Ito

“ The loneliness of Usu Bay is something wonderful—a house full of empty rooms falling to decay, with only two men in it—one Japanese house among 500 savages, yet it was the only one in which I have slept in which they bolted neither the amado nor the gate. During the night the amado fell out of the worn-out grooves with a crash, knocking down the shôji, which fell on me, and rousing Ito, who rushed into my room half-asleep, with a vague vision of blood-thirsty Ainos in his mind. ”

“ Ito is not pleasing or polite in his manner to me, but when he speaks to his own people he cannot free himself from the shackles of etiquette, and bows as profoundly and uses as many polite phrases as anybody else.
In an hour the malarious plain was crossed, and we have been among piles of mountains ever since. The infamous road was so slippery that my horse fell several times, and the baggage horse, with Ito upon him, rolled head over heels, sending his miscellaneous pack in all directions. Good roads are really the most pressing need of Japan. ”

“ The Bonze, never once taking his eyes from Stanislas, murmured something to Ito in a low and impressive manner.
"The Ninsomi-san says he wishes to interview you first," Ito said, turning to his master. "He [pg 290] has something of the utmost importance to say to you."
"Nonsense," replied de Güldenfeldt impatiently. "He can have absolutely nothing to say. Why, it is impossible for him to know even who I am. Besides, I pay no attention to such things, and have no intention whatsoever of having my fortune told. Miss Millward-Fraser wishes to hear her fate. He will speak to her." ”

“ At five Ito came and entreated me to leave, whimpering, "I've had no sleep; there are thousands and thousands of fleas!" He has travelled by another route to the Tsugaru Strait through the interior, and says that he would not have believed that there was such a place in Japan, and that people in Yokohama will not believe it when he tells them of it and of the costume of the women. He is "ashamed for a foreigner to see such a place," he says. ”

“ Petty Count Ito and powerful Prince Bismarck belong to altogether different species, and it is utterly impossible that Count Ito should develop himself into a great man. Whatever Count Ito has been able thus far to do simply shows the ape imitating the man. ”

“ Ito. The beautiful lady! I would she knew Ito is the most excellent play-actor. She did not like game of Sakara.
Mimosa. Dear treasure-flower, beautiful lady will indeed love excellent play-acting. When the powerful sun travels higher in the sky, if little Ito returns to the garden he shall do excellent play-acting, the venerated Princess will like rarely.
Ito. Ito wants neither money nor books, but smiles from the beautiful, exalted lady.
Mimosa. O dear kind one, the Princess will give smiles. All will love honorable, kind little Ito. Make leave-taking, and return, Ito, the comfort-bringing! ”

“ Ito might have led the Japanese armies to defeat—Oyama led them to victory. But Ito created modern Japan, wrote its constitution and introduced those methods which made Oyama's successes possible. Each man succeeded because he chose to do what Nature fitted him to do.
Of course you may be fitted for more than one thing. Cæsar could have equaled if not surpassed Cicero in mere oratory had he not preferred to find, in war and government, a fame more enduring. ”

“ But it was growing dark, there was no Transport Office, and for the first time the people were very slightly extortionate, and drove Ito nearly to his wits' end. The peasants do not like to be out after dark, for they are afraid of ghosts and all sorts of devilments, and it was difficult to induce them to start so late in the evening. ”

“ Asako, half-pleased and half-apprehensive, gave instructions for him to be shown in. She heard a stumbling on the steps of her house; then Ito lurched into the room. His face was very red, and his voice thick. He had been paying many New Year calls.
"Happy New Year, Asa San, Happy New Year!" he hiccoughed, grasping her hand and working it up and down like a pump-handle. "New Year in Japan very lucky time. All Japanese people say New Year time very lucky. This New Year very lucky for Ito. No more dirty business, no more Yoshiwara, no more pimp. I am millionaire, madame. ”

