ABSTRACT
A public function highly appealing to the poetically minded was held at the Hyakka-en in Mukojima, Tokyo, on Aug. 1–2. The gathering was named “Mushi-hanachi-kai.” or a meeting for the uncaging of singing insects—one of the annual fixtures in the Tokyo calendar inaugurated in 1909. The entrance to the garden—for Hyakka-en is a flower garden—was decorated with red and white drapery, bonfires, and lanterns. The interior of the garden was illuminated with hundreds of bombori (standing paper lanterns), to set off the floral beauty for which the garden is famous. Prettily clad maidens, no less beautiful than flowers blooming fair, were appearing and disappearing among the groups of flowering plants, selecting places to set free the insect-musicians they kept in their small cages.
