Division DS809 Section V . 2 Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2015 https://archive.org/details/japanherpeople02hart_0 JAPAN AND HER PEOPLE ANNA C. HARTSHORNE ILLUSTRATED IN TWO VOLUMES VOL. II THE INTERNATIONAL PRESS THE JOHN C. WINSTON CO. PHILADELPHIA Copyright, HENRY T. COATES & CO. 1902. CONTENTS VOLUME II CHAPTER I. PAGE The Ainu Aborigines, 1 CHAPTER II. Miyanoshita, 31 CHAPTER III. Hakone and Atami, 48 CHAPTER IV. The Tokaido, 64 CHAPTER V. Mount Fuji, 90 CHAPTER VI. Nagoya 105 CHAPTER VII. Gifu, 121 CHAPTER VIII. The Shrinks of Ise, 130 CHAPTER IX. Kyoto— The Palaces, 154 iii IV CONTENTS. CHAPTER X. PAGE Kyoto— The Temples, 187 CHAPTER XI. Lake Biwa and Abashiyama 214 CHAPTER XII. The Theatre, 229 CHAPTER XIII. Fetes and Flowers, 247 CHAPTER XIV. Kara, 281 CHAPTER XV. Osaka, 292 CHAPTER XVI. Kobe, 300 CHAPTER XVII. Miyajima and the Inland Sea, 309 CHAPTER XVIII. Nagasaki CHAPTER XIX. Kagoshima, 332 CHAPTER XX. Formosa, Index, 261 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS VOLUME II Photogravures made by Gilbo & Co. Pagoda, Osaka, .... PAGE Frontispiece , Ainu Aborigines, 4 Ainu Poling Boat, . . 20 Children Carrying Babies, . . 36 Kago (Traveling Chair), . 50 Hakone . 60 Rice Planting, .... . 70 Peasants, . 80 Mount Fujiyami, . 96 Nagoya Castle, . 108 Lantern Makers, . 122 Nijo Palace, Kyoto, . 158 Tea Picking . 176 Sorting Tea, .... • . 186 Nishi Hongwanji, . • . 190 V vi LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE Winding Silk from Cocoons, 200 Bamboo Grove, 214 Boys’ Festival, 252 Pagoda, Nara, 282 Girl Painting, 288 Osaka Castle, 296 SlIIMONOSEKI, 310 Nagasaki Harbor, 320 Native Boats in Nagasaki Harbor, 330 Japanese Junk, 342 JAPAN AND HER PEOPLE. CH.iPTER I. THE AIXU ABORIGINES. Professor Chamberlain, writing of Ainu folk lore, gave three good reasons for which this strange people is worthy of being studied — “ because its do- main once extended over the entire Japanese archi- pelago, becau.se ab.solutely nothing is known of its origin and affinitie.s, and because it i.s, so to speak, almost at its last gasp.” This last proposition, at least, is evident to any one Avho goes to the Hokkaido. Years ago, when Miss Pil’d followed her “ Unbeaten Tracks” into the north, tliere were still j>lcnty of Ainu not far from Hakodate, at Mori, on the south shore of Volcano bay, and else- where in .southern Yezo ; but as the Japanese have come, the Ainu have gone, always northward — where else, indeed, could they go? — clustering, some of them, in .srpialid villages on the upper .shore of Vol- cano bay, but mostly along the remote coasts and up the rivers, in out-of-the-way places, where they VOL. II.— 1 can 2 JAPAN. still hunt and fish. Some there are even in the dreary Kurile islands, though, according to Romyn Hitch- cock, these are another people, akin to the Mongolian pit-dweller’s of Saghalien. Mr. Batchelor, first and special missionary to the Ainu, has collected many curious animal tales and bits of folk lore, some of them as unlike Japanese folk stories as possible, while others are attributed to Chinese and Japanese influences. The ethnologi.sts, too, have been busy among them — the German Scheube in 1882; Hitchcock, of the Smithsonian Institute, ten years later ; Profe.ssor Milne, Professor Chanrberlain, and lately Mi’s. Todd, who took a col- lection of clothing and utensils to Professor Morse, at the Peabody ^luseuin, in Salem ; while Captain James, of the “Coronet,” arranged for a collection for the national museum in Xew York. Probably the Sapporo Historical Society does as much or more in collecting material than the rest of the agencies put together ; but as few of the members publish out of their own tongue, it will be long before their researches get befoi’e the world at large. Certainly the hairy Ainu should be the joy of all who delight in ethnological puzzles, for, as I’rofessor C'hamberlain says, nolx)dy knows anything of their t)i’igin, and so far nobodv can find out. Phvsic- ally and in every way they are totally distinct from the Ja])anese ; they are nearly the same height, but more chunky and thick-.set, with straight eyes and THE AINU ABORIGINES. 3 level eyebrows — not arched and far above the eyes, like the brows of a Japanese — and above all, heavily bearded, while the other race is notably smooth-faced. The Ainu are as dirty as their conquerors are clean, as slow-witted as these are quick ; the two races seem to be alike only in having high cheek-bones, dark eyes and inky-l)lack hair. Beards indeed are so necessary to the happiness of an Ainu that, since nature has neglected the women in this respect, they are allowed to tattoo themselves fine blue-black mous- taches. The process is begun in childhood and carried on year by year, so that by the time a girl is ‘‘out,” so to speak, she has a magnificent curve across each cheek almost to her ear, and a pair of marks also on her forehead. Modern Japanese law forbids the practice, but it is still done in all the more out-of-the-way places. Tlie long beards and general cast of features of the Ainu are so strikingly like Russian peasants that the comparison has been made very often, but so far no racial affinity has been proved ; certainly not the least trace of Aryan descent can be claimed for them, how- ever much one of these dignified old chiefs may look like a kilted Scotch Highlander. The venerable beards give their mild countenances an air of great dignity and even refinement, as is esjtecially noticeable in their ])hotogra])hs — this, perhaps, because one can study them more judicially when imdistracted bv the ajipcal to the olfactory nerves, which is generally made by the living subject. 4 JAPAN. Not all of them are aetually hairy all over, though, indeed, Henry Savage Landor insists that around the north coast and in other wild places they are univers- ally so, and argues that those who are not hair}' have an intermixture of Japanese blood. There used to be a theory that the children of Japanese and Ainu were not healthy, and that the mixed race soon died off ; but of this there seems to be no definite proof and little probability. A curious physical trait is that the Ainu skeleton has the bones of the forearm and leg noticeably flattened. Language is not much help as to their origin, even if the modern ethnologists would allow that it ever proved anything in any case. In general structure Ainu is rather like Japanese, but Professor Chamber- lain says the resemblances are less than the differ- ences. Naturally very many words have been adopted from the Japanese, with or without modification ; for instance, Kamui (a divine being), Japanese Kami; mai-dare (an apron — literally, a “hang-before”), which is Japanese, pure and simple; pi-shahu (a bark dii)pcr), in which last case both word and thing are copied from a bamboo hi-shaka, or Ja})anese dipper. The change from p to h and back again is not uncom- mon in the different pai*ts of Japan proper; the. northern Jajjanese dialect uses pi instead of hi for fire, and in the southwest — Nagasaki, for instance — they say Ji. In Tokyo, again, people commonly make yet another change in this slippery syllable, and say shi THE AINU ABORIGINES. 5 instead of hi. The northern dialect i? quite rough, the peasants speaking as if they had their mouths shut, and slurring or suppressing vowels. Merely in listening to it, Ainu sounds much more harsh and cou.souantal than Japanese, and certainly looks so Avhen it is written down in English letters, as ]\Ir, Batchelor has done for them with great thorouglmess and patience. One theory of Ainu origin brings them from the north, chiefly because their iufenio is cold, and their best wish for a friend, “ May you be kept warm ! ” As we only know tlieir beliefs and traditions as they cxi.st now, after centuries of banishment from warmer regions, where we know they lived till historical time.s, this evidence cannot be considered very conclusive. On the other side, there is an Ainu tradition that in the beginning all the world was very hot — which of course may very likely be a memory of some volcanic region. At this time, says the legend, the Ainu would have fared badly but for Okikurumi, a being who appears in many stories as a culture hero, teach- ing and ])roviding for the Ainu forefathers. Okiku- rumi caught fish and sent it to the Ainu by his wife, Turesh or Tureshi, who put it in at the window. The Ainu were forbidden to look at Turesh or ask any (piestions, and for a long time they obeyed ; but at last one man becatne very curious, and one day, when Turesh came to the window, he caught her by the hand and pulled her inside. Okikurumi was very 6 JAPAN. angry at this, and sent no more fish, and since then the Ainu have had to take care of themselves as best they can. I was told much the same story by the Japanese in Sapporo, but according to them it was the Koro- puk-guru (the dwarfs) who ased to bring the Ainu food and other good things, and were frightened off by some one’s rudeness. The Ainu have many legends about these Koropuk-guru, who, they say, were plenty in the land in the good old times. They had blue eyes, and were so small that they could live under a big dock leaf, whence the name. (It should be remarked here that Hokkaido dock leaves are two feet or more long.) They were the “ Good People,” as the Scotch say, and did many kind deeds, but did not like to be spied upon or thanked, and conducted themselves altogether like the Brownies of our own folk tales. Among the Ainu somebody always has a grandmother who has seen one, but in these degener- ate days they are all quite gone, leaving only another puzzle for the archaeologists. On the whole, the weight of evidence .seems to be that there really was another race, probably older than the Ainu even, perhaps the same as the “ Earth Spiders ” of Japanese tradition, who lived in caves and fought with Jimmu Tenno and the first ancestors. At any rate, there are mounds all over Japan, whether of the Ainu or another people, in which stone imple- ments and pottery are found, which bear no resem- THE AINU ABOEIGINES. 7 blance to anything the Japanese have ever made ; more- over, the Japanese certainly liad iron weapons when they first reached Japan, and must have jJassed through the stone and bronze ages elsewhere. And, finally, all over the Hokkaido there are remains of pit-dwell- ings, which the Ainu declare they never have used, nor have the Japanese any tradition connecting them with the Ainu. Of course, it is not impossible that at some time the Ainu might have lived part of the year in such places ; just as the Australian blacks used to have straw huts for summer and holes for winter, and the Chinook Indians of British Columbia dig what they call “ kergwilly holes ” and roof them over for the cold ]>art of the year, but return to their skin tents in summer. But so far as has been found there is not a legend among the Ainu to point this way. A few years ago Profe.ssor Tsuboi, of the University of Tokyo, opened one of these mounds, which was on the side of Akusa hill at Oji ; he found first of all a bed of clam shells, mixed with bones of animals and charred fragments, and then four polished stone axes, some chipped ones, stones round and scpiare, having holes through the middle, much broken potterv, and two earthen vessels quite uninjured. The articles re- sembled those found at Omori, near Tokyo, and else- where throughout the country. The potterv is very light in weight, unglazed, and made with the hand, not the wheel. Professor Tsuboi believes these re- mains to belong to a race identical with the legendary 8 JAPAN. Koropuk-guru, probably related to the Esquimaux, who are small, full-faced, use stone implements, and tattoo the face and hands, much as the small images are marked which are fi’equently found in these mounds. But Professor Milne thinks the designs in the pottery resemble Ainu patterns, and points out that the shell heaps are found in places known to hav’e been inhabited by Ainu. Of course the evidence that the Ainu did not once make pottery is only negative ; they certainly never did in historical times, but that does not of itself prove anything ; they may have had the art and lost it after contact with the more advanced race, as witness several tribes of our own Indians. Their own legend on the subject is this : Once, a very long time ago, an old Ainu woman was struek with the idea of makingr vessels out of elay, and she actually did make one. She was so delighted with it that she started out for the village to shoAV it to her neighbors ; but on the Avay it dropped and broke all to pieces, and she was so disgusted that she never made another. This story has an air of having been invented to account for something the Ainu Avere rather ashamed of, like the one Avhich relates hoAv a stranger came from no one kneAV Avhere, and stayed Avith Okikurumi, and taught him several things, sueh as roAving Avith tAVo oars instead of paddling, but aa’Iio finally ran aAA’ay with Okikurumi’s Avife and his tAvo treasures, aaIucIi were a book and a counting board. “ And this is the THE AINU ABOEIGINES. 9 reason why, ever since, vre Ainu have not been able to read.” In the version given by Mr. Batchelor, it was AMshitsune, Japanese hero and Ainu deity, who lost the book, and with it the art of readino- and writing. It is certainly verj' clear that the Ainu character must have greatly changed in historical times, and it is difficult to realize that these harmless, good-natured, stupid creatures are the same race as the Ebisu, or Emishi, whom A'amato-tiike and A'oshiiye and the re.st had so much trouble to subdue. Still, many of our American Indians present much the same jticture of degeneration, mental and physical. There are very definite acc-ounts of battles with them, and evidence, too, in the quantity" of stone arrowheads foimd in some places, notably near ^lororan, where it would seem there must have been a tremendous fight at some time, though it may possibly have been between Ainu and Ainu, or Ainu and pit dwellers, and not with the Japanese at all. They were assurctlly once scattered all over the land, from the north down to Kiushiu ; for if they are ruled out of the |X)ttcry question, there remains abundant testimony of their presence in the geograph- ical names found ever^’where in old Japan and not of Japanese origin. The names are disguised, sometimes piist recognition, in much the same way as the Danish Mere of Buther got changed into Buttermere, and Dun-y-coed became Dunagoat; but Professor Cham- berlain has traced out enough of them to more than 10 JAPAN. prove their presence on half the mountains and rivers in Japan.* One way in which the names were disguised was this : In old times people called the places by the names their ancestors had given them, without feeling any need of writing them down ; or when they did write them, say for purposes of taxation, it was done either phonetically or witli the Chinese cliaracter denoting the thing the place was named for ; thus Takayama, the high mountain, would be written with the two charac- ters for mountain and high. Later, for convenience of registration, an order of the government went forth that every place-name must be written in characters, not phonetically. Now the difficulty was that the places which had Ainu names often did not mean any- thing in Japanese, and consequently had no character with which they could be written ; and the only thing to do was to use the characters which made the right sound, whether there was any sense to it or not. So Yamashiro might be in Japanese “mountain white,” or in Ainu “place of chestnut trees;” but Touami in Japanese will make nothing better than “ hares in a row,” while in Ainu it would be “ stream from the lake,” and entirely appropriate. Besides dozens of well proved cases there are probably Inmdreds more which are so covered up that it is impossible now to 1 “ The Language, Mythology and Geographical Nomenclature of Japan, viewed in the light of Ainu Studies.” By Basil Hall Cham- berlain, University of Tokyo. THE AINU ABORIGINES. 11 say whether they were originally Japanese or belonged to the first owners of the land. Even Fuji, the peer- less mountain, was almost certainly the Ainu Fuchi or Huchi, the goddess of fire. Like the Japanese, the Ainu begin to build a house roof first, making the horizontal frame and placing the supports and ridgepole, and laying shoi’ter pieces for rafttjrs ; all these are tied together with rope made of bark fil)re, or with vines. Then they drive poles into the ground a few feet apart, and tie .short hori- zontal pieces from one to the other ; the poles are about five or si.v feet high, and have each a fork at the top. \\'hen tliis is ready, they lift the roof-frame iKxlily and set it on the forked poles and tie it fast, and the framework is ready to be thatched. So far it is not unlike a Japanese house, except that the gable ends slope back much less, and the roof slants a great deal more. But instead of filling the walls with woven reeds and daubing it with mud or jJaster, like the Japane.se peasant, the Ainu thatches his house from top to bottom, tying the straw in bundles and fastening it to the frame with bark ropes. On the roof the bundles of straw overlap one an- other, making four or five hoi’izontal ridges in place of the smooth Japanese thatch ; the ends ])roject, form- ing deep eave.s, and the sides of the house often slope out a little toward the bottom, like a haystack. There is a small p)rch at the west end, which is used as a kind of outhon.se for storing wood and doing rough work ; 12 JAPAN. the outdoor opening of the porch is on the south side. There is a window in the south side of the house proper, liigh up under the oaves, and another in the east end ; this last is the .sacred end, and outside of it they set the “ sacred hedge ” — a row of sticks set up roughly, on which they place the skulls of bears and other animals. ^lats hung before the windows and door, and a smoke vent in the west end of the roof, complete the house-building arrangements. Each family has usually a detached store-house — a small thatched affair set up on piles — to keep out dogs and foxes ; they also put a flat piece of board at the top of each pole to keep the rats from climbing up and eating the stores of millet and beans and dried salmon put away for the winter. Rats are quite as bothersome in the north as in the rest of Japan, but the Ainu seem to have a good word for them never- theless, to judge by one of Mr. Batchelor’s tales. It seems the missionary made .some impatient remarks about these animals, and an old Ainu reproved him, saying, “ After the creator had finished making the world, he came down to see how everything looked. As he was reviewing his works, the evil one appeared, and derided him, saying, ‘ Doubtless you think you have done a veiy good deed, and made all things for the best. But look at this bramble bush and thistle ; what can be the use of such things as these ?’ The god Avas angry at these remarks ; so he put his hand behind his back and created a rat. As soon as the rat THE AINU ABOKIGINES. 13 was made it rushed into the evil one’s mouth and bit out his tongue. Hence the evil one has no tongue to this day, for it never grew again.” The story goes on to say that the evil one was very angry, and made the rats increase greatly, so that they were a great nuisance on the earth ; wherefore the Ainu petitioned the creator to take them away, but instead he let the rats live and to keep things even created cats. “ Let us, therefore,” said the old man, “ bear with the rats a little, for they did a good thing in biting out the tongue of the evil one. Moreover, do not speak against anything that God has made, for see how he punished the evil one for doing so.” A very large proportion of the Ainu stories are tales of animals who take human form or speak with human voices. To the Ainu these are not mere fairy tales, but sober historical facts, or explanations of natural phenomena, such as “Why the Cock cannot Fly” and “ The Origin of the Hare.” One of the neatest is the story of the “Stolen Charm,” which also gives a good character to the rat. A certain man had a charm which he valued more tluin anything he had. One day it disappeared, and the man was so troubled that he refused all food, and lay down to die. Now the man had a fox cub and a puppy, to which he was very kind. When these creatures saw their master was sick, the fox said to the puppy, “ If our master dies, we shall starve. We had better look for 14 JAPAN. that charm.” So they looked and looked, but it \va.s nowhere to be found. Then the fox cub bethought him of the wieked ogre on the mountain, and lie said, “ Beyond a doubt the ogre has stolen our master’s charm.” So they deter- mined to go and steal it back, but fearing they could not manage the matter alone, they asked a wi.se old rat to help them. So the three f^et out. ^\’hen they came to the ogre’s hou.se, the rat and the fox dug a pa.ssage under the house, and they all crejit through. In the hou.se was a large chest ; .so while the rat gnawed a hole, the fox cub and the pnj)j)y turned into a pretty little boy and girl and began to dance and amuse the ogre, Avho had been watching for the man to die, but now turned to look at the two sujiposed chil- dren. He thought there was something queer about it, becau.se the door was shut, and he did not see how they got in ; but he thought he would amuse himself for a little while and then eat them up. Meamvhile the rat made a hole and got into the box, and found the eharm; .so he took it in his mouth and ran away, and the fox and the pnjipy slijiped out after him. The ogre .started to chase them, but when he .saw one was a fox, ho thought it Avould be safer to let him go, and he went back into his hon.'^c. So the fox cub and the puppy brought the charm to their master’s house, and put it under the bed, and then they played about him and pulled his sleeve till he looked down and saw it ; and he was .so pleased that he became well at once. THE AINU ABORIGINES. 15 The way people knew all this was that the puppy and the fox cub appeared to their master in a dream, and told him all about it; and he worshiped the rat, because it had helped out of pure kindness, not being one of the family, as the fox and the puppy were. Therefore you see the rat is not such a bad animal, after all. But to come back to the houses. The floor of an xVinu hut is bare beaten earth, in the mid.st of which a long, narrow space serves for fireplace, being marked off by pieces of wood laid along the sides and ends. The east end of the house is the gue.st’s jdace; the master sits on the right and the mi.stress by him. The northeast corner is the place where the family posses- sions are stored, treasures of lacquered sake cups and sword-handles and such thing.s, and the spears and arrows and fishing things. The bed-places are plat- form.s, slightly rai.sed from the floor and hung with mats, and mats are also u.sed to sit and sleep on — not thick ones like the Japanese tatami, but ordinary thin ones woven of rushes and elm bark, part of which is stained black, and the dark and light used cleverly to make exceeKlingly pretty bivsket-work patterns. Their hou.sehold utensils arc of the sinqdcst. An iron pot hangs over the fire on an iron chain, both ob- tained from the Japanese; or sometime.s they cook in bark kettles covered with clay, and the pot hook is quite as often wood as iron. The mistre-ss of the house sits by the ]x>t, and ladles out the food to each person IG JAPAN. ill his or her own dish — a kind of large wooden cup or deep trencher. These dishes acquire a fine black color, as dark as any bog oak, by the simple process of never washing them ! A wipe with the finger is considered all that good manners require. They still live almost entirely by fishing and hunt- ing, the fish being still plenty, the game yearly more scarce. For deer hunting they u.sed dogs, which were trained to keep the herd back until the hunters could come up and shoot them with poisoned arrows. They also use a kind of primitive bagpipe, made of fish-skins tied over a piece of wood, to imitate the cry of the deer and decoy them within reach. Xets and fish- traps they once used, but these are now forbidden, and they stand on the shore or in their long, narrow dug- outs, and cast a spear or harpoon with great skill. Japanese law now forbids the use of poisoned arrows, which is a sad handicap to Ainu hunters ; their former plan was to set a spring with one of these arrows, and then drive the game to it. The head of the arrow was lightly fastened on, and broke, leaving the poison inside, even if a bear or fox managed to pull out the shaft. Tliey Avould go out in winter, when the big grizzlies were lying up in their holes, and by shouts and smoke drive them out into the open ; or even ven- ture into the den if Bruin refused to be disturbed. The bear is their special admiration, the greatest of their animal gods, and a bear feast is the highest de- light an Ainu can conceive. Formerly these feasts THE AINU ABOKIGINES. 17 used to be held every year in each village, but they are growing rare, both for want of bears and of sake — the last being almost as essential as the bear. Their plan is to catch a young bear and keep him in a cage for a year or two, feeding and watching over him most care- fully. Mr. Batchelor could not get his Ainu to ac- knowledge that the women ever suckled them, but Mrs. Todd saw one do it at Esaslii. When the proper day comes and sake is plenty, the whole village assem- bles ; the cub is let out of the cage, chased to the sacred hedge, and killed with arrows so that he falls in front of it. Once dead, politeness begins again; saluta- tions, praises, greetings as lord, crownings with white ■willow shavings and bamboo; finally a feast of his flesh and a colossal drinking. The chiefs wear crowns of willow shavings, the cups are wreathed with them, and SQ, too, was the bow that shot and the knife that finally dispatched my lord bear. Just what these willow shavings mean is not at all clear. The Ainu use them almost precisely as the Japanese use cut paper gohei, as a symbol of divinity in the most general sense ; but e.xce[)t similarity of ])urpose, there is no traceable connection between the two — and for that matter, the meaning of the gohei themselves is exceedingly vague and indefinite. The Ainu have no idols, and the “ sacred hed^e ” is their nearest aj)proach to a temple; but when they are about to worshiji, they set up what they call an inao — a willow stick, about three or three and a half VoL. II.- -2 18 JAPAN, feet long, carefully pealed, and shaved up toward the tliicker end, so that the shavings curl up and hang like a tassel all about it. The lower end is sharpened so that it will stick in the ground easily. For certain occasions the shaving is done in three bunches, instead of only at the top. These inao are in no sense gods, or even symbols of individual gods, but the placing of them is in itself an act of worship, as appears by the following tale : A little boy frequently had another little boy and girl come to play with him, but no one else could see them, because they were spirits. By and by the child fell sick ; and when he seemed to be about to die, the little boy and the little girl came to him, and said, “ The reason you are sick is this : Your grandfather had a beautiful axe, and with it he made a tray and a pestle, such as Ainu women use to pound millet. But your father threw away the axe, which was our chief, and it is rusting under the floor ; and because the axe was angry, it has made you ill. So if you do not want to die, you must tell your father to find the axe, and polish it, and make it a new handle, and set up inao in its honor.” So the boy told his father, and he searched under the floor and found the axe, and he polished it and made a new handle, and set up inao to it. And his son was healed, and became a great soothsayer, for the pestle and the tray and the axe came to him in human form, and told him things hidden from other mortals. THE AINU ABOKIGINES. 19 The story shows another point — namely, that the Ainu believe all sorts of things have spirits, and may appear in human form, and help or hinder people as they are disposed. Accordingly, they worship gods innumerable, both small and great, spirits of places and of fire and water and springs, of animals and plants, and inanimate objects. Hitchcock calls their religion “a very primitive nature-worship,’’ and their gods “ invisible, formless conceptions.” The fire god is the greatest, then the god of the house ; after them the earth god and the .sea god, and the gods of rivers and mountains, and as lesser deities the gods of the sun and moon. As they have no temples, they simply place the inao in the ground wherever they wish and worshi[) before it, as at the hearth for the fii’e god, in the sacred corner — the east — for the house god, and for the rest of the deities before the sacred hedge, out- side the house at the east end. This orientation, by the way, is by no means always an exact one. Prob- ably they do have the intention of placing the door to the south, and the window to the rising sun, and the other ])arts have always the .same general relation ; but IMrs. Todd te.sted many houses at Esashi, and found few of them stood really east and west, and Hitchcock also doubts it. The bear fea.st is their one great festival and relig- ious exercise combined, though they pray and make libations invariably before drinking sake. The drink- ing at a bear feast is the crowning ceremony of all. 20 JAPAN. and tlie most absolutely unique. When the time comes, the chiefs sit solemnly in a row, the lesser men likewise ; before each man is a large lacquered cup, holding nearly a tumblerful of sake, and across each cup is laid a flat stick, which looks like a paper knife, and is carved all over with triangles and lozenges and other characteristic devices, or whittled with clean new .shavings, like the inao and the shaving crowns of the chiefs. After proper bowings and strokings of the beard — the Ainu mode of .salutation — each man dips his stick into the .sake, throws a drop from its tip as an offering to the earth god, dips again and throws another to the fire god, and so to any other whom he desires to worship esjiecially at this time ; then, holding the .stick across his mouth, he solemnly lifts his long mou.stache with it, and sol- emnly drinks. These libations accom[)li.died, cere- mony is satisfied, and the drinking goes on freely till every one is drunk, or there is nothing left. The women have no part in the.se drinking feasts; they are not allowed to drink sake at all, nor to have any religion — or at least to offer any worship, which is not quite the same thing. They must greet a man by rubbing one finger over the lip, and they may not speak till he gives permission. Yet, with all this submission, they say an Ainu fears nothing so much as an old woman’s tongue. The gho.sts of old women .seem to be considered particularly malignant ; indeed, the Ainu are exceed- THE AINU ABOEIGINES. 21 in^ly afraid of ghosts of any kind, and put the graves of their dead far away in tlie forest, taking great pains to avoid going near the place. If for any reason one has to come in contact with the dead, or visit its grave, he is careful to wash his hands and rinse his mouth before entering any house, and to brush him- self with an inao, so that, if the spirit has cast any disease or defilement on him, the water and the inao may take it away. When an Ainu dies, the first thing that is done is to build up a great fire in the house. Mr. Batchelor says that they think the heat may possibly bring back life, but though this may be their idea now, it seems more likely that some other ceremonial reason has been forgotten. He also mentions the secondary object of cooking the funeral feast. The body is then neatly dressed in good clothes and laid on a mat by the firejdace, and a dish or two and a drinking-cuj) laid be.sideit; also ajipropriate implements — if it is a man, his flint and steel, bow and arrows and knife, and a few moustache lifters, of which every man has good store. Beside a woman they place a cooking- pot, and her beads and other ornaments; for both men and women there must be a pipe and a well-filled tobacco-box — I had almost .said j)ouch, but what the Ainu uses is a carved box, which hangs by a string to the pipe-ca.se, which he thrusts iuto his girdle. A cake of millet (or a cup of rice, if they have any) and a cup of .sake are also placed by the body. Tlieir 22 JAPAN. belief .seems to be that of the ancient Egyptians, that the spirit of the food — its Ka, as the Egyptians called it — will nourish the Ka of the person to whom it is offered. At the feast which follows, all the family and guests throw a few drops of sake as a libation to the departed .spirit, and break off a little piece of millet cake and bury it in the ashes of the hearth. After the burial, the.se pieces are gathered up and put outside the hou.se before the east window. The body is carried to the grave wrapped in a mat and slung on a pole, the mourners following in .single file, each carrying something to be placed in the grave. These objects are broken before being laid with the body, .so that they may go to the other world, where the dead are believed to live very much as they did in this life. The grave is sometimes lined with stakes, and a mat is laid on the bottom and others at the sides ; after the body has been lowered, another mat is spread over it, and a roof of sticks laid across, on which the earth is piled Finally a great deal of brush and larger pieces of wood are heaped on top, to keep away the bears, wolves and foxes, and a pole .set up in the midst. When everything is finished, all who have taken part wash their hands in water brought for the purpo.se; the water that is left is thrown on the grave, and the tub in which it was carried is broken and thrown at the foot of the grave post. THE AINU ABORIGINES. 23 The object of this post seems to be less to serve as a memorial of the dead, whom the Ainu consider it safest to think about as little as possible, than as a warning to hunters and other people to avoid the spot, lest the spirit should defile them and work them a mischief. The man’s post resembles a spear, though the Ainu themselves told INIr. Batchelor it was meant for a paddle ; a woman’s is rounded off at the top, where it has a hole made through, sometimes used to hang up some article of her dre.ss. The specimen in the museum at Sapporo is carved all over with the characteristic Ainu patteru.s, which seem to be entirely conventional and general, not individual totem marks. A widow shaves her head and puts on a kind of bonnet ; this she must wear always, unless she remar- ries, which is permitted after a suitable interval. A man cuts his beard and hair, and sometimes even plucks some of it out in token of his grief ; he is sup- po.sed to stay at home till it has grown ag-ain. Several of the Ainu stories deal with visits of livingr O people to the world of the dead. It is reached by entering a cave and going a long, long way under ground. The living can see and recognize the dead, but to these the living are as spirits — they can only smell what seems to them a horrible odor ; but the dogs see and begin howling, just as dogs do in the upper world when there are spirits about, invisible to men. Then the ghosts of the dead are horribly afraid, and they throw offerings to the living — hor- 24 JAPAN. rible offerings of carrion — for everything in tliat world is dead and corruj)ted. In one of these stories, as recorded hy Professor Chamljerlain, a young man who goes down there tries in vain to make his father recog- nize him ; when lie speaks, the father throws himself on the ground, crying out in terror. In Mr. Batch- elor’s version, the young man went to ask his father to compel the older brother to share the inheritance Avith him, and not being able to make his father understand, he bethought him to enter into one of the people in the village of the dead, just as ghosts enter into the bodies of living men and speak through them ; which he did with entire suceess, so that when he returned to the living world, his brother was afraid, and repented, and gav^e back his share of the goorls. Another of the stories is the Avorld-old myth of the food of Hades. A young hunter shot a bear, but it ran away and entered a cave. The hunter went in after it, and followed a long way under ground, until he came to a light, and passed out of the cave into a very beautiful region, where there were trees and houses and people. But there was no sign of his bear. He followed it for some time longer, and as he AA'ent, being hungry, he plucked the grapes and mulberries by the path and ate them without thought of danger. But suddenly he looked down at himself and saw that he had turned into a horrible serpent. In terror and despair he crept back to the cave, and made his Avay THE AINE ABOKIGINES. 