themselves 



The Days of a Ma?t [;i9ii 



were thirty-seven besides our host and ourselves, 

 two of them ladies — in all a group fairly represen- 

 tative of the leading interests of Tokyo, including 

 the American Embassy and the Consulate-general. 

 No pains had been spared to make the function a 

 notable one. Statuesque ancient dances by artists 

 in magnificent old robes gave the final touch of 

 distinction. My wife was afterward told that the 

 Ozakis had outdone themselves on that occasion. 

 Certainly we could imagine nothing more interesting. 

 TheOzakis My acquaiutauce with Ozaki dates from a meeting 

 in London in 1910, after which I crossed the Atlantic 

 on the same boat with him and talented Madame 

 Ozaki, author of stories in Japanese and English. 

 A man of keen intellect and a broad understanding of 

 current affairs, he is perhaps more than any one else 

 the leader of democratic movements in Japan, and a 

 pronounced opponent of bureaucracy and militarism. 

 Some years ago, while in the Cabinet, he began a 

 speech before Parliament with the words, **Now if 

 Japan were a republic." But he never finished the 

 sentence, being hooted down and afterward practi- 

 cally forced to resign. Times are changing, however; 

 a recent book of his contains a most effective assault 

 on bureaucracy, while at the same time voicing 

 entire loyalty to the office of the Mikado. 



Madame Ozaki was one of the social leaders of 

 Tokyo. Her father. Baron Ozaki, while serving as 

 minister at the Court of St. James, took an English 

 lady to wife; their daughter has thus the blended 

 charm of the fine blood of two races. ^ 



The second more or less official affair (and rep- 



Mne custom by which a man at marriage assumes his wife's surname is not 

 uncommon in Japan. In cases of adoption, also, the surname is usually changed. 



n 364 3 



