Marianne North: Japan

"The Hottomi Temple, Kioto, Japan" by Marianne North

On the 17th of July I went down to the most agreeable country house I know - that of Mr. Higford Burr at Aldermaston. Some people I had never met before asked me where I was going next, and I said vaguely, 'Japan.' They said, 'You had better start with us, for we are going there also, on the 5th of August,' and, to their surprise, I said I would.

On the 7th of November we found ourselves within sight of Fujiyama. I watched the sun rise out of the sea and redden its top, as I have seen so well represented on so many hand screens and tea trays. The next morning I saw my friends off. The big ship departed and I returned to the hotel at Yokohama. As Sir Harry and Lady Parkes were said to be soon going on an expedition round the coast, I started to pay my respects to them at eight in the morning. 

Lady Parkes was not sorry to make me an excuse for a trip, and we drove out to the Governor's luncheon party at the tea house, which had one side of the room quite open towards a pretty garden and a clear view. On the table were vases of chrysanthemums, tied on all the way up sticks a yard high. The ornaments were of rare old Satsuma porcelain.

The next day Sir Harry and Lady Parkes left, leaving me with a special order from the Mikado to sketch for three months as much as I liked in Kioto, provided I did not scribble on the public monuments or convert the people; for it was still a closed place to Europeans. I was perfectly safe all alone and comfortable too, in the old temple building some centuries old, which had been turned into an hotel for Europeans. 

My room was made of paper with sliding panels all around. From my windows I saw a most exquisite view, for the house was perched up high on the side of the hill, with the most lovely groves and temples all over it, and below the great city of over 200,000 inhabitants. The top of one of the trained pinetrees came up like a terrace of flat turf to the level of the balcony. It looked so solid that I could almost have walked over it.  

There was always something new and interesting to meet me every day. I had hope to stay over the winter, and to go to the hills in the summer, but with the cold I got stiffer and stiffer, and at last could scarcely crawl, so on the 19th of December I ordered a boat to Osaka, and set myself to pack as well as I could. I was in the  the doctor's hands for ten days with rheumatic fever. I could not even feed myself during part of the time." 

[As she recovered, Marianne traveled nearer to the equator where the weather was warmer - to Hong Kong, then on to Singapore where she continued to paint.]

To be continued

(Excerpts from "A Vision of Eden: The Life and Work of Marianne North" by Marianne North.)