25 tlirough it, and, lying down beside a great pine tree, fell asleep. In his dreams a woman appeared to him and said, “ I am the spirit of this pine tree, and I am sorry for you. This has happened because you ate the fruit of Hades ; and the only tiling you can do is to climb to the top of my tree and throw yourself down; then perhaps you will become a man again.” The hunter woke, and finding himself still a snake, decided that anything was better than to live in such a state, .so he glided up the tree, and threw himself from the topmost branch. When he came to himself he was standing at the foot of the tree, and by it was the body of a great snake, with its side ripped open. The lumter gratefully set up an inao, and thanked and worshiped the pine tree, and then went home. But that night the pine tree came again to him and said, “ I have come to tell you that you cannot stay long in the world of men after once eating the grapes and mulberries of Hades. There is a goddess in Hades who wishes to marry you. She it was who, assuming the form of a bear, lured you into the cavern, and thence to tlie under- world. You must make up your mind to come away.” “ -Vnd so it fell out,” continued Professor Chamber- lain’s narrator. “ The young man awoke, but a grave sickness overpowered him. A few days later he went a second time to Hades, and returned no more to the land of the living.” 26 JAPAN. The pine and the oak are held in .special reverence by the Ainu. They say the reason is that in the early time, when the world was hot, these two trees were the only ones which could grow, and they are there- fore the oldest trees. It is the elm, however, which would seem most worthy of honor, since it is from two species of elm that they get the bark fibre of which they make their clothing. This fibre is carefully picked from the under side of the bark, and soaked in water until it is pliable, when the women spin and weave it on small wooden hand-looms as if it were flax. The cloth looks rather like a hempen .«tuflF, quite stiff and very closely woven ; it is nearly the color of what we call cocoa matting, but a little less dark. The dress is nearly the same as a Japanese garment or kimono, but shortei’, reaching little below the knees on men and rather lower on women ; they cross and belt it with a narrow girdle or belt, the men’s often made of leather and ornamented with pieces of metal ; the sleeves are much smaller than those the Japanese wear, and instead of being the same width all the way down, as the latter’s are, they become quite narrow at the hand. Women often wear besides the dress a narrow sti’aight apron, precisely like those Japanese women wear to work in ; at least this is so with the Ainu I have seen, but in the more remote places I suspect this evidently Japanese addition is not known. A woman’s favorite ornament is a string of heavy THE AINU ABORIGINES. 27 beads for the neck, with a large metal disc for a pen- dent in the middle ; if she can get one three or four inches across, she is happy indeed. The beads are a curious mixture of bits of metal, glass and stone, and colored beads from Japan or Europe. She also wears metal ear-rings, not heavy, but very large. Tlie men’s dress is much more ornate than the women’s. The adornment is made of strips of dark blue Japanese cotton cloth, set on in ap|)licpie, and further decorated with patterns in outline done with white thread ; the effect is certainly primitive, but exceedingly good. They say that different villages have their own particular designs, so that an Ainu can tell where another man comes from by the patterns on his coat. In all these patterns that I have .seen, the triangle and double spiral — Goodyear’s famous ‘‘ lotus motive” — appears persistently in all woi’k done in carving or embroidery — their only arts, except mat weaving. In both, the most characteristic feature of the pattern is the sharpness of the angles made when two lines meet ; a quality very natural in applique, and not out of the way in low relief wood carving. Besides the dre.sses made of woven fibre, the men have rain-coats of salmon skin, very thick and strong; and these, too, are lavi.shly ornamented with outline embroidery in Japanese cotton thread, dark blue and white, with occasionally a little red worked in. These coats arc quite warm, and must turn the rain per- fectly. lor winter they use leggings of Japanese 28 JAPAN. cloth or their own fibre, and high boots made of straw ; Japanese coolies often wear these in the north to keep out the deep snow. In the north, too, the Japanese sometimes adopt the Ainu way of carrying burdens. Like the INIexican women, the Ainu puts his bundle into a loose rope net, the ends of which pass into a broad band ; this band is adjusted across the forehead, so that the load re.sts partially on the shoulders and is partly supported by the head. I believe the Chinook Indians of British Columbia carry burdens in the same way. More precious to a chief than even his fine embroid- ered coats are certain treasures handed down as heir- looms from generation to generation ; they are finely wrought sword handles — for centuries now the Japan- ese have forbidden the Ainu to possess swords — Japanese lacquer drinking cups and stands, bowls almost in size, and of a shape seldom seen in Japan now ; and most valuable of all large lacquered sak6 tubs with lids, Japanese of course, whieh are used to keep all the smaller articles in. Some years ago they could hardly be persuaded to part with these precious articles, but now they qre more and more ready to sell everything they possess for a drink of sake. A pathetic chapter in Ainu history concerns the transfer of a number of villages of them from Sagha- lien to Yezo. When the lower half of this island Avas ceded to Russia a few years ago, the Ainu popu- lation, being I’egarded as Japanese subjects — wards of THE AINU ABORIGINES. 29 tlie government, as we say of the Indians — were taken over to Japanese soil. But in many cases people from neighboring villages were separated by a considerable distance, and some wei’e settled inland on the rivers, instead of by the .sea that they knew ; and in their dull way the poor things were homesick and unhappy. It might have been worse though to leave them to Rus- sia’s tender mercies, for the Japanese are at least kindly, and mean to treat them fairly ; tliey have no such abu.ses to repent of as have marked our ‘‘century of dishonor” in the United States. There are good laws, and some schools, and in Sapporo an Ainu Preservation Society ; and a few of the people have begun to farm a little under a kind of “ land in severalty” act. The missionaries, too, are hard at work, doing their best for both soul and body. But little can be done, excei>t for a few individuals; it is a doomed race, le.ssening year by year, pa.ssing to those shallow graves liidden far away in the swamps and fore.sts, where the living never go. Yet let not the too zealous collector try to .seek out tliese lonely bury- ing places. Some years ago, soon after the opening of the country, some English and Continental scien- tists went out from Hakodate and rifled some graves near Mori, taking away skulls and bones which were sent safely otf to London and St. Petersburg. But the Ainu were very angry, and complained to the Japanese government, which reejuired the consuls to punish the offenders pretty severely. IModern Japanese 30 JAPAN. law is even more strict ; however hardly modern prog- ress may press upon the living Ainu, his dast is safe ; no man may move a post or trouble so much as a bone of him. CHAPTER II. MIYANOSHITA. They say in Tokyo that if you can see Fuji San at sunrise, floating alone above the clouds which hide all the lesser mountains, it is sure to be fine weather. Later in the day the mists rise in horizontal bands, disclosing the blue saw-tooth of the Hakone range across Fuji’s base, and the white cone grows fainter and fainter, paling into the pale sky, to reappear at sunset, dark against the gold. They are fifty miles away, those mountains ; part of the great barrier stretching right across the island and cutting it nearly in half. The western part of the range is wild and rugged, little inhabitetl, and even now very difficult traveling ; but the region around lake Hakone is perfectly accessible, and is one of the loveliest parts of Japan — not grand, but of the sort of gentle beauty that is peculiarly Japanese. The range is full of memories of feudal times, of fightings and snrjirises around and over the Hakone pass ; and it is also full of hot springs, and therefore of hotels and resorts for invalids and pleasure-seekers, for, wherever there is hot water, there the Japanese are sure to go. 31 32 JAPAN. It is not a long or a difficult journey, only a matter of three or four hours from Yokohama by train, tram and kuruma successively ; and even in Japan, it would be hard to find more varied scenery in the same time and distance. The way is first by the Toka- ido, the main line of the railroad south wai'd; passing Ofuna, the junction for Kamakura and the Yokosuka line, and keeping on almost beside the Tokaido post- road, as it runs behind Sagami bay. At first the country is all rice-fields and neat villages; then comes a bit of sandy level, almost like the Jersey bar- rens, which has been planted with young pine trees, whether for timber or to hold the loose soil I do not know. But, just beyond, in the midst of the sand and beautiful old groves of pine, is the little .settlement called Oiso, lying between the sea and a sheltering hill, which has grown of late into a fashionable Japanese water- ing place ; invalids come in winter to breathe the soft air of the pines and take hot salt-bath.s, and high gov- ernment officials are very apt to need a run down here about New Year time — of course, it must be for their health, and not, as some naughty people have been known to suggest, to escape New Year’s calls. The hotels are all Japanese, but they can provide more or le.ss European food, if desired ; and they are arranged on the delightful plan, very common at Japanese resorts, of having a central house and numerous tiny cottages, of two or three to five or six rooms, scat- tered about picturesquely under the hill. Back a MIYANOSHITA. 33 little in the country there are young peach orchards — a new thing in Jajian ; but they flourish well on this warm, sheltered coast, and on the edge of the low dunes the gnarled live-oaks are hung with thick bunches of mistletoe, looking like great green birds’ nests in the branches. A few miles farther on is Kodzu, where the railroad leaves the Tokaido and turns inland to make its way over the Hakoue mountains ; and here Miyanoshita people leave the train for the tram. Kodzu is only a little village, and the people there seem to live chiefly to receive travelers and send them on their way, whe- ther by the tram to Yumoto and Miyanoshita, or by kurunia over the coast road to the hot springs of Atami, twenty miles off. There is a nice little inn close to the station, where they take you and your possessions in cliarge, and buy your ticket and get your checks, if you will, while you sit comfortably waiting. As the city trains arrive about noon and there is all the mountain yet to climb, it is convenient to brinof luncli alono; and take it at this little station hotel ; you may have a matted room upstairs, or one below with table and chairs, and you can borrow their plates, and either drink their pale Japanese tea or tell the nesan to bring a kettle and pour hot water on your own leaves in her teapot ; and she will Avash your knives and forks and spoons, Avhich the prudent trav- eler always carries, and repack everything most care- fully. At the end, a few coppers for her when she has VoL. II.— 3 34 JAPAN. carried your belongings to the tram, and some small sih’er for the inn as tea-money, makes every one con- tented and happy. Kodzu station stands just back from the edge of a little bluff at the upper end of Odawara bay, famed through Japan for the beauty of its nine-mile curve of smooth sand and the great pines that fringe its line of dunes. They must be centuries old, those pines, and they are of the sort that delights in the buffeting of the wet sea Avinds ; rugged they are, it Ls true, but not beaten back, only more individual and picturesque for the lifelong struggle. Down on the sand the long, narrow bi’own siimpans are draAvn up above the tide, and the nets and fish-baskets are piled about; and under the shadoAV of the bluff a party of kurumaya are usually found smoking and gambling, not always peaceably, for these coolies of Kodzu are a rather rough set. A wooded promontory finishes the cur\"e of the beach at its farther end, and looking back the other way, past Oiso and its groves of pine, is Enoshima, Benteii’s island, scarcely seeming to detach itself from the shore behind. Off on the horizon, a trail of smoke above a faint blue line marks Oshima and its neA^er-quiet A’olcano; and inland, across the ojAen country, there is a magnificent aucav of Fuji, looking, as it Avere, OA’er the shoulders of the foothills of the Ilakone group; you see the white cone from the tram during all the first part of the ride, till it is shut out I by the nearing mountains. MIYANOSPIITA. 35 Tlie Kodzu-Yunioto tram is a most amusingly happy-go-lucky and irresponsible sort of an atfair. I do not remember which American car company built its old-fashioned, small, low cars, but they are exceed- ingly like what used to be known as a “ bob-tailed car ” in our own part of the world a number of years since. There are usually several of them lying up, so to speak, on the side track under the trees, near the station, and they ajipear to start whenever they feel inclined. 1 1 does not really matter ; the nesan always knows when it is time to go and take your j)lace, and there is no connection to make at the other end. They generally start otf in bunches of two or three, each drawn by its own pair of shaggy little red horses, which gallop otf frantically, bells jangling, windows rattling and car bouncing on the badly-laid track, the driver shouting them on with great enthusiasm. Some cal’s are marked first and others second-class, the dif- ference being aiiparently one of empty honor, or pos- sibly of the number of packages per passenger per- mitted without extra charge. The track lies along the old Tokaido, which runs for a long way just behind the low sand dunes and the jiines, its own avenue of evergreen trees still standing, though not unbroken. After a time the pines cea.se, and you begin to go through Odawara, a forlorn, ill- kept town, strung out for a mile or more along the highway, looking as if it ought to be big enough and old enough to make itself more tidy, though it may 36 JAPAN. very probably have plea.sauter parts farther back toward the lulls. In the midst of Odawara the tram pulls up with a jerk aud a jarring of brake.s; the second edition behind clatters up and checks likewise, aud conductor, driver and half the passengers get off to superintend changing the horses, assisted, as the French would .say, by several policemen and what one would take for a quarter of the population. Just here by the tnim depot, on the other side of the road, rise some green terraces aud foundation walls built of great blocks of stone. It is all there is left of Odawara Castle, formerly one of the strongest fortresses on the Tokaido, which practically controlled the gateway of the Hakone pass. It belonged to a younger branch of the Hojo, the family of Yoritomo’s clever wife, Masako, who, though they could not obtain the Shogunate, yet con- trived to have the office of Regent of Kamakura handed from father to son in their own house ; and by appointing boy Shoguns, and deposing them when they grew troublesome, they ruled both Kamakura and Kyoto for several generations — all in the name of the unwilling emperors. Yoritomo’s dealings with his future father-in-law, Hojo Tokimasa, began during the lifetime of Kiyo- mori, the Taira chief who had killed Yoritomo’s father and nearly all his hou.se. Hojo was a retainer of the Taira, but his family had been often allied with the IMinamoto, and when forced to escape from a MIYANOSFIITA. 37 neighboring lord whom he had offended, Yoritomo took refuge with his family’s former friend. He was well received, and presently proposed for the hand of Hojo’s daughter. Now there were two daughters ; the elder, Masako, was more beautiful and clever, but the younger and gentler was her father’s favorite, and moreover, the only child of the second wife, and for her Yoritomo intended to ask ; but his message was altered through a mistake, and the name of the elder substituted. Meanwhile, on the previous night the younger girl had dreamed of a bird which brought her a little golden box. She told the dream to her sister Masako, who offered her mirror in exchange for the dream ; and the younger girl accepted, hoping therewitli to win some of her sister’s beauty. AVhen Yoritomo’s request followed immediately after, Masako believed the gift had truly come to her, and that it was the will of the gods. But Hojo had already betrothed his daughter to a neigliboring lord, and the ceremony was partly accom- plished, when on the very wedding-day Yoritomo stole the bride away — doubtless with her connivance, perhaps with her father’s also. At any rate, Hojo continued to help him, and IMasako’s clever scheming is credited with not a little of their final success. After Yoritomo’s death, such a woman was not to be lightly set aside; though she became a nun, it was merely for the sake of appearances, and in point of fact she was the power behind the throne for many 38 JAPAN. years. The young Shogun resisted her ; he was killed in his bath by unknown assassins ; and when the second son succeeded, IMasako made him powerless by having her brother apjjointed Regent. This second Shogun was murdered, on his way to worship at the shrine of Yoritomo at Kamakura, by a .son of that elder brother who had been murdei’cd in the bath ; and the guards cut down the youth on the spot, so ending Yoritomo’s line. The mm and the Regent chose a child of two as .successor to the Shogunate ; the Emperor and the Kuge nobles tried to take the opportunity to throw off the yoke, but the Ilojo de- feated the imperial force.s, depo.sed the Emperor, and confiscated the estates of the Kuge wlio had fidcen part, and made the office of Regent hereditary in the family. The succeeding rulers were able and successful ; order was maintained and the country prospered greatly. But their usurpation of power and disloyal treatment of the imperial house made them always disliked and distrusted ; and the Mongol invasion of Kublai Khan did much to increase their unpopularity. It was then that the ex-Emperor Go-Daigo plotted against them, was defeated and exiled, escaped, and plotted again, and that finally the faithful generals, Kitta and Masashige, succeeded in taking Kamakura and overthrowing the Hojo — only to substitute King Stork for King Log, the Ashikaga Shoguns for the Hojo Regents. However, the cadet branch of Hojo MIYAXOSIIITA. 39 maintained itself at Odawara, and remained in very considerable po\ver till that wonderful monkey-faced adventurer, the Taiko Hideyoslii, conquered them in a great battle. Even then they retired to the castle and shut themselves up, disputing among the council- ors of the clan whether to wear out the enemy by remaining still, or to attempt a sally — till one day, while they were arguing, the Taiko attackeel and took the castle from their hands. Eut it was not destroyof farmers told off to cultivate it ; while any one was free to take up waste land and reclaim and settle on it. Part of the so-called Taikwa reforms,” made in the eighth century, were directed against abuses of power on the part of governors and local officials, who got possession of lauds not properly registered, and used them for their own benefit ; and “ all lauds held by private individuals were coufi.scated by the State and registered as public property,” says the official history. At the same time various rules were laid down for the control of such lands and their distribution among the people ; thus every male on attaining the age of six years received two tan of land (about half an acre), and every female one-third of a tan, the areas thus conferred being, however, resumed by the State and re- distributed every six years ; but this scheme was only carried out for a .short time, the laud being soon left with a holder till his death, and finally passing from father and .sou like a real property. Those who did not want THE TOKAIDO. 75 to till their laud sold it to others, who thus acquired great estates. Yet, throughout, the basis of the na- tioual systeru was the theoiy that private property in laud did not exist ; it remained so even down to the regime of Meiji, the reign of the present Emperor, when the right of private ownership was established by law, and all classes allowed to hold real estate. Even under the Tokugawa, though the Shogun and the feudal barons practically owned immense districts, these tracts were still regarded as temporarily rented fiom the State. In early times, too, it was the custom for the sovereign to bestow grants of land for special merit or service, the ground so bestowed being still theoretically understood to be loaned, not given out- right ; and certain loi’ds did the same by their follow- ers, with waste lands which they took up, and which had never been registered as belonging to the State. Taxes under the Taikwa system and the Taiho which followed it were levied in three sej)arate ways, of which the most important was the direct land tax laid on the rice crop; two tan (half an acre) of rice land was con- sidered to bear one hundred sheaves, of which four and a quarter went to the government as its share of the profit. The second was a kind of corvee, each grown man being supposed to do ten days’ ])ublic work a year ; but he might redeem his time if he wished by the j)ayment of a ])iece of cloth. The third tax was levied (also in kind) on fish, silk, cloth, and other industrial products. 76 JAPAN. The country Avas already divided into provinces, Japanese kuni, and these again into les.ser districts; the Taiho code provided for graded officers to admin- ister them, fixing their salaries according to rank. These officers were to be appointed for their ability, folloAving the Chinese merit system, which is still in vogue in China with all its hideous abuses ; but, though there Avere scA^eral attempts to introduce this system in Japan, the thing neA’er AAorked there long. It would seem that feudalism suited the genius of the Japanese race, and perhaps, too, the broken hill and valley nature of the country, Avhich marked off pro- vince from proA'ince by sharp natural boundaries; certainly offices ahvays tended to become hereditary, and remain the understood prerogative of this or that family. If the chiefs ruled Avisely and justly and with a mighty hand, the family maintained its prestige for generations, e\'en for centuries ; if not, the better man took the place by force of arms and established his line instead. As De la ]\Iazeliere puts it, “ Proprietors assert their freedom on their 0A\m domains, and then, menaced on all sides by anarchy, the poorer put them- seh’es under the protection of their rich neighbors ; the empire is diA’ided into hundreds of small states, and the I’esult is feudalism ” — t^nly, as he goes on to point out, in Japan it Avas a feudalism differing from that of Europe in having a strongly patifiarchal qual- ity — such as the Hebrews, for instance, might haA C re- tained, if Ave can imagine the princes of Israel estab- THE TOKAIDO. 77 lishing a group of petty states under the kingship of the house of David. The chief of the clan was the father of all the members, and they were his children, and owed him the same affection and obedience that sous owe to a father ; the Emperor himself holds the like paternal relation to all his people. It is the Con- fucian principle of filial piety as the basis of all law, the root of every virtue. Since the governor of a province was to be sup- . ported out of the taxes paid in it, these naturally came to be regarded as the right of the feudal lord, and in point of fact less and less came to be paid in to the central government, more and more appropri- ated to the use of the Daimyo and the local require- ments of his territory. The Taiko Hideyoshi, himself peasant born, made many investigations and reforms of abuse which had crept into the administration of estates, causing new surveys to be made, and much property brought under taxation which had been unjustly exempted. From his time land was rated according to its })roduce in kind, as rice land, wood- land, ground fit for dry crops (wheat, millet and so on), or silk, or tea, or lacquer-raising country. On the lands rated as belonging to the State, the culti- vator took about one-third, the government the rest. The Tokugawa Shoguns made further registrations and changes, on the whole to the advantage of the countrv at large. The “ Testament of leyasu ” de- clared the yearly revenue of the empire to be twenty- 78 JAPAN. eieg to 2 )resent a petition to your Highness,” managed to slip it into lemitsu’s litter. The officers at the same time seized him and put him in prison. Lord Kotsuke’s wrath was directed first of all against his councilors and governors, whom he re- proached for having l)ungled matters in such a fashion that the men had been driven to so desperate a course, by which he might well have been ruined; for he knew very well it was only his high office that saved him from losing his estates. As for Sogoro, he con- demned him to death by crucifixion, and not only so, but his wife and children were to be killed also. The retainers were horrified, and tried to induce their lord to punish only the guilty man, but he would not listen ; the other six village head men were not put to death, however, but banished from the province, and their goods confiscated. The sentence was carried out in the presence of a weejiing crowd, to whom Sogoro and his Avife both declared their Avillingness to die for the rest, who had been indeed released from the unjust taxation ; but Sogoro cried with a loud voice that he denounced his master’s cruelty and injustice in putting to death his wife and the innocent children, and declared that he THE TOKAIDO. 85 should “ pay his thauks to Lord Kotsuke for this day’s work.” They should see it, “ so that it shall be talked of for generatious to come. As a sign, when I am dead, my head shall turn and face toward the castle. When you see this, doubt not that my words shall come true.” ^ And it was even so, as he had said. Then, when the retainers who had charge of the execution saw how the dead face looked toward the castle, they were frightened, and came and bowed before the corpse, making apology on the part of their lord; praising Sogoro’s self-sacrifice and acknowledging that, though his own doom was deserved, it was wrong to punish the innocent. But when Lord Kotsuke lieard it he only laughed at the notion of fearing a dead peasant. However, a few months later, the Lady Kotsnke began to fall ill, and to have strange visions and hear terrible sounds at night ; and her ladies heard them, too ; and when Lord Kotsnke himself kept watch in her room, he, too, heard the noises and saw the ghosts of Sogoro and his wife, tied to the crossed poles, float- ing in the air before him. In vain he sent for all sorts of exorcists ; the visions would not cease. The lady grew steadily worse, and, after some months, died. Then the ghosts haunted Lord Kotsuke more persistently than ever, and began to attack his young son, so that he became almost mad ; nor did the visita- tions cease till the lord sent to the grave of Sogoro * Mitford: “Tales of Old Japan.” 86 JAPAN. and had a temple built, and sent an embassy to the Emperor himself, making request to have the dead peasant canonized as a saint. Then, at last, his mind became clear and his misfortunes were ended ; more, in a few years much prosperity came to him, so that it was evident to all that the saint had forgiven and was helping his former master. Sogoro’s shrine, in the level country some forty miles northeast of Tokyo, is a simple one, but most popular with the peasant class, and his grave is seldom without incense burning on it. Wiser and more careful of his people was the lord of Odawara, who, during the difficulties of the eight- eenth century, found among his subjects a peasant philosopher and economist, one Ninomiya, a thinker who based all his political economy upon morality, and, encouraged by his lord, applied his own diligence and force of character so well that he reclaimed almost a whole province from distress. His method was to go and live in the villages which were in diffi- culties, and working with and among the people, to show them how to help themselves and persuade them back to habits of thrift. Ninomiya also believed in direct help, where help was needed, and had very radical methods of going to work to get it. On one occasion a wide-spread famine involved the province of which he was acting as governor. The lord of Oda- wara, who was in residence at Yedo, sent him into the district to relieve the distress ; he promptly hurried to THE TOKAIDO. 87 OJawara castle and asked for the keys of the granary, Tlie keepers refused rather curtly, saying they must hav^e a special order from their lord. “Very well, gentlemen,” said Niuomiya, “we will send to my lord ; but siuce, before the messenger can return from Yedo, many of our starving people must die, I think it is suitable that we, who are their guardians, should also abstain from food. I will sit here in the guard- room and fast, and do you do likewise ; thus perhaps we shall be able to understand something of the peo- ple’s sufferings.” The governor was known to be a man of his word and high in the favor of his lord, and tlie keys were i)i’csently handed over. Siuce the Restoration, the pea.sant has owned his land, paying ta.v to the central government and e.xer- cising all tlie rights of a citizen ; and even lie, conser- vative as he is by nature and occupation, is feeling the changes of the times. He no longer wears chiefly second-hand clothing, as he once did; he knows much — at least, along the Tokaido — of what is doing in the world of Japan ; and, most of all, changes come to him when his son goes off to serve his term in the array and comes back when his years are up, the wiser for a good deal of aseful schooling, and the worse, jirobably, for a sense of knowing a great deal more than the old folks. Still, the Japanese Tommy Atkins is a simple-hearted creature, and his few airs are harm- less, after all. One charming little side-trip on the Tokaido can 88 JAP^VN. be made with very little trouble or fatigue, and is more than worth the effort. It is the ride from Shizu- oka to the temple of Kunozau, where the body of leyasu was laid till the temples at Xikko were built to receive it. Shizuoka itself is an exeeedingly attractive little town, lying on the shore of Suruga bay, and has a very good inn ; there are also two very fine temples, the largest and most beautiful belonging t(j a monastery of the Zen sect. The temples stand back from the town and the shore, almost against the steep hills, whi(;h form a half circle around the green little plain. The monastery contains many interesting relics of leyasu, and some fine paintings of Kano artists on the sliding screens of the apartments ; one beautiful landscape, running all across one side of the room, might be a view from Shizuoka itself — a winding river in a vast stretch of rice-fields ; hills to the left and right, and in the middle the white cone and long sweeping lines of Mount Fuji losing itself in the misty plain. Just such views break on you on the way to Kuno- zan, until you lose the distance behind the high steep hill, at the foot of which the temple lies in a little hamlet, almost on the sea. On the ocean side there are endless green promontories, covered with pictur- esque pines, and the long shore of the Izu peninsula, across the bay. The temple buildings are very fine, much like Xikko in general style, but smaller and less elaborate. Instead of returning to Shizuoka by THE TOKAIDO. 