Kabanata Kabanata 15 · Kitsune

. Kitsune

Sec. 1

By every shady wayside and in every ancient grove, on almost every

hilltop and in the outskirts of every village, you may see, while

travelling through the Hondo country, some little Shinto shrine, before

which, or at either side of which, are images of seated foxes in stone.

Usually there is a pair of these, facing each other. But there may be a

dozen, or a score, or several hundred, in which case most of the images

are very small. And in more than one of the larger towns you may see

in the court of some great miya a countless host of stone foxes, of all

dimensions, from toy-figures but a few inches high to the colossi whose

pedestals tower above your head, all squatting around the temple in

tiered ranks of thousands. Such shrines and temples, everybody knows,

are dedicated to Inari the God of Rice. After having travelled much in

Japan, you will find that whenever you try to recall any country-place

you have visited, there will appear in some nook or corner of that

remembrance a pair of green-and-grey foxes of stone, with broken noses.

In my own memories of Japanese travel, these shapes have become de

rigueur, as picturesque detail.

In the neighbourhood of the capital and in Tokyo itself--sometimes in

the cemeteries--very beautiful idealised figures of foxes may be seen,

elegant as greyhounds. They have long green or grey eyes of crystal

quartz or some other diaphanous substance; and they create a strong

impression as mythological conceptions. But throughout the interior,

fox-images are much less artistically fashioned. In Izumo, particularly,

such stone-carving has a decidedly primitive appearance. There is an

astonishing multiplicity and variety of fox-images in the Province of

the Gods--images comical, quaint, grotesque, or monstrous, but, for the

most part, very rudely chiselled. I cannot, however, declare them less

interesting on that account. The work of the Tokkaido sculptor copies

the conventional artistic notion of light grace and ghostliness. The

rustic foxes of Izumo have no grace: they are uncouth; but they betray

in countless queer ways the personal fancies of their makers. They are

of many moods--whimsical, apathetic, inquisitive, saturnine, jocose,

ironical; they watch and snooze and squint and wink and sneer; they

wait with lurking smiles; they listen with cocked ears most stealthily,

keeping their mouths open or closed. There is an amusing individuality

about them all, and an air of knowing mockery about most of them, even

those whose noses have been broken off. Moreover, these ancient country

foxes have certain natural beauties which their modern Tokyo kindred

cannot show. Time has bestowed upon them divers speckled coats of

beautiful soft colours while they have been sitting on their pedestals,

listening to the ebbing and flowing of the centuries and snickering

weirdly at mankind. Their backs are clad with finest green velvet of old

mosses; their limbs are spotted and their tails are tipped with the

dead gold or the dead silver of delicate fungi. And the places they most

haunt are the loveliest--high shadowy groves where the uguisu sings in

green twilight, above some voiceless shrine with its lamps and its lions

of stone so mossed as to seem things born of the soil--like mushrooms.

I found it difficult to understand why, out of every thousand foxes,

nine hundred should have broken noses. The main street of the city of

Matsue might be paved from end to end with the tips of the noses of

mutilated Izumo foxes. A friend answered my expression of wonder in this

regard by the simple but suggestive word, 'Kodomo', which means, 'The

children.'

Sec. 2.

Inari the name by which the Fox-God is generally known, signifies

'Load-of-Rice.' But the antique name of the Deity is the

August-Spirit-of-Food: he is the Uka-no-mi-tama-no-mikoto of the Kojiki.

[1] In much more recent times only has he borne the name that indicates

his connection with the fox-cult, Miketsu-no-Kami, or the Three-Fox-God.

Indeed, the conception of the fox as a supernatural being does not seem

to have been introduced into Japan before the tenth or eleventh century;

and although a shrine of the deity, with statues of foxes, may be found

in the court of most of the large Shinto temples, it is worthy of

note that in all the vast domains of the oldest Shinto shrine in

Japan--Kitzuki--you cannot find the image of a fox. And it is only in

modern art--the art of Toyokuni and others--that Inari is represented as

a bearded man riding a white fox. [2]

Inari is not worshipped as the God of Rice only; indeed, there are many

Inari just as in antique Greece there were many deities called Hermes,

Zeus, Athena, Poseidon--one in the knowledge of the learned, but

essentially different in the imagination of the common people. Inari

has been multiplied by reason of his different attributes. For instance,

Matsue has a Kamiya-San-no-Inari-San, who is the God of Coughs and Bad

Colds--afflictions extremely common and remarkably severe in the Land

of Izumo. He has a temple in the Kamachi at which he is worshipped

under the vulgar appellation of Kaze-no-Kami and the politer one of

Kamiya-San-no-Inari. And those who are cured of their coughs and colds

after having prayed to him, bring to his temple offerings of tofu.

