Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1922-11-10
getty OF ROOFS"
Description That APPLY Charac-
terizeS Japan'S Capital.
Tokyo, With Its Architectural Peculiar
tiles, Has Also Been Likened to
Collection of Hencoops.

Tokyo, the capital Of Japan, which
not long ago gave a right royal well
come to the prince of Wales. covers
8 larger space in proportion to It's
population than any other capital city
In the world, except. perhaps, Picking
The reason Is the same as that
which makes London, and American
cities, too, in proportion to their num-
Der Of inhabitants, incOmparably vast
er than Paris, or Berlin, or Vienna
the tendency for each family to live
under his own roof tree. But as the
average japanese family is much poor
er than the average Londoner, and as
in any case japanese houses are mi
mute creations of wood and paper, this
city of hardly more than 100000
souls occupies a space hardly less than
that of Greater London.
Some years ago a Japanese painter
exhibited in the annual Academy of
Tokyo picture of the capital as seen
from one Of its northern hills He
entitled it "A City Of Roofs" and the
title was an apt one. Each roof meas
ures only few square yards, and OF
the myriads of houses the vast major
ity are only one or two stories high.
Even SO, the buildings are SO tiny BY
European standards that one can al
most touch the caves with ones hand
without stretching and So frail that
one could effect burglarious entry with
a pair of pocket-6cisSors,
Were 1t not for the exquisite taste
Of Japanese architecture, even in mean
houses, and the exquisite cleanliness
Of japanese personal habits, one might
not unfairly compare Tokyo to a city
Of heneoops.
Save for one main street, the world
famous Gina, which is the Broadway
of Tokyo, the City's streets are quite
unpayed. In the wet season the sur
face mud is so deep and sticky that
1t will suck a pair of low shoes Off
a Europeans feet. The Japanese do
not mind the mud because they wear
wooden pattens or geta in the wet sea
son. The deeper the mud, the bigger
the geta.
The streets are merely narrow lanes
between the hencOops, SO narrow that
one can almost touch either side by
stretching the arms. Right and left
Of the street are deep bitches Of I'M
speakable filth bridged by stone flags
at the entrance to each house or shop.
After all, medieval London was
hardly better. And the truth about
Japan is that stll today 1t is medic
val, both in its absence of sanitation
and its morality.
At the very first glance European
arriving in Yokohama or Tokyo recog
nizes this medievalism. The coolies,
the riCkshawmen. the working class,
are clad in jerkin and blue tights:
they might, but for their Mongol faces.
be "Supers' in the conventional stage
setting Of Henry ""
To imagine Tokyo or any other Jap
anese city properly one might first
imagine London in the Fourteenth cen
fury, and then imagine that London
equipped with every modern appliance
save paving and sanitation, with
trans, electric railways. the tele-
phone and electric lights. But TO
complete the picture one must imagine
a decorative, graphic and architectural
art as living and spontaneous and gra-
Cious as that of London Of the Four
teenth century.