WEBVTT
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Section ten of eighteen ninety one collection. This is a
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LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
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For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
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Recording by Maperard, eighteen ninety one collection by various Section
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ten two journal entries by Lafcadio hearn from the Diary
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of an English teacher found in Glimpses of an Unfamiliar Japan,
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May first, eighteen ninety one. My favorite students often visit
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me of after nuns. They first send me their cards
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to announce their presence. On being told to come in,
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they leave their foot gear on the doorstep, enter my
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little study, prostrate themselves, and we all squat down together
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on the floor, which is in all Japanese houses, like
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a soft mattress. The servant brings zabuton or small cushions
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to kneel upon, and cakes and tea. To sit as
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the Japanese do requires practice, and some Europeans can never
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acquire the habit. To acquire it, indeed, one must become
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accustomed to wearing Japanese costume. But once the habit of
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thus sitting has been formed, one finds it is the
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most natural and easy of positions, and assumes it by
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preference for eating, reading, smoking, or chatting. It is not
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to be recommended, perhaps for writing with a European pen,
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as the motion in our occidental style of writing is
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from the supported wrist, but it is the best posture
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for writing with the Japanese foot, in using which the
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whole arm is unsupported and the motion from the oboe.
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After having become habituated to Japanese habits for more than
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a year, I must confess that I find it now
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somewhat irksome to use a chair. When we have all
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greeted each other and taken our places upon the kneeling cushions,
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a little polite silence ensues, which I am the first
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to break. Some of the lads speak a good deal
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of English. They understand me well when I pronounce every
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word slowly and distinctly, using simple phrases and avoiding idioms.
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When a word with which they are not familiar must
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be used, we refer to a good English Japanese dictionary
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which gives each vernacular meaning both in the kana and
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in the Chinese characters. Usually, my young visitors stay a
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long time, and their stay is rarely tiresome. Their conversation
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and their thoughts are of the simplest and frankest. They
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do not come to learn.
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They know that to ask their teacher to teach out
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of school would be unjust. They speak chiefly of things
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which they think have some particular interests for me. Sometimes
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they scarcely speak at all, but appear to sink into
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a sort of happy reverie. What they come really for
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is the quiet pleasure of sympathy, not an intellectual sympathy,
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but the sympathy of pure good will, the simple pleasure
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of being quite comfortable with a friend. They pat my
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books and pictures, and sometimes they bring books and pictures
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to show me delightfully queer things, family heirlooms, which I
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regret much that I cannot buy. They also like to
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look at my garden and enjoy all that is in it,
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even more than I. Often they bring me gifts of flowers. Never,
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by any possible chance, are they troublesome, impolite, curious, or
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even talkative. Courtesy in its utmost possible exquisiteness, an exquisiteness
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of which even the French have no conception, seems natural
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to the Izumo boy as the color of his hair
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or the tent of his skin. Nor is he less
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kind than courteous to contrive pleasurable surprises for me is
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one of the particular delights of my boys. And they
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either bring or cause to be brought to the house
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all sorts of strange things. Of all the strange or
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beautiful things which I am thus privileged to examine, none
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gives me so much pleasure as a certain wonderful Kakemono
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of Amida Niore. It is a rather large picture, and
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has been borrowed from a priest that I may see it.
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The Buddha stands in the attitude of exhortation, with one
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hand uplifted behind his head. A huge moon makes an
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aureolic and across the face of that moon, stream winding
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lines of thinnest cloud beneath his feet, like a rolling
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of smoke, curl heavier and darker clouds. Merely as a
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work of color and design, the thing is a marble,
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but the real wonder of it is not in color
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or design at all. Minute examination reveals the astonishing fact
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that every shadow and clouding is formed by a fairy
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text of Chinese characters. So minute, that only a keen
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eye can discern them. And this text is the entire
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text of two famed sutras, the Quamo rigel Kio and
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the Amide Kio. Text no larger than the limbs of fleas,
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and all the strong dark lines of the figure, such
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as the seams of the Buddha's robe, are formed by
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the characters of the holy invocation of the Shinshu sect,
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repeated thousands of times. Namu Amida, butsu infinite patience, tireless,
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silent labor of loving faith in some dim temple long ago.
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Another day, one of my boys persuades his father to
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let him bring to my house a wonderful statue of
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Koshi Confucius made, I am told in China toward the
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close of the period of the Ming dynasty. I am
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also assured it is the first time the statue has
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ever been removed from the family residence to be shown
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to any one. Previously, whoever desire to pay it reverence
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had to visit the house. It is truly a beautiful bronze,
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the figure of a smiling, bearded old man with fingers
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up lifted and lips apart as if discoursing. He wears
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quaint Chinese shoes, and his flowing robes are adorned with
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a figure of the mystic Phoenix. The microscopic finish of
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detail seems, indeed to reveal the wonderful cunning of a
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Chinese hand. Each tooth, each hair looks as though it
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had been made the subject of a special study. Another
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student conducts me to the home of one of his
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relatives that I may see a cat made of wood,
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said to have been chiseled by the famed Hidari Jingoro.
