Mysterious Japan

"Peasants of the region speak of Fuji not by name but merely as O Yama, the Honorable Mountain, but my Japanese friend added that though the honorific O, used so much by his countrymen, was translated literally into English as honorable, it did not have, in the Japanese ear, any such elaborate and ponderous value, but was spoken automatically and often only for the sake of cadence. We say O without thinking, he explained... For Fuji, however, I like the full English polysyllabic of respect. It is indeed an honorable mountain. The great volcanic cone hanging, as it sometimes seems, in thin blue air, has an ethereal look suggesting purity and spirituality, so that it is not difficult for the beholder from another land to sense its quality of sacredness, and to perceive its fitness to be the abiding place of that beautiful goddess whose Japanese name means Princess-who-makes-the-Blossoms-of-the-Trees-to-Flower. There are two kinds of fools, says a Japanese proverb: those who have never ascended Fuji and those who have ascended twice. To this category I would add a third kind of fool, the greatest of them all: the fool who fails to appreciate the spectacle of Fuji. A creature who would be disappointed in Fuji would be disappointed in any spectacle..." - Julian StreetContents: The Flower-People. A Celestial Suburb. The Land of Little Children. Growing Tokyo. Architecture and Statuary. The Westernization of Japan. The Story of Costumes. Quakes and the Building Problem. Narrow Streets and Tiny Shops. Reversed Ideas. Some Advantages of Old Age. Language. Chinese Characters and Kana. Calligraphy as a Fine Art. The Oriental Mind. The Mystery of the Bamboo Screens. Flower Arrangement. Ceremonial Tea. Women of Old Japan. Wrestling and Shintoism. A Japanese Meal. Japanese Music. Geisha Dancing. What Is a Geisha? The Organization of Society. The Cherry Dance at Kyoto. Theatre Settings. The Four Periods of Landscape Gardening. The Old Military Virtues. How Japanese Politeness is Sometimes Misunderstood. A Walk in a Kimono. Living in a Japanese House. Read more