SUNNY SPLENDOR

foreign [Music] Ohio Ohio in Japanese means good morning nor is the manner in which it is said or the way in which these sliding doors open left to sheer chance a rigid code of etiquette prescribes every movement meantime the lady of the house is dressing for the day though her elaborate quaphier is being arranged for at least a week possibly more Japanese women bestow Irish Care on their hair requiring a professional hairdresser every four eight or twelve days not only is the process expensive but it is long and worrisome it costs not less than one and as much as ten dollars and takes at least two hours each time it is done nor does the tedium end there the hair must not be disturbed at night so instead of pillows the women rest their heads rather their necks on small wooden stands about six inches high to do it either they sleep like babes untroubled and Serene or else they have elastic spines I tried it once but dreamed during the night that I was decapitated and awoke to find my head under the mattress with the aid of papier-mache rolls and quantities of Pomade this black glossy piece of art gradually takes form the Pomade is used to stiffen and straighten the hair for a wave or a ripple Aryan is as distressing to a Japanese Maiden as the lack of it is to one of anglo-saxon origin though this large and artistic headdress shoots the pretty face of the Japanese girl admirably the European modes are replacing it more and more soon no doubt it will be quite impossible to judge from the dressing of a girl's hair as to her position in society formerly young girls like to build their hair high up in front and to shape it like a butterfly behind while the more elegant ones preferred to dress the back hair in the form of half a fan and the married women wore theirs like a waterfall but even the Geisha those Charming entertainers of Japan are changing instead of applying her powder with rice paper as of your she now uses a Parisian compact her hair is done differently from that of the housewives with the chrysanthemum in it symbolic of the fact that she is Mistress of all the seductive Arts those deduction is not necessarily her trade none of these girls is yet 16 but all of them have been trained since they were seven to be singers dancers musicians even waitresses and to know the etiquette of serving and entertaining guests they wear bright many flowered kimonos and the gate as the clog like wooden shoes that give them their clumsy stumbling walk however they are celebrated for their courtesy Beauty and Grace and for their taste in dress their managers usually the Proprietors of the Geisha training schools let them out by the day or evening to tea houses hotels clubs or private homes where if they be popular they command a good and approve a delightful addition to any program of enjoyment Geisha dances are charmingly dainty and modest with slow easy pantomimic rhythmic movements of the arms and body usually accompanied by music utterly devoid of Harmony played by older women Geisha one who now devote their talents merely to singing and playing the samasam Koto and so forth the dancers need but a few square feet in which to perform as they artistically maneuver the flowing kimonos and coquettishly flaunt the bright long sleeves though the Japanese rarely consider an entertainment complete without Geisha occidentals usually find them painfully destitute of Interest or excitement 91 miles north of Tokyo almost two thousand feet above the sea situated amid the Solomon impressive Grandeur of lofty Mountains and the austere charm of a plunging brawling river is Nico meaning Sunny splendor Banning the stream is the famous red lacquer Bridge used only on ceremonial occasions when great religious processions Ascend this Broad Avenue of noble cryptomeria to the ilyasu shrine at its farther end where towering above the entrance is a symmetrical five-storied Pagoda and a great granitori or Gateway on which is inscribed the Japanese proverb don't say keko meaning magnificent until you have seen Nico to that sentiment I heartily subscribe this Pilgrim Bears a banner with the characters love country thereon and is followed by scores of others who flow in and out of the shrine daily the temple is revered not only as the mausoleum of via yasu first and greatest of the Tokugawa shoguns or military rulers but as Sumptuous evidence of The Marvelous skill of the master Craftsman who employed every applied art of the Orient in its construction on this sacred stable is a carved panel the best known in the temple representing the three monkeys eyes that see no evil hears that hear only the right lips that are dumb to Scandal they sit in their silent might attributed to Confucius the celebrated Chinese Sage despite almost daily rains which produce a luxurious of vegetation scarcely equaled in the same latitude anywhere Travelers arrive hourly from throughout Japan and the world all religious pilgrims before entering the inner Sanctuary stop at a mighty Basin of fine gray Granite under a pillared roof where holy water from the mountain Cascades is offered for the purification of hands and the lips at the top of Yonder flight of steps is the celebrated your Main Moon the gate where one tarries all day sculptured with an almost incredible wealth of details strikingly barbaric and opulent in fact the entire Temple area Shimmers with an unearthly beauty that Rivals that of the Taj Mahal both of which oddly enough were designed to contemporaneously in the first half of the 17th century by Architects whose identities have been lost near the top of this story observed the crest of the Tokugawa a circle enclosing a three-leaved hollyhock which is also seen on this receptacle for temple donations in front of the caramoon or Chinese gate the entrance to the oratory Clarion is the holy of holies this gate is so called because the design and decorative plan in the form of dragons bamboos Plum branches are Chinese and because the dark rare woods used in its construction were imported from China cameras are not permitted within the holy of holies but even if they were they could not do its Exquisite Duty justice so we look for other attractions and discover this lovely green bronze dragon Fountain presented by the municipality of a neighboring Village to a popular Prince and the Goblin Lantern which according to Legend anciently roamed the countryside after Nightfall terrorizing the inhabited systems until one night a valiant Bumpkin encountered it smoted across the Dome of his sword and locked it in this cage it has never troubled anyone's sin as we leave this magic Shrine of the greater yasu the soft tones of the temple bell sound in the distance telling us that Nico should not be omitted from the itinerary of even the most casual visitor to Japan or it is one of the world's most glamorous ports of call