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A cat crouching and watching, and so lifelike that real
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cats have been known to put up their backs and
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spit at it. Nevertheless, I have a private conviction that
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some old artists, even now living in Matsu, could make
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a still more wonderful cat. Among these is the venerable
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Arikaala Jenosuki, who wrought many rare things for the Daimyo
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of Izumo in the Tempo era, and whose acquaintance I
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have been enabled to make through my skull friends. One
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evening he brings to my house something very odd to
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show me. Concealed in his sleeve. It is a doll,
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just a small carbon and painted head without a body,
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the body being represented by a tiny robe only attached
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to the neck. Yet as Arikaala Jenosuki manipulates it, it
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seems to become alive. The back of its head is
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like the back of a very old man's head, but
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its face is the face of an amused child. And
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there is scarcely any forehead nor any evidence of a
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thinking disposition. And whatever the way the head is turned,
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it looks so funny that one cannot help laughing at it.
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It represents a kiakupo, what we might call in English,
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a jolly old boy, one who is naturally too hearty
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and too innocent to feel trouble of any sort. It
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is not an original, but a model of a very
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famous original, whose history is recorded in a faded scroll
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which Arikaala takes out of his other sleeve, and which
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a friend translates for me. This little history throws a
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curious light upon the simple hearted ways of Japanese life
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and thought in other centuries. Two hundred and sixty years ago,
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this doll was made by a famous maker of no
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masks in the city of Kiyoto for the Emperor go
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Mizu no Oh. The emperor used to have it placed
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beside his pillow each night before he slept and was
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very fond of it, and he composed the following home
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concerning it. Yo No Naka Wo Kiri Ku Ni Kase
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Nanikoto mo Omo Yuaniba Koso. On the death of the Emperor,
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this doll becomes the property of Prince Kanoyi, in whose
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family it is said to be still preserved. About one
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hundred and seven years ago, the then ex Empress, whose
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posthumous name is se Kwa man Yin, borrowed the doll
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from Prince Kanoi and ordered a copy of it to
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be made. This copy she kept always beside her and
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was very fond of it. After the death of the
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good Empress, this doll was given to a lady of
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the court whose family name is not recorded. Afterwards, this lady,
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for reasons which are not known, cut off her hair
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and became a Buddhist nun, taking the name of shingo In.
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And one who knew the nun shingo In, a man
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whose name was Kondo Ju haku In Hokyo, had the
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honor of receiving the doll as a gift. Now, I
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who write this document, at one time fell sick, and
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my sickness was caused by despondency, and my friend Kondo
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Jujaku in Hokyo, coming to see me, said I have
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in my house something which will make you well. And
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he went home, and presently returning, brought to me this
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doll and lent it to me, putting it by my pillow,
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that I might see it and laugh at it. Afterward,
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I myself, having called upon the nun Shingyo, in whom
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I now also have the honor to know, wrote down
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the history of the doll, and make a poem thereupon,
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dated about ninety years ago, no signature, June first, eighteen
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ninety one. I found among the students a healthy tone
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of skepticism in regard to certain forms of popular belief.
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Science education is rapidly destroying credulity in old superstitions, yet
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current among the unlettered, and especially among the peasantry, as
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for instance, faith in Mamori and Ofuda. The outward forms
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of Buddhism, its images, its relics, its commoner practices affect
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the average student very little. He is not as a foreigner,
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may be interested in iconography or religious folklore, or the
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comparative study of religions, and in nine cases out of ten.
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He is rather ashamed of the signs and tokens of
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popular faith all around him, But the deeper religious sense
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which underlies all symbolism, remains with him, and the monistic
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idea in Buddhism is being strengthened and expanded, rather than
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weakened by the new education. What is true of the
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effect of the public schools upon the lower Buddhism is
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equally true of its effect upon the lower Shinto. The
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students all sincerely are, or very nearly all, yet not
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as fervent worshipers of certain Khami, but as rigid observers
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of what the higher Shinto signifies. Loyalty, filial piety, obedience
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to parents, teachers, and superiors, and respect to ancestors. For
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Shinto means more than faith. When for the first time
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I stood before the shrine of the great Deity of Kitsuki,
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as the first occidental to whom that privilege had been accorded,
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not without a sense of awe, there came to me
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the this is the shrine of the father of a race.
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This is the symbolic center of a nation's reverenced for
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its past. And I too paid reverence to the memory
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of the progenitor of this people, as I then felt,
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so feels the intelligent student of the Meiji era, whom
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education has lifted above the common plane of popular creeds
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and Shinto also means for him, whether he reasons upon
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the question or not, all the ethics of the family,
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and all that spirit of loyalty which has become so
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innate that at the call of duty, life itself ceases
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to have value, save as an instrument for duties accomplishment.
