Kimono by John Paris
Page 1 of 176
KIMONO
by
JOHN PARIS
1922
CONTENTS
CHAPTER
I AN ANGLO-JAPANESE MARRIAGE
II HONEYMOON
III EASTWARDS
IV NAGASAKI
V CHONKINA
VI ACROSS JAPAN
VII THE EMBASSY
VIII THE HALF-CASTE GIRL
IX ITO SAN
X THE YOSHIWARA WOMEN
XI A GEISHA DINNER
XII FALLEN CHERRY-BLOSSOMS
XIII THE FAMILY ALTAR
XIV THE DWARF TREES
XV EURASIA
XVI THE GREAT BUDDHA
XVII THE RAINY SEASON
XVIII AMONG THE NIKKO MOUNTAINS
XIX YAE SMITH
XX THE KIMONO
XXI SAYONARA (GOOD-BYE)
XXII FUJINAMI ASAKO
XXIII THE REAL SHINTO
XXIV THE AUTUMN FESTIVAL
XXV JAPANESE COURTSHIP
XXVI ALONE IN TOKYO
XXVII LADY BRANDAN
_Utsutsu wo mo Utsutsu to sara ni Omowaneba, Yume wo mo yume to Nani ka omowamu?
Since I am convinced That Reality is in no way Real, How am I to admit That dreams are dreams?_
The verses and translation above are taken from A. Waley's "JAPANESE POETRY: THE UTA" (Clarendon Press), as are many of the classical poems placed at the head of the chapters.
CHAPTER I
AN ANGLO-JAPANESE MARRIAGE
_Shibukaro ka Shiranedo kaki no Hatsu-chigiri_.
Whether the fruit be bitter Or whether it be sweet, The first bite tells.
The marriage of Captain the Honourable Geoffrey Barrington and Miss Asako Fujinami was an outstanding event in the season of 1913. It was bizarre, it was picturesque, it was charming, it was socially and politically important, it was everything that could appeal to the taste of London society, which, as the season advances, is apt to become jaded by the monotonous process of Hymen in High Life and by the continued demand for costly wedding presents.
Once again Society paid for its seat at St. George's and for its glass of champagne and crumb of cake with gifts of gold and silver and precious stones enough to smother the tiny bride; but for once in a way it paid with a good heart, not merely in obedience to convention, but for the sake of participating in a unique and delightful scene, a touching ceremony, the plighting of East and West.
Table of contents (by pages)
- 1: Kimono by John Paris
- 2: Except the few Japanese who were present
- 3: Lady Everington has been criticised for stony heartedness
- 4: Dreaming of the mortgage on the Brandan property
- 5: And we are to have a Japanese Lord Brandan
- 6: Lady Everington had heaved a sigh
- 7: And Sandhurst merges into the regiment
- 8: Lady Everington knew that it must be another proposal
- 9: Lady Everington has a very tender heart
- 10: So she cannot drop her aitches
- 11: Yet both Sir Ralph Cairns and Count Saito
- 12: Murata drew Geoffrey aside into his shingly garden
- 13: Murata began to laugh nervously
- 14: Happiness shone out of Asako like light
- 15: He would call his wife Yum Yum and Pitti Sing
- 16: He read the Lafcadio Hearn books
- 17: Disguised allies of Madame Cythere
- 18: Where they met Lady Everington at Monte Carlo
- 19: Japanese ladies look very picturesque
- 20: Lady Everington was silent for a moment
- 21: And impossible in the Yoshiwara
- 22: You do not give me a chance to be like the bamboo
- 23: The beautiful deep brown eyes of Asako
- 24: Barrington will not wish to learn Japanese
- 25: Asako came on deck to join her husband
- 26: Anchor was cast off the island of Deshima
- 27: They roll under the rickshaw wheels
- 28: Then the shoji were thrown open
- 29: Renewed prostration before okusama
- 30: Geoffrey suddenly came upon Wigram
- 31: But you come with me and see them dance the Chonkina
- 32: Hiding their faces behind their long kimono sleeves
- 33: The legs hung from the hips like trouser legs
- 34: Wigram had caught hold of another
- 35: Asako especially was entranced
- 36: Asako came down to dinner at the Miyako Hotel
- 37: As a sudden instinct told Geoffrey
- 38: Little Yum Yum talks great nonsense sometimes
- 39: And Tanaka was taking off his boots
- 40: After this Geoffrey discouraged Tanaka
- 41: Asako was not worrying about the landscape
- 42: While this dewdrop world Is but a dewdrop world
- 43: Except for Reggie Forsyth's exotic shrubbery
- 44: And is this your oriental version of Veronique
- 45: The Goshoe at Tokyo is not a sovereign's palace
- 46: And Tanaka assisted his patron to descend from his rickshaw
- 47: All the boy sans knew what the Fujinami meant
- 48: But the indoor amenities of Japanese hotel life are few
- 49: Beebee is the Queen of the Goonies
- 50: Where Gwendolen Cairns was burbling to Asako
- 51: Geoffrey and Asako crossed the garden compound
- 52: Reggie had at first made use of his memory of Asako
- 53: But her eyes were forever glancing towards Geoffrey
- 54: That is what Lafcadio Hearn did
- 55: Will you please take me to see the Yoshiwara
- 56: Geoffrey himself wished to see the Yoshiwara
- 57: Barrington may be an exception
- 58: Kamimura had noticed his fellow traveller
- 59: Was making little Asako less confiding than of yore
- 60: You can live in a haikara house
- 61: Geoffrey's opposition to the Yoshiwara project collapsed
- 62: Aprons and lumpy shoes all very haikara
- 63: When Yae spoke to the girls in Japanese
- 64: Only with bars in front like cages in the Zoo
- 65: Asako was staring at the buildings now
- 66: The new Orian garbed in blue
- 67: So the tea houses are called hikite chaya
- 68: Tanaka explained that the Maple Club Restaurant or Koyokwan