89 the same road, one can go on to Ejiri or Okitsu station on the railroad, and take the train back from there ; or reverse, and leave the train at Okitsu and ride to Shizuoka by way of Kunozan. Either way is a delightful ride among the country villages ; but, going this way, you turn your back upon Fuji San, which it is always a great pity to do. CHAPTER V. MOUNT FUJI. “ Where on the one hand is the jirovince of Kai, And on the other tlie land of Suruga, llight in the midst between them Stands out the high peak of Fuji. The very clouds of heaven dread to approach it ; Even the soaring birds reach not its summit in their flight. Its burning fire is quenclied by the snow, The snow that falls is melted by the fire. Of Yamato, the Laud of Sunrise, It is the Peace-giver, it is the God, it is the Treasure. On the peak of Fuji, in the land of Suruga, I never weary of gazing.” — From the “ Manyoshiu,” Aston’s translation. “Fujiyama is the keynote of Japan. When you understand the one, you are in a position to learn something of the other.” — Kipling : “ From Sea to Sea.” T)escuiptions are hopeless things. One might as well try to say why the Hermes of Praxiteles fills us with delight, or why we stand long before a Raphael or a Bellini or a great Titian, as to attempt to put into words the charm of Japan. That it is a mingled charm goes without saying; that what delights one leaves another cold ; what La Farge perceived and interpreted with .so much sympathy was something 90 MOUNT FUJI. 91 quite different from the dainty prettinesses that roused Sir Edwin Arnold’s enthusiasm. And what is true of the country at large is even more true of the sacred mountain; one can tell of its situation, of the level plain a thousand feet above the sea, and the eleven thousand feet more rising from the plain in unbroken sweep, save only where the one little mound breaks the southeastern side ; of the living grace of the lines, formed by the piling ashes, as snowdrifts are piled by the wind ; the result will be as moving as fair Olivia’s ironical catalogue of her charms — Item, Two lips, indifferent red ; two eyes, one nose.” Even pictures, ])hotographs, give only the shape and color of the mountain, not its indefinable effect on the mind ; per- haps the only reproductions which have ever done that are Hokusai’s wonderful “ Hundred Views of Fuji,” and his larger plates of the “ Thirty Views ; ” and these owe their success, so far as they do succeed, to the fact that they are impressions, records of what one sensitive mind, at least, has felt concerning Fuji in some of her manifold moods. There can be little doubt but that the peculiarly sacro-sanct character of the mountain dates from a period long before the Japanese occupation of the country, the period of the Ainu and their hypothetical predecessors, the Koropuk-giiru ; as I have said already, the name is pretty certainly identical with the xVinu Fuchi,the Fire Goddess of their mythology. This name, Fuji, may be variously written with either 92 JAPAN. of three characters, which of itself points to its having been a word kept over from an unknown tongue, and connected with any word of like sound and not impossible meaning. During all the earlier centuries Fuji San was truly and evidently the abode of fire ; till at least the year 1100 the smoke never ceased to hang above the cone, and there were frequent outbursts of ashes and stones. The last great one was in the first years of the eight- eenth century, when ashes fell six inches deep in Tokyo, sixty miles away as the crow flies, and the vegetation was killed on all the upper part of the mountain, especially on the eastern side. At this time the little mound was piled, or at least made more noticeable ; it is called, from the name of the period in which the shower fell, Iloei-Zan. Since then there has been no smoke or fire, but at one side of the crater even yet the steam pours continually in small jets through the ashes. It may come forth again. Ban- daizan in the north had been quiet for eleven cen- turies, and trees had grown upon the crater, when the inner fires suddenly burst out and flung the whole crest across the valley. Doubtless to the early wor- shipers it was the a^\■fuluess of these hidden forces that gave the charm of terror to the goddess-moun- tain’s beauty. So sacred was Fuji that in old times no woman was permitted to .set foot on it, and even now some con- servative ones hold themselves unworthy to go beyond MOUNT FUJI. 93 a certain point, the eighth station, as the distances are reckoned off on the climb. They say that the shape of the mountain suggested a pile of rice poured out of the measure, and so they divided it up into so many go, like a sho of rice ; but not all of the ten theo- retical divisions have huts for rest or shelter, wJiile others have several. There are six or seven paths by which to ascend, radiating from the cone like spokes from a wheel — two from the Ilakone side, one from nearly south, which is most popular with the Japanese, and which they consider the proper or ‘‘ front en- trance;” and the rest from the north and west. All are marked with the ten station-s, with or witliont rest huts at each ; and there is said to be comparatively little difference in the time or steepness of the ascent by eitlier one. Tlie first foreigner to make the ascent was Sir Rutherford Alcock, first British ^Minister to Japan. It is not recorded that he had any very consuming desire to go, but the idea having been suggested, he pressed it with true British determination, on the ground that as tlie representative of a friendly power h.e was entitled by treaty to go anywhere tluit any lay Japanese miglit enter. The Shogun’s government very naturally feared the effect on the people of vdiat could not but seem to them a gross jirofanation of the sacn’cd place, and tried hard to persuade the minister to give up or at least postpone his expedition ; but he felt that to yield in this was to give uj) a principle most 94 JAPAN. important to British interests abroad, and insisted on having the permission and foil safeguards. It is not for us — who enjoy under the “ most favored nation clause” all that England has won — to say that Sir Rutherford was wrong ; at least unless we are ready to concede that our own demands by Commodore Perry were wrong also, and that no nation has a right to force treaties of intercour.se on an unwilling people. At any rate. Sir Rutherford gained his point, and the goddess of the mountain manife.sted no di.spleasure ; nor did she seem offended even when Lady Parkes climbed with Sir Rutherford’s succe.ssor, the bluff, frank Sir Harry Parkes. Lady Parkes was the first woman who ever visited Fuji San; but she has had plenty of succes-sors, for though it is a long and fatigu- ing trip, there is no danger and no particular difficulty in the climb. And here be it remarked that I who write know Fuji from many points of its beautiful “skirts” — no farther. Concerning the ascent, I declare what has been told me, no more. Thus, then, they say it is done. There are a little less than thi’ee months during which the mountain is officially “ open,” and though hardy climbers have occasionally gone at other times, it is for the love of hardship and the unusual. The re.st houses are not occupied except during the season, and the guides will not go so long as there is any snow on the path, partly for fear of the anger of the MOUNT FUJI. 95 goddess, who should not be approached except at due times. It is cold enough always at night, even down to freezing in the hottest weather, though through the day the sun on the lower part of the slope may be intense. A few years ago a Tokyo meteorologist determined to spend the winter on the top of Fuji, in order to make observations ; his friends tried in vain to dissuade him ; but he declared it would be no worse than an arctic winter, and made all his preparations to stay through the season, his plucky wife going along, but no one else. But, as it proved, the fearful winds made their situation far worse than in any ordi- nary trip to tlie pole ; and they would certainly have perished if their friends had not become so uneasy that they sent up a party to investigate. They found Mr. Nonaka almost dead from exposure, and his wife in hardly better condition ; tlie guides of the relief party made improvised litters and carried them down over the snow in safety. If it were possible to be on Fuji in winter, that would certainly be the best time to enjoy the view ; day after day the whole slope stands out clear in the clear winter air, covered with snow nearly to its base, and it must be possible to see not only all the thirteen provinces which tradition declares visible, but even beyond. Indeed, the Rev. AValter Weston declares that in all fine weather you see very much farther than is set down in the usual accounts. The best time for seeing anything is during late July and early 96 JAPAN. August — July 2oth to August 10th Professor Cham- berlain says — because at that time the early summer rains are generally over, and the tremendous storms of August and September not yet begun. Still, it is largely a chance, just as in Switzerland, and for that reason, if no other, it is well to try for two sunrises and a sunset, since those are the best times of day. By noon the clouds gather about the cone, or lie in mas.ses on the sides, affording wonderful effects of shadow and light, but little distant view, or, rather, little but the most distant, for sometimes the horizon of the sea Avill be visible, or some far-away mountain peak, when all the nearer earth is blotted out. The wise ones, therefore, advise starting a couple of hours after midnight from one of the inns, Gotemba or Subashiri, and pushing on to a point well up the side before the sun rises. This also avoids the sun on the hottest part of the climb. Then they go on .slowly, reaching the rest huts at the summit by noon; take the afternoon for the crater and the round of shrines, and spend the night at the top, returning the next day. In any case, it is .safest to take along provisions for a few days, because travelers have been caught some- times by sudden storms of .sleet and wind, making it impossible to stir from the sheltering huts, whether to go up or down. Such an experience Miss Scidmore had, and it mu.st have been much more unpleasant than her cheery account of it admits. At most of the .stations where there are rest houses it is possible MOUNT FUJI. 97 to get cooked rice and hot water ; quilts every one brings along, and charcoal is not a bad thing in case of being held some days. The pilgrims carry strings of waraji, straw sandals which tie around the ankles, and drop the worn-out ones all along the way, for the sharp cinders quickly cut everything to pieces ; for- eigners also tie these waraji on over their shoes, and find them a great protection to the leather, as well as a great help in keeping the feet from slipping. Europeans who have done much tramping in Japan often come to discard their own boots entirely, and wear the strong dark-blue cotton tabi and waraji, like the Japanese pilgrims. The toe strap is uncomfort- able at first, but the feeling soon goes off, as every one knows who has tried wearing Japane.se dress. It is possil)le to ride on horseback not only across the cultivated plain and gradual rise to the jioint called Uma-gaeshi (horse-turn-back), but for another five miles beyond, over a grassy moor which reaches to the foot of the trees. At what is counted the entrance to the sjiered portion there is a little temple, where the priests .sell stavc.s, stamped with the temj)le seal ; at the top the staff is stamped again by the priests in charge there, in testimony that the pilgrim has accomplished the ascent. The trees begin at four thousand feet — a beautiful mos.sy wood, full of berries and wild dowers; it reaches highest on the west side, something over nine hundred feet, but on the east — the side toward VoL. II.— 7 98 JAPAN. Gotcmba — it is cut off sharply at about five thousand five hundred feet, where the mass of ashes stopped in the last great eruption. Beyond this there Ls a band of bushy scrub aud some few hardy flowers, but only for a little way ; all the upper part of the cone is a desolate slope of blackish cinder, through which masses of lava protrude here and there from the blocks below. There is lava underneath to an immense distance — fifteen miles — but very little shows on the surface, and that only where streams have worn away the ashes. Some little distance above the trees another path encircles the mountain, aud energetic pilgrims stay over a day aud take this, too, in their journey. A rocky wall of peaks surrounds the crater, which can be entered at just one pniut by an easy slope; the bottom is nearly flat, and about five hundred feet down. The highest peak is Ken-ga-mine, on the west side, and here it is that Japane.se ])ilgrims go before dawn, reverently to greet the rising sun. They dress in white, these mountain pilgrims, to symbolize the purity of heart needful for the goddess’ devotees; and they come by thousands through the short weeks that the shrines are open, peasants nearly all of them, wearing big stra^v hats, and carrying their provisions and a ])iece of straw matting, which will serve them for bed or rain-coat as necessity may arise. As might be expected, the legends concerning Fuji San are endless. As to its origin, tradition has it MOUNT FUJI. 99 that there was once no mountain here at all, only a great plain ; till one night there was a tremendous earthquake, and Fuji rose to its full height, where now it stands ; and at the same time lake Biwa ap- peared, a hundred miles to the south ; the mass which made the mountain had left the hollow where it once was. A «Tapanese author of some centuries ago gravely discussed this legend, and dismissed it as quite impossible. The goddess of Fuji was a purely Shinto deity, to begin with, and had a proper Shinto name of nine syllables, but the Buddhist autliorities, as usual, adopted her and gave her a Buddhistic appellation, Sengen, and certain Buddhistic attributes. At Shi- zuoka there is a noble temple in her honor, appro- priately placed where the long southeastern slope of the mountain .spreads down to the sea, and the view is uninterrupted from cone to plain. This particular temple dates only from early Tokugawa times, having been built under the care of Okubo, leyasu’s faithful vassal and lemitsu’s counselor. It has a fine hall, supported on red lacquered pillars, and some very boautiful wood carving, part of it by Hidari Jingoro, of Xikko fame. Scngen’s father is also honored here ; he was a Tengu, or mountain kobold, and the guar- dian deity of Mount Oyama, which lies northeast of Fuji. Much of this })lain at the southeastern slope of Fuji San is watered from lake Hakone, by an arti- 100 JAPAN. ficial channel tunneled through the mountains near one of the lesser passes ; it was made many centuries ago, no one seems to know just when. The water finally makes its way into the little Kanogawa, and empties into Suruga bay at Xumazu, on the Tokaido. IMucli larger and wider than the Kanogawa, and very swift, is the Fuji river, which rises in the mountains above Kofu and flo^\'s down between two ranges and out on to the plain to reach Suruga bay. It is navigable for some thirty miles, the boats having to be towed up by men, and shooting down through several small rapids and one great one almost to the mouth of the river. The number of boats so engaged is astonishing ; at times the stream seems full of them. A curious bridge crosses the river in one place, made of bamboo, split and twisted into ropes, suspending a long series of bundles of bamboo, lashed together to form the l)ridge. A single row of planks is laid on it, and it has one supporting prop part way over. The whole is a hundred feet long, and from twenty-five to thirty-five feet above the river ; and over this narrow, swaying affair the peasants walk unconcernedly, carry- ing their loads of produce or faggots. They say there are many like it in the mountains. In the middle ages the Fujikawa just mFsed being the scene of a tremendous battle. It was during the struggle between the Taira and Minamoto, when Yoritomo had already entrenched himself at Kama- kura, but before the death of the old Taira chief, MOUNT FUJI. 101 Kiyomori. Yoritomo had gathered followers from the provinces north of the Hakone mountains ; the Taira brought a great army up from the south against them, and the two came at the same moment to the opposite banks of the river. Whichever tried to cross to the attack would be at a terrible disadvantage in that swift stream, and the two armies lay on either side without daring to cross. In the night an alarm arose; it is said that one of the Taira, foreseeing that the risiiip; tide would 2;ive an advantage to the Mina- moto, scared np a flock of wild fowl, which made a great commotion on the marshy flats near by, and the Taira thought it was an attack and fled. The INIina- moto also withdrew, and the decisive battles were fouglit elsewhere. In the days of the luxurious Ashikaga Shoguns at Kamakura, ])icnic parties to the neighborhood of INIount Fuji were much in vogue. The dilettante courtiers no longer hunted and rode as in Yoritomo’s time, but amused themselves by composing poems of the most concise and conventional character, full of punning allusions and double meanings, being often a more naming over of things remotely suggestive, such as — “ Spring-time ; a sunny day ; rocks on the shore of the sea.” Or this : A forest in autumn; the moon ; a flight of storks.' 102 JAPAN. Two legends are localized on the .shore near the foot of Mount Fuji, both similar in general incidents to stories found in the folk literature of nearly all the world, though naturally they have certain distinct va- riations. One is the “ Robe of Feather.s,” the other “ The Fisher-boy of Urashima.” The first is the old tale of the .stolen robe, like the mermaid’s dress and the fairy ring and the .sandal-wood necklace of other lauds. A fisherman finds on the shore a beautiful gar- ment woven of feathers, shining in the sun ; he is about to carry it home, when a fairy creature appears, and implores him to give it back to her, for Avithout it, she declares, she cannot return to her companions in paradise. In a Norse or a German story, such as we are used to, the mortal Avould hide the robe and make the maiden his bride, and she Avould dwell with him haj)pily till some unlucky day she found the dress, grew homesick and departed, with longing, backward looks toward hu.sband and children — “For the cold, strange eyes of a little mermaiden, And the gleam of her golden hair.” Not SO the Japanese. At first, indeed, he refuses to give up his prize, but at la.st consents to do so if she Avill dance for him. This the fairy promises to do; so she dons the shining robe, and begins a Avoudrous dance. A famous No dance took this tale for its sub- ject ; Avhile the dancers represent the beautiful fairy. MOUNT FUJI. 103 the awed and delighted fisherman, the singers chant a lyric chorus describing the scene : “ Lo, the rising sun, the golden gleam on Mount Fuji, On the shadow of Fuji, reflected in the sea. Earth and sky mingle in one; the magic form of Fuji rises, glow- ing with light. Dance, O daughter of the gods ! The garland of thy hair floats in the wind.” Rut, as site dances the divine dance, slowly she be- gins to rise, to fioat before the fisherman’s eyes ; up and up, the feather robe wafting her like a bird — “ Over the wooded hill, overUkushima, and the heights of Ashidaka; Even over Fuji and the eternal snows; Higher and higher, into the azure sky. Now a cloud enwraps her; the heavenly one has vanished from mortal sight.” “ The Fi.sher-boy of Urashima ” is a story of some- wliat the same order, and, too, he is a Rip Van Winkle with Pandora’s box ; his tale is found in different ver- sions in several parts of Japan. One day while he was out in his boat, a sudden storm overtook him, and he was unable to return to the shore. But when he gave up rowing, in despair, a large turtle suddenly ai>peared in the waves, and said to him, “Get on my back ; I will take care of you.” The young man obeyed, and the turtle went away with him far into the depths of the sea, even to the Jewel Palace, where ever\’thiug was beautiful as the day ; and there he was 104 JAPAN. welcomed, and the Jewel Princess herself became his bride. And they lived long and happily. But, after what seemed to him three years, the young man begged his wife to let him go back to the world and visit his old home ; for his parents must be un- happy, thinking him dead. With great reluctance the princess consented ; and she sent him over the sea on the back of the turtle, first giving him a little casket, which she charged him to keep, if he desired to come back to her ; but on no account was he to open it, or he would never, never return or see her more. All of which he faithfully promised to ob.serve. But when he reached his home, nothing was the same ; the village that he knew had vanished, strange houses stood on the familiar shore, strange faces were in the doorways ; and though he searched far and near, he could find no trace of his people. Then, in terror and despair, he drew out the little box, and regardless of his wife’s monitions, lifted the lid. There was nothing inside except a faint vapor, that floated out and away over the sea toward the Jewel Palace ; but as he looked, the young man’s knees trembled and grew weak ; his hair whitened and his face became Avrinkled and drawn; the centuries that had passed as a dream bowed him to the ground, and he sank dead upon the shore. CHAPTER VI. NAGOYA. Nagoya may be a pleasant town enough to live in, but it is not an attractive or impressive place ; it lies too flat, and has too many pretentions modern build- ings in “ foreign ” style — which, indeed, give it an air of progress and prosperity of modern sort. It has, moreover, a population much given to riding bicycles, wonderful rattling structures of the old high-whecl pattern, thin as the skeletons of wheels and unblest with any form of rubber on their tires. After meet- ing a reckless. ’prentice boy on one of these mounts, pack on back and kimono tails flying and straw zori flipflapping on his bare toes, whirling down the street through a crowd of foot-passengers, one marvels how any of the inhabitants survive to make the delicate “egg-shell ” lacquer which is a specialty of Nagoya, or the famous Owari porcelain which belongs to the whole district. The term egg-shell, by the way, does not mean thin, but is given because the ware is really made of the inner paper-like membrane of a hen’s egg, tiny fragments of which are powdered down on a fresh coat of lacquer, just as gold-leaf is sometimes 105 106 JAPAN. placed, aud then dried in and varnished with transpa- rent lacquer and re-poli.shcd, making a cloudy white background for a decoration in gold or silver or color applied in the usual way ; the effect is delicate and j)retty, and the Japane.se 2>rize a good piece quite highly. The work is nece.ssarily very slow, and con- secjuently a box or tray of any size is quite expensive, and this may be one rea.son why it is seldom sent abroad ; indeed, foreigners have never seemed to know or care much about it. Nagoya has a large Buddhist mona.ster}’, the Higashi Hongwanji, surrounded by high stone walls, the rt*- mains of an old fortress which formerly .stood on its site ; the temple is comparatively modern, and eveiy- thing about it is in the most gorgeous style of Bud- dhistic art, from the grand two-storied gate, with its elaborate carvings and scrolls and diapers, to the great hall divided into three apartments, and the splendors of the inner shrine. Even the ceiling beams are siq> ])orted on carved lotus leaves aud flowers, aud the ramma in the spaces above the screens which divide the compartments are decorated with gilded openwork figures of Buddhist angels. The chief image is a figure of Amida, about two-thirds of life size, in a magnificent gilded shrine. iSIuch less resplendent, but very quaint and interest- ing, are the figures of the “ Five Hundred Eakan ” in a shabby little temple not far from the Hongwanji. The Rakan were the “chief companions” or di.sciples NAGOYA. 107 of Buddha, and they are great favorites with Japanese artists, whether in painting or sculpture. These partic- ular images are carved in wood, mostly about two feet high, their garments gorgeously painted ; they are of all grades of merit, some dignified and interesting in face and attitude, others clumsy or grotesque or inanely smiling. They are all attributed to one man, but it is quite evident that only a few are really his. However, the variety of pose, feature and expression is the most astonishing thing about them ; the Japanese say that every man can find among them a likeness of his own father, and it is not difficult to believe, for every pos- sible type of Japanese face .seems to be represented. But the great glory of Nagoya is its mediaeval castle, the finest of all now left standing in Japan. It was built by Kato Kiyomasa, the general who conquered Korea for Hideyoshi ; Nobimaga held it, though his own great castle was in Omi province, which borders lake Biwa, and was destroyed soon after his death ; while Nagoya, curiously enough, has never been even besieged. When leyasu came into power, he gave it to one of his sons, who established the Owari family, one of the Go-San Ke, or Three Great Houses, Kii, Owari and Mito. It remained in their hands till all such property was turned over to the government after the Restoration. The enclosure is used for barracks and officers’ quarters, and a special pass obtained be- forehand, through one’s legation, is the only means of entrance ; but it is quite worth a little foresight and 108 JAPAN. trouble to see and touch the wonderful walls, like those of Yedo castle, but even more massive, and the tim- bers of the great keep, which rises in five .stories, dimin- ishing one above another. Each story is gabled and battlemented, and covered outside by an immense thick- ness of dazzling white plaster; while inside there seems to be almost no space at all, only a kind of gallery around the walls commanding the loophole windows, and a steep stair. All the rest of the space is taken up by the enormous beams, crossed and bracerh the streets. At one of the teni])les in the sacred province of Yamato there is a lantern called the Poor Woman’s Single Lamp. Its legend is that on some great occa- sion the people of the neighborhood were all giving lamps’ to the temple ; and a very rich man gave a 124 JAPAN. tliousand great ones, making a lavish display of his wealth and j^iety. But among the common people there was one poor woman who had nothing at all to give ; but she cut olf her long hair, and by selling that managed to get enough money to buy one poor little light. So on the night of the festival all the lamps were lighted, and the rich man’s thousand .shone brilliantly, and all the world admired and praised him. But while they were looking a .sudden gale of wind rose and swept through the open galleries and blew out every light save only one little forgotten lamp, which shone as never candle shone before. Then they looked and found who had given it ; and they knew that the poor woman’s sacrifice had been more acceptable than all that the rich man gave of his abundance. Foreigners often stop at Gifu to see the very curious spectacle of the cormorant fishing at night on the river. The birds are used in this way in other places in Japan, but nowhere to such an extent or so skill- fully as on the Kisogawa. It is an exceedingly old custom, for the ancient chronicle, the Kojiki, makes mention of cormorants being kept and used for fishing in the time of the Divine Ancestors. They catch the young birds with limed twigs at their feeding places along the shores of Owari bay, cage them and tame them, and train them to the business while quite young, or, rather, have the old birds train them. They say a good old bird will train a number of young ones GIFU. 125 at once. They all know their names, which are not strictly names either, but numbers, by which the master addresses them, and they also understand their turns perfectly well ; thus the oldest and wisest bird is quite aware that he is Ichi-bau, Number One, and claims all his privileges, making a great fuss if he is not first fed and last to go into the water to work, and first out of it again — and last to enter the pen, too, when they all go home to their cages in the village. The fishing is all done at night — not on moonlight niglits, either, as it would not be dark enough for the lights to draw the fish. The boats start about three miles up the river, above Gifu, and float down with the current, a whole fleet of them together, one man in the stern managing each boat. Visitors who stop at Gifu to see them, take supper at the inn and after- wards hire a boat and lie out in the stream to wait till they come down — often a weary time; for, while it may be nine o’clock, more often it is midnight before they appear. The first token is a faint red glow far up the stream ; gradually it increases and separates into a dozen or more centres of flame, coming from as many great iron baskets filled with blazing jfitch-pine, each hung by an iron arm from the bow of the boat. It is a weird scene ; the wavering lights flash far out over the river, and the fish gather to it as moths come round a lamp, or catfish to our Pennsylvania boys, when they go out “ bobbing ” on the pond. In each 126 JAPAN. boat one man stands banging on a bamboo clapper and shouting at the top of his voice, which is intended to encourage the birds ; they are held, like dogs in a leash, diving and squattering aroimd the bow of the boat. The master stands forward, handling as many as twelve birds, and a second man behind has three or four more. Each bird has a ring round its neck, just large enough to let through small fish and keep back big ones. As soon as one has stuffed its throat — which requires only a few minutes — the master lifts the great creature out of the water, and, with a quick squeeze, makes it disgorge the fish, and throws it back again ; four fish is the usual take each time. As this process is repeated on an average four times a minute, and each cormorant is as big as a goose and j)lunges about vigorously at the end of its string, it may be suj^posed that he who handles twelve birds has a lively time of it. When they get opposite Gifu the work is over for the night ; the boats are run ashore and the cormorants are made to stand up, like a row of soldiers, on the gunwale, each in its own place ; if they have not had enough supper, the master feeds them in turn with the smaller fish. It is said the birds are kindly treated and well taken care of; even though the season is only five months and the birds must be fed all winter, a well-trained cormorant is very valuable property, and is looked after accordingly. Which leads one to speculate whether economic causes may not some day GIFU. 127 help matters for the poor, ill-tempered, ill-used horses of Japan — almost the only creatures to whom the Japanese are really cruel. The province of Mino was one of which Nobunaga got po.ssession, and he built a large castle near the present town of Gifu. Little is left now but the traces, on a hill which commands a beautiful view of the country round. The most noted historical place in the province, however, is leyasu’s great battle-field, Sekigahara, which lies between tlie hills a little to the west of Gifu. The place is called Sekigahara, Moor of the Bar- rier, because, from old tirne.s, one of the outposts stood here ; doubtless one of those originally placed ag iin.st the Ainu, and the clans not yet under the control of the Yamato rulers, and mainhiincd after- ward to keep any one from suddenly marching on Kyoto. The great struggle took place in IGOO, be- tween leyasu, who had already gained all the northern provinces, and Hideyoshi’s son, Hideyori, who held Osaka castle and continually plotted against the Toku- gawa. The historians give accounts of a tremendous fight, more than eighty thousand men on Ieya,su’s side and one hundred and thirty thousand on the other ; the plain was red with blood, and the Osaka army retired with a loss of thirty thousand. It is sjjid that the battle was decided by a portion of Hideyori’s allies going over to leyasu during the fight. It was Teyasu’s notion to go into this battle without 128 JAPAN. a helmet. When the victory was won, he sat down on a folding stool, and, ordering his helmet to be brought, put it on and carefully tied the strings. It was doubtless intended as an object-lesson to his followers; and certainly he did indeed tighten, not relax, his vigilance after this battle. Nearly all the remaining lords now came to him and made submission. leyasu proceeded to re-apportion the provinces of the empire, dividing them according to the attitude of the Daimyo toward himself. He classed them all as Fudai and Tozama; the first Avere those Avho had been allied with him before Sekigahara ; the latter those who joined him afterwards ; and the first class had a number of privileges denied to the Tozama barons. Under the Shogun’s direct sway were the provinces of the KAvanto, around and north of Yedo (Tokyo) ; Kyoto likeAAuse AAas guarded by a ring of nobles faithful to the TokugaAva house, and finally the Tozama AA’ere so placed that they could not command the lines of intercourse betAAeen the tAvo capitals. Thus, although the Fudai nobles AAere often possessed of smaller fiefs than the Tozama, they held fiir more influential positions. By his neAV distribu- tion of the country, there Avere two hundred and thirty- seven Daimyo — the number AA'as afterAAards raised to a little OA’er three hundred — and of these, one hun- dred and fifteen Avere direct A’assals of the TokugaAAa familv. As a Japanese AA^iter points out, it Avas not like planning a house or a garden ; the interests of GIFU. 129 each had to be consulted, rewards and punishments meted out with at least a show of justice; the pow- erful conciliated, the weak overawed. The process took years to complete. It is recorded that when leyasu’s grandson, lemitsu, came to the Shogunate, he summoned to the palace at Yedo all the Tozama lords and declared to them that henceforth he proposed to place them on the same footing as the Fudai nobles. ‘‘ My ancestor,” he told them, “ having been originally of the same rank as yourselves, and having been enabled to pacify the country through your assistance, was prompted by a sentiment of deference from classing you with the Fudai barons. But I differ from my ancestor, in the fact that I was born to the position which he acquired, and I am under no obligation to ])reservc any distinc- tion. Should tills resolve be displeasing to any of you, an intervail of three years will be given you to consider the matter quietly on your own estates ; dur- ing that time you will lie c.xpected to come to a final decision.” To this speech, which amounted to a request for a tresh declaration of fealty, tlie Shogun added the gift of a sword to each Daimyo, reminding them of tlie creed of the. Samurai, that they should guard with weapons of war what was taken by that means. Both Fudai and Tozama acquie.sced quietly to this pro- po.sal, and the work of consolidation was done. VoL. II.— 9 CHAPTER VIII. THE SHRINES OF ISE. “ What it is That (Iwelleth here I know not; Yet my heart is full of gratitude, And the tears trickle down.” Saigo, Priest of Ise. Aston’s translation. “ Think not that God is something afar off, but seek for him in your own heart; for the heart is the abode of God.” Kiuso. Aston’s translation. “ Pay no heed to the praise or blame of fellow-men ; but so act that you need not be ashamed before the Gods of the Unseen. . . . If you desire to practice true virtue, learn to stand in awe of the Unseen ; it will prevent you from doing wrong. Make a vow to the God who rules over the Unseen, and cultivate the conscience im- planted in you, and thus you will never wander from tlie Way.” Ilirata Atsutaue. Japanese translation, Anon. It will hardly he .