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As yet, this orient little needs to reason about the
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origin of its loftier ethics. Imagine the musical sense in
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our own race so developed that a child could play
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a complicated instrument so soon as the little fingers gained
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sufficient force and flexibility to strike the notes. By some
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such harrison, only can one obtain a just idea of
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what inherent religion and instinctive duty signify. In Izumo. Of
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the rude and aggressive form of skepticism so common in
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the occident, which is the natural reaction after sudden emancipation
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from superstitious belief. I find no trace among my students,
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but such sentiment may be found elsewhere, especially in Tokyo
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among the university students. One of whom, upon hearing the
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tones of a magnificent temple bell, exclaimed to a friend
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of mine. Is it not a shame that, in this
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nineteenth century we must still hear such a sound for
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the benefit of curious travelers. However, I may here take
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occasion to observe that to talk Buddhism to Japanese gentlemen
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of the New School is in just as bad taste
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as to talk Christianity at home to men of that
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class whom knowledge has placed above creeds and forms. There are,
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of course Japanese scholars willing to aid researches of foreign
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scholars in religion or in folklore, but these specialists do
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not undertake to gratify idle curiosity of the globe trotting description.
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I may also say that the foreigner desirous to learn
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the religious ideas or superstitions of the common people must
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obtain them from the people themselves, not from the educated classes.
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Among all my favorite students, two or three from each class,
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I cannot decide whom I like the best. Each has
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a particular merit of his own.
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But I think the.
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Names and faces of those of whom I am about
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to speak will longest remain vivid in my remembrance. Ishihara
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Otani Masunobu Adzukizawa Yokoji Shida. Ishihara is a samurai, a
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very influential lad in his class because of his uncommon
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force of character compared with others. He has a somewhat brusque,
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independent manner, pleasing however by its honest manliness. He says
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everything he thinks, and precisely in the tone that he
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thinks it, even to the degree of being a little embarrassing.
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Sometimes he does not hesitate, for example, to find fault
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with a teacher's method of explanation and to insist upon
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a more lucid one. He has criticized me more than once,
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but I never found that he was wrong. We like
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each other very much. He often brings me flowers. One
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day that he had brought two beautiful sprays of plum blossoms.
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He said to me, I saw you bow before our
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Emperor's picture at the ceremony on the birthday of his manet.
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You are not like a former English teacher we had
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how he said we were savages. Why he said, there
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is nothing respectable except God his God, and that only
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vulgar and ignorant people respect anything else Where did he
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come from. He was a Christian clergyman, and said he
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was an English subject. But if he was an English subject,
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he was bound to respect her Majesty the Queen. He
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could not even enter the office of a British council
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without removing his hat. I don't know what he did
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in the country he came from, but that was what
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he said. Now. I think we should love and honor
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our emperor. We think it is a duty. We think
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it is a joy. We think it is happiness to
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be able to give our lives for our emperor. But
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he said we were only savages, ignorant savages. What do
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you think of that? I think, my dear lad, that
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he himself was a savage, a vulgar, ignorant, savage, bigot.
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I think it is your highest social duty to honor
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your emperor, to obey his laws, and to be ready
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to give your blood whenever he may require it of
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you for the sake of Japan. I think it is
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your duty to respect the gods of your father's the
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religion of your country, even if you yourself cannot believe
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all that others believe. And I think also that it
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is your duty, for your Emperor's sake and for your
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country's sake, to resent any such wicked and vulgar language
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as that you have told me of. No matter by
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whom uttered, Masumobu visits me seldom, and always comes alone.
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A slender, handsome lad with rather feminine features, reserved and
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perfectly self possessed in manner refined. He is somewhat serious,
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does not often smile, and I never heard him laugh.
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He has risen to the head of his class, and
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appears to remain there without any extraordinary effort. Much of
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his leisure time he devotes to botany, collecting and classifying plants.
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He is a musician, like all the male members of
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his family. He plays a variety of instruments never seen
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or heard of in the West, including flutes of marble,
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flutes of ivory, flutes of bamboo of wonderful shapes and
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tones in that shrill Chinese instrument called sho, a sort
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of mouth organ consisting of seventeen tubes of different lengths
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fixed in a sober frame. He first explained to me
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the uses in temple music of the teiku and shoko,
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which are drums of the flutes called fei or teki,
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of the fledgelet termed itariki, and of the kaku, which
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is a little drum shaped like a spool with very
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narrow waist. On great Buddhist festivals, Masanobyle and his father
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and his brothers are the musicians in the temple services,
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and they played the strange music called ojo and batto,
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music which at first no Western ear can feel pleasure in,
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but which when often heard, becomes comprehensible and is found
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to possess a weird charm of its own. When Masanobyle
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comes to the house, it is usually in order to
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invite me to attend some Buddhist or Shinto festival matsuri,
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which he knows will interest me. Adsu ki Zawa bears
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so little resemblance to Masanobyle that one might suppose the
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two belong to totally different races. Azukizala is a large,
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raw boned, heavy looking with a face singularly like that
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of a North American Indian. His people are not rich.
