There, the artistic blending of art and nature is so ingeniously contrived as completely to delude the visitor into the belief that he could wander for miles up hill, and down dale, through forest glades, and grassy slopes, or stroll along the winding shores of an apparently endless lake with its tributary streams and waterfalls, its jutting promontories, and fairy islands. And yet all these were planned and carried out within the space of such a few acres of land that when the locality was surveyed from different points of view outside, the wonder was-where was it all? -Did it really exist, or was it only a creation of the fancy, which had vanished on re-entering the outer world?-Within, the stillness, and isolation were complete- not a sound disturbed its perfect repose!-In the foreground were many tiny bridges, rustic tea-houses, and flights of winding steps, and, as in all Japanese gardens large or small, stones of quaint form and varied size formed one of its most prominent fearures.
In arboriculture also is “Japanese Topsyturvy-dom” again in evidence, for instead of cultivating a young tree for its shapeliness, advantage is taken of any accidental eccentricity of root or branch, every early symptom of blemish, and these are forced and fostered until first a deformity and ultimately a monstrosity of tree-form is evolved.
The writer once asked a Japanese “Do you ever leave a tree as Nature made it?” and the smiling reply was-”Not often, if we can do otherwise!” Hence the origin of the innumerable little wizened pine-trees, many scores of years old, as the moss and grey lichen on their trunks clearly testify, which are seen at every shop and cottage door in pots no larger than a tumbler. And if such a one has its gnarled branches entirely denuded of leaves save for one struggling little shoot of greenery, and displays such a generally moribund condition that we should pluck it
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out, and throw it away, then it is cherished with affectionate care, and displayed with unmistakeable pride, so entirely at variance with our own, is Japanese taste in this particular!
JAPANESE FUNERALS.
TRULY, of all street sights in Japan, a funeral strikes the beholder as the very brightest, the gayest, the most stirring and cheerful!-therefore it affords a notable illustration of “Japanese Topsyturvy-dom.” Huge standards of whatever natural flowers may be in season at the time, of colors the brightest and most varied, built up into floral designs often six or eight feet in height, are sent by friends as a mark of respect to the deceased, and these, borne by coolies in white tunics with strange devices on their backs, head the procession. Often there are as many as a hundred pairs of standards each so heavy as to require relays of coolies to bear them, who, when shifting their burdens, cause a perpetual stir and motion to the procession which robs it of all solemnity. Following these are carried immense wooden boxes containing gigantic artificial models of the lotus plant, flowers and leaves of gold, silver, and colored papier mache, which are supplied by the undertaker like the black feathers to our hearses.
Strange looking banners and standards precede the priests in white vestments, or gorgeous robes of gold and colored brocade, who carry quaint insignia of the temple in their hands. Immediately before the pretty white carved wooden case enclosing the coffin, with its miniature Venitian shutters and gay little curtains of bright blue silk festooned and tasselled, borne sturdily, but not solemnly on mens' shoulders, come the female mourners in white, and near these are carried large gilt bird-cages containing the birds that will be released at the funeral ceremony, according to ancient Buddhist ritual. Nothing black is to be seen, save in the clothes of the male followers, who may be either in foreign suits of mourning, or wearing the black silk crest-stamped over-garment which all Japanese ladies and gentlemen don out-of-doors.
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