“ Play-acting of doctor or funeral exalted lady would have liked.
Sakara. Fear not, O little Ito; all good comes to the friends of Sakara! Keep close mouth (child starts) lest.... Here hangs honorable sword, fear nothing, O little Ito (child draws nearer) , the words on excellent blade, “There’s naught ’twixt heaven and earth a man need fear who carries this single blade!” Soon, O little Ito, manhood will come, strong, powerful manhood, and Sakara will fasten this sword herself to girdle of wise Ito. ”

“ When Ito arrived he looked at it with disgust, exclaiming, "The Ainos are just dogs; they had a dog for their father," in allusion to their own legend of their origin.
The level was pleasant after the mountains, and a canter took us pleasantly to Oshamambe, where we struck the old road from Mori to Satsuporo, and where I halted for a day to rest my spine, from which I was suffering much. Oshamambe looks dismal even in the sunshine, decayed and dissipated, with many people lounging about in it doing nothing, with the dazed look which over-indulgence in sake gives to the eyes. ”

“ Ito directed her. Long did he gaze after her, and not until a policeman had told him to “move on” did he leave the spot.
“What a beautiful woman,” he muttered. By the way which the young woman arranged her hair Ito knew that she was unmarried. A wild thought flashed through his brain; why not try to get this young woman for his wife? He had forgotten the faithful and patient Hatsu, forgotten [Pg 42] the little baby which he had never seen, forgotten everything connected with his past life, save that he had fallen in love with this beauty. ”

“ The runner was a nice, kind, merry creature, quite delighted, Ito said, to have a chance of carrying so great a sight as a foreigner into a district in which no foreigner has even been seen. In the absolute security of Japanese travelling, which I have fully realised for a long time, I look back upon my fears at Kasukabé with a feeling of self-contempt.
The scenery, which was extremely pretty, gained everything from sunlight and colour—wonderful shades of cobalt and indigo, green blues and blue greens, and flashes of white foam in unsuspected rifts. ”

“ Many years ago, when quite a young man, during a rebellion, Count Ito was hiding from his enemies, who, having tracked him to his house, sent a band of ‘soshis’ to assassinate him. On hearing his enemies approaching, and trapped like a rat in its hole, the Count drew his sword and prepared to die; but the Countess whispered, ‘Do not die; there is hope still’; and removing the hibatchi, or fire-box, and lifting up the mats and the planks beneath, she induced her husband to conceal himself in the hollow space which exists under the floor of all Japanese houses. ”

“ To lay the foundations, under greatly and suddenly changed conditions, of a satisfactory and permanent peace, one of the greatest statesmen of the Orient is giving with all his mind and heart the later years of his eventful life. I hope that this book may make its readers know somewhat better what the problem has been and is; and what Prince Ito, as Japanese Resident- General in Korea, is trying to accomplish for its solution. ”

“ So light and sweet was the playing that Itō could scarcely believe the evidence of his senses. A slumbrous feeling of delight stole over him as he listened,—a delight strangely mingled with sadness. He wondered how any woman could have learned to play thus,—wondered whether the player could be a woman,—wondered even whether he was hearing earthly music; for enchantment seemed to have entered into his blood with the sound of it.
The soft music ceased; and almost at the same moment Itō found the little miya-dzukai beside him. "Sir," she said, "it is requested that you will honorably enter." ”

“ A lonelier place could scarcely be found. As we passed among the houses the yellow dogs barked, the women looked shy and smiled, and the men made their graceful salutation. We stopped at the chief's house, where, of course, we were unexpected guests; but Shinondi, his nephew, and two other men came out, saluted us, and with most hospitable intent helped Ito to unload the horses. Indeed their eager hospitality created quite a commotion, one running hither and the other thither in their anxiety to welcome a stranger. ”

“ Ito sat on a stone hiding his face in his hands, and when I asked him if he were ill, he replied in a most lamentable voice, "I don't know what I am to do, I'm so ashamed for you to see such things!" The boy is only eighteen, and I pitied him. I asked him if women were often drunk, and he said they were in Yokohama, but they usually kept in their houses. He says that when their husbands give them money to pay bills at the end of a month, they often spend it in sake, and that they sometimes get sake in shops and have it put down as rice or tea. ”

