XVIII.] 
JAPANESE POETRY. 
383 
are often ornamented with strips of silk or paper on which 
poems are written in large, bold, pencil characters. Among the 
books I brought home with me are many which contain 
collections of the writings of private poets and poetesses, or 
selections from the most famous of the productions of Japanese 
literature in this department. A roll of drawings which turned 
up very often represents the sorrowful fate of a famous poetess. 
First of all she is depicted as a representative Japanese beauty, 
blooming with youth and grace, then she is' represented in 
different stages of decay, then as dead, then as a half-decayed 
RIO'SAN's seal. 
corpse torn asunder by ravens, and finally as a heap of bones. 
The series ends with a cherry-tree in splendid bloom, into which 
the heroine, after her body had passed through all the stages of 
annihilation, has been changed. The cherry-tree in blossom is 
considered by the Japanese the ideal of beauty in the vegetable 
kingdom, and during the flowering season of this tree excursions 
are often undertaken to famous cherry-groves where hour after 
hour is passed in tranquil admiration of the flower-splendour 
of the tree. Unfortunately I was so late in getting the 
