g roof admit but few of the sun's rays. Everything is
sober in tint from the ceiling to the floor; the guests themselves have
carefully chosen garments of unobtrusive colors. The mellowness of age
is over all, everything suggestive of recent acquirement being tabooed
save only the one note of contrast furnished by the bamboo dipper and
the linen napkin, both immaculately white and new. However faded the
tea-room and the tea-equipage may seem, everything is absolutely clean.
Not a particle of dust will be found in the darkest corner, for if any
exists the host is not a tea-master. One of the first requisites of a
tea-master is the knowledge of how to sweep, clean, and wash, for there
is an art in cleaning and dusting. A piece of antique metal work must
not be attacked with the unscrupulous zeal of the Dutch housewife.
Dripping water from a flower vase need not be wiped away, for it may be
suggestive of dew and coolness.

In this connection there is a story of Rikiu which well illustrates the
ideas of cleanliness entertained by the tea-masters. Rikiu was watching
his son Shoan as he swept and watered the garden path. "Not clean
enough," said Rikiu, when Shoan had finished his task, and bade him try
again. After a weary hour the son turned to Rikiu: "Father, there is
nothing more to be done. The steps have been washed for the third time,
the stone lanterns and the trees are well sprinkled with water, moss and
lichens are shining with a fresh verdure; not a twig, not a leaf have I
left on the ground." "Young fool," chided the tea-master, "that is not
the way a garden path should be swept." Saying this, Rikiu stepped into
the garden, shook a tree and scattered over the garden gold and crimson
leaves, scraps of the brocade of autumn! What Rikiu demanded was not
cleanliness alone, but the beautiful and the natural also.

The name, Abode of Fancy, implies a structure created to meet some
individual artistic requirement. The tea-room is made for the tea
master, not the tea-master for the tea-room. It is not intended for
posterity and is therefore ephemeral. The idea that everyone should have
a house of his own is based on an ancient custom of the Japanese race,
Shinto superstition ordaining that every dwelling should be evacuated
on the death of its chief occupant. Perhaps there may have been some
unrealized sanitary reason for this practice. Another early custom
was that a newly built house should be provided for each couple th