you pause in admiration of some poor artisan's wondrous taste and capacity of creating much out of nothing. As carvers both in wood and ivory the Japanese excel perhaps any people in the world, not only in the skillfulness of their work but the taste and originality of its treatment. They delight in making small things. You would be charmed with the miniature Japanese houses in wood and cane-work of lace-like fineness, the inlaid work in different coloured woods in which the finest patterns are the most popular, reminding one of the old Roman mosaics that you must have heard of. You would admire too the beautiful little silver boxes with their quaint little figures in gold upon the lids, the pretty hanging scrolls with their delicately painted scenes, and the fragile cups and plates which seem as if they were not strong enough for common use. But I could not tell you in this small space half the pretty things to be seen in Japan, and I can only hope in bidding you “Sayonara” that you will some day be abele to come and see them for yourselves.
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