Page:Japanese Gardens (Taylor).djvu/173

Rh A famous play was written about O Kiku, which is still acted in all the popular theatres, entitled Banshu-O-Kiku-no-Sara-ya-shiki, or ‘The Manor of the Dish of O Kiku of Banshu.’ ”

Even with Western nations the old well seems still to retain a few shreds of the romance of bygone years, when it was a meeting-place for village youths and maidens, and love-making and water-drawing went on simultaneously. But ‘laid on’ water has driven out even the homely pump that superseded the ‘old wooden buckets.’ Wells, to us nowadays, are out of date; and although we preserve an affection for them, as we do for old furniture, they no longer form a striking feature of our gardens or back yards. The Japanese, on the contrary, make the well the pivot of a charming bit of scenery, the central part of a picture which is composed of the well cover and coping; with its proper complement of ‘Standing’ or ‘Recumbent’ rocks, a stone lantern, perhaps, and an Azalea bush, clipped round; a clump of Irises, not too close to the stepping-stones; and over all a drooping Pine tree, or perhaps a Cherry, to carry on, in spring (and even in winter, for its bare bark and branches are lovely then in their own way), the tender, penetrating sense of beauty and of continued life. Seen from any point such a group makes a picture; and, what is far more, to a Japanese mind it conveys its