answerespecially if you treated her fairly. Consequently there was far less danger of foul venereal disease in Japan than in Europe. Also, there was less danger of begetting a child, for every geisha knew how to prepare a little wad of oiled paper which she introduced into the vagina and so made pregnancy practically impossible.
In many ways, I came to regard Japan as the France of the East, not only in the disdain of ordinary modesty, but also in love of art and appreciation of artists and writers. Besides, just as there is a heroic soul behind all the flighty heedlessness of the French character, so there is an extraordinary heroism in Japan that every now and then astonishes the observer. If a wife injures her husband, or a soldier makes some blunder that brings ruin to others, each does justice by taking his or her own life. I could go on almost interminably, extolling the virtues of this great people, but try as I would, I could never, considering the shortness of my stay in the country, hope to give an adequate historical document. Instead, I shall move on at once to what I can speak of with authority, to the subject of the young woman who, more than any other person, was responsible for the longing I still feel after all these years for “the land of flowers.”
I was invited by my friend, the captain, to a festive evening. He had brought together a special corps of geishas, and they were attended by women who came and sat with us while their more exalted sisters danced. The young lady who came to me was the prettiest of the whole lot; I suppose I showed her that I admired her. At any rate, the dance was not half over when her hand began to stray against my thigh. She soon went on to bolder demonstrations of desire, brushing the stiffening bulge of my cock with her fingertips. At length I said to her, “Later,” one of the few Japanese words I knew. She pouted and then laughed with enjoyment. I allowed my hand to move softly over the silk of her tunic.
When the geishas finished their dance and came back to sit with us, I said to my host: “Is it possible for me to keep my attendant?”
“Sure,” he replied, and with a word or two made my resolve known. Never did I see such gratitude in any human face as the young lady showed to me there. I was sure that the compliment paid to her in preferring her to the more important geishas would be returned in full. I was not mistaken.
As soon as we were alone together in the bedroom, she evinced a mixture of affection and passion such as it has seldom been my good fortune to experience. She was pretty and beautifully formed and had all the wisdom of a perfect lover. She drew my trousers down and took my engorged tool in her mouth without hesitation. She swished around the mushroom head, flicking lightly over the tip, then used long strokes to lave the length of my shaft. When she arrived at my balls she gently took them into her mouth one at a time, then released them with a wet popping sound. She returned to the darkly blushing crown while she manipulated me with her hand, urging me to spend in her mouth. So relaxed was I that this was not long in coming. Yet, as my spunk rose, she gripped me tightly enough to force it down, only to commence the voluptuous cycle once again. By the third repetition I was squirming with incredible desire and raging orgasms that had been brought upon me without the release to which every man is accustomed. This was the sign of my geisha's skill and I have never met another woman who could emulate her talents. At last, seeing that my body was unaccustomed to such unadulterated pleasure, she once again brought me to the precipice and this time urged me over. I fairly exploded in her mouth while she expertly swallowed every drop, though she let some dribble past her lips and shared this with me in a long and lingering kiss. A strange thoughtful mistress, she was clever enough to cease exciting me when she knew my body was satiated, her own body a perfect instrument of love. Both by her passion and by her self-control she made the nights memorable for me.
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.
