Frank Harris - My Life And Loves, vol 5

I made the mistake of thinking that after the first night it was all over. When the captain and I met in the morning, I told him all my feelings and give him a ten pound note to convey my satisfaction to my little friend. To my wonder and his, the money was refused! The beautiful and gracious woman told me with a brave glance that she would always be willing to welcome me gratis. My friend declared that it was the first time in all his twenty years' acquaintance with Japan that such a thing had happened.

About a week later, I received a letter from the woman saying that she cared for me and if I wished she would come and be my servant until I left Japan. Thank God I had sense enough to accept her offer. Of what happened then, I shall speak now.

It was my little attendant who taught me all I know of Japan and a good deal about female nature to boot.

First of all, she showed me that the position of women in Japan among the better classes was far lower than I had ever supposed. She assured me that the boy in the family was everything and that the girl had to do what she was told. If she married, the inferiority only intensified. Whatever her husband did was good, and if his will ran counter to hers in anything, she had simply to give in or be broken. She taught me that the Japanese wife was everything to her husbandnot only a mistress but a valet as well. She takes care of his clothing, brings it to him in the morning and helps to put it on and must put away with care whatever he takes off. In the poorer families all the washing, sewing and mending is done by the wife. Every Japanese woman (excepting those of the highest rank) knows how to sew, and makes not only her own garments, and those of her children, but her husband's as well.

It is the wife who gets up first in the morning, wakes the servants and prepares the breakfast. As soon as she puts out the andon, which is the only night-light used in Japanese houses and is merely a piece of wick floating in a saucer of vegetable oil, she opens the sliding doors, lets in a flood of light and completes her hasty toilet.

Certainly a Japanese man is lucky in having all the little things in life attended to by his thoughtful wife. She is a good, considerate, careful body-servant, always on hand to bear for him all the trifling worries and cares.

Once the husband is started on his daily rounds, the wife settles down to the work of the house. Her sphere is within her home, and though, unlike other Asiatic women, she goes without restraint alone through the streets, she does not concern herself with the world. Yet she is not barred from all intercourse with the outer world, for there are sometimes great dinner parties, given perhaps at home, when she must appear as hostess, side by side with her husband, and share with him the duty of entertaining the guests.

So rigid are the requirements of Japanese hospitality that no guest is allowed to leave a house without having been pressed to partake of food, if it be only tea and cake. Even tradesmen or messengers who come to the house must be offered tea. If carpenters, gardeners, or workmen of any kind are employed about the house, tea must be served in the middle of the afternoon with a light lunch, and tea sent out to them often during their day's work. If a guest arrives in rickshaw, not only the guest, but the rickshaw men must be supplied with refreshments. All these things involve much thought and care on the part of the lady of the house.

Among the daily tasks of the housewife, one, and by no means the least of her duties, is to receive, duly acknowledge, and return in a suitable manner, the presents received in the family. Presents are not confined to special seasons. Children visiting in the family are always given toys. For this purpose a stock is kept on hand. The present giving culminates at the close of the year when all friends and acquaintances exchange gifts of value according to their feelings and means. Should there be anyone who has been especially kind, and to whom return should be made, this is the time to do it.

The Japanese mother takes great delight and comfort in her children, and the right directions of their habits and manners is her constant thought and care. She seems to govern them entirely by gentle admonition, and the severest chiding that is given them is always in a pleasant voice, and accompanied by a smiling face. Even with plenty of servants, the mother performs for her children nearly all the duties often delegated to nurses in other countries.

From my beautiful attendant I learned everything connected with sex in that wondrous country. She taught me that sexual modesty, as we understand it, is utterly unknown in Japan and China. She brought me to the geisha ya the establishments where dancing girls are trained before they are let out by the day or evening to tea-houses or private parties. She had been trained in one of these from the age of seven by the woman proprietor, and she was one of the best dancers I had ever seen.

She took me to professional storytellers or hanashika, just as she took me too to favorite spots near Tokyo to see the famous cherry blossoms in April and May. Thousands of visitors crowd to Uyeno Park for the cherry and peach blossoms, to Kameido for the plum and wisteria, and to Oji for its famous maple trees. A prize fight near London, or a horse race would hardly attract a larger crowd and would scarcely be more educative. My guide made me understand gradually that Japanese civilization was higher than the English save in the one essential of religion.

Through the knowledge of Japan, I learned what Christianity with its care for the individual soul had done for women.

The moment we spoke of sex, her revelations became extraordinary. I asked her during the first days how she had lost her maidenhead. She told me that one of the schoolmistresses had approached her when she was thirteen and had soon kissed all her virginity away. This woman had used tongue and fingers, but had also schooled her in the use of artificial means to stimulate pleasure. For instance, she had brought with her a rod of polished ivory that was masterfully worked into the shape of a man's organ, complete with balls and even a fringe of hair. When she had licked the nearly bald pussy of her young charge, and stretched those tender lips with her fingers, she had inserted the end of this device and begun to work it in and out. She fed more and more of it into the hungry maw in which it was embedded until the pleasure it elicited was so great that my lover had begged her schoolmistress to stop. That had been the beginning of her education in the mysteries of the flesh. She told me never to go with anyone in the Yoshiwara. If I wanted anyone, she would soon find out if they were healthy or not and let me know.

“But,” she said, “you are rich, you can have a lovely girl whenever you like without any danger. Why run any risk?”

At length, shamefaced, I said: “Could you find me one?”

“A dozen,” she replied laughing, “more seductive than I am.”

In the long run she brought me a girl exquisitely pretty and amiable, but no better in sexual matters than herself. From that moment on I determined to remain devoted to my little attendant, and though I was unfaithful once or twice, for the greater part of my stay in Japan I contented myself with her.

There was nothing in the way of sex she did not know. She delighted in showing herself to me and was not averse to explaining that when she liked a man, her cunt thrilled and plagued her all day long.

“Do you ever touch it?” I asked.

“What good would that do?” she replied. “When I touch it myself, I feel almost nothing, but when you touch it, I go nearly mad.”

I soon found that her pussy, like those of the others, was very small, but she assured me that this was a mere question of race.