Volume II Part 3 (1/2)
DEAR PROFESSOR CHAMBERLAIN,--I ahted to hear the fire-drill is at last in your hands
About shi+ntoOf course, as far as its philosophy is concerned (which I am very fond of, in spite of ious sentiends, and art,--ed my love of Buddhism If it were possible for me to adopt a faith, I should adopt it But shi+nto seems to me like an occult force,--vast, extraordinary,--which has not been seriously taken into account as a force I think it is the hopeless, irrefragable obstacle to the Christianization of japan (for which reason I ah to love it) It is not all a belief, nor all a religion; it is a thing fornetism and indefinable as an ancestral impulse It is part of the Soul of the Race It ns, the devotion of retainers to princes, the respect to sacred things, the conservation of principles, the whole of what an Englishman would call sense of duty; but that this sense seems to be hereditary and inborn I think a baby is shi+nto from the time its eyes can see Here, too, the sys the child sees (I suppose it is the sareat extent shi+nto toys; and the excursions of a young mother with a baby on her back are always to shi+nto temples
How much of Confucianis characteristic of japanese boys in their attitude toward teachers and superiors, I do not know; but I think that what is nowin these boys is the outer reflection of the spirit of shi+nto within them,--the hereditary spirit of it
The shi+nshu sect is the only one, as far as I can learn, whose members in Izumo are not also shi+ntoists; but the sect is very weak here Even the Nichirenites are shi+ntoists The two religions are so perfectly blended here that the lines of demarcation are sometimes impossible to find
Well, I think we Occidentals have yet to learn the worshi+p of ancestors; and evolution is going to teach it to us When we beco or beautiful in each one of us, not to one particular inner individuality, but to the struggles and sufferings and experiences of the whole unknown chain of hu back into mystery unthinkable,--the worshi+p of ancestors see What is it, philosophically, but a tribute of gratitude to the past,--dead relatively only,--alive really within us, and about us
With best regards, in momentary haste,
LAFCADIO HEARN
TO BASIL HALL CHAMBERLAIN
MATSUE, May, 1891
DEAR PROFESSOR CHAMBERLAIN,--I have just returned froe to the famous Kwannon temple of Kiyomizu--about 18 miles from Matsue--where it is said that the sacred fire has never been extinguished for a thousand years, to find your postal card I do not wait to receive the delightful gift in order to thank you for it; as I hope to have the pleasure of writing you a letter on ined nothing to send me more welcome Mr Lowell has, I think, no warree with his theory in the ”Soul of the Far East,” and think he has ignored the enius of eclecticisuess, in regard to the fate of races But there is not wanting foundation for the belief that the Orient may yet dominate the Occident and absorb it utterly China seereater question than Russia
About your kind question regarding books I think I shall be able to get all the books on japan--in English--that I need; and your ”Things japanese” is a ood advice on what to buy But if I need counsel which I cannot find in your book, then I rite and ask
I venture to say that I think you have underrated the iestion about the Sacred Snake,--of which I have not been able to find the scientific na But, if not, I think the little snake would be worth having
It does not--like the fire-drill of Kizuki--possess special interest for the anthropologist; but it certainly should have interest for the folk-lorist, as a chapter in one of the ious practices,--the worshi+p of the Serpent If you ever want an enshrined snake, let me know It is dried and put into a little _ of folk-lore, I have been interesting myself in the fox-superstition in Izumo Here, and in Iwami, the superstition has local peculiarities It is so powerful as to affect the value of real estate to the amount of hundreds of thousands of yen, and keen th of it If you want any facts about it, please tell me
The scenery at Kiyomizu is superb But there is no clear water except the view of Nanji-uret to say, are uninteresting There is, however, a curious Inari shrine Beside it is a sort of huge trough filled with little foxes of all shapes, designs, and , you pray, and put a fox in your pocket, and take it horanted you ain and put it just where it was before I should like to have taken one home; but my servants hate foxes and Inari and _tofu_ and _azuki- related to foxes So I left it alone
You will not be sorry to hear that I am to have the sa to present indications I a so beautiful as his ”Choson” or ”Soul of the Far East,” and will certainlybeside his precise, fine, perfectly worded work But I a in his line My ill deal wholly with exceptional things (chiefly popular) in an untilled field of another kind
I gave 72 boys, as subject for composition the other day, the question: ”What would you most like in this world?” Nine of the compositions contained in substance this answer: ”To die for our Sacred Erand and beautiful? and do you wonder that I love it after that?
Most grateful regards from yours most sincerely,
LAFCADIO HEARN
TO BASIL HALL CHAMBERLAIN
MATSUE, 1891
DEAR PROFESSOR CHAMBERLAIN,--I went to Kobe by rail, and thence by jinrikisha across japan over h valleys of rice-fields--a journey of four days; but theexperiences The scenery had this peculiar effect, that it repeated for me many of my tropical iuration,--besides reviving for land which I had forgotten Nothing could beof the sensations of the tropics with those of Northern summers And the people! My expectations werethe country-people japanese character should be studied, and I could not givewhat you would call enthusiastic language I felt quite sorry to reach this larger city, where the people are so h I have every reason to be pleased with the I ever saw before--sorace I watched it untilyet seen in japan delightedthe saradually weaken toward the interior, while shi+nto e the phallic worshi+p of antiquity were being adored in reroves
LAFCADIO HEARN
TO BASIL HALL CHAMBERLAIN
MATSUE, June, 1891