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Nagoya, May 27th '95.

Dear Mr. Hecker:-
Since my last letter (7th inst.)  I have spent the time at Kioto as headquarters but principally at interesting places outside the old capital. I reached here last night after a three days trip to Yamada which proved extremely interesting.  I travelled partly by rail, partly by steamer and the rest of the way by jinvikisha --- the latter has my preference.  The man are strong, very swift and when well treated thoroughly willing.  They are capable of doing forty or more miles a day over country roads which is as fast as one should ride through scenes such as I have lately met with i.e. mountains, hills, valleys, the sea shore, and the delightful little tea plantations, small farms and curious villages.  I find the country, the obscure hamlets and the peasants getting very near my heart, while for the majority of the city people I am unfortunately dallying with a strong dislike.  Remember please that I am speaking of the masses in which I do not include such men as Mr. Teranchi the collector at whose home I have been delightfully entertained three times, Mr. Goroku the great artist in silver work, Mr. Riubundo the famous art worker in iron, Kishi Chikudo the old painter and art critic - The famous Kawashima who made your silk kakemono, a photograph of which hangs in his private exhibition room, Mr. Ichihara the head of the Lioto college, a Yale graduate, and others such as they - All these wear Japanese clothes, are Japanese at heart, revere Japanese traditions and possess naturally and gracefully instincts for the poetry, the chivalry, the old time refinements of Japan of our dreams.  They are working to arrest the degradation of their people and to encourage a restoration of old time dress, an appreciation of early art, poetry, and various ceremonies which are quite as well adapted to modern Japan as they were before western teachings caused a state of things entirely un-Japanese to prevail.

Of the women much might be said but as I have seen so little of real family life of home privacy, my opinions are necessarily based upon what I have seen elsewhere - i.e. in the hotels, on the trains, in the streets, shops, tea houses, etc. - and of course one rarely sees the real beauty under such conditions.  Foreign influence seems to have touched them less than the man --- still in Nagasaka, Kobe, Osaka, and treaty ports the women seem much more illmannered than at Kioto, Otsu, beautiful Nara, Yamada and other interior towns.  Nothing could have been more characteristic, exquisite and aesthetic than the Chanoya - (old time tea ceremony) performed for me by the sixteen year old daughter of the leading citizen of Yamada.  The room specially built for the purpose, the artistic implements