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He can afford few pleasures which costs money, except one
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buying books. Even to be able to do this, he
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works in his leisure hours to earn money. He is
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a perfect bookworm, a natural born researcher, a collector of
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curious documents, a haunter of all the queer second hand
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stores in Tamachi and other streets where old manuscripts or
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prints are on sale as waste paper. He is an
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omnivorous reader and a perpetual borrower of volumes, which he
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always returns in perfect condition after having copied what he
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deemed of most value to him. But his special delight
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is philosophy and the history of philosophers in all countries.
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He has read various epitomes of the history of philosophy
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in the Occident, and everything of modern philosophy which has
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been translated into Japanese, including Spencer's First Principles. I have
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been able to introduce him to Luz and John Fisk,
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both of which he appreciates. Although the strain of studying
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philosophy in English is no small one. Happily, he is
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so strong that no amount of study is likely to
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enter his health, and his nerves are tough as wire.
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He is quite an ascetic withal as it is the
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Japanese custom to sut cakes and tea before visitors. I
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always have both in readiness, and an especially fine quality
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of quashi made at Kitsuki, of which the students are
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very fond. Adzukizawa alone refuses to taste cakes or confectionery
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of any kind, saying, as I am the youngest brother,
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I must begin to earn my own living. Soon I
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shall have to endure much hardship, and if I allow
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myself to like dainties now, I shall only suffer more
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later on. Adzukizawa has seen much of human life and character.
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He is naturally observant, and he has managed, in some
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extraordinary way to learn the history of everybody in Matsu.
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He has brought me old tattered prince to prove that
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the opinions now held by our director are diametrically opposed
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to the opinions he advocated fourteen years ago in a
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public address. I asked the director about it. He laughed
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and said, of course, that is Adzukizawa. But he is right.
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I was very young then, and I wonder if Adzukizawa
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was ever young. Yokochi, Adzukizawa's dearest friend, is a very
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rare visitor, for he is always studying at home. He
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is always first in his class the third year class,
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while Adzukizawa is fourth. Azukizawa's account of the beginning of
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their acquaintance is this, I watched him when he came
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and saw that he spoke very little, walked very quickly,
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and looked straight into everybody's eyes. So I knew he
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had a particular character. I like to know people with
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a particular character. Adzukizawa was perfectly right under a very
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gentle exterior. Yokoji has an extremely strong character. He is
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the son of a carpenter, and his parents could not
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afford to send him to the middle school, but he
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has shown such exceptional qualities while in the elementary school
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that a wealthy man became interested in him and offered
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to pay for his education. He is now the pride
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of the school. He has a remarkably placid face, with
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peculiarly long eyes and a delicious smile. In class, he
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is always asking intelligent questions, questions so original that I
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am sometimes extremely puzzled how to answer them, and he
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never ceases to ask until the explanation is quite satisfactory
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to himself. He never cares about the opinion of his comrades.
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If he thinks he is right. On one occasion, when
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the whole class refused to attend the lectures of a
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new teacher of physics, Yokochi alone refused to act with them,
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arguing that although the teacher was not all that could
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be desired, there was no immediate possibility of his removal
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and no just reason for making unhappy a man who,
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though unskilled, was sincerely doing his best. Atsuzawa finally stood
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by him. These two alone attended the lectures until the
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remainder of the students two weeks later, found that Yokoji's
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views were rational. On another occasion, when some vulgar proselytism
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was attempted by a Christian missionary, Yokoji went boldly to
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the proselytizer's house, argued with him on the morality of
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his effort, and reduced him to silence. Some of his
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comrades praised his cleverness and the argument, I am not clever,
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he made answer. It does not require cleverness to argue
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against what is morally wrong. It requires only the knowledge
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that one is morally right. At least. Such is about
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the translation of what he said, as told me by
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Adzukizawa Chidah. Another visitor is a very delicate, sensitive boy
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whose soul is full of art. He is very skillful
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of drawing and painting, and he has a wonderful said
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of picture books by the old Japanese masters. The last
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time he came, he brought some prince to show me
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rare ones, fairy maidens and ghosts. As I looked at
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his beautiful pale face and weirdly frail fingers, I could
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not help fearing for him, fearing that he might soon
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become a little ghost. I have not seen him now
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for more than two months. He has been very very ill,
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and his lungs are so weak that the doctor has
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forbidden him to converse. But Atzukizawa has been to visit
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him and brings me this translation of a Japanese letter
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which the sick boy wrote, and paced it upon the
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wall above his bed. Thou, my Lord Saul, dost govern me.
