says: "Perhaps, however, one of the most curious experiences I had of the
native artistic instinct of Japan occurred in this way: I had got a number
of fan-holders, and was busying myself one afternoon arranging them upon
the walls. My little Japanese servant-boy was in the room, and as I went
on with my work I caught an expression on his face from time to time which
showed me that he was not overpleased with my performance. After a while,
as this dissatisfied expression seemed to deepen, I asked him what the
matter was. Then he frankly confessed that he did not like the way in which
I was arranging my fan-holders. 'Why did you not tell me so at once?' I
asked. 'You are an artist from England,' he replied, 'and it was not for
me to speak.' However, I persuaded him to arrange the fan-holders himself
after his own taste, and I must say that I received a remarkable lesson.
The task took him about two hours--placing, arranging, adjusting; and when
he had finished, the result was simply beautiful. That wall was a perfect
picture: every fan-holder seemed to be exactly in its right place, and it
looked as if the alteration of a single one would affect and disintegrate
the whole scheme. I accepted the lesson with due humility, and remained
more than ever convinced that the Japanese are what they have justly
claimed to be--an essentially artistic people, instinct with living art."




CHAPTER IV

THE JAPANESE BOY


A Japanese boy is the monarch of the household. Japan is thoroughly Eastern
in the position which it gives to women. The boy, and afterwards the man,