New-York tribune., 1922-11-12

R R X. HERBERT &. PONTENG'S
N I'm s'In Lotus-Land Japan" Is all
N that the title implies and
a " N then some-if you get what
/ mean. Negatively speak
ziegfeld's Follies--chiefy the third
girl in the second row, counting from
Che left-with Fifth Avenue on an
early autumn morning and the filet de
sole raeunierc at Delmonico's, final
reason why men do not leave home
but stay on the Island Of Manhattan
Mr.. Ponting's Japan is not the land
which, to quote George AIDE, figured
once ON fans and screens, but now is
figuring on The Philippines" nor the
home Of the man who "once was a cute
little bit Of jap, but now is tough
little war-making chap"
1t is not the Japan which has
stanchly carried on, through the in
filtration of Chinese culture, the Kama
kura Shogunate, the anomalies of the
Duarchy, Kublai Khan's Tartar adven-
ture and failure, the War of the Chry-
santhemums, the blighting friction be-
government, the coming of the Dutch,
the foreign intervention, the foisting
of an alien industrialism and an alien
constitution, and the conflicts with
China and Russia, until to-day, first
among modern Asian countries, it has
attained the position where IL treats
with Occidental powers on footing of
equality, at times little more than
equality.
1t is not the Japan Of panicky
Lothrop Stoddards, and California
chambers of commerce in whose sui
try dreams small but hard-boiled Nip
ponese samurais wave two-handed
swords, cry "Hitogoroshil Hitogoroshi!
Kill! KILL" and pounce upon q
supine and peaceful Western world
with q super-Prussian efficiency and
the biological threat that, hereafter,
all babies on this side OF the Pacific
must be born with butter~yellow skin,
smooth, black hair and glistening slit
eyes.
It is not the Japan Of the Phila-
delphia Sateveposts lady correspond
ents of Indianese ancestry and refine
ment to whom the Mikado in person
gives polite assurance that all he
wants in life is to be interviewed by
the said lady and the promise that his
picture will be printed between Strate-
Form Korsets and "Burlap Tobacco
smoke It, boy--it stultifes!" Nor,
finally, is it the Japan of the artist,
Of Pierre Lott and Yvonne Vernon and
Hermann Hesse, of Petrucci and NJ. A..
Hincls and Sei-ichi Taxi, or, less
vicariously, more creatively, of Korin
and Harunobu and Sheraku and of the
exquisite craftsmen who gave to the
would the porcelains of Hirado, Sat.
suma and Nabeshido.
Mr.. Ponting's Japan is the Japan of
Chautauqua. It is, including the pro-
fuse illustrations, the Japan of the
hand-colored picture postcard printed
in Leipsic, of geishas who somehow
remind me Of Mack Sennett's bathing
beauties, of dainty cherry blossom fes-
tivals that would cause Mr.. Volstead
himself to long for the solace and kick
of pony Of cherry brandy.
Lots of people-neopIe who will
never see this review-will buy it.
They will like it. They will put it on
the old Hepplewhite table next to the
wing cheek chair, directly beneath
granddad's genuine oil painting with
the whiskers and the volunteer uni
form. Their hearts will swell with pa
triotic pride when they read how Com
modore Perry knocked at the gates of
Japan, and how all The little O-Levy-
sans and O-Sullivan-sans and geishas
and shojis and ichibans and samisens
and kimonos kowtowed and sucked in
their breath and invited the Commo-
dore to step into the parlor and visit
for spell. Personally I could never