GARDEN-PARTYING IN JAPAN

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 208, 18 September 1937, Page 17

GARDEN-PARTYING IN JAPAN

Quaint Ceremonial

^JUIERE IS SOMETHING simple and unarrange.d which. ufcually manages to break through the Japanese ceremonial scene, writes Lady Katharine Saneom an "Living in Tokio. ' ' For decor you may have tlie brocaded obis and eplendid silks of the ladies' dress, in * setting of ancient screens, lacquer cabinets aa.d classical CMnese sculpture; or if the taste of tlie house runs that way, of French Impressionist picturos and their modern Japanese derivatives, in a framo of Western-style furniture. In the houseg of the more or less cosmopolitan xich of Tokio you may tloat in and out of the, two worlds; you may view Tare orchids in conservatories or pit the quality of your own sweet-peas againtst your host's, play tennis on his perfcct hard court. or stroll among carefully chosen and sparsely placed rocks in his Japanese garden. He will take you to look at the small garden-room, which is used for the tea ceremony and its quiet eoncomitants of poetry-com-posing ahd measured conversation on aesthetics, whilst the participants hold pricelesls pots in their hands and look at a mystic landscape oh the wall, While at a grand dinner-party you will be served with a perfect French cuisine and wines to match, sometimes wines of wonderful vintage, it is at the larger garden-parties that some of the more unusual forms of entertainment are arranged. Pictures aTe painted for you by artists engaged for the evening; so that you are able to wat-ch waving bamboo grow on the white silk, admiring the unerring precision with which leaf and braneh are added to the stem? oeo how the eye of the mandarin-duck gets perfectly placed in its liead, and how the colouxs are allowed to run discreetly into each other in the molding of fruit and big sweeping leaves. Sometimes a famous musician plays on the nativc^ koto, or an accomplished student from the Conservatory in Paris regales you with Chopin and Debussy; or a singer •ttempts the full-throated ease of the Italian opera stylo: everything is studied in modern Japan. . At some of the large gardcn parties, ,

a booth is set up containing a bakingoven for pottery, whilst on a long table are placed unglazed plates and vases and saucers for the guests to paint. Brushes and ready-mixed paints lie to hand, and it is open to anyone to try his skill. Ncedless to say, the Japanese guests are far more skilful than anyone else, but even so the game is a charming one, and the things are baked as you wait, so that you may carry them homo when the moment for departure comes. 1 The most amusing garden party variety show is provided by fishing in the artificial lakefc of certain of the famous gardens of Tokio; and anything more unexpected than the sight of top-hatted gentlemen armed with long bamboo fishing rode, pulling out fat fish in an ecstasy of enjoyment one could liardly hope to see. Everything is arranged' in the grand manner; attendants attach the bait and remove the vanquished creatures, rowing you about and pointing out the most likely places for you to try your luck in: it is both a highly amusing and a charming scene, with its background of wistariapergola^ and rhododendron and azalea buslies, and the deep green beyond. The ladies" in exotic kimonos are as keen fishermen as anybody, so that when the correct hour for departure arrives, and you tear yourself reluctantly away, they Temain^ a select little band of laughing ladies and top-hatted men still conjuring fish from the pool.