Part 2 (1/2)
Great pavilions in s.h.i.+nto style were erected in Tokyo to accommodate the distinguished guests during the evening of the procession, and feasts were provided for them.
[Ill.u.s.tration: THE FUNERAL CORTEGE.]
As it had been so long since an Emperor had died, special s.h.i.+nto services had to be arranged. The funeral was at night. The music was very weird and sad, and the wheels of the funeral car, which was drawn by oxen, were made to creak as they ran along, as if writhing and crying in agony for the loss of the Great Emperor they were bearing to his resting-place.
High officials, officers, and priests, in old ceremonial costumes or modern uniforms, were in the procession, and the brightly decorated avenue, lined with soldiers and crowded with onlookers, made a weird picture in the flas.h.i.+ng lights--one never to be forgotten, I should imagine, by those who were fortunate enough to witness it. After pa.s.sing in this fas.h.i.+on through the streets of Tokyo the body was put on the train and conveyed to Kyoto, where the procession was resumed to the tomb.
Of its reception in Kyoto, Terry, author of ”The j.a.panese Empire,” says: ”To the distant cras.h.i.+ng and the reverberating roar of minute-guns; the wailing of bugles and the booming of gigantic temple bells; to the sound of the wild minstrelsy of priests and bonzes, the pattering of a weeping, drenching rain and the sighing of a vast concourse of mourning people ... the mortal remains of Mutsuhito ... were laid tenderly in their last resting place.”
A poem written by the late Emperor and translated by Dr. Bryan has recently been published. It is called ”My People,” and although so short is rather impressive.
”Whether it rain or s.h.i.+ne, I have only one care: The burden of this heart of mine Is how my people fare!”
Kyoto, sometimes called Saikyo, was the ancient capital, where the shoguns and mikados used to reside in the early days. It is a city of temples, where nothing under three hundred years is counted old, and although typically j.a.panese it seems somehow different from other cities. The tiny houses and narrow streets appear tinier and narrower here than elsewhere.
The hills to the east of the city are covered with old shrines and buildings, and the woods are full of temples, too. In the Chionin Temple, founded some seven hundred years ago, may be seen an umbrella left among the rafters of the roof by the master-builder during its erection. Tradition insists that it flew thither out of the hands of a boy whose shape had been a.s.sumed by the guardian deity of the temple, but the other explanation, while less romantic, seems more probable.
Near this temple, on a small elevation among the trees, stands the Great Bell, the largest in the country. Not far away are many other interesting things, among them the Dai Butsu--the Great Buddha. There are also some sacred springs, a curious temple on stilts, and innumerable lanterns.
The two most important temples are the Eastern and the Western Hongwanji, which belong to the most powerful Buddhist sect. We went through the latter, which had some excellent paintings. The garden and houses belonging to this temple, which are six hundred years old, were built by Hideyos.h.i.+, the famous ”clever boy,” who from nothing at all became shogun. The Eastern temple is described in the chapter dealing with religions.
[Ill.u.s.tration: HIDEYOs.h.i.+'S HOUSE AND GARDEN.]
The approach to the Gosho Palace, once the abode of the mikados, is not very attractive, leading through a bare, flat park. Our interest was soon aroused, however, by the sight of one of the six gates of the palace, through which we drove, following the grey wall with its stripes of white and its tiles showing the sixteen-petalled chrysanthemums--both emblems of royalty. Another gate, perhaps a little smaller than the first, brought us to the immediate entrance. The building is comparatively new, the old palace having been destroyed by fire in 1854, but it is very large, covering an area of twenty-six acres.
Two officials greeted us at the inner gate, and, after politely asking us to remove our shoes, conducted us down the long, narrow corridor to what were probably waiting-rooms. There were three of these, decorated in sepia. From here we were led through another corridor, past the room with a dais at one end for the higher n.o.bility, where the courtiers used to dine off the flat, red lacquer tables, to the Seiryoden--the Pure and Cool Hall--a room used for religious festivals, with marvellously coloured birds painted upon its walls. This hall received its name from a small stream of clear water which runs through a sluiceway near-by.
Opening from this is a courtyard in which grow two clumps of bamboo, named centuries ago for the two ancient Chinese kingdoms, Kan and Go--Kan-chiku and Go-chiku.
