Empty Mansions

artifacts, G. T. Marsh and Company. Though she and Huguette enjoyed hundreds of letters and phone calls through the years, she never had Huguette’s phone number.
    “She had a very happy voice,” Caterina said. “It was cute. One of her favorite words was ‘peculiar.’ ‘Isn’t that peculiar, Mrs. Caterina,’ she’d say.
    “I still have that voice in my ear. She was always polite, always asked about my husband and my son. She was just a delightful person. I think she had fun—don’t you think?—doing these projects that were not easy.”
    “The artist,” Saburo Kawakami, was a bit overwhelmed by the relentless requests from his “Clark-san.” At one point, Caterina cautioned Huguette, “It seems the artist is becoming more and more nervous every time he receives our letters.”
    The castle projects continued nearly to the end of Huguette’s life. For example, in February 2004, when she was nearly ninety-nine, she had the artist working simultaneously on a small palace, a garden with a red bridge, and new screens for a theater. Eventually she wore out her Japanese artist, who was becoming too ill to continue. A new artist was brought on, butHuguette wasn’t happy with his work, finding his style too modern.
    • • •
    Huguette was an avid collector of rare, historic Japanese dolls, particularly the tiny ones representing the emperor, the empress, and their ladies-in-waiting and court musicians. These figures are known as
hinaningyo
, or hina dolls.
    These are not merely playthings, as they might be in the West—young Japanese children usually aren’t allowed to handle them—but rather objects of religious celebration and national pride. On March 3 of each year, the third day of the third month, Japan celebrates the festival known as Hina-matsuri, or Girl’s Day, an ancient day of purification for the nation. The hina serve as protective talismans, absorbing malevolent spirits.
    IN CONVERSATION WITH HUGUETTE

 
    In a conversation in 1999, Huguette started by telling me about her Japanese dolls. She seemed uninhibited in expressing her interest in topics normally thought of as juvenile. I was unfamiliar with these dolls, so she patiently explained.
    Paul: So, well, now, now, what are you doing for fun these days?
    Huguette: Well, nothing special, you know. I’m getting my hina dolls together. I’m making a collection of hina dolls. I don’t know if you know what they are?
    Paul: No, I don’t know. How do you spell that?
    Huguette: H-I-N-A.
    Paul: H-I-N-A.
    Huguette: It’s a festival that takes place in Japan.… They have a festival in March and they have all these dolls.
    Paul: Are these a big part of your doll collection—Japanese dolls?
    Huguette: Yes, the hina collection. They are hard to get. They go way down to the Meiji period.
    Paul: Where will these be shown? Where will they be exhibited?
    Huguette: They’re not exhibited. I mean to say, people collect them. But they’re hard to get, very hard to find. You’ve never heard of them?
    Paul: No, I haven’t. I’ll have to read about it.… Are you contributing to a show for this purpose?
    Huguette: No, no, they have it in their home, you see? For three days they exhibit these dolls. They invite all their friends.
    Paul: And will you be having a celebration in your home for this?
    Huguette: No, no, no.… But, I mean, they’re very lovely dolls, you know.… I think you’ll enjoy them for your little granddaughter. Does she still dance the ballet?
    I asked Huguette how many times she had visited Japan. Had she gone to the doll temple in Kyoto? Seen Hirosaki Castle?
    Oh no, she answered cheerfully, I’ve never been to Japan.
    Huguette prized her hina dolls, especially the tiny ones—called
mame-bina
, about five inches high, with heads the size of a bean—and the three-inch
keshi-bina
, with heads the size of a seed.She said one of her favorite movies was Akira Kurosawa’s
Dreams
, which has a sequence about hina dolls that come to life to punish a boy’s family for cutting down some sacred peach trees.
    Huguette said her favorite novel was
The Hidden Flower
, a love story written by Pearl S. Buck. Huguette corresponded with Buck in the 1940s and gave money to her humanitarian efforts for children in Asian countries.
    The Hidden Flower
, published in 1952, describes a forbidden love between an American serviceman and a young Japanese American woman living in postwar Japan. The woman, Josui, was born in the United States