Volume I Part 9 (2/2)
At first the change of residence, the necessary interruption of the heavy work of preparing lectures, the teaching, and its attendant official duties sees in Buddha-Fields,” though published the year after his arrival in Tokyo, had been completed while in Kobe, and he complains bitterly in his letters that ”the Holy Ghost had departed fro to find so the fire In a letter to his friend Arain' I get no thrill, no _frisson_, no sensation I want new experiences, perhaps; and Tokyo is no place for them Perhaps the power to feel thrill dies with the approach of a man's fiftieth year
Perhaps the only land to find the new sensations is in the Past,--floats blue-peaked under some beautiful dead sun 'in the tropic cliain to feel the chare A beside the Fountain of Immortality? Alas, I don't know!”
Indeed, in ”Exotics and Retrospectives” he returned for part of his material to old memories of the West Indies, and the next four volumes--”In Ghostly japan” (with its s,” ”A japanese Miscellany,” and ”Kotto”--show that the altar still waited for the coal, the contents of these being ht reat idea to form itself, worthy of a broad canvas
As the letters show, prodigious care and patience were expended upon each of these sketches In advising a friend he explains his own ard to your own sketch or story If you are quite dissatisfied with it, I think this is probably due _not_ to what you suppose,--imperfection of expression,--but rather to the fact that soht or emotion has not yet defined itself in yourand have not been able to express the feeling--only because you do not yet quite knohat it is
We feel without understanding feeling; and our most powerful emotions are the most undefinable This must be so, because they are inherited accu, and the multiplicity of them--superimposed one over another--blurs the their strength _Unconscious_ brain-work is the best to develop such latent feeling or thought By quietly writing the thing over and over again, I find that the emotion or idea often _develops itself_ in the process,--unconsciously Again, it is often worth while to _try_ to analyze the feeling that re to understand exactly what it is that moves us so--nosadness or a mysterious joy), you s are, of course, very difficult to develop I shall show you one of these days, e see each other, a page that I worked at for _months_ before the idea caht to surprise you, for our best work is out of the Unconscious”
In all these studies the tendency grew constantly more marked to abandon the earlier richness of his style; a pellucid simplicity was plainly the aim of his intention The transparent, shadoeird stories” of ”Kwaidan” were as unlike the splendid floridity of his West Indian studies as a shi+nto shrine is unlike a Gothic cathedral These ghostly sketches rey whirl of water about a phantoh across the face of a spectral moon--an outline of mountains as filesting things poignant, things ineffable
”Ants,” the last study in ”Kwaidan,” was, however, of a very different character The old Occidental fire and poas visible again; his inspiration was reillumined Then suddenly the broad canvas was spread for him and he wrote ”japan: an Atte reviews of the life and soul of a great nation ever atteeneration of this book it is necessary to explain the conditions of the last years of his life in Tokyo Of his private existence at this tihtful and vivid record
”It was on the 27th Aug, 1896, that we arrived at Tokyo froome district, ent to see it
It was an old house of a pure japanese style, without an upper story; and having a spacious garden and a lotus-pond in it, the house reseloo haunted Hearn seemed fond of the house But we did not borrow it
”We heard afterward that it was reputed to be haunted by the ghost; and though the house-rent was very cheap, no one would dare to borrow the house; and finally it was broken down by its owner 'Why then did we not inhabit that house?' Hearn said, with regret, 'It was very interesting house, I thought at that time!'
”At last we settled at a house at Toome district, about three miles from the university The house was situated on a bluff, with a Buddist tehbourhood
'Kobu-dera'have knots left, the natural wood having been used without carpenter's planes Fori_[3] flowers in the garden
[3] Bush clover
”Being very fond of a te in Kobu-dera, so that he becaoodly old priest there, ho always his interpreter in such a case
”Al he took walk in Kobu-dera
”The children always said when he was absent, 'Papa is in Kobu-dera'
”The following is one of his conversations in one of our ras there: 'Can I not live in this telad to becoh nose!'
'Then you become a nun! and Kazuo a little boy priest!--how lovely he would be! We shall then every day chant the texts Oh, a happy life!'
'In the next world you shall be born a nun!'
”One day ent to the temple for our usual walk 'O, O!' he exclai on the ground 'Why have they cut down these trees? I see the temple people seem to be poor
They are in need of money Oh, why have they not told ive therow so large frousted with that old priest Pity! he has not h
Poor tree!' He was extremely sad and melancholily walked for home 'I feel so sad! I am no more pleasant to-day Go and ask the people to cut no more trees,' he said