Daughters of Nijo: A Romance of Japan

THE CHILD OF THE SUN ON the shore of Hayama, in a little village two hours’ ride by train from Tokyo, there stood a sumptuous villa, the summer residence of the Prince of Nijo, th...

AN EMPEROR’S PROMISE ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [Illustration]...

AN EMPEROR’S PROMISE ON a cold morning in the month of January the Empress Dowager died. She had returned from a ceremony of the thirtieth anniversary of the death of her late con...

MASAGO FROM a poor but honored farmer of Echizen, Yamada Kwacho had grown to be a rich and prominent merchant of Tokyo. At the advice of the Lord of Echizen, Kwacho had gone to To...

A BETROTHAL ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [Illustration]...

A BETROTHAL THE following morning an early messenger brought a letter to the Kamura residence. The family were at breakfast, but as the messenger came from the elder Kamura’s old ...

GOSSIP OF THE COURT ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [Illustration]...

GOSSIP OF THE COURT IT was early afternoon. The ladies in the Komatzu palace were taking their noon-day siesta, and idly discussing the work of the artist, Kamura Junzo. Since he ...

THE PRINCESS SADO-KO ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [Illustration]...

THE PRINCESS SADO-KO WHILE the ladies of the household of the Princess Sado-ko, and guests of her cousin the Prince Komatzu, were gossiping over their noonday tea, Kamura Junzo, a...

THE PICTURE BY THE ARTIST-MAN ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [Illustration]...

THE PICTURE BY THE ARTIST-MAN THE ladies persisted, though the artist was obdurate. He stood in their path directly before the covered picture on the foreign easel. His eyes wande...

A SENTIMENTAL PRINCESS ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [Illustration]...

A SENTIMENTAL PRINCESS JUNZO turned his head from Sado-ko. He stood still as a statue, his head drooping, his hands clinched. She broke the strained silence with a command to her ...

MOON TRYST ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [Illustration]...

MOON TRYST LIKE a large lighted lantern the palace Komatzu appeared in the night. Its transparent shojis revealed the lights within. The sound of soft tinkling music was constantl...

COUSIN KOMATZU ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [Illustration]...

COUSIN KOMATZU SADO-KO stepped from out the shadow of the bamboo grove into the moon-lit path, and seemingly pensive, made her way toward the two at the gate. She paused before th...

A MIRROR AND A PHOTOGRAPH ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [Illustration]...

A MIRROR AND A PHOTOGRAPH “WHY do you weep?” asked Sado-ko. “O noble princess,” stammered Natsu-no, “I would that you could weep with me.” “Maiden, I have shed all the tears tha...

MISTS OF KAMAKURA ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [Illustration]...

MISTS OF KAMAKURA THERE were marsh lands and boggy rice-fields in the valley country along the Hayama, and during the season of White Dew (end of August) the river was low and sca...

DAUGHTERS OF NIJO ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [Illustration]...

DAUGHTERS OF NIJO MASAGO spoke, her words strangely enunciated. “Lady—you—you desired to speak with me?” Her voice broke the spell of silence. The visitor bowed her head simply ...

SOLUTION OF THE GODS ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [Illustration]...

SOLUTION OF THE GODS A WILD flush of color rushed to the face of Sado-ko; a light so clear as at first to dazzle her, flashed through her mind. “Masago—sister!” she cried. “Oh, t...

THE CHANGE ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [Illustration]...

THE CHANGE “HUSH! Do not speak so loudly, Masago!” “How you tremble, Sado-ko.” “We have once more mistaken our names,” said she who was the Princess Sado-ko. “Oh, true. Now cal...

A FAMILY COUNCIL ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [Illustration]...

A FAMILY COUNCIL THE Kamura house was built on a hill slope. Of all the houses of the suburb, it was nearest to the palace Aoyama. Shortly after the Restoration the elder Kamura h...

THE NEW MASAGO ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [Illustration]...

THE NEW MASAGO THE following morning dawned clear and bright, not a remnant of mist or fog remaining to recall the previous night. A bright yellow sun arose from behind the hills ...

A MOTHER BLIND ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [Illustration]...

A MOTHER BLIND WHILE the Princess Sado-ko was sitting ruefully among the folded bed things, and pondering upon the weighty question of their disposal, Kwacho and Ohano arrived hom...

WITHIN THE PALACE NIJO ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [Illustration]...

WITHIN THE PALACE NIJO THE palace Nijo, the resort of West-desiring nobility and court, was possibly the oddest if most expensive residence in Tokyo. Originally it had been a Yash...

AN EVIL OMEN ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [Illustration]...

AN EVIL OMEN “ARTIST, you cannot enter the hall!” said the Duchess Aoi, pulling the sleeve of Junzo’s hakama. “I am a guest,” he said briefly. “But you transgress the most strin...

“YOU ARE NOT SADO-KO!” ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [Illustration]...

“YOU ARE NOT SADO-KO!” IT was such another moonlight night as that on which the Princess Sado-ko kept her last tryst with the artist Junzo, but in the Nijo gardens no sight was re...

THE COMING HOME OF JUNZO ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [Illustration]...

THE COMING HOME OF JUNZO THOUGH samurai by birth, the Kamura family were of gentler nature than their stern ancestors, and so no feeling of anger or bitterness had been cherished ...

THE CONVALESCENT ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [Illustration]...

THE CONVALESCENT IT was a happy day in the Kamura household when the cheerful and rapid-moving foreign doctor pronounced the patient strong enough to leave his room to sit a littl...

A ROYAL PROCLAMATION ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [Illustration]...

A ROYAL PROCLAMATION IN the palace Nijo the latest royal proclamation came like an earthquake shock. The Emperor at last had kept his word to his dead mother. Through word to Nijo...

THE EVE OF A WEDDING ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [Illustration]...

THE EVE OF A WEDDING IT was the month of Kikuzuki (Chrysanthemum). Summer was dying,—not dead,—and in her latter moments her beauty was ethereal, though passionate. The leaves wer...

MASAGO’S RETURN ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [Illustration]...

MASAGO’S RETURN ALONE in the quiet guest room of the Yamada house they sat. Convention demanded a light, but it was of the dimmest—a dull and flickering andon. Yet the night was c...

A GRACIOUS PRINCESS AT LAST ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [Illustration]...

A GRACIOUS PRINCESS AT LAST THE following morning Masago, irritated and nervous, sat in a chamber of the palace Aoyama. Impatiently she chided Madame Bara, the chaperon. “I am ti...

“THE GODS KNEW BEST!” ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [Illustration]...

“THE GODS KNEW BEST!” IT wanted but a few hours before the noon wedding when Sado-ko, appearing on her balcony, looked down into the garden, where her lover waited. Down the littl...