all of
a refined and characteristic style. Wherever the
visitors take their seats, in summer-houses or by
the tables in the garden, young maid-servants bring
the tea-service and a plate of cakes. On a pretty
high land along the north side of the garden there
are three buildings, each of which contains two or
three rooms, and these rooms are appointed for
the resting-place of the regular members of the
Mushi-hanachi-kai. The buildings being of the
pure Japanese style, the candles are used instead of
the electric or gas lights. Now almost all the
rooms are occupied by the male and female members,
and most of them taking refreshments men
smoke or drink sake, and ladies take tea and cake.
You are convinced how noble and elegant amuse-
ment it is to listen songs of insects under the silvery
moonlight of quiet autumn. The insects which are
esteemed by the members as singers in autumn are
suzumushi (homesgryllus japonicus), matumushi,
korogi (crickets), kutsuwa-musht, and kanetatakai, and
besides them, kajika (singing-frogs), which live in
the water, are favourites for the lovers of singing-
insects too.
The later grows it in the night, the more strained
is the music of insects at every part of the garden ;
men-servants of the garden are taking care to burn
the bonfire brighter, and the maid-servants running
about to serve tea to all the tables crowded with
visitors. Old poets among the visitors are pleased
to compose Japanese poems and write them down
on tanzaku (Japanese poem paper) and ladies com-
pare and criticise the notes of singing of insects here
1 20
AUTUMN NIGHT
and there, most of the guests in the garden staying
till about midnight. When you are about to leave
the garden a small round paper lantern is presented
by the master of the garden as a souvenir of the
meeting in this night, and on the white paper of
the lantern the sign " Mushi-hanachi-kai " can be
read.
People in Tokyo, as well as in all local provinces,
admire the fine views under the clear light of the
full moon in the evening of the I5th August
(Lunar Calendar), and the celebration for the moon
in this night seems to have been derived in ancient
times from the habit of China. It is our custom
that to the full moon of the night we offer a square
wooden stand called the sambo^ on which leaves of
the susuki plant, dango cake, beans in pods on
branches, persimons, chestnuts, and grapes are heaped
up in good arrangement, and, gathering around the
stand, the whole family of the house open the dinner
and admire the fine views under moonlight. Those
who wish to enjoy the pleasure of this night in the
open air go to Atago Hill, bluff of Kudan, tablelands
of the shrines Yushima Tenjin and Kanda Myojin,
Uyeno Park, or sea-shores of Shinagawa, Shibaura,
Takanawa, and Susaki all these places being best
suited for looking over the moonlight views; while
some go in boats to the River Sumida or the Bay of
Tokyo, taking the pleasure of angling or netting at
the same time.
As to the places in Tokyo noted for singing-insects
in autumn nights, we can point out the following :
The grounds of the Mimeguri Shrine at Mukojima
is situated on the opposite side over the dike to
the landing-place of the ferry of Takeya, and, the
shrine being surrounded with the thick woods and
bushes, insects are abundant every autumn here.
The Dokanyama Hill is a very famous place for
insects from ancient times. The foot of the hill
121
THE NIGHTSIDE OF JAPAN
being bordered with a clear stream, insects live here
in abundance, and if you leave the Uyeno train at
the Tabata Station and come up to the hill, you can
indulge yourself in the pleasure of listening the sweet
music of the pretty insects.
Ikegami and Ohmori. Twenty minutes from the
Shimbashi Station you can arrive at the pine avenue
of Ohmori, and the vicinity of the old place of
execution called Suzugamori under the Tokugawa
Government is very popular among the visitors for
singing - insects in this quarter. About one mile
west to Ohmori there is Ikegami, which is noted
for the site of the Hommonji, the Head Temple of the
Nichiren Sect, and a large building on a hill next
to the temple is the famous bath-hotel called the
Akebono-ro. In autumn, if you pass a night in a
quiet room of the hotel, you can fully understand
the taste of pleasure for the so-called aki-no-mushi-
no-ne (insect-singing in autumn night).
With regard to the singing-frogs (kajikd), there
are good places special for them, and the vicinity
of the River Tamagawa is said to be the best quarter
in Tokyo. Fujikawa, in Suruga Province, and Kamo-
gawa, in Kyoto, are the two rivers where the best
kind of the singing-frogs is produced.
122
CHAPTER XII
MARKETS NEAR THE END OF A YEAR
APPROACHING the end of a year, the markets called
" Toshi-no-ichi " the year's end markets are annu-
ally opened at the certain quarters of the city, each
at an appointed date, and the citizens go to them
to make preparations for the coming New Year.
Most of these markets are situated on and around
the compound of great and famous shrines or
temples. The Torinomachi is a market for the
festival of the god Great Eagle, whose shrine "stands
just behind the nightless quarter of Yoshiwara, and
opened twice or thrice in November, according to
the circumstances ; those markets at the shrine of
God Hachiman at Fukagawa, the Asakusa Temple,
the shrine of God Myqjin at Kanda, the Atago
Shrine at Shiba, the Hirakawa Tenjin Shrine at
Kojimachi, the shrine of Yushima Tenjin at Kongo,
the Fudo Temple at Ryogoku, the West Street of
Kyobashi, and the Oyokocho Street at Kojimachi
are all held in December.
The Torinomachi, or the Festival Market for God
of Great Eagle, is held on the days of Tori (cock)
in November. In Japan the horary characters are
applied to each day of a year, and those twelve
signs are the Rat, the Bull, the Tiger, the Rabbit,
the Dragon, the Serpent, the Horse, the Goat, the
Monkey, the Cock, the Dog, and the Boar. Thus,
in November of a year sometimes there are two
123
THE NIGHTSIDE OF JAPAN
cock days or three, according to the case, and all
these cock days in this month are taken for the
festival days of the god Great Eagle. The god
Eagle is respected to be a god of luck, and, if a
person worships the god devotedly, he is said to
be blessed with great riches ; consequently citizens
of Tokyo merchants among the others visit the
shrine on the festival day every year, and pray to
get the bliss of the god for the next year. In
November of this year (1913) the I2th and the
24th correspond to the Cock Day, and the festival
market of the Torinomachi is to be held on these
two days. The gate of the shrine of God Eagle is
to be opened at the moment when the drum is
beaten at the midnight of the nth, and at the
same time the market on the first Festival Day (the
1 2th) begun flourishingly on a large scale. The
shrine is situated about one hundred yards west
to Yoshiwara; and as all seven side gates of the
Nightless City are temporarily opened on the
market day, while the Front Gate (O-mon) is the
only one passage to the quarter in ordinary days,
and all brothels and prostitutes make full decora-
tions to charm guests, people pour in crowds to all
the streets by the way of visiting the shrine and
market.
At eleven in the night of the nth you take a
tram which runs the street of Sakamoto under the
hill of Uyeno Park, and arrive at the quarter named
the Senzoku-machi in which the Great Eagle Shrine
stands ; all the streets and side streets leading to
the shrine are already full of streams of visitors, so
that you cannot go on freely as you please, and are
compelled to march towards the shrine following
the waves of people. The visitors consist of men,
women, boys, and girls, but more than one-half of
them are those belonging to the commercial circle.
Approaching gradually to the shrine, the crowds
become denser, and you find on the both sides of
124
MARKETS NEAR END OF YEAR
the streets the rows of shops and stalls which are
prepared to sell kumade (bamboo rakes), imo (taro),
and goshiki-mochi (rice-cake in five colours), these
three things being necessary appendages for the
festival of the god Eagle. The kumade^ or bamboo
rakes, are the rakes made of bamboo pieces and
attached with a long bamboo shaft, and on the
front side of the rake the symbols of various articles,
all of which represent luck and fortune, are tied
up : on a large rake a takarabune made of painted
pieces of paper is attached. The takarabune is a
treasure boat on which the so-called Seven Gods
of Luck are embarked, and by the side of these
gods a heap of old gold coins, large branches of
coral, dresses woven of gold and silver thread, and
many other precious articles, are loaded in. On
another there is attached a large mask of Okame
(a face of a happy, smiling maiden), which is said
a symbol of riches and happiness ; or a large dice,
bales of rice, daybooks, and koban (ancient oval
gold coins) are swinging from one side of a rake
of course all of these articles being the imitation
of papier-mache. These bamboo rakes themselves
are valued as the symbols of implements for collect-
ing riches, and the visitors to the shrine buy them,
hoping to scrape together the treasures and riches
with them for the next year.
When you could come near the gate of the shrine,
now it is ten minutes to twelve, and the doors are
still shut fast ; but as they are to be opened after a
few minutes, the grand mass of visitors crammed up
before the gate, as well as in the streets leading to
it, are pressed up so densely that nobody could move
himself even an inch with his own will, only the
mass itself shaking like waves in the ocean. Women
and children are almost to be suffocated, some of
them crying and yelling for help. The stalls near
by the gate are in danger to be crushed down by
pressure of the crowds, and the merchants are in a
125
THE NIGHTSIDE OF JAPAN
state of craziness, making efforts to defend their own
shops against the attack of human breakers. In the
meantime dong-dong (successive sounds of beating) of
the drum reports the midnight, or the first moment
of the 1 2th November, and the gate doors are at
once wide opened to the right and left. At the
instant the waves of human beings stream into the
inside of the gate, and the wide front yard of the
shrine is immediately crammed up with men, those
left outside of the gate pressing upon to enter the
gate as before.
The great front shrine of the god Eagle is brilliant
with thousands of candle lights, and, in the inner-
most room of the main building, the god Eagle
is honoured with holy offerings and decorations.
People throw copper, nickel, or silver coins into a
large square alms-chest fixed at the front of the
shrine, and are earnestly praying for their fortune ;
these moneys of offertory pour like rain into the
chest, and people clap their hands or ring bells
(suzu} before they worship. There hang at the
eaves of the shrine a number of the suzu, or large
ball-shaped brass bells, which are rung by pulling
long cords made of white, red, and yellow twisted
pieces of cloth and attached to each of the bells.
To the right side of the shrine there is a large
building, whose front is entirely opened, decorated
with large purple crape curtains and large paper
lanterns, and a dozen of men are sitting down by
large desks. It is the amulet office, and the amulets
of the god Eagle are issued here. Those super-
stitious citizens believe that one who could get the
first or No. I Amulet on this morning is the most
fortunate fellow for the next year, and those who
have finished the prayers to the god first come to
the office, pushing and struggling to receive the
amulets as quickly as possible. Amulets prepared
for this night are told to have amounted to thirty
thousand pieces, and, besides, eight thousand fuku-
126
MARKETS NEAR END OF YEAR
bukuro (bags of luck), and three thousand tori-koban
(imitation of ancient gold coins with the sign of
God Eagle), are said to have been sold out at the
office.
After worshipping the shrine, you hardly come
out of the gate and push forward among the press-
ing crowd for the back side of the Yoshiwara city.
Both sides of the narrow street leading from the
shrine to the back gate of the compound of the
Nightless City are also full of rows of the kumade-
ya (rake stalls), and your ears are almost deafened
by the cries of merchants inviting guests, mixed
with yells and noises of pressing visitors to
the shrine. At a turning of the road, where
three policemen guard against the great bustle,
raising the police lanterns high over the heads of
the crowd, a great whirlpool of the human waves
takes place, and all men and women approach-
ing the spot are swallowed up into it; and even
the policemen themselves could not act at their
own will, and are fallen into danger almost to be
swept away together with the rapid. The female
in agony of pressure scream for help, and those
small shops of oranges and rakes near by the turn-
ing are at the peril of being crushed down. You
hardly cross over the whirlpool and could reach
the back gate of Yoshiwara. You find two women
there too, one pretty old and the other young, and
the panting younger speaks to the other : " Indeed,
I could hardly escape from the great pressure, other-
wise I would have been crushed to death." " I
lost my purse," complains the other, " and am much
troubled how to buy a kumade this morning." "A
loss of little money is nothing for us," rejoins the
young maid, " we were about to lose our life ! "
Then they go into the iron gate and disappear into
throngs in the brothel street. Following them, you
come to the background of the Yoshiwara Hospital.
At one corner of the space you find a show of
127
THE NIGHTSIDE OF JAPAN
chrysanthemum flowers in a temporary enclosure
built of boards and bamboos, and its front entrance
is full of people on the way to and back from the
Eagle shrine.
The Yoshiwara Hospital is specially built for the
girls in the quarter, and they have to receive the
doctor's examination once a week. If any of them
is found to be sick, she is at once taken to the
hospital and detained there until she is recovered.
We are told that twenty or thirty patients are
always found in the hospital at any season of a
year. It is a square two - story building in the
European style, painted in white. In contrast to
the bustling scenes throughout the quarter and its
vicinity, the hospital is dark and shut up ; while
the girls outside are gay and busy in this night
of the Eagle Festival, the poor wretches in the
hospital are disappointed and grumbling in their
dark rooms.
Coming out of the ground you come to the cross
of the Kyomachi Street, which is full of wanderers,
most of them carrying large and small kuniade on
their shoulders. Near the front entrance of the
largest house, Kadoebiro, people are crowded to
see the exhibition of tsumiyagu, which is a suit
of new beddings arranged and heaped high up
in the front room. It is an old custom in the
circle that the most prosperous girls are proud
to have a new suit of their own beddings made by
their customers, and show it publicly in an open
room of the house in the night of the Torino-
machi. These costly beddings are generally made
of satin, damask, crape, and velvet, all of red colour,
wadded with snow - white cotton, and the surface
of the thick over - bedclothes is ornamented with
figures embroidered with gold thread. These
tsumiyagu could be found at those other larger
houses Shinagawaro, Daimonjiro, and Inamato-ro
too. Passing through the throngs of the Nakanocho
128
. . -
MARKETS NEAR END OF YEAR
(Guide House Street or Central Street), you get
out of the inside of the quarter and come to a street
of the Senzoku - machi, occupied with the stalls of
kumade (rakes) here too.
At one stall there stands a gentleman clad in the
Japanese cloak called the niju-mawashi. He enquires
the price of a kumade, and the lively young stall-
keeper comes out to the side of the gentleman.
" This kumade costs five yen" the young man says,
"and is a very excellent make among others, sir."
" What, five yen ? " says the gentleman, wondering ;
"it is rather a small and simple one. I cannot
understand why so much price is requested for such
a small rake ! " " Sir, kumade is a thing of luck.
It is the beginning of the first Torinomachi Festival
this morning, and, if you get a new rake the earlier,
the better would be your fortune in the next year.
Five yen is not dear for the fresh one, and don't
hesitate to grasp your luck, please." " You are very
wise, but I cannot pay more than one yen for this
kumade" " What, only one yen ? you say nonsense !
Better go to other stalls!" When the gentleman
was leaving the stall the keeper again calls after
him and tries to consult about the bargain. "You
set a too low price for the kumade" says the young
fellow, " I will come down to three yen, as I wish
to carry on my business quickly and smoothly on
the morning of the first festival day of God Eagle."
" No," the gentleman insists, shaking his head ;
" I'm sure one yen is quite enough, and I don't want
it unless you reduce to my price." He is going away
from the stall again. After a long discussion further,
the kumade, which was offered by the merchant to
cost five yen, is at last bought by the gentleman at
the reduced price of only one and a half J^TZ, less
than one-third of that of the first announcement !
Besides a great number of the kumade stalls,
there are shops and stalls of hairpins, boiled yam,
persimon, cake called the kirisansho and mochi (rice-
129 I
THE NIGHTSIDE OF JAPAN
cake) in five colours and cut in rhombic shape ; all
these keepers of shops and stalls are crying out like
lunatics to call the purchasers.
It is now near dawn, and you get farther on along
the street. At the front entrance of a beef-shop
you find many large and small kumade, regularly
arranged against the windows and wall, all these
being of the guests who are now taking breakfast
in this shop. This morning you would find such
shows of bamboo rakes at the front of every eating-
house near the shrine of God Eagle, the Yoshiwara,
and Park Asakusa ; for small restaurants and shops
of beef, fry, beancurd, or oyster and clam, are visited
by people on their way back from the Torinomachi,
and the kumade which have been carried by these
guests are all put in charge of the shop and arranged
in front of the entrance. Each shop competes for
the abundance of guests, and is proud if the greater
number of rakes are ostentatiously shown in its
front.
You cross Park Asakusa, where all noisy shows
and chattering courtesans are still in sleep, and
when you come out to the broad street along the
Kaminari-mon (the Gate of Thunder), the entrance
to the park, you find that most of men and women
who take tramcars or go by rikisha are carrying
kumade on their shoulder, and seem to be satisfied
for having raked up wealth and happiness for the
coming new year.
Though the festival market of the god Great
Eagle near Yoshiwara is most noted and flourishing
among the others, the similar festivals are also
celebrated on the same day, for God Eagle at the
Hachiman Shrine of Fukagawa, at the Ebara Shrine
of Shinagawa, at the Suga Shrine of Yotsuya, and
at the Hanazono Shrine of Shinjuku. In all these
quarters markets of kumade, boiled yam, etc., are
opened equal to that at Asakusa.
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MARKETS NEAR END OF YEAR
In the evening of the I4th December you get
down from the tramcar near the gate of the shrine
Hachiman of Fukagawa Ward, for the purpose of
witnessing the state of the year's end market, to be
held in this evening. These markets, held at several
shrines during December, are for preparations of the
citizens for the coming new year, so that all furniture
and articles necessary for the new year are sold in
the shops and stalls opened in the streets of the
market-place.
This evening the sky is entirely covered with
dense and dark clouds, and the cold north wind,
which have been blowing since this morning, having
now ceased, it is expected to snow before midnight.
On the two large round pillars of the front gate of
the shrine large oval paper lanterns are lighted
high, and the three large Chinese characters, " Hachi-
man-gu," are distinctly written on these lanterns.
Within the gate there is a long stone pavement
leading to the shrine, and on the both sides of the
pavement stalls of battle-doors and shuttle-cocks are
arranged in regular rows ; these stalls are generally
called the hagoita-ya (hagoita means battle-door, and
ya shop), which are crowded with spectators, most
of whom are young girls. Material of the battle-
door is limited to the light wood of kiri (Paulownia
imperialis)) though that of the lowest class consists
of other heavier and cheaper kind of wood, and the
size is popularly from one to three feet in length.
The surface of a battle-door is decorated with a
picture in relief made of stuffed pieces of cloth called
the oshie^ the figure of the picture being generally
selected out of the portraits of the most popular
actors and actresses. Girls standing before the stalls
criticise on the skill of imitation of these oshie to
the countenance of actors, and desire to buy one
for use in the New Year's Days. A young man
approaches to a stall and asks the stall-keeper the
value of a middle-size hagoita which is decorated
THE NIGHTSIDE OF JAPAN
with a cloth portrait of Uzaemon, a popular and
first-class young actor, personated in a young lord
of the feudal age. Spectators at once envelop
him and listen the bargain between the two. The
merchant requires yen 3.50 for the battle-door, but
the purchaser insists on reducing the price to
yen 1.50. After some half an hour of a complicated
negotiation, the arrangement of the bargain was at
last indicated by clapping hands by the seller, and
the hagoita was taken into the young man's hand
by payment of yen 2.00, the bottom price agreed
between the two. Thus all dealers in battle-doors
in the market of at the year's end ask the fictitious
price, and citizens are used to buy one by reducing
it to a proper rate. If, however, a lady or girl
tries to buy a battle-door herself in a stall of the
market, she is almost always deceived by the
cunning merchant and compelled to bear a heavy
burden for a battle-door of rather bad quality.
Another large store of battle-doors is surrounded
with a great crowd, and, approaching to it through
the people, you find an old gentleman in negotia-
tion with the store - keeper. The gentleman is
followed by two young singing- and one little
dancing - girls. Of course he has to buy battle-
doors for these girls who have accompanied their
customer here to have the new toys of the New
Year purchased by him. The merchant knows well
that the old man must anyhow buy at whatever
price he is requested, as he is in company with
geisha, and is very obstinate never to consent for
his proposal to reduce the price. At last the girls'
patron is compelled to pay twelve yen for the two
larger and one smaller battle-doors, which are at
once handed to the girls. They seem to be very
much gratified, while bystanders are secretly ridicul-
ing the extravagance of the old fool.
Passing out of the street of battle -doors, you
come into the next street, where various shops and
132
MARKETS NEAR END OF YEAR
stalls of those articles necessary for decorations in
the New Year's Days are sold they are shimekazari,
matsu - kazari, kusamono, omiya, kazari-ebi^ potted
plants and miscellaneous articles. Stores of shime-
kazari^ matsu-kazari^ and kusamono are open cottages
roughly built of logs and straw mats, and their
inside is full of branches of pine-trees and bamboos
(matsu-kazari), holy ornaments in the form of ropes
and rings made of new straw (shimekazari), small
branches and leaves of green plants known as uraziro
(Gleichenia glauca), yuzuriha (Daphniphyllum), small
rooted pine-trees, hondawara (miniature straw bales
of rice), and dai-dai (bitter oranges); omiya shops
sell small shrines made of plain wood, and people
buy them to dedicate to their deified ancestors in
the New Year. Kazari-ebi, or red-boiled lobsters,
are sold for the New Year's decoration too, in their
special stalls, or together with straw ornaments.
Potted plants of fukujuso (Adonis davuricd) with
pretty golden flowers, winding little pine - trees,
small plum-trees full of lovely flower-buds, suisen
(Narcissus tazzetta) with the white and yellow
flowers on the top of their green stems, and half-
ripe oranges, are all nicely arranged on the stalls
of gardeners, just as the plant shows in the ennichi
evening of a temple, and people buy a pot or two
to adorn their reception-rooms in the New Year.
Then you come to the porch of the shrine of
God Hachiman. Here a great number of men and
women, both young and old, are offering prayers,
clapping hands, and throwing copper, nickel, or
silver coins into the alms-box. At the interior of
the shrine candles are burning around the altar,
and gongs beaten by priests ceaselessly resounding.
Coming round to the back of the shrine, there is
a large space enclosed with a round row of cherry-
trees. Near the centre of the space you find a
dense crowd of people forming a large circle, at
the centre of which there are three men standing
133
THE NIGHTSIDE OF JAPAN
near a table, and one of them is delivering a speech.
