Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-05-26
Impressions of Foreigners
From Stone and Brick Cities.
HIROSHIGE THE PAINTER
A Snowbound Village in the Land of
Cherry Blossoms-Fragile Lit
tie Cottages.
milton Wright Mabie. in the Outlook

Hamilton Wright Mabia. in the Outlook.
There is quaint picture of little Jap
anese village. snowbound. by that very
human painter Hiroshige. that gives one
sense of remoteness from the rush of
action. of a kind of aside in the vehe
ment talk of the world very engaging to
one who is entansled in the tumult of
Toxic. or still hears In the distance the
clang of New York, the central roar of
London or the sharp staccato of Paris.
The fragility of the little group of houses
is emphasized by the weight of snow
which rests on them. and the three or
four people who move about convey
sense of the noiselessness with which the
business of life is being transacted that
day in those little houses shut in from
the weather by sliding screens of rice pa
per. The little hamlet is folded away
from the world III that ''tumultuous pri-
vacy of storm which Emerson loved in
Concord, where the solid house standing
four square among the trees was a visible
symbol of New England grip on the ma
teral as Well as the spiritual realities.
One can imagine the quiet of the library
to which the mind of the orient always
found ready access. and one can rebuild
the cheerful fire before which on winter
nights the solitary Thoreau found con-
genial comradeship in the boys who were
quick to recognize his intimacy with birds
and animals and his command of the Sc
crets of woodcraft.
Simplicity and Cheerfulness.
In these little Japanese houses there is
no master of philosophy sitting by
cheerful fire. but there are men and
women who accept the simplest conditions
of living without a murmur. and there
are children In whom cheerfulness is not
only inbred but inwrought; who seem to
be born under a cheerful star, and who
have been trained to bear pain with forti-
tude and to endure hardship with a smile.
1t is not true that in Japan babies never
cry. any more than it is true that in
Japan flowers have no perfume: but 1t is
true that crying is rarely heard in the
Japanese home To the question why
babies cry so little in this country the
significant answer was made, I'VE teach
our children to be patient; a form of
education rarely found, 1t is to be feared,
in American homes.
Those little houses which Hiroshige
loved to paint are so fragile that fire
or flood consumes them with appalling
rapidity: but the shock of the earth
quake. which is a daily occurrence in
some parts of the country. leaves them
practically uninjured. One Japanese
writer has described his country as
that the daily average of earthquakes
In the empire is four and d half, the
adjective takes on scientific accuracy,
and the ancient myth that the islands
of its position seems a reasonable ex-
PLANTATION.
Difference in Standards.
The foreigner who comes from cities
piled high with massive structures of
granite and marble is struck at once
in Japan by the fragility of the houses
of the people who work with their
hands and is quite likely to rush to
the conclusion that as are the houses
so are the people who live in them
We of the west write our histories
on the surface of the earth with heavy
hands and imagine that bulk of ma
terial is the register Of civilization;
and when a Hindu or Japanese comes
our way and shows no interest in our
skyscrapers, we are amazed at his
lack of appreciation, and do not un-
derstand that he has other standards
of civilization.
In Hiroshige's village the walls of
the houses are translucent and at
like a cluster of great lanterns. They
have only two or three rooms ate
quickly built and easily repaired and
cost less than a hundred dollars AS 4
rule, they have no furniture beyond
chest of drawers, the larder Is often
stocked, but 1t hangs in baskets from
the ceiling. The pejs are rof;ed up
and put out of sight IN the daytime.
IL, some houses there is II square open
ing in the floor in one OF the rooms.
in which the firebol sIanIS, and there
the food is cooked. The laundr., is
dore out Of doors; in some lo.alities
stream of hot water lows through
the village. The fool is largely fish,
of which there is great abundance:
rice. which is the principal product of
little fields which are part of every
farm and surround every VILLAGE
There may be few books in the little
house. although books ere cheap, but
newspapers are read everywhere ~
all sorts of people. and the little viii
lage is no longer isolated; 1t talks
politics and knows what is going on in
Toxic. It's houses are fragile and
easily erased from the face of the
earth. OF the million people who once
lived in kamakura there are practi-
cally no visible traces save group Of
temples. The houses have vanished
But while the houses of Pompeii have
survived the race that lived in them.
the Japanese have come to greatness
though the fragile houses that shell
tered their childhood have left no trace
behind. Their strength has been and
is in their habit of filial reverence and
service. their disciplined capacity Of
endurance, their skill in applying
ideas to life.