At Oba, likewise, there is a particular Inari, of great fame. Fastened

to the wall of his shrine is a large box full of small clay foxes. The

pilgrim who has a prayer to make puts one of these little foxes in his

sleeve and carries it home. He must keep it, and pay it all due honour,

until such time as his petition has been granted. Then he must take it

back to the temple, and restore it to the box, and, if he be able, make

some small gift to the shrine.

Inari is often worshipped as a healer; and still more frequently as a

deity having power to give wealth. (Perhaps because all the wealth

of Old Japan was reckoned in koku of rice.) Therefore his foxes are

sometimes represented holding keys in their mouths. And from being the

deity who gives wealth, Inari has also become in some localities the

special divinity of the joro class. There is, for example, an Inari

temple worth visiting in the neighbourhood of the Yoshiwara at Yokohama.

It stands in the same court with a temple of Benten, and is more

than usually large for a shrine of Inari. You approach it through a

succession of torii one behind the other: they are of different heights,

diminishing in size as they are placed nearer to the temple, and planted

more and more closely in proportion to their smallness. Before each

torii sit a pair of weird foxes--one to the right and one to the left.

The first pair are large as greyhounds; the second two are much smaller;

and the sizes of the rest lessen as the dimensions of the torii lessen.

At the foot of the wooden steps of the temple there is a pair of very

graceful foxes of dark grey stone, wearing pieces of red cloth about

their necks. Upon the steps themselves are white wooden foxes--one at

each end of each step--each successive pair being smaller than the pair

below; and at the threshold of the doorway are two very little foxes,

not more than three inches high, sitting on sky-blue pedestals. These

have the tips of their tails gilded. Then, if you look into the temple

you will see on the left something like a long low table on which are

placed thousands of tiny fox-images, even smaller than those in the

doorway, having only plain white tails. There is no image of Inari;

indeed, I have never seen an image of Inari as yet in any Inari temple.

On the altar appear the usual emblems of Shinto; and before it, just

opposite the doorway, stands a sort of lantern, having glass sides and

a wooden bottom studded with nail-points on which to fix votive candles.

[3]

And here, from time to time, if you will watch, you will probably

see more than one handsome girl, with brightly painted lips and the

beautiful antique attire that no maiden or wife may wear, come to the

foot of the steps, toss a coin into the money-box at the door, and call

out: 'O-rosoku!' which means 'an honourable candle.' Immediately, from

an inner chamber, some old man will enter the shrine-room with a lighted

candle, stick it upon a nail-point in the lantern, and then retire.

Such candle-offerings are always accompanied by secret prayers for

good-fortune. But this Inari is worshipped by many besides members of

the joro class.

The pieces of coloured cloth about the necks of the foxes are also

votive offerings.

Sec. 3

Fox-images in Izumo seem to be more numerous than in other provinces,

and they are symbols there, so far as the mass of the peasantry is

concerned, of something else besides the worship of the Rice-Deity.

Indeed, the old conception of the Deity of Rice-fields has been

overshadowed and almost effaced among the lowest classes by a weird cult

totally foreign to the spirit of pure Shinto--the Fox-cult. The worship

of the retainer has almost replaced the worship of the god. Originally

the Fox was sacred to Inari only as the Tortoise is still sacred to

Kompira; the Deer to the Great Deity of Kasuga; the Rat to Daikoku;

the Tai-fish to Ebisu; the White Serpent to Benten; or the Centipede to

Bishamon, God of Battles. But in the course of centuries the Fox usurped

divinity. And the stone images of him are not the only outward evidences

of his cult. At the rear of almost every Inari temple you will generally

find in the wall of the shrine building, one or two feet above the

ground, an aperture about eight inches in diameter and perfectly

circular. It is often made so as to be closed at will by a sliding

plank. This circular orifice is a Fox-hole, and if you find one open,

and look within, you will probably see offerings of tofu or other food

which foxes are supposed to be fond of. You will also, most likely, find

grains of rice scattered on some little projection of woodwork below or

near the hole, or placed on the edge of the hole itself; and you may see

some peasant clap his hands before the hole, utter some little prayer,

and swallow a grain or two of that rice in the belief that it will

either cure or prevent sickness. Now the fox for whom such a hole is

made is an invisible fox, a phantom fox--the fox respectfully referred

to by the peasant as O-Kitsune-San. If he ever suffers himself to become

visible, his colour is said to be snowy white.