They are the street dentists, well known by the
popular name " Matsui Gensui " ; they fluently
explain their own art as dentist, and boast that
they can cure toothache at an instant. They sell
toothpowder made by themselves, and are proud
of its best quality and lowest price. Their explana-
tion on the powder is very eloquent and skilful,
so that the audience are tempted to buy a bag or
two. In order to attract the people, they spin tops
or make strange performances with a very long
sword of more than six feet. They treat tops, large
and small, like birds some fly up into the air, fall
down upon one's shoulder, and are taken on his
hand, still spinning and spinning actively. It seems
to be impossible for anybody to unsheathe such a
long sword of over six feet, but one of the street
dentists, who wears the sword by his waistbelt and
is standing on a tall stand, is well trained to draw
out the sword at a moment as quickly as a flash
of lightning. When the sword is drawn the
spectators applaud his skill, and again buy the
toothpowder in paper bags as the reward.
You leave the dentists and come out to another
street of stall-rows brilliantly lighted with lamps of
oil or acetylene gas. These stalls sell toys and cakes
which most attract children. At the end of the street
there is another large space, where the curious exhibi-
tions of several kinds are attracting guests by their
noisy music. The show that you meet first is a
Saru-shibai) or Monkey Theatricals. The temporary
theatre is constructed of boards, mattings, and cotton
curtains, and a number of actor-monkeys can be seen
playing and eating through the front windows. A
large oil lamp is shining high at the front of the
theatre, and several square picture boards showing
the scenes of the drama are hung down from the roof.
Sound from the orchestra can be heard, and on a high
square platform near the entrance a man is crying to
MARKETS NEAR END OF YEAR
induce spectators : " Come in, boys and girls ! This is
the interesting performance done by monkeys. It is
just the time to open the first scene. Come in, come
in ! " After paying ten sen for admission, you come
into the enclosure and find the multitude of spectators
standing or sitting on benches, more than one-half
of them being children. Accompanied by the sound
of wood-clappers, a blue curtain of cotton cloth is
slowly rolled up, and there appear on the stage two
monkeys, one made up as a young general in the
feudal age, clad in armour and carrying a spear, and
the other as a young lady dressed in gaudy costume,
her head fully decorated with flowery hairpins of gold
and silver. They act and dance just as actors do, with
accompaniment of the concert of drums and samisen,
and spectators laugh and applaud when their perform-
ance comes to the height of skill. It is funny that
the monkey-actors often forget their duty on the stage,
and that they jump on each other crying and squealing.
On this occasion a leader of the actors gives them
two or three pieces of their feed, and after they have
devoured it up in a few moments they again take
their theatrical actions. After the three scenes of
comedy and tragedy are finished, among laughter and
applause of the people, they are replaced by new
spectators, and the same performances repeated by
the monkeys under direction of the leader.
Next to the monkey theatricals there is a show of
the baby animal said to have been born between a
horse and a cow, and it is pronounced by the show-
keeper that the monster with both the mane and horns
on its head is living in good health. The third
exhibition is a young girl whose two arms are cut off
at the shoulder, and she can do anything with her
feet just as one does with hands she can write
well on paper or sew clothes, treating a pen or a
needle with her toes. Besides these, several strange
or funny exhibitions are making their efforts to attract
people, and all of them filled up with spectators who
THE N1GHTSIDE OF JAPAN
have been driven into the gate of the shows by
their curiosity.
Having made a round through the market streets
of this night, you come out again to the main street
in front of the shrine's gate, and discover that the
whole street is much more crowded with visitors to
the market. You note a number of drunkards
wandering in zigzags, and also a long line of rikisha,
more than a dozen, running spiritedly towards the
east. No doubt those on rikisha are going to the
quarter of Susaki, situated about one mile to the
shrine. At this moment the bell-tower of the Shrine
Hachiman tolls eleven.
136
CHAPTER XIII
CONFLAGRATION
IN the feudal age of the Tokugawa Shogunate, when
Tokyo was called Yedo, the fire was gallantly looked
on as the " Flower of Yedo " by the citizens ; so often
the fires broke out in the capital, specially in the winter
night, and still you are frequently surprised from
sound sleep and driven out of the bed by the outbreak
of the disaster even in the present time. As you
know the houses in Tokyo are generally built of wood,
only those in the special parts of the city being con-
structed of brick and stone. It is natural that these
wooden buildings are easy to catch fire, and that, if
once a fire breaks out, whether by accident or
incendiarism, it is instantly extended to the surround-
ing houses. Moreover, as the strong north wind blows
in Tokyo almost every night and day during the winter,
it is very difficult to put out the fire quickly unless it
is discovered and extinguished before it blazes up
above the roof of the house.
In the age of Yedo the duty to put down the fire
was taken by the firemen, popularly called the hikeshi
or shigotoshi, which were associated into more than
forty fire-brigades throughout the city, under the
titles attached with each of the Japanese alphabet
and commanded by the samurai of the Government.
Those young firemen were very powerful among
citizens, and you will find a great deal of stories in the
Japanese novels and histories regarding the violent
137
THE NIGHTSJDE OF JAPAN
and bloody fightings between them and other ranks
of people. When they were to go to their field of the
fire they carried a sign pole called the matoi at the
head of a brigade it was a kind of the regimental
colours for the brigade and at the head of the pole a
large alphabetical sign of the brigade's title was shown,
and below the sign the white long fringe hang down.
As for the instruments to put down the fire, they used
hand-pumps, fire-hooks, ladders, and others ; and for
their own body, they put on a kind of jacket called the
sashiko banten, made of thick cotton cloth sewn up
with the strong cotton thread all over the surface, the
hood and drawers being made of the similar strong
cloth. When they had to rescue a person suffocat-
ing in the smoke, they first poured the water over the
head, and after fully wetting the clothes, they bravely
jumped into the fire. At present the metropolitan
fire-brigades are put under control of the fire depart-
ment and commanded by the chief commissioner of
the metropolitan police. At the beginning of January
every year the ceremony of the parade of firemen is
held at Park Hibiya, where citizens crowd to see the
active movement of these brave young men. The
instruments to extinguish the fire have made a great
improvement the steam fire-engines are adopted in
all fire-brigade stations, the fire-hydrants fitted to the
aqueduct, and the fire-annihilators prepared in almost
every house. Firemen put on the uniform made of
black woollen cloth, and their head is protected with
the brass cap.
The organisation of fire-brigades and the measures
of preventing the fire having been improved and
gradually approached to completion, you may pre-
sume that the fires in Tokyo have decreased in their
number and intensity ; but if you refer to the statistical
figures given in the official reports, you will be sorry
to find that the rage of the red-tongued demon is not
greatly weakened. The following are the extracts
from the official reports issued by the Metropolitan
138
CONFLAGRATION
Police Office, showing the number and causes of the
fire:
" During the three months, October to December
1909, the total number of the fires were 139 ; average
per month 46.3, and per day 1.54. The causes were
6 incendiarisms, 3 thunder, 15 chimneys, 38 lamps, 6
kotatsu (quilt warmers),! 2 hibachi (charcoal fire-boxes),
9 embers in ashes, 8 candles, n burning fires for
warming, 3 rushlights, 4 fire-places, 2 matches, 2
explosives, 6 cigar-ends, 7 cinders of charcoal, I fire-
extinguishing pot, 2 portable cooking-stoves, 2 fire-
works, i gas-light and I wire of electric light.
" Next, January to September 1910, the total were
315 ; average per month 35, and per day 1.16. The
causes were 46 lamps, 25 chimneys, 24 cigar-ends, 17
bath-furnaces, 16 quilt warmers, 15 charcoal fire-boxes,
15 candles, 17 cooking-ranges, 10 burning fires for
warming, 7 cooking-stoves, 7 embers in ashes, 60 fire-
extinguishing pots and the like, 28 incendiarisms, and
28 unknown. The total during the all twelve months,
October 1909 to September 1910, amounted to 454,
and the average per day was 1.24."
Among these causes of the fire above mentioned,
you can easily understand that the gas light, the
wire of electric light, the chimney, the explosive, the
petroleum oil, and the match, could not be seen in the
old times. Another great cause of not lessening the
fires in the present time is to be ascribed to the way
of building the house. In ancient times the houses
in the city were constructed in the flat one-story on
the wide ground, but lately they are built higher and
higher, to three, four, or five stories, on a limited land.
If such a high building catches fire, its intensity of
burning is stronger than a flat one. Abundance of
various works and factories, where petroleum and other
oils are much used, in and around the city, can be
counted as another cause of the increase of calamities.
139
THE N1GHTSIDE OF JAPAN
It was in the night of the igth February 1913, and
the strong north-west wind raging furiously since the
daytime. Towards the evening of the day the wind
became violent more and more. When it was about
2 A.M. on the morning of the 2Oth, suddenly a fire
broke out at Misakicho Street of Kanda district
one of the most flourishing streets, and specially the
district of Kanda is noted for being the gathering
centre of students. The origin of the fire was the
Settlement Hall established by the Salvation Army.
The devilish wind, which was so strong that nobody
could face to it, was glad to find its victim, and
blew against the fire with its full might. At an
instant the fire blazed up and extended to the
buildings on four sides. All the houses and shops
in streets to the south-east were entirely covered
with the rain of sparks, while the fire was spreading
with its horrible speed towards the same direction,
burning down everything on the way. People in the
neighbourhood, who were surprised from their dream
by ringing of the fire-bells, ran out of their houses,
and, being dismayed on looking the force of the
ferocious fire, burst out into unanimous cries, and
there followed a great confusion, all men and women
trying to escape from danger and to save the
furnitures as much as possible. The fire-brigades
belonging to the police-stations, as well as police-
men, ran up to the spot of the conflagration and
made efforts desperately to put it down. The
violence of the mad fire, however, became stronger
and stronger, and in half an hour this quarter of
Kanda was entirely changed to the sea of fire.
When the force of the fire proceeded to the streets
of Sarugakucho and Jimbocho, those larger build-
ings, such as schools, halls, hotels, and big merchant
stores, were successively burnt down, and all famous
shops in the streets of Ogawamachi and Nishikicho
also reduced to ashes. Several hundred soldiers
were despatched from the First Division of the
Imperial Guards in order to help the fire-brigades
140
CONFLAGRATION
and policemen, and, under fierce co-operation of
these three bodies, the monstrous fire was hardly
quenched down at last when it was forty minutes
past seven on the morning of the 2Oth. The extent
of the land converted to the burning hell was more
than one mile long from north to south and about
half a mile wide from west to east ; the total number
of houses destroyed amounted to over one thousand
and five hundred and the poor citizens driven out
homeless were estimated to be more than ten
thousands.
It was a policeman that first discovered the out-
break of the fire ; he was on duty at a police-box
near the building of the Salvation Army, and no
sooner he gave the warning to neighbouring houses
than a large fire-flake blown off by the raging wind
fell upon a roof more than half a furlong distant
to the south-east, and began to blaze up instantly.
This fire spreading to the north-east, the three-storied
Baptist Church and thirty houses were burnt down
at a moment. About the same time the newly-
built primary school, and the French, English, and
Japanese Higher Female School at the Omote-
Sarugakucho Street, began to burn owing to fire-
flakes too. Thus, three or four fires having flamed
up at once at different directions under the sky
over the Kanda district, people in the vicinity could
hardly find the way how to escape from the danger.
As the Imperial Palace was to leeward, the Horse
Bureau and a part of the citadel within the Hirakawa
Gate were entirely covered with the rain of fire-
flakes. All palace guards off duty having been
convoked up promptly, the total number amounting
to more than 250, including over 40 standing
palace firemen, were distributed on the stone walls
and all principal parts inside the castle ; fire-
hydrants open ; two steam fire-engines and many
hand-pumps perfectly arranged ; so that everything
was prepared to meet any crisis at any time.
Besides these, two mixed troops despatched from
141
THE NIGHTSIDE OF JAPAN
the Second Regiment of the Imperial Guards, one
consisting of 360 and the other more than 80
footsoldiers, ran up to the castle and took charge
to strictly guard the in and out sides of the
Hirakawa Gate ; and, moreover, having been anxious
if there would have happen any peril, the other
troops of infantry were sent to the Palace from the
Third and Fourth Regiments of the Imperial Guards
at Akasaka. Fortunately, as the fire was put down
safely for this direction, all guardings were with-
drawn at 10 A.M. In addition to those above
mentioned, at the moment when the fire broke out
troops were sent out to help firemen and policemen
from the First and Second Regiments of the Imperial
Guards to the spot of the conflagration, and the ten
rounding parties, each consisting of ten soldiers
commanded by one officer, were despatched from
the First Division to rescue the refugees and guard
the furnitures brought out from their houses.
The large and prominent buildings consumed by
the conflagration were as follows :
Schools
The French, English, and Japanese Higher
Female School, Junten Middle School,
Tokyo Middle School, Kinka Primary
School, Taisei Middle School, Foreign
Language School, and its branch, Kinjo
Commercial School, Tokyo Engineering
School, Kensu Gakkan (School on Mathe-
matics), Toyo Gakuin, Tokyo Denki
Gakko (School on Electric Machineries),
Senshu Gakkan.
Individual Houses
Lawyer Kishimoto, Doctor Sato, Author I to,
Lawyer Kasawara, Lawyer Uehara, etc.
Book Stores
Tokyodo, Fuzambo, Dobunkan, Yuhikaku, etc.
142
CONFLAGRATION
Churches
Settlement Department of the Salvation Army,
Roman Catholic Church, Central Baptist
Church, and Meiji Kaikan.
Miscellaneous
Kinkikan Hall, Tokyo Department Store,
Kanda branch of the Tenshodo watch
and jewel store, Kawataketei the variety
hall, the University Graduates' Club, the
Japan Silk Thread Association, etc.
Damages sustained by the home and foreign
insurance companies owing to the great fire were
as follows :
Yen 120,000 Meiji Fire Insurance Company
380,000 Tokyo
240,000 Yokohama ,,
200,000 Nippon
370,000 Kyodo
1 50,000 Kobe
60,000 Toho
120,000 Imperial
300,000 Toyokuni
180,000 Osaka
150,000 Naniwa
120,000 Toyo (Oriental) Fire Insurance Company
100,000 T6-a (East Asiatic)
80,000 Fukuju
40,000 Nisshin (Japan and China) Fire Insurance
Company
100,000 Teikoku Kaijo (Imperial Marine) Fire
Insurance Company
50,000 Nippon Kaijo (Japan Marine) Fire Insur-
ance Company
50,000 Commercial Fire Insurance Company
50,000 Norwich ,,
10,000 Phoenix
20,000 Liverpool
2,000 South British
25,000 Newzealand
7,500 Sun
8,000 Scottish
10,000 Union
Total, Yen 2,942,500
143
THE NIGHTSIDE OF JAPAN
As to the measures of relief and protection for
sufferers, as soon as the fire became intense, the
Kanda Ward Office, in co-operation with physicians
of the Red Cross Society, made arrangements of
a refuge for sufferers and a relief place for the
wounded in the office yard, and, at about six on
the morning, they established temporary branch
offices of the Red Cross Society in the Nishikicho
Police Station, the Hitotsubashi Primary School,
the Tokyo Female Commercial School, and the
theatre Misakiza, and business in these branches
were earnestly taken by the great number of the
ward officials and policemen. Besides, the Saimin
Kyokai (Imperial Relief Association) voluntarily
opened their temporary branches in the Young
Men's Christian Association's Hall, Nishi-Ogawa
Primary School, and the Taisho Nurses' Association
Hall at Sarugakucho; and the Kanda Branch
Association of the Military Men at Home also
disposed their branch office to supply provision
to the sufferers in the Tenri Doctrine Hall at
Nishikicho.
The most serious event during this conflagration
was the death of a young Chinese who was lodging
in a boarding-house at Misakicho, very near to the
origin of the fire. There were twelve Chinese
students (including two females) lodging in this
house on this occasion, and at the moment when
the fire broke out all boarders escaped out of
the house ; a Chinese boy named Shah- Yaw Kan,
only sixteen years old, who was sleeping in No. 1 1
Room upstairs, and roused by his comrades, ran
out of the building together with them, but he
went again into the house with the hope to take
out his books and baggages. At this time the
four sides of the boarding - house was already
enveloped in the blaze and smoke, and, as there
was no means to rescue him out, nothing was
known of his fate till six on the morning. When
144
CONFLAGRATION
the fire was put down and the burnt ruins of the
building was dug over, the corpse of the poor boy,
almost charred, was discovered under the heap of
burnt mats and fittings, and his silver watch and
chain, gold spectacles, and pocket looking - glass
were found near its side too. How sad was the
scene of the mummy-like corpse lying on its face
upon the smoking land, the head almost falling
from the neck ! Spectators, who swarmed around
it from sympathy or curiosity, were driven away
by two or three policemen, who were, however,
troubled by another crowd coming upon again at
the next moment.
How was the sight of the Kanda quarter after
the great conflagration in the next night?
On the day after the dreadful fire the wind was
very cold and the sky covered with dim clouds.
Towards the evening the tramcars, which had been
intercepted since the last night, began now to run
again through the streets destroyed, and by and by
the whole sphere of miserably burnt ruins was
wrapped into the darkness of night. Turning to
the left at the approach of the Bridge Kanda-bashi,
and arriving at one corner where the tram is turning
to the right for the Surugadai bluff, you stood at
a spot along the so-called Nishikicho river -bank,
and, looking to the west, would recognise black
and white smokes still curling up from the remains
of burnt -down buildings, some unpleasant smells
coming up from the parched land strongly attack-
ing your nose at the same time.
Along the river-bank flames were still rising
vigorously, so that one would have taken it for
another fire broken out newly again in this night ;
but they were continuance of blazing of wood and
charcoal which had been stored up in the shops of
wholesale merchants of fuel. When you looked at
them from a distance they might be taken for torches
145 K
THE NIGHTSIDE OF JAPAN
of the army in the night attack or will-o'-the-wisp
shining upon the hell. When you went on from
Nishikicho to under the bluff of Surugadai you
would find a great number of lanterns carried by
labourers of the electric company and policemen on
guard of the streets, and these lanterns, which were
running to and fro like meteors in the sky, gave light
for visitors in condolence for the sufferers or spectators
of the desolate scene after the fire.
Ogawamachi and Jimboch5 being the streets of
book stores, you could not help to feel a great sorrow
when you saw black smokes rising up from the remains
of those largest stores, such as the Fuzambo, the
Dobunkan, the Sanseido, and the Tokyodo, where
valuable books of knowledge and interest had been
sold night and day till the last evening. Each of the
compounds of these burnt houses was already fenced
with new boards, and the long and large paper lanterns
called takahari, on which the name of each shop was
distinctly marked, were shining above the fence, while
the refuge of the men of the store was noticed on a
large board nailed against the board fence. When
you were looking at the notice-board you found a
young man standing by your side. His face was pale,
indicating his great fatigue and disappointment, and
his eyes were full of tears, talking the grief in his
mind. You instantly understood that he must have
been one of the clerks of the book store. When you
approached the ruin of the Kinkikan, the great variety
hall in the Kanda Ward, you found a great number of
boys and girls wandering about round it ; when you
came near that of the Kinjo Commercial School you
met several groups of students in academicals sadly
standing all in silence.
As you approached gradually to the origin of the
fire the rising smokes became less and less, but the
bad smell of scorching strongly attacked your nose.
Here the tramcars for Kudan and Aoyama were
quickly running, while those for Sugamo and Mita
CONFLAGRATION
slowly marching in order to evade from danger for
throngs of sufferers and spectators. Policeman stand-
ing each with a distance of about twenty yards were
constantly giving notice to the passers to take the
left side of the road. Having come to the remains of
the French, English, and Japanese Female School,
you thought that the broken walls of red bricks were
just like the walls of an old castle destroyed by the
brave bombardment of enemy. At the remains of
the Settlement Hall of the Salvation Army, the origin
of the great conflagration, no light was seen, and on
the heap of black pieces of wood burnt down a group
of men and women, amounting to some forty or fifty,
standing amidst the dark, were loudly blaming the
originator of the crime. Visitors on condolence
fathers to their married daughters, sons to their
parents, students to their teachers, mothers to the
employers of their sons, or artisans to their masters
were troubled to find out the refuges of these
sufferers, and, though they made application to the
policemen standing on the roadside, it was not
easy to learn the addresses from them. Boarding-
houses for students having been almost all burnt
down, they were compelled to remove their lodging
to those in Ushigome, Hongo, or Koishikawa district.
One young fellow, who appeared to be a student
of a law college, was standing near the ruin of
the fire's origin and talking to another youth,
perhaps his classmate : " I had no time to take out
all my articles; the haori" (Japanese coat) "sent by
my merciful mother in the country was burnt, the
watch given by my kind father was lost too but
only her photograph always in my pocket . . . ,"
and then he was laughing loudly.
When the night was getting later the sky above
the west Kanda was entirely covered with white
fumes. Newsboys crying the evening press, "One
sen, one sen, together with the extra ! " sold very
well, and merchants of celluloid spectacles, who were
147
THE NIGHTSIDE OF JAPAN
loudly calling, " Best spectacles to protect eyes from
dust three sen, only three sen ! " were crowded with
purchasers. By the side of the board fence enclosing
a burnt compound small red square paper lanterns
could be seen emitting their lonely rays ; they were
odenya stalls, which supplied hot potatoes, taroes,
Konnyaku, and fish-flesh to the visitors of the fire field,
and sake of three sen per glass sold by the same stall-
keepers were the best refreshment for them in the
cold night. When you went on round the burnt
quarter you often saw a number of wandering out-
casts driven away by policemen ; they stole into the
enclosure of ruins and attempted to pick out pieces of
metallic articles burnt and buried under piles of the
remains. Now it was past twelve, and the visitors,
spectators, and wanderers having dispersed for their
home, men to be seen on the parched land were
policemen and labourers only.
