on in sympathy with the
wood-carvers from the cherry-blossom hall; the screen-makers were
interested in the proceedings of the fan-makers; and the designers were
interested in them all. Each individual operative was zealously
interested in the success of the results as a whole; and the end is that
my house now looks like the product of one man, or rather of one
master. It was a revelation to me, after my experience of British
workmen, to see the way these little Jap fellows toiled. How they would
talk and plan out schemes of decoration for me among themselves,
studying peony flowers, for instance, in some celebrated temple garden
in order to introduce a new and more natural feeling into their wooden
ones; and then the joy with which they would think out every little
detail, flying round to my hotel at all times of the day to inform me of
some new departure, surprised and pleased me greatly.

These men were all brilliant craftsmen and designers, creating work that
could not be surpassed in Italy or anywhere else for beauty. Yet the
bulk of them were poorly fed, receiving only sevenpence or eightpence a
day. Too poor to buy meat, they lived on rice and on the heads and tails
of fish twice a week, being unable to afford that which was between.

[Illustration: A METAL-WORKER]

But although the Japanese workman is very poorly paid, it must also be
remembered that his necessities are few and simple. This is roughly the
way a workman in Japan lives. He has one meal of rice per day, of the
poorest quality, which costs him two sen eight rin. A sen is a tenth
part of a penny, and a rin a tenth part of a sen. For a mat to sleep on
at night he pays one sen five rin. Three sen he pays for fish or the
insides of fowls. Drinking-water costs him two rin, while two rin per
day pays for the priest. The total cost of his daily living thus sums up
into about five sen three rin. Then, as to be buried at the public
expense is considered a deep disgrace, forty sen is always put on one
side for the purchase of a coffin, seventy-five sen if the gentleman
wishes to be cremated, twenty sen for refreshments for mourners, five
rin for flowers, three sen for the fees of the two priests, while, to
economise, a Japanese of the lower grade will generally make use of
friends as bearers.

Apropos of the absurdly small price at which a man can live in Japan, I
am reminded of an experience in Kioto. I was walking down the theatre
streets one day with