--'A wrestler is no match for a jiujitsu man. A wrestler who can lift up a big stone, or catch hold of a bull by its horns, would be easily beaten by a youth of fourteen scarcely able to lift a small cannon ball, provided the boy were well trained in jiujitsu. In wrestling, therefore, all jiujitsu tricks are forbidden. This will explain why no Occidental, even a champion wrestler, has ever succeeded in defeating a Japanese jiujitsu man. Perhaps you remember one of our jiujitsu men, who is in England, won the Gold Championship Cup last year, and yet in Japan he is not considered a first-class man in the art. I do not, however, wish to boast of the matter. Even amongst the most undeveloped tribes one sometimes sees the greatest possible skill shown in such matters, especially in the use of the bow and arrow. I hear American Indians shoot fishes in the rivers with arrows, and that too not by aiming direct, but by sending arrows up in the air and letting them fall in the water. They do not shoot direct, because, as you know, the curve of sight in water is very different from that in plain air.' --'I understand that,' said the duchess, 'but your jiujitsu seems to be very different from mere skill. It is the result of a long and deliberate study of physical organism, systematised upon a scientific basis, as the physician in the paper says.' --'Maybe,' I answered. --'But what is that book which you have brought with you?' asked the duchess. --'It is the book I promised you the other day. It is the _Kokkwa_, a monthly on art. It contains, as you see, very good photogravures and chromographs of our old _objets d'art_.' So saying, I handed the book to the duchess, and continued: --'You told me the other day, _apropos_ of the conversation of the Marchioness Vivastine and myself, that you were also an admirer of our art, and that you appreciated Utamaro and Hokusai. No doubt they were great artists, and I am delighted, of course, with your appreciation, but we should be sorry if they stood to you for the best that we can do in art. This monthly will give you a good idea why I say so.' All present were interested in the book, and its pages were gently turned over one by one. Presently the duchess remarked: --'Do you mean to say that the originals of these illustrations date back thirteen centuries?' --'Indeed, I do,' I replied. --'And that these prints were really made in Japan?' said another. --'Yes, surely.' --'What a softness and feeling here! Look!' the duchess went on; 'and how this part resembles classic Italian.' --'The art of printing,' I said, 'is well developed in Japan. The other day I showed a copy of the _Financial and Economical Annual_ of Japan to a Frenchman, and he thought the printing was very neat and clear, and could scarcely believe that the book had been printed in my country.' --'I can quite realise the scepticism of that person; but can you give me a rough idea of your ideal of pictures?'