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The rich and great, absorbed in luxury and indolence, know not these pleasures; but the poor man, little affected by such hindrances, may readily procure them if he only chooses to do so,” i YEKKEN 243 ON GARDENING “When you move into a house your first care ought to be to plant fruit-trees. Others may come after. Fore- thought for ten years consists in planting trees. In panting, fruit should come first, flowers should be your next care, and foliage last of all. Fruit is of the’ greatest use to man; and fruit-trees should be planted in large numbers, particularly the orange and the lime. When their fruit has formed and ripened, it is not inferior in beauty to flowers. In planting persimmons, pears, chest- nuts, and pepper, the best sorts should be selected. For flowering trees, the ordinary plum should come first. The red-blossomed plum is also good, and the cherry. It is a pity it sheds its flowers so soon. The camellia remains long in bloom, and its leaves are beautiful. It grows readily from cuttings, and blossoms early. The kaido [Pyrus spectabilis|, and azaleas of different kinds, are also to be commended. For foliage-trees, choose the cryptomeria, the Zhuya obtusa, the podocarpus, and evergreen-trees generally. Bamboos should be planted on the northern side, as a protection against fire and wind. They may be cut down from time to time, and put away for use on occasion. In the front garden plant willows, cherry-trees, firs, and cryptomerias. Avoid planting too thickly ; it makes too much moisture, and in summer harbours mosquitoes, which are a plague. “Vegetables may be planted for everyday use. They are fresher when grown at home than if bought in the market. Besides, the luxuriance of their leaves delights the eye not less than the beauty of flowers, “Moreover it tends to edify the heart if we plant trees 244 JAPANESE LITERATURE and herbs in our gardens and love them. In our leisure moments we should pay some attention to looking for things easy to get, just as they may turn up, and planting them. If we strive after procuring things hard to come at, and either beg them unconscionably of our friends, or buy them at a high price, we get proud of the number of kinds we have collected, or of the superiority of the flowers. This leads to rivalry in the goodness of the flowers. Trouble ensues, and heart-burnings, which are injurious to self- es: sae no pleasure, and cause nothing but anxiety.” Yekken was also a poet. The following Tanka was composed by him when he felt death approaching : — “ The past Seems to me Like a single night: Ah! the dream Of more than eighty years!” The most distinguished of the Kangakusha was un- doubtedly ARAI HAKUSEKI. He was born in Yedo in 1657, his father being in the service of Lord Tsuchiya, a small Daimio of the province of Kadzusa. Hakuseki has fortunately left an autobiography, a very rare kind of literature in Japan, and we have therefore much fuller information regarding his life than is usual in the case of Japanese authors. It was written not for publication (the copy before me is in manuscript), but for the information of his own descendants, so that they might not have the dissatisfaction he himself had experienced of knowing little about their ancestors. This autobiography was written in 1716, after Hakuseki had retired from public life. It is entitled Or7-taku-shiba (“ Burning Faggots”), Tee Be ee ae eee TER ee Ne HAKUSEKI 245 ‘in allusion to a poem of the Emperor Go Toba which speaks of the smoke of faggots at evening bringing back the memory (of a departed dear one who had been cre- mated ?). The early part of this work is taken up with an account of “the man who was his father,” to use Hakuseki’s curious phrase, a metsuke or inspector of the Daimio’s Yedo mansion. In him he has given a minute and loving description of a Japanese gentleman of the olden time. 1 transcribe a few sentences :— “Ever since I came to understand the heart of things, my memory is that the daily routine of his life was always exactly the same. He never failed to get up an hour before daybreak. He then had a cold bath, and did his hair himself. In cold weather, the woman who was my mother would propose to order hot water for him, but this he would not allow, as he wished to avoid giving the servants trouble. When he was over seventy, and my mother also was advanced in years, sometimes when the cold was unendurable, a lighted brazier was brought in, and they lay down to sleep with their feet against it. Beside the fire there was placed a kettle with hot water, which my father drank when he got up. Both of them honoured the Way of Buddha. My father, when he had arranged his hair and adjusted his clothing, never neglected to make obeisance to Buddha. On the anni- versaries of his father’s and mother’s death he and my mother prepared