The strong north wind in this winter (1913) con-
tinued to blow almost every night till the end of
March, and the fires broke out successively in the
city. Though the metropolitan police made efforts
to prevent from the calamities, yet the terrible events
happened during the two month were so numerous
that we cannot mention each of them. Among the
others the most tragical accident was at the fire
happened at the quarter of Senju. It was on the
nth March. At 1.40 A.M. the fire broke out from
the kitchen of a greengrocer living at the Senju, the
north-eastern corner of the city. The master of the
house was out this night, and his family, consisting of
the old mother, wife, two sons and two daughters,
having been surprised by crackling of the fire, they
were awakened from their sound sleep, and, finding
the house already filled with flames, hardly escaped
out of it, all at once crying and shrieking. The
younger daughter, eight years old, however, was not
among them, and when the elder daughter of nineteen
148
CONFLAGRATION
was running about the house to seek her sister, she
was greatly startled by hearing her cries of agony in
the flames, now burnt up above the building. At the
moment when she was about to jump into the burning
house to rescue her little sister her mother, forty-two
years old, stopped her, and at an instant went into the
whirling flames herself, aiming at the suffering shrieks,
having forgotten her own danger for the love of her
younger daughter. The old grandmother, seventy-two
years of age, having seen the danger of her daughter
and grand-daughter, it was nothing for her to run a
risk herself too, and ran into the fire, following her
daughter. After a few minutes cries of the little girl
were not audible, but the two women did not appear
out of the burning house.
In the meantime the fire spread to the next
bath-house, and having been fanned by the north-
west wind and gradually extended to the market-
place of vegetables, cleared away more than twenty
largest vegetable stores of wholesale merchants. It
was half -past three when the fire was hardly put
down, and the total number of the houses burnt down
was sixty-eight, besides two half-burnt. The burnt
corpses of the three females were discovered under
the heaps of the ruins of their house. What a
tragical scene it was when they were given up to the
survivors of their family after the coroner's inquest
was finished !
To give examples of other smaller fires :
On the nth March, at 1.55 A.M., a fire broke out
in an unoccupied house at Nedzu, of Kongo district,
and after destroying seventeen whole and seven half-
burnt houses, was put down at 3.10 A.M. The cause
of the fire is suspected to be incendiarism.
At about half -past five on the same morning
another fire took place at a spot between two
houses at Nishimaru, of Koishikawa district, and,
unfortunately, the fire-brigade of the No. 5th Fire
149
THE NIGHTSIDE OF JAPAN
Department having been sent out for the fire at
Nedzu, thirteen whole and three half-burnt houses
were the loss. The cause was unknown.
At half-past eleven same day an accidental fire
blazed up at the bathroom of the Brain Disease
Hospital at Aoyama, but happily it was extinguished
at once by the strenuous efforts of the officers in
the hospital, the damage having been limited to
only the bathroom's roof blown up. There was a
great confusion when over ;fifty in-patients were
temporarily removed to take refuge to the neighbour-
ing plain.
At three in the afternoon of the same day there
was an arson at an empty house at Hashiba, of
Asakusa, but immediately it was put out by the
neighbours.
At half-past seven on the same evening another
fire was caused by the lighting of an old mat in the
avatory of a dry goods shop at Saegicho, Kanda,
but, fortunately, having been discovered by one of
the clerks, it was instantly quenched out. People in
Kanda district having been in a deep horror after the
conflagration in the previous month, there produced
a great to-do among them in the neighbourhood for
a time. We are told that at the moment when the
incendiary fire was discovered somebody ascertained
a strange woman wandering about near the house ;
but in spite of strict searches by the Nishi-Kanda
police, she could not be arrested up to the midnight.
150
CHAPTER XIV
WINTER NIGHT
A. Kammairi, or Temple Visitors in the Coldest
Season
CITIZENS who went out to pay a round of New
Year's calls have already come back to home and
finished supper ; distributers of the evening press are
now on their way back after completing their duty ;
it is now eight o'clock in one winter evening of
the coldest season, which is generally called the
Kanchu (midst of the cold). At this time you hear
ringing of small bells carried by one, two, or three
men, who run away near your gate. Who are they,
and what are they running for? They are the so-
called kammairi who are on the way to visit a certain
temple. In the ancient time, when the regulation
for manners was liberal, they were called by the
popular name of hadkamairi (naked worshippers),
and are said to have been going naked on the public
road in the cold night ; but at present, according to
the wishes of the authorities, they put on white
uniform and carry a long paper lantern marked
with their own names or signs. Females do not
bind the hair, but hang it down over the shoulder,
and they, as well as males, tie the head with the
twisted white handkerchief.
Temples and shrines visited by these kammairi
are the Fudo of Funkagawa, the Kotohira of
Toranomon, the Sanja of Asakusa, the Fudo of
THE NIGHTSIDE OF JAPAN
Ryogoku, the Toyokawa-Inari of Akasaka, the
Entsuji of Hitotsugi, the Marishiten of Ueno, the
Yakushi of Honjo, the Tamiya-Inari of Kyobashi,
the Daijingu of Shiba, the Tsukudo Hachiman of
Ushigome, the Yushima Tenjin of Hongo, and the
Soshi of Nihonbashi, and among the others the
Fudo of Fukagawa and the Kotohira of Shiba are
most popular, citizens believing these two to be most
efficacious from their blind superstition. As the
Yoshiwara is the most flourishing place in Tokyo for
the festival of the god Eagle, and as the prostitute
quarter, so is the Fudo in Tukagawa the most popular
temple for the kammairi in the city. During the
coldest season of every winter there come fifteen
hundred visitors to the temple every night ; among
them those who take the Mizu-gori (purifica-
tion by immersion in water) amount to over one
thousand, and the rest only worship bowing in front
of the temple hall. You cannot help to wonder if you
see that thirty or forty females are taking the water
purification among these visitors. Whence come
such a great number of the kammairi to the Fudo
Temple? They assemble from all directions of the
city and its suburbs from Sunamura to the east,
from Takanawa of Shiba to the south, from Mikawa-
dai of Azabu and Aoyama of Akasaka to the west,
and from Koishikawa, Hongo, Shitaya, Asakusa, and
Minami Sengu to the north ; and those from Kanda,
Nihonbashi, and Kyobashi, as well as inhabitants in
Fukagawa, the district of the site of the temple itself,
and in Honjo, its neighbouring district, are most
numerous above all.
Citizens, both male and female, who are used to
visit temples and shrines and make greedy prayers
for their health and happiness, are generally limited to
the gay circle, but most of the kammairi in the cold
night clad in the white clothes, the head tied up
with the white handkerchief, the feet put on white
tabi (socks), but with no shoes nor clogs, and running
152
THE KAMMAIRI.
WINTER NIGHT
the street very lively belong to the class of artisans
all busy in day-time ; that is to say, they are young
and high-spirited employees of carpenters, plasterers,
cabinet-makers, mat-makers, masons, roofers, brick-
layers, sawyers, and hoopers. It is not uncommon
that there are the temple visitors who come half in
fun among these devotees of the coldest night ; you
often find little boys of nine or ten years at the
temple, and their true object of the visit seems not to
be prayer to the temple, but they are ambitious to
taste the sweet amazake (hot beverage made of
fermented yeast), which the temple entertains to the
visitors. In the night of rain, snow, or strong wind,
therefore, the kammairi are decreased to half the
number of the ordinary night, and, on the contrary,
they are temporarily increased in the warm night.
The pious devotees who come to the temple through-
out the whole thirty days of the coldest season are
said to be less than five hundred out of fifteen hundred,
and you can easily understand the two-thirds of the
total number of the kammairi are amateurs coming
out of half in joke.
The devout worshippers, however, have some
serious matters for themselves to cure the father
of disease quickly or to rescue the master from the
brink of death. Though their conduct is the mani-
festation of superstition and appears to be ridiculous,
yet their loyal and filial intention is worthy to be
admired. You are told by the men of the temple
that the female worshippers are very pious, and never
fail to appear every night through the whole season.
In the last winter a geisha (singing-girl) of Susaki
submitted herself to the kammairi service to pray for
recovery of her sick old mother. When the brothels
and guide-houses of Susaki heard her filial piety, all
were sympathising with her, and as soon as she came
back from the prayer to the temple every night they
engaged her to attend upon guests in their houses.
Thus, her calling having been very flourishing, she
153
THE NIGHTSIDE OF JAPAN
could get much money, with which she called a good
physician for the old mother, who was happy to have
completely recovered in a short time. Piety produces
good efficience if it is combined with sympathy.
Employees of artisans, who gaily run about the
public road crying loudly, are obstructors of the street,
and, though they wish to make improvement on
their work by praying to the temple, they are hopeless
unless they are faithful to their business in their
master's shop. In every winter the females who take
purification of water for the whole thirty days are
less than ten, and there are twenty males who pour
the cold water over their white clothes, and run back
by the wet dress as it is, this way of watering being
called the severest purification.
The hall of water purification is situated to the left
of the main building of the temple, a small building
at its entrance being a detached hall dedicated to the
Fudo. At the centre of the hall there is a large
artesian well for use of the purgers, and the arrange-
ment is done so as the two persons can purify them-
selves at once, each standing on the opposite side.
Under the ceiling electric lamps are shining. While
taking purification their clothes are given in charge
of the Fudo hall at the entrance, but as more than one
hundred persons are crammed up every half-an-hour,
policemen are despatched from the Eitaibashi police-
station to guard against a rare possibility of robbery.
It is seldom to hear of the loss of clothes or quarrels
among worshippers every year, and the door of the
hall is shut up at ten every night ; consequently those
who come later than the time, and cannot take water
purge, are compelled to go home after merely praying
at the front of the main temple.
Amazake and charcoal fire, which are supplied
every night to entertain the kammairi, consist of the
contribution by religious guilds of devotees to the
Fudo. Amazake entertainment _(hot beverage made
of fermented yeast) is given in Onarita, the tea-house
154
WINTER NIGHT
in front of the temple. It is boiled in two large iron
pots every evening after sunset, and in fine weather
twenty-five gallons are consumed per night. Three
large bales of charcoal are used up in one night as
the warming fire in a cottage near the tea-house.
The roll for the kammairi is provided in the tea-house
too, and their names, addresses, and attendance are
perfectly entered.
B. Otakara-uri, or Sellers of Treasure-Boat Sheets.
Otakara-uri is an old custom since the time when
Tokyo was called Yedo under the Tokugawa Govern-
ment. Otakara is a small sheet of paper printed
with a picture of a treasure-boat, in which seven gods
of luck are embarked, and invaluable treasures, such
as gold and silver coins, branches of coral, fabrics
woven of gold thread, etc., loaded, and above the
picture of the boat a peculiar poem is printed as
follows :
" Na ka ki yo no,
To o no ne fu ri no,
Mi na me sa me,
Na mi no ri fu ne no,
O to no yo ki ka na."
If you read the poem vice versa from the end to
the beginning, it will be pronounced in equal order of
sound. The meaning of the poem is :
" All people awake from their sleep in the long night
And pleasantly listen to sound of the boat rowing on the
waves."
In the Yedo age it was generally believed that, if
a person went to sleep with the picture-sheet under
his pillow in the night of the second of January, and
had any good dream, he would be very happy and
fortunate during the year. Those who went round
the streets of the city selling the pictures were called
the otakari-uri.
155
THE NIGHTSIDE OF JAPAN
At present, the old custom still remains among a
part of the citizens of Tokyo, but most of the sellers
of the sheets are little boys, while up to ten years ago
all of them were young men. Towards the evening
of the second day of January there appear a number
of otakara-uri in all principal streets of the city ;
among these there are mingled young masters of rich
merchants and clever clerks of large shops, disguised
to be the picture-sellers, and on the other side spirited
young artisans come out as temporary treasure-sheets
vendors. All these young fellows put on tasteful
Japanese dresses, and cover their face with hand-
kerchief in the style called the Yoshiwara-kaburi (an
elegant way of covering a part of the face with the
Japanese long handkerchief) ; artisans wear new
momohiki (dark blue cotton drawers), and are clad in
two or three hanten (dark blue cotton jackets, the
common uniform for workmen), over which they have
on a haori (a kind of coat), the face being concealed
in the Yoshiwara-kaburi too. First, having taken
a few cups of sake (wine), and being good-humoured
now, they go round the streets in the second evening
of the New Year crying, " Otakara^ otakara ! "
It is common for amateur vendors of the pictures
to come into their acquainted houses and sell the
otakara^ but some jump into unacquainted shops and
ask to buy the pictures, explaining, " Good evening.
We have brought very lucky otakara for you ! " Then
the master or mistress of the shop is very glad, and
says, " What a spirited picture vendor you are ! Give
me two or three sheets." The purchaser does not
enquire of the price of the picture, but gives them a
certain sum of money wrapped up in paper. A
master of another shop is so greatly satisfied by the
visit of vendors of " Sheets of Luck," that he invites
them into the drawing-room and entertains them
with sake and dishes of the New Year.
In one of the most flourishing streets of Nihonbashi,
the central district of the capital, there is a large
156
WINTER NIGHT
wholesale dry goods store. The No. 2 clerk of
the store, who drank the New Year's wine together
with a fireman in regular employ of the shop in
the evening of the second day, disguised himself
out of curiosity to be the otakara-uri> and visited
Yoshiwara accompanied by the fireman. When the
two came near the show-room of a house, one nice
girl called the picture vendor, and, after taking
five sheets from him, paid one yen without any
enquiry for the price. Being much moved by the
liberal disposition of the girl, the clerk at once
went into the house to be a guest of the girl, and
since then having frequented her so often the two
fell in true love at last. The result of dissipation on
the side of the clerk was his absconding from the
master's shop, and the girl, who had fallen into the
depth of heavy debts, was compelled to remove from
Yoshiwara to a lower quarter at Shinagawa. In
consequence of a picture-sheet in the night of the
2nd January, what a long and bad dream they had !
Another interesting anecdote regarding a temporary
vendor of treasure-boat pictures will be given. A
young master of a wealthy house, who intended to
be a voluntary otakara-uri y went out to the streets
in secret from all his family, and when he visited an
unacquainted geisha-\\Qusz at Yanagibashi, he was
welcomed by all girls and maid-servants there, because
he was a handsome young man. " What a luck for
us to have a visit of the Otakarayasan (Mr Otakara-
urt] like you in this evening of the New Year ! Please
come in and take time to have your drinks," said
the elder girl to the disguised young fellow. In the
meanwhile a young beautiful geisha, the daughter
of the house, came back from her engagement at
a restaurant. She saw the refined young man, talked
with him to buy the picture-sheets, and while she
was entertaining him with sake and dishes, she fell
in love with him at last. Having refused all engage-
ments to restaurants this evening, she cherished him
157
THE NIGHTS IDE OF JAPAN
heartily ; he went home late in this night. After the
unexpected meeting between the two, both fell in
blind love and continued to meet each other. In
spite of advice and remonstrance of his parents and
relatives against his profligate conduct, he could not
give up his girl, and was finally disinherited by his
father. The kind and sincere young geisha took her
lover to her house and was sustaining him for several
months. Being greatly moved by kindness and
constancy of the girl, the parents of the young man
called back their son to home, and at the same time
agreed to take her to be his wife.
You understand now how the disguised voluntary
vendors of the treasure-boat pictures are, but then
how are the true professional otakara-uri? It is
funny that, in this singular business of selling the
picture-sheets of the New Year, the temporary sellers
are always much more successful than the pro-
fessionals. Men who sell the otakara as profession
are generally poor and clad in miserable clothes,
carrying a large bundle of the pictures wrapped in
a big cloth tied up round the neck ; their style is
ugly indeed. On the contrary, voluntary vendors
put on a suit of new dresses and the pictures are in
their hand with no wrapper to cover them. It is
natural that citizens prefer to get the sheet of luck
from the hand of nicely dressed otakara-uri rather
than to buy it taken out of the dirty old cloth
wrapper on the shoulder of filthy men.
Temporary otakara-uri purchase the pictures of
treasure-boot from the professional sellers or from
picture-shops called the ezoshiya in neighbourhood.
Each seller generally buys one or two hundred sheets
and the wholesale price is ten sen or less per hundred.
Before he runs out to the streets it is necessary for
him to take some cups of sake for the purpose of
enlivening himself, and it is funny indeed that the
cost of wine is much more than the capital for
merchandise. If he is fortunate enough to sell well
WINTER NIGHT
at the price of one or two sen per sheet, he is very
glad in anticipation that he will be lucky in this year,
and, on pretence of congratulation in advance for the
future happiness, he visits his acquainted restaurant
and exhausts all the pocket money, including the
proceeds of otakara just earned in this night.
C. Sobaya, or Buckwheat Shops.
In Japan with no exception of every town or
village there is an old curious custom with regard
to buckwheat dishes. The Japanese have a habit to
eat soba in the evening of the last day of every month
and year. From what time the custom was originated
and by what reason they have to eat it, are unknown.
It is, however, certain that the strange habit was
prevalent in the Age of Yedo, and some people
explain the reason as follows :
Soba is long and slender substance like threads
made of flour of buckwheat. If you eat it at the
end of every month and year, your health and
happiness will continue long in future, just as the
soba is long. Consequently all the Japanese like
to eat buckwheat dishes in expectation of their
constant welfare.
We don't know whether the interpretation for the
custom is correct or not, but at anyrate you will
wonder that there are no people who are so fond
of soba as the citizens of Tokyo at present ; the
habit of .ftp&z-eating seems to have gradually grown
up to the nature of the Tokyomans. It is true that
the buckwheat shops are most flourishing at any
season among all other eating-houses in the city.
There are over eight hundred sobaya throughout the
city at present, and in the shops most popular and
celebrated they are said to count the proceeds of
over one hundred yen per day, average price per
bowl being from three to twelve sen. While all
restaurants and eating-houses shut up their shops at
159
THE NIGHTSIDE OF JAPAN
twelve at night, only the buckwheat merchants open
their shops generally till 2 A.M. Certainly the hot
soba in winter night is the favourite dishes of citizens,
giving agreeable warmth to their body.
There may be the Tokyo citizens who omit to
take soba at the end of the month, but it is very
rare that they neglect to eat the dishes even in the
New Year's Eve. Consequently, in this one ; night,
all sobaya at least sell the double quantity of soba
sold at the end of other months. According to a
statistical report, cost of buckwheat consumed by
all Tokyo citizens in one night of the New Year's
Eve is said to amount to yen 56,160 or 5,616!
Besides the shops of buckwheat above explained,
there are another kind of buckwheat merchants,
which is called the yonaki-soba, or yosobauri. They
are peddlers of soba in night only, carrying their
stall on the shoulder or driving it on wheels.
Peculiarity of the buckwheat stall in night is that
a small bell is attached to its one side, and when
the peddlers march on streets calling out, " Soba-
woo-i y soba-woo-i I " tinkling of the bell follows
always. The best customers for the yonaki-soba are
the street ramblers late at night, and, especially in
the night of cold winter, the hot buckwheat dishes
sold by these stalls are the best refreshment for
them.
D. Amma, or Shampooers.
In the night streets of Tokyo through all seasons,
specially in cold winter, you hear whistles and cries
of "Amma amma!" These are blind shampooers,
male and female, who are wandering in streets
expecting people to engage them. In Japan the
shampoo work is generally taken by blind people,
though there is a class of persons with ordinary
sight living on the calling of shampooing too. Old
and experienced shampooers take their business at
home, and, when sent for go to their customers, but
1 60
WINTER NIGHT
young masseur and masseuse are in the habit of
going out to the streets in night, and, being called
into some houses, sit at work on the body of those
who are in demand for massage.
A small bamboo whistle and a long wood staff
are the two instruments indispensable for the street
shampooers whistles tell coming of them, and the
wood staff helps the blind to avoid dangers on the
road. Being aided and protected by these two
implements, they have to go out every night whether
the weather be fine or rainy, even in the windy, cold
winter, wandering on the streets from six to after
midnight. Then, what sum of money can these
poor blind earn by such a hard night task? If you
are told that a young inexperienced shampooer can
get only five to ten yen in winter and eight to fifteen
in summer as his monthly income, while the latter is
said to be the busiest season among his circle, you
will feel what a pity it is for him to live such a
miserable life in his permanent dark world. Further
than this, sometimes he is so unfortunate that,
although he has been wandering on the streets till
past midnight, whistling and loudly crying: " Amma,
kami-shimo!" (kamishimo means to shampoo the
whole body from the head down to the feet), he
is utterly engaged by nobody, and on such an
unlucky night it happens often that he falls into
a ditch or shoks against a telegraph pole by the
roadside. Such a night is called an infelicitous
epoch by his circle, and as soon as he comes home
very late with his empty purse he offers earnest
prayers for his devoted shrine or temple to bless
him in the following nights.
Young apprentices of an old shampooer have to
give up to their master all the money they have
earned every night, and receive its five, ten, or fifteen
per cent, from him, while they are lodging in his
house, and supplied with food and clothes by him
too. It is natural that these young blind endeavour
161 L
THE NIGHTSIDE OF JAPAN
to earn as much as they can, because the more they
pay to the master, the more they can get their
pocket money.
There are two thousand and five hundred blind
masseur and masseuse in Tokyo, and, the male and
the female being almost equal in their number, there
is no inconvenience among them to marry each
other when they arrive at maturity a strange
phenomenon in the world of blind people but a
happy combination between the pitiful two sexes.
It is a question how the blind and inexperienced
shampooers can come home without fail after having
gone round to a far distance every night. They tell
that they go and come back by the ear and the
nose they remember the smells of tempura-ya
(shops of fried fish), yakiimo-ya (shops of roast sweet
potatoes), and kabayaki-ya (shops of broiled eels),
or they can discern stream of water-drains or sound
of flowing in ditches, and when they happen to
arrive at crossroads or come to near the by-street
where their house is situated, they can distinguish
the direction by the flow of air. Their sensation is
very keen, but in the night of the coldest winter,
they miss to catch their aim, and are often bewildered
in the chilling wind till two or three on the morning.
As previously explained, though the shampooers
in Tokyo are generally not higher in their social
rank, yet there are exceptions of course. Some
attend to the Bureau of Court Physicians in the
Imperial Household Department and give the
massage treatment to court ladies and others ; some
have heaped up millions by their single hand, and
occupy the honourable positions. If you compare
them to those who are going in the streets with
the whistle and cries of " Amma. . .," what a great
bay lays between the two!
