An Artist's Letters From Japan

To Henry Adams, Esq.My Dear Adams: Without you I should not have seen the place, without you I should not have seen the things of which these notes are impressions. If anything worth repeating has been said by me in these letters, it has probably come from you, or has been suggested by being with you—perhaps even in the way of contradiction. And you may be amused by the lighter talk of the artist that merely describes appearances, or covers them with a tissue of dreams. And you alone will know how much has been withheld that might have been indiscreetly said.If only we had found Nirvana—but he was right who warned us that we were late in this season of the world.J. L. F.WHICH IN ENGLISH MEANS: And you too, Okakura San: I wish to put your name before these notes, written at the time when I first met you, because the memories of your talks are connected with my liking of your country and of its story, and because for a time you were Japan to me. I hope, too, that some thoughts of yours will be detected in what I write, as a stream runs through grass—hidden, perhaps, but always there. We are separated by many things besides distance, but you know that the blossoms scattered by the waters of the torrent shall meet at its end.CONTENTSAn Artist's Letters from JapanFrom Tokio to NikkoThe Shrines of Iyéyasŭ and Iyémitsŭ in the Holy Mountain of NikkoIyémitsŭTao: The WayJapanese ArchitectureBric-à-BracSketchingNirvanaSketching.—The Flutes of IyéyasŭSketching.—The Pagoda in RainFrom Nikko to KamakuraNikko to YokohamaYokohama—KamakuraKiotoA Japanese Day.—From Kioto to GifuFrom Kambara to Miyanoshita—A Letter from a KagoPostscriptAppendix