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was finished and ready to fix in its place without nails, and the only
thing left to be completed by the British workmen was the slight wooden
beams and square framework in which the carved panels were to be fixed.
I secured five or six good workmen, and literally taught them how to
handle this material, but it took them two years to put up what my
Japanese craftsmen had produced in one year. It was all straightforward
clean design, and there was no artistic effort needed for it; but the
obstacle was that they always struggled to make the woodwork a little
thicker than necessary. Their inclinations were always to strengthen
things, and it took a great deal of perseverance and patience to uproot
their fixed ideas. Then I had a great deal of trouble with the painters.
At first they almost refused to put distemper on my walls. Strings upon
strings of painters I was compelled to dismiss because they would
persist in putting what they called "body" into the paint. Sometimes
they would slip it in behind my back; but I always detected it and
dismissed the men on the instant. It was the only way. "Well, I've been
in the trade for thirty years and I've always used body"--they all said
that, and every workman I have ever employed, or is yet to be employed,
always says the same. No matter how young or how old they may be, they
have always been in the trade for thirty years. One painter I educated
sufficiently to allow of him going so far against his principles as to
leave out "body," but when I ordered him to mix oil and water by beating
them together in a tub he declined and left. The only men whom I was
able to persuade to do this for me were my foreman and one of the
carpenters. The foreman was a very intelligent little man, whom I had
educated to such an extent that his views of life and of workmen in
general were entirely changed. He sneered at them, and was altogether so
won over to my ideas that I am afraid I totally destroyed him for any
other work. The painter, on the other hand, had no intelligence at all,
but was equally devoted, and I feel quite sure that those two poor
operatives are drifting about now doing anything but their respective
trades of carpentry and painting. They undertook the beating of the oil
and water very energetically, and kept it up for days, relieved
occasionally by the caretaker. Eventually the oil did mix, and the
experiment was a great success. Towards the end of their training these
men becam