“safe to compare Ise with Delphi, and yet the Shrine of the Sun Goddess in Ahunato has had something of the same unifying influence on the nation that Apollo’s had over Greece — the same in kind, though by no means in degree ; to note only one difference, in Japan the political side of religion, so to speak, was altogether usurped by the imported lao THE SHEINES OF ISE. 131 Buddhism. Nevertheless, this temple, which is held to be the oldest in Japan, was so very sacred that Buddhism, with all its prestige, scarcely touched any of its rites or traditions ; for it goes back to the very Age of the Gods, and the mirror of the Sun Goddess herself is kept in the innermost shrine. Concerning this mirror, tradition relates that when Amaterasu sent her grandson Ninigi, ancestor of the first Emperor Jimmu Tenno, to make peace on the earth and conquer the demons and evil spirits, she gave him “the Jewel, the Mirror, and the Sword” (the one that her brother Susa-no-o took from the body of the eight-headed dragon), saying, “ This mirror is my spirit ; regard it as myself.” Therefore it is that these precious things are the insignia of her descendants ; but, as has been already noted, in the second century the Emperor Sujin, fearing they might be accidentally polluted, sent them to a certain shrine, after having fac-similes made to preserve in the l)alace as the tokens of the imperial rule ; and from that shrine they were afterwards removed to Ise, whei'e the mirror remains, the sword having been sent on to Atsuta, near Nagoya, where it now is. The mirror probably signifies the female, and the sword the male principle, much as some American Indians represent a woman by a water-jar and a man by a knife or an arrow. The temple of the mirror is called the Naiku, or Inner temple ; the other is the Geku, or Outer, and is 132 JAPAN. thouglit less sacred than that of the Sun Goddess; but this, too, belongs to one of the earlie.st cults — the woi'ship of earth and the creator of food. They stand at a considerable distance apart, surrounded by beautiful trees, and a])proached through wooden torii of the plainest early shape, the supports resting on the ground and not in sockets, and the single cro.s.s-beam perfectly .straight. These two teini)les only their sj)ec‘ial priests may approach, or the descendants of the gods, the members of the imperial family. Till the fourteenth century a virgin prie.ste.ss of the hou.se was always in charge of the “ eight- petaled ” mirror of the sun, but since then the rule has been less rigidly enforced. The cu.stom, however, is not a little suggestive of the virgin priestesses of Vesta and the Roman fire rites. And just as Lanciaui has traced back the temple of Vesta at Rome to the round straw huts of the half-nomad Latins, Sir Ernest Satow carries these tc'mples at Ise back to a pre-historic Japane.se hou.se, raised a little on posts, thatch-roofcxl and wattled, its floor of bare, beaten earth, partly .surrounded by a low platform, where doubtless the members of the family sat. In the temples the platform has already spread over the whole space, but it may be in memory of the primitive type of dwelling that at certain times the Emperor must worship his ancestors “ .standing upon the earth ” — a necessity that was cleverly provided for at the imperial palace in Kyoto THE SHEINES OF ISE. 133 by cementing one corner of the great hall and strew- ing it daily with fresh sand for the morning invoca- tions. In a series of drawings of peasant houses owned by Dr. Nitobe, a good slice of the bare ground often remains not floored over ; but in most houses all that is left is the small vestibule where shoes are taken off — a rudiment, as the anatomists would say, of the original state of the house. It is most prob- able, too, that another prototype may be found in the rude dwellings of a Malay campong (East English, “compound”), which are rough straw huts, raised on ]iiles above the side of some bay or river, no doubt for bettor defence from animals and hostile tribes, as you see them, for instance, at Singapore. The super- ficial resemblance is certainly strong, and becomes closer in the case of the temples than of ordinary Japanese houses, because, as Sir Erne.st Satow points out, the earliest temples had their supports set into the ground, not merely on it, as is done at the present day. One of the unique and curious customs at Iso is that the two chief temples, the Xaiku and the Geku, must be pulled down and rebuilt at the end of every twenty years, “ that our Fatherland may be happy, and that the five fruits of the field may ])rosper.” It would seem that the underlying thought was that of keeping away any touch of decay or imperfection from the sacred place. Each temple has therefore a pair of sites, and goes fi’om one to the other alter- K34 JAPAN. nately. When the old building is pulled douTi, the wood is broken up into little pieces and .sold in tiny packets as charms against disease and misfortune. Every smallest detail of the old temple is copied in the mo.st minute way, and always has been, so far back as our knowledge goes ; so that these — say, seven-thousandth descendants of the original temples — are probably very close fac-similes of what stood here some fifteen hundred years ago. The builders, while at work on such temples, must follow a certain rule of life; they must go to their work “ washen, barefoot and in white,” and there are rules, b)o, for the use of tools and materials. leyasu decreed that the Daimyo of Owari and of Kiushiu should provide the hinoki wood used to rebuild tlie Ise temples. All of which would be highly interesting and instructive if one were allowed to see it — if it were not all so supremely sacred as to be hidden away be- hind a series of palisades and groups of trees, through which only the priests may pass, and which allow you merely a tantalizing glimpse of thatched roof and the crossed ends of the gable rafters projecting through it — suggestion of the time when these supjxtrts were tied together, as the Ainu tie them now. Even the Japanese pilgrim must be content to gaze only on the outside of his holy of holies, and enjoy instead the very beautiful landscape through which he journeys to the shrine. The way there is by rail from Kyoto, or by a little steamer across Owari bay, and then by THE SHRINES OF ISE. 135 kuruma to Yamada, the town which exists solely by and for Ise and the pilgrims thither. All about here the coast is most picturesque, the groves of camphor and cryptomeria wonderful, even in this country of beautiful forests. We are used to the myth of Chronos and the birth of Athene, and many another tale wliosc grossness has been transformed or overlaitl by the beauty of Greek art and poetry ; but the Japanese account of the crea- tion of things has come down to us in all its crudity, bald and grotescpic almcxst as the beliefs of the North American ludinns. At first, say the Kojiki and tlie Nihongi, all the world was chaos, a dreary waste of half-liquid mud, till the gods above sent down the creator pair, Isanagi and Isanami, to make the earth. Then Isanagi and Isanami came down and stood on the Bridge of Heaven, and thrust down a jeweled spear into the mud, and flung out the half-liquid drops tliat clung to it; and the drops became the islands of reed-growing Japan. After this various and wonderful things hajipencd ; several gods and goddesses were born, and last of all the Fire God, at whose birth Isanami died. IFcr hus- band made a journey, Orpheus-like, to bring her back from the under world, aud found, and was in the act of returning with her, Avhen, like Orpheus, he dis- obeyed orders and turned to look at what he carried ; and seeing the horrible corpse, he drop[)ed it in terror and fled. Being thus unclean, he bathed in a river 136 JAPAN. to purify himself, and as he did so various divinities were born from the touch of the water. The Sun Goddess Amaterasu sprang from his right eye, the ]\Ioon God from his left, and the very troublesome and unruly Wind God Susa-no-o from his nose or breath. Later there were other gods and demi-gods created, such as Prince Fire Shine and Prince Fire Fade, and Ninigi, the grandson of Amaterasu, who married the daughter of an earth god and became the ancestor of Jimmu Tenno; and the fo(xl goddess, an uncouth Demeter, who made rice and fish and game to enter- tiiin the Moon God, only to be slain by the ungrateful guest, because he said she gave him unclean food ; whereat the Sun Goddess was very wroth, and jmn- ished the Moon God ; but “ from the body of the mur- dered Earth sprang cattle and horses, millet, silk- worms, rice, barley and beans.” So says Chamberlain, quoting from the Kojiki and Xihongi. The story of Prince Fire Shine and Prince Fire Fade is one into which wise people read a great many things, such as the conflict between the hill tribes and the coast tribes, the hunting and the fishing popula- tion ; it also concerns the palace of the Dragon King under the sea, which appears in so many Japanese legends. The two princes were brothers, sons of Xinigi and the dau2:hter of the earth god. Prince Fire Shine was a fisherman, and possessed many fine hooks and THE SHRINES OF ISE. 137 caught much fish ; his brother was a hunter, who killed beasts and birds upon the mountains. One day Prince Fire Fade said to his brother, “ I am minded to go a-fishing ; do thou lend me thy hooks, and I will lend thee my bow and spear, where- with to hunt things large and small.” So Prince Fire Shine consented, and took the bow and spear and went to the mountains, and killed much game. But Prince Fire Fade fished and fislied, yet he caught nothing; and at last lie lost one of the hooks in the sea. When Prince Fire Sliine returned, and Prince Fire Fade told liiin what he had done, he was very angry. Then Ihancc Fire Fade took liis spear, and beat it out, and made many hooks for his bi’otlier; but Prince Fire Shine woukl not be appeased, and demanded his own hook again. And seeing there was nothing else to be done. Prince Fire Fade plunged into the sea to look for it. He Slink down and down into the waves, but sud- denly a sea monster came to him and bore him up, and took him to the Jewel Palace, where the Dragon King received him kindly; and when he heard the Prince’s story, lie sent to all the fishes (wlio were his subjects) and a.skcd if any of tlicm had .seen the fish-liook ; and by and by a large fish came and brought it. Then Prince Fire Fade was glad, and would have gone back to his brother; but the Dragon King in- vited him to stay, and offered him his daughter, the 138 JAPAN. Jewel Princess. So Prince Fire Fade married her, and lived liappily under the sea. Then, when he Avished to return, the Dragon King gave him the two jewels that control the tide, the ebb- tide jewel and the flood-tide jewel ; and the sea mon- ster bore him on its back through the waves to the earth again. But when Prince Fire Shine saAv his brother retimi- ing he was again angry, and threatened to kill him. Then Prince Fire Fade raised the flood-tide jewel ; and as lie held it u]i the water came flowing up over the shore, higher and higher, and Prince Fire Shine cried out in terror, and begged Prince Fire Fade to spare him. So the Prince lifted up the ebb-tide jewel, and the sea went back to its own place. And Prince Fire Shine saw that his brother Avas stronger, and he made submission to him. After that Prince Fire Fade built a little hut on the shore, and listed there A\dth the JeAvel Princess; but Avhen Prince Fire Shine peeped into the hut one day all that he saAv AA-as a sea monster, Avhich craAvled out of the hut and AA’cnt into the sea. NeA'ertheless the monster Avas the JeAvel Princess in disguise ; and her son AA'as Jimmu Teuuo, the first Emperor of Japan. Instead of dismissing these elder gods to deAuldom, Buddhism quietly absorbed them, by the simple pro- cess of recognizing them as AA'atars or Gongen, tem- porary manifestations or incarnations of Buddha, like Shaka (Gautama) himself. Thus came about the THE SHRINES OF ISE. 139 Ryobu Shinto, a strange fusion of Buddhas and Kami, so blended at last that no one can say of cer- tain elements whether they came from this side or from that. The recent “ purifying ” movement has drawn lines as best it could, turning out priests and pagodas and incense, and a hundred picturesque acces- sories, by which Buddhism had “defiled” the worship of the Kami ; leaving oidy the mirror and the gohei, which are regarded as emblems of truth and purity of heart, and of self knowledge and obedience to that innate sense of right that Shinto claims for man. For the rest, the grosser forms of natiu’e-worship have been supjiressed or eliminated, and ancestor worship has become with many a sort of passion of enthusiasm for the great departed; so that modern Pure Shinto may be allowed to cover almost anything, from a belief in deities innumerable to a vague acknowledg- ment of a power over all — a belief not far from Matthew Arnold’s “ Something, not ourselves, that makes for righteousness.” An interesting example of the way in which these Shinto nature deities were taken over into the Bud- dhist pantheon is quoted by Chamberlain. In the early centuries there was a devout Buddhist priest, who was troubled with questionings about these matters. He therefore went on a pilgrimage to Ise, and, praying for many days at the shrine, besought the Sun Goddess Amaterasu-no-kami to show herself to him in her true form — for, it must be remembered, at Ise there is no 140 JAPAN. image, nor any representation of the divinity whatso- ever. It is needful to take on faith even the mirror of the goddess herself, in its silken cover, which is never taken off, but, when it might decay, is covered with a new one on top of the layers of old ones which have hidden it for centuries. On the last night of his hundred days’ pilgrimage, the goddess appeared to the priest in a dream (under what form is not stated), and told him to go to the seashore at a certain place, and there she would mani- fest herself to him. Full of joy, the priest went to the spot to which he had been direeti d by the heavenly vision ; but to his dismay and disajipointment there appeared only a great serpent, ten feet long and of a bright golden color, floating on the waves. This, he felt sure, was but a delusion of the goddess, meant to try his faith, and, crying, Monster ! show thyself in thy true form,” he took off his scarf, a part of his sacerdotal vestments, and flung it at the serpent, which did not change its appearance, but slowly sank into the sea. Three nights later the faithful priest had another vision, in which the goddess told him that he had in- deed seen only another appearance, and not the reality ; but as a reward he should go to a certain little temple in Yamato, and there he should find her as in very truth she was. The priest joyfully obeyetl ; but when he reached the place, the image proved to be so holy that the monks in charge of the temple at first refused THE SHKINES OF ISE. 141 to show it. When at last they consented to open the shrine, to their astonishment they found that the very scarf which the pilgrim had thrown at the serpent was twisted around the image of Amida. Tlien the priest knew that the goddess had indeed condescended to enlighten him, and he worshiped Amaterasu in the Buddha of Light and Wisdom. At the World’s Parliament of Religions at Chicago, in 1893, the Right Rev. R. Shibata explained the meaning of the name Shinto as used to signify the ancient religion of Japan. “ The word Shinto or Kami-no-michi comes from the two words /Shhi or Kami (they are the Chinese and Japanese pronuncia- tion of the same character) meaning deity, and to or miclii, a way; and it designates the Way transmitted to us from our Divine Ancestoi’s, in whicli every Japanese is bound to walk. “Aeeording to our ancient scriptures there was a generation of Kami or Deities, who created tlie heavens and the earth, together with all things, and became the ancestors of the Japanese. And, as every child of the Heavenly Deity came into tlie world witli a soul separated from the one original soul of Deity, he ouglit to be just as the Deity ordered ; lie must be plain and simple as the form of the .sacred mountain Fuji, and make his mind and body pure as the serenity thereof.” Purity, actual and ceremonial, is the one law of Shinto ; and a large share of the rites are directed to 142 JAPAN. ])urification. Twice yearly from the earlie.st time.s the Emperor, as head of the national family, has ]>er- formed the office of purification for him.self and his people, whereby they are “ i)urged from offences and pol- lutioirs, and .saved from possible calamities.” Accord- ing to one authority, it is the custom for each Shinto household to have in the Kamidana — the shelf where the name-tablets of the ancestors are kept — an amulet made of a bit of the sacred wand used by the priestess of his temi)le who dances the sacred dance at the fes- tiv’al of purification ; this amulet is renewed at each half-yearl}’^ feast, and the old ones are to be used to kindle the fire for the bath, which the priestess takes before the dance. In early times it is recorded that fear of pollution sometimes led to neglect of the sick and the dead ; corpses were left by the roadside because no one would care for them, and laws had to be enacted enjoining decency in these things. The custom of moving the jndace after the death of an Emperor rose from the same kind of superstitious dread of defilement. In early time.s, if a traveler died upon the way, his comrades were obliged to pay a sum of money to the people of the district in which he died, to defray the expense of the rites of purification and sacrifice necessary to pro- tect them from the defilement ; and even in case of sickness the same rule was held. Moreover, when a man went out of his own part of the country, he had to take with him food and a vessel to cook it in ; and THE SHKINES OF ISE. 143 he might not cook it beside the road without permis- sion from the neighbors, lest by some act of his the place should be made unclean ; if he failed to do this, he might be required to pay for rites of purification for their houses. If he borrowed a pot, and accidentally let it touch anything unclean, he was recpiired to pay for the purification sacrifice.' Naturally, this sort of thing was afterwards discontinued — and yet it was probably no more than the Hindus practice to the present time. But it is really true, as their own writ- ers have said, that the Japanese have an instinctive horror of u ncl can li ness ; and their “causes of defile- ment ” are often curiously like those of the ancient Hebrews; while their ways are quite as astonishingly indike those of any of their neighbors nearer than the IMalay, who seem to have an equal passion for the water. Shinto is likewise sharply distinct from Chinese ideas in the position it gives to women. As at Iso, in all Sliinto slirincs an inqxwtant part of the temple service belongs to virgin priestesses; it is they wlio dance tlie siicrcd dances, they who clean the sacred shrine. At the great Kasuga temj)le at Nara, young girls and women rode on horseback in the procession at the most important festivals ; and when a temple was to be erected, girls cleared the ground and dug the holes for the corner ])osts, and a virgin took the axe and made the first cut in the wood for the timbers. Like the vestal virgins, the Shinto priestesses 144 JAPAN. were to remain virgins only during the terra of their service at the temple; celibacy was no part of the doctrine, rather the underlying idea was that of a family, in which the head of the house acted as priest, assisted by his virgin daughters. The .sacred hymns were long handed down orally, without being com- mitted to writing. There are twenty-seven greater rituals, nearly all of them invocations for peace and plenty ; one only for protection again.st evdl spirits. But without these rituals properly performed, it is thought that the Kami might be angry, and send or permit evil to befall the crops or the houses. Natu- rally the most important of all were the harvest rites, the prayers for a plentiful crop. “ Harken all ye, for I speak in the presence of the gods who rule over the harvest. If they render bountiful the harvest we have sown, that for which our hands have toiled and our feet have trodden the soil of the rice-field, then will I offer of the first-fruits of rice a thousand heads, and sake in the wide cups ranged duly in line.” And duly are the thanksgivings offered still, on the day of the First-fruits, which falls now in October, and on the festival of the later har- vest, now held in November. The offerings in kind have been long since discon- tinued in the Shinto ritual, except the daily offerings of food and water paid both at the temples and before the Kamidana at home. The ancient chronicles record the gifts of “ bright cloth and glittering cloth, fine THE SIIKINES OF ISE. 145 cloth and coarse cloth, sak6 jars and sweet herbs and bitter, things wide of fin and narrow of fin, piled up like the ranges of the hills.” For all these, the strips of paper fastened to a wand, called gohei, are supposed to be the representatives and substitutes. They are nearly always pure white, and cut in a particular way, and they are certainly used as an indication of divine presence in the widest sense. Here is a Japanese description of the ceremony of “Earth worship” on the estate of a Daiinyo; it was, however, a special occasion, to invoke an increase from the land, not the regular yearly service. “ The lord, governor, county officers and village officers, all dressed in sacerdotal robes, proceeded first to the temple of Kasuga, to inform the god of their aim and purpose. The procession then marched to a piece of ground recently opened, and there, with all solemnity, the chief first took up a hoe and struck it three times into the ground. After him the governor struck nine times, the county officers twenty-seven times, and so on down to the very tiller of the soil. The whole was a public acknowledgment that the .soil was sacred and to be sacredly handled, and that all blessinss of life were drawn from it.” Not only the great deities, who are forces of nature or spirits of the departed, found a place in the system of Kami worship ; like the Latins, the Japane.sc finds a divinity for almo.st every article of daily use, and one to w’atch over all his actions ; there was one who VOL. II. — 10 146 JAPAN. guard(Kl the rice pot, and for every part of the house, as well as the god of the spring and the god of the thunder. Yet for all these many deities the true Shinto had no images ; that was left for Buddhism to introduce, along with the many other foreign elements of Japanese religion as it stands to-day. The only outward tokens are the mirror of the Sun Goddess in her temple, and the ihai, the name-tablets of the dead, which stand to their people almost as the living pres- ence of the departed. There is a touching little story — one of many illus- trating the universal sense of the nearness of the beloved dead — whicb is based on this idea of the ihai as representing the very person whose name it bears, and, too, of the possibility of their return in bodily form to our world. Many years ago, says this legend, a young Samurai was betrothed to a beautiful girl ; they Avere about to be married, when suddenly the young knight Avas summoned to follow his lord to battle. In those days there Avas little communication betAA'cen one part of the country and another ; the Avar Avas long, and for months nothing Avas heard of the knight. The little bride began to droop ; then she fell sick, and at last she died. The distracted parents set up a tablet at her tomb, closed their house, and departed on a long pilgrimage. At last the Samurai returned, and reaching the A’il- lage, learned for the first time Avhat had taken place ; and he A\"ent to the tomb of his bride, meaning to kill THE SHEINES OF ISE. 147 himself there. But as he drew the dagger, a soft voice called to him to stay ; and before him stood the young girl, beautiful as he had left her. “ I did not die,” she told him ; ‘‘ I only disappeared for a little while.” Together they returned to the deserted house, and, calling in the neighbors, the marriage rite was celebrated. For a year they lived together in perfect happiness, and a son was born to them, whom the young wife cherished with a tender sadness. Then one day her parents returned from their pilgrimage, and as they drew near their own part of the country they heard that the man who was to have been their son-in-law was married and living in the village; and they sought him out, and loaded him with reproaches for his un- faithfulness to their daughter. But he told them he had done no wrong, for his wife was no other than their own daughter, whom they supposed to be dead ; and leading them to the house, he bade them enter and see. So they entered, and in her chamber, wrapped in a quilt, lay the rosy baby ; but the wife was no longer there. Beside the child lay the ihai, inscribed with her name, which the parents had placed over her tomb. In regard to the assertion so often made that Shinto is too vague to be considered a religion at all, the writer of the unsigned paper in “Japan Illustrated” says: “It is hardly necessary to point out that the intuitive system of morality receives its fullest recog- 148 JAPAN. nition when ethical sanctions are not coded. If a man derives the first principle of his duties from intuition, and if he be so constituted that the notion of right carries with it a sense of obligation, then a schedule of rules and regulations for the direction of eveiy-day conduct becomes not only superfluous, but illogical. That was tlie moral basis of Shinto. If the feet were kept firmly in the path of right, the guardianship of the gods was assured, Avitliout even praying for it.” Of this, which may be called the higher Shinto, the common people probably comprehend no single word, though the devout among them unquestionably find a real comfort in their visits to the shrines. Indeed, this same writer declares that “ not a peasant believes that his farm can be productive, not a merchant that his business can thrive, unless he pays, or honestly resolves to pay, at least one visit to Ise during his lifetime.” Further, if to us most of the visitors seem to give themselves up to a mere unthinking festivity, it may be consoling to remember that the unlettered children of the East are really much more of children than Ave can easily imagine ; and, like children, they can pass A’ery quickly from a state of religious aAve to a A"ery different condition, Avithout spiritual shipAvreck. As a large part of the pilgrims are peasant farmers, their best time to come is in the Avinter, Avhen there is least doing in the fields ; but the faA’orite season is early spring, Avhen the cherries are in blossom. Then the toAvn is more than e\’er gay Avith flags, aud the THE SHRINES OF ISE. 149 three hundred or more inns packed to overflowing with pilgrims, most of them bent on merry-making, like those Homeric youths who, after the sacrifice, “ate and drank, and pleased the god all day with dance and song.” The pilgrim societies furnish a large part of the contingent — those curious clubs which flourish in all parts of Japan, and send a cer- tain number of representatives each year to this or that shrine or sacred mountain. All pay certain yearly dues, and the pilgrims for the year are chosen by lot from among the members, their expenses being paid out of the general fund. They mark their favorite inns all along the way, putting up little ban- ners stamped with the device of their club, and the inns naturally are delighted with such good advertise- ment. One member, usually the most experienced, acts as the head of the party, and “ personally con- ducts” them from shrine to shrine, explaining and exhorting, for all the world like a tourist agent with a party of zealous sight-seers. The temples are quite outside of the town, and the crowd ebbs back and forth under the torii and through the great wood, “a natural nave of cryptomeria,” as Percival Lowell calls it. Here and there among the trees are glimpses of the plain, unpainted buildings, and the curious projecting rafters seeming to push through the deep velvet-brown thatch ; for on these temples are no tiled roofs, as on the Buddhist or even the Ryobu Shinto shrines. There are many buildings 150 JAPAN. besides the Naiku and the Geku, such as the one for the sacred dance, and that where the members of the imperial family or their representatives change their garments before entering the shrine of the Food God- dess on the festival of the Divine Tasting ” — the thanksgiving of the first-fruits. Among the camphor and cry])tomerias and other tall trees are clumps of the sacred sakaki {cleyera Japonica), whose touch purifies. The wood of the sakaki is used for the wand on which the gohei are hung for the purification rites, and two vases containing sprigs of sakaki are generally placed in Shinto temples, with the mirror and gohei. This, too, it is that is used at Shinto funerals, when at the end of the rites those nearest akin go one by one and lay a sprig of sakaki on the bier. It is a last sign of separation, the token that now they are purified from the touch of death and may approach no more. The Naiku is far away over the hills at another little village, reached by a picturesque road, which winds along the shore and across a long bridge, giving beautiful views of the near mountains, and even of Fuji, they say, in certain very favorable weather. One of the curiosities on the way is the pair of rocks in the sea, a few yards out, called the “conjugal rocks,” which are united by a straw rope — sure sign of some legend of sanctity. One version is that the sacred rope wards otF contagious disease, and that the god Susa-no-o taught this to a peasant and his wife THE SHRINES OF ISE. 151 in the neighborhood. At the Naiku itself thei’e is even less to see than at the Geku — only torii and fences and the tops of thatched roofs through the trees. Beyond the wood leading to the Geku there is a little fenced court, and on the far side a third torii leads to a fliglit of wide stone steps, ending in another high fence or palisade, smooth and unpainted, which surrounds the temples of the Food Goddess. In tiie middle of this fence is a thatched gate, not closed, but hung across by a white curtain, like a great slieet, cjuite concealing the inner court. Before tlie gate and the curtain there is a mat, on which the worshij)ers throw tlieir otferings of thin copper rin, and now and tlien a bigger coin ; and before the mat the jiilgrims put off their shoes, believing they have reached the very tlireshold of the gods. The thing is all the more solemn because the people firmly believe that any irreverence, even unintentional, may bring the wrath of the deity upon the whole country; and they instance the case, centuries ago, when an offering of food on its way from the temple of the Food Goddess to the other was unwittingly carried past some unclean thing. The Emperor fell sick, and all sorts of dire things happened, till the cause was discovered and expiation made. Since then they have taken no risks; the offerings for both divinities are made in the temple of the Food Goddess, and are not carried across to the Naiku. 152 JAPAN. A tragic proof of the intense popular feeling on this subject was given in 1885, by the assassination of Vis- count Mori, one of the best and ablest men in the country. He had been much abroad, in negotiations at Peking, in America, and as ^Minister to England; and after returning home, as Minister of Education, he practically created the present educational sy.stem in Japan. A progressive of the progre.ssive.s, he lived at the top of the pro-European wave, and was almost ready to drop everything national if only Japan might be brought immediately in line with the rest of the woi’ld. Prof. Max Muller, not long before his death, gave an amusing account of the impre.ssion made on him by the way in which Viscount Mori rirshed down to call, between trains as it were, to consult the pro- fessor as a s}>ecialist on the best religion to introduce for the common people of Japan. Educated men, he considered, did very well on philosophy ; but the lower classes needed a religion ; their own cults, he said, were obsolete, Christianity “ had proved a failure,” and what would the professor recommend? Max Muller seems to have intimated that religions could not be served to nations by order, and to have declined to propose any- thing by way of substitute for the beliefs the Viscount had proposed to reject; and IMori hurried back to catch his steamer for home. Evidently it was in this mood of indifference, if not actual disdain, that he visited the Ise shrines late in 1884 ; for he not only failed to make the usual offer- THE SHRINES OF ISE. 153 ing, but even ‘pushed aside the white curtain with his walking-stick. Some say that when warned he apolo- gized, others that he was haughty and overbearing. This much is certain, that a young man of the place became greatly excited, and brooded over the act and its possible effects on the Emperor and the nation, till he resolved to kill the evil-doer and .save the country from the awful cousecjuences of such sacrilege. So he wrote a letter declaring his purpose, and went up to Tokyo and stabbed Viscount Mori in his own house, just as he was about to go to the palace on the morn- ing the Constitution was signed. The fanatic was cut down on the spot, and unhappily became at once a hero and a martyr in the people’s eyes. CHAPTER IX. KYOTO — THE PALACES. Tokyo, tlie Japanese say, is the brain of new Japan, but Kyoto is its heart. Thougli deserted by the Court since 1868, the old imperial city is still dear to the peoj)le as the centre of heroic and sacred associa- tions, and still the centre, too, of art, all the schools and guilds of the caj)ital notwithstanding. Naturally aristocratic and conservative, the departure of the Court took away that progressive modernizing element which was so valuable to the nation as a whole, but so dangerous to its relics of antiquity, and left Kyoto to cultivate its arts and preserve its monuments and tra- ditions in peace ; wherefore the old capital remains to- day the most thoroughly Japanese of all the large cities in the empire, and far the most interesting to Western visitors. Not that Kyoto is without the touch of modern life; an imperial university, a Christian college and an electric tram are side by side with a very bewilder- ment of temples and palaces and curio shops, a jumble of works of art old and new, good and bad, together. Most of the town now crowds close around the bridges, 154 KYOTO— THE PALACES. 155 but there are long rides through streets far too wide for their shrunken traffic, and out to monasteries once in the city and now surrounded by yellow rape and paddy- fields. For when the Court moved here from Xara at the end of the eighth century, closing, so, the brilliant “ Nara period” and beginning “ Heian,” the Peace, the Emperor was still a power and not a name, and he laid out his new capital generously. A great palace enclosure stood at the north end, and a space for the dwellings of the Court nobles; then wide streets num- bered off from this, one, two, three — Ichi-jo, Xi-jo, San-jo — crossed by still wider Tera-machi running straight down from the palace gate. The whole city space was three miles wide and a little longer, enclosed by a wall and a ditch, and provided with bridges and water-gates at the end of each street. The situation was wisely chosen, in a beautiful little jdain crossed by the Kamogawa, and circled by wooded mountains. Even so Florence lies in the Tuscan hills; but there comparison ceases, for the view from Yaami’s or Maru- yama shows no Duomo, no Palazzo Vecchio, only a sea of low, black-tiled roofs, and here and there a mass of trees, or a high red temjde, “ shouldering up,” as La Fargo says, among the lesser houses. Venerable as some of them look, none of the build- ings actually date very far back ; a purely timber archi- tecture would preclude that, even if the city had not been besieged and defended, sacked and rebuilt, over and over again during those long, stormy centuries. 156 JAPAN. But many of the temples were founded in the thir- teenth century by the luxurious Ashikaga Shoguns, who patronized the arts and plunged the country into a chaos of misrule ; and others by the Tokugawa, build- ers of Nikko and Ycdo, who, whatever their faults, at least brought in two centuries of peace and order and cultivation. Tlie tirst European hotel in Kyoto was Yaami’s, which rambles delightfully up a pine-clad hillside east of the town ; it was originally a famous tea-house called Ichi-ri-ki — the very one where Oishi, chief of the Forty-seven Bonin, drank and played the fool to such deep purpose. A pretty Japanese garden slopes down the hill below the house, and from the balconies you look over the gray city, and the misty fields spreading away to the mountains. The Yaami is cool and pleasant in summer ; but the Kyoto hotel, across the river in the town, which is under the same management, has the advantage of being more central, and sparing the extra half-mile of jinrikisha ride ; — which is a consideration, for Kyoto jinrikishas are execrable old rattletraps, and Kyoto streets are fauged with murderous stones, and the temples are very many and a weariness to the flesh. Then there are hours to be spent in the curio shops, Avhich some are thought to find more interesting than too many temples. Whether interesting or not, at least no one is allowed to forget them. Not half an hour does the stranger remain at his hotel before there O KYOTO— THE PALACES. 157 oomes a soft knock at the door, and a gentle person, dep- recating, but by no means obsequious, asks permission just to inform you of bis establishment, where he will be most pleased to exhibit Ids unworthy goods — fans, cloisonne, bronze, old swords, embroidery, porcelain and “genuine old” Satsuma, as the case may be. Probably he has a small package, done up in a green cotton furoshiki (wrapping handkerchief) stamj^ed with the ideograph of his house — goran kudasai, be- holding condescend ! A courteous bow, and the little catching of the breath that expresses so mucli defer- ence in Japan. It is not at all necessary to be rude to the.se people ; a polite refusal dismi&ses them at once ; and tlie truth is, four tourists in five find tlieir cards, or a private view of their wares, a real convenience and saving of precious time. Xor are the goods tliey show to be entirely despised. Of course, they are modern, and of course, too, Kyoto ])uts out yearly an enormous amount of hasty, fiashy stnfi) solely for export to foreign markets — it sells as the other does not; but, happily, not all the nation is utterly corrupted, and there is good work still, bearing much of the dainty charm, the exquisite refinement, belong- ing to things genuinely Japanc.se. As for antiques, everybody knows the time for bargains and wonderful finds is long gone by; it belonged to the unsettlement following the opening of the country and the cruel Sat- suma rebellion, when heirlooms were sold for a little rice, ami when it was the fashion to run after Progress 158 JAPAN. with a very large P, and exchange priceless lacquers for American “ Pre-Centennial ” carpets. Mercifully, there was a reaction that saved the country much beside art; and nowadays, if good things find their ■way to second-hand shops — as from time to time they undoubtedly do — there are plenty of dealers who very well know their value, and Japanese collectors ready to give full prices; so that the fascinating chase is no longer an inexpensive amusement. Doubtless it was the famous bleaching powers of the Kamogawa that made Kyoto early foremost in the dyers’ arts, as the neighboring clay-banks drew to her the makers of fine porcelains. For the human ele- ment the crafts probably owed far less to the patron- age of the Court than the Church — that elaborate Buddhist ritual, which called forth a gorgeous art to supply its needs. Yet the Court was not without in- fluence ; it represented a taste, a tendency, that seems always at war with the Buddhistic element; a national impulse of restraint and severity, which acts as a check, or balance-wheel, to the rather florid inclina- tions of the other. Thus it happens that there are here in Kyoto two sharplv-contrasting buildings — the imperial palace (the “Gosho”)and the so-called Xijo palace of the Tokugawa Slioguns ; each an almost typical example of these two diametrically opposed tendencies; the one simple, reserved, delighting in wide, restful spaces and delicate tones ; the other rich, splendid, full of -op KYOTO— THE PALACES. 