You see the subject is really very complex, and requires years to learn much about. Only a native in any case can be relied on for choice, etc. The suits of "Japanese clothes" usually bought by foreigners in Japan, to take home to their friends, are made to order just to sell to foreigners, and are not Japanese at all--no Japanese would wear them. For the man as for the woman the rules of dress are very strict, and vary precisely according to the age of the wearer.
For a little girl two years old, you would not need a _hakama_,--divided skirt. Such _hakama_ are worn by little school-girls, and are usually sky-blue. They are not, like the men's fashionable _hakama_, made of Sendai silk. The _hakama_ of a high official may be very expensive.
I think what you want could be got for about $40 (American money, including all costs), unless you want a winter dress. It would be very heavy, and likely to make the little one too warm, for this climate is not like that of New Orleans. The chief cost is the _obi_,--the broad stiff heavy silk girdle.
Thanks for the sweet things you said about my little boy. He was born November 16th, '93;--so he is younger than your little angel by four or five months. Mrs. Baker was right. Trust a mother's eye to decide all such problems! And say all the kindest and wisest and prettiest things you can to Mrs. Baker for her kindest message....
P. S. What you wrote about Constance is very beautiful. No man can possibly know what life means, what the world means, what anything means, until he has a child and loves it. And then the whole universe changes,--and nothing will ever again seem exactly as it seemed before.
DEAR CHAMBERLAIN,--I received your kind letter shortly after returning from Ky[=o]to, where I have been living in an old samurai _yashiki_ transformed into a hotel.
I am quite sorry your eyes are troubling you; and indeed I should sincerely advise you to get away from all temptation to reading or writing for some months. Considering how much your translation of that ballad signified in the matter of personal kindness under such circumstances, I cannot but feel pain,--though you will not be sorry to hear that you made a sketch possible, entitled "A Street-Singer," sent to H. M. & Co. towards the construction of a new book now under way.