Part 8 (1/2)
On the topmost stair, as if guarding the main entrance to the sanctuary, are two seated idols of the ”G.o.d of war,” in complete armour, each with bow in hand and a quiver full of arrows over his shoulder, and protected by a cage work of wire. What certainly gives us matter for speculation, and causes us no little surprise, is to see the golden scales of their splendid armour, and even their ruddy lacquered faces, bespattered with pellets of chewed paper after the manner familiar to us as school boys; when not satisfied with the correctness of the geographers, we used to chew blotting paper to fling in recent discoveries on the wall maps. Do these people desecrate their idols thus? There is no desecration here.
These little lumps of pulp are simply _prayers_, pieces of paper on which the priests have traced some mystic characters for the use of the devout, and which, because of their inability to reach the idol to paste the strips on, they shoot through the wire in this manner.
We now pa.s.s under the last arch, with its monstrous swinging paper lantern, into the courtyard of the temple. The first object which claims our attention is a bronze horse, from which the temple takes its name.
The work of art--for so it is reckoned--would be more like a horse, if its tail were less suggestive of a pump handle. Near is a bronze trough filled with holy water, to be applied internally; and around three sides of the square numerous empty houses, which, on high days and holidays, are used as shops for the sale of sacred and fancy articles. Up a few more steps and suddenly we are on the polished floor of the temple, and standing amidst a throng of kneeling wors.h.i.+ppers, with heads bowed and hands pressed together in prayer.
Their mode of procedure at these shrines seems something after the following: the wors.h.i.+pper first seizes a straw rope depending from the edge of the roof of the temple, to which is attached a bell, of that shape worn by ferrets at home, only of course on a much more gigantic scale; this is to apprise the slumbering G.o.d of the applicant's presence. He then commences his pet.i.tion or confession; places an offering of money in a large trough-like receptacle for the purpose; takes a drink at the holy water font, and departs to his home chatting gaily to his neighbours as he descends the steps. The whole business occupies about five minutes.
Sintoo temples have but little interior or body. All the wors.h.i.+pping is done outside on the beautifully kept polished floor. A notice in English reminds us vandals that we must remove our shoes if we would tread this sacred spot.
Within, is simplicity itself; a mirror and a crystal ball is all one sees; the former typical of the ease with which the Almighty can read our hearts; the second an emblem of purity. They wors.h.i.+p the Supreme Being under the threefold t.i.tle, which, strangely enough, we find in the Book of Daniel, by which we may infer they have no inadequate conception of the true G.o.d.
We leave the temple court by a different outlet to that by which we entered, and come out on a charmingly laid out garden and fish ponds, where are seats and tea houses for the accommodation of visitors. Each tea house has its bevy of dark-eyed houris, who use every wile and charm known to the s.e.x, to induce you to patronise their several houses. To do the proper thing, and perhaps influenced by the bright eyes raised so beseechingly to ours, we adjourn to one of these restaurants. Removing our shoes--a proceeding you are bound to comply with before entering a j.a.panese house--we seat ourselves cross-legged, tailor fas.h.i.+on, on the straw mattresses I have previously mentioned, whilst an attendant damsel, with deft fingers, makes the tea in a little terra-cotta teapot, the contents of which she poured into a number of doll's cups, without handles, on a lacquered tray. Other girls handed us each a cup, in which was a liquid not unlike saffron water in colour and in taste.
They use neither milk nor sugar, and the cups are so provokingly small, that it is only by keeping our attendant syrens under the most active employment, that we are at last able to say we have tasted it. With our tea we get some excellent sponge cake called ”_casutira_,” a corruption of the Spanish word ”castile,” said to be, until very recently, the only word of European etymology in the language. The Jesuits first introduced the cake from Spain, and taught the people how to make it. Whatever its origin, it is very good. You get chop-sticks handed you too, which, after a few ineffectual and laughable attempts to manipulate in the approved fas.h.i.+on, you throw on one side. After the decks are cleared the young ladies bring out their _sam-sins_, and whilst we smoke j.a.panese pipes, they delight our ears with an overture, which we p.r.o.nounce excruciating in English, though with our eyes we say ”divine as Patti.”
But we must not tarry longer here for the setting sun warns us it is time to get on board.
