Volume II Part 25 (1/2)

38 Kite, kite, let me see you dance, and to-morrow evening, when the crows do not know, I will give you a rat.

39 O tardy crow, hasten forward! Your house is all on fire. Hurry to throw Water upon it. If there be no water, I will give you. If you have too much, give it to your child. If you have no child, then give it back to me.

40 The words papa and mamma exist in j.a.panese baby language, but their meaning is not at all what might be supposed. Mamma, or, with the usual honorific, O-mamma, means boiled rice. Papa means tobacco.

Notes for Chapter Two

1 This was written early in 1892

2 Quoted from Mr. Satow's masterly essay, 'The Revival of Pure s.h.i.+nto,'

published in the Transactions of the Asiatic Society of j.a.pan. By 'G.o.ds'

are not necessarily meant beneficent Kami. s.h.i.+nto has no devils; but it has its 'bad G.o.ds' as well as good deities.

3 Satow, 'The Revival of Pure s.h.i.+nto.'

4 Ibid.

5 In the sense of Moral Path,--i.e. an ethical system.

6 Satow, 'The Revival of Pure s.h.i.+nto.' The whole force of Motowori's words will not be fully understood unless the reader knows that the term 's.h.i.+nto' is of comparatively modern origin in j.a.pan,--having been borrowed from the Chinese to distinguish the ancient faith from Buddhism; and that the old name for the primitive religion is Kami-no- michi, 'the Way of the G.o.ds.'

7 Satow, 'The Revival of Pure s.h.i.+nto.'

8 From Kami, 'the [Powers] Above,' or the G.o.ds, and tana, 'a shelf.'

The initial 't' of the latter word changes into 'd' in the compound,-- just as that of tokkuri, 'a jar' or 'bottle,' becomes dokkuri in the cornpound o-mi kidokkuri.

9 The mirror, as an emblem of female divinities, is kept in the secret innermost shrine of various s.h.i.+nto temples. But the mirror of metal commonly placed before the public gaze in a s.h.i.+nto shrine is not really of s.h.i.+nto origin, but was introduced into j.a.pan as a Buddhist symbol of the s.h.i.+ngon sect. As the mirror is the symbol in s.h.i.+nto of female divinities, the sword is the emblem of male deities. The real symbols of the G.o.d or G.o.ddess are not, however, exposed to human gaze under any circ.u.mstances.

10 Anciently the two great s.h.i.+nto festivals on which the miya were thus carried in procession were the Yos.h.i.+gami-no-matsuri, or festival of the G.o.d of the New Year, and the anniversary of Jimmu Tenno to the throne.

The second of these is still observed. The celebration of the Emperor's birthday is the only other occasion when the miya are paraded. On both days the streets are beautifully decorated with lanterns and s.h.i.+menawa, the fringed ropes of rice straw which are the emblems of s.h.i.+nto. n.o.body now knows exactly what the words chanted on these days (chosaya!

chosaya!) mean. One theory is that they are a corruption of Sagicho, the name of a great samurai military festival, which was celebrated nearly at the same time as the Yas.h.i.+gami-no-matsuri,--both holidays now being obsolete.

11 Thuya obtusa.

12 Such at least is the mourning period under such circ.u.mstances in certain samurai families. Others say twenty days is sufficient. The Buddhist code of mourning is extremely varied and complicated, and would require much s.p.a.ce to dilate upon.

13 In spite of the supposed rigidity of the Nichiren sect in such matters, most followers of its doctrine in Izumo are equally fervent s.h.i.+ntoists. I have not been able to observe whether the same is true of Izumo s.h.i.+n-shu families as a rule; but I know that some s.h.i.+n-shu believers in Matsue wors.h.i.+p at s.h.i.+nto shrines. Adoring only that form of Buddha called Amida, the s.h.i.+n sect might be termed a Buddhist 'Unitarianism.' It seems never to have been able to secure a strong footing in Izumo on account of its doctrinal hostility to s.h.i.+nto.

Elsewhere throughout j.a.pan it is the most vigorous and prosperous of all Buddhist sects.

14 Mr. Morse, in his j.a.panese Homes, published on hearsay a very strange error when he stated: 'The Buddhist household shrines rest on the floor--at least so I was informed.' They never rest on the floor under any circ.u.mstances. In the better cla.s.s of houses special architectural arrangements are made for the butsudan; an alcove, recess, or other contrivance, often so arranged as to be concealed from view by a sliding panel or a little door In smaller dwellings it may be put on a shelf, for want of a better place, and in the homes of the poor, on the top of the tansu, or clothes-chest. It is never placed so high as the kamidana, but seldom at a less height than three feet above the floor.

In Mr. Morse's own ill.u.s.tration of a Buddhist household shrine (p. 226) it does not rest on the floor at all, but on the upper shelf of a cupboard, which must not be confounded with the butsudan--a very small one. The sketch in question seems to have been made during the Festival of the Dead, for the offerings in the picture are those of the Bommatauri. At that time the household butsudan is always exposed to view, and often moved from its usual place in order to obtain room for the offerings to be set before it. To place any holy object on the floor is considered by the j.a.panese very disrespectful. As for s.h.i.+nto objects, to place even a mamori on the floor is deemed a sin.

15 Two ihai are always made for each Buddhist dead. One usually larger than that placed in the family shrine, is kept in the temple of which the deceased was a paris.h.i.+oner, together with a cup in which tea or water is daily poured out as an offering. In almost any large temple, thousands of such ihai may be seen, arranged in rows, tier above tier-- each with its cup before it--for even the souls of the dead are supposed to drink tea. Sometimes, I fear, the offering is forgotten, for I have seen rows of cups containing only dust, the fault, perhaps, of some lazy acolyte.

16 This is a fine example of a samurai kaimyo The kaimyo of kwazoku or samurai are different from those of humbler dead; and a j.a.panese, by a single glance at an ihai, can tell at once to what cla.s.s of society the deceased belonged, by the Buddhist words used.