To be an accomplished shampooer he must be
trained as apprentice under a skilful master, and
the period of apprenticeship is generally five to seven
162
WINTER NIGHT
years, though there may be differences according to
the age of the beginners. During apprenticeship, he
is supplied by the master with sustenance, livery,
and pocket money, as already explained. After one
year and a half, he is allowed to take simple work
for the customers of his master, and the wages got
by him are all taken into the master's hand. If he
completed the long apprenticeship of five or seven
years, he cannot yet open his independent business
instantly; first he must apply for the examination
to the Metropolitan Police, and, if he passed it,
next he has to get the sanction of the President of
the Tokyo Massage Association. In spite of great
troubles before he can open his business he is very-
humble and obedient, or you may say that he is
in good development for morality. After he opened
his business, he never trespasses on the scope of
business of his master, and never settles his home
near his, too. Such kind of the amma does not go
out to the street in night, but takes his business
at home any time in night and day, though some
are compelled to go crying out of doors, most of
the street goers being those within the term of
apprenticeship.
Wages of a shampooer at home - work is twenty
to fifty sen for the treatment of one hour, and his
general income per month is twenty to thirty yen.
It is said to be very hard for him to earn fifty or
sixty yen monthly.
163
CHAPTER XV
WINTER NIGHT (continued)
E. Nabeyaki-udon, or Hawkers of Macaroni Cooked
and Served in Pots
IF the mere name of the Nabeyaki-udon is spoken
of, at an instant you recollect something poetical
in your mind and feel some warmness in your body
at a very cold night. The cold north wind is now
raging through the desolated streets near the dead of
a severe winter night, and citizens are all dreaming
in their snug bed, when suddenly the loneliness is
broken by cries of a nabeyaki-udon, whose voice
echoes horribly and sadly as if pains and distresses
of life are groaned out. What kind of people will
welcome this night hawker at such a very late
hour?
At one side of his old rough portable stall there
hangs a dimly lighted, long, square paper lantern,
and an old man clad in shabby padded clothes,
his legs protected with the almost discoloured dark-
blue cotton drawers, is crouching in front of a small
furnace, on which two or three little pots of macaroni
are put, and kindling the charcoal fire by fanning
with an old round-fan in order to cook them quickly.
Around the dealer three men stand waiting for
preparation of dishes, in spite of coldness of the
cutting norther. Who are the three? Judging by
their dresses, two of them seem to be clerks of a
164
WINTER NIGHT
certain shop and the other a young artisan. You
may be quite correct if you judge them all to be
on their way home from a certain gaiety-quarter
after they have spent a merry evening. All of
them are cold and hungry, and devour up each
three or four pots in a few minutes. Their body
gets warm and their stomach is full, and then,
paying the price, they run away under the strong
wind ; the old hawker still stops at the same spot
and is calling out, " Na-a-be-ya-a-ki-udo-o-n \ " expect-
ing the next customers to come.
If you are told that the number of the hot
macaroni hawkers in the city are increased every
winter, you can understand how popularly the dishes
are welcomed among the citizens of Tokyo. Utensils
necessary for the business are earthen pots and
bowls ; most of the customers are fond to eat the
udon directly out of the pot itself which was heated
on the fire, hence the name of the nabeyaki-udon>
but others prefer to taste it after it was taken from
the pot into a fine earthen bowl. So the merchant
must be very careful to discriminate the kind of
guests whether they like pots or bowls. Besides a
quantity of macaroni in the pot, a piece of fish-
flesh, vegetable, and laver are added in its hot broth,
and the dish costs two sen and a half or three sen
per pot or bowl. The total number of the nabeyaki-
udon dealers in the city are about three thousand,
and most of them live in the narrow lanes of Honjo
and Hatchobori districts.
The best customers for them are the machiai
(waiting houses), in various quarters inhabited by
the geisha, and next, the classes of people who are
fond of the dish and eat it standing on the way-
side, are labourers, students, and salarymen of lower
rank. It is strange that the rikisk&ttoeb are haughty
enough to avoid eating the hot udon by standing
before the nabeyaki stall. A macaroni hawker sells
one hundred and fifty pots per night. Towards the
165
THE NIGHTSIDE OF JAPAN
evening, when the electric or gas lamps begin to be
lighted, they come out of their nasty den carrying
the stall on the shoulder. The high tide of their
business is after midnight, when people on the way
home from the variety hall or gay quarter want
to eat the hot udon, or the guests in a waiting
house out of half a joke call and take the curious
night dishes ; their trade is continued till 2 or
3 A.M. The greater part of the nabeyaki pedlars
pass the night on the street, and it is after dawn
when they come back to home.
December is the most flourishing month for the
macaroni business throughout the year, and those
nights from the 2/th to the New Year's Eve they
sell best. Then what is their profit in one night?
Deducting all expenses, they can easily get the
net profit of one and a half or two yen in a usual
night, thus the total amount of the profits per month
in the cold season being rather a big sum of fifty
or sixty yen for the merchants of such a lowest
class. In spite of the daily income regular and
tolerable, however, they are always poor, living in
the smallest cottage or in a dirty room of the
lowest inn. They are bachelors generally, and very
idle in their bad habits; if it rains, most of them
do not like to go out for business. The period of
their business is limited to the winter, from November
to February, and they must change their calling for
the rest of the year.
F. Yakiimoya, or Shops of Roast Sweet Potato
In one cold moonlight night of winter you meet
a little girl at a corner of a busy small street and
recognise something in a cloth wrapper carried by
her hand ; out of the cloth wrapper steam is vapor-
ing up into the cold air. At an instant you under-
stand that she is on the way back from a yakiimoya,
after having purchased some roast sweet potatoes.
1 66
WINTER NIGHT
Now what is the so-called yaki-imo, or roast sweet
potato? Well, it will be explained here.
The yaki-imo is sweet potato roasted in a special
furnace, and smaller ones of the potato are baked
at their own original round form, but larger ones
put in the furnace after each is cut into three or
four small pieces. When it is baked, salt is sprinkled
on its outside in order to give it a little salt taste
to season its original sweet savour. It is the most
favourite food for the females and children. When
it approaches autumn, most of the ice-water shops
during summer change into the yakiimoya^ and the
food being always very hot, boys and girls are
very glad to taste the sweet potato in winter night
as the repast during their idle gossiping. If you
go through by-streets in every district of Tokyo,
you will find the long and square paper lanterns
on which the terms yaki-imo (roast potato) are
marked, and in front of these shops, maid-servants
and girls of lower class are gathering to buy the
hot sweets. Poor students from the country cannot
taste the sweet cakes of good confectioneries, and,
in place of them, are satisfied by eating the yaki-
imo in their room of the lowest boarding - house.
The poorest inhabitants in the Honjo and Asakusa
Wards, hardly living^ in a dirty tenement house or
the lowest inn called the kichinyado, cannot often
get money enough to buy the rice, the usual meal
of the Japanese, and then they are compelled to
appease their appetite by taking the roast potato
until they get sufficient means for provision. Yet, the
children of these needy folks are sometimes rather
glad to have the yaki-imo than to be supplied by their
parents with tasteless food consisting of half -rotten
rice and little pieces of old fish-flesh mixed into dried-
up vegetable. Anyhow, \b& yaki-imo is not the food of
noble class, but is rather of common or democratic.
By the way, the origin or history of the yaki-imo
will be explained.
THE NIGHTSIDE OF JAPAN
Sweet potato was first imported from the South
China into Japan, and, having been cultivated in
Loochoo and Koshiki Islands since old times, the
inhabitants in these islands adopted it as their
daily food in place of rice, wheat, or beans. Its
first importation into the inland is attributed to
the present from the King of the Loochoo to
Shimadzu the Feudal Lord of Satsuma Province
in Kyushu. Having experienced its good taste,
the men of Shimadzu procured its seeds by send-
ing order to Loochoo and cultivated it in the fief
of their lord. Afterwards, the sweet potato was
gradually spread so far to Yedo, and it was less
than two hundred years ago when the food became
very popular among the citizens of the capital under
the name of the Loochoo potato.
At the time when the sweet potato was first
introduced into Yedo there was a famous scholar
called Bunzo Aoki. He made efforts to recommend
the food for the citizens, so that he himself adopted
his pseudonym as " Kansho-Sensei," which means
" Father of Sweet Potato." He earnestly persuaded
to the Governor of Yedo the cultivation of the plant,
and urged the reasons of its utility both by tongue
and pen, explaining that it is the best provision
against the time of famine and that it supplies the
cheap food for the poor. Adopting the proposal
of the scholar, the Governor Oka stated it to the
Shogunal Government, and cultivated the plant for
trial at the garden of Fukiage in the Castle of Yedo
and the medical plantation of Koishikawa. The
tomb of "The Father of Sweet Potato" is in the
ground of the Temple Fudo at Meguro, the south-
western suburb of Tokyo, and on the anniversary
of his death a prosperous festival is held every
year by the Guild of the wholesale merchants of
sweet potato in the city.
The potato, which was first planted in trial at a
garden corner of the Yedo Castle and a part of the
168
WINTER NIGHT
medical garden, is now cultivated in the fields all
round the city, just as rice and wheat, and taken as
the favourite food for females and children. There
is a big difference of its taste, according to the
degree of fertility of the soil, and, in the vicinity
of the city, those produced at Kawagaye are famous
for their best relish. Besides supplying the sweet
food for females and children, spirits and alcohol
are taken from the sweet potato. Since ancient
times the natives of the islands Hachijo and
Ogasawara have been very fond of a kind of wine
called Imo-zake (Potato Wine) and the islanders
of Loochoo make the nice spirit named Awamori
from the potato, too.
G. In the Age of Yedo
In the age when Tokyo was called Yedo and the
whole country of Japan governed by the Shogun of
Tokugawa, all feudal lords living in the capital had
to attend the Castle of the Shogun on the New
Year's Day before dawn. They put on different
ceremonial dresses according to their ranks : the
noshime (silk robe), shijira noshime (crape robe),
kamishimo, hoi, daimon (long robe with a number of
large crests) and sud (flowing garment) were kinds
of court dresses on the ceremonious occasions.
Before the dawn and still in the dark of the first
and second days of January, the retinue of the lord
all put on the kamishimo and, girding high up the
hakama (a kind of pantaloons) and exposing their
naked shins to the cutting wind, followed him. The
retinue was divided into the two parts, the front and
the rear, and the palanquin of the daimyo, or lord,
carried at the midst of the retinue ; the train of the
lord of Kaga province, the greatest daimyo, is said to
have been as long as it continued for almost two
furlongs. Until the lord came out of the castle,
169
THE NIGHTSIDE OF JAPAN
these retainers had to await him sitting down on
the mats spread over the board floorings established
near the castle gates of Wadagura, Shirakawaguchi,
or Nijubashi, of course their naked shins being
exposed to the cold wind of early morning just as
on their way to the castle. When the retinue of a
daimyo was on its march, two or three forerunners
first came ahead, crying : " Shitani-oro y Shita-ni-oro ! "
(Be down !) and farmers or merchants who happened
to meet the retinue were to squat down on the
ground until the whole of it passed away.
Merchants went round for their New Year's visit,
putting on the kamishimo dress and carrying a
small sword at the waist, generally followed by a
servant or boy. They called on their customers
and gave them the New Year's gift, called the
Toshidama^ which commonly consisted of fans con-
tained in a long white wooden box, paper, handker-
chiefs, or cakes. When the master of a large store
went to pay the New Year's visit, he was followed
by a fireman of his regular employ and two or
three boys ; the fireman put on the leather coat
given by the master and carried a lacquered box
called the hasamtbako, in which the New Year's
presents are contained, and the boys distributed
the presents to each customer. Physicians went
round to offer the congratulations of the New Year,
putting on a special coat called the jittoku, and
followed by a servant after the seventh day, and
priests had to visit after the eleventh day of January.
Samurai distributed name-cards to their acquainted
houses, and if they came to those of their intimate
friends, they expressed congratulations by seeing
somebody of the house.
In the night of the sixth of January citizens had
to prepare the peculiar food called the nanakusa-no-
kayu to be eaten on the morning of the seventh
day. The Yanakusa-no-kayu means " A medley
rice gruel mixed with seven kinds of greens/'
170
WINTER NIGHT
Before the greens are cut into little pieces, they
are beaten on the chopping-block, called the
manaita, by turns with the seven kinds of the
kitchen utensils in the night of the sixth; the
seven tools are saibashi (chopsticks used for help-
ing fish or vegetables),/&z-<2fo/? (bamboo blow-pipe),
surikogi (wooden pestle), hibashi (tongs), otama-
shakushi (wooden ladle for serving soup), meshi-
jakushi (wooden spoon for serving out rice) and
hocho (knife.) While they are beaten, a peculiar
and interesting song is sung by the beater accom-
panying the beating time. The song runs as
follows :
" Seven kinds of greens,
Including shepherd's purse ;
Before the birds of China
Fly over to the land of Japan."
The custom of preparing the rice gruel of seven
greens in the night of the 6th has been generally
prevailing among the citizens of Tokyo, and at
present those are very few who eat the congee on
the morning of the 7th of January.
By the way, we shall describe the special visitors in
the streets of the capital at the beginning of January,
though their frequentations were not limited to the
night only. They were manzai, torioi, hazeuri, harai-
ogibako, and otakara-uri, which has been already
explained.
The origin of the manzai was the farmers of the
Mikawa and Owari provinces, who first came up to
Yedo to celebrate the prosperity of lyeyasu, the
first Shogun of the Tokugawa family and once the
lord of the Mikawa province. They danced, singing :
" My lord, long live and prosper forever ! " They
were permitted to come up every year and called
the manzai, which means " long live." Afterwards,
however, poor people in the city disguised themselves
to be the strolling comic musicians and dancers at
the beginning of every year, and went round from
171
THE NIGHTSIDE OF JAPAN
house to house in all streets. The manzai put on
the head a kind of cap called the Kazaori - eboshi
and was dressed in a long robe of daimon, always
accompanied by his comrade called the Saizo. He
wore a cap named the natto-eboshi and was dressed
in the same way as manzai^ following him beating a
tsuzumi (a drum shaped like an hour-glass). Singing
and dancing, they went round the city, and got money,
rice or mochi (pieces of rice bread) from the citizens.
Torioi were wives and daughters of the people
of the lowest class living in Yedo and went about
begging from house to house at the beginning of
the year, playing on the samisen and singing a
peculiar song. They put on the braided hat named
amigasa and made of rush. It covered the entire
head, the face and all, and was tied with red ribbons
under the chin. They wore on newly made silk
dresses. When they stood near a shop of merchant
or the gate of a house and began to sing with their
lifted - up tone of voice, accompanied by the skilful
samisen, their feature was very lovely and charming.
Soon after the midnight of the New Year's Eve.
there appeared the so-called haze-uri^ who sold the
parched rice called haze. They went round the
streets, crying : " Haze-yah> haze-yak ! " In another
meaning, the word haze means " completed " or
"ended," and these haze-uri gave a warning to
citizens that, " The New Year's Eve has ended," or
"The New Year's Day begins to dawn."
After the twelfth of January there came mer-
chants called the Harai-ogibako in the streets, and
their business was to buy from all houses the fans
in box given by the New Year's visitors as presents.
H. Mochi- Tsuki
The peculiar custom throughout Japan for con-
gratulation of the New Year is to eat the zoni-mochi
every morning for the first three days of January.
172
WINTER NIGHT
The zoni-mochi is a kind of medley soup made by
boiling rice cakes (mochi) fish and various vegetables
together, and in order to make the New Year's feast,
every house must prepare the mochi before the end
of the year.
One night after the twentieth of December you
stroll about in a street near the bridge Nihonbashi
and hear a bustling sound somewhere near a large
restaurant. Stepping into the back gate and coming
to the rear yard of the house, you find a number of
men and women who are now in the midst of the
ftMfiftl-making. At the centre of the yard there stands
a large wooden mortar in which the mochi is beaten,
and on one side of it, about three yards off, the fire
is vigorously burning under a big earthen furnace ;
on the furnace a pile of steaming vessels, called the
setro, is regularly arranged, and in each of the vessels
mochigome, or glutinous rice, is put in to be steamed.
When the rice is steamed up well a man takes down
the vessel and empties the rice out of it into the
mortar. At same moment three or four men, each
holding a wooden pestle and standing around the
mortar, begin to pound the steamed rice. In the
intervals of pounding two women, standing between
the men, have to knead the beaten rice with their
hands wet by immersing into the clean water prepared
in the buckets near themselves. Thus pounding and
kneading are repeated for some ten or twenty
minutes, beating time by shouts of both the men
and women.
When the rice in the mortar is completely beaten
up into the mochi or rice-bread, it is taken out of
the mortar on a large square table arranged on the
other side of the mortar, just opposite to the furnace,
/round the table three or four men and women are
waiting for the mass of new mochi^ strewing the
wheaten flour all over the surface of the table. As
soon as the mass of rice cake is taken on the flour,
it is rolled by them into flat pieces, called the
173
THE NIGHTSIDE OF JAPAN
nashimochi, or made into small round bits. The
glutinous rice in the steaming vessels is thus one
after another changed into the mochi. The flat
nashimochi is afterwards cut into small pieces of
some three inches square, which are boiled in the
zoni soup, to be served for the New Year's feast, and
the small round pieces, which are sometimes taken
for the zoni-mochi in the same way, are generally
adopted as the New Year's offering to the temple
or shrine devoted by the master of the house. The
mochz-tsuki, or rice -bread making, being performed
at almost every house in the city, the nights near
the end of the year are noisy and stirring with sound
of pounding and laughter of women.
174
CHAPTER XVI
THE KARUTA-KAI (MEETING FOR CARD-PLAYING
IN A JANUARY NIGHT)
BOYS and girls nay, even young ladies and gentle-
men of the families above the middle class living
in the city are pleased by playing the game of cards
in January nights. When a house is to hold a
meeting for the game, the friends, male and female,
of the sons and daughters of the house are previ-
ously invited to join the meeting. On the appointed
time, a great number of champions of the game
assemble from all directions to the house, and the
game is opened soon. It is repeatedly carried on
till midnight or later, and sometimes enthusiastic
fighters are entirely absorbed in the game/so that
it is often continued till after the dawn on the
next morning.
The cards generally used by them are utterly
different from those used by the Europeans, and
are the ones characteristic to the Japanese only.
They are called the Utagaruta, or Poem Cards, one
pack of which consists of one hundred pieces, and
upon each of them a Japanese short poem is written,
the hundred poems in all being those composed by
very famous poets, poetesses, nobles, and court ladies
in ancient times. To play the cards, first the whole
body of players is divided by lot into two, three, or
more parties, and one hundred pieces of the cards
are equally distributed among them. Besides the
175
THE NIGHTSIDE OF JAPAN
players there is a person called the yomite, or reader ;
he keeps another pack of the same cards in his own
hand, and recites each poem one after another with
loud voice. When a poem is read up by the yomite^
the piece of the card with the corresponding poem
in the hand of one of the players is to be excepted
out of the game seat. On the side of the players,
a certain number of cards equally distributed to each
party are all to be openly arranged before members
of the party, in such a good order that all members
in the other parties, as well as yours, can easily see
and read the poem on each card. While the members
of your party have the duty to find out and take
away the cards read up by the reciter, they must, at
the same time, guard against the enemies who come
from the other parties to plunder the cards found
in your party, and also endeavour to deprive the
enemies of the cards possessed by them vice versa.
If a card in your party is taken away by the enemy,
your party is given from his party with two or three
cards as punishment out of the cards, not yet read
up, possessed by his party ; thus the cards in charge
of your party is increased with two or three new
pieces, while the enemy is glad to have their burden
lightened. In the game of card-playing, the first
party which has cleared up all the cards in its charge
is taken as the conquerors, and the one that has
been left to the last still keeping a number of cards
unable to clear away is sentenced as the defeated.
One night at the beginning of January you are
invited to the card-playing to be held at the house
of one of your friends. After supper, you leave your
house for the battle-field at seven on the evening,
and, when you enter the gate of the house of your
friend and approach the entrance, you find the lattice
door firmly locked up, though the lamplight can be
seen shining within the inner paper sliding doors of
the porch. Knocking the outer door two or three
times, footsteps are heard, and the shadow of a
176
THE K A RUT A KA1
woman appears on the paper door. The door
being opened, there comes out the old mother of
your friend; recognising your presence outside, she
unlocks the lattice door hurriedly and very hospitably
welcome you, apologising for the impoliteness of
having locked up the door in order to prevent the
intrusion of thieves to steal shoes and clogs of the
card players already assembled in the house. When
you step into the earthen floor within the lattice
door you are surprised to find the immense number
of shoes, boots, and Japanese clogs, which entirely
cover the whole space of the court of 6 feet square.
Being introduced into the large hall appointed for
the battlefield of this night, you find that the hall is
brilliantly lighted with more than ten electric lamps,
and that over fifty young ladies and men, divided
into four parties, are now in the midst of the fierce
fighting. The heat emitted from the charcoal fire
in fire-boxes and the warmth given out of human
bodies are mixed up in the calm air and make a
kind of hotness in the hall, smokes of tobacco curling
up in the hot air through the hall. Faces of all
persons absorbed in the game are reddened ; face-
powder of some girls is come off, hair of some ladies
is frayed, or dresses of others have got out of order ;
a young man in the European clothes has taken off
his frock, and the white shirt is torn at a part under
the elbow, another, who has thrown away his haori
(coat of the Japanese clothes), does not know his
belt loosened and hanging down on the mat, or a
gentleman is wounded on his fingers as the result
of a severe struggle, and has them wrapped up with
white paper. All of the players are in madness for
the game, with no care against the hot air and
choking smoke in'the room ; they are pleasantly play-
ing amidst the continued noises of cries, laughters,
grappling, trampling, and the shouts of triumph.
Isolated from the throngs of fighters, there are
three men surrounding a large fire-box at one corner
177 M
THE NIGHTSIDE OF JAPAN
of the hall ; they keep a number of cards in their
hands, and are reciting a poem on each card by
turns. They are theyomite, or readers of the cards.
One game having finished, another game is to be
opened now. The old parties are dissolved, and, the
new ones being recomposed by lot, you join among
them as one of the players. The whole players are
divided into five parties. The four antagonistic
parties against yours occupy their positions in front
and on the both sides of your camp. All members
of the parties are so quick to put their own cards in
regular rows on the mats occupied as the positions of
each party, that all of them are arranged at once in a
few minutes. Ten young students and two girls form-
ing one party on the right side of your position call
themselves to be the socialists ; their principles are to
destroy the peace of the battlefield by rioting, and
defeat the enemies with their physical force. Another
party just in front of yours defend its own position by
three stout young ladies, while nine strong young
gentlemen and boys are to attack the other parties
with all their strength. Then what are the con-
stituents of your party? An unlucky lot has fallen
upon you your party is organised with two men,
one little boy, and seven young ladies ! You are
disappointed to think that your party appears to be
weaker than all the other four, though there may be
some experts on the art to pick out the cards as soon
as they are read up by the reciter.
