Lafcadio Hearn's Japan by Donald; Lafcadio; Richie Hearn Read Free Book Online Page B

, Tendai-sh ū , even that Shin-sh ū , unpopular in Izumo because those who follow its teaching strictly must not worship the Kami. Behind each temple court there is a cemetery, or hakaba; and eastward beyond these are other temples, and beyond them yet others,—masses of Buddhist architecture mixed with shreds of gardens and miniature homesteads, a huge labyrinth of moldering courts and fragments of streets.
    To-day, as usual, I find I can pass a few hours very profitably in visiting the temples; in looking at the ancient images seated within the cups of golden lotus-flowers under their aureoles of gold; in buying curious mamori; in examining the sculptures of the cemeteries, where I can nearly always find some dreaming Kwannon or smiling Jiz ō well worth the visit.
    The great courts of Buddhist temples are places of rare interest for one who loves to watch the life of the people; for these have been for unremembered centuries the playing-places of the children. Generations of happy infants have been amused in them. All the nurses, and little girls who carry tiny brothers or sisters upon their backs, go thither every morning that the sun shines; hundreds of children join them; and they play at strange, funny games,—“Onigokko,” or the game of Devil, “Kage-Oni,” which signifies the Shadow and the Demon, and “Mekusan-gokko,” which is a sort of “blindman’s buff.”
    Also, during the long summer evenings, these temples are wrestling-grounds, free to all who love wrestling; and in many of them there is a dohyM-ba, or wrestling-ring. Robust young laborers and sinewy artisans come to these courts to test their strength after the day’s tasks are done, and here the fame of more than one now noted wrestler was first made. When a youth has shown himself able to overmatch at wrestling all others in his own district, he is challenged by champions of other districts; and if he can overcome these also, he may hope eventually to become a skilled and popular professional wrestler.
    It is also in the temple courts that the sacred dances are performed and that public speeches are made. It is in the temple courts, too, that the most curious toys are sold, on the occasion of the great holidays,—toys most of which have a religious signification. There are grand old trees, and ponds full of tame fish, which put up their heads to beg for food when your shadow falls upon the water. The holy lotus is cultivated therein.
    â€œThough growing in the foulest slime, the lotus remains pure and undefiled.
    â€œAnd the soul of him who remains ever pure in the midst of temptation is likened unto the lotus.
    â€œTherefore is the lotus carven or painted upon the furniture of temples; therefore also does it appear in all the representations of our Lord Buddha.
    â€œIn Paradise the blessed shall sit at ease enthroned upon the cups of golden lotus-flowers.” 7
    A bugle-call rings through the quaint street; and round the corner of the last temple come marching a troop of handsome young rifle-men, uniformed somewhat like French light infantry, marching by fours so perfectly that all the gaitered legs move as if belonging to a single body, and every sword-bayonet catches the sun at exactly the same angle, as the column wheels into view. These are the students of the Shihan-Gakk ō , the College of Teachers, performing their daily military exercises. Their professors give them lectures upon the microscopic study of cellular tissues, upon the segregation of developing nerve structure, upon spectrum analysis, upon the evolution of the color sense, and upon the cultivation of bacteria in glycerine infusions. And they are none the less modest and knightly in manner for all their modern knowledge, nor the less reverentially devoted to their dear old fathers and mothers whose ideas were shaped in the era of feudalism.
    XIV
    Here come a band of pilgrims, with yellow straw overcoats,