144 
JAPAN 
The Pacific Ocean. 
May 20th—31st, 1904. 
Japan was left under a sense of great depression. To the natural 
feeling of regret at leaving such an interesting country after an all 
too short visit was added a very real sympathy with our kindly hosts 
in the loss of a battle-ship and a cruiser announced in that morning's 
papers. 
It is impossible to omit some account of my impressions of 
that wonderful country. Of these the first, and the last, relates to 
their “ wee winsome women." The daughters of the Empire of the 
Eising Sun are not, according to our canons, either beautiful 1 or 
graceful; their wondrous dress gives them figures decidedly sug¬ 
gestive of pillows, and yet they are beyond all women charming! 
Of course this apparent paradox is to be explained by their un¬ 
equalled, unapproached manners. Not merely do they lay them¬ 
selves out to please, but their every act is performed as if it gave 
themselves the greatest possible pleasure in the performance. 
Cynics may say that it is all artificial, all a matter of education, so 
be it: the Japanese system of the education of women is thereby 
proved to be the most successful in the world, and the sooner that 
our Newnham, Girton, and Somerville girls go to Japan to learn 
manners the better for us Englishmen—only one hopes that they 
will not spoil their Japanese sisters. 
As before said, Japan is by no means remarkable for bright 
colouring, yet, strange to say, when it rains it bursts out as it were 
into bloom, for then the transparent (? oiled, or waxed) umbrellas 
display their yellow and orange tints, while the women lift up their 
kimonos and expose a scarlet, or otherwise brightly coloured garment 
which corresponds to an English woman’s petticoat. 
No observant traveller can fail to note the influence of Nature on 
Japanese art. The weird growth of stunted pines upon the moun¬ 
tains, distorted by the prevalent winds; the aspiring fluted trunks 
of the lofty and solemn Cryptomeria japonica; the graceful curves 
of the bamboo; the peculiar growth of the maple, are all reflected 
in Japanese pictures and lacquers. Again, not to speak of the 
familiar chrysanthemum and the cherry blossom, there is the common 
wayside Pyrus japonica with its eminently decorative red flowers. 
1 An exception must be made in favour of the complexions of the country girls : 
brunette with a bright scarlet flush in the cheeks—a touch of colour as beautiful as 
unlooked for. 