The encampment of all armies having now finished,
a notice for the outbreak of war is given to the reader,
who begins to recite the poems at an instant. In less
than five minutes after the first poem was read the
order of all parties is thrown into confusion, and the
severe fighting follows. At first the army of socialists
seems very powerful ; but, lacking their unity in the
plan of movements, they are often repulsed by the
others. Out of expectation, the seven ladies in your
party are very good fighters, in spite of their beautiful
THE DRUM BRIDGE AND WISTARIA TRELLISES AT KAMEIDO.
LAKE SHINOBAZU, THE LOTIS POND BELOW THE HILL OF UYENO.
THE KARUTA-KAI
face and delicate frame. They do not only pick out
all cards under their charge, but also they frequently
attack the positions of enemies and plunder the cards
protected by them. After the sharp contest for thirty
minutes the game is settled, and, in consequence of
the extraordinary achievements of the seven heroines,
all members of your party get the honour of the first
triumphers.
It is now half-past eight, and, an entr'acte for ten
minutes being proclaimed, all players assemble around
the fire-boxes to take a rest. Tea, cakes, and oranges
are served to all by the hostess and her maid-servants.
While men are smoking, ladies taking tea, and boys
and girls eating cakes, interesting criticisms are ex-
changed one another upon the merits and failures
done by the warriors and the heroines of each party,
laughters bursting here and there.
The time of repose passes soon, and another game
is begun. Thus the battles are repeated one after
another, the organisation of parties being renewed at
every game, and the players divided into four in some
case or into two or three larger parties in the other ;
a short entr'acte is given after every one hour as before.
If it becomes late and the hostess thinks that the
players are hungry now in consequence of their hard
movements, it is the habit in the meeting of card-
playing to provide them with the sushi (boiled rice
relished with salt and vinegar, and mixed with cooked
fish, eggs and vegetables, all chopped fine) and the
shiruko (food made of rice bread boiled in a thick
solution of sugared beans). When the meeting finish
and all players go home, the clock on the wall strike
two.
The meetings of card-playing are held in turn at
the houses of friends during January. Taking advan-
tage of these meetings, it is not rare that young men
and girls can often catch the opportunities to find out
their appropriate companions for life, and you are
often told of the happy couples who have got married
179
THE NIGHTSIDE OF JAPAN
after the attendance to card-playings in January
nights, of course by the consent of both their parents.
There are various other ways of playing the poem
cards and also we have another kind of the cards
called the Hana-awase (Cards of Flowers). The
latter consist of forty-eight pieces in all, no words
being written, but only the pictures of Flowers in four
seasons being drawn upon them. The European cards
commonly called the " Trump " by the Japanese are
in vogue too at present. The cards, however, to be
popularly played in the January nights are generally
limited to the ones above explained.
1 80
CHAPTER XVII
KAMEIDO NOTED FOR PLUM AND WISTARIA
FLOWERS
THE Japanese have the habit of admiring flowers
through all seasons, and those specially praised by
them above all others are plum, cherry, azalea,
wistaria, peony, iris, and chrysanthemum. The
plum is the first flower that can be admired by the
citizens after the New Year, and Kameido is the oldest
and most celebrated site for it, as well as for wistaria
in May.
In Kameido, which is situated to the north-east of
the city, there is a popular shrine of God Tenjin,
whose festival day is the twenty-fifth every month,
and the worshippers gather there to pray their happi-
ness. The plum gardens and wistaria trellises are set
up around the shrine, the latter over the pond within
its precinct.
Near the evening of the ennichi (festival day) in
February you try to visit Kameido. After visiting
the shrine first, you come to one of the most famous
plum gardens. It is enclosed with bamboo fences,
and its gate-door constructed with bamboo net-work.
Entering the gate, you find in the broad yard abund-
ance of old plum-trees, whose branches are all embossed
with neat white blossoms, and under these trees a
number of tables and chairs are furnished for the
repose of visitors. You take a chair, and a little girl
brings a cup of tea. The fragrance of the flowers,
181
THE NIGHTSIDE OF JAPAN
which waves through the atmosphere in the garden,
comes to attack your nose at times, and you feel that
your brain is cleared up. All the trees in the garden
being very old, they are bent in various strange forms,
and one of the oldest and largest trees is winding in
such a singular shape that its dark and mossy big
stem is creeping on the ground like a dragon, hence
the tree is entitled the Garyo-bai, or the Plum of
Sleeping Dragon.
Visitors to the plum garden are all refined ladies
and gentlemen, and the whole scene in the garden
is noble and quiet, in contrary to the bustle and
confusion at the place of cherry blossoms. When
it becomes dark, towards evening, the proprietor
of the garden lights a number of round paper
lanterns, which are prepared below the plum-trees,
and the white flowers, reflected with the rays of
these lanterns, appear much nicer than in daytime.
Among the plum-trees there is a small cottage
of the thatched roof in the style of a summer-
house ; it is lighted also with several painted paper
lanterns hanging under the roof. A group of
visitors is sitting around a large table : a bald old
gentleman with the long white beard and dressed
in the Japanese coat called the hifu is writing down
his newly-made poem regarding plum flowers upon
a poem-paper (tanzaku). On the opposite side of
the table to him a young daughter and three boys
are talking peacefully, fingering small branches of
a plum-tree ; they may, perhaps, be the grandsons
and granddaughter of the old man. On the table
you see a gourd and a small flat cup, the former
being used by him as a bottle filled with the
Japanese wine. He pours sake into the cup, empties
it, smacking the lips, and then meditates on a new
verse for the flower, thus being absorbed in the
pleasure of repeating the drinks and verse-making
by turns. The daughter, some seventeen years old,
clothed in the pure Japanese dresses, and with
182
KAMEIDO
the hair dressed in a form called the shimada-mage,
takes tea and cakes together with her brothers,
from eight to fifteen of age, all clad in the school
uniforms of the European style. When the even-
ing breeze blows petals of white flowers fall upon
the table, flying down like snowflakes from the
trees near the cottage. The lovely maiden picks
up a piece of the petals and smells it at her
nose; the boys scrape together all petals on the
table into their hands and make them up into
large round masses. While the old gentleman
is tasting cups of sake from the gourd-bottle, he
looks at the innocent conducts of the young fellows,
and is smiling cheerfully.
Other visitors in the yard come all in companies
too, each consisting of two or three at least.
Benches furnished under the trees are all occupied
by them ; a young couple together with two
children, an old lady accompanied by her son
and daughters, a group of young students in the
college's uniforms, and various bodies of plum
flower admirers, are taking tea, cakes, and pickled
prunes at their respective resting-positions. There
are a great number of guests who are wandering
about on the mossy lanes under the trees ; a young
gentleman points his stick to the " Sleeping Dragon,"
and is explaining for his friends ; a beautiful young
lady stops under a large tree in full blossom, and
appears to be enamoured with the pure fragrance
of the fresh flowers. Some are pleased by reading
the poems on many tanzaku (poem-papers) tied
to the branches of the plum - trees, these small
oblong papers being hung by the verse-makers
everywhere under the trees. People in the plum
garden do not stay till too late, but they all leave
it before nine or ten generally.
Kameido is also famous for the wistaria flowers
which open in May. Large trellises for the trees
THE NIGHTSIDE OF JAPAN
are built over a large pond which is situated by
one side of the shrine. Visitors for wistaria flowers
come generally in daytime, but those who appear
under the trellises after the dark are not few.
One evening in the middle of May, accompanied
by the two friends, you come to experience the
night scenery of the drooping purple flowers. Enter-
ing the large front gate of the Tenjin Shrine, and
turning to the left, you arrive near the pond, which
is quite large in size and oblong in form. Over
and around the pond the trellises of wistaria are
erected, and large bunches of the lilac flowers from
2 to 5 feet in length are hanging down from every
part of the trellises, all their beautiful shadows
being inversely reflected upon the surface of the
water in the pond. Along the edge of the water
and all round the pond a number of tea-houses
open their shops to receive the visitors. The floors
of these shops are built so as a part of them are
projected over the surface of the water. When
it approaches the night paper lanterns are lighted
in all rooms of these tea-houses, under the eaves
of their roofs near the pond and among the hang-
ing flowers below the trellises ; thus the whole
scenes on and around the pond become much more
beautiful than in daytime.
You select one of these tea-houses and take a
seat on the floor nearest the pond. Leaning against
the bamboo handrail, you look into the pond, and
are much pleased to find the brilliant surface of
the water, which reflects the rays of the lanterns
together with the bright shadows of the flowers.
The rooms of the tea-houses all along the pond
are occupied by the night visitors ; in one of the
tea-houses on the opposite bank children, accom-
panied by their parents, are very clamorous to throw
baits for red carps and see them struggling one
another to eat them, the fish, as well as various
kinds of freshwater fish, living abundantly in the
184
KAMEIDO
pond. In your next room, six young men in the
style of workmen, perhaps from some factory in the
adjacent suburb, are drinking sake and very noisily
talking and laughing with banters to waitresses of
the tea-house. In the tea-house to the right of yours
playing sound of the samisen can be heard, and
when you wonder whence the geisha come to such
a distant quarter, you are told by your friend that
a circle of singing-girls has been lately established
in the quarter of Kameido, and that there are
several new streets for these professional girls in
neighbourhood of the ground of the shrine.
After paying the tea-money and the price for cups
of beer, you leave the shop to go to the gay streets for
exploration. There is an arched bridge over the
narrow part of the pond ; it is popularly called the
Taiko-bashi (Drum Bridge), its surface being formed
in semi-circular shape. If you climb up to the top of
the bridge and look down over the tea-houses and the
wistaria trellises, all brilliant with electric lamps and
paper lanterns, you can be pleased to have an inde-
scribable fine view in the night of early summer. It
is a general habit that people who visit the shrine at
any season, and children in particular, are glad to try
to ascend the bridge. Coming out of the front gate
and advancing to the south, you arrive at a quarter
named the Ume-Kdji (Plum Lane), and then coming
round to the north of the rear gate of the shrine, the
quarter is called the Sakura-Kdji (Cherry Lane). The
oldest restaurant, proud of its good lineage, is the
Namadzu-cho in the Ume-koji, situated on one side of
the shrine of Myogi. The house is said to be con-
tinuing for two hundred years since the time of the
first foundation of the Tokugawa family in Yedo,
and very famous for its special and excellent cooking
of catfish and carp. On the next ground to the
Namadzu-cho a new large building is lately con-
structed for the restaurant Funarin, and another new
great restaurant in the quarter of the Cherry Lane is
185
THE NIGHTSIDE OF JAPAN
called the Kamekawa, which is noted for its refined
building. There are twenty-eight restaurants in all
at the district of Kameido, and those new enterprising
houses among them are Ikuine, Yoshino, Yoshidaya,
Horyu, Naniwatei, Kitagawa, Masukawa, Kinoene,
and Kamesei, including those above mentioned. Yet,
the old restaurant Hashimoto at Yanagishima, well
known among the citizens of Tokyo, stands aloof
from the circle of these houses, occupying a position
on the bank of the River Tenjin, and maintaining
the noble capacity of the shop since ancient times.
As to fae. geisha, there are more than twenty abodes
of them at present in the so-called Kameido Circle,
and the prominent houses among them are the
Katsunoya, Hayashiya, Takaraya, Suzumoto, Komat-
suya, Kamenoya, Chitoseya, Hananoya, and Kikyoya.
The geisha of Kameido are nicknamed the Kuzumochi
Bijin (Belle of Arrowroot Cake) by some facetious
fellows a special kind of cake which is made of
flour of the arrowroot (kuzu}, being the noted product
at the quarter of Kameido. The total number of
" Beauties of Arrowroot " are said to be over one
hundred in this newly-established kingdom. The
fee of a geisha is twenty-five sen per hour, and, in
addition to it, the gratuity of one yen should be given
to her on every occasion. Most of the girls here have
come from the Circles at the centre of the capital,
having removed from Asakusa, Ushigome, and
Akasaka ; but here you cannot yet find those super-
fine belles that you often meet at the Shimbashi or
Yanagibashi Circles. In this quarter it is strange that
you can find no waiting-houses (machiai\ which are
always concomitant to the geisha at any place. When
you make enquiry to a geisha about the reasons of
non-existence of them, her simple answer is that the
police does not permit to carry on the business of
machtai. The habitues for the restaurants and girls in
this quarter are young men of many companies
existing in vicinity of Kameido.
1 86
KAMEIDO
About twenty years ago, when the railroad was
laid across the moors of Musashi and Shimosa
provinces, the elevated railway was laid in the
Honjo Ward, and a station established at Kinshibori,
near Kameido. Since then the last half of the
Honjo Ward and the suburban district connected to
it made a wonderful development, the large factories
of various industrial companies having been suc-
cessively established in Taiheicho, Yokogawacho, and
the neighbouring plains. At a distance from the
front gate of the shrine Tenjin you can see a large
tall chimney of the Japan and China Cotton Spinning
Co. ; the dense black smokes always curling up into
the sky to the rear of the shrine are from the Oriental
Muslin Manufacturing Co. at Ukechimura. Beyond
the River Tenjin you can find a great number of
chimneys standing close like the masts of many
vessels anchoring in a harbour : they are those of
the Tokyo Hat Manufacturing Co., the Yamamoto
Iron Works, the Kameido Coke Co., the Japan and
China Dyeing Co., the Japan Acetic Acid Manu-
facturing Co., etc. If the men employed in these
various companies are made captives in the restaurants
of Kameido, you can easily understand how busy and
prosperous are the so-called arrowroot girls every
night.
Besides the new gay quarter lately established,
more than ten acres of rice-field near the rear ground
of the shrine were contributed to the shrine by chief
inhabitants in the district of Kameido. Their object
was to establish a new public pleasure-ground on the
space of land, just like Asakusa Park, and its reclama-
tion work having already finished, large and small
buildings for shows and various shops are constructed.
CHAPTER XVIII
CHERRY BLOSSOMS AT PARK UYENO
" IF you are asked what is the true spirit of the
Japanese, you would answer, ' Please look at the wild
cherries blooming under the morning sun.'" So
intimate is the connection between the soul of
Japan and the characteristics of cherries. When it
comes to spring, cherry blossoms open in one night,
and if there blows a vernal breeze, they fall off at
once. This manful and resolute characters of the
flowers resemble the quality of the Japanese. It is
not unreasonable that the Japanese admire the
cherries best among various kinds of flowers through-
out all seasons ; if you simply say hana (flower),
everybody understands it means the cherry only,
and nobody questions what flower you mean. Indeed,
the cherry is the national flower of Japan, just as the
rose is that of England.
The places in Tokyo noted for the cherry blossoms
are Mukojima, Arakawa, Uyeno, Asuka Hill, Edogawa
Bank, Park Kudan, Park Hikawa, and Park Shiba.
Among these Park Uyeno is the largest and most
popular recreation ground for the Tokyo citizens in
spring season. During a fortnight at the beginning of
April the whole space on the Uyeno Hill is crowded
with visitors for cherry blossoms from dawn until late
at night. At the front approach of the park there
are large stone steps, and, ascending them up, you
come on a broad plain, where the branches of cherries
in full bloom, tangling like a network, cover the sky.
1 88
CHERRY BLOSSOMS AT UYENO
At the centre of the plain, there stands a large
bronze statue of General Saigo, the great hero on
the Restoration of Meiji. It is erected on a high
stand of marble stone ; it is in the standing posture
in a simple Japanese clothes, accompanied by his
pet dog at the right side, and carrying a short sword
at his left waist. By the incandescent light, which
stands on the pole near the statue and shines high
above its head, you can clearly recognise its face,
which represents his strong character. Around the
iron fence for the monument there is arranged a
row of benches, on which people take their seats
and are admiring the flowers. Just behind the
monument, and about twenty yards distant, there is a
large restaurant named the Kagetsu Kadan. The
weather being warm this night, all the doors of
the rooms in the restaurant both up and down
stairs, are left open, and you can see the guests,
male and female, in every room, some at drinks and
some at dinner. On the opposite side to the
restaurant, and very near to the top of the stone
steps, you see a tea-house where ice-water and ice-
cream are already sold. Chairs inside are fully
occupied by the water-takers ; at the outside there
are prepared a number of large square benches
covered with red rugs, and here the groups of
visitors take waters or tea and cakes too. If you go
to the east corner of the tableland and look down,
standing by the fence along the brink, you can have
a good night view over the eastern half of the city.
All the streets and houses are brilliant with large
and small lights of electric and gas lamps, and in
the street, just below the hill, tramcars run, ringing
their bells. Far distant to the left high and low
roofs of the houses in the " Nightless City," or
Yoshiwara, can be seen within the brilliance of
the quarter, and far in front the gigantic roof of
the Asakusa temple and the five-story pagoda by
its side stand eminently above the sea of lights in
THE NIGHTSIDE OF JAPAN
Park Asakusa. The spot is always crowded with
onlookers night and day, as it is the best position
for having prospects over the city.
Now you leave the spot and advance farther to
the north under the sky of flowers everywhere lighted
with electric lights. To the left there is a red
painted temple called the Kiyomizudo, near which
an old big cherry-tree, famous by the name of the
Shushiki-zakura, is in full bloom. Descending down
a little slope at the north end of the tableland,
and turning to the left, you come to a broad road
in the park. The roadway is busy with carriages,
motor-cars and rikishas, and the pavement is full
of night visitors for flowers. Here and there on
the pavement benches are prepared, and all occupied
by men and women who are enjoying pastime in the
calm spring night.
Far below the pavement you can see a large
pond, Shinabazu, which is two miles in circumference.
In summer citizens gather round the pond to see
the lotus flowers, which are abundant in it. At the
centre of the pond there is a small detached land
which is connected with a stone bridge from the
mainland, and on this island the shrine of Benten,
Goddess of Beauty, stands. Females, specially geisha
and waitresses of restaurants, are used to visit the
shrine to make prayers for prosperity of their
business. At the left side of the entrance gate to
the shrine there is a restaurant, the rooms of which
are constructed stretching over the water of the
pond. The lights in the restaurant rooms being
reflected on the surface of water, the views of the
pond and the island are seen much nicer than in
daytime. Along the south bank of the pond many
stylish buildings of machias, or waiting-houses, are
standing in a long row, and the geisha who are
engaged to these houses, as well as to the restaur-
ants in vicinity, are the girls belonging to the so-
called Shitaya circle. The season of cherry blossoms
190
CHERRY BLOSSOMS AT UYENO
is said to be busiest for them throughout the
year.
If you go on the pavement a little farther to the
north, you come into the avenue of cherry-trees.
Near the avenue, and high above the flowers, you
find a large bronze image of Buddha settled on a
small hill, and on its front side a bell-tower stands
face to face, the bell being rung every hour night
and day ; behind the image and surrounded by
cherry-trees, there is the Seiyoken, one of the largest
European restaurants and hotels in Tokyo. You
enter the bar of the hotel and find it full of the
European and the Japanese gentlemen, all of them
holding two or three cherry flowers at the button-
hole of the coat ; they might be the remnants of the
garden party held in the yard of the restaurant in
this afternoon. In the billiard-room, next to the
bar, clashes of balls can be heard.
You leave the bar and come again to the avenue.
Admirers of night flowers are wandering here in
throngs. Under a large tree a company of men,
women, and children takes the seat on a large carpet,
and is glad to admire the bunches of flowers cluster-
ing on the branches of all trees. If you look the
far end of the avenue, clusters on the trees appear
like heaps of snow or pieces of white clouds. Here
and there various bodies of visitor are strolling
about hand in hand, the men being intoxicated with
sake. Girls and young wives in company with them
are very noisy with chattering and laughing, satisfied
with the picnic in the warm spring night. When
you are standing under a tree there come two young
fellows tottering by the effect of drinks ; one of
them carries a large branch of cheery-tree in full
bloom on his shoulder, and the other has a glass
bottle of sake at his right hand and a cup at the left.
Perhaps they have come to the park on their way
back from the flower picnic at the Asuka Hill. They
come near you, the one offers his cup to you and
191
THE NIGHTSIDE OF JAPAN
asks you in his indistinct pronunciation to taste a
a cup of his wine. You know that if you refuse the
offer the drunkards would become angry at once ;
so you gladly receive the cup from him without
hesitation, and, the sake being poured into it from
his glass bottle, drain it at an instant. The two are
very much satisfied by your clever treatment for them,
and begin to dance in funny figures, brandishing the
cherry branch and scattering about the flowers on it.
You applaud their queer dances, and depart here,
leaving them behind.
Now you come to another part of the park where
another wood of cherry-trees covers the whole space
of ground. Among the trees in abundance there
are two large old ones, whose branches are all
drooping down ; these are very famous by the name
of Shidare-zakura (Drooping Cherries). At one side
of the flower ground, and beyond a broad road passing
along the wood, there is the zoological garden. Its
gate is shut up, and the lamps on the stone pillars of
the gate are shining over the flowers on the opposite
side of the road. A large building next to the
zoological garden is the Tokyo Fine Arts School, and
the tall white three-story house to the north of the
school is the Imperial Library, the largest and most
perfectly arranged one among all libraries in the
town. Turning to the east the corner of the library,
you see a very large and magnificent red - brick
building, and its large black wooden gate in front of
the building shows the souvenir for the entrance
gate of the ancient feudal lord's mansion. It is the
Imperial Museum, established under the auspices of
the Imperial Household Department. The doors of
all these buildings the school, the library, and the*
museum are shut up now, and only their gate lamps
radiating their dreary lights over the ground. In
daytime this part of the park is most crowded with
visitors boys and girls play the prisoner's base on the
lawn under the flowers, and people who come out of
192
CHERRY BLOSSOMS AT UYENO
the zoological garden and the museum all assemble
once by the shade of the cherries here. As it is late
in night now, however, wandering folks are not so
numerous and hustling as in day ; yet you find several
groups of men and women strolling here and there,
or standing under the drooping trees. All these
fellows seem to be utterly absorbed in the beauty of
flowers, and to have forgotten to go home.
