We were received in rooms with tables and chairs, and an oil-painting! There were the “lace” curtains found in every “foreign style” Japanese house, alas! The Baroness was very gracious and sweet, and acceded to my request to play on the Koto, playing a very charming piece.
As we sat on the cushions I could just see out of the small panes of glass put into the paper _soji_, and I delighted in the garden, with its trees of pink and white plum just bursting into blossom. After some time the men came in and Baron _H----_ showed us his collection of sword rings and knives, etc., all good, and some very beautiful.
=March 1.=--It was terribly wet all night and this morning; I went to lunch with Miss B---- (before mentioned as a very amusing lady, despite the fact that she is a missionary). I think no one would be better qualified to write memoirs than she. I was hearing something about the inner life of the Court at Korea. She is a friend of the English lady doctor who attended the royal ladies, and it was all extremely amusing, but it is not my place to tell her anecdotes.
I returned early to do some writing, but was greeted by my landlady with the announcement that to-day, to-morrow, and the next day are the Festival of the Dolls. I must, therefore, drink some special sweet thick _saké_ and eat various sweets, some nice little ones like fried caterpillars being very tasty. I was also asked to come and see the pictures and screens brought up from the store-house, two of them 200 years old, and one, a really magnificent one, 500 years,--gold with plum blossom and birds. I am constantly seeing new treasures they have in hiding.
They gave me a lovely granite hill with clustering rosy flowers growing round its base--all 6 inches square--and we admired together the wet pine leaves in the garden.
=March 2.=--Fossil-cutting all day; a very nice dance in the evening after dinner with the P----s, where I spent the night.
=March 3.=--The Dolls’ Festival. Mr. _Mj----_ and his three little girls have a very gorgeous collection; the dolls, however, are far too exalted for any child to play with them. The _Mj----s_ must literally have hundreds of these expensive little miniatures of the Emperor and Empress in the old-style garments, of historical and mythological figures, of musicians and actors from the _Nō_--all of whose dress is a wonder of design and execution. Then there were all the household utensils in tiny lacquered form, and on the little trays and dishes was real food arranged, as well as large models of fish in sugar. There was even a little temple, with most of the appointments correct. A large room was given over to them, and looked like a bazaar, but the arrangement was not merely chosen to display the detail, it was all according to prescribed rule--the Emperor and Empress on the top shelf, with their jingling elaborate head-dresses and long silk tassels on their many robes; below them the musicians; on the lowest shelf the tray of food, the little houses, screens and fans in inexhaustible variety. The children are provided with special sweet food which they themselves eat, the crisp sweet “puffed” rice, sweet blocks of jelly and sugar concoctions of many kinds. The guests were also provided with these dainties, and some of them were delicious, but I could not drink the sauce-like _saké_.