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The dining-room was in the Japanese portion of the hotel, arranged with rugs and draperies covering the hardwood floors in quite an artistic manner, and at the sides were placed cushions on which we were supposed to sit or kneel. The formal exercises were mostly conducted by geisha and Maiko girls, three officiating as musicians, several more dancing, and others serving as attendants.
The robe falls apart in front and shows loose trousers. The dancing-girl and the singing-girl correspond to the geisha and Maiko of Japan. Sight-seeing in Seoul is less exhausting than in other cities, as there are no galleries, museums, or elaborate tombs to be described. The interest in the city is found amongst its street scenes and in the peculiar life of its people.
5 Furuteya, the estab!ishment of a dea!er in second-hand wares furute. 6 Andon, a paper lantern of peculiar construction, used as a night light. Some forms of the andon are remarkably beautiful. 7 'Ototsan! washi wo shimai ni shitesashita toki mo, chodo kon ya no yona tsuki yo data-ne? Izumo dialect. 1 The Kyoto word is maiko. 2 Guitars of three strings.
And it is this that I can offer in return for so great a favour nothing except these dancer's clothes; and they are of no value in themselves, though they were costly once. Still, I hoped the Master might be willing to take them, seeing they have become curious; for there are no more shirabyoshi, and the maiko of these times wear no such robes.
Here sat the musicians dressed as geisha girls, and the dancers, called Maiko, were also clad in the same manner, with long artistic kimonos and flowers in their hair. The dancers entered and proceeded to the stage; then commenced a slow and measured tread, every movement being graceful. Cherry blossoms were everywhere, even forming the decorations on the wall.
The children sing this song: Tobi, tobi, maute mise! Ashita no ha ni Karasu ni kakushite Nezumi yaru. The mention of dancing refers to the beautiful balancing motion of the kite's wings in flight. By suggestion this motion is poetically compared to the graceful swaying of a maiko, or dancing-girl, extending her arms and waving the long wide sleeves of her silken robe.
And sometimes they would pass a day together at Maiko, by the sea, where the pines seem to sway like dancing girls; or an afternoon at Kiyomidzu, in the old, old summer-house, where everything is like a dream of five hundred years ago, and where there is a great shadowing of high woods, and a song of water leaping cold and clear from caverns, and always the plaint of flutes unseen, blown softly in the antique way, a tone-caress of peace and sadness blending, just as the gold light glooms into blue over a dying sun.
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