Now again you leave the spot of flowers and
march for the south through the dark, narrow foot-
path opened among the grove of cedar-trees. You
arrive at a long, straight stone pavement which leads
to the front gate of the shrine, Toshogu, dedicated to
lyeyasu, the first Shogun of the Tokugawa family.
Among the cedar grove to the right of the pavement,
and near the front gate, there stands a high five-
story pagoda, similar in form to the one by the side
of the Asakusa Temple. It is a striking spectacle
that two long rows of ishidoro (stone lamp-pillars) are
arranged along the both sides of the pavement. All
these stone lamps were dedicated by the feudal lords
in the age of the Tokugawa Government, and remain
as they were up to the present and forever. In and
around the fence of the shrine, there are a great
number of cherry-trees, too, all in full bloom ; and at
a distance from the shrine a large tea-house opens
its shop to receive the visitors in this quarter. The
rooms in the house are full of the guests ; the men
are already satiated with drinks, and the women tired
out by rambling about the flower places. They take
refreshment here and repose for a while before they
start for home, taking pleasure at the same time to
have a night view over the Shinobazu pond from
their rooms of the house.
Along one side of the tea-house you find another
stone steps, smaller than those at the front entrance of
the park, and get down the hill to the north bank of
the pond, just opposite to the bank side busy with the
prosperity of the waiting-houses. This side of the
193 N
THE NIGHTSIDE OF JAPAN
pond is lonely, but the cheery-trees along the bank
are most numerous on this part. Here some ice-water
stalls are visited by guests thirsty after drinks, or by
those tired and hot after the flower excursion for the
whole long spring day. Going on to the south under
flowers along the bank, you meet groups of night
haunters for flowers too, and at last come back near
the front entrance of the park, having made a round
through all the parts noted for the best views of
cherry blossoms.
The night scene of cherry flowers is rather quiet
in contrast to noises and bustles in daytime. The
funny and amusing features of the citizens taking
holidays cannot be seen unless you come to the
flower picnic on a fine day of the warm spring.
194
CHAPTER XIX
THE RIKISHA-UAK
ON your way home from Park Uyeno after you
experienced the night views of the cherry blossoms,
you hire a rikisha. The rikisha-maxi is a young and
strong fellow, and runs very fast. Observing his
physical constitution from his back, and judging by
his talk, he is not the pure labourer of the lowest
class ; his face and the skin on the limbs are not
sunburnt so quite brown as you always find in
common rikisfta-mcxi* His way of speaking is not
so base and rude as they are generally. When you
pass over the main street and come into a lonely
side road, you address him.
" I say, you are not a professional riskisha-ma.n, I
think," you ask him, " but you are compelled to take
this calling temporarily by a certain reason. Can
you tell me why you carry on such a work ? "
" Thank you very much, sir," answers the young
rMsfa-man. " To tell the truth, I am a student, but
so unfortunate to have to take such a hard work in
night." " A student ? " you say again. " I have
guessed so. Will you tell me your career after you
have taken this task ? There you see a buckwheat
shop ; let us go there. If you are kind enough to
satisfy my curiosity by telling your rikisha-maris life, I
shall gladly pay you the sum of money quite enough
to cover your fares expected to earn in this night."
The young man consents to your proposal, and
the two enter the buckwheat shop a small, dirty
195
THE NIGHTSIDE OF JAPAN
house, but very suitable for the guest in company
with a rikisha - man. You order a bottle of sake
and bowls of buckwheat. It is eleven now, and
the amateur rikisha - man begins to narrate his
experiences :
"Though the men of our profession are simply
called by a general name of rikiska-men, they can
be classified into several ranks according to the
ways and degrees of their living. There is an old
riktsha-man. who has to sustain his wife and children.
How hard it is for him to run through the streets
drawing his heavy cart night and day, with no care
for the storms in the cold winter and the strong
heat in the hot summer! In spite of such a painful
and restless labour, still he cannot earn money
sufficient for maintaining his family every day.
Another one is a strong young man ; he is a bachelor,
and lives in an inn of the lowest class. When he
gets money he drinks and gambles ; if he is beaten,
and everything he has, even his clothes, is taken,
he has the face to shut up himself in a dirty room
of his lodging. On the contrary a private rikisha-
man that is, the one in regular employ by a
gentleman is fortunate ; he lives in a house
appointed by his master, and receives a fixed
salary. There is no troubles for him to support
his family.
" I came to Tokyo at the beginning of the last
summer for the purpose of study, but my house
being poor, I had to earn myself the money necessary
for my expenses. At first I worked as a distributer
of newspapers, but my income was very scanty.
About the end of last year a brother and a sister
of mine came to Tokyo too, and we had to live
together in a house. We rented a small room in
a tenement house at a back street of Yokoami
Street of the Honjo district. After we removed there
we found that we were rather happy comparing to
neighbours, because the families living in the other
196
THE RIKISHA - MAN
rooms of the same tenement house consisted of
more than five or six persons, while our room is
occupied by only three.
" Now I must find any new calling by which I
could get much more income. In the third room
from ours there lives the family of a toy-maker, whose
second son is taking business of rikisha - man
in night and going to school in day. His name
was Kin - san (Mr Kin), and I became acquainted
with him a few days after my removal here. Being
told by him on the details of the life of rikisha-mtr\,
I resolved to be his comrade. He told me that
he could earn one yen per night, and I thought,
if it is true, I can live and study without troubling
my brother.
" One day in December I went to the house of a
head rzfciska-ma.n, accompanied by Kinsan, my new
friend ; and when I was introduced to the master
and told him my wishes to become ri&is&a-msui,
he kindly taught me the process for entry into
the rikisha - man circle. First, the uniform and
articles necessary for the calling must be prepared,
and they consisted of a cap, a livery, a shirt, a
trousers, a lantern, and a blanket. If these articles
should be newly bought, they would cost over ten
yen, but as I had not such a big sum, I was troubled
how to get them. Looking my face, the head rikisha-
man smiled and whispered to me, ' Never mind, my
boy ; it is quite enough if you can show these articles
on the occasion when you have to be inspected at the
police. I shall lend you good ones when you go
to the police, and afterwards you would better to buy
some old ones at a shop of second-hand articles.'
I was much moved and relieved by the kindness of
the master, but at the same time another anxiety
arose in my mind. It was for the examination at
the police. 'What kind of examination/ enquired
I to the headman, 'shall I have at the police?'
1 You will be examined whether you are able to be
197
THE NIGHTSIDE OF JAPAN
a good guide in the city, 1 replied the old fellow.
'But I don't know the particulars of Tokyo yet.'
'Then you are better to commit memory the
principal streets and places by the map of Tokyo.'
As soon as I came home, I opened a map and made
efforts to study it until late in the night.
" Next morning I went to the Honjo police-station
and made application for the registration of rikiska-
man-ship. Being summoned before a constable, I
was first enquired of my age and caste. Then he
made another enquiry about the reasons of becoming
the rikisha-mzn ; he advised me that a young man
as I am would not be good to fall into the lowest
class of labourers like rikisha -men, and added
that it would be better for me to find any other
business proper for a student. I thanked for his
kind advice, but told him that I could not find
any other work which can earn money necessary
for me at present. At last he consented to register
my name in the nkiska~msai list of the Honjo
circle, and then there followed the inspection on
the uniform and articles. I could easily pass it,
owing to the favour of the kind headman, and come
home much satisfied with the result of this morning.
"This afternoon, after paying back the uniform
to the head rzfciska-man, I went to a shop of old
sundry articles and could collect all things necessary
for my new profession. Approaching the evening,
I finished supper and first tried to put on the
rikisha - man's uniform. I was a novice of the
rikisha - men circle. How funny my appearance
was in this evening ; my head was half concealed
in an old military cap, perhaps once worn by a
brave soldier in the Russo-Japanese War, my body
wrapped in a narrow pieced coat of school uniform
over an old knit undershirt, the trousers being an
old black military duck, and the feet were covered
with the Japanese socks (tabi], over which I put on
straw sandals. When my sister gave me her old
198
THE RIKISHA - MAN
blanket, she said, "Are you going to be a rikisha-
man since this evening at last?" and her eyes
were full of tears. I put the blanket on my
shoulder, and took a small, long, paper lantern in
my right hand. Bidding farewell to her and my
brother, I left my home for the house of the rikisha
master.
" It was dark now. I called on Kinsan first, and
he went together with me. On the way he taught
me how to induce the guests to take rikisha^ told
that it was strictly prohibited to return on the
same road unless I was hired by a guest, and that
the lantern should be lighted in any case. He
remarked that, if I violated these police regulations,
I should be punished with a fine.
"Arriving at the master's house, Kinsan thanked
him for his kind assistance on the registration of
his friend at the police, and asked him to lend me
a rikisha cart. The master showed me a pretty
old cart, and said it would be most suitable for
the newcomer, as it was comparatively lighter than
others. By the kind leadership of Kinsan I oiled
its axle, and, after paying ten sen, the hire of the
cart for this night, I marched out for the battlefield
first for my life! When we, Kinsan and I, came
in a street just behind Asakusa Park, Kinsan tried
to challenge two young fellows passing by us :
' Hallo ! Will you take rikisha ? Only ten sen to
Yoshiwara ! ' One of the two turned back and said,
' Ten sen> too dear ! Eight sen each will do.' ' All
right,' echoed Kinsan. * Please get on the cart ; '
and, turning to me, he said, ' Take one on yours.'
By Kinsan's help I could capture the first guest
for my new profession. As soon as the two
debauchees got on the carts, we ran quickly to
carry them into the ' Nightless City.'
" * I say, rikzsha-man,' cried one on Kinsan's cart,
1 make haste ! If you pass other rikishas on
the way, I shall increase the fare by two sen for
199
THE NIGHTSIDE OF JAPAN
every rikisha ! ' 'All right/ replied my friend,
who began to run in his full speed, and I followed
him. The distance to Yoshiwara is short, and the
road even and straight ; yet, in spite of my training
of feet during the labour as the newspaper distributer,
it was very hard to run by drawing a cart, and the
sweat flowing down over the face and body, even
in the cold night of winter my shirt and coat got
wet through, as if I met with a sudden shower.
Before we arrived at the Great Gate (0-mon\ we
had passed six carts. Getting down from the carts
at the gate, one of the two praised us with satis-
faction upon his face : ' Thanks for your troubles !
As you are young, we could come very quick. Take
this ! ' and, giving two fifty -sen silvers to Kinsan,
the two hastened away into the gate. Kinsan gave
me one of the silvers, and said with a smile, 'What
a luck for us this night ! '
"At this moment two students happened to come
out of the gate, and Kinsan did not miss to catch
the birds. ' Gentlemen,' called he out, ' will you
take the cart? We are going back; please get on
to the tram.' ' How much to the main road ? '
asked one of the students. 'Only ten sen each,'
responded Kinsan. They did not hesitate to take
the carts, and again I ran, following Kinsan's cart.
Soon we came to the halting-place of the tramcar
near the entrance to the Asakusa Temple, and
received ten sen each. While I was searching for
another guest, mingled in many ri&tf&t-men, Kinsan
was quick to catch a new bird, and ran away for
somewhere.
" Suddenly I was called by a lady : ' Mr Rikisha-
man, will you take me to the street Imado ? ' ' All
right, thanks, madam,' replied I, a little perplexed
by the unexpected happy application. Much glad
to have got a guest independently by myself, I
ran with all my strength. 'Don't run so quick,
Kurumayasan (Mr Rikisha-mzxi)\' cried the lady.
200
THE B1KISHA - MAN
' I don't want to be in so great haste. It seems
to me that you are not trained well in your work
yet.' Certainly I was a new rt&ts&a - man, first
appeared this night. It is sure that she judged me
by my queer dress; and in addition to it, as she
was lighter than a man, I often jumped up while
running, and she had an insight into the rawness
of my art on drawing cart. After quarter an hour
I arrived at Imado, and was taught by her to turn
into a narrow sidestreet. When she got down at
the entrance of her house there appeared a young
girl of some eighteen and received her. The lady
gave me thirty sen, and very kindly told me to
take a rest for a while. I thanked her, but soon
left the house for further work.
"When I came near a large beef shop in the
street, I found two empty rikishas and rifcis&a~mcn
repeatedly bowing before a policeman. Afterwards
I was told by them that they had been pressing
upon passers-by to take rikiska, and being discovered
by the policeman, punished with the fine of thirty
sen each. A fine of thirty sen! A great part of
the sum earned by their hard work in this night
was thus forfeited. How foolish and poor fellows
they were !
" Near a cross-road I was waiting for another guest,
but could catch none till half -past ten. I felt
extreme cold, and my hands and feet were gradually
to be benumbed. I went into a mochiya (a lowest
class shop of rice-bread and other eatables) to take
something and warm my body. The shop was
thronged with f?&fcz-men, the habitue of every night,
and I did not expect to find Kinsan among them.
When he saw me he came to me and asked : * My
brother, how it was with you ? ' ' After I parted
from you,' answered I, 'I got thirty sen only.'
1 Same for me, either,' said he, ' but we are rather
lucky this night. There is a man who got thirty
sen only and was fined twice.'
20 1
THE NIGHTSIDE OF JAPAN
"Young and old rikiska-mzn sat around a dirty
large square table, and were talking noisily while
they ate mochi and drank tea. All their dresses
were old and filthy, far worse than mine. Some
twisted ragged blankets round their neck, and some
carried half -broken paper lanterns by their side.
An old man complained that, though he worked
hard till very late every night, he could not come
home with the money sufficient for supporting his
family, for he must pay the hire for the cart, the
price for candles of the lantern, and the cost of
luncheons ; and, moreover, sometimes fines were
squeezed in consequence of his unintentional viola-
tion of the police regulations. Listening to these
shabby orators, and much interested with various
topics entirely strange to me, I took two trays of
mochi, and after paying ten sen, I left the shop to
expose my body again into the chill air of the
midnight.
" I held up the frozen shaft of the cart, and at the
moment about to turn a corner a gentleman in
cloak appeared before me, and said : * Kurumaya
(rikisha-mzn\ take me to the bluff of Hongo. How
much do you want ? ' ' What part of the bluff, sir ? '
asked I. 'Very near to the Imperial University,'
replied he. ' It is very late now, sir,' said I again.
1 1 ask you to pay fifty sen! ' Forty sen will do ! '
commanded he. At last I agreed to go by forty
sen> and ran with a heavy burden on the cart,
encouraging my legs, already tired out by the un-
accustomed hard work since the evening. It took
a quarter to go up the ascent of Kiridoshi, and
when I came near the front gate of the University
I enquired the guest : ' Here is the University, sir ;
where is your house?' There was no answer from
him he fell into sleep on the cart. After a few
moments, awakened by my voice, he cried, 'Go
straight on farther ! ' I was compelled to run on
again, and, coming at a corner about quarter a mile
202
THE RIKISHA - MAN
distant from the University gate, he cried again,
* Turn the corner ! ' At last I could arrive at his
house; he paid forty sen sharp, and disappeared
into his house.
" The bell on the clock-tower of the First Higher
Middle School struck one. I shivered by cold and
hastened to go home. Sweat, which had been
streaming over my whole body, began to freeze
now, and I felt pains at every part of the body.
I put on the blanket over the head and walked
quickly, warming the hands by holding them over
the light of lantern. The severe cold bit me more
and more ; stars were gazing upon me with their
piercing eyes high above the sky, and the roofs of
the houses on both sides of the street were covered
with the glazed frost.
"It was a quarter past two when I threw my half-
frozen body into my house. My sister was not yet
in bed, but awaiting my return, and doing some work.
She caught the sound of my footsteps, and soon
brought me a tub of hot water to wash my feet.
' Why were you so late ? ' asked she. ' I expected
you would come back by twelve.' There were tears
in her eyes when she spoke and saw me. I said
nothing, and, after washed the feet, I came into the
room and changed the clothes. My legs were
swollen up, so that I could not sit down on my
knees, and was compelled to lie down upon the
mat. My sister was anxious about my health, and
enquired very kindly ; my brother, who was sleep-
ing in bed, woke, and feared whether I was ill.
' Never mind, my dear brother and sister,' said I ;
1 it was the first night for me, and I worked a little
too hard this night, but after to-morrow I shall be
more careful.' I gave her my purse, in which the
money earned first by my new calling was contained.
"While I was lying in bed I thought how happy
I was to have such a kind brother and a merciful
sister at my home. Most of my fellows have no
203
THE NIGHTSIDE OF JAPAN
home, and spend up all their little money, which
they could get by their hardest labour, in drinking
and gambling.
" Next morning I got up at nine and felt so heavy
pains all over my body and limbs that I could hardly
move. After breakfast I went to the bath, and on
the way back called on Kinsan."
204
CHAPTER XX
KYOTO
You are now in a first-class car of the express train
in a night of spring to visit Kyoto, leaving the
Shimbashi Station at 9 P.M. In your car there are
twelve passengers four ladies and eight gentle-
men. About the time when the train passed out
the seven tunnels of Mount Hakone all of the
passengers fall into sleep, some leaning against the
benches and others lying down upon them, all
covering their bodies with blankets. You do not
feel sleepy yet, and, after ordering a train boy to
bring a cup of coffee, begin to talk with him.
" Thank you, boy," say you, when he has brought
the cup of hot coffee and you give him a tip of two
fifty-sen silvers ; " it is now past midnight, and all
passengers have fallen in sleep. It is a bad habit
for me that I cannot sleep in a train at any occasion,
and so I have to pass the night awaking always.
If you have no special business at this dead of
night, will you tell me some interesting news in
relation to your life as the train boy?"
"Thank you very much, gentleman," replies he,
bowing for your affluent gift ; " all passengers being
in sleep now, I have no business at present till
near dawn, and, if you like to hear something from
me, I shall be glad to tell anything I know. I fear,
however, my story cannot please you, but, anyhow,
205
THE NIGHTSIDE OF JAPAN
I shall try to kill time for you." He takes a vacant
seat on your opposite side and begins to speak :
"Please look at these," says the boy, taking two
or three small toys out of his pocket ; " I got
these toys from a merchant in the train. Among
the third - class passengers in a train there are
several kinds of merchants, who enter the train as
common passengers but sell their articles to the
other passengers when the train left the station and
began to run ; indeed they are running a risk for
carrying on their business in spite of the strict
prohibition by order. The merchandises commonly
sold by these train smugglers are toys, picture
cards, magazines, and pamphlets, air-cushions, etc.
To show you how skilful they are to tempt the
passengers to purchase their goods, I shall try to
mimic the explanation done by a merchant of
picture cards.
" Suppose a train is now in the midst of its
running, and in a third-class car crammed up with
passengers a man suddenly stands up from his
seat at one corner of the room, and, holding high
up a set of picture cards between his right fingers,
begins to deliver a speech : ' Ladies and gentlemen,
I beg you to lend me your ears for a few minutes.
These are excellent picture postcards showing the
fine views of famous places along the highroad of
Tokaido from Tokyo to Kyoto. One set consists
of fifty-three cards, corresponding to the fifty-three
relay-stations on the highway in the feudal age, and
all pictures are printed in colours. If you go to a
shop in Tokyo and buy the picture cards equal to
these I have here, you must pay fifty sen per set at
least, but to-day I propose an extreme low price for
mine, by which you would be certainly surprised.
These pictures are the best things to please your
sons and daughters, or most suitable for the presents
to your neighbours as the souvenir of your visit to
Tokyo. One set costs ten sen, only ten sen ! '
206
KYOTO
"Among the passengers in the car there are
country folks on their way back to their native
provinces, and, deceived by the flatteries and the
cheap price, many of them open the mouth of their
purses and pour their ten-sen silvers into the hand
of the smuggler. If you take these picture cards
into your hand and look at them well, you will find
that they are made of very bad paper and very
rough print, yet the innocent rustics are glad to
have unexpectedly got a very good gift for their
family or friends by a small money of only ten sen.
Other kinds of the train smugglers carry on their
business in a similar way as done by the merchant
of picture postcards.
"If the train approaches the next station, he
stops his chattering and sits down silent on his
seat, like a common passenger. When the train
stops at the station he jumps out of his car and
enters another car. The train begins its motion
again ; then he renews his oration in the new room.
Thus he pursues his business through all cars of the
train. Sir, the train smugglers are so wise that their
haunts are limited to the third-class cars only, and
they never visit the first and second classes.
"Now I shall speak something about the train
boys. Outsiders think that our life is simple and
easy, but, on the contrary, we are in a weak and
pitiful position with the passengers ; we are strictly
ordered that, even if we are beaten by them, we
must not strike back against them, and that, though
they urge us any unreasonable matters, we must
obey them with no complaints ; in a word, our
business is not manly. Some passengers are dis-
pleased even if any of us happens to take a seat
here for a few moments.
" Our salary is only ten yen one month, but we
have such a self-confidence in our duty that we
take the whole charge of the Imperial Japanese
Railways. Don't laugh, sir; please listen to my
207
THE NIGHTSIDE OF JAPAN
reason. The reputation of the railways solely
depends upon the train boys, because if it becomes
bad, the cause is always ascribed to the bad treat-
ment of passengers by the boys, while there are
no faults in the train itself. Our ages are limited
from eighteen to twenty-one, and when we come
beyond the limit we are appointed conductors. If
we can speak English we are treated well, and have
more chances to get good tips than those who
cannot understand it. In the examinations for
appointment of boys, we are inspected on our
appearance, besides those on our attainments. Don't
joke me, sir ; I am not a handsome boy !
" The physical strength is an essential most
important for the train boys. If there happens to
appear a drunkard or a riotous fellow in a train, it
is our duty to arrest him. If we were small and
feeble, we should be thrown down by him. (At
this moment he pricks up the ears.) Ha! Uptrain
comes ; wait a bit, please. (He goes out of the
car, and, after waving his cap against the uptrain
which passes by your train, comes again.) As you
see, when up and down trains pass by each other
on the way, the boys in the both trains are used
to wave their caps or handkerchiefs for each other's
health. The total number of the train boys for the
Tokaido line are one hundred and twenty, one half
of which lives in Tokyo and the other in Kobe.