Our patient ”steeds” are at the foot of the stairs, each ready to claim his rider. These fellows will stick to you like a leech; follow you about for hours, never intruding their presence on you, and yet seem to antic.i.p.ate all your movements and wants.
CHAPTER X.
”I looked upon those hills and plains, And seemed as if let loose from chains, To live at liberty.”
THE INLAND SEAS.--KOBE.--FUSI-YAMA.--YOKOHAMA.
VISIT TO TOKIO.
The arrival of the ”Vigilant” from Shanghai, with the admiral on board, brought our stay at charming Nagasaki to a close. During the absence of our band with the ”Vigilant,” one of its members, Henry Harper, a feeble old man, and far advanced in consumption, died at Shanghai.
June 11th.--Left Nagasaki _en route_ for the eastward, _via_ the Inland Seas. Our way to Simoneski lay through numerous islands of so beautiful an appearance that a writer has compared them to some of the fairest spots in Devon. But this, though it says much, is but a poor tribute to such enchanting loveliness.
At daylight the following morning we made the narrow channel at Simoneski, the western entrance to the seas; and as there is always a strong rush of water through the pa.s.sage towards the ocean, we had to steam hard against a considerable current. The town, of which I spoke in my last chapter, has a very straggling and neat cleanly appearance.
There are no forts or other defences to indicate that not so long ago this town offered defiance and a short resistance to a European squadron.
The Inland Sea has four chief divisions, which now commences to open out before us, and is reckoned to possess some of the finest scenery in the world. I had often wished to see it for myself; but I must confess I was unprepared, even with an imagination not liable to surprise, at a picture of nature's own producing, for such beauty and grandeur. For hundreds of miles, day after day, we were borne past a moving diorama of scenery unrivalled by anything here below. On a smooth blue sea, and under a cloudless sky, onward we sped, pa.s.sing, one after another, the most delightful islets the eye ever dwelt on, each appearing to us a perfect paradise in itself. Further on, indicated by a mere purple haze, appeared others, and yet others, in almost endless perspective. I should say the islands in this sea may be numbered by thousands.
Not many years since, strangers were debarred from using this pa.s.sage. I fancy I can imagine the impressions the first Europeans must have had of this fairy land, of such a climate, such a soil, and such delightful glades and woodlands!
On each of the larger islands we noticed snug temples, like miniature Swiss chalets, embowered in woods--their peculiar architecture standing out in relief from a tangled ma.s.s of vegetation.
The channels where there are so many islands as here are necessarily intricate and dangerous; and as it would be to court danger to continue our course after sundown, there are several well-marked anchorages where it is customary to bring up at night. The first of these was a sheltered bay with twin villages at its head, which I fancifully designated Kingsand and Cawsand--the promontory forming one arm of the bay, looking not unlike Penlee point--greatly adding to the conceit.
June 14th.--At noon we reached Kobe, or Hiogo, and let go our anchor far out in what appears to be an open roadstead. This town is one of the most recent of the treaty ports--in fact it and Osaca opposite, are the last thrown open to trade; hence we shall probably find Kobe more _native_ and less Europeanized than are the other towns we shall visit.
The native town is very extensive, reaching far back to the basis of the hills, and well away to the left of the anchorage. To the right a stretch of low-lying land, with its tiny fields of ripe grain, looks very fine. This track leads to the water-falls--a prettier place for a pic-nic and one more accommodating one can scarcely find. Between this plain and the old town of Hiogo the Europeans have raised their pretty picturesque dwellings. The streets here are very regular and well kept, the trees planted along the sides giving the place quite a French appearance.
There is at least one I was about to say magnificent street in the town, with an extent of over two miles, along and in which all the bustle and business are conducted. Notwithstanding its recent opening, public-houses, with their alluring signs, have sprung up with mushroom-like rapidity. One in particular I will just mention, not that you are ever likely to forget ”Good old Joe,” but simply that you may smile, when reading this over, at the willingness with which you were led as lambs to the slaughter. I trust you escaped without the mark of the butcher's knife.
After traversing about half the length of the street I mentioned before, the traveller finds himself abreast of the Nanko temple, a large and imposing structure having a wide and n.o.ble-looking entrance from the street, and just now presenting a very festive and animated appearance.