Further Courtesies 



resenting in some sense a government welcome) was The 

 that given by the Baron and Baroness Ishii at the ban ? uft 

 Foreign Office. This was also an elaborate and de- 

 lightful banquet, attended by a distinguished group 

 of guests, but in the Western manner and carried out 

 with a perfection of detail nowhere surpassed. Indeed, 

 I am told that the exigencies of modern social life 

 in Japan are very onerous, as many households in the 

 higher circles are obliged to maintain practically two 

 establishments, the intimate home menage being 

 purely Japanese, while the extra rooms, equipment, 

 and wardrobe for official intercourse are all along 

 European lines. 



At the Ishii dinner special stress was laid on the 

 need of sympathetic understanding between the 

 intellectual classes of America and Japan. If I re- 

 member rightly, it was here that we first met Viscount Kaneko, 



^5 / * 



Kentaro Kaneko, prominent in influential circles and 

 president of the Association of Friends of America. 

 Kaneko is a graduate of Harvard, a polished speaker 

 in English as well as in his native tongue, and a man 

 of the world, with wide experience and charming 

 manners. Another conspicuous guest was Baron 

 Kato, afterward a leading member of the recent 

 Okuma ministry. Mr. Zumoto, able editor of the 

 Japan Times, the organ in English of Japanese 

 officialism, was also present. 



One of our most interesting days in Tokyo was that 

 wholly devoted to us by Baron (now Viscount) Eiichi 

 Shibusawa, the great leader in business enterprise, 

 remarkably amiable as well as energetic and the most 

 widely known of all Japanese men of affairs. As he 

 speaks no English, our conversations were then, as 



: 365 3 