To the right of the Seiryoden is a room which is reserved for special audiences, called s.h.i.+s.h.i.+nden, or Mysterious Purple Hall. In the centre of this is a platform on which stands the throne, a great chair inlaid with mother-of-pearl. It is covered by a canopy of pale fawn-coloured brocade with outer drapings of red and purple, and is guarded by the two sacred dogs. The walls of this room are painted in panels representing Chinese sages, the panels being copies of the originals, which were painted in 888 A. D. and afterward destroyed by fire. Leading from the courtyard into the hall is a flight of fifteen steps, corresponding in number to the grades into which officials of government were divided.
The higher order stood on the upper step, and so on down to those who were obliged to stand in the court. On one side of the steps is a wild orange tree named Ukon-No-Tachibana, and on the other a cherry tree, Sakon-No-Sakura.
From this hall we pa.s.sed through more galleries, and through one particularly beautiful chamber with decorations of wild geese in sepia.
At the end of a corridor, making a turn to the left, we came to some more waiting-rooms, decorated in blue and white--the most heavenly blue, surely pieces of the sky brought down from the kingdom of the G.o.ds by the first ill.u.s.trious ruler! Here tea and cigarettes were offered us, and we were glad to rest and enjoy the view of the landscape garden with its miniature lake and islands on which were temples and twisted trees.
From this room we pa.s.sed through more corridors to the entrance, where we bowed to our guide, put on our shoes, and departed, with a feeling of having been soothed and rested by the beautiful simplicity and solemnity of the Gosho Palace.
Once more out in the suns.h.i.+ne, we drove through the park into the streets of the city and on to the Nijo Castle. This palace, formerly belonging to the shoguns, dates from the early part of the seventeenth century. Its splendid iron-bound gates are fine specimens of j.a.panese architecture and carving. It is much more resplendent than the Mikado's palace, having been built in a spirit of rivalry to show the superior wealth and power of the Shogun. We were received here in the same cordial manner as at the Gosho, and after removing our shoes were taken into a small antechamber, which had two superb doors made of the cryptomeria tree with bronze studdings and hinges. Then followed a series of rooms, the first of which was set aside for the _samurai_ and decorated with tigers with intent, awful eyes, crouching, rampant, even flying, on a background of glorious gold.
From these we pa.s.sed into the rooms used by the _daimyos_, and on from room to room, every apartment having its golden setting, which was so rich and mellow with age that we seemed to be breathing in the creamy softness of it. In each of these suites were secret closets, where guards were stationed in olden times, unseen by the a.s.sembly. One chamber with its paintings of pine-trees was very attractive in its simplicity; the next delighted us with remarkable carvings; the following one, with its cherry blossoms and its ceiling, so pleased the late Emperor that he had it copied for the banquet-room of his palace in Tokyo. Still another apartment, with its bamboo decorations, rivalled those we had seen before, while the last one had a pathetic touch with its poor little cold and starving sparrows.
One door of especial note showed a heron, wet, cold and miserable, standing on the gunwale of a boat. The grain of the wood had been skilfully used by the artist to represent a rainstorm. The door had unfortunately been much damaged by vandalism during the regime of the Kyoto prefecture in 1868.
From a long series of rooms radiant with suns.h.i.+ne we entered others which had the moonlight for their setting--all so beautiful that it is difficult to express one's admiration. From this suite we were led finally back to the entrance once more, arriving there bewildered by the vast number of rooms, the length of the corridors, and the splendour of all that we had seen.
It was in this palace that the last of the Shoguns formally turned over his power to the Mikado, an event which marked the beginning of the new era for j.a.pan.
j.a.panese history, with which Kyoto is closely identified, begins with myth and fable. No definite facts or dates are known, previous to the fifth century A. D. According to legend, the country was first created by Izanagi and his wife Izanami; from his left eye came the Sun-G.o.ddess and from his right eye the moon, while a tempestuous G.o.d came from his nose. He was blessed with more than a hundred children, but, in spite of this, his wife, Izanami, died and went to Hades. Although their parents were divine, the children were only demi-G.o.ds, and came to earth by means of a floating bridge.