the rice for the offerings. This duty was never entrusted to servants. After he was dressed he waited quietly till dawn, and then went out to his official duty.” “Since I remember, there were but few black hairs on 1 This is the word usually rendered ‘‘ spy.” 17 246 JAPANESE LITERATURE his head. He had a square-shaped face with a high forehead. His eyes were large, he had a thick growth of beard, and was short of stature. He was, however, a big-boned, powerful man. He was never known to betray anger, nor do I remember that even when he laughed he ever gave way to boisterous mirth. Much less did he ever descend to violent language when he had occasion to reprimand any one. In his conversation he used as few words as possible. His demeanour was grave. I have never seen him startled, flurried, or im- patient. When he applied the moxva,! he used to say there was no use in small and few applications, and would put on five or seven great patches at the same time without showing any sign of suffering. The room he usually occupied he kept cleanly swept, had an old picture hung on the wall, and a few flowers which were in season set out in a vase. He would spend the day looking at them. He painted a little in black and white, not being fond of colours. When in good health he never troubled a servant, but did everything for him- Selts.. As a boy Hakuseki gave many proofs of precocious intelligence. Before he was three years of age he copied out some Chinese characters in a recognisable manner. His Daimio noticed him and kept him constantly about his own person. “In the autumn of my eighth year, Tobe [his Daimio] went to the province of Kadzusa, leaving instructions that I was to be taught writing. In the middle of the twelfth month of the winter of that year he returned, and I resumed my usual attendance on him. In the autumn 1 A kind of tinder, applied to the skin in small patches and then burnt, as a remedy for various ailments, HAKUSEKI 247 of the next year, when he went again to his province, _ he set me a task, ordering me to write out every day in the day-time three thousand Chinese characters in the round or cursive script, and at night one thousand. When winter came on and the days became shorter, it frequently happened that the sun approached his setting before my task was finished. I would then take my desk out to a bamboo veranda which faced the west, and finish it there. Moreover, as I sometimes got intolerably sleepy over my nightly task, I arranged with the man who was told off to serve me to put two buckets of water on the aforesaid veranda. When I became very drowsy I took off my coat and poured one of the buckets of water over me. I then resumed my clothing and went on writing. The cold produced in this way for a while answered the purpose of keeping me awake. But after atime I became warm again, and the drowsiness came back, when I poured water over myself as before. With two applications of this kind I was able to get through most of my work. This was in the autumn and winter of my ninth year. ... From my thirteenth year Tobe used me to con- duct most of his correspondence.” Hakuseki was an ambitious youth, as the following saying of his shows: “If, alive, a man cannot become a Daimio, better die and be a king of Hades.” In this spirit he refused an eligible offer of marriage to the daughter of a wealthy merchant, although both he and his father, who had retired on a small pension, were in great poverty. In 1682 he entered the service of Hotta, the Daimio of Furukawa, with whom he remained ten years. When he left him Hakuseki was almost desti- tute. His only property was a box containing three hundred cash, and three measures of rice (a week's 248 JAPANESE LITERATURE supply). His teacher, Kinoshita Junan, of whom he always speaks with the greatest reverence, tried to pro- cure him an appointment with the Daimio of Kaga; but Hakuseki, being appealed to by a friend who had an aged mother in that province dependent on him for sup- port, begged Junan to use his influence for him instead. Hakuseki had no favourable opportunity of advancement until 1693, when he was thirty-six years of age. On the recommendation of Junan, he was then engaged as Professor of Chinese by Iyenobu, subsequently (1709- 1713) Shogun, but at this time Daimio of Kofu. His relations with Iyenobu were throughout of the most cordial nature. He was always receiving from him presents of clothing and money. When Hakuseki . lectured on the Chinese classics, lyenobu listened with the greatest respect, refraining in summer from brushing off a mosquito, and in winter, when he had a cold in his head, turning away from the lecturer before wiping his nose with the paper of which he kept a supply in his sleeve. ‘You may imagine,” says Hakuseki, addressing his posterity in the Ord-taku-shtba, “how quiet the rest of the audience were.