The Sympathy of Benten 43 



unfamiliar to him ; but it had been written 

 upon the tan^aku by a female hand, and so 

 exquisitely that he could scarcely believe his 

 eyes. Something in the form of the charac- 

 ters, an indefinite grace, suggested that period 

 of youth between childhood and womanhood; 

 and the pure rich color of the ink seemed to 

 bespeak the purity and goodness of the writer's 

 heart. 1 



Baishu carefully folded up the tan^aku, and 

 took it home with him. When he looked at it 

 again the writing appeared to him even more 

 wonderful than at first. His knowledge in calig- 

 raphy assured him only that the poem had been 

 written by some girl who was very young, very 

 intelligent, and probably very gentle-hearted. 



1 It is difficult for the inexperienced European eye to 

 distinguish in Chinese or Japanese writing those character- 

 istics implied by our term " hand" in the sense of indi- 

 vidual style. But the Japanese scholar never forgets the 

 peculiarities of a handwriting once seen ; and he can even 

 guess at the approximate age of the writer. Chinese and 

 Japanese authors claim that the color (quality) of the ink 

 used tells something of the character of the writer. As 

 every person grounds or prepares his or her own ink, the 

 deeper and clearer black would at least indicate something 

 of personal carefulness and of the sense of beauty. 