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Thou knowest that I cannot now govern myself. Dagn I
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pray thee to let me be cured speedily. Do not
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suffer me to speak much, Make me to obey in
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all things the command of the physician. This ninth day
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of the eleventh month of the twenty fourth year of Meiji,
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from the sick body of Schida to his soul end
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of Section ten
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Section ten of eighteen ninety one collection. This is a
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LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
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For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
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Recording by Maperard, eighteen ninety one collection by various Section
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ten two journal entries by Lafcadio hearn from the Diary
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of an English teacher found in Glimpses of an Unfamiliar Japan,
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May first, eighteen ninety one. My favorite students often visit
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me of after nuns. They first send me their cards
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to announce their presence. On being told to come in,
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they leave their foot gear on the doorstep, enter my
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little study, prostrate themselves, and we all squat down together
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on the floor, which is in all Japanese houses, like
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a soft mattress. The servant brings zabuton or small cushions
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to kneel upon, and cakes and tea. To sit as
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the Japanese do requires practice, and some Europeans can never
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acquire the habit. To acquire it, indeed, one must become
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accustomed to wearing Japanese costume. But once the habit of
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thus sitting has been formed, one finds it is the
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most natural and easy of positions, and assumes it by
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preference for eating, reading, smoking, or chatting. It is not
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to be recommended, perhaps for writing with a European pen,
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as the motion in our occidental style of writing is
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from the supported wrist, but it is the best posture
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for writing with the Japanese foot, in using which the
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whole arm is unsupported and the motion from the oboe.
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After having become habituated to Japanese habits for more than
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a year, I must confess that I find it now
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somewhat irksome to use a chair. When we have all
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greeted each other and taken our places upon the kneeling cushions,
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a little polite silence ensues, which I am the first
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to break. Some of the lads speak a good deal
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of English. They understand me well when I pronounce every
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word slowly and distinctly, using simple phrases and avoiding idioms.
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When a word with which they are not familiar must
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be used, we refer to a good English Japanese dictionary
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which gives each vernacular meaning both in the kana and
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in the Chinese characters. Usually, my young visitors stay a
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long time, and their stay is rarely tiresome. Their conversation
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and their thoughts are of the simplest and frankest. They
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do not come to learn.
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They know that to ask their teacher to teach out
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of school would be unjust. They speak chiefly of things
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which they think have some particular interests for me. Sometimes
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they scarcely speak at all, but appear to sink into
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a sort of happy reverie. What they come really for
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is the quiet pleasure of sympathy, not an intellectual sympathy,
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but the sympathy of pure good will, the simple pleasure
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of being quite comfortable with a friend. They pat my
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books and pictures, and sometimes they bring books and pictures
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to show me delightfully queer things, family heirlooms, which I
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regret much that I cannot buy. They also like to
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look at my garden and enjoy all that is in it,
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even more than I. Often they bring me gifts of flowers. Never,
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by any possible chance, are they troublesome, impolite, curious, or
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even talkative. Courtesy in its utmost possible exquisiteness, an exquisiteness
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of which even the French have no conception, seems natural
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to the Izumo boy as the color of his hair
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or the tent of his skin. Nor is he less
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kind than courteous to contrive pleasurable surprises for me is
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one of the particular delights of my boys. And they
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either bring or cause to be brought to the house
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all sorts of strange things. Of all the strange or
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beautiful things which I am thus privileged to examine, none
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gives me so much pleasure as a certain wonderful Kakemono
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of Amida Niore. It is a rather large picture, and
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has been borrowed from a priest that I may see it.
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The Buddha stands in the attitude of exhortation, with one
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hand uplifted behind his head. A huge moon makes an
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aureolic and across the face of that moon, stream winding
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lines of thinnest cloud beneath his feet, like a rolling
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of smoke, curl heavier and darker clouds. Merely as a
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work of color and design, the thing is a marble,
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but the real wonder of it is not in color
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or design at all. Minute examination reveals the astonishing fact
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that every shadow and clouding is formed by a fairy
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text of Chinese characters. So minute, that only a keen
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eye can discern them. And this text is the entire
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text of two famed sutras, the Quamo rigel Kio and
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the Amide Kio. Text no larger than the limbs of fleas,
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and all the strong dark lines of the figure, such
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as the seams of the Buddha's robe, are formed by
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the characters of the holy invocation of the Shinshu sect,
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repeated thousands of times. Namu Amida, butsu infinite patience, tireless,
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silent labor of loving faith in some dim temple long ago.
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Another day, one of my boys persuades his father to
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let him bring to my house a wonderful statue of
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Koshi Confucius made, I am told in China toward the
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close of the period of the Ming dynasty. I am
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also assured it is the first time the statue has
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ever been removed from the family residence to be shown
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to any one. Previously, whoever desire to pay it reverence
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had to visit the house. It is truly a beautiful bronze,
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the figure of a smiling, bearded old man with fingers
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up lifted and lips apart as if discoursing. He wears
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quaint Chinese shoes, and his flowing robes are adorned with
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a figure of the mystic Phoenix. The microscopic finish of
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detail seems, indeed to reveal the wonderful cunning of a
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Chinese hand. Each tooth, each hair looks as though it
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had been made the subject of a special study. Another
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student conducts me to the home of one of his
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relatives that I may see a cat made of wood,
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said to have been chiseled by the famed Hidari Jingoro.
