2-716-821 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

'What was the young man's astonishment to see a pretty young girl standing just within the gate', 1919. A young samurai 'happened to pass a deserted Buddhist temple. He noticed that the gate stood half open, and hung loosely on its rusty hinges, and the whole place had a dilapidated and tumbledown appearance. What was the young man's astonishment to see, in striking contrast to such a forlorn environment, a pretty young girl standing just within the gate...The samurai began to wonder at the strange behaviour of the damsel, who had inveigled him into such a place only to disappear and leave him in solitude.' Illustration to "The Badger-Haunted Temple", a story in "Romances of Old Japan", by Madame Yukio Ozaki. [Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & Co. Ltd, London, 1919]