The Evergreen Series
KIMIKO
AND OTHER
JAPANESE SKETCHES
By LAFCADIO HEARN
BOSTON AND NEW YORK
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
The Riverside Press Cambridge
1923
COPYRIGHT, 1896, BY HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
The Riverside Press
CAMBRIDGE · MASSACHUSETTS
PRINTED IN THE U.S.A.
KIMIKO
Wasuraruru
Mi naran to omō
Kokoro koso
Wasuré nu yori mo
Omoi nari-keré.[1]
I
The name is on a paper-lantern at the entrance of a house in the Streetof the Geisha.
Seen at night the street is one of the queerest in the world. It isnarrow as a gangway; and the dark shining wood-work of thehouse-fronts, all tightly closed,—each having a tiny sliding door withpaper-panes that look just like frosted glass,—makes you think offirst-class passenger-cabins. Really the buildings are several storieshigh; but you do not observe this at once—especially if there be nomoon—because only the lower stories are illuminated up to theirawnings, above which all is darkness. The illumination is made by lampsbehind the narrow paper-paned doors, and by the paper-lanterns hangingoutside—one at every door. You look down the street between two linesof these lanterns—lines converging far-off into one motionless bar ofyellow light. Some of the lanterns are egg-shaped, some cylindrical;others four-sided or six-sided; and Japanese characters are beautifullywritten upon them. The street is very quiet—silent as a display ofcabinet-work in some great exhibition after closing-time. This isbecause the inmates are mostly away—attending banquets and otherfestivities. Their life is of the night.
The legend upon the first lantern to the left as you go south is"Kinoya: uchi O-Kata"; and that means The House of Gold wherein O-Katadwells. The lantern to the right tells of the House of Nishimura, andof a girl Miyotsuru—which name signifies The Stork MagnificentlyExisting. Next upon the left comes the House of Kajita;—and in thathouse are Kohana, the Flower-Bud, and Hinako, whose face is pretty asthe face of a doll. Opposite is the House Nagaye, wherein live Kimikaand Kimiko…. And this luminous double litany of names is half-a-milelong.
The inscription on the lantern of the last-named house reveals therelationship between Kimika and Kimiko—and yet something more; forKimiko is styled "Ni-dai-me," an honorary untranslatable title whichsignifies that she is only Kimiko No. 2. Kimika is the teacher andmistress: she has educated two geisha, both named, or rather renamed byher, Kimiko; and this use of the same name twice is proof positive thatthe first Kimiko—"Ichi-dai-me"—must have been celebrated. Theprofessional appellation borne by an unlucky or unsuccessful geisha isnever given to her successor.
If you should ever have good and sufficient reason to enter thehouse,—pushing open that lant