DEAR CHAMBERLAIN,--A delicious surprise,--though one that gave some pain; for I suffered to think you should have used your eyes to such an extent for my sake. Mason, too, one day actually wrote me that he would copy something for me if I needed it (which luckily I had got from another source): I should be pained to have either of you try your eyes for my poor vagaries. Please don't think me too selfish;--it was simply lovable of you, but don't do it again.
I think I may be able to use a fragment or two effectively: what I want now to get is the rhythm used in the singing,--and that none of my people can remember. They said it was very wonderful, but very difficult to catch: so that it would seem some melodies are as hard for the Japanese themselves to learn by ear, as they are for us to so learn. I had the same curious experience at Sakai and in Kizuki; yet I asked persons who had been listening to the singing for several hours, and were natives of the place. They all said, "Ah! that is very difficult. So a good _ondo tori_ is hard to find; and they are paid well to come to our festivals." But when the woman comes again I shall try to syllabify the measure on paper.
I can feel the popular mind in the peasant songs: in the military songs I cannot. But there is a queer variation in tone used in military singing which is very effective. The leader suddenly turns down his voice nearly a full octave, and all the chorus follow: it is like a sudden and terrible menace,--then all go back to high tenor notes again. What you tell me about Ry[=u]ky[=u] priests' songs surprised me. You must have got everything that could be got there in an astonishingly short time. I sent you the Nara _miko_-songs,--mystical hymns about sowing, etc.,--very artless. The Nara and Kompira _miko_ are really virgins. _Entre nous_ I am sorry to say that the _miko_ of Kizuki are not: but, as they ought to be, there is no use specifying in any public way. It would be like denying the virtue of nuns in general, because one or two sisters fall from grace. While the ideal lives anywhere it strikes me as wrong to insist too much on realism.
I know you make a collection of everything relating to Japan, so I must send you a photo of Yuko Hatakeyama. I had it copied from a badly faded one--so it does not come out well. You are not of those who refuse to see beyond the visible; and though there is nothing beautiful or ideal in this figure, it was certainly the earthly chrysalis of a very precious and beautiful soul, which I have tried to make the West love a little bit. So you may prize it.