159 brilli’ant color and exuberance of crowding fancy. The one original, Shintoist, strictly national ; the other, offspring of Buddhism, which, coming from India through China, brought with it all the sumptu- ous, half-barbaric glitter of its home. In considering them it is needful to remember continually what each one stands for ; to remember that the imperial palace goes back for its model to the remotest past, that it is consciously, intentionally conservative ; intentionally simple, too, in accordance with those Shinto precepts which enjoin purity of lieart and life, comparable to the snow-crowned Fuji ; an expression of the Yamato Spirit, Yamato Damashii, the Volksgeist of old Japan. On the other hand, the Tokugawa Shoguns, patrons of Buddhism and inheritors of the Chinese influences of the ^liddle Age^, holding a military ptjwer, won by sheer energy and military genius from scarcely le.ss gifted rivals — these Tokugawa not only surrounded themselves with whatever tended to increa.se their own jx»wer and dignity, but with delib- erate purpo.se .sought to weaken their rivals through luxury and .self-indulgence, encouraging to that very end all the splendid arts of peace. Both the palaces are now imperial residences, and not open to the public, l)ut foreign visitors ean obtain jtermits beforehand through their proper legations. Visiting cards are handetl to the gentleman in charge — who is an officer of the imperial hou.sehold, and not a hall porter — and names are to be signed in the visit- 160 JAPAN. ors’ book before beginning the round. The same form- ality is repeated at each palace. The two are alike in general plan, except that the Gosho (imperial) seems more strictly a group of dwell- ings in a garden ; the Nijo, a castle. The long, yel- lowish white, enclosing wall of the Gosho is little higher than a man, built of earth, and plastered and roofed with tiles like a temple wall — a .screen and not a defence ; while the Shogun surrounded himself with a moat and - a mass of cyclopean masonry, set with heavy gates and towers. Vivid enough tokens, these, of the real relation between the Emperor and his nominally obedient vas.sal, under the Tokugawa Sho- gunate. In fact, for many years before the Restora- tion, the Court revenues were disgracefully insufficient for its needs, and Yamato reserve in matters of taste was too often cruelly enforced by necessity. The large space next to the palace, which used to be enclosed and occupied by the nobles’ houses, is now thrown open as a kind of park, giving an effect of solitude to the long, straight wall and carved gates. Within the wall there are fine trees and open levels, not grassed, but strewn with small pebbles, and in the innermost recesses, behind the palace, is hidden the choicest of Japanese gardens, rocks and streams and lake, trees and shrubbery, all imitating to perfection some bit of wild forest scener}'. The palace garden at Tokyo has nothing half so lovely. The closed storm-shutters make the place look de.so- KYOTO— THE PALACES. 161 late, as all unused dwellings must, but cannot spoil its beauty of proportion, or the magnificent sweeping roofs, Avith their upward tent-curves and Avide oA’er- hang, thatched tAAm feet deep Avith gray bark, fine and close as A’elvet. Within, the sense of chilly empti- ness is not lessened by the Avhite brocade hangings of the throne, the only piece of furniture, in a European sense, in the A'ast “ Clear and Pure Hall,” AAdiich is first entered ; nor are the broad masses of intense cobalt-blue dashed across the sliding screens altogether satisfactory in decoratiA'e effect, hoAvcA'er symbolically correct as the clear color of the sky. But it is im- possible to judge rightly of an effect planned for the presence of a brilliant court, clad in those beautiful robes of ceremony Avhich haA’e A'auished before the latest Berlin fashions; and elseAA’here the color is be- yond praise, the drawing of bird and beast and flower so ma.'^terly that it is difficult to believe they Averc all produced since the middle of the nineteenth century — copies of copies, made Avhen the palace Avas rebuilt, after being burned in 1854. All is of the most ex(pii- site simplicity ; the AVOodAA’ork beautifully grained Jceynki or hinoki, perfectly polished, unspoiled by paint or Amrnish. The only decoration is on the sliding jiaper screens AA’hich di\’ide the rooms — here chrysanthe- mums, there graceful branches of yelloAV yamahuki ; again, flights of Avild fowl, all in loAV-toned browns and gold. One long room has figures of Chinese sages, copies from originals of the ninth century, VoL. II. — 11 162 JAPAM. stiff, slant-eyed, long-moustached worthies, whose presence must surely have had a solemnizing influence on the company before them. In other rooms there are delicate landscapes, in the Tosa style, and more saints and sages, and everywhere glimpses, through opened shutters, of the sunny garden and the blue hills. No wonder that, when the Emperor and Em- press visit Kyoto, they are apt to linger long ; they must have gone from it as from a little paradise. The Nijo palace was built by Tokugawa leyasu, who needed a foothold in Kyoto while governing from Yedo; it is therefore nearly contem])orary with Nikko, but in a stronger, bolder style, as befitted the palace-fortress. An earlier castle stood here, built by Ota Nobunaga, which was pulled down to make way for leyasu’s. The first entrance is by a gorgeous gateway in the heavy stone wall, admitting to a court and another great gate, carved, painted, overlaid with lacquer and gold. This came from the wonderful palace which leyasu’s predecessor, Hideyoshi, built at Fushimi, near Kyoto, and is a dozen years older than the rest. The peonies and phoenixes are so like those at Nikko that it is no surj)rise to find they arc by the same master carver, Jingoro Ilidari, the Lcft-1 landed. There are more wonderful carvings of his in the vdiama, or spaces above the sliding screens ; o[)cnwork panels of peacocks and phoenixes, ])eony and pine, so cleverly cut that the two sides are quite different — peacocks, perha})s, in this room, flowers in that. On KYOTO— THE PALACES. 103 tlie screens majestic eagles soar or rest on twisted pine trees, and tigers stalk in bamboo jungles, all life-sized and stiirtliugly bold, painted on wide backgrounds of dull gold, giving to the great empty I’ooms a marvel- ous air of stately magnificence. The metal fastenings on beam ends and the sunk handles of screens arc exquisitely chased or inlaid, and wooden doors and panels of corridors decorated with paintings of smaller birds and flowers, much of it modeled up with chalk under the color, and all toning in with the grain of tlie polished brown wood. One room contains a sad relic of vandalism in a half-effaced drawing of a beautiful white heron, resting on the side of a boat, known as the AVet Heron, ^^^^eu the palace was used for the offices of the I’rcfecturc — for some years after 18G8 — this precious panel served as a bulletin board for posting up notices. Yet this building was also the scene of an “epoch- making” as.sembly — the finst meeting of the present Emperor with his council, just after his acce.ssion to the throne and the resignation of the Shogun. He promised them to create a deliberative a.sscmbly, and sulemit all (pie.stions to the will of the peo])le ; and the (’onstitution and the Diet are the result of that prom- ise, made in the Xijo palace in 18G7, by a youth of sixteen, who, before, had seldom left his own palace walls. It was not a little significant that ho should come to the Shogun’s palace to do it, though the choice may have been a matter of necessity on account of room. 164 JAPAN. The most magnificent room of all is the great audience hall, where the Shogun used to receive homage from the Daimyos. The upper end is raised for his Highness to sit on, while the lesser princes occupied the lower level. The mats are still here, thick, close, finely woven, covering all the floor to the glossy-black lacquer sills ; the metal fastenings are gilded bronze, delicately wrought, the three asarum leaves of Tokugawa appearing on the beam-ends, though elsewhere in the castle they are usually re- ])laced by the imperial chiysanthemuui. The wall decoration of the audience hall is great pine trees, broadly painted, which here, as in the other rooms, do not dwarf, but rather add to the sense of space. A second great hall, quite at the other end of the palace, was intended for imperial ambassadors, and this, too, has I’ich decoration, a ceiling coffered and lacquered, and walls of lavish gold, adorned with maples and blossoming fruit trees. By each room are small reception-rooms for the great lords, all gorgeous and all dilferent, having screens of heron and wild fowl, clouds of pink cherry blossoms, Chinese scenes in sepia and dull gold ; everywhere the same abandon of splendor, yet nowhere — and this is the abiding wonder — nowhere in it all is there anything heavy, anything oppressive or overwrought. The instinct of restraint has been here also, keeping decoration in its place and holding fancy in check, as with an inexor- able Greek ixrjdev ayav, Nothing in excess. KYOTO— THE PALACES. 1G5 Not far from the Nijo palace there used to be a famous gate, where one of the ancestors of the INIina- moto had lively dealings with a particularly obnoxious ogre. This unpleasant being was the leader of a band of his kind, who lived in the mountains, and had a way of breaking into the city at night and devouring anv one who was unluckv enoufjh to be found on the streets. Raiko, the grandfather of Yo.duiye, con- (jueror of the Ainu, determined to put a stop to these doings; so he set his men-at-arms to watch with him by turns at the gate Rashomon. One night the turn fell to a young man named Tsuna. As it drew toward dawn, while all was still, suddenly the knight felt something elutch him by the licjid ; a frightful creature was reaching down from the roof, trying to drag him up on to it. Tsuna grasped at the ogre and tried to ]>nll him down, but in vain, and he was being slowly lifted off his feet, when he managed to free one hand, draw his sword and cut off the monster’s arm. It dropped him with a howl and fled, and much delighted, Tsuna presented him- self at the master’s castle. As it was an affair of the supernatural, Raiko sent the young man to consult with a famous wizard, who bade him jdace the arm in a chest and .seal it tight, and pass seven days and nights in fasting and vigil, or worse would come of it. So Tsuna made a strong box for the arm, and .shut himself up in his hoase, and passed the time devoutly in prayer. 166 JAPAN. When the seven days were nearly done, one night there came a great knocking at the gate. Tsuna called out to know who was there, and a voice answered tliat it was his old aunt, who had come from the country to congratulate him. Tsuna explained that he was under a vow to talk to no one till the seven days were accomplished ; but the old lady wept and pleaded, and at last he consented to let her in. Then nothing would do but she must see the arm — the wonderful arm; she never saw an ogre in her life, and she was getting old and might never have another chance; and altogether she took it .so to heart that Tsuna finally undid the cords and opened the lid just a little way; when, with a yell of delight, the old lady sud- denly grasped the arm and shot through the roof, in the true form of a huge, hairy ogre. Poor Tsuna had nothing to do but report to his lord, and Raiko proceeded to get up an expedition to chase the mon- sters to tlieir den, where he finally subdued and slew them. IMeanwhile, however, Raiko himself had an adven- ture. He had ridden quite far from the city one day, unattended, and had lost his way ; when night came, he found himself in a dreary place on the bank of a little river, in which was reflected the faint light of a young moon. Beside the river stood a ruined temple, under an enormous pine tree, and under the pine tree was a toothless old hag, dressed in white — the color of death. Alighting from his horse, Raiko politely KYOTO— THE PALACES. 167 asked for shelter for the night. The old woman told him he had best go elsewhere, for the temple was haunted by demons, who had made her their slave. Demons being quite in Raiko’s line, he requested to be announced ; and after some persuasion the hag took him within. Here he found a brilliant hall, and in it a lovely damsel, “with eyes like .stars and teeth like pearl.s, and lips that seemed the flower of the peach.” This lovely being smiled tqton him, and Raiko gave himself up to her charms; btit prc.sently the l)i'ight eyes began to glare, the mouth to grin hideously, liaiko reached for his sword, and found his arms caught in a monster spider’s web, while the beautiful woman slowly grew before his eyes into a demon spider. With a mighty effort, Raiko wrenched his hands free and drew his sword, and kee})ing the crea- ture at bay, strove to cut himself loose from the toils. The lights went out; he struck wildly about the hall, and suddenly his sword clashed against something hard as iron. Just then day broke, and web, demon, all di.sappeared ; but in the ruined temple he found a monster sj)idcr, cleft in two ; and by the gray blood that dripped upon the floor he knew her for a demon of the most diabolical kind. In tho.se days Kyoto was full of palaces; every noble’s residence was a cluster of buildings surrounded by high walls and gates, within which were spaces for the ox-cars, and then walls again and more giites, and finally the ma.stei’’s dwelling, flanked by tlie kitchens KJ8 JAPAN. and outhouses and the lodgings for the retainers, much as in a Yedo yashiki of six or eiglit hundred years later. But as the troubles of the Court increased, the houses of the Kuge nobles diminished, and under the disloyal Ashikaga Shoguns the imperial palace even was often greatly in need of repair. After so many disasters, the wonder is not that there should be little left of Kyoto’s past grandeur, but that there is any- thing left at all. Besides the two great palaces, there are a few minor ones still standing about Kyoto, most of them origin- ally intended for retired emperors, such as the Awata palace, on the east side of the river, not far from Yaami’s hotel ; this was built for the Emperor Seiwa, who came to the throne at nine years and left it at thirty — not necessarily, however, to resign the real power; but he died at Awata the following year. Seiwa’s grandfather was one of the Fujiwara family, and acted as Regent during the young Emperor’s mi- nority, and in this way gained the ascendency which the Fujiwara exercised for so long. Some quite old buildings stood here, but were burnt down some ten years ago, and a beautiful little palace has been built ou the old site, the sliding screens and other portions of it being decorated with fine paintings of the Tosa and Kano schools. The place is kept as a .sort of art gallery, and in the grounds beyond two buildings are still standing which were left over from the National Exhibition in 1895; they are used for industrial and KYOTO— THE PALACES. 169 fine arts exhibitions. Just beyond is another piece of art education, a restoration on a small scale of the im- perial palace, as it is supposed to have been in the time of the Emperor Kwammu, founder of Kyoto. It is very Chinese, and very' curious ; the roofs are covered ■with green glazed tiles, and end in turrets turning up at the corners, and there are doors instead of sliding screens, and gorgeous red lacquered pillars of hinoki wood resting on stone floors. Certainly the Court was under Chinese influence, indeed, to have housed itself in such a buildino;. It is another evidence of the streuffth of Japanese individuality, that they should have so entirely thrown off or modified these influences after once adopting them. Quite on the other side of Kyoto, and a good dis- tiuice out as the city stands now, is another monastery palace, called Omuro Gosho, founded for ex-emperors and used chiefly for members of the imperial family, who resided there as prince abbots. The ex-Emperor Uda lived here for thirty years as a Ho-o, or imperial devotee, doubtless exercising a great deal of control over the affairs of the empire, for after reigning five years he had retired in favor of a son only thirteen years old. Uda was an able man, but his greatest claim to admiration was his wise choice of a prime minister, Sugiwara Michizane, one of the noblest men of old .Taj)an, as well as one of the greatest .statesmen. It may be no particular virtue on the part of a ruler to have able officers ; but in Uda’s ca.se the choice at 170 JAPAN. least implied some force of character, for he went out of the established order of things to make it, since during two or three generations the prime ministers had all been chosen from the Fujiwara family, who practically controlled the throne, and had come to look on the oiBce as tlieir hereditary right. The Sugiwara were their greatest rivals, and part of ISIichizane’s efforts went toward lessening the Fujiwara power. Besides tlie office of prime minister, Michizane held that of tutor to the young Emperor Daigo, and served him also as prime minister after Uda’s retirement. One of Michizane’s wise strokes of policy was to discontinue the gifts to the Emperor of China, which Japan had been sending for several generations. The reason given was that the Chinese dynasty being un- settled, there was no knowing who might be on the throne when the messengers arrived ; but the real reason probably was that China was beginning to regard the gifts as tribute, and as an acknowledgment of her suzerainty — sometliing Japan by no means intended. But the Fujiwara plotted against him and accused him to Daigo, saying that IMichizane was intrigu- ing to get Daigo deposed and make his younger brother Emperor in his place, this brother being the son-in- law of Michizane. The ex -Emperor did all that he could to save Michizane ; but Daigo believed the story and took his high office from him, apjiointing him “Governor of Dazaifu,” a little place in northern KYOTO-TFIE PALACES. 171 Kiushiu, to which it was the custom to banish political otFenders. Had he been so minded, Michizane might easily have rebelled against his master — perhaps have done what he was accused of plotting ; but no tempta- tion could induce him to show the least disloyalty. Popular fancy has added many picturesque details of tlie hardships which he is supposed to have suffered in that half-barbarous country ; in pictures he is repre- sented riding about tlie country on a cow — tlie only means of conveyance possible. And legends describe him, ragged and starving, and dying at last of expo- sure and homesickness, his eyes turned ever toward the land of Yamato, his last words in honor of his ungrateful master. All nature loved and cared for him. One day, as he looked on the spring flowers, he cried out in longing for the plum tree of his own garden in Kyoto, and, even while he spoke, the tree flew over the sea and the mountains and planted itself at his feet. When he was dead all the j)Cople mourned bitterly for him, and dire misfortunes began to befall the country, which were popularly attributed to the anger of the gods on account of the injustice wrought agixinst him. Presently a number of the folloAvers of the Fuji wara, who had compassed his ruin, died one by one, and the Emperor became convinced that he had been deceived, and in sorrow and repentance raised Michizane to posthumous honors ; afterward he was deified under the name of Tenjiu. The Kameido 172 JAPAN. temple, in Tokyo, which is dedicated to liim, is copied from the one at Dazaifii, in Kiushiu, where lie lived during his exile, and where he died. It is he who is the patron saint of all who wish to write well, because he added to his other aecomplishraents the art of form- ing most beautiful letters, even more beautiful and wonderful than those of Kobo Daishi, the Nara saint. Two other palaces there are in the neighborhood of Kyoto — or, rather, two gardens, for the buildings are of minor importance ; they are both used as villas by the Emperor, and cannot be seen without special per- mit. One, the Shugaku-in, has a charming situation, quite away in the country, on the lower slope of IMount Iliezan ; the other is nearer the city, on the side toward the hills beyond the Katsnra river ; it is called Katsura no Rikyu (summer palace of Katsura), I'ecause it belonged to the Katsura branch of the imperial family. The charm here is an exceedingly pretty garden, in the most exact style of the cha-no-yu, or tea-ceremony gardens — a place of trees and little hills and rocks, of lakes and streams, and bridges and plain little summer-houses, all typifying that .serenity of mind a true devotee should strive to cultivate. But the cradle of cha-no-yu in Japan is over on the other side of the city, a little way out toward the hills now, though in the palmy days it nuust have been almo.st in the town. It is the Ginkakuji, or Silver Pavilion, so ealled in imitation of the Golden Pavilion (Kinkakuji), built about a hundred years earlier. KYOTO-THE PALACES. 173 Both were the work of the Ashikaga Shoguns, and both were intended for the same purpose — pretended retirement from the world and actual indulgence in all its delights. The Kinkakuji lies north of the city, and well out of it now, reached by a long ride through pretty laims, where you hear the clatter of looms and silk reels all day long. The place wa.s, and still is, a monastery of the Zen sect, the one which lays stress on mystic con- templation, and was naturally a favorite with the cul- tivated ujiper class, as the “ Nembutsu ” was with the illiterate. Here the Shogun A.shikaga A'oshimitsu retired after fifteen years of actual rule, and ten before that, when he was still a boy and the nominal Shogun, after his father had retired. With all his extrava- gance and self-indulgence, Yoshimitsu was a really able ruler, as well as a clever politician ; he made the country peaceful, and encouraged trade, industry and all the arts. The Golden Pavilion stands beside a little lake, dotted with tiny island.s, among magnificent old pine trees, and surrounded by a dainty garden laid out in the usual picturesque style. It is a large, three-story building, with galleries running all around and nxjfs turning up a little at the corners ; the topmost storj" is a good deal smaller than the two below, and is crowned by a bronze phoenix, with wings spread. It was built with the finest timbers that could be found, which the feudal lords were required to furnish for 174 JAPAN. the purpose ; and dull and shabby as it looks to-day, there are traces left to prove the truth of the story that it was gilded all over, from bottom to top — walls, ceilings, woodwork, even the projecting beams and the railings of the galleries, covered with gold-dust, thickly laid on a lacquer ground. Here Yoshimitsu mingled his plans for the administration of the empire and his meditations on the Zen doctrine with banquets and poetical contests, and exhibitions of music and dancing — those choruses and pantomime dances from which lyric drama afterwards .sprang. Yoshimasa, the builder of the Ginkakuji, seems to have had neither ability nor virtue of any kind. Even before he retired, he left the whole care of the admin- istration to the Regent, and taxed the people past endurance to get money with which to gratify his extravagant tastes. The inevitable consequences fol- lowed in due course : revolts among the people, open theft and plundering, and among the nobility feuds and plofs and counterplots. Yoshimasa lived to see Kyoto an eleven years’ battle-field. The Muramachi Shoguns had lived on the princijde, ajyres moi le (Wage; and the deluge duly came, reducing Kyoto to a heap of ruins and burying the debauched dynasty under the debris.”’ The pavilion does not seem to have been really cov- ered with silvei’, but in it and the apartments of the palace-monastery he gathered rare pictures and por- * “Japan Illustrated.” KYOTO— THE PALACES. 175 celain and other works of art, both native and Chinese, some of which are .said to be those still pre- served by the monks. In tlie garden is a heap of sand, called the Silver Sand Platform, and beyond that the Mound Facing the Moon, where Yoshimasa and Ids chosen spirits would sit and enjoy esthetic contemj)lation ; and near by is a small separate build- ing, which was the first tea-house of the prescribed Ibur-aud-a-half mats ever built in Japan. How shall I describe a tea ceremony ? The mys- terious virtue and charm tliereof is one of the thiufrs that puzzle a AVestern mind almost a.s much as some of our habits — for instance, that of doing our own dancing — surprises and bothers the Eastern. AVhy do they like to do it? AA^hat is there in it beyond what meets the eye ? For something there certainly must be, and that something not utterly childish, either, to attract the men who have })racticed it, both in the past and the present. If the cha-jin — tea- devotee — whom you see perforndng the rites, happens to be an e.\-Daimyo, like the courtly old prince who unfohls the mysteries to the daughters of the nobility at the Kazoku school, the thing seems to have a cer- tain t)ld-world appropriateness; he seems to be per- jK'tuating the Ici.surcly fashion of his former days, and fa.shion is always a law to itself. Put if your host is a distinguished scientist, a man po.sted on the last results of European thought and experiment, the fashion theory breaks down ; men of that stamp do 176 JAPAN. not go in for mysteries, just because it is the “correct thing.” There must be something deeper about this strange cha-uo-yu, which everybody talks about and few attempt to describe. The truth is that description fails to give any clear sense of the impression of it. Its essence is an affair of mental atmosphere, as of a religious exerci.se; and it must be remembered that in its origin the rite actually was religious, being practiced chiefly as an aid to meditation. The very origin of tea has a re- ligious legend. There was once a holy priest who had vowed to spend a certain number of days and nights, fasting and without sleep, in devout meditation ; but being overcome with fatigue, he gave way and slept before the time was over. Waking, in dismay over the breaking of his vow, he plucked off his eyelids and flung them from him ; and where they fell there sprang up a little plant of aromatic leaves, whose virtue was such that they drove away all temptation to slumber. Henceforth the raising and brewing of tea was a part of every monastery service. Both the plant and the use of it originated in China, and spread east and west from there. It is a species of camelia, and looks not unlike the plants of our green-houses, except that the leaves are smaller, thinner and less leathery, and the flowers are single, as in the wild camelia ; they are white and rather wax-like, and about an inch across, looking not unlike a wild rose. The plants are trimmed low, in round, compact bushes. KYOTO— THE PALACES. 177 and plantations of them have a very pretty effect on the hillsides, where they are generally set out, the dark glossy green making a pretty contrast with the vivid tones of the rice in the fields just below. In some places — for instance, around Kyoto and Kara, where the best tea is raised — the bushes are planted on the level plain ; but when this is done there must be great care to secure under drainage. Their favorite situation is on a gentle slope, where water will drain off without carrying away the soil, for they need a great deal of enrichment and deep working. Much of the Hokkaido oil-cakes and fish guano go to manure the tea plantations, and a great deal of seaweed from all along the coast. The finest cpiality of tea is raised around Uji, near Kara, and a great deal is also produced on the foot- hills near Mount Fuji, and, indeed, all along the Tokaido ; a large part of this goes up to Yokohama to be refired and packed for export. There are two pickings, the first in May, when the young leaves have just put out, and this is the smaller quantity, but finer quality ; the second comes five or six weeks later, after the June rains, when the leaves are more fully grown and less tender. The more quickly they are dried, the better the flavor. Women and girls do the picking, and their bright sa.shes and red petticoats and plump arm.s, bared by the tied-back sleeves, make a j)icturesque sight. They pick into large, flat bas- kets, bringing them back to be weighed at a cen- VoL. II.— 12 178 JAPAN. tral shed ; four pounds of fresh leaves go to a pound of tea. Naturally there is a great dilference in the quality of the leaf, which depends both on the seed planted and the care used in cultivating, and, too, on the climate in which the bush is grown. Thus, on the west coast of Japan, around Niigata for instance, no amount of protecting with mats will save the leaf from being atfected by the cold winter and the spring frosts ; it becomes coarse and bitter. It is a very common thing through the country for people to raise a little tea for their own use ; just a few bushes, planted perhaps like a hedge along their fields, as European peasants often raise their own grapes and make their own wine. The difference between green and black tea is simply a matter of prepai’ation ; leaves taken from the same bush will produce either kind, according to the way they are dried. As the Japanese themselves use it, the tea is nearly sage-color before the water goes on it, and the decoction is of a pale golden tint — the better the tea, the lighter the color, except only the ceremo- nial tea, which is differently treated. The first process is steaming, which is done in a sieve set over an iron pan half full of water, which is kept boiling by a steady charcoal fire. This takes only a few minutes, the object being to make the leaves soft and pliable. As soon as they give out a strong scent of tea, they are tossed out on flat pans KYOTO-THE PALACES. 179 and quickly cooled, when they are ready for the more important process of firing. For this the leaves are put into a frame covered with strong paper, set over a gentle fire on a kind of hearth ; the bottom does not come nearer than half a yard to the coals, else it would scorch and also heat the tea too much. While they are in this frame a man works over them for several hours, rolling them with his hands, forming them into balls and pressing them against the sides of the frame, breaking the balls and rolling again, till all the leaves are curled and twisted up. Then he spreads them out on warmed frames, and lets them dry for several hours, when they are quite brittle and ready to sort and pack. A good many flower buds, bits of twig, old seed pods and .so on get in among the leaves, and these are now picked out, and the leaves also sorted into sizes, fine and large, so that the tea shall look evenly graded and attractive. This is work for the girls and women, and their light fingers do it mar- velously fast. Treated in this way the tea will keep for years in tight glazed jars of pottery or porcelain, such as the Japanese themsAves use, but it will not bear transpor- tation. Therefore, the tea merchants in Yokohama and Kobe build their large tea go-downs, and when the crop comes in they have it retired until it is entirely dry, and can be packed down in the chests lined with lead which come to us in the West, Naturally this adds much to the cost of the 180 JAPAN. tea, but there seems to be no other way to make it fit for exp(^rt. As might be expected, it was the Buddhist priests who first introduced tea in Japan. Tradition has it that about the beginning of the ninth century a priest named Yeisei went on a mission to China, and wlien he returned he brought with him some tea seeds which he planted on a mountain in the western part of the country, and raised therefrom a good crop of bushes ; whereupon he presented some of the choicest leaves to a distinguished friend, “ who relished them as a rare tonic against headache.” Another priest then trans- planted some of the bushes to Mount Togano, near Kyoto, where they flourished, and spread through the country. This abbot is considered the founder of tea cnlture, and at Uji they hold a service in his memory every spring. The ceremonial observance — the cha-no-yu — was not brought to Japan till much later, about the middle of the thirteenth century, when a set of utensils were sent over from China ; and at first it was a semi- religious pastime of the cloistered priests. Later this tea service fell into the hands of the first Ashikaga Shogun, Takauji, he who was so disloyal to the Em- peror Go-Daigo ; and from that time it became a favorite excuse for displays of extravag-ance, till reformed and laid under the most stringent rules of simplicity by the great masters of Hideyoshi’s time. There is a little story told about Rikyu, the most KYOTO— THE PALACES. 181 famous of these cha-jin, and the one who gave most of the rules of the art. It seems some one tried to run Rikyu a little on the occult secrets of his cult, to which Rikyu replied, “ Well, there is no particular secret in the ceremony, save in making tea agreeable to the taste, in piling charcoal on the brazier so as to make a good tire for boiling the water, in arranging flowers in a vase in a natural way, and in making things look cool in summer and warm in winter.” The questioner answered rather contemptuously, “Who doesn’t know how to do all that?” To which Rikyu answered, “ Very well ; if you know, let us sec you do it.” That is all there is of it really ; a series of very simple actions reduced to a fine art, each several act and movement made in the easiest way, and therefore the most graceful. All that is on the outside, that is ; for the real object is no more the making and drinking of tea than the drill of a body of soldiers or the exer- cises of a gymnasium are an end in themselves. The true secret of cha-no-yu is that it is meant to be an exer- cise, a means of discipline and training, for the body, indeed, outwardly, but most of all for the mind, which must be absolutely withdrawn from all worldly cares and excitements, and tuned to a jterfect serenity. “ Xot upon utensils or external environment, but upon the minds of the participants, depends the success of the ceremony,” says Professor Takashima; and he quotes from Rikyu : “ It is ridiculous to make ado 182 JAPAN. about costly utensils when all that is required in cha- no-yu is a kettle.” Professor Takashima quotes a pretty story to illus- trate this point. “ It happened over sixty years ago that one day the tlimous poet, Arikoto, in a walk through a street in Kyoto, came across a little hut by the roadside, with a little patch of ground about it and two or three trees, thoroughly sprinkled with water and looking very refreshing.” (It must be remem- bered that such a Japanese garden would be strewn with pebbles among the shrubbery, so that the sprink- ling they are so fond of implies no mud or draggled grass.) “ He saw inside this humble cottage a man practicing cha-no-yu all by himself. lie was seated in a little space of not more than six feet by three, scrupulously clean, and on the wall was hung a screen with a rai*e autograph poem by a famous poet.” Arikoto was so surprised that he made some excuse to enter, and talked to the man about cha-no-yu ; finally the unknown invited the poet to become his guest at cha-no-yu early the next morning — the proper time for such meetings — in the forest near by. “ This strange invitation was at once accepted. Next morning, upon coming to the appointed place, Arikoto found three stools beneath a shady tree. The old re- cluse, in a coarse but clean dress, received his distin- guished guest most cordially, and went through the tea ceremony in a masterly way, the utensils emjJoyed being of the humblest description, such as may be KYOTO— THE PALACES. 