" Danger for train boys ? Yes, there are dangers for
us, indeed. Lately, when a boy was to turn a switch
of the electric lights at the outside of the room, the
train happened to come upon a curve line, and he was
suddenly thrown out of it. While he was lying dis-
mayed on the railroad for some minutes, he heard
the whistles of an uptrain. Being greatly surprised
and flurried, he ran up into the uptrain's line itself by
mistake, and was crushed to pieces.
" In night trains specially we often meet the train
suicides, and above the rest the shingii (suicide of
208
KYOTO
lovers together) is most cruel. The drenching rain
is falling and the train running in its full speed
through the darkness; passengers in all cars are in
sound sleep just as in this night. Suddenly an alarm
of successive whistles breaks the silence, and we cannot
help to shudder at this moment. When the alarm
has ceased and the train stopped, the two corpses of
young man and woman who died the pitiful death are
seen lying on the rail in some distance from each
other. It is strange that the places of suicide are
limited to certain points through the whole line, and
hence some superstitious people believe that the spirit
of the dead invites the others to die at the same place
where he killed himself.
" As to the tips, formerly we were not permitted to
receive anything from passengers, but nobody, who
once proposed to give something to a person, likes to
withdraw it if it is refused by him. Once there was
such a quick-tempered passenger who, being refused
by a boy to receive a tip, was very angry, and, at last,
having thrown it away out of the window, gave a blow
upon the boy's head. But lately we were ordered not
to decline the favour of passengers. Men are generally
liberal, but women taken by our comrades to be frugal.
We often experience that when a gentleman tells his
wife to give one yen to a boy, she protests, ' No, my
dear, fifty sen will do; that's quite enough,' and the
consequence is the boy's loss of half a yen.
"As we wait upon the passengers of all ranks
every night and day, we can judge the character of
each person at one glance. Some kind gentlemen
sympathised with me, and, giving their addresses,
advised me to call on them on holidays. They told
me that, if I wish to take any other business, they
will be kind enough to recommend me to some
proper positions. I regret that, however, I have been
accustomed to the bad habit of the train-boy's life ; at
present it is very difficult for me to take a regular work
in the fixed hours, so irregular and wild is our life."
209 O
THE NIGHTSIDE OF JAPAN
At this time the chief waiter comes near the door
of the room and calls the boy who is talking with
you. The two go away into another car and dis-
appear.
Early on the next morning the train arrives at the
Kyoto station, and, getting down from the car, you
hire a rikisha, which runs for your hotel at Shi jo
Street. In this evening you are invited by your in-
timate friends at the city to Gion, the place famous
for cherry-flowers and beautiful geiko (singing-girls,
equal to geisha in Tokyo. Small dancing-girls, that
are named the Oshaku in Tokyo, are called the maiko
literally, dancing-girls in Kyoto). Thus you have
got a chance to try a night view of cherry blossoms
in the west capital. (Kyoto is sometimes called
Saikyo, which means the West City, in contrast to
Tokyo, the East City.)
In Tokyo you can find various places good for
reviewing the cherry flowers ; even the bluff quarters
of the city are so abundant in the trees that you can
sufficiently take the pleasure of admiring the flowers
in the private gardens of nobles and gentlemen living
in these localities. But in Kyoto, evergreen trees
are common for the garden plants, cherry-trees being
very rare to be found in the court-yards. Conse-
quently, the citizens of Kyoto have to visit parks or
outskirts in order to have the views of the spring
flowers, and a queer habit of carrying the lacquered
picnic-boxes, filled with sweets and dishes, together
with them has become common among the Kyoto
flower visitors.
In Tokyo, it is generally windy in the season of
cherry flowers, but in the ever-peaceful city of Kyoto,
it is very calm every day. Indeed Kyoto, the old
capital of Japan, is the world of dreams ; the blue
transparent sky over the city is bright with rays of
the spring sun, and a mild breeze disturbing the calm
atmosphere a little is so weak that it cannot flutter
even the light red skirt of a lovely damsel passing on
210
KYOTO
the street. Sometimes the sky is covered with white
clouds, but it is rare to have rainy days during the
spring. In the flower season, citizens are busy for
preparation of flower picnics every day, and go out
of their gloomy houses shut with the lattice doors for
the flower quarters in the suburbs to the east and the
west.
The cherry flowers in Kyoto are generally of single
petals and hang on the branches very calmly, like
those of double petals blooming in the later spring at
Tokyo. If you compare the flowers in Tokyo and
Kyoto, you can distinguish the characters of the
citizens in the two cities : those of Tokyo are
gorgeous, spirited, and fall off quickly by the wind,
but, on the contrary, those of Kyoto are thickly beauti-
ful and weak in giving impression into your brain.
By viewing the cherries of such a thick and dull
colour, however, you would reflect upon the old age
of Kyoto, when the court nobles and ladies used to
visit the places of flowers in their vehicles drawn by
servants or oxen. The sites of flowers noted in Kyoto
are Arashiyama (Mount Arashi), Omuro and Hirano ;
and Gion is celebrated for its night scenery.
The honour of the night flowers of Gion is
monopolised by only one large old cherry-tree, which
stands aloft like the king of all cherry-trees, though
there are a great number of smaller trees in the
vicinity, and thousands of its drooping branches
hang down heavily almost to the ground. At the
time when it blooms, the girls' dance, noted by the
name of the Miyako-odori, is opened in a hall specially
established for the performance, and the streets of
Gion around the King of Cherries are the den of
Geiko and Maiko (singing- and dancing-girls). You
are told that it is the big, drooping cherry that opens
its flowers first of all among the trees in all parts of
the city.
Towards the evening the shops in the streets of
Sanjo and Shijo are already lighted and the weather
211
THE NIGHTSIDE OF JAPAN
is quite calm, so that even a spring breeze cannot be
felt. Accompanied by your friends you pass over a
long bridge, which is thrown across the River Kamo,
and then coming into the quarter of Gion, ramble on
towards the centre of flowers. All men and women
who assemble to see the night flowers are slow in
their steps, and the citizens of Kyoto being in the
habit of going to bed early in night, the circumference
of the large drooping cherry is already quite full of
throngs of people at this hour of early evening.
The King of Cherries is now in its full bloom,
whose innumerable white, small flowers hang on
the thousands of long drooping branches, and a
large bonfire burning on one side of the tree
brightens the trunk of the tree, flowers on the
branches, and the faces of visitors, all at once as
in daytime, while a high gas-lamp, standing in a
short distance from the bonfire, is emitting its pale
light faintly over the smaller cherries at a corner
of the ground. The ground, on which all cherry-
trees as well as the shrine Gion are contained, is
appointed a park of the city, and in this broad
space you find rows of large benches covered with
red carpets ; among these benches there stand
hundreds of beautiful paper lanterns painted in
colours. On these benches a multitude of the
flower-seers take their seats, some drinking and
some singing, and the dishes and sweets filled in
the picnic - boxes brought on their shoulders are
opened on the benches here.
While you are looking at the old tree which
monopolises the fame of the night flowers of Gion,
you would recollect the vernal season in the old
time when the ronin or vagrant samurai concentrated
from all local daimiates into Kyoto, the residence
of the Emperor at the time of the Great Restora-
tion (1867 A.D.); but at present in place of the
long red-sheathed swords worn by the samurai^ the
songs and poems sung by them indignant at the
212
KYOTO
corrupt condition of the country, or the wine bottles
tumbled like the heads of enemies under the cherry-
tree in that bloody period, there you see charming
girls walking jauntily together with their patrons
under the flowers shining with the burning fire.
Leaving the spot under the old tree, you come
to a street called the Hanami-koji, where the hall
of the Miyako-odori dance is flourishing with its
night performance. The front of the hall is fully
decorated with beautiful red, round lanterns, and,
entering the hall, you notice a broad stage in full
decorations with artificial flowers of all seasons
and with thousands of large and small electric
lights. In a few minutes there appears on the
stage a body of the so-called Kyoto -styled belles
in full dress, amounting to thirty in their number,
and they sing and dance in accompaniment of the
pure Japanese music.
Next evening you get an opportunity to visit
Mount Arashi which hold the world-wide fame
for the views of cherry flowers. About seven miles
to the west skirt of the city there is a village
called Saga, a place famous for_ abundance of flowers,
too, and beyond the River Oi, which flows along
the end of the village, you can look the round
shapely top of Arashiyama. Across the blue,
transparent stream of the river there is thrown a
bridge, Togetsu-kyo, which is of a very elegant
form, built of logs and boards in the pure Japanese
style. If you stand on the bridge and look at
the hill, you can command its whole view of white
or light pink flowers mingled among pine-trees
and greens_covering the whole area of the mount.
The River Oi is broad, and the bridge Togetsu long ;
the footpaths along the vales are covered with
tender moss. You pass over the bridge and when
you step on the rocky lane along the bank towards
the temple Daihikaku, petal flakes of the cherries
fall fluttering over your head and shoulders.
213
THE NIGHTSIDE OF JAPAN
On the opposite bank to the mount, you see
the twinkling lights in the rooms of three connected
two-storied buildings ; they are the restaurant hotels,
and noted by the popular name of the Sangenya,
which means "Three Houses." The buildings are
of the pure Japanese style, in harmony with the
rural scenery of Arashiyama and environs. The
Europeans who come to Kyoto as sightseers in
spring are fond of the views of the mount, and
are used to stay two or three days jn these hotels.
The upper waters of the River Oi is the River
Hodzu, famous for the adventurous sport of running
down the rapids in a small boat by the skilful
management of expert boatsmen ; if you visit the
river at the beginning of summer, you would find
the rocks in the water ornamented beautifully with
the azaleas of blazing red.
Going up and down the hill, you ramble in the
woods of cherries and evergreens for some hours
under the moonlight of spring, and passing over
the Togetsu Bridge back again to the opposite
bank, enter one of the "Three Houses" to take
a refreshment.
Your business at Kyoto has compelled you to
stay for several months, and now the scene of
spring has changed to that of summer. The
peculiarity of the old capital in the summer
evening is a custom of cool-taking on the beach
of the Kamo River. In old times benches were
arranged on the shallows, and citizens who came
to cool themselves off took their seats on them,
and, hanging down their legs to the stream so
as to have their feet washed by the cold water,
were to look round and enjoy the beautiful lights
in the restaurants and tea-houses standing in rows
on the banks. But, at present, the water of the
river having increased, the beaches have been
narrowed, and the open floors stretched out of the
214
KYOTO
tea-houses on the both banks have taken the
place of benches on the shallows ; and the cool-
takers on these floors drink the iced beer instead
of tea or sake. When it becomes late in night,
the lights in the hotels and restaurants on the
hillside of Higashiyama which protects the east
side of Gion streets can be faintly seen in a far
distance, and the shadows of willow-trees which
are planted along the bank of the river become
darker and darker when the lantern lights on the
stretched-out floors are gradually lessened. Sound
of drums and samisen which reaches the open floors
drifting out of the rooms of tea-houses is now
replaced by the noise of the running stream.
There are groups of people who are taking cool
under the bridge of Shijo, and they are proud of
occupying the position which is believed by them
to be coolest among all spots along the river.
The more you go to the upper stream of the
Kamo River the cooler places you will find ; at
Sambongi, the river becomes narrow and the water
is near, the low and wide banks covered with the
green grasses, a small wooden bridge about to be
stroked by the stream, the flowering weeds washed
by the water, fireflies flying about after touching
the surface of the river, and the sound of koto (a
kind of harp) played by a lady under the Gifu
paper lanterns on the balcony of a lofty house,
are all the good elements to bestow the feeling
of coolness. Going on farther, the houses are
rarer, and the greens become denser near the wood
Tadasu-no-mori ; over the shallow on which short
grasses are grown, small white flows are running
across one another, forming a network.
Advancing farther to north and going up the road
to Ohara, you arrive at the Upper Kamo, where the
white sand is finer and the small stream is cleaner.
If you approach the waterfall Kiyotaki under the
hill Atago, you feel that the spot is coolest ; here
2I 5
THE NIGHTSIDE OF JAPAN
the valley is narrow, and the sun appears late and
sets early. Ascending the hill along the bank, you
come to the temple Tsukinowa on the peak, and
descending along the water again, the path is cut
off by a stream, which falls into the River Hodzu
at the long run. If you stay in an inn near the river
at about the middle of August, and lie down upon
the bed, leaving all the windows of the room open,
you would be pleased to see big fireflies around
the mosquito-net driven in by a cool breeze. Near
the midnight, you are awaked from sleep by the
songs at the gate of the inn, and looking out of
a window you see five or seven young men and
women dancing in a ring by the side of dimly-
lighted paper lanterns ; you understand that they
are in performance of a Bon festival dance. (The
Bon is the festival of the dead, celebrated for three
days in the midst of every summer).
One evening you go to try the pleasure on the open
floor of a tea-house in the street Kiyamachi, along the
west bank of the River Kamo.
When you come out of the bathroom, after washing
away the sweat of the day and putting on a yukata
(bathing gown) made of a checkered white cloth, a
young, nice waitress is waiting for you near the door
of the bathroom.
"Arrangements are done already, sir," says she,
when she see you coming out ; " please go to the floor
directly."
" Thank you," say you, " and please bring a glass
of iced beer."
"Yes, sir, I shall be soon to the floor with it,"
replies the girl.
Wiping your face with the wet towel in your hand,
you come on the floor stretched out of the main
building over the beach of the river. The setting
sun, which was shining with its blazing red, have
already sunk behind the west mountain, and the
twilight of the summer evening governs all the space
216
KYOTO
from the river up to the top of the hill Higashiyama
far distant to the east. In the girls' quarter of the
street Miyagawacho on the opposite bank, faint lights
in restaurants and tea-houses are glistening like stars,
and the figures of a number of girls in summer gowns
can be seen near the railings of these houses. The
heat which was hold in the gravel of the beach having
gone out now, a cool, gentle breeze begins to stroke
your face.
With the feeling of happiness and refreshment
which stirs up your mind, you take the seat near
the table placed at the centre of the floor, and
your feet and legs are comfortably cooled, by
sitting down on a large hemp cushion put on the mat
spread over the floor. The two silk lanterns on
the stands and the Gifu lanterns hanging down
from the cross - pieces of the floor throws their
beautiful rays upon the dishes of ear-shells, salad,
and pickled fish ; the incense burning in the tobacco-
tray gently floats its fragrance in the moist air of
the night.
After a few minutes the waitress, dressed in the
white summer clothes, comes into the floor, holding a
bottle of beer in one hand and a glass pot full of ice
pieces in the other.
" I am very sorry, sir," says she, sitting down on
your opposite side of the table ; " I've kept you
waiting so long." She gives you the glass, into which
she pours the beer out of the bottle and then puts in
pieces of ice. On the floors next to yours on the
both sides, and the third, the fourth, the fifth and so
on, all those stretched out of every tea-house or
restaurant, the number of the paper or silk lanterns
are gradually increased ; men and women in white
summer dresses can be seen on the floors here and
there through the neat reed-blinds. Noises of the
currents become louder gradually, and the singing
insects in the green bushes growing near the beach
can be heard as if to welcome the cool night.
217
THE NTGHTSIDE OF JAPAN
" Gentleman, please buy the tsujiura \ " l sounded
an affecting voice of a little girl from under the floor,
and at the same moment there appeared above the
railing a bamboo pole, at the top of which a bundle
of the tshjiura and a small money-bag are tied up.
" No need, here," replies the waitress, standing up
and approaching the railing. " Don't come so often
every evening." Looking over the railing unper-
ceivedly, you find a little girl of some ten or eleven,
standing in a ford, and holding up the long pole.
" Be merciful to me and be kind enough to take one,"
beseeches the girl again. " But the gentleman doesn't
want it," retorts the maid in her easy tone. " Wait
a bit nehsan (waitress)," interpose you, " take some of
her tsujiura^ and let her have some money." The
waitress takes' a sum out of her purse and puts it into
the money-bag on the pole ; then taking three or four
pieces of the luck papers, she comes back to the table.
" This piece is for your luck," says she, giving you one
of the tsujiura whose edges are nicely coloured with
red or blue ink, " and the others I beg to be distri-
buted among us."
Opening your piece, you read a clause informing
that your luck is very good. " I envy you," says the
waitress, laughing, "you must be very fortunate this
evening, sir. Wouldn't you call geiko-han or maiko-
han ? " (singing- or dancing-girls ; han is an honorific
used by the Kyoto people). "Well," replies you
undecidedly, "you may telephone for some girls."
Reading assent on my face, she leaves the floor
and retires into the main building.
In less than half an hour, there come in on the floor
one young singing- and two small dancing-girls, and
sitting down and bowing very politely near the
entrance, they express their gratitude for your kind
engagement simultaneously ! "Thank you, gentlemen."
1 Tsujiura is a small piece of paper with a clause or a poem printed
on it, and people take it for pleasure to divine their luck by the^clause
or poem.
218
KYOTO
Glittering of the stars scattered throughout the sky
are now enfeebled by the silvery light of the full
moon which has risen above the hill Higashiyama.
The rows of the roofs on the opposite bank can
be distinctly seen now by the pale light of the moon.
On the two currents branched off on the beach of
the river, the ripples shining like scales by the moon-
light are rapidly running and the sound of music,
and the voice of singing in a restaurant at a far
distance faintly reach your ears, being sent by the
night breeze.
" How cool it is here ! " says one of the dancing-
girls, clad in her gay gauze dress and leaning against
the railing of the floor. " We were engaged to the
Kametsuruhan (name of a tea-house) just now. It
was very hot in that house, and when we did a dance,
our backs were entirely wet with sweat."
"It was hot, certainly," says the other dancing-girl,
who sits down by your side, and is fanning her
breast with her small red and golden fan. " So we
were very glad when we were told that we have been
engaged to this house."
When you ask them whether they want any cold
beverages, one of them replies : " Thank you, sir ;
please let me have a glass of iced kintoki " (boiled red
beans mixed with sugar water, very popular among
the girls in Kyoto and Osaka). "Then I prefer
ice-cream," says the other.
At this moment the girl who was near the railing
and looking down at the river suddenly cried out:
" Look here, floated again by somebody ! " You
and the two girls look towards the direction pointed
by her, and there find the two small lights drifting
down on the water from the upper stream pursuing
each other. Coming nearer, you see that the two
small candles are lighted in the peels of water-
melons which are hollowed out and made lanterns in
the hemispherical form, perhaps by dancing-girls or
waitresses in a tea-house. The melon-lanterns are
219
THE NIGHTSIDE OF JAPAN
often about to be overthrown by the rapids, and the
young dancing-girls, who are anxious of the fate of
the lights, cry out, clapping their hands: " O, dangerous,
dangerous ! "
The pretty melon lights floating down quickly on
the stream, the two dancing-girls earnestly looking
at them near the railing of the floor, cool night
breezes coming from the river, and the full moon in
the sky high above Mount Higashi throwing her
silvery light upon everything all these are the
beauties characteristic to Kyoto in the summer night.
220
CHAPTER XXI
OSAKA
IN the age of the Tokugawa Shogunate, Yedo
(Tokyo), Kyoto and Osaka were called by a
generalised name of " Sanga no Tsu," which means
the " Three Cities," Yedo, the seat of the Shogun ;
Kyoto, the residence of the Emperor, and Osaka (or
Naniwa), the centre of commerce. So is Osaka at
present the focus for trade and commerce of Japan,
the large wholesale merchants of all kinds of
merchandises being concentrated in the city.
About the middle of July, while you are staying
in Kyoto, you get a chance to visit Osaka. In July
there are held several summer festivals by the
citizens of Osaka : the Ikutama Shrine on 8th and
9th, the Namba Shrine on I2th and I3th, the
Hachiman Shrine on I4th and 1 5th, the Goryo Shrine
on 1 6th and I7th, the Kodzu Shrine on I7th and
1 8th, the Inari Shrine on 2Oth and 2ist, the Zama
Shrine on 2ist and 22nd, the Tenjin Shrine on
24th and 25th, and the last one for Sumiyoshi Shrine
on 3 ist and 1st August. On the festival days of
each tutelary god, all the shops of merchants are
cleaned by sweeping and wiping, the curtains marked
with the crest of each house are stretched in the
front, the gold and silver screens are arranged along
the walls of the front room, the fine carpets are
spread on the matting floor, and the clerks and the
221
THE NIGHTSIDE OF JAPAN
boys are playing chess or checkers to enjoy the
pleasant and peaceful temporary holidays.
Towards the evening long paper lanterns are
lighted in front of each shop ; they hang on the
poles projected from the eaves, the poles being of
the mother-of-pearl lacquer work and ornamented
with the silver fittings ; there is attached a tuft of
snow-white feathers at the end of a pole and a bell
at the bottom of a lantern. When it becomes dark,
the little sons and daughters of the merchants in
full dress go to the shrine for prayer, guided by
the servants who carry the paper lanterns in their
hands.
Among these festivals of several deities, that of
the shrine Tenjin is most splendid. It is the festival
of fire : hundreds of boats, in each of which a blazing
bonfire is burnt, row down the course of the main
rivers in the city, brilliantly shining the dark banks
on the both sides, and at the middle of these fire-
boats, a Mikoshi (a carriable shrine), a sacred vehicle,
Shinto priests, witches, and musicians on board the
larger boats march guarded by the other boats. By
the dawn of the next morning the god is to arrive
at the resting-place at Matsushima, passing through
under a great number of the bridges which are
thrown across the rivers. In this evening the both
banks of the rivers, on which the fire-boats float
down, are thronged with spectators who assemble
from every part of the city to see the fire-boats as
well as to worship the shrine in the boat.
Osaka is the city of water ; the extraordinary
number of rivers and canals crossing one another
throughout the city make the veins of the city. The
Yodo, the Neya, the Dojima, the Tosabori, and the
Aji are the largest principal rivers, and the Kidzu,
the Shirinashi, the Higashi-Yokobori, the Nishi-
Yokobori, the Nagabori, and the Dotombori are the
larger ones too. Across these and other smaller
rivers and canals there are thrown two hundred and
222
OSAKA
forty-three bridges, of which the Namba, the Temma,
and the Tenjin are called the three largest bridges.
