r,
and gradually the number increased, until at last there were as many as
seventy working for me Inchie was my help, my interpreter, my
foreman. At first there were many difficulties in the way, for Inchie's
knowledge of English was limited, and my knowledge of Japanese was none
at all. It thus arose that the only method of making him understand me
was pantomime. One day, while discussing a certain measurement, we
became so involved that I was determined to demonstrate my meaning. So I
borrowed the carpenter's tools and constructed a little model of the
house, with its different rooms, showing how the carved ceilings and
friezes should be placed. Inchie was astounded that I should have so
great a knowledge of his own particular work of carpentry, and respected
me the more accordingly.

My one great obstacle with the men was in persuading them to make
several things alike. They were all artists and hated repeating
themselves, and without rhyme or reason I would suddenly find that they
had made a red lacquer door twice the size of its fellow by way of
variety. When I first employed them I made the grave mistake with my
workers of ordering large quantities at a time of required materials. I
actually ordered a hundred electric-light fittings--fairy-like lamps
daintily wrought in bronze, of which they had made me a model--but they
refused me point-blank, and the only way to get them at all was by
asking a dozen at a time, and by arranging that each dozen should be
varied in some slight respect. It was the same with my picture frames.
They were to be a combination of wood and silk, and when I told the
master bronze-worker to make me two hundred of them for my next
exhibition in London, his face clouded over; he was thoroughly
displeased. "No can make," he said decisively: "there is berry much
difficulty. Much it cost to make; I must get big shops to do that; I no
likee." The little man was quite discouraged, and I was only able to
procure my frames by degrees.

Now, in England it would be quite the reverse--the larger the order, the
more contented the merchant; but in Japan everything is made by hand.
The men take an artistic interest in the work. They hate repeating
themselves; and in all the panels designed for my carved ceilings there
were not two alike, although the entire design formed a complete whole.
Why in the world we do not use Oriental labour in Europe is a marvel to
me.

[Illustration: IN THEATRE STREET]