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A cat crouching and watching, and so lifelike that real
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cats have been known to put up their backs and
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spit at it. Nevertheless, I have a private conviction that
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some old artists, even now living in Matsu, could make
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a still more wonderful cat. Among these is the venerable
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Arikaala Jenosuki, who wrought many rare things for the Daimyo
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of Izumo in the Tempo era, and whose acquaintance I
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have been enabled to make through my skull friends. One
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evening he brings to my house something very odd to
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show me. Concealed in his sleeve. It is a doll,
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just a small carbon and painted head without a body,
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the body being represented by a tiny robe only attached
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to the neck. Yet as Arikaala Jenosuki manipulates it, it
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seems to become alive. The back of its head is
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like the back of a very old man's head, but
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its face is the face of an amused child. And
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there is scarcely any forehead nor any evidence of a
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thinking disposition. And whatever the way the head is turned,
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it looks so funny that one cannot help laughing at it.
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It represents a kiakupo, what we might call in English,
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a jolly old boy, one who is naturally too hearty
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and too innocent to feel trouble of any sort. It
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is not an original, but a model of a very
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famous original, whose history is recorded in a faded scroll
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which Arikaala takes out of his other sleeve, and which
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a friend translates for me. This little history throws a
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curious light upon the simple hearted ways of Japanese life
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and thought in other centuries. Two hundred and sixty years ago,
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this doll was made by a famous maker of no
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masks in the city of Kiyoto for the Emperor go
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Mizu no Oh. The emperor used to have it placed
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beside his pillow each night before he slept and was
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very fond of it, and he composed the following home
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concerning it. Yo No Naka Wo Kiri Ku Ni Kase
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Nanikoto mo Omo Yuaniba Koso. On the death of the Emperor,
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this doll becomes the property of Prince Kanoyi, in whose
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family it is said to be still preserved. About one
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hundred and seven years ago, the then ex Empress, whose
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posthumous name is se Kwa man Yin, borrowed the doll
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from Prince Kanoi and ordered a copy of it to
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be made. This copy she kept always beside her and
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was very fond of it. After the death of the
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good Empress, this doll was given to a lady of
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the court whose family name is not recorded. Afterwards, this lady,
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for reasons which are not known, cut off her hair
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and became a Buddhist nun, taking the name of shingo In.
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And one who knew the nun shingo In, a man
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whose name was Kondo Ju haku In Hokyo, had the
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honor of receiving the doll as a gift. Now, I
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who write this document, at one time fell sick, and
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my sickness was caused by despondency, and my friend Kondo
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Jujaku in Hokyo, coming to see me, said I have
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in my house something which will make you well. And
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he went home, and presently returning, brought to me this
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doll and lent it to me, putting it by my pillow,
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that I might see it and laugh at it. Afterward,
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I myself, having called upon the nun Shingyo, in whom
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I now also have the honor to know, wrote down
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the history of the doll, and make a poem thereupon,
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dated about ninety years ago, no signature, June first, eighteen
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ninety one. I found among the students a healthy tone
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of skepticism in regard to certain forms of popular belief.
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Science education is rapidly destroying credulity in old superstitions, yet
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current among the unlettered, and especially among the peasantry, as
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for instance, faith in Mamori and Ofuda. The outward forms
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of Buddhism, its images, its relics, its commoner practices affect
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the average student very little. He is not as a foreigner,
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may be interested in iconography or religious folklore, or the
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comparative study of religions, and in nine cases out of ten.
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He is rather ashamed of the signs and tokens of
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popular faith all around him, But the deeper religious sense
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which underlies all symbolism, remains with him, and the monistic
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idea in Buddhism is being strengthened and expanded, rather than
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weakened by the new education. What is true of the
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effect of the public schools upon the lower Buddhism is
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equally true of its effect upon the lower Shinto. The
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students all sincerely are, or very nearly all, yet not
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as fervent worshipers of certain Khami, but as rigid observers
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of what the higher Shinto signifies. Loyalty, filial piety, obedience
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to parents, teachers, and superiors, and respect to ancestors. For
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Shinto means more than faith. When for the first time
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I stood before the shrine of the great Deity of Kitsuki,
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as the first occidental to whom that privilege had been accorded,
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not without a sense of awe, there came to me
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the this is the shrine of the father of a race.
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This is the symbolic center of a nation's reverenced for
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its past. And I too paid reverence to the memory
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of the progenitor of this people, as I then felt,
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so feels the intelligent student of the Meiji era, whom
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education has lifted above the common plane of popular creeds
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and Shinto also means for him, whether he reasons upon
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the question or not, all the ethics of the family,
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and all that spirit of loyalty which has become so
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innate that at the call of duty, life itself ceases
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to have value, save as an instrument for duties accomplishment.