If you row down the courses of the waters by a
boat, you would find new interests of pleasure, which
can never be experienced in Tokyo, and it is a
special refreshment to cool yourself off on the river
in a summer night. Every evening in summer, at
any parts of the banks along the canals, you can find
some pleasure-boats waiting for the guests of cool-
taking. One evening you hire a boat, and at once
the boatsmen begin to row for a large river. On the
both banks of the canal you see the back sides of
houses standing in rows ; on the windows of some
houses there hang the green summer grasses called
Shinobu-gusa (Davallia bullata), twisted into a round
ball or various other forms ; on the balconies,
stretched out over the water, a number of pot-plants
are seen arranged on the shelves ; the Gifu paper
lanterns nicely painted can be seen hanging under
the eaves of the second story ; on a roof platform,
built for drying clothes which are washed, there
you find an old woman and a young girl who are
leaning against the railing and looking down at
your boat, which is just rowing down under them.
In the streets you felt sultry this day, but when
your boat comes out on the River Dojima, you are
relieved by the breeze which blows on the waters.
Along the banks of the large river, you would find
the restaurant boats, where fish are always kept
and dishes served at any time ; rowing your boat
near one of them, you order to provide some dishes
and wine for your boat. Meanwhile, the last rays of
the setting sun go faint, and the whole surface of
the river is covered with darkness. At this time
you notice hundreds of the excursion boats around
yours, the lights of their paper lanterns beginning
now to glow in the dark like stars. On the upper
waters at a far distance, the sound of fireworks can
be heard, and the meteors are seen shooting through
223
THE NIGHTSIDE OF JAPAN
the sky over your head. In a large boat near yours
laughters and chatters of men and women are very
noisy, and you find they are a company of merchants
and singing-girls who are enjoying the cool refresh-
ment, the girls perhaps having been engaged from
the gay circle of the Nanchi (South Quarter). While
the great number of the pleasure-boats are floating
to and fro, people on board taking cool and making
merry, there appear small boats of vendors row-
ing up near them ; they sell sake (wine), sushi
(pickled rice covered with fish flesh), and fruits.
On board some of them, there are singers of Japanese
songs, and they sing according to the order of the
guests in the pleasure-boats. These vendor-boats
disappear into the dark soon, when they finished
their business, and go to another quarter of the
river to catch other customers.
Being much pleased with the boat excursion, you
stay on the waters for a long time, as if you have
forgotten to go home, and now, when you notice
that it is very late, you find that the lights of the
boats around you are very scarce ; the weak tune
of the samisen comes sleepily to your ears from the
far lower waters, and the sky is full of dew, moisten-
ing the air in the late night.
Having experienced the boat excursion on the
river, you try on another evening to visit the pier
of the harbour Osaka, the best and famous place to
take cool on land ; the pier is the only resort in
the city for the citizens in summer evenings. Getting
down the tram at the terminus, you step on the long
pier projected far into the offing, and, standing at
its end, you can number the lights on the shores
of Kobe and Kishiwada situated beyond the sea-
waves to the right and the left respectively. You
can take a glass of beer at one of the night-stalls,
cooling yourself off by the sea-breeze, which comes
sweeping the surface of the sea.
224
OSAKA
You may wonder to see the night fishing on the
pier ; there are slight openings between the boards
of the pier, and those who are fond of angling take
their seats on it, stretching out their two legs, and
let go the lines through the openings. Little bells
are attached to the short fishing-rods in their hands ;
when the fish bite the bells ring, but, as it is
impossible to hang them up through those narrow
openings of the pier, they should be caught by some-
bodies under the pier. For the purpose of helping
the anglers on the pier, there are men in small
boats, which are moored under the pier. The anglers
beckon them, when the fish are hooked, and they
instantly haul in the lines and catch the fish ; thus
they being rewarded by the anglers with a fee for
each catch.
Near the Imamiya station of the electric trams
there is a large recreation ground called the Shinsekai
(the New World), covering a vast area of over 30
acres. At the centre of the ground there stands
a high iron tower of 250 feet called the Tsu-ten-
kaku (Tower leading to Heaven) ; entering the tower,
you find the two long flights of stairs, each con-
sisting of 70 steps, and at the point of 50 feet above
the ground there is a roof garden of 200 tsubo
(i tsubo is 6 feet square), whence you are taken
to the top of the tower by the elevator. If you
stand at the top of the tower in daytime, you can
command the whole views of the mountains and
the seas in and around the provinces of Settsu,
Kawachi, Kii, and Awaji.
Next to the Tsuten Tower there comes the front
gate of the lunapark, and by the side of the gate
two tall Indians in their red uniforms and white
turbans are standing as guards and attracting the
curiosity of visitors. The interior of the lunapark
is full of many large buildings for various shows,
standing in two rows on the both sides, and the
225 p
THE NIGHTSIDE OF JAPAN
pond at the centre is called the Masumi - no - ike
(Pond of Transparent Water), along which there
is the White Tower. A large artificial waterfall of
of Ayaito is flowing down from the second story of
the tower, and in the ice- water shops just below
the fall people are enjoying the cool and admiring
the fine view of the great column of water, illumin-
ated with the electric lights.
From the White Tower to the roof garden of the
Tsuten Tower there run the two lines of iron cables,
by which the small cars, able to contain only four
persons each, are plying between the two towers.
The skating hall, the circling wave, and the Egyptian
hall are most popular among all other shows and
performances, including the cinematographs, the cold
storage, the beauty exploration hall, etc. In a word,
the Shinsekai may be said the aggrandisement of the
show quarter in Asakusa Park of Tokyo.
The recreation ground having been established
lately, the trees are small and few yet, so that there
can be found no shelters to avoid the sunshine in
daytime. Consequently the visitors to the ground
in summer days are very few, and the citizens throng
there after sunset, the whole ground being lighted
brilliantly with the illuminations on all buildings.
As to the summer resorts in the suburbs of Osaka,
Sakai and Hamadera are the best places on the
sea-shores, and Mino-o and Takarazuka on the hills.
The former two are very prosperous for the sea-
water bathing every summer. The Kairo of Sakai
is very famous among the citizens of Osaka ; it is
a kind of the great pier projected from the beach
into the sea, in imitation to the pier of the harbour
Osaka, being constructed in four lines in the form
just like the Roman figure II 1 1., and the full illumina-
tions on each line are beautifully reflected upon the
waves.
The waters along the sea-shore of Hamadera is
226
OSAKA
much cleaner than that of Sakai, and so the bath-
takers generally prefer the former. Towards the
evening, after the burning sun is already set, if you
come on the beach, along which a long-continued
green pine forest stands, and look at the open Sea
of China, breathing the fresh air of the sea breeze,
what a happy refreshment you feel ! Or you may
have a game at the billiard in one of the restaurants
near the beach, and, after washing off the sweat
by taking a hot bath, come up near the railing of
the second story, which fronts to the sea ; what a
delicious supper you can taste in the room, very
cool by the night breeze !
Mino-o is twelve miles distant from the city of
Osaka, and it takes only twenty minutes by trams.
It is a place noted for the views of maple -tree
leaves in autumn, but in summer the big torrent
called the Mino-o Waterfall at the depth of the
mount attracts the attention of cool-takers. To reach
the torrent you have to march on the narrow path
along the long, winding valley ; there are no troubles
to visit it even in the dark night, for all the ways
are lighted with electric lamps shining under the
green leaves of maple-trees. Upon the rocky banks
on the both sides of the mountain stream you find
a number of larger and smaller stylish buildings ;
they are restaurants arranged for the summer visitors,
and the fried maple leaves are a strange and peculiar
dish served in these houses. While you are taking
dinner in one of these restaurants, it is a pleasure
to hear the singing-frogs in the valley.
Not a long distance from the approach to the
hill there is a red bridge thrown across the valley,
and on passing it over you find a large, red gate,
ornamented in colours and fully illuminated too.
It is the entrance of the zoological garden estab-
lished by the Mino-o Railway Company. The hill-
sides, the plains, and the valley are skilfully adapted
for the habitats of animals and birds ; the garden
227
THE NIGHTSIDE OF JAPAN
is the favourite resort for children who come to
Mino-o.
Takarazuka is the seat of mineral spring, situated
on the hill along the same railway to Mino-o.
Visitors generally take bath in a large public bath-
tank, constructed of marble stone and protected
with brass railings on four sides ; the price of a bath
is only five sen. If you wish to take bath in a
private room, you are to rent a special bath which
is called the kazoku-buro (family bath). The bath-
tub in this private room is large enough for two
or three persons at once, and when you rent the
room by paying one yen per hour, you can lock it
up, so as nobody could come in it without your
consent.
After you finished supper at your hotel you visit
the recreation hall named the Paradise. People
who stay several days at the summer resort become
weary, and it is natural that the hall is always full
of them specially in night. Several interesting per-
formances are held in the hall, and there is a
swimming place of a large scale at a part of the
hall being built of stone too, and 8 feet deep at its
central part.
The streets of Takarazuka is the aggregation of
hotels, restaurants, and eating - houses ; there is a
theatre which opens every night in summer, and
a number of geiko spin their webs to catch their
victims out of some profligate bath-takers.
It seems that there are superstitious persons
in Osaka much more than in Tokyo. If you take
a walk in the streets of Shimmachi or Sennichimae
in the evening, you would find a great number of
night stalls along the both sides of the streets. In
Tokyo the greater parts of the summer night stalls
consist of those of green trees and grasses, but in
Osaka they are few, while those of toys, cakes,
and earthenwares are as numerous as they are in
228
OSAKA
Tokyo. You wonder, however, that there you find
many larger and smaller stalls, which sell small
shrines, altars, and all other furniture necessary for
religious ceremonies. In Tokyo these stalls are
limited to be found in the nights of the Torinomachi
(Grand Eagle's Festival) in November and in the
Toshino-ichi (Markets at the End of a Year) in
December only ; but as they can be found in ordinary
night stalls in Osaka, you can conclude that these
religious articles are sold well at any time of the
year, and that the Osaka citizens are far more pious,
or rather superstitious, than the Tokyo people.
The street Sennichimae is an old recreation quarter
for the Osaka people, full of shows, theatres, and
other performance halls, and every night and day
throughout all seasons the street is crowded with
visitors. On your way of strolling in the street
one evening you happen to come in front of the
gate of the temple Jianji, dedicated to Bodhisattva
Myoken, and your curiosity leads you to enter the
gate to see the devotees, who, you are told, throng
to the temple in summer evenings.
The large hall of the temple is full of the wor-
shippers of all classes including singing - girls,
wives of labourers, old women, workmen, shop-boys,
clerks, and merchants. The inner front of the
hall is provided with the holy altar, over which a
large transom hangs down from the ceiling. Some
of the worshippers keep a bundle of small bamboo
sticks in their hands, and every time they make a
round of the temple, walking dn the narrow corridor
around its four sides, they throw one of the sticks
into a box furnished in front of the altar and make
a prayer, thus continuing their rounds until the
sticks are all thrown away, one by one, after each
round. During their rounds they are loudly
repeating the motto, " Namu myo ho ren ge kyo"
so entirely absorbed in the prayer that they appear
to be almost in stupor, and unless you are very
229
THE NIGHTSIDE OF JAPAN
careful in crossing the corridor, you should be
successively bumped with the circulating worshippers.
There are others who keep a bundle of joss-sticks
instead of bamboo sticks ; after each round of the
temple two or three pieces are sticked in the ashes
in the large metallic fire-pot under the altar. The
smokes rising out of thousands of burning joss-sticks
in the fire-pot go curling round the altar and almost
suffocate the people in the hall.
You slip out of the temple to escape from the
heat and smoke, and to be relieved by the cool night
breeze under the open sky ; but the small temple
grounds are further narrowed with the innumerable
square paper lanterns dedicated to the temple.
They hang on the stands erected on the ground,
and various pictures and poems or songs are shown
upon them, together with the names of the dedi-
cators. Observing on the real life of the citizens,
you may conclude that Osaka is an artificial Hell or
Paradise !
One evening you try to make a round through the
geiko quarters of the city.
In Osaka there are the pastime houses called the
ochaya, which are the tea-houses literally, but entirely
different from those in Tokyo. If you want to en-
gage & geiko, first you have to go and give order to one
of the ochaya, then the ochaya makes announcement
to the mise, or the office of the geiko guild (equal to
the Kemban in Tokyo), and the office despatches a
man or maid-servant to the girl's house, which is
called ftutyakata ; it is the custom in Osaka that no
girls can be hired unless they are called through the
ochaya. There are no cooks in any ochaya, as the
drinks and the dishes for the guests are taken from
restaurants. If you go to a restaurant and wish to
engage a girl, the process is rather troublesome, for
first the restaurant gives the notice to an ochaya,
which informs to the guild office, and then the girl
is sent for by the office.
230
OSAKA
There are another kind of the houses called the
sekigashi, which cannot be found in Tokyo, too.
Sekigashi means the room for hire. If you wish to
come to the sekigashi^ you must be introduced by an
ochaya. Most of these houses are found near the
gay quarters, but sometimes some of them can be
discovered in a great distance from them the
Shukintei, the Kagetsu, the Kosetsuken, the Tsuru-
mura, the Onomatsu, and the Takeshiki, are famous
among the others. The business of the sekigashi
resembles in some points to that of the machiai
(waiting-houses) of Tokyo, but there is a difference
between the two, the former engages the girls through
the ochaya^ while the latter can directly hire them.
Among several quarters of the singing- and dancing-
girls in Osaka, Nanchi of the South Quarter is said
to be the best, the girls and the tea-houses in this
quarter being very gay and lively ; it is said they
resemble to those in the Shimbashi Circle of Tokyo
in various points. In this quarter the street So-
emoncho is most famous, and the celebrated belle
Yachiyo is one of the beauties living in this street.
Kitano-shinchi, or the North Quarter, is proud of
the noble character of girls, somewhat comparable
to that of the Yanagibashi girls in Tokyo : every-
thing is simple and plain, the girls here endeavour-
ing to get the fame by their accomplishments rather
than by their countenances only. Consequently, if
you visit the quarter in daytime and ask to call the
girls, those of the first class here do not appear until
they have finished their regular lessons.
Shimmachi is the oldest one among the gay
quarters in Osaka, but the geiko living in this quarter
are rather inferior in their tone to those in the north
and south quarters. They are conservative, and
if they be more progressive, they may be much
improved. Horie is another quarter of the geiko
circle, and celebrated for the multitude of the experts
on the Gidayu songs specially.
231
THE NIGHTSIDE OF JAPAN
Travellers who come to Osaka could not omit
to pay their visits to the following noted places :
The old castle of Osaka is the relic of the showy
and luxurious life of the Toyotomi family, having
been first built by Hideyoshi in 1584 A.D. Among
many huge stones used for the castle walls, you
would be surprised to find those of such a monstrous
size that they are 30 feet long and 20 feet wide.
At present the castle is occupied by the Fourth
Division of the Imperial Army.
Kita-no-mido, or the North Temple, and Minami-
no-mido, or the South Temple, are the two largest
Buddhistic temples noted for grandeur of their build-
ings. The ground of the shrine Goryo is made
one of the parks, and in this precinct Bunrakuza,
the theatre of the puppet shows, characteristic to
Osaka, in accompaniment of the dramatic songs
called Jdruri, is very popular through all seasons.
If you visit the graveyards of the temples Kowsiji
and Seigwanji, you would find the old tombs of
Monzaemon Chikamatsu and Saikaku Ihara re-
spectively ; the former is the greatest dramatist and
the latter notable novelist, both in the age of the
Tokugawa Shogunate.
Momoyama, or the Peach Hill, is famous for the
flowers of peach-trees, and Sakura-no-miya, or the
Cherry Shrine, is the site noted for the cherry
blossoms. Park Nakanoshima is the largest among
all parks in the city, and at its eastern corner the
large shrine Toyokuni-jinsha is dedicated to Hide-
yoshi Toyotomi, the founder of Osaka. As the
park is surrounded by the rivers on its four sides,
the people gather to cool themselves off in summer
evenings.
The street in front of the shrine Yasaka is the
seat of the great market of Namba, and the people
come in crowds early on every morning. The shrine
Imamiya is dedicated to Ebisu, God of Luck, and, the
9th and the loth January every year being the great
232
OSAKA
festival days of the shrine, hundred thousands of
pious citizens throng up to pray for their luck
specially in night. If you visit the shrine on the
festival days, you would happen to meet with a party
of a beautifully ornamented open palanquin carried
on the shoulders of strong young men neatly dressed.
They carry it running in full speed. The palanquin
is called the Hoi-kago, which is gorgeously wrapped
with red and white crapes and decorated with
artificial cherry flowers, on its four pillars and roof. A
very renowned beautiful girl of the South Quarter
circle takes her seat in it, in order to pay a visit to
the God of Luck. The girl's palanquin is followed
by the waitresses, the clerks, and servants of the
restaurant or tea-house, all the expenses for the
exaggerated way of the girl's visit being borne by
her patron guest. The visits of the Hoi-kago are
repeated from early morning till late in night during
the festivals. The habit of the flower-palanquins for
the geiko in the festival of God Ebisu is pursued
annually, and the oftener she is despatched for
worships to the shrine by her customers the more
honourable and fortunate she is thought by her
friends, as well as by the people in her circle.
In the street Dotombori and Sennichimae you
find the five great threatres standing in a row,
encircled with variety halls, shows, Gidayu song halls,
and eating-shops, equal to the similar quarter of
Park Asakusa in Tokyo. Ikutama- jinsha is the
greatest shrine in the city, and the prospect tower
behind the shrine can command the whole view of
the Sea of Chinu (Osaka) and the picturesque island
of Awaji. Kotsu-jin-sha is the shrine of the Emperor
Jintoku, and the view from its hall of votive pictures
is excellent on snow days. Shitennoji is the old
temple of the Tendai Sect, its total buildings amount-
ing to over forty, and its extensive compound is
appointed a public garden of the city.
I have now told you much of the knowledge of
233
THE NIGHTSIDE OF JAPAN
my country which I think interests you, but I am
making a work on the " Geisha " or singing- and
dancing-girls, which are indispensable objects in
the society of Japan. The origin and development
of them, and their life, conduct, character, events,
and all regarding the profession of these girls will
be explained.
THE END
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An interesting account of Greek myths, illustrated from the works of
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and illustrated from the works of ancient sculptors or more modern
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" Dr Japp has much to say about R. L. Stevenson that we are glad
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HUME, author of " The Mystery of a Hansom Cab." Cover
design by CHARLES E. DAWSON. Crown 8vo, cloth
gilt, 6s.
While this is a smart society novel in place of his more familiar
detective work, Mr Hume gives his readers plenty of mystery and
excitement from his first page to his last, and they will find in the
book just those qualities which have made his works so popular.
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Is a book of great promise and of a considerable performance."
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STORIES FROM THE OPERAS
In 2 Vols. By GLADYS DAVIDSON.
A charming series of tales arranged from the Grand
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Most of them are very beautiful and interesting, and these
volumes contain the more popular tales, simply written, and
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CHATS ON VIOLINS
By OLGA RACSTER. Fully Illustrated.
A series of pleasant chats telling the early history of the
violin, and also dealing with all the better known forms of the
violin. All the great makers, from Gasper di Salo, Maggini,
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spersed with many anecdotes about makers and players,
and useful chapters on violin music and playing. The
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CHATS WITH MUSIC LOVERS
By Doctor ANNIE W. PATERSON.
How to Enjoy Music How to Practise How to Sing
How to Compose How to Read Text Books How to
Prepare for Examinations How to Get Engagements
How to Appear in Public How to Conduct How to
Preside at the Organ How to Teach How to Organise
Musical Entertainments How to Publish Music;
CHATS ON THE VIOLONCELLO
By OGLA RACSTER. 18 Illustrations
A history of the 'cello from earliest times and an account
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THE OLD TIME BOOKLETS
Exquisitely printed, with many Illustrations specially prepared
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Size, 4f x 3. Is. each net
Old English Inns
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By J; W; ROBERTS? With 25 photographs by the
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By ELSIE LANG; 17 illustrations.
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By W; J. ROBERTS. 30 illustrations^
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By R. BRIMLEY JOHNSON:
WERNER LAURIE, CLIFFORD'S INN, LONDON
JUST PUBLISHED
The Origins of Popular
Superstitions, Customs
and Ceremonies
By T. SHARPER KNOWLSON
Crown &vo, 6s. net
We meet people every day who are superstitions^ but
who can give no intelligent account of the origin of those
beliefs that it is dangerous, for instance, to sit thirteen at
table, or to break a looking-glass. To trace a habit of
thinking and of action to its source is frequently to dispel
an illusion ; at any rate, the interest of the search for
origin has a charm all its own, and Mr Sharper Knowlson,
working on the basis of old authorities, has brought forth
a mass of attractive exposition respecting popular beliefs
and customs which cannot fail to secure the reader's
attention.
BY THE SAME AUTHOR
The Education of the Will
Crown Sv0, 6s. net
Can Will-power be trained ? If so, how ? These are
the two main questions before Mr Sharper Knowlson in
'- The Education of the Will.' 1 As a book it covers the
middle ground between the erudite studies of professors of
medicine and psychology on the one hand, and the ex-
travagant literature of many " New Thought " writers
on the other hand. The author's aim is to popularise the
results of research, and set forth in a strictly practical
manner the best known methods of developing Will-power.
The volume is a vigorous attempt to combine theory with
practical wisdom.
WERNER LAURIE, CLIFFORD'S INN, LONDON
THE ETERNAL FIRES
By VICTORIA CROSS
6ft.
VICTORIA GROSS has hit upon a very original idea for this
book, and incidentally she shows in it to what heights a
true and loving woman nowadays may rise.- It is the
story of a beautiful and entirely unsophisticated girl, who
thrust forth from a very sheltered life, is forced, in her
poverty, to earn her living as an artist's model: A certain
event which had occurred while she was still at school
occupies her thoughts and she is quite unconscious of the
violent passions she is arousing by her frank intercourse
with those she meets in the free and easy intimacy of studio
life; Shocks naturally await her, and two of the men she
had regarded as real friends prove utterly selfish, while a
third attempts her life; Whether she can win through
or not is the problem always facing the reader, for only
the highest courage can avail in some of the situations
into which her innocence leads her, particularly that with
which the book ends?
This novel shows the author's talent in quite a new light^
and from it those who have eyes to see may learn more than
one lesson most essential in the present day;
WERNER LAURIE, CLIFFORD'S INN, LONDON
athela * date stamped below.
REC'D LD
JUL 3 1962
41363
JUL 1 1 1961
JUL .
324468
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY
