door and divested me of my boots. The two verandahs are highly
polished, so are the entrance and the stairs which lead to my room,
and the mats are so fine and white that I almost fear to walk over
them, even in my stockings. The polished stairs lead to a highly
polished, broad verandah with a beautiful view, from which you
enter one large room, which, being too large, was at once made into
two. Four highly polished steps lead from this into an exquisite
room at the back, which Ito occupies, and another polished
staircase into the bath-house and garden. The whole front of my
room is composed of shoji, which slide back during the day. The
ceiling is of light wood crossed by bars of dark wood, and the
posts which support it are of dark polished wood. The panels are
of wrinkled sky-blue paper splashed with gold. At one end are two
alcoves with floors of polished wood, called tokonoma. In one
hangs a kakemono, or wall-picture, a painting of a blossoming
branch of the cherry on white silk--a perfect piece of art, which
in itself fills the room with freshness and beauty. The artist who
painted it painted nothing but cherry blossoms, and fell in the
rebellion. On a shelf in the other alcove is a very valuable
cabinet with sliding doors, on which peonies are painted on a gold
ground. A single spray of rose azalea in a pure white vase hanging
on one of the polished posts, and a single iris in another, are the
only decorations. The mats are very fine and white, but the only
furniture is a folding screen with some suggestions of landscape in
Indian ink. I almost wish that the rooms were a little less
exquisite, for I am in constant dread of spilling the ink,
indenting the mats, or tearing the paper windows. Downstairs there
is a room equally beautiful, and a large space where all the
domestic avocations are carried on. There is a kura, or fire-proof
storehouse, with a tiled roof, on the right of the house.