“ The next few years of Marquis Ito’s strenuous life were spent in active preparation for the still more onerous duties that were to fall to his lot when Japan should be in a position to take her place as one of the leading nations of the earth, by right of her advancement in all the arts and sciences that tend to make a people great and powerful. ”

“ The boat for Niigata was to leave at eight, but at five Ito roused me by saying they were going at once, as it was full, and we left in haste, the house-master running to the river with one of my large baskets on his back to "speed the parting guest." Two rivers unite to form a stream over whose beauty I would gladly have lingered, and the morning, singularly rich and tender in its colouring, ripened into a glorious day of light without glare, and heat without oppressiveness. ”

“ Ito any relatives in the United States?” asked Ethel.
Takasaki considered the question before replying. “Many Itos in Nippon, Mees Ogden; and one most high admiral; but I no keep track of family member. You met a Nipponese name Ito?” and Ethel became conscious that his black eyes were boring into her with the intentness of his gaze.
“I have not met him, only seen him,” she corrected. “Yoshida Ito.”
The Japanese attaché shook his head. “I know Itos, but no Yoshida. You think my wife look well?” and by his manner Ethel knew that the topic of Yoshida Ito was to be taboo between them. ”

“ Marquis Ito, one of the first of these, owes much to an elder of the Presbyterian Church in England in whose home he lived as a student, and the marquis has ever since been making returns in kindness to foreigners and Christians.
Marquis Ito's case is not exceptional; all over Japan are men who hold in grateful remembrance Americans and Europeans to whom they are indebted for assistance. I met a man, now the publisher of an influential paper, who twenty years ago, at the age of sixteen, went to sea and in a shipwreck was cast upon one of the islands in the South Pacific. ”

“ IV SKETCHES OF SOME CHIEF FIGURES OF ACTUAL JAPAN ITO, YAMAGATA, INOUYÉ, MATSUKATA, KATSURA, OKUMA, SAIONJI
It is impossible to give a comprehensive account of the lives of these personages, because to do so would be to write a history of Japan of the last half century. I will, however, give you the chief points.
Marquis Ito is considered by common consent of the Japanese as the greatest statesman of Japan at this moment; there is scarcely a single political institution of modern Japan in which he has not shared the initiation. ”

“ The clan must not be compromised. Mr. Inouye has written his resignation, you Mr. Ito must do the same. Inouye must go to Kyoto, and enter into communication with the [Pg 127] Gosho. I shall join him there, after I have shown myself to the clan, and given the necessary instructions to my friend Hattori. You, Ito, must visit the clans, as a rônin. Do not spare money. Entertain freely. Tell every samurai who is willing to listen of how the barbarians are desecrating the land of the gods. Be prudent, but raise the battle-cry of Sonno-Joï [69] ”

“ Good, wise little Ito, ’tis excellent play-acting. Make it not common for all children; keep it for me and thee. I shall speak warm words to excellent father. A good son makes a happy father. All good is for those Sakara loves, O pleasure-giving little man! Honorable mother waits. Take honorable leave-taking. The sentries (child bows three times) will allow you to pass; you came with me, O wise little Ito. Sayonara! (Ito EXITS L.) The night is warm, the garden fair and peaceful. (Goes up stage C., and looks off R.) The entertainment for hated foreigner passes ”

“ July 18.—I have had so much pain and fever from stings and bites that last night I was glad to consult a Japanese doctor from Shinjo. Ito, who looks twice as big as usual when he has to do any "grand" interpreting, and always puts on silk hakama in honour of it, came in with a middle-aged man dressed entirely in silk, who prostrated himself three times on the ground, and then sat down on his heels. ”

“ For the moment Itō did not know how to reply. If the old woman had spoken the truth, an extraordinary chance was being offered to him. Only a great passion could impel the daughter of a noble house to seek, of her own will, the affection of an obscure and masterless samurai, possessing neither wealth nor any sort of prospects. On the other hand, it was not in the honorable nature of the man to further his own interests by taking advantage of a feminine weakness. ”