- 69: The head of the Fujinami family
- 70: Fujinami Shidzuye and her daughter
- 71: They were followed by the geisha
- 72: Fujinami Gentaro spoke to the guests assembled
- 73: Ito announced his name and quality
- 74: Besides Ito and Sadako Fujinami
- 75: But this English gentleman bigger than sumotori
- 76: Fujinami carries a red lacquer tray
- 77: Nor is this the entire population of the Fujinami yashiki
- 78: Fujinami would have appeared to be asleep
- 79: As the sensei so eloquently said last night
- 80: The kanzashi hair ornaments of the oiran will go too
- 81: But even the Fujinami have not got enough money
- 82: Gennosuke was immensely satisfied with his calligraphy
- 83: Osumi should write something in a letter to Ito
- 84: To whom Sadako felt herself spiritually akin
- 85: Fujinami wore a perfectly plain kimono
- 86: Or tokonoma with its inevitable hanging picture
- 87: Below him were arranged the ihai
- 88: Asako felt influences floating around her
- 89: The intellectual Miss Sadako also was weeping
- 90: Of whom Sadako and her family were
- 91: That is the art of the chanoyu
- 92: And she would help Sadako with her French and English
- 93: The cleverness of cousin Sadako
- 94: Geoffrey and Asako were pursuing different paths
- 95: He attended an informal garden party at the Fujinami house
- 96: Count Saito showed Geoffrey where the roses were coming on
- 97: Streaking a miniature landscape
- 98: The wisteria becomes independent
- 99: Reggie and he had been at Eton together
- 100: Reggie hated playing in public
- 101: Baroness Miyazaki is a stupendous old lady
- 102: They are the children of Eurasia
- 103: Nice women dropped Yae entirely
- 104: It is not for us to condemn Yae
- 105: Yae wore a cotton kimono of blue and white
- 106: Geoffrey and Yae danced together
- 107: Yae suggested a stroll along the sea shore
- 108: Shall we go and see Dai Butsu
- 109: The Buddha of Infinite Understanding smiled down upon them
- 110: Last big jishin Gifu jishin twenty years before
- 111: Last night I asked Yae to marry me
- 112: Geoffrey had listened to these tirades before
- 113: He certainly had no love for Yae
- 114: Sadako was intellectually the cleverer of the two
- 115: I laugh because you are so like Kikuye San
- 116: The more she envied Asako her happy married life
- 117: Reggie Forsyth wrote to him from Chuzenji
- 118: Geoffrey could feel the mountains around him
- 119: Geoffrey looked white and tired
- 120: Yae really knows more about it than I do
- 121: Geoffrey and Yae were balancing themselves on the bench
- 122: She was as preposterous as Reggie
- 123: Provide a foreground for the Chuzenji landscape
- 124: She knows that Reggie is my best friend
- 125: And that Reggie and Yae being what they were
- 126: But Yae slipped an arm across his chest
- 127: The last word brought Geoffrey to his feet
- 128: Reggie returned to the bare bedroom
- 129: He would probably never see Reggie Forsyth again
- 130: After a ghastly night of sleeplessness at Nikko
- 131: Go away with okusan the boy grinned again
- 132: Tanaka can go I wish to know the truth
- 133: Asako was not to be left alone with him
- 134: Asako still showed no sign of comprehension
- 135: The head of the house of Fujinami
- 136: Asako had received that day a pathetic letter from Geoffrey
- 137: Unpleasantly reminiscent of Yae
- 138: And at last they succeeded in suppressing Falkenturm
- 139: Fujinami can take me back into his family
- 140: Ito returned to the charge next day
- 141: Sadako whispered in her cousin's ear
- 142: Akabo was the up country village
- 143: From time to time Sadako would steal into the room
- 144: But Tanaka continued his ministrations
- 145: He was not so egotistical and bitter as Sadako
- 146: Fujinami Gentaro did not seem to care
- 147: Popriety forbade any actual conversation with Sadako
- 148: Suddenly Sadako appeared from the direction of the wind
- 149: The old woman of Akabo said that it is a very bad curse
- 150: His son was the second Fujinami
- 151: But they all die cursing the Fujinami
- 152: Sadako would lay aside the book
- 153: And one in the temple at Ikegami
- 154: Merchants were peddling objects of piety
- 155: On the red trunks of the cryptomeria trees
- 156: From one room the shoji were pushed open
- 157: How did Takeshi San become sick
- 158: With the living death of Takeshi
- 159: Gentaro and Takeshi were mere usurpers
- 160: Until the whole house of Fujinami is ruined
- 161: If Asa San were sent away from Akasaka
- 162: This year we defeat Germany and take Tsingtao
- 163: Sadako said to her cousin Asa Chan
- 164: Sadako Fujinami turned her back and pretended to sleep
- 165: When Tanaka protested his devotion
- 166: Tanaka gives life for Ladyship
- 167: Asako felt her loneliness all of a sudden
- 168: I now become giin giin Member of Parliament
- 169: She saw Tanaka kneeling over Ito's body
- 170: The inspector asked the policeman
- 171: The policeman Ishibashi picked up the loose end of the rope
- 172: Asako was at the end of her strength
- 173: The notoriety of the Ito murder case did Asako a good turn
- 174: Count Saito brought his nephew and secretary
- 175: Lady Everington is writing to you
- 176: Where Count Saito had his summer villa