Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-12-21
CThe end
IN ITS NATIVE LAND.
Chrysanthemum Show in Japan AND
the Wonderful Designs.

Chrysanthemum Show In Japan and
the Wonderful Designs.
From the Boston Transcript
We had arrived too late in Japan for the
cherry-blossom season, and we were begin
ming to fear, as our stay was limited. we
should see none Of the fetes connected
with their charming horticultural divisions
Of the year. when Tan San arrived to re-
assure US. The chrysanthemum show was
still in bloom" and he would take US to
see 1t that very afternoon; he said, in his
anxiety, mo native custom" should be lost
to the visiting American.
And so we went
Along the broad. smooth roads. innocent
Of an erring leaf. over the moats like rib
bon boundary lines, past the bird-cage
houses, our jinrikishas flew through a del
icately tinted geome trical figure We never
made that figure out. though We tried all
the six months Wa were in Toxic. Like
everything else Japanese, 1t looked so SIM
pie. so direct, and. when you tried to COM
prehend it, so inexplicatle.
The chrysanthemum show was not held
in a garden or crystal market, but In a
long line of Japanese rooms on either side
of the roadway. These were as temptingly
mysterious the tents in a western cir
Gus; each had its own little particular exhi-
bitioE, and it's own little particular en-
trance fee. When we had entered half a
dozen we discovered there was a practical
as well artistic side to the japanese
character, but who could have criticised
such an arrangement. when 1t was so os-
tenSibly in the cause of beauty?
The flowers stood about in groups, white
and pink and yellow, with the dignity and
pretty consciousness of mordaines at ball.
There was no crushing or crowding; you
felt the individuality of each. The Japan
csc have a strange capacity to invest flow
ers and inanimate things with a sort of lit
tie personality infinitely charming. For,
until We have been to Japan, the chrysan-
themum is an unexplained beauty to us.
We may have studied it historically, and
examined It scientifically, and praised it at
the shows but of its dainty majesty, the
subtle powers of its frail grace its exquis-
lite individuality, We can feel nothing unless
we have seen it in the land where roses are
considered vulgar in comparison.
For in the west 1t Is a queen in exile. We
give IT habitation, and write leaderettes
about 1t. but of its royalty we have no ink
ling until we know it glorified as an en-
perors crest; the delicacy of its color and
cobweb line we realize but poorly until the
Japanese artist interprets them for us as
he tnterprets them only at home; and of
the allegiance 1t can inspire we are una
ware until We have seen it holding undis-
puted sway upon lacquer throne.
But if to the chrysanthemum the Japan
csc offer all honor, even as his gods must
it serve his fantastic humor. In each of
the little rooms there We're two. sometimes
three. elaborate tableaus entirely of flow
ors. The scenes were taken from the most
animated parts of history and from daily
life, and the mere3t detail of the mis-en-
scene, the figures, everything but the faces,
was of chrysanthemum. l remember a
house, life size" Of white flowers, prey
to red ones, and fiowery tiremen scrambing
over it and bringing water in buckets. Then
there was a duel fought with chrysanthe-
mum swords: murder that had just been
committed with a chrysaEthemum dagger:
and there was a winters tale charmingly
told in the language Of this fantastic fairy
land.