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As yet, this orient little needs to reason about the
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origin of its loftier ethics. Imagine the musical sense in
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our own race so developed that a child could play
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a complicated instrument so soon as the little fingers gained
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sufficient force and flexibility to strike the notes. By some
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such harrison, only can one obtain a just idea of
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what inherent religion and instinctive duty signify. In Izumo. Of
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the rude and aggressive form of skepticism so common in
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the occident, which is the natural reaction after sudden emancipation
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from superstitious belief. I find no trace among my students,
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but such sentiment may be found elsewhere, especially in Tokyo
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among the university students. One of whom, upon hearing the
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tones of a magnificent temple bell, exclaimed to a friend
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of mine. Is it not a shame that, in this
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nineteenth century we must still hear such a sound for
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the benefit of curious travelers. However, I may here take
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occasion to observe that to talk Buddhism to Japanese gentlemen
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of the New School is in just as bad taste
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as to talk Christianity at home to men of that
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class whom knowledge has placed above creeds and forms. There are,
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of course Japanese scholars willing to aid researches of foreign
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scholars in religion or in folklore, but these specialists do
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not undertake to gratify idle curiosity of the globe trotting description.
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I may also say that the foreigner desirous to learn
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the religious ideas or superstitions of the common people must
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obtain them from the people themselves, not from the educated classes.
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Among all my favorite students, two or three from each class,
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I cannot decide whom I like the best. Each has
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a particular merit of his own.
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But I think the.
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Names and faces of those of whom I am about
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to speak will longest remain vivid in my remembrance. Ishihara
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Otani Masunobu Adzukizawa Yokoji Shida. Ishihara is a samurai, a
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very influential lad in his class because of his uncommon
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force of character compared with others. He has a somewhat brusque,
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independent manner, pleasing however by its honest manliness. He says
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everything he thinks, and precisely in the tone that he
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thinks it, even to the degree of being a little embarrassing.
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Sometimes he does not hesitate, for example, to find fault
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with a teacher's method of explanation and to insist upon
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a more lucid one. He has criticized me more than once,
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but I never found that he was wrong. We like
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each other very much. He often brings me flowers. One
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day that he had brought two beautiful sprays of plum blossoms.
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He said to me, I saw you bow before our
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Emperor's picture at the ceremony on the birthday of his manet.
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You are not like a former English teacher we had
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how he said we were savages. Why he said, there
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is nothing respectable except God his God, and that only
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vulgar and ignorant people respect anything else Where did he
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come from. He was a Christian clergyman, and said he
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was an English subject. But if he was an English subject,
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he was bound to respect her Majesty the Queen. He
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could not even enter the office of a British council
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without removing his hat. I don't know what he did
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in the country he came from, but that was what
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he said. Now. I think we should love and honor
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our emperor. We think it is a duty. We think
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it is a joy. We think it is happiness to
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be able to give our lives for our emperor. But
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he said we were only savages, ignorant savages. What do
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you think of that? I think, my dear lad, that
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he himself was a savage, a vulgar, ignorant, savage, bigot.
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I think it is your highest social duty to honor
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your emperor, to obey his laws, and to be ready
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to give your blood whenever he may require it of
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you for the sake of Japan. I think it is
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your duty to respect the gods of your father's the
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religion of your country, even if you yourself cannot believe
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all that others believe. And I think also that it
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is your duty, for your Emperor's sake and for your
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country's sake, to resent any such wicked and vulgar language
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as that you have told me of. No matter by
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whom uttered, Masumobu visits me seldom, and always comes alone.
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A slender, handsome lad with rather feminine features, reserved and
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perfectly self possessed in manner refined. He is somewhat serious,
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does not often smile, and I never heard him laugh.
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He has risen to the head of his class, and
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appears to remain there without any extraordinary effort. Much of
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his leisure time he devotes to botany, collecting and classifying plants.
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He is a musician, like all the male members of
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his family. He plays a variety of instruments never seen
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or heard of in the West, including flutes of marble,
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flutes of ivory, flutes of bamboo of wonderful shapes and
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tones in that shrill Chinese instrument called sho, a sort
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of mouth organ consisting of seventeen tubes of different lengths
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fixed in a sober frame. He first explained to me
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the uses in temple music of the teiku and shoko,
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which are drums of the flutes called fei or teki,
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of the fledgelet termed itariki, and of the kaku, which
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is a little drum shaped like a spool with very
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narrow waist. On great Buddhist festivals, Masanobyle and his father
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and his brothers are the musicians in the temple services,
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and they played the strange music called ojo and batto,
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music which at first no Western ear can feel pleasure in,
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but which when often heard, becomes comprehensible and is found
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to possess a weird charm of its own. When Masanobyle
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comes to the house, it is usually in order to
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invite me to attend some Buddhist or Shinto festival matsuri,
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which he knows will interest me. Adsu ki Zawa bears
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so little resemblance to Masanobyle that one might suppose the
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two belong to totally different races. Azukizala is a large,
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raw boned, heavy looking with a face singularly like that
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of a North American Indian. His people are not rich.