183 found any day in the kitchen. As the guest was about to drink, they heard overhead tlie sweet tones of a niglitingale, much to the delight of the host. It is said that when a messenger was dispatched next day with a bounteous j)resent for the hermit, he had disap- peared no one knew where.” Stripped of all non-essentials, the requirements of a cha-no-yu meeting are these : A small room, perfectly clean and retired from all disturbance; one picture or autogra])h verse, one flower. A clean, fresh fire. Kettle, teapot, tea-jar, cups ; bamboo dipper and whisk. (Ceremonial tea is not only of very dioice quality, but it must be ground to a fine powder ; it mixes witli the water, and the host whi[)s it to a pale green froth.) Finally, a select party of friends, all prepared to withdraw their minds from care and exeitement, and centre them on moral and esthetic ideas. I'lverything about tlie ceremony is simply a carrying out of these principles. Tims the tea-room should be apart from the rest of the house ; it should be small, and it should be perfectly plain, that there may be nothing to distract the eye ; spotle.ssly pure it must be, and the woodwork and mats should be of the best pos- sible (piality. I know of just one thing in the world that gave the same kind of impression as these cha- no-yu rooms, and that was the parlor of an old-fash- 184 JAPAN. ioned Quaker house, in its summer dress of white mat- ting, the green Venetian blinds at the windows, and the spotless linen covers on the plain mahogany furni- ture. There was just that same impression of purity and restraint — and costly simplicity, too ; for the very best material suited our Philadelphia Quakers, as well as the cha-uo-yii masters. Alas ! such rooms are no more. It was this desire for things that looked perfectly plain and cost enormously that led to the unearthing of old Korean pottery, and the efforts of Japanese potters to imitate their styles. The cha-no-yu cup is much larger than the ordinary one, and to the un- learned eye it looks like any old kitchen bowl, but the wise know by the shape and glaze and color just which province produced it, and how many years it has spent in the soft brocade bag in which such things are wrap- ped ; perhaps even the ideograph of the famous potter who fashioned it to serve the Taiko Hideyoshi and his clique. The kettle and tea-jar, too, are often pieces of great antiquity and beauty. There is a certain .stage in the proceedings at which it is pi’oper for the guests to ask to look at and admire these things. When a cha-no-yu party has been invited, the host himself sees to it that not only the room, but the garden is in order ; in .summer the ground should be spread wdth pine needles and sprinkled with water, and in winter, if there is snow (which will delight his heart), the stepping stones only must be carefully swept. All KYOTO— THE PALACES. 185 the necessary articles must be in place, from the screen in the tokonoma (alcove) to the cushions for the guests and the kettle and charcoal basket. When his guests arriv^e, he meets them and asks them to enter the tea- room, wliich they do one by one, stooping their heads to its purposely low entrance ; the last guest shuts the door with a little click, to announce to the host that they are all in. He then appears from another room, and welcomes them ; the chief guest should make some remark about the neatness of the garden. The host now builds the fire, and if there is a meal, it is served tlien, and tlie guests afterwards retire to another room while he arranges fresli flowers, hangs a suitable ])icture, {)laces all the appliances in readiness on the door, and summons them to return. All the actions which now take place are, as Rikyu said, merely making tea; but each movement is accord- ing to set rule, and is performed with a deliberation beside which a mass at St. Peter’s would be galloping haste. Possibly some one trained in the>8wedish sys- tem of physical cidture might learn to move as slowly and smoothly ; certainly no ordinary American could. The tea is taken out of the jar, the water poured on it, the mixture whipped and passed round, each guest drinking in turn, wiping the enp and passing it to his neighbor. When the cup returns to the host, he washes it, and makes a fresh supply of what is called usucha, weak tea; at this moment the guests may examine and comment upon the utensils. 186 JAPAN. The tea ceremony is said to have been encouraged by Hideyoshi, leyasu and otlier rulers for the purpose of quieting the unruly spirits of the Samurai: and though no doubt such meetings were often used as opportuni- ties for political scheming, in theory nothing of the sort was to be mentioned ; all was to be ethical, es- thetic, uplifting. One important rule was that no arms were to be brought into the enclosure; swords must be left in the sword-rack outside. There is a story that Hideyoshi’s general, Kato Kiyomasa, the conqueror of Korea — he who built the keep of Xa- goya castle — insisted on entering the room with his swoi’d on, taking it off and laying it by his side, on the ground that it was imseemly not to be equipped and ready for his master’s service in any emergency. Rikyu said nothing, but bided his time. One day, when the doughty knight came to a party and sat down as usual, the tea-master suddenly u])set the kettle over the brazier, filling the room with a cloud of ashes, and Kiyomasa fled outside, quite forgetting his sword. Rikyu quietly hung it on the rack, swept up the room and Invited the guests to return, whereupon Kiyomasa missed his sword and rushed to the cha-jin in great dismay, only to be politely referred to the sword-rack, where, said the host, he would find it ready for any sudden need. It is said that from that time Kiyomasa obeyed the laws of the tea-room. CHAPTER X. KYOTO — THE TEMPLES. “ It is almost ubiquitous, this perfume of incense. It makes one element of the faint, but comple.x and never-to-be-forgotten odor of tlie Far East. It haunts the dwelling-house no less than the temple, the home of the peasant not less than the yashiki of the prince. Shinto shrines, indeed, are free from it, incense being an abomination to the elder gods. But wherever Buddhism is, there is incense. In every house containing a Buddhist shrine, or Bud- dhist tablets, incense is burned at certain times; and even in rude country districts you will find incense smouldering before wayside images — little stone figures of Fudo, Jizo, or Kwannon.” — Hearn, “Ghostly Japan.” Kyoto, the strongliold of Baddliisni, is the natural liome of the incense-maker ; and you may know his shop as you pass by the mingled odor wafted from it. For the most part it is an exceedingly delicate per- fume, this Japanese ko, and it seems even more so, perhaps, because so often it is burned in the open air, or in house or temple closed only by openwork screens. One of the esthetic delights of the luxurious u.sed to be an incense party — an occasion for proving the keenness of your perceptions by distinguishing among half a dozen or so of these subtle perfumes, as we might undertake to judge, for instance, between 187 188 JAPAN. Jockey Club and millefleurs and all the other varie- ties of sachet, except that the composition and varia- tions of ko are far more complex and evanescent. Invitations to such an occasion were sent out some time ahead, in order that the guests might prepare themselves, by avoiding any kind of strongly-scented food for days beforehand. The party took the form of a game, and it was not only a question of di.s- crimination, but of memory, each kind being smelled once, and then each person given a set of packages marked with a private sign, which he or she was to burn singly, and write on the package the name guessed. It was for these parties that many of the beautiful bronze or porcelain incense-burners were made that are the delight of the curio collector. Kyoto produced these, too, in almost every shape and material. The typical form seems to be of Chinese origin ; it has three straight legs, small ear-like han- dles, and a Chinese lion-monster on the pierced lid. It is ineen.se, too, that gives the indefinable, lingering odor that clings to old silks and embroideries in Japan, hangings or vestments, it may be, steeped as it were for years in the smoke of the altar. Citv of temples though it is, Kyoto has none now standing that can compare with the Tokugawa’s golden palace, or with the elaborate adornment of Xikko. But there are many very noble buildings, ricli in masterpieces of art ; three especially Avhich go ti) show, among other things, how much pcjwer and KYOTO— THE TEMPLES. 189 ma.ss and dignity are possible to a timber architec- ture, without so much as a stone foundation. These three are the Chion-in monastery, and the Higashi (Eastern) and Xishi (Western) Hongwanji. Of the three the Chion-in has all the advantage to be had from situation ; it stands on a pine-covcred hillside, not far from the Yaami hotel, approached by an avenue of cherry trees leading up to the great two- story entrance gate, which is red-lacquered, carved and decorated from end to end. The main temple stands on a stone terrace, well up the .slope above the gate, reached by two flights of those wide stone steps Japanese architects understand the value of so well. Close by in a little tower is a bell, nine feet aero.ss and nearly eleven feet high, one of the three great bells of Japan; a second, almost the same size, is at the Hailnitsu temple here in Kyoto ; and a tliird, rather smaller, at Kara. Tliey ring it by smiting with a Imge swinging beam — no bell in Japan ever has a tongue — which strikes tlie gilded chrysanthe- mum on its li]i, and sends a tide of sound throbbing through the air and the sky and the ground under foot — a dec]), shuddering boom that seems to roll from every quarter of the compass, and dies away after long moments as a wave dies on the sand. It does not ring often ; but they say those who have once heard it never forget the sound of Chiou-in’s great bell. The temple is not, like Xikko, a shrine in a grove, 190 JAPAN. but a true asseml)ly hall, part of the large monastery, and planned for the presence of a congregation, as well as a considerable body of officiating priests. The great, curving, black-tiled roof rests on dull-red poi'ches, and these again on a tremendous foundation of interlacing beams ; within, the spacious hall shuts itself away in a warm twilight, through which a forest of polished golden-brown pillars rise up and are lost among the heavy I’afters, fifty feet above ; far back the altar lamps throw a soft glow on gold and bronze and rich embroidered hangings, the only ornaments in the hall, except those on the lesser shrines on either side. Then at the hour of service come the priests, vested in silk, crape, brocade, of every color and every conceivable shade, glowing, blending, Avavering tos:cther as the chantino; line files over the noisehss mats and spreads and settles befoi'e the altar, each in his place at his roll and laccpicred reading stand. They use no instrumental music ; only the antiphonal chant, and from time to time a sIoav, pausing stroke on drum or gong ; the seated figures bow and rise, incense dims the lamps and curls into the dusky roof ; little groups of Avorshipers sit or moA'e to and fro behind the priests, Avhile beyond, in the open porches, SAvallows dart and children romp and chatter unre- strained. Chion-in’s greatest art treasure is not the image of Amida or of Kwannon, nor the life-sized figure of INIonju, Incarnation of Wisdom, in the garb of a }>riest, KYOTO— THE TEMPLES. 191 but a set of sliding screens in the detached apartments used as reception-rooms for the Emperor or the Prince High Priest, or other dignitaries. The apartments were built by lemitsu, the third Tokugawa Shogun, and artists of the Kano school adorned it — Kano Tanyu, Xaonobu, painter of the Wet Heron at the Xijo palace, Eitoku, Xobunasa ; a noble cpiartette, and worthy to be called Kano. Of course, they were not necessarily lineal descendants of the first great fifteenth century Kano INIotonobu. If there were no .sou of sufficient ability to carry on the family tradi- tion, according to Japanese custom, a relative or pupil might be adopted into sonship and bear forward the art and tlie name. A formal tradition, perhaps, and a cramping conventionalism ; but, after all, the coin^entions were more than lialf necessities of material, of brush-mark in uneliangeable ink on a smooth surface ; and within these limits, self-imposed or not, there is all the breadth and freshness of a Pompeiian fresco, all the marvelous sureness of touch that only a brush-trained hand can know. Rein was one of tlie first authors to draw attention to the effect of writing on Japanese painting ; Chamberlain alludes to it; Gonse grows eloquent over the contrast between the pen, most rigid of instruments, and the brush, ino.st supple and delicate ; over the position, too, hand in air, fist closed and wrist bent, bringing the point of the brush vertically to the paper. “ Thence comes that astounding pliancy of the stroke, those broaden- 192 JAPAN. ings and attenuations, those bru.sque turns, which are the delight of a Japanese eye,” says Gonse — qualities all here, in Xaonobu’s crows and pine, plum and bamboo, the summer landscapes and snow scenes, or the sparrow which, they say, flew through to the other side of the paper, and the pine trees that dropped resin from their painted trunks. Not le.ss valuable Kano paintings are in the State apartments of the Xishi Hongwanji, which is likewise a great monastery, and one of the richest and most influential. The main hall is a little smaller than Chion-in, but not less massive and noble, the plain Avhite-])lastered walls and keyald ])illars of the nave contrasting effectively with the gilded chancel and its ornate flanking chamber.®;, the gold of the front, the ])ainted doors and screens, and the rich openwork ramma above them. The light is dim. as always in these halls, and scarcely shows the delicate carvings of the altar and the shrine upon it, which holds a wooden image of the foundei’, Shinran. “Faith, not works,” was the special doctrine of this thirteenth centurv saint, based on Amida’s vow, “ that he would not accept Buddhahood unless salvation should be made attainable for all who should sincerely desire to be born into his kingdom.” Shinran’s was an offshoot of the Jodo sect, to which Chion-in belongs, and it split again in leyasu’s time into the We.^tern (Xishi) and Eastern (Higashi) Hongwanji — that is to say, IMouastery of the True A"ow. KYOTO— THE TEMPLES. 193 Amida’s shrine is in the smaller hall, Amida-do; the gilt-wood statuette behind the gilded columns is black with age. The hall is arranged like the other, with a plain nave and a highly decorated chamber on either side of the chancel ; the ramma over the screens are peonies, and above them are angels, carved in high relief — a somewhat unusual feature. On a sliding screen near the chancel, a beautiful peacock and pea- hen stand on a white blossoming peach tree, against a gold background, the work of a Kano ; and on the way to the state apartments are more panels by Kano Eitoku, grandson of iNIotonobu. The apartments themselves are resplendent with gold, with ramma carved by Jingoro, with wild geese on dull gold back- grounds — fragments, many of these, of Hideyoshi’s renowned palace at Fushimi, the same that furnished the Nijo palace gate. The hall of the Higashi Hongwanji is the largest of these three temple.s — indeed, the largest in Japan ; and it is absolutely new, finished only in 1889 , to replace one burned in 1864 . The Jceyaki wood jiillars and rafters are fresh, instead of time-browned ; the carvings less ma.sterly than Jingoro’s; otherwise, none but an expert would guess that it differed from six- teenth century originals. There are the .same mighty beams .supporting the tiled roof, the same dim interior, the wooden pillars four and five feet thick, the glow- ing altar, chanting priests, and to and fro of humble worshipers. The Higashi Hongwanji is of all things VoL. II.— 13 194 JAPAN. a popular temple. It was built by offerings from all over the country, contributions of material as well as money, and, among the rest, great ropes of hair, from glossy black to thin, pathetic strands of gray, the gift of women who had nothing else to give. One thinks of these three temples together, because they are alike in all essentials — alike as three Roman basilicas might be. Kiyomidzu-dera, not less famoirs, is a com])lete contrast to their rather formal, stately elegance; its floor is bare, the rough-hewn pillars set in bronze sockets, the exterior much weather-beaten, yet unusuallv picturesque and striking. A long, steep street climbs to it between rows of china-shops — Tea- pot Hill, IMiss Scidinore calls it — where they .sell, besides teapots, immense numbers of grotesque little pottery ningyo, “Fushimi dolls,” some comic, some rather frightful. At festival times the street is crowded with a lively throng, but at other times almost deserted, except for the ever-present children. Reaching the court and terrace of Kiyomidzu, you are among trees and tea-booths, the main temple and a group of minor shrines dropped, as it were, casually here and there ; at the back the hill falls suddenly into a little ravine, and on the farther side a .second tenq)le perches, like* a swallow’s nest, above a gulf of swaying foliage. The main ti*mple was founded in Ashikaga times — .say about the middle of the four- teenth century ; the interior is a strange, dim confu- sion of .shai)cs, figures of the Twenty-eight Compan- KYOTO— THE TEMPLES. 195 ions of Kwannon ranged about her closed shrine, which holds an image so sacred that it is only opened once in thirty-three years. Beside these, there are two of the Heav’enly Kings, guardians of the four (juarters ; Bishamou, god of good fortune in war, and Jizo, friend of little children, helper of all who are in trouble. Half the space in front is filled by a high scaffolding, which sujiports a dancing stage and side- })latforrns for the musician.s, fronting a long hall filled with strange votive pictures; the whole effect has something almo.st uncanny about it, due perhaps to tlie broken spaces, so unusual in a Japanese temple, and the crowding of images and symbols, lamps, vases, incense burners and swinging banners, all jum- bled together in tlie flickering light. It is pleasant to come out again to the trees and the sound of running water, coming from the little cascade in the gorge, flowing from five miraculous springs, where women come to drink. Be.side the.se springs, tradition say.s, the founder saint waited years for help to fulfill Kwan- noil’s command, received in a vision, to carve his image out of a mighty log, which lay by the stream. The wood should have been well seasoned, and surely the .saint’s character no less. Older still, and even more crowded with strange images, is the San-jiu-san-gen-do, the temple of the Thirty-three Thou.'^and Statues of Kwannon the Com- passionate, the Eleven-faced and Thousand-handed. The hall is filled with them, row after row, stretching 196 JAPAN. out innumerable hands, holding each an emblem — a lotus, an ox, a cord, a diamond, the AVheel of the Law, or an open palm, to succor all who need. Each head is crowned with a sort of tiara of little faces ; a pair of hands fold on the breast, a pair are lifted, as if in blessing ; others hold little images of the god, which must be numbered in to make up the full count of 33,333. In the midst sits a large figure of the Compassionate One, and around this stand the Twenty- eight Companions — mystic per.sonifications of the stars. In the gilded confusion it would not be hard to persuade oneself that arms waved, glittering heads might turn or bow, eyes look down kindly or threaC eningly from the strange throng. Close by, in a rickety, dusty building, is the Dai- butsu, a gilt- wood image dating fi'om 1801, and testi- fying much more to the piety than the taste of the age. There would seem to be some ill-luck about placing a great image at this spot ; first, Hideyoshi built a temple, but died before it Avas complete; his widow ordered a bronze figure made, but in the final casting it set fire to the frame-work and destroyed tem{)le and image together. Then lhat clever person, Tokugawa leyasu, put it into the widow’s mind to try again on a greater scale, that she and her son might weaken themselves by a ruinous outlay ; all of which was accomplished, including a disastrous riot over a delay in the consecration — this, too, provoked by the wily old Tokugawa, who pretended to be insulted by KYOTO— THE TEMPLES. 197 an ideograpli In the inscription, and ordered the rites to be stopped in the midst. Fifty years later temple and image were again destroyed, this time by an earthquake. A wooden figure replaced the bronze, and was struck by lightning ; a second one met with the same kite. The present figure has stood the cen- tury, and perhaps broken the spell ; it is certainly unlovely enough to escape the envy of the gods. The thing is fifty feet of head and shoulders, without a body — colo.ssal, lumpish, not spirited enough to be even grote.sque. The best one can say i.s, that it is thoroughly in keeping with its tawdry surroundiugs, with the du.st and the bare planking, and the worth- le.ss ex-voto ])ictures on the wall. The great, calm Jhiddha of Kamakura is not to be thought of with tills wretched travesty. All these are Buddhist templc.s, and .so, too, is Kori- nji — interesting for a curious collection of wooden statues, many of them Korean, or made under Korean influences in the early centuries of Japanese art. Another collection of statues is at Toji-in — these not gods or saints, but portrait effigies of Ashikagii Sho- guns, in gorgeous court robes. There are fine screens and kakemono here, too, by Kano Tanyu and his fellow arti.sts; and again at Daito-kuji, Tanyu’s famous Man with a Dancing Monkey, peacocks by Okiyo, and a roomful of peojile working at various trades, by Kano Tanshiu ; and here, too, a collection of kakemono, said to be the finest in Japan, hidden 198 JAPAN. away in fireproof storehouses and never visible. The Daito-knji is a fine building, and its carved gate is one of the wonders of Kyoto. A portrait bust of Ota Nobunaga gives a certain personal interest to the rather faded magnificence of the place. At yet another monastery, Ko-daiji, there are relics of Hideyoshi, Monkey ” Hideyoshi, who began life as Nobunaga’s groom and ended it Taiko Sama, high lord and Regent of Japan, would-be conqueror of Korea. To him is due the ‘‘Ear Mound” on the other side of the city, where they buried the ghastly trophies of that Korean campaign. Hideyoshi's effigy sits in the chapel, in full robes and wearing a tall hat given by the Emperor of China as a token of rank ; his wife is near by, dressed as a Buddhist nun. In the chapel there is much lacquer and gold and gor- geous trappings, and masterpieces of painting by the Kano, much of it ornament taken from Hideyoshi’s palace and from his war-ship and his wife’s sedan chair. The Korean affair seems to have been pure Na])o- leonic ambition. There was no particular reason for the attack, though it is true there were plenty of standing grievances, such as failiu’e to pay tribute for a century or two, and the fact that the Koreans sided with the INIongols in any conflict of pirates, as well as in the great invasion of Kublai Khan. But the real cause was that Hideyoshi, having subdued all Japan and attained the highest post possible for him to hold. KYOTO— THE TEMPLES. 199 desired new worlds ; and he even conceived the idea of conquering Cliina itself. The first stop was an invitation to the King of Korea to visit Japan and have an audience with the Emperor, which, of course, meant to make submission to him. This was followed bv a demand for gifts both from China and Korea ; the Koreans, as Chine.se tributaries, were ordered to inform China and convey her gifts; directions which Korea not unnaturally declined to comply with. Hideyoshi then j)rocceded with the invasion. lie had been already building ves.sels, and when the army sailed “ the ships were so many they secmt'd to cover the sea.” There were said to be one hundred and thirtv thousand men under the generals Kato Kiyo- masa and Koni.shi, and they divided into two .sections, overrunning ditferent parts of the country. The sud- denness of their attack at first swept everything before them; Korean generals were captured, the King fled, and the capital fell into Kiyoma.sa’s hands. In the meantime the Koreans .sent urgent mes.sages to China asking for help, and an army was sent, and defeated by the Japane.se ; a second detachment made better resistance, and when pestilence began to reinforce them, Hideyoshi was willing to make peace. H is demands were not modest. A Chinese princess was to be given him for a wife; the Crown Prince of Korea and several nobles were to be sent as ho.stages ; half of Korea should belong to Japan, and there were to be treaties of commerce with both China and Korea. 200 JAPAN. The envoys refused the princess and the partition of Korea ; and Hideyoshi prepared for another invasion. Meantime the envoy returned to China and suggested to his Emperor that Hideyoshi would probably be satisfied with a title and seal and an official hat ; and he was sent back to Japan therewith. Hideyoshi received the euvoy in great state at his palace at Fushiiui, in the outskirts of Kyoto; but when the document was read conferring on him the title of “ King of Japan,” he flew into a great rage, flung the hat and the papers on the floor, and said he would be King of China and no tributary of hers. Another invasion of Korea followed, and this time a large Chinese force besieged Kato Kiyomasa in a Korean stronghold, where his army suffered much from cold and lack of food. Two Japanese generals marched to their relief, and were again victorious, when news came that Hideyoshi had died, and left orders for the return of the army. It was withdrawn, and shortly after Korea sent gifts and envoys, who concluded peace. Kurodani is a large and fine monastery on a hill a little way out of the city ; it was the first foundation of the Jodo sect, the place where Honen, the first teacher of the doctrine, retired when he left the great Tendai monastery on Hiezan. The architecture and decoration is full of dignity and reserve, and the apart- ments are unusually rich in paintings and carvings, and there is a very splendid altar in the main temple. KYOTO-TIIE TEMPLES. 201 The great renown of the place, however, comes from the hero Kumagai, who liere put off his armor and exchanged sword for rosary, and pra}'ed and sorrowed all his life for Atsumori, the fair young knight whom he unwillingly slew. It is a pathetic story. Kumagai was a famous warrior who fought on the Minamoto side in the great struggle between the two clans ; in one of the fierce-st battles he met in single combat — as the custom then was — a knight of the Taira, whom he grapjilcd and bore to the ground. “ The etiquette of war required that on such occasions no blood should be shod uidess the weaker party proved to be a man of rank or ability equal to that of the stronger.” Kumagai would have the name of his foe ; the other would not answer, and the grim knight snatched off the helmet, revealing the smooth, fair face of a lad only just grown, just the age of Kumagai’s own young son, who that day fought in battle for the first time. “ IIclj)ing the youth to his feet, in paternal tones he bade the .strip- ling go. ‘ Off, young prince, to thy mother’s side ! The sword of Kumagai shall never be tarnished by a drop of thy blood !’ The young warrior refused to go, and begged Kumagai for the honor of both to despatch him on the spot.” The knight, who had never trem- bled, hesitated now. Again he besought the boy to fly, but hearing his companions coming up, he ex- claimed, “ If thou art overtaken, ])erchance thou mayest fall by a more ignoble hand than mine. O, thou In- 202 JAPAN. finite, receive his soul ! ” The sword fell, but after that day Kumagai never fouglit again. He retired to Kurodani and hung his armor on a pine tree in the court-yard, shaved his head, and took monastic vows, and “ devotes tlie rest of his days to holy pilgrimage, never turning his back to the we.st, where lies the paradise, whence salvation comes and whither the suu hastes daily for his rest.” “ Critics may point out flaws in this story,” con- tinues Dr. Nitobe. ‘‘It is casuistically vulnerable. Let it be; all the same it shows that tenderness, j)ity and love were traits which adorned the most sangui- nary exploits of a Samurai.” ' This is by no means tlie end of the temples, even of the famous ones ; indeed, Kyoto reminds one of Cologne, in Heine’s poem : “ Koein, die viele hundert Kapelen und Kirchen hat.’’ Gion, the mo.st popular, has a curiomsly tumble- down air; the Higashi Otani po.s.sesses a wonderful gate carved by Hidari Jingoro, and an exquisite little chapel all in gold ; and there are at least a dozen others, none without some point of interest, divided among as many .sects and sections of sects, Zen, Jodo, Nichiren and the rest, differing among themselves much as denominations differ in Protestant Christen- dom, and appealing some to the philosophic, some to 1 Nitobe: “Bushido, the Soul of Japan.’’ KYOTO— THE TEMPLES. 203 the popular mind, for Buddhism well knew how to be all thiugs to all men. Tliere are Shinto temples, too, not so many as Bud- dhist, nor of course so magnificent, but much fre- quented of the common people. Xot only Kyoto folk, but pilgrims from all over the country flock to visit the Inari Sama, on the road to Fushimi, which is said to be the most popular shrine of that most popular deity. Probably the old nature-gods have kept most of tlieir original character, however overlaid with later symbols, and the universal fox worship would seem to have scarcely changed at all. The legend goes that Inari Sama, (lodde-'^s of Rice, here manifested herself to Saint Kobo Daishi as a little old man carrying a sheaf, and .she is frequentlv worshiped under that form ; but to the common people Inari is actually the fox-god, the true ])rimitive animal deity, crafty and uncertain of temper, delighting in mischief, yet on the whole well disposed toward the well-tloing and siding with justice and fair i)lay. Tlierefine, the many fox holes are undisturbed among the “sacred boulders” on the hill behind the temple; and at the door of every Inari shrine throughout the land sit a {lair of stone foxes, rigid, sharp-nosed beasts, their tails curled .stiffly over their backs; baldly formal figures, yet at the same time liviugly, intensely alert. This pair are huge ones, standing by the great gate at the end of a long flight of step.s, Avhich leads up from the red entrance torii. Most of the walls and 204 JAPAN. pillars here are red, and the strangest feature of all is a double row of small red torii, two hundred on each side, crowded close together like a double colonnade, which leads up to a pilgrimage way, winding in and out up the hill among the shrines and boulders and fox holes. The slope is famoas for fine mu.shrooms, and here in the gay INIiddle Ages the Court used to come mushroom gathering, just as the gentles of Queen Elizabeth’s day went a-Maying in the spring. The Ainu have a legend of the origin of fox-worship, which may have a Japanese folk-story behind it, though it sounds like their usual style of accounting for facts by making uj) something to fit. They say that a man was once near a fox hole, when he saw a fox come up and call to the one within, “Come Avith me to-morrow and I will show yon a splendid way for us to get many good things.” “How is that?” asked the second. “ This,” said the first. “ I will turn into a man, and do you turn into a horse, and I will ride you to the next village and sell you to some one for plenty of good things. Then afterwards I Avill come and let you loose, and we can run away.” “All right,” said the other fox. “ Come for me to-morrow about noon.” So tlie first fox ran away. The next morning, a little before noon, the man came to the hole, and imitating the voice of the fox said, “Come out quickly; I have changed into a man, .so do you become a horse as we agreed.” At this the fox came out of his hole, and turned into a very fine KYOTO— THE TEMPLES. 205 diestnut-colored horse, with a fine, long tail ; and the man rode him to the village ; and because he was such a very fine horse, everybody wanted to buy, and the man got a great price for him, and bought many fine things, and went away. But the man who had bought the hor.se did not put him out in the field, because he was such a fine horse; he shut him up in the house, and fastened the window, and tied him with a strong rope. Then he brought plenty of grass for him to eat ; but the fox, not being a real lior.se, could not eat it at all ; he wanted fish and good things such as foxes eat, and he was almost starved. But after several days, he took a chance when no one was looking, and got away. Then he ran to his friend, and reproached him for not coming to help him ; and so they found out that it was the mail who had played the trick, and they determined to go together and kill him. But the man, when he saw them coming, bowed very humbly, and said, “ It is true I have done very wrong, and you ought to kill me; but if you do that it will do you no good, whereas if you let me go I will promise to worship you from this time forth ; and when I take fish, I will offer some to you ; and I will give you millet cakes, and part of all that I have.” Then the foxes accepted his offer and let him go, and that is why men worship foxes even until now. Just one more fox legend, which belongs to Kyoto. In the reign of the Emperor Konoye, a fox took the 206 JAPAN. form of a beautiful lady and became an inhabitant of tlie palace. Her real character was discovered by means of a magical mirror, and she fled to the moun- tains in her true shape. Two valiant knights were sent to hunt and destroy her ; but they could not suc- ceed till, after j)rayiug to the gods, one of them dreamed that the only way to catch the fox was to get a helmet, a suit of armor, and a bridle, made by a certain famous swordsmithof a neighboring province. This was done, and the fox was caught and killed. The Emperor was so delighted with the beauty of the smith’s work that he gave him the title “best and unequaled.” This armorer was one of the early members of the Mioehin family, who were Court armorers for six hmidred years. It was out this way, near the village of Fushimi, that the Satsuma and Choshu and the Tokugawa par- tisans had the first battle of the War of the Restora- tion. Prince Tokugawa had been summoned by the Emperor to come to Kyoto, and was marching up from Osaka with a large following, when he heard that some of the Satsuma men had attacked his followers in Yedo, and that there had been a sharp fight, which ended in the Satsuma men being driven from their lord’s yashiki, at Shinagawa, to a warship in the bay. Enraged at this insult, the Tokugawa ordered his fol- lowers and the Aidzu men to attixek Choshu and Sat- suma at F usliimi ; there was a bloody battle, and Prince Tokugawa was defeated and fled to Osaka, where he fired the castle and escaped on a ship to Yedo. KYOTO— THE TEMPLES. 207 lu this battle General Saigo commanded the Impe- rialist forces, and his coolness saved the day for them. In the early pai’t of the fight, a messenger came to him where he waited with pax’t of the army, and asked for a reinforcement. “ I will send one,” said Saigo, “ when every one of yon is dead on the field.” The messenger I’cturned, and the Tokngawa were driven back. Almost as popular as Inari is the temple of Tenjin Sama, nearer the city, whose simple massive stone torii looks strangely out of place before the confusion of objects that crowd the enclosure — stone lanterns, swinging lanterns, grinning monsters, bulls, stone or bronze, gaudy carved and painted gateways, tea-sheds spread with coarse red blankets, ex-votos, and woven ])icturcs after the new manner of the Kyoto looms, which produce .so much they had better not. The cheap accumulation is mo.st unworthy of the hero deity, who in life was Sugiwara INIichizane, the great prime minister, who was honored after death by his too late repentant master. 1 1 is caligraphy being as famous as his wisdom and devotion, he is the patron saint of school-b()V.s, who offer to him their worn-out writino- bru.dies — perhaps as a proof of diligence. Not far away from the Tenjin shrine is a modern temple of Pure Shinto, made charming in spring by a gjirden of lovely cherry trec.s, which seem highly appropriate to this somewhat archaistic piece of Early T amato. There is a modern Shinto shrine to Nol)u- 208 JAPAN. naga, too, near the Buddhist Daitokuji, which holds his portrait bust. An interesting bit of history belonging to the modern era is at the temple called Shirao-Gamo. This is a long panel picture of the last Emperor, Komei, and his train, coming to worship at this, which is one of the oldest Shinto shrines. The remarkable thing about it is that it was the first imperial expedition outside the palace walls in many a year, since the Tokugawa Shoguns succeeded in making hard and fast the rule of absolute sacred seclusion. The heavens did not fall, nor were the people rendered disloyal by the act ; and this effort of Komei Tenno’s probably made the present Emperor’s innovations less diffieult. Shimo-Gamo is a pretty place — a group of little buildings, hardly more than sheds, in a grove of beautiful cryptomcria and maple and evergreen oak. An avenue of pines loads from it by the Kamogawa (“Wild-duck river”) to Kami-Gamo, another rather ruinous shrine of the same goddess-maiden, who wedded an arrow winged with wild-duck featliers, and afterward flew away to lieaven with her son in a claj) of tliunder. Thougli Kyoto people have a Parisian reputation for frugalities, jidites economies — learned, })oor things, in the days when the Yedo had all the revenues, the Court and Kuge almost none — in spite of this frugal mind, they are often enough on pleasure bent, and have plenty of famous spots for flower-viewing and KYOTO— THE TEMPLES. 