The Kōyō-Kwan (Tinted-Maple House) on the heights beyond Shiba is the most noted restaurant in Tōkyō, a resort of princes and nobles when they wish to give banquets.  By invitation of a Japanese lawyer, we had dinner there -- a dinner, a complete example of a native feast...
        We first walked through the house, admiring its neatly finished interior.  In the tokonomas, alcoves with highly polished floors slightly elevated, old distorted pine-trees were growing in ornamental pots; and kakemonos, painted or written scrolls of birds or landscapes, were hung on the toko walls.  A Japanese interior is very effective because it always gives a work of art the advantage of ample room.  The beautiful screens, the open-work friezes, the tobacco boxes, the sake bottles and cups, the soup and rice bowls were all decorated with maple-leaves either painted, carved, or of pierced woodwork.  A veranda extended across the rear; from this we enjoyed a wide vista, embracing the curiously fanciful garden, the gray roofs, and stretching far out to sea.  The garden was a miniature landscape; a pretty combination of mountain, lake, waterfall, dwarf shrubs, and carefully trained pines two hundred years old and only a foot high.  A hedge was trimmed to simulate a huge rock very irregular in shape, and the effect was peculiar.  (pp. 151, 157)

"Dwarf Trees"  (pg. 155, shown larger than 4-1/16"H x 3-11/16"W book size to reveal details)

       The most interesting month of winter is January.  The New Year festival is officially observed, and every house has the pine and bamboo for exterior decorations, while flowering plum-trees, single or double blossomed, white or pink, trained into all sorts of odd shapes in blue porcelain pots or wooden boxes, make pretty the interior of each little home.  The pine, being an evergreen, is a symbol of longevity.  The bamboo is also an evergreen and represents length of life; the stalk has many joints, and the spaces between them are called yo, signifying age.  It therefore "joins many ages in itself."  The plum is a symbol of courage, strength, and virtue. (pg. 172-173)  1

1        Baxter, Katharine Schuyler   In Beautiful Japan, A Story of Bamboo Lands  (New York: The Hobart Company; 1904.  Copyright 1895 by the author.)   In her Preface, she includes the following: "I desire to acknowledge my indebtedness to Dr. J. J. Rein, to the columns of The Japan Mail, and for unvaluable assistance derived from the works of the distinguished author, Mr. B. H. Chamberlain, of Tōkyō..."  The book includes about 120 illustratons, either b&w photographs which she took during her stay or line drawings based on pictures she gathered there.  One of her companions on the voyage from Vancouver to Yokohama (arriving during a typhoon) turned out to be the eldest daughter of Sir Harry Parkes.  Baxter was her guest on several occasions while in Japan.(pp. 31-33)   The book's last sentence is "We sailed away, and two days later were in China."
       A digitalized version of the 1904 edition is here.

       Pg. 253 includes the following: "But the spirit of topsy-turveydom, directly opposed to our ideas, has affected even this lowly fungus [a forest mushroom]."  This is followed by a paragraph listing a number of the differences.  Did these two paragraphs inspire Patton or vice-versa?

       The primary difference between the two editions of Baxter's book seems to be a reference to the Japanese-Russia War (Feb. 8, 1904-Sept. 5, 1905): "The historic castle of Nagoya was an important stronghold during the time Japan was a feudal empire.  Erected in 1610 as a residence for the son of Ieyasu, it has in later years been turned over to the military department, and the great space between the inner and outer moat is used for barracks and parade-grounds...  The place presented a most warlike appearance, and we asked in vain what meant all this preparation -- what campaigns they were meditating -- with whom they were going to war -- questions which have since been answered."  (pg. 225)  War dates per James Trager's The People's Chronicle (NY: Henry Holt and Company; 1992, 1994), pp. 654, 659.