t had been a bad year for farmers. Forty-seven
geisha, who had reported the previous year that they had received
35,000 yen--there is no limit to what is tabulated in Japan--now
reported that they had gained only half that sum in twelve months,
"the price of cocoons being so low that even well-to-do farmers could
not come." I noticed that there was a clock let into one of the
granite votive pillars of the avenue along which one walks from the
town to the shrine. As I glanced at the clock it happened that the
sound of children's voices reached me from a primary school. I
wondered what time and modern education, which have brought such
changes in Japan, might make of it all.

FOOTNOTES:

[186] The railway has now been extended in the direction of Yamaguchi.

[187] See Appendix LI.

[188] Protests have been made against the way in which the country
people are dunned for subscriptions to these semi-official
organisations. A high agricultural authority has stated that in Nagano
the farmers' taxes and subscriptions to the Red Cross and Patriotic
Women Societies are from 65 to 70 per cent. of their expenditure as
against 30 to 35 per cent. spent on outlay other than food and
clothing.

[189] _Satsuma-imo_ is sweet potato. Our potato is called _jaga-imo_
or _bareisho_. _Imo_ is the general name.

[190] See Appendix LII.

[191] The Salt Monopoly profits are estimated at 314,204 yen for
1920-21.

CHAPTER XXIX

FRIENDS OF LAFCADIO HEARN

(SHIMANE, TOTTORI AND HYOGO)

Those who suffer learn, those who love know.--MRS. HAVELOCK ELLIS

At Matsue, with which the name of Lafcadio Hearn will always be
associated, I chanced to arrive on the anniversary of his death. His
local admirers were holding a memorial meeting. As a foreigner I was
honoured with a request to attend. First, however, I had the chance of
visiting Hearn's house. Matsue was the first place at which Hearn
lived. He always remembered it and at last came back there to marry.
Except that a pond has been filled up--no doubt to reduce the number
of mosquitoes--the garden of his house is little changed.

The most interesting feature of the meeting was old pupils' grateful
recollections of Hearn, the middle-school teacher. The gathering was
held in a room belonging to the town library in the prefectural
grounds, but neither the Governor nor the mayor was present. A
sympathetic speech was made by a chance visitor to the town, the
secretary-general to t