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He can afford few pleasures which costs money, except one
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buying books. Even to be able to do this, he
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works in his leisure hours to earn money. He is
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a perfect bookworm, a natural born researcher, a collector of
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curious documents, a haunter of all the queer second hand
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stores in Tamachi and other streets where old manuscripts or
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prints are on sale as waste paper. He is an
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omnivorous reader and a perpetual borrower of volumes, which he
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always returns in perfect condition after having copied what he
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deemed of most value to him. But his special delight
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is philosophy and the history of philosophers in all countries.
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He has read various epitomes of the history of philosophy
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in the Occident, and everything of modern philosophy which has
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been translated into Japanese, including Spencer's First Principles. I have
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been able to introduce him to Luz and John Fisk,
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both of which he appreciates. Although the strain of studying
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philosophy in English is no small one. Happily, he is
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so strong that no amount of study is likely to
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enter his health, and his nerves are tough as wire.
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He is quite an ascetic withal as it is the
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Japanese custom to sut cakes and tea before visitors. I
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always have both in readiness, and an especially fine quality
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of quashi made at Kitsuki, of which the students are
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very fond. Adzukizawa alone refuses to taste cakes or confectionery
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of any kind, saying, as I am the youngest brother,
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I must begin to earn my own living. Soon I
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shall have to endure much hardship, and if I allow
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myself to like dainties now, I shall only suffer more
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later on. Adzukizawa has seen much of human life and character.
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He is naturally observant, and he has managed, in some
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extraordinary way to learn the history of everybody in Matsu.
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He has brought me old tattered prince to prove that
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the opinions now held by our director are diametrically opposed
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to the opinions he advocated fourteen years ago in a
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public address. I asked the director about it. He laughed
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and said, of course, that is Adzukizawa. But he is right.
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I was very young then, and I wonder if Adzukizawa
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was ever young. Yokochi, Adzukizawa's dearest friend, is a very
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rare visitor, for he is always studying at home. He
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is always first in his class the third year class,
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while Adzukizawa is fourth. Azukizawa's account of the beginning of
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their acquaintance is this, I watched him when he came
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and saw that he spoke very little, walked very quickly,
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and looked straight into everybody's eyes. So I knew he
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had a particular character. I like to know people with
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a particular character. Adzukizawa was perfectly right under a very
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gentle exterior. Yokoji has an extremely strong character. He is
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the son of a carpenter, and his parents could not
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afford to send him to the middle school, but he
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has shown such exceptional qualities while in the elementary school
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that a wealthy man became interested in him and offered
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to pay for his education. He is now the pride
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of the school. He has a remarkably placid face, with
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peculiarly long eyes and a delicious smile. In class, he
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is always asking intelligent questions, questions so original that I
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am sometimes extremely puzzled how to answer them, and he
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never ceases to ask until the explanation is quite satisfactory
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to himself. He never cares about the opinion of his comrades.
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If he thinks he is right. On one occasion, when
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the whole class refused to attend the lectures of a
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new teacher of physics, Yokochi alone refused to act with them,
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arguing that although the teacher was not all that could
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be desired, there was no immediate possibility of his removal
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and no just reason for making unhappy a man who,
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though unskilled, was sincerely doing his best. Atsuzawa finally stood
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by him. These two alone attended the lectures until the
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remainder of the students two weeks later, found that Yokoji's
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views were rational. On another occasion, when some vulgar proselytism
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was attempted by a Christian missionary, Yokoji went boldly to
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the proselytizer's house, argued with him on the morality of
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his effort, and reduced him to silence. Some of his
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comrades praised his cleverness and the argument, I am not clever,
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he made answer. It does not require cleverness to argue
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against what is morally wrong. It requires only the knowledge
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that one is morally right. At least. Such is about
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the translation of what he said, as told me by
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Adzukizawa Chidah. Another visitor is a very delicate, sensitive boy
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whose soul is full of art. He is very skillful
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of drawing and painting, and he has a wonderful said
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of picture books by the old Japanese masters. The last
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time he came, he brought some prince to show me
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rare ones, fairy maidens and ghosts. As I looked at
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his beautiful pale face and weirdly frail fingers, I could
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not help fearing for him, fearing that he might soon
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become a little ghost. I have not seen him now
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for more than two months. He has been very very ill,
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and his lungs are so weak that the doctor has
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forbidden him to converse. But Atzukizawa has been to visit
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him and brings me this translation of a Japanese letter
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which the sick boy wrote, and paced it upon the
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wall above his bed. Thou, my Lord Saul, dost govern me.
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Thou knowest that I cannot now govern myself. Dagn I
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pray thee to let me be cured speedily. Do not
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suffer me to speak much, Make me to obey in
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all things the command of the physician. This ninth day
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of the eleventh month of the twenty fourth year of Meiji,
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from the sick body of Schida to his soul end
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of Section ten
