Letters from China and Japan

								

by the fact that when they showed us the dolls' festival, there were
some fine ones which had been sent the Countess by the Imperial
Princesses. The dolls by the way are never played with--they are works
of art and history to look at. These children got out their American
dolls, of which they had ten, to show Mamma.

March 5.

I have now given three lectures. They are a patient race; there is still
a good-sized audience, probably five hundred. We are gradually getting a
superficial acquaintance with a good many people, and if I could get two
or three weeks free from lectures to prepare I could make a business of
finding things out, but as it is I only accumulate certain impressions.
There is no doubt a great change is going on; how permanent it will be
depends a good deal upon how the rest of the world behaves. If it
doesn't live up to its peaceful and democratic professions, the
conservative bureaucrats and militarists, who of course are still very
strong, will say we told you so and there will be a backset. But if
other countries, and especially our own, behave decently, the
democratizing here will go on as steadily and as rapidly as is
desirable.

TOKYO, Monday, March 10.

Yesterday we had our first taste of the Noh drama. We got there before
nine in the morning, and I left before two to go to Mr. Naruse's
funeral, but Mamma stayed till nearly three when she had to go to speak
at a school. Mamma can give you a much more intelligent idea of it than
I can, but the building is a kind of barnlike structure--the Elizabethan
theater with a vengeance, and no stage properties except some little
live pines and a big painted one, and except costumes which are rich and
expensive and the masks which are likewise. It is an acquired taste, but
one which can be acquired very rapidly. If they weren't done with such
extraordinary art and technique they would probably be stupid, to a
foreigner anyway, but as it is they are fascinating, though it is hard
to say what the source of the fascination is aside from the perfection
of technique. Conscious control was certainly born and bred in Japan.
Mr. Naruse had a very strong hold on people, and his funeral was an
event--all the autos and most of the 'rickshas in Tokyo must have been
there, and some eight or ten speakers, and even to me who could
understand nothing it was very impressive. One of the civilized things
is that before the speaker bowed to the audience--and they all bowed
back--he bowed to the remains, Which were in a coffin on the platform
with flowers, and more flowers than at an American funeral.
We were to have gone to Baron Shibusawa's for tea and dinner this
afternoon, but his influenza has gone into pneumonia.
To go back to Saturday. The reception was pleasant. We met the Americans
who are educators and in the missionary schools and colleges;
intelligent and well disposed, so far as I have seen. The criticism of
the missionaries seems to be rather cooked up. Just now there is a fuss