209 verse-making. Besides the many places outside, on the Katsura river and lake Biwa and the hills, there is the bed of the Kamogawa, in the heart of the city itself, which, after all, is the most popular and char- acteristic playground of Kyoto. The Kamogawa, like all Japanese rivers, has an unconscionably wide bed, which it seldom occupies more than a fraction of, an expanse of pebbles, little and big, which has been used as a bleaching ground since the city began. Here in summer time hundreds of booths are set up on piles, sometimes quite out over the water, and here of an evening the citizens come to sit on the mats and drink tea or mild potations of sake, and enjoy the cool air and the liglits twinkling^ in the river. Some- times all the family come, from Oji San (grandpaj)a) to the baby on somebody’s back, and perhaps rela- tives or friends meet there, too. The ladies group together and discuss the children and the household, and the latest bit of gossip ; the men talk business or politics, or maybe wax poetic and intone a Chinese couplet or Yamato tanka to O Tsuki Sama, my I^ady Moon, rising over the mountains ; while from other booths comes the tinkle of the samisen and bursts of laughter at the poor little geisha’s latest sally. Hearn, in his “ Kokoro,” tells a sad little story of the Street of the Geisha, which lets one nearer than any- thing thus far written to the inner life of these hard-working butterflies. Not that many of them are like Kimiko ; she is an ideal, though by no means an VoL. II. — 14 210 JAPAN. impossible one. Sacrifice, in some form or other — that is the watchword of a Japanese woman’s life. It was on the Go-jo (Fifth Street) bridge that Yoshitsune first met the giant Benkei, sometime monk of the convent on lake Biwa. Benkei had made a vow to take a hundreil trophies in single combat ; he needed but one, when he encountered the stripling Minamoto and proposed to make short work of him. But Yoshitsune, trained by the mountiiin Tengu, leaped and danced around Benkei till with a shrewd blow he brought the giant to his knees. Like Little John, when vanquished by Robin Hood, Benkei at once took service with Yoshitsune, and irom that moment never left him till they died together. There are tlu’ee great festivals in Kyoto, besides lesser monthly matsuri ; they are the Inari in early April, the Gion in June, and Bon, the Feast of the Dead, in the middle of July. Nearly all April the city is more or less en fete, for the Inari deities have their celebration first, then make a visit to the divini- ties at Ise, and return in their gorgeous sacred cars some time in IMay. As for Gion machi, it might be a matsuri there all the year round, for the street is always crowded, always lined with booths for the same toys, sweets, cheap nicknacks and side shows that follow from temple to temple on the Day of the Horse, Day of the Bird, or the Monkey, or whoever’s turn it may be. Amusement is Gion machi’s trade. KYOTO— THE TEMPLES. 211 and was in the old days even more than now, when its pleasures for the most part are cheap and tawdry, its brocades faded and frayed. Yet even so, Gion festival is still popular — perhaps the most popular of all among the common people. Great pagoda-like sl’.riues are carried through the streets by a complex framework of poles borne on the shoulders of soine forty or fifty men at a time, and the crowd straggles in irregular procession before and after, carrying ban- ners and emblems and les.ser .shrines. As the day goes on, everybody becomes more and more hilarious ; the bearers are ins})ircd, perhaps, by the sake flask, and they work themselves into a kind of frenzy, shouting, running, leaj)ing in a rude dance, and even tossing the high pagoda into the air and catching it again on their shoulders. Sncli a feat must require a unity of action absolutely j)crfect ; one can only guess how it is possible at all after watching a band of coolies lift some huge mass of stone or timber to the wail of a dolorous chant, making many hands do the Avork of hoist or crane. Just so, doubtless, those wonderful walls were raised at Nagoya or Hikone or Osaka, or at the Nijo palace here in Kyoto. The Bon festival, or Feast of the Dead — sometimes called the Feast of Lanteru.s — is held on the 13th, 14th and 15th days of the seventh moon, reckoned by the old calendar, which brings it in the middle of August, counting by the new one. For these three 212 JAPAN. days the spirits of the dead who have died within the year are believed to come back to their old homes, and lanterns are lighted and special offerings made at the graves, as well as before the name-tablets in the house — food and wine, and a peculiar dish of red beans and rice. Fresh flowers are arranged, too, and incense burned before the name-tablets and at the graves ; and the house has been cleaned and purified and adorned as if for the new year, that the unseen guests may know they are made welcome. All house- holds feast and exchange gifts, and the third day is the ’prentices’ holiday — one of the two days in the whole year which every master must give. The chil- dren have a fine time, and think Bon almost as good as New Year’s Day. On the third night the dead must go back across the sea to the dim land where they dwell, and all along the coast tiny boats, holding torche.s, are set floating on a falling tide, that the lonely souls may not go out into the utter dark. This last night is called the Dai INIonji in Kyoto, and they celebrate it by lighting huge beacon fires on the mountains, piling brushwood for days beforehand in long clearings cut to make various forms — the Chinese character for dai (great), and a torii, a ship, a “ dai reversed,” and other signs, traced against the wooded hills in half-mile lines of flame. The city, too, is a blaze of lights, lanterns hung at eveiy house, strung across every bridge, dancing and bobbing KYOTO-THE TEMPLES. 213 among the eager crowds that fill the river bed; while out on the hills, below the glowing bonfires, constella- tions of torches mark the enclosures where the dead are laid. The Dai Monji is at once gay and sad, the most characteristic and perhaps the most appealing of Kyoto’s many festivals. CHAPTER XI. LAKE BIWA AND ARASHIYAMA. “The land of Yainato Has mountains in numbers, But peerless among them Is high Kagayama ; I stand on its summit My kingdom to view. The smoke from the land-plain Thick rises in air ; The gulls from the sea-plain By fits soar aloft. O land of Yamato 1 Fair Akitsushima! Dear art thou to me." — From the “ Manyoshiu.” Aston’s translation. “ I.sles of blest Japan ! Should your Yamato Spirit Strangers seek to scan, Say — Scenting morn’s sun-lit air, Blowsthe cherry, wild and fair!’’ — Motoori. Nitobe’s translation. Few cities have more romantic surroundings than Kyoto. iSlount Hiezan, three miles to the northwest, rises two thousand seven hundred feet, and prolongs itself southward into a long ridge and a series of foot- hills reaching almost to the Karaogawa; on the north 214 LAKE BIWA AND ARASHIYAMA. 215 the mountains close about the narrow valley of the river, heaping again around the west side into a high barrier, through which the Katsuragawa breaks in foaming rapids, and, emerging suddenly around the turn of a sharp hill, widens out and curves gently across the little plain to join the Kamogawa, near Fushimi. North and east, directly across !Mount Hiezan and the ridge, lies lake Biwa, most beloved and most berhymed of all the waters of Japan. This it was that, tradition says, came there in a night, being the hollow whence Fuji as suddenly arose, so that, in the morning, where the fields had been, there was rippling water, and far over from the tops of the mountains lifted the white cone, where no moun- tain was before. Therefore the lake and the moun- tain are believed to be mysteriously one, and when vou trail vour hand in the water it is as if vou touched the cool snows of sacred Fuji. In poetry the name of the lake is Omi, but it is connnoidy called Biwa, Lake of the Lute, because the shape is thought to resemble a Chinese musical instru- ment of that name. It is a very considerable body of water, thirty-si.x miles long and about twelve miles wide throughout its upper part, though the southern end, which forms the neck of the lute, is much narrower. In many parts the shores are liigh and indented, and mountains, near or distant, make a picturescpie setting all the way around. The outlet of the lake is a small river flowing out 216 JAPAN. of the southern end, too small and swift to be used for navigation, except in its lower part. In old times a small canal continued from the point in the river to which boats could go as far as Fushimi ; but this could only be used by small boats, and all cargo from the sea had to be transferred at Osaka, thirty miles away. This has been replaced by a large canal, fit for vessels of considerable size, which is cut through the hills between Kyoto and the lake, going part of the way by three tunnels. To manage the descent, an incline was built at a point just beyond the Awata suburb of Kyoto, by which the boats are hauled up on cradles by a wire rope ; this is worked by an electric power-house at the foot of the incline, the power being furnished by the water from the canal above, which, after doing this service, collects into a canal again and finishes the distance to the Kamo- gawa canal, and by this reaches the river near Fushimi. In this way boats can come up from the sea at Osaka and carry freight or passengers through to the end of the lake, some sixty miles in all. The plan of hauling the boats up the incline is much the same as the old Morris canal in New Jersey. The enterprise was the suggestion of a young engineer, who made it the subject of a graduation thesis at the Imperial University. His proposal was accepted, and he was given charge of carrying out the scheme, which has jwoved exceedingly successful. Part of the water is turned aside at the top of the incline and LAKE BIWA AND AEASHIYAMA. 217 used to irrigate the ])lain to the north of the city, and also to run another electric plant which supplies most of the city light, operates a trolley street-car line, and furnishes power for some fifty factories, smaller and larger. It is a beautiful ride from Kyoto to lake Biwa, over the old Tokaido. Crossing the river, from the main part of the town by Saujo bridge, and keei[)ing through the continuous suburb of Awafai — famous for beautiful china — it curves around Maruyama, keeps for some distance near the canal, though not often in sight of it, and climbs gradually to the top of the ridge, where stood the first barrier out of the city. Thus far friends conveyed their departing friends or kin ; here they came to meet them after absence ; and the hill was called The Hill of Meeting. A few min- utes later the lake appears below, and the jinrikisha men race down the half-mile slope of smooth road, among a motley crowd of foot passengers and men with carts, toiling up or running lightly down, their bodies thrown back and shafts held hio-h. Then O there is a sharp rattle through the streets of Otsu, and you are at the shore of the lake and the landing for the steamers that ply up and down, calling at the various little ports. To the east, the country' around lake Biwa is level and rich, the hills standing back towards Sekiga- hara, but always in sight across the rice-fields. jMount Hiezau is close by on the south, and from the north 218 JAPAN. the higlilands of Echizen send down long spurs into the water. The upper portion of the lake is rather wide to be picture.sque ; the nio.st beautiful part is the lower end — the neck of the lute — and it is just this that has been sung and celebrated by Japanese writers and j)ainters for more than a thou.sand years. Char- acteristically fanciful are the “ Eight Beauties of Omi ” — eight, it may be noticed, being a favorite number for such categories. They are the Autumn Moon, from Ishiyama ; the Evening Snow, on Hira- yama ; the Sunset Glow, at Seta ; the Evening Bell, at Miidera ; Boats sailing back from Yabase ; Bright, Windy Bay, at Awazu ; Bain l)y Night, at Karasaki, and Wild Geese Settling, at Katata. Not having reached the age of steam, and become altogether prac- tical and materialistic, a Japanese is not ashamed to gaze with delight upon a beautiful scene and recite an appropriate poem, such perhaps as this : “ Unto each beholder’s heart confiding Whatsoever thought she stirreth there, Through the autumn night serenely gliding, O’er yon peak the moon shines calm and fair.” Certainly Miidera deserves to be ranked among the most beautiful places. It stands high on a hill above Otsu, looking over the flat roofs of the town, which is rapidly growing into an important place, and therefore an unbeautiful one. The lake lies below, picturesquely winding, the steep green shores sloping away to the LAKE BIWA AND AKASHIYAMA. 219 blue hills, and, for foreground, there is au old temple of Kwaunon, oue of the original “ Thirty-six Holy Places.” It was from Miidera that the merry giant Benkei stole the great bell — this was iu his conveutual days — and carried itotf on his shoulder to his masters, the rival priests of Mount Hiezan. But the bell would not be content, and its murmurs frightened the jwiests, who thought they could hear it crying, “ I want to go home ! I want to go home !” So they threw it over the hill, and it rolled and rolled till it reached its own temple again. There it is now, with the scratches on its sides that it got from rolling down hill ; and they show, too, the great iron kettle in which the naughty monks brewed the bean soup with which they bribed Benkei. So it must all be true. Past and present meet together at Miidera, as every- where in Japan ; the smoke of the steamer trails across the classic water, and smart young soldiers from the barracks, in the uniform copied from Europe, walk about the venerable temple, side by side with worshij)- ers in the coolie’s blue and white cotton, or the peas- ant’s rain-coat ; or respectable town matrons, in sober, dark gowns and small, flat sashes — for, as at most shrines, it is chiefly the old who have time to come and worship. Of the great monastery on Hiezan, little remains but a small group of buildings on the slope of the mountain, and these were not the original temples, but those erected after the others were destroyed. 220 JAPAN. No other establishment in Japan ever equaled this monastery on Hiezan ; the shrines of Ise were far more sacred, and other Buddhist seats more popular with the multitude, but the learning and political influence of the monks of Enrya-kuji left all the rest behind. Indeed, their position was not a little like that of the Vatican, except that the Emperor’s prestige as repre- sentative of the gods greatly outweighed theirs, at least in theory ; in actual practice they were not much more submissive to him than the feudal nobility were. Dengyo Daishi is supposed to have founded the monastery, at almost the same time that the Emperor Kwammu removed the Court to Kyoto and laid out the present city. The mountain stood on the northeast, the “demon quarter,” and much of the influence of the monastery rose from the fact that it protected the palace from the danger of evil influences, just as the later temple at Uyeno, in Tokyo, protected the Sho- gun’s palace. Many of the ideas about demons seem to have come from China, along with Buddhism itself ; at New Year time, both in China and Japan, the evil spirits are siq)posed to be especially active, flying about like birds and trying to enter people’s houses. One of the Japanese customs for the first part of the year is to go out on the seventh day and gather seven herbs, which are to be chopped up for soup ; in some parts of the country the master of the house must cut them himself. Some say that this chopping of the herbs is a reminiscence of the Chinese habit of thumping on LAKE BIWA AND ARASHIA'AMA. 221 the walls to frigliten away the ill-omen birds; in Japan, at the present time, when going through the dan- gerous rapids in certain rivers, the boatmen keep up a continuous thumping on the gunwale of the boat ; and Hearn speaks of a woman who did the same thing Avhen rowing him among some perilous rocks on the coast, on the way to a sacred cave. In some provinces they sing a song while cutting the herbs — “ Birds of ill-hap pass us by, Never here from China fly ; Flit and hop, flitting, hopping, Chip-a-chop, chopping, chopping.” The Enrya-kuji on Iliezan belonged to the Tendai sect, which was one of the earliest brought to Japan from China. Dongyo Daishi and his companion, Kol)o Daishi, went to China to study, and brought back many books and images and much learning; and others less distinguished followed the same course dur- ing a number of centuries. It was Dengyo and Kobo Daishi who gave the name Shinto (Way of the Gods) to the old Kami worship, developing and pres-ing the e.vplanation of the Kami as manifestations of the one supreme deity, and tliereby doing away with antagon- ism between the two faiths. A memorial to the throne in 901 shows that even by tliat time, only a hundred years after Hiezan was founded, the priests had already waxed fat on imperial favor, and held large estates around their monasteries; 222 JAPAN, whereby they were beeoming haughty and puffed up. Further, the disputes between the “eight sects” began to l)e conducted with other than sj^iritual weapons ; at Iliczan, at Nara, at Miidera and elsewhere, the monks had already begun to keep military bands and to train their priests in war. The custom spread, and before long nearly every temple had its soldier monks ; but nowhere were they so many or so haughty and turbu- lent as on Iliezan. If the priests objected to the ap- pointment of an abbot, or were not satisfied with his rule, they donned their armor and marched down to Kyoto to enter their protest at the very palace. Some- times they took the sacred car of the gods from the temple and bore it with them through the streets, com- mitting all sorts of violence, and threatening the palace itself; in such a case the officers were afraid to deal forcibly with them, because of their sacerdotal charac- ter, and their lawlessness was a constant menace to the caj)ital. From time to time an Emperor availed himself of their temporal aid as well as their prayers; thus Go- Daigo gained their interest through his sou, the priest Morinaga, and used them in his struggle against the Ilojo regents. The Ashikaga unsettlements gave them new opportunity for power, and no one dared meddle with them till Xobnnaga made his attack. lie pro- fessed that their evil lives were a scandal and disgrace to the nation, but his real grievance was that they had sided against him in his recent difficulties with the LAKE BIWA AND ARASHIYAMA. 223 Prince of Echizen. He sent them a message, summon- ing them to repent and amend their ways, but they refused, and he proceeded to j^unish “ all who indulged in meat or violated the law of celibacy.” At that time Hiezan was like a fortified camp ; walls rose be- hind walls, and within them were the temples and vast monastery buildings — it is said that there were five hundred in all — and beautifully laid out gardens, be- sides images and pictures and a magnificent eollection of books, which drew students from every part of the country. Witliin the enclosure there were several thousand persons, priests, monks, and figliting men and attendants, besides many women. Nobunaga’s gen- erals were aghast at the thought of attacking so sacred a place ; but he replied, “ I desire to restore peace to the empire and authority to the Emperor, and for this I put myself in peril every day; but so long as these monks defy me order is impossible. I have given them their choice ; they would not accept safety.” ^lazeliere compares the taking of Hiezan to the saek of Rome by the Constable de Bourbon. Nothing was spared ; the temples were burned, the library and price- less works of art destroyed, and all the inhabitants put to death. It was a crushing blow for the Tendai sect, which never recovered its complete sujiremacv, althougli later, Avhen Teyasu again encouraged Bud- dhism, the monks Avere allowed to return to Hiezan and rebuild on a much smaller scale, not on the top, but on the slope of the mountain. JAPAN. 224 The view from the top sweeps over all the surround- ing country ; on the one side is the city in its girdle of green fields, on the other the blue lake and the mountains. The Kyoto missionaries have made them- selves a summer home here ; at first they camped in tents, but gradually houses have been built, and quite a large community gathers here to enjoy the cool air. It is very much cooler and fresher than the city, for the top of Hiezan is higher than Xikko. The loveliest part of the lake is along the lower end, between Otsu and the point where the Seta flows out at its southeastern corner. The road skirts the lake, under an avenue of pines, and to the right lie the rich fields, always full of picturesque life. (From an artistic point of view it is certainly a crime for farmers to wear anything but faded blue cotton and occasional dashes of red.) At Seta a long bridge crosses the river, or rather two bridges, resting partly on an island in the middle of the stream ; this double bridge has been painted and sung for generations, and so has the “ temple of the stony mountain,” Ishi- yaraa-dera, Avhich stands a quarter of a mile or so fartlier on. It is one of the Thirty-three Holy Places, and a very popular shrine ; most of all famous because it was here that the authoress Murasaki wrote her great work, the “ Romance of Genji ” — Genji J/ono- gatari. It is a marvelous tale of the adventures of a knight Avho belonged to the Genji or ^linamoto family, and whose love affairs fill page after page, all written LAKE BIWA AND ARASIIIYAMA. 225 in a style so poetical and perfect that it set a model for Japanese literature in the eight centuries that have followed. When Mnrasaki composed the Genji, the fit of genius came upon her so suddenly and with such violence that, hardly knowing what she did, she wrote her tale upon the back of a sutra, or Buddhist gospel. Afterwards, to atone, she wrote out a copy with her own hand, and it is shown at the monastery, along with the ink-stone which she used. Near the middle of the east shore is the little town of Ilikone, interesting chiefly for its white-walled castle, part of which remains — thanks to the Emperor, who sto})ped here on his way to Tokyo while it was being pulled down, and ordered the work to stop. It was the .seat of Lord li Kamon, kinsman of Toku- gawa and one of the chief Daimyo, the Regent ap- j)ointed by the Bakufu to help them through the })cr- plcxities which Commodore Perry’s coming stirred up, and who was assassinated in Yedo by the Mito Ronin. There is an excellent inn directly in the palace grounds, Avith a beautiful garden about it, and a most lovely view of the lake ; the place Avas formerly a A'illa used by the Daimyo Avhen he retired in faAmr of his son. On the Avest .shore of the lake, about four miles from Otsu, and still on the neck of the fancied lute, there is a Avonderful old pine tree — so old that nobody knoAvs Avhen it AA’as A'ounj;. It is nearlv a hundred feet luYh and oA’cr tAvo hundred and fifty feet across, and the immense spreading branches trail far out over the VoL. II. — 15 226 JAl'AN. water, making music, the Japanese poets say, when the rain trickles softly through its leaves. Oddly enough, this great pine tree of Kawasaki is not num- bered among the “ eight beauties of Omi.” Quite away on the other side of the city is Arashi- yama, where the yamazakara grows — the lovely wild- cherry blossom, emblem of Japanese knighthood. From the mountain to Kyoto is a five-mile stretch of level road across the fields, that in April are like an impressionist poster done in washes of pale green and yellow — the vivid, imnameable yellow of the rape. Three months later, where the green barley was, young rice is pushing through the mud ; aud by the time the maples turn in the gorge all the plain is covered with the harvest, a sweep of gold and amber from the city to the hills. Here, in spring, the slopes beyond the Katsuragawa flush into delicate bloom, and then it is that the poet bids one come at dawn, and, looking on the sakura flower, “ learn what is Yamato damashii,” the spirit of Japan. At least one may learn why the poets sang of the wild cherr\^, for it is indescribably lovely, far lovelier than the sumptuous double blossoms of Mukojima; the slender, willowy branches seem lost in a pearly pink mist, ethereal as the faint fra- grance, seeming to melt into the pale light of a Japanese sky. The wild sakura is the emblem of the Bushi, the Samurai, because the flower falls in its perfection, before the first breath has marred its purity ; even so, the code taught, a knight should LAKE BIWA AND ARASIIIYAMA. 227 fall in his prime, without the shadow of a stain upon his honor. Japanese literature is full of allusions to the sakura. “ Three things should be endured with patieuee — the clouds that hide thy moon, the wind that scatters thy cherry flowers, and the man who seeks to pick a quarrel with thee.” Or this, in which the whole law of Japanese knight- hof)d is summed up — the law that bade every man seek for honor at whatever cost ; “ If she puts not forth her blossom, who will tear the branches of the sakura ? The tree is her own foe.” The custom of cherry-viewing is attributed to an eighth century Emperor, who, on an expedition in the mountains, sent back to the Empress a branch of blossoms, with a verse to the effect that if the single twig delighted the eye, the beauty of the whole tree would drive away sleep. These trees on Arashiyama were planted by a fif- teenth century Emperor, though no one could guess that they had not grown there of their own accord, so perfectly wild and natural is the effect of the forest. Arashiyama is scarcely less channing in autumn, when bars of mist lie across the hillside in the morn- ing and afternoon, and all Kyoto comes out to see the maples. This is the time of times to shoot the rapids of the Katsuragawa. They begin far up the river at a little village called Yamamoto, a three hours’ ride from Kyoto; the road is hilly, and not too good .228 JAPAN. traveling in places. There you take a boat, putting in kuruina and men, in order to be sure of getting back from Arashiyama to the city ; they are queer long, narrow boats, and very fle.xible, as they have need to be for such sharp turns and swift water ; but the boatmen are most skillful, and except after heavy rains it is only exciting, not really dangerous. The distance is thirteen miles, and the whole way down the gorge is wild and picturesque. The river swirls down it in a series of rapids, now broken with islands, now rushing straight between precipitous banks, now winding and dodging among a throng of rocks. At Arashiyama there is an excellent tea- house, and for those who have not come down, boats can be hired for a little row up the river, to the end of the la.st rapid. It is an admirable place to see the good people of Kyoto enjoying themselves in their best apparel, for a Ja])ane.se damsel would as .sirit herself appears, and confesses that it is she who haunts the Death Stone and does all the mischief. The priest performs a Buddhist exorei.sm, and the troubled sj)irit is laid forever. The moral needs no pointing. Between the parts of the severe Xo it was usual to offer mental relief in the form of a Saru-gaku, or monkey-play — usually the broadest kind of a farce, conducted in pantomime, with a little choric assist- ance. Just so at present, in the Tokyo theatre, a bit of broad farce is introduced to relieve the tension, .say between the tragic deaths of the Forty-seven Faith- 236 JAPAN. fills and Asagao’s pathetic adventures in search of her lover. Another early form of dance was the Odori, the modern representative of which is probably the maple- dance or the butterfly-dance, and the other graceful posturings of the Tokyo and Kyoto geisha. The.se Odori were danced by girls then, as at the present time. Now, about the year 1602, a beautiful girl, called Okuni, appeared in A^edo, with her husband, and they opened a kind of a theatre, where they gave a new sort of exhibition. It was a combination of No, Saru-gaku and Odori, accompanied by flutes and drums and stringed instruments. This girl had been a viiko, or virgin, at a Shinto shrine in Idzumo ; but she fell in love with a Ilonin and ran away with him to Yedo. While they were on the way they met another Ronin, who joined them and traveled with them for .some time ; and he, likewise, fell in love with the beautiful dancer, perceiving which, tlie first fought with him and killed him. Okuni’s beauty and grace, and the novelty of the dramatic dances, made the new style all the fashion. She remained in A"edo and acted as long as her husband lived ; but Avhen he died, she cut her hair and became a nun, .spending her life in prayers, not only for him, but for the Ronin whom he killed for love of her. According to another version of Okuni’s stoiy, she began her career by going about from temple to tern- THE THEATRE. 237 pie, dancing the Kagnra and collecting funds to rebuild the Idzumo shrine. At this time a literary knight ased to write dramatic recitations for her to weave with her dances, and he afterwards married her, for which he was discharged by his feudal lord. They then went to A"edo and opened the theatre, as already related. Meanwhile another element of the drama was devel- oping. This Avas the historical recitation, with or without the accompaniment of a biwa, or Chinese lute, a custom that seems to have come down from the period before writing, when professional reciters held office at the Court. Later, when tlie development of writing made this office useless, it Avas dropped ; but tales continued to be AA'ritten and recited, under the name of katari, or gatari, like the “Genji Monoga- tari " of Murasaki. To tlie monotonous chant in Avhich they Avere uttered, tlie rhapsodists sometimes added tones borrowed from the Buddhist invocations, or from dance music, AAnth intent to make the recita- tion livelier or more impressiA’e. Words and action AA^ere now almost ready to unite into the drama ; but, oddly enough, the medium Avhich brought them together A\'as a kind of Punch and Judy show, or Italian marionette theatre — a recitation gi\’en along AA’ith the performances of cleverly-made ])up])ets. This, Avhich AA’as called gidayv, originated in Osaka, and AA’ent from there to Kyoto and Yedo ; and it became exceedingly popular, largely becau.se almo.st 238 JAPAN. at the .same moment a real dramatist, Chikamatsu by name, appeared and began to write plays for the pur- pose. The manager was likewi.se an exeellent reciter, who rendered the speeches with great force and made bis puppets take the parts very entertainingly. Even now there are story-teller’s balls in Tokyo and el.se- wbere, in which the gidayu are recited to music, usually without the puppets. A word concerning tlie.se .story-teller’s halls. There are fifty of them licensed in Tokyo, and no amuse- ment can rival them in tlie popular mind ; at least, if the reciter knows his business. A huge, scpiare paper lantern hangs at the door, bearing the names of the story-tellers who are reciting there at the moment ; there is generally one star narrator and three or four pupils or a.ssociate.s, who fill up part of the evening, since, unlike the regular theatre, these halls are open only at night — a sure token that it is the working and the student classes that they appeal to. At the door are the usual numbered shelves for the shoes, because you mu.st check these in Japan, as you would an umbrella in America. The hall is matted with tatami, and the story-teller sits on a little platform, with a stand in front of him and a hibachi at his side; the audience place themselves on the floor, sometimes hiring thin cu.shions from the attendant, at a fraction of a cent a night. The admission itself is only a few sen. There is no action whatever ; hardly even a ges- THE THEATEE. 239 ture of the hands or body. The reciter emphasizes a point at times by tapping a fan on the stand in front of him, as the Buddhist priests also do in their ser- mons. Contortions of the face there may be, especially in the funny pieces ; but that is all. Xor is it even a recitation of something already written down ; it is story-telling, pure and simple, spiced with puns and jokes, like an American minstrel-show. They say the first professiomd story-teller was a Kyoto man, who came up to Yedo to present a }5eti- tiou, and waited three years in vain. After that he was ashamed to go back home; so, by way of a liveli- hood, he sat by one of the castle gates, reading and explaining a certain book of chronicles of the deeds of the Taira family. The readings became very jx>pu- lar, and others took up the idea ; but, instead of read- ing history, they soon began to enlarge on a given account out of their own imaginations. Besides hero tales, these story-tellers relate fragments of the drama, love stories, exciting recent events and the latest piece of scandal, domestic or political — all embroidered with sensational details, and punctuated with dramatic pauses and sharp raps of the fan on the little stand. The star performer always comes last — the invaria- ble nde in Japan — and he sometimes recites a single piece, or more often a continuous story, lasting through the whole two weeks which make the usual run ; and he takes good care to stop each time at the most thrilling {wint. The better grade of these 240 JAPAN. reciters are often employed to enliven dinner parties and other entertainments, and they are said to get very good fees. The theatre proper is a much more .serious affair. There is no mere evening performance here; in the good old days the play used to begin at daybreak and last till midnight ; and though now the show is restricted by law to eight hours, from eleven in the morning to six in the evening seems to the American mind quite an undertaking. In old times the [ier- formance used to be announced by beating a big drum, as they do still for the wrestling matches ; it was an imitation of the signal which summoned retainers to the castle in times of danger. The old theatres are disappearing, too, replaced by large new ones, slightly different in plan, and protected by tiled roofs and thick fire- walls. The chief theatre in Kyoto is in Gion machi, by the po})ular Gion temple. In Tokyo it is the Kobi- kiza, where Danjuro plays; this is quite near Shin- bashi station, and almost on the edge of Tsukiji, the foreign Concession. Gi’eat colored posters beside the door announce the play that is running, or rather plays, for besides the chief piece, they generally give parts of three or four others in lighter vein. The floor of the house is entirely divided up by par- titions a foot or so high, making little boxes of a “half mat ” each — that is to say, three feet square. These boxes are occupied by four or even five persons, which THE THEATRE. 241 speaks for the modesty of ladies’ draperies in Japan, as well as the slightness of their figures. In the Kobi- kiza theatre, there are also boxes raised in tiers at the sides, and a gallery at the back, where you may have the privilege of paying three prices, and sitting in a chair with your boots on. Two passage-ways, one wide and one narrow, cross the floor of the house at a level with the top of the partitions between the boxes ; and by these the actors usually arrive and depart, although there are also entrances at the sides of the stage. Over the left en- trance is a little balcony, hidden by a screen, where the chorus sits, and joins with voice and instruments Avhen recjuired — not infrecpiently while the actor is still speaking. The arrangement of the stage itself is peculiar. In the middle of the space, occupying most but not all of it, is a round platform which revolves on a pivot, like a turn-table, and is worked by men under the stage ; partitions divide it into thirds, and each third repre- sents a scene, so that by turning the platform about a new scene is presented without furtlicr delay or trouble. Scenerj' in the ordinary sen.sc flanks the ])latform, and the curtain descends in front of all. On this platform, and the spaces before and beside it, the actors strut and pose in the stagiest of attitudes, attired in wonderful garments, modeled after the age they rep- resent; armor, gorgeous court robe.s, or the Samurai’s dress of ceremony, with the broad, stificned folds over VoL. II.— 16 242 JAPAN. the shoulders. They discourse in a strained, high- pitched voice, most unpleasant to the ears, but made necessary by the constant interventions of the chorus. No woman may act upon the Japanese stage; men actors are usually trained to take women’s parts, and it is one of Danjuro’s glories that he acts equally well either as a man or a woman. The gestures, too, are set and extravagant, and it is impossible to forget for many moments tlie dance from which they grew. Another and at first very amusing feature of the stage is the “ blackamoor,” who attends to clearing things up after a figiit, disposes of “i)roperty” that is no longer needed, and makes matters smooth generally. They are dressed — there are usually two or more on at a time — in black clothes and hoods, and by a stage fiction they are supposed to be invisible ; they crouch in some obscure corner, ready to run noiselessly out and gather up a discarded cloak, or take a fallen knight by the heels and remove him to some limbo behind the scenes. Ichikawa Danjuro, the “ Heniy Irving of Japan,” as his admirers call him, is the ninth actor who has borne the name. The first was a youth who played in Yedo in the latter part of the seventeenth century, or about sixty years after Okuni and her inventions ; Ichikawa Danjuro was not his real, but his stage name, which he left to his son. The name Ichikawa he be- stowed on all his pujiils ; for the actor’s was a guild like all the rest of the employments, and the new ones THE THEATRE. 243 had to be apprenticed as to any other trade. In the nine generations there have been four adoptions made, becaase the holder of the name had no son ; the seventh member is counted the ablest of them all, and the pres- ent representative is a son of his. He is no longer young, but must be in the fullest of vigor, for he acts for hours in the tremendous poses of the Japanese stage — exercise, surely, that one of our gyumasts would hesitate to undertake. Mr. Osman Edwards gives a pleasant description of a call on the great man, who, he says, has none of the affectations of many AVesteru actors when off duty ; he declares that Danjuro “ becomes less of an actor and more of an archbishop in jiroportion as he realizes every year the growing prestige and veneration attached by the bulk of his compatriots to the chief of the Japane.se stage.” Favorite plays are the adventures of Yo.shitsune and Bcnkei, such as the scene at the Ilakone pa.ss, when Ik-nkei .so cleverly got his master by — Danjuro told Edwards that this was the role he liked be.st — or the time that they and their followers were all in danger of being shipwrecked through the malice of evil spirits, and no one could do anything, till Benkei came to the re.scue. Stationing himself on the prow of the ship, he lifts a rosari-, and chants an exorcism that quiets wind anti waves ; ship and crew are saved, to the wondering joy of all. Other plays deal with the misfortunes of the Emperor Go-Daigo, victim of the disloyal Hojo and Ashikaga. 244 JAPAN. They recount how he was exiled to a little island ; how the good islanders contrived his escape on a little boat ; and how, to their dismay, the government offi- cials came down to search for the missing prisoner. There was just one hiding-place possible, under a great ])ile of dried fish ; and into this unpleasant refuge the Emperor crept, and lay in safety till the officers satis- fied themselves that all was rigid, and went away. And again, when he was once more a prisoner, a brave young knight, named Kojima, followed the escort who were taking his master again into exile. For many days he sought in vain for some means to communicate with the Emperor, that he might at least bid him take heart, knowing that his followers were still faithful. At last one night Kojima managed to get into the courtyard of the inn where the train had stopped, and ])laning with his sword the bark of a cherry — the Samurai’s flower — wrote thereon a poem : “ O Heaven ! Destroy not Kosen, For he hath yet a Hanrei.” In the morning the soldiers found the writing, but were too ignorant to read it, and asked the Emperor to tell them wliat the characters meant; nor, when they heard the poem, did they see anything of importance in it. But the Emperor understood the allusion to a Chinese Emperor, who, after twenty years of fighting, at last overcame his enemies through the valor of the faithful knight Hanrei. THE THEATRE. 245 That all these things move the spectators deeply is very evident ; but to those who are not very familiar with the story it is not always easy to follow. The fact is the audience are likely to be more entertaining to a stranger than the play itself. They are mostly of the middle class, and they come with all the family and settle down for the day, grandma and baby and all.. Men and women smoke, the teapot man goes his rounds, and by and by the tea-house next door — through which everybody purchases theatre tickets — sends in its dcjnities bringing trays of lunch boxes, and every one falls to between acts. The women sit demurely, or chatter among themselves; the men yawn and stretch mightily, and the children run up and down along the narrow partitions, and even on the “flowery way” reserved for the actors. If the ])lay becomes too pathetic, the ladies of the party disaj)pear into their long sleeves, or even retire from the audi- ence to weep unrestrained. But, after all, hampered though it is by wearisome conventionalities, by exaggerations and restrictions, it is not to be denied that Japanese drama is both inter- esting and at times deeply im|)ressive, even to one who looks on without comprehending a word, and with only a vague notion, at the best, of what the actors are trying to express. Also, in judging of its merits, we have to remember that till thirty years ago — the time when all, or nearly all, the j)lays were written, and when many of the actors now on the boards 246 JAPAN. learned their art — it was against the law for a Samu- rai to enter a theatre. That is to say, he was not actually forbidden to enter, but it was one of the places where he might not go wearing a sword ; and not to wear a sword was to be, for the time at least, no better than another man. So, if a knight entered such places at all, he had to do so in disguise ; and as a consequence, tlie theatres had to draw their con- tingent from the ordinary people — the merchants and the artisans, who were not the lettered class at all. It is only since the beginning of Meiji, with its re- forms and wholesale destruction of the rigid class lines, that all men have begun to frequent the the- atre whenever they wish to do so ; and even ladies attend at times. There can be no question bnt that this prohibition of the gentry had much to do in forming the style of the plays, and in keeping the drama from reaching a place in the national literature at all to be compared with Sophocles or Shakespeare. CHAPTER XIII. FETES AND FLOWERS. “ Hark ! on the snow-laden branches Nightingales sing; Do they take the white drift on the plum tree For petals of spring ?” — From the “Kokinshu.” “ No man so callous but he heaves a sigh When o’er his head the withered cherry flowers Come flutt’ring down. Who knows? The spring’s soft showers May be but tears shed by the sorrowing sky.” — Chamberlain. New Japan rccognize.s eleven national holidays ; the first, third and fifth days of the new year ; Janu- ary 80, the anniversary of the death of the late Emperor; February 11, the festival of the Constitu- tion, which was signed in 1885, on the anniversary of the accession of Jinmnu Tenno ; the spring equinox, March 20 ; April 28, the death of Jimnui Tenno ; after which they skip all the way to September 28, kept as the autumn equinox. The first harvest thanks- giving (the Divine Tasting) is on October 17; the Emperor’s birthday on November 3, and the second hars’est thanksgiving on November 28. 247 248 JAPAN. These are the official holidays, when banks and schools and public offices are closed ; but the people keep many more, mostly religious ones ; or, at least, religious iu their origin. About the year 900 the Emperor Uda (whom Michizane served) established five festivals, all in the odd mouths, and each on the day corresponding to the number of the month — the first of the first mouth, third of the third, fifth of the fifth, and so on, all the way around to the ninth of the ninth month, the festival of clmsanthemums. It must be remembered that these mouths were reckoned by the Chinese lunar calendar, and that Xew A^ear’s day fell some time in February; so that the seventh month was our August, or perhaps part of September, and the ninth of the ninth mouth would come late in October, or early in November. But each month in the year has some special festival, celebrated more or less universally throughout the country. The greatest of all is the New A^ear, and after that in popular esti- mation stands Bon, or, more properly, Urabon, the Feast of the Dead, iu midsummer. At these two fes- tivals gifts are universally exchanged, and in each one day is set apart for the apprentices’ holiday, the only seasons in old times when they were absolutely free to go where they would. By an arrange- ment, which must have been convenient for the masters, the ’prentices’ day falls each time at the end of the feast ; but, as members of the master’s family, they had already shared all the home fes- FETES AND FLOWERS. 249 tivities, as well as the labor of the jweparations for the feast. For each of the festivals, and for all the months, there are certain designated flowers ; in fact, one might spend half one’s time the year through “ flower viewing” at one or another famous garden, and find the people as interesting as the blossoms, for everybody goes, gentry as well as bourgeoisie, and all the women dress in their best — not in gaudy geisha costumes, but exquisitely delicate crepes ; light colors even in win- ter, because the flowers suggest spring, and one must be ajipropriate. To tell the truth, it usually feels any- thing but .‘jpring-like when the plum blossoms begin ; they come first and stay longest, flowering by the end of January in sheltered places. Little dwarf trees in close bud are foreed carefully for New Year con- gratulation gifts, since tlie Western Avorld has driven back the calendar to fit its own wintry feast. The Japanese love their \t,me blossoms just because they are first, as we love trailing arbutus, and as our Eng- lish kin love the INIay ; their charm is to brave the frost, and if a snow comes — the rare, brief snow of the south — half Tokyo rushes to Kameido to see the whiteness on the flowers, and to see them shake it off, only the fresher and more fragrant for the chilly load. Then, too, it is in order to write j)oems of just thirty-one syllables, on thick, narrow poem-papers, and hang them on the branches. Such as this : 250 JAPAN. “ Were she belated, the utne could not vie with the sakura ; because she is first, the prize of color and fragrance is hers.” Or this : “ How shall I find my ume tree? The moon and the snow are white as she. By the fragrance blown on the evening air, Shalt thou find her there.” But, unhappily for sentiment, the pa,steboard takes a drenching mueh le.ss safely than the flowers do, and after a storm the efiect of a tree strung over with these draggled scraps is anything but decorative. The trees at Kameido are the famous “ Creeping Dragons,” old, old trunks, twisted and almost lying on the ground — the older, more bent and gnarled the tree, the greater the delight in its delicate bloom, as a gentle woman, they say, shows fairest in adversity. The trees out at Omori are less wonderful in this way, but make up by a profusion of bloom and the beauty of the situation, so that they are scarcely less popular. Conder quotes a pretty story of the daughter of a certain poet, whose favorite plum tree was sent for by the Lord High Chamberlain, to replace one that had died in the imperial garden. Of course she could not refuse, but she managed to tie a little poem out of sight among the branches : FETES AND FLOWEES. 251 “Claimed for our Sovereign’s use, Blossoms I’ve loved so long — Can I in duty fail ? But for the Nightingale, Seeking her home of song, How can I find excuse? ” Tlie Emperor fouud the poem and read it, and the tree went back to the bird and the maiden. The ume lingers with tlie lingering southern spring; the nightingale or warbler, uguisu, sings month after month in the branches, his note growing more plaint- ive, they say, as April draws near : “ Cry, Uguisu ; spring comes not again for a year.” February is the month of Inari Sami, the fox god, and his temple reaj)s a rich harvest from the devout, who hope he will help them to get rich in the coming year. As the god of rice fields, he receives special attention from the country people ; and at bis festival, on all the roads leading to the Inari temples, posts are set up and hung with oblong paper lantern.s, bearing rude pictures and homely texts, such as the mo.st un- learned can understand. All the small boys have access to a great drum in the temple court, and on the days of the festival they thump it from morning till night. Two months belong especially to children ; IMarch to the girls (how ever did they happen to come first?) and May for the boys — the third day of the 252 JAPAN. third month, and the fifth day of the fifth month, respectively. The girls’ day is called Hina matsuri, the Feast of Dolls. Each household where there are daughters has a set of little figures, often handed down for generations, re2)resenting the Emperor and Empress in splendid robes, five Court ladies in white ovei’dres.ses and scarlet skirts, and five musicians to play to them ; all seated on a set of portable shelves made for the purpose. Other dolls of less dignity are seated on the lower shelves, and before each is placed au array of real food on tiny dishes, along with miniature household utensils and toilet cases, writing materials, in fact, tiny models of everything that any one could use in real life, often made of the finest porcelain and lacquer. The holiday dish of rice and red beans is prepared for them, and a kind of mild, sweet wine, called .shirosake ; and when the doll nobility have been served, be sure the little mistresses get their share. All the girls have holidav and are dressed in their best, and the family dolls go visiting friends and relations, and are entertained with their mistresses on dainty sweets ; and when it is all over their majesties and all their train go back to their silk bags and boxes till the day comes round again, other ordinary dolls staying out to be played with through the year. The boys’ day is very properly a more active and out-of-doors affair ; it is really a military feast, a reminiscence of the victory over the ^lougol armada. .'•‘•'i.vr ■ . 1 ill • :T' » • ;r FETES AND FLOWEES. 253 and flags and toy swords are much in order. The tokonoma in the best room is set with pictures or figures of three famous heroes, the Taiko Ilideyoshi, his general Kato Kiyomasa, the conqueror of Korea, and a semi-fabulous brave named Watonai. ^ut the chief characteristic of the occasion is the custom of flying huge paper carp, like flags, on high bamboo poles — a fish for every boy in the household. The meaning is that the carp, like the salmon, swims up streams and even waterfalls, and so is the emblem of courage and perseverance in overcoming difficulties — the model which all small bovs should follow. The paper fish are sometimes twenty feet long, two or three sometimes fluttering on a single pole far above the roofs ; they are hollow, and have a ring at the mouth and a hole at the tail, so that the wind sweej)s through and makes them dip and struggle and undulate in the most life-like manner, precisely like a fish struggling against the current. As Mrs. Iwamoto puts it, “the fish are nothing more than the outward expression of the fond parents’ wish for tlicir boys, that they may be as as})iring and as courageous as the koi” The war of kites, too, delights the youngsters on these windy S])ring days, and many a grown-u]) enjoys the sport, with his little brother or son for an excuse. The strings are armed with sharp pieces of glass, tied near the kite, and the object is to cut the other boy’s string and release his kite, while saving your own from a like fate. In some provinces the kites are 254 JAPAN. immensely large, made of as many as two thousand small sheets of paper, pasted together ; in others they are small, and around Nagoya the smaller they are, the greater the honor of getting them to fly high. On the l)irthday of Buddha, which falls in April, a curious ceremony is performed at some of the temples. The priests j)lace an image of Buddha in a tub in the temple court, and make a temporary roof over it, adorned with green branches ; then they fill the tub with a decoction of hydrangea, called ama-cha, or sweet tea, which is said to taste rather like weak black tea. A long-handled ladle is provided, and with this the devotees ladle up the ama-cha and pour it over the image ; and after making a small contri- bution to the temple, carry home some of the tea as a remedy for sickness. On the first “ Day of the Horse,” in April, the vil- lages of Omi province, on the east shore of lake Biwa, keep a peculiar festival. All the women walk in pro- cession, each carrying on her head as many earthen- ware pots as she has had husbands. Now it is no disgrace for a woman to marry again after she has been divorced or widowed, yet still it is higher honor to have had but one spouse; and a considerable num- ber rather implies that the dame is of a shrewish tongue, or otherwise an undesirable companion, and so has been frequently tried and found wanting. But it will not do to cheat ; they firmly believe the gods Avill punish any one who does not produce her full FETES AND FLOWERS. 255 tale. They say that one woman who had had several husbands thought she would get out of it neatly by setting a number of little pots inside a large one, which stood for her present goodman ; but she was rightly rewarded, for as she walked with the rest she tripjied, and the pots came tumbling down, the big one broke, and the little ones rolled out for all the world to see. With April a tide of pink sweeps over the world — the faint cloud-pink of cherry bloom; at classic Yoshino in Akinuito, at Arashiyama, at Uyeno in Tokyo, at Mukojiina and out at Oji ; all along the castle moat, between the greening willows ; flaunting over hedges and behind high yashiki walls — everywhere they are in flower, delicate, elusively sweet, crowding every twig with lavish blossoming, only to fling a storm of petals on the first rough wind. “ Cheriy-blossom Sunday ” at Uyeno park is one of the prettiest sights in all Japan. The wide avenue sloping up from the town is an arch of j)ink mi.st, leading to acres of pale rose-color against a back- ground of pine and cryi)tomeria and live oak ; the })cople throng, and the tea-houses have si>read their best red blankets on the matted jJatform.s, which serve for seat and table. Here will come a couj)le of deifo, or running groom.s, crying, “ Hai ! Tlai !” before some grandee’s carriage; there is a line of jinrikishas, a dignified old gentleman at the head and his family behind ; yonder is a party spreading a blanket under 256 JAPAN. the trees and sitting down to picnic delightfully on rice sandwiches ; and again a group of young men, carrying each a cherry branch over his shoulder, and at his belt a sake gourd, which he meaas to have filled and refilled at the various wine-shops, till he is glori- ously and entirely drunk — at which point they will all fall sound asleep, and the nearest policemen will pack them into kurumas, two and two, and send them safely off home ; for nobody is allowed to be intoxi- cated in a public place in Japan. Sake seems to be inseparably connected with cherry blossoms ; the first allusion to them in literature is in the fifth century, when an Emperor went on a picnic and the petals fell into his wine-cup. And another Emperor wrote a poem, saying, “Without wine, who can properly enjoy the sight of the cherry blos- soms ?” To tell the truth, a good deal of extra license is permitted in cherry time and in certain specified places. The wildest doings of Tokyo are at l\Iuko- jima, where for three miles a double avenue of cherry trees stretches along the far bank of the Sumida be- side the road, which runs like a dike between the river and the rice-fields. In a meadow at the end of the avenue flags fly and booths are set up, drums beat — turn ! — tum-tum ! — you woidd recognize a Japanese drum-beat anywhere by the queer time — and a squeaky brass band plays “ IMarehing Through Georgia’’ and other festive tunes; for they made a FETES AND FLOWERS. 257 patriotic war song to old Georgia in ’95, and it is entirely naturalized under the Sun Flag. Tea booths stand all along the bank under the trees, and between them surges a dense crowd, abso- lutely given over to carnival. Of course, no Japan- ese gentlewoman is ever seen there, and for a foreigner it is decidedly better not to understand what is said ; but the crowd is good-humored and entirely harm- less, and does not go beyond carnival jests ; the police would not permit that. More or less drunk it cer- tainly is, and wildly hilarious; mummers rush about in all sorts of fantastic costumes, men dressed as women, or in harlequin garments, red and white, the color of spring and happiness. Presently, with great shoutings, comes the shrine of some god, dragged on a car or carried on men’s shoulders, and ringed about with a dancing, singing crowd. The river, too, is gay with roofed pleasure boats, where the geisha’s siunisen twangs all day long. Probably the ancient Bacchanalia and Saturnalia were not very unlike cherry time at Mukojima. The proper Howei’s for May are the great peonic.s, hofan, and the azalea and Wistaria. The botan is too delicate to do well in the open ground without a great deal of sheltering from wind and sun and rain, and it is to be seen in perfection only in special gardens ; but the azalea is wild all through the mountains, and will grow almost anywhere; so in May the flower fairs at night are full of them, and hillside gardens are VoL. II.— 17 258 JAPAN. a blaze of spleiiflid color. The special place for them in Tokyo is the suburb of Okubo, where the trains make extra stops in the azalea season. And another beautifully planted garden of them covers a steep slope in Kojimachi, not far from the palace, in the midst of which an irregular slab of granite marks the spot where Count Okubo was assa.ssinatcd. It was no mere brutal crime, but an affair of intense political conviction ; the Count stood for progress and the in- crease of foreign influences, and the band of fanatics who killed him verily believed they were saving their country from destruction in the good old way. Stand- ing on the hillside among tlie bushes, where the chil- dren play tag and string necklaces of the fallen flowers, it is hard to realize that all this Sturm und Drang of transition was only twenty years ago. For a Japanese, a cardinal point in the enjoyment of flowers is that they shall be appro[)riate to the sea- son, and arranged in a natural way ; iris, for instance, is used for decoration in .several months, and each time the habit of the plant at that part of the year must be duly considered ; in spring the leaves are straight and stiff, and the flower-stem short; in summer the leaves are full and spreading, and the flowers have “much spirit”; in autumn the flower-stems are long and the leaves bent and curled — all of which must be properly emphasized in making the bouquet for the tokonoma. The vases, too, must have attention; for riverside plants a flat dish is appropriate, with or with- FETES AND FLOVVEKS. 259 out pebbles strewn over it ; a morning-glory should have a hanging vase of bamboo, and pine goes well in a handsome bronze decorated with figures of storks. Indeed, the variety of material and form is endless, and utterly bewildering to the outsider, who can only guess at the symbolic meaning of hill, short, wide and narrow, basketwork and porcelain. Yet it does mean something, and, after all, it is like so many puzzles — plain as day when you once know how to do it. They do not make bouquets of flowers iu our sense ; as Conder says, “ Wliereas the Western amateur de- votes his attention mainly to the blossoms, the Japanese lover of flowers bestows his admiration on tiie whole character of the plant or tree” — and what they are trying to do is to make it seem to be actually growing. So they include under /tana a great deal besides flowers ; sncli as |)ine, bamboo, willow branches, grasses and autumn leaves. 'file art of flower arranging is said to have come from India, and to have been orijjinallv intended to preserve the flowers used in ritual from the effects of tlie tropical heat ; and that it came to Japan witli Bud- dhism. As miglit be supposed, it was one of tlie arts seized upon by the clia-no-yu devotees, who developed it into a fine art, and added unto it fancies and esoteric mysteries after their own hearts. It stands to reason, also, that an artful naturalness and a crafty simjilicity were what they strove after, and attained, too, for 260 JAPAN. them.selves and their followers, by means of innate taste and a multitude of exact rules. The theory of it is perfectly simple ; it is only to arrange the flowers so as to form a triangle, the “ prin- cipal branch ” long, the others on each side of it shorter by one-half and two-thirds, respec-tively. All the branches must curve a little, and each in just the right way ; the central one bends out and returns to make nearly a vertical line from top to bottom ; the second and third follow its lead. If there are more branches, they come in as “ supports” between the others ; there may be five in all 6r seven — never an even number ; and the number of blossoms should also be uneven. Buds are preferred to full-blown flowers, both because they keep better and because, like the Greeks, the Japanese love the promise of youth. Here are some of the things that may be expressed by flowers : Aspiration. Decayed wood and climbing creeper. Affection. Pine branch with Wistaria twining around it ; the vase should be bronze. Serenity. A bronze vase in the shape of a boat, and small white chrysanthemums arranged to represent the masts and rigging of a ship in port. Austerity. Suzuki grass and the field flower called patrina in a small bronze vase. “ Many of those who take a fancy to this art do not really love flowers,” Avrote a certain tea-master a cen- tury ago. “ They are only trying to show their skill FETES AND FLOWERS. 261 in arranging them, and they treat them cruelly, bend- ing, twisting and plucking leaves and flowers without mercy. Those who cherish flowers in reality should strive to change the natural form as little as possible, and to preserve them as long as possible by dipping them deep in pure water.” Which seems to be very sensible advice, such as even Americans may compre- hend. In June it is proper to ride up the river past Muko- jima and out across the plain to the iris fields at Ilori- kiri. They are not the common early irises which flower in April; these are the large “Japanese” variety, which need irrigation to do their best, and are planted in patches divided by little dikes, like .so many tiny rice fields in an acre or two of level meadow. Gentle grassy slopes rise all around, tastefully set with shrubbery and a few trees, and small tca-hoiuses stand about at the prettiest points, overlooking the field spread out below like a white and purple carpet. The paths wind in and out among the shrubbery and along the dikes, and peo[)le wander about admiring beautiful individual flowers; and in the tea-house tliey sell cut blossoms and colored prints of the newest and choicest varieties. The imperial purples and clear lavenders accord well with the early heat of June, and the showery, muggy days that begin the rainy sea.son, which is due the 11th of June, but, needless to say, is not always punctual. Delayed rains mean ])lenty of trouble for the farmers, for the young rice must have 262 JAPAN. water, and as you ride back across the fields you some- times see a peasant carrying two buckets on a pole or treading a small water wheel, laboriously irrigating his little plot. In such seasons the roads get very dusty, and the sun beats down pitilessly, while the shrill zeeing of the cicadas seems to aggravate the tense heat. With full summer comes the lotus, flower of Buddha, and introduced with his teachings ; it is not the Egyp- tian Nelumbo, but the great rose lotus of India, grow- ing high above the water among large blue-grec n leave.s, and looking like a bit of the tropics, although the pond it grows in may have had a skim of ice an inch thick in January, and they flourish even in the ice-bound Hokkaido. Because of the place where it gi-ows, the lotus is a symbol of purity under trial and temptation, much as we speak of a lily from a dust heap : If thou art born in a poor man’s hovel, yet hast wisdom, thou art even as the lotus flower growing out of the mud.” The correct time to visit the lotus ponds is at sun- rise, when the buds are supposed to open so suddenly that you can hear them crack ; and many devotees do go at that hour in spite of the early habits of a July sun. If one fails to hear anything very startling, at least one may see a lovely pearly dawn, and bars of mist floating up across the ITyeno pines. The morning-glory, or asagao, too, must be viewed FETES AND FLOWERS. 263 before the day is Avell begun, and this may be one reason why the cult is rather an e.soteric one — that, and the great difficulty of getting the fancy varieties in per- fection. It is not surprising, therefore, to find the flower a favorite with tlie cha-no-yu masters, in whose reunions, indeed, the cult originated ; Ilikyu, the master cha-jin, having been an assiduous a.sagao cultivator. The delicacy and perishable nature of the flower made it e.specially fit for the .severe simplicity of the cha- no-yu room, and for the freshne.ss of those e;irly morn- ing meetings. They .say that a famous general heard of Rikyu’s wonderful morning-glories, so one day he called to see them. Rut though there were morning-glories in the garden, the general .saw none that struck him as })ar- tieularly remarkable till he entered the tea-room and beheld Rikyu’s favorite arrangement — one flower and one leaf. Seen thus apart, the color seemed purer, fresher and lovelier than any other. lie gazed de- lighted, e.xclaiming, “Xow I understand.” Double a.sagao are the most highly prized varieties, chiefly, no doubt, because they are exce.ssively difficult to propagate ; the initiated di.stinguish tour main types, going off into varieties pa.st the knowledge of any but the learned. The a.sagao is a great favorite with poets and arti.sts, the mo.st famous verse of all being one eomjx)sed by a young girl who went to her well, and, finding a morning-glory had twined about the rope, rather than disturb the flower, begged water 264 JAPAN. from her neighbor In a dainty poem of the regulation thirty-one syllables : “ Asagao ni Tsurube torarete Moraiye midzu.” Which is to say, alas, far less gracefully: “ By asagao Is my bucket filched away — Water give, I pray.” Aston quotes another equally characteristic poem of the didactic sort : “ Oh for the heart Of the morning-glory, Which, though its bloom is for a single night. Is the same as that of the fir tree Which lives a thousand years.” Aston adds a commentary on the poem from Kiuso, the eighteenth century philosopher : “ Living for a day, let us fulfill the Way for that day and die ; living for a month, let us fulfill the AVay for that month and die ; living for a year, let us fulfill the Way for that year and die. If ve do so, there will not be an atom of regret, even if we die in the evening after having learned the Way in the morning.” The seventh of the seventh month is kept as the tana- hata festival. In that month, according to Japanese mythology, the goddesses wash their garments in the FETES AND FLOWERS. 265 Milky Way, whicli is the River of Heaven, Ama-iio- gawa. At that time all the younger members of the family write something on a slip of fancy paper, and tie them to a branch of bamboo ; the branch so laden is called tanabata, and it is fastened to the house-top or in the garden for the first seven days of July. On the evening of the seventh the tanabata is thrown into the nearest river, and the popular belief is that it will float away till it reaches the River of Heaven, when the heavenly goddesses may pick it up and read it. If they are pleased, they will reward the writer by causing his or her penmanship to improve — sometliing the boys and maidens are very ambitious to attain. Rut the great feast of Jidy is the Festival of the Dead. Back in tlie country they still keep to the old calendar for these religious feasts, but everywhere that the railroads have gone the spirits must return for their welcome in the new month. The origin of the festival is said to be this : Among the disciples of Shaka was a certain very holy man, who became possessed of supernatural j)owers, so that he coidd gaze into the lower regions and see what was happening there. To his horror, he beheld his own mother, condemned for her sins to suffer perpetual hunger. The son instantly offered her a bowlful of rice, and the hungry spirit turned eagerly to it, but .as she tried to eat, the food beciime burning coals. In deep distress, the son cast himself before the merciful Buddha, and implored his help. And the merciful 266 JAPAN. Buddha told him, “ Get together the priests from all the ten directions, and cause them to read jjrayers for thee and for thy ancestors to the .seventh generation. Then, when thou hast set a bountiful repast before the j)riests, the condemned among thy ancestors shall l)e able to partake of thy offerings.” With the Buddhist priests, therefore, the 14th, 15th and 16th of July are observed as a time of special ])i-aycr and meditation, followed by a magnificent .ser- vice on behalf of the hungry spirits. With most jwople, however, it is rather the .sense of the return of the spirits, the welcome that mu.st be set for them on their brief visit, that makes the e.ssential quality of the feast. The ihai ai’e given a special stand, hung with bamboo and bright berries till it is like a bower, and lanterns are placed by the road and incense sticks burned, that the returning souls may not miss the way. In country places still, a tub of water is set by the house, and toy horses and oxen, made of egg-plants and cucumbers, are placed there for the spirits to use on the journey. But the straw boats set on fire are not often seen now, for the government has forbidden the practice on account of the danger to shipping, though it is winked at sometimes, they say, in out-of-the-way places on the coast. In the country, too, they still dance the Bon-odori, the special dance of Bon. Men and women, young and old, all dress up in fanciful garments and dance in line, winding, doubling, like a game of “Follow my FETES AND FLOWERS. 267 leader,” with fantastic waving of arms and clapping of hands. They say it is symbolic of the joy of the rescued spirits. On the night of the 16th, wlien the spirits go back over tlie sea, it is not good to be abroad upon the water; for the sea is troubled with strange currents, and (piivering through it are countless })alc lights — the glimmering lamps of the departing ghosts. The fifteenth night of the August moon is devoted by the literary to a moon-gazing fca.st, wherein to watch () Tsid