According to some, there are various kinds of ghostly foxes.

According to others, there are two sorts of foxes only, the Inari-fox

(O-Kitsune-San) and the wild fox (kitsune). Some people again class

foxes into Superior and Inferior Foxes, and allege the existence of four

Superior Sorts--Byakko, Kokko, Jenko, and Reiko--all of which possess

supernatural powers. Others again count only three kinds of foxes--the

Field-fox, the Man-fox, and the Inari-fox. But many confound the

Field-fox or wild fox with the Man-fox, and others identify the

Inari-fox with the Man-fox. One cannot possibly unravel the confusion

of these beliefs, especially among the peasantry. The beliefs vary,

moreover, in different districts. I have only been able, after a

residence of fourteen months in Izumo, where the superstition is

especially strong, and marked by certain unique features, to make the

following very loose summary of them:

All foxes have supernatural power. There are good and bad foxes. The

Inari-fox is good, and the bad foxes are afraid of the Inari-fox. The

worst fox is the Ninko or Hito-kitsune (Man-fox): this is especially

the fox of demoniacal possession. It is no larger than a weasel, and

somewhat similar in shape, except for its tail, which is like the tail

of any other fox. It is rarely seen, keeping itself invisible, except to

those to whom it attaches itself. It likes to live in the houses of men,

and to be nourished by them, and to the homes where it is well cared for

it will bring prosperity. It will take care that the rice-fields shall

never want for water, nor the cooking-pot for rice. But if offended, it

will bring misfortune to the household, and ruin to the crops. The

wild fox (Nogitsune) is also bad. It also sometimes takes possession

of people; but it is especially a wizard, and prefers to deceive by

enchantment. It has the power of assuming any shape and of making itself

invisible; but the dog can always see it, so that it is extremely afraid

of the dog. Moreover, while assuming another shape, if its shadow

fall upon water, the water will only reflect the shadow of a fox. The

peasantry kill it; but he who kills a fox incurs the risk of being

bewitched by that fox's kindred, or even by the ki, or ghost of the fox.

Still if one eat the flesh of a fox, he cannot be enchanted afterwards.

The Nogitsune also enters houses. Most families having foxes in their

houses have only the small kind, or Ninko; but occasionally both kinds

will live together under the same roof. Some people say that if the

Nogitsune lives a hundred years it becomes all white, and then takes

rank as an Inari-fox.

There are curious contradictions involved in these beliefs, and other

contradictions will be found in the following pages of this sketch. To

define the fox-superstition at all is difficult, not only on account of

the confusion of ideas on the subject among the believers themselves,

but also on account of the variety of elements out of which it has been

shapen. Its origin is Chinese [4]; but in Japan it became oddly blended

with the worship of a Shinto deity, and again modified and expanded by

the Buddhist concepts of thaumaturgy and magic. So far as the common

people are concerned, it is perhaps safe to say that they pay devotion

to foxes chiefly because they fear them. The peasant still worships what

he fears.

Sec. 4

It is more than doubtful whether the popular notions about different

classes of foxes, and about the distinction between the fox of Inari and

the fox of possession, were ever much more clearly established than they

are now, except in the books of old literati. Indeed, there exists a

letter from Hideyoshi to the Fox-God which would seem to show that

in the time of the great Taiko the Inari-fox and the demon fox were

considered identical. This letter is still preserved at Nara, in the

Buddhist temple called Todaiji:

KYOTO, the seventeenth day of the Third Month. TO INARI DAIMYOJIN: My

Lord--I have the honour to inform you that one of the foxes under your

jurisdiction has bewitched one of my servants, causing her and others

a great deal of trouble. I have to request that you will make minute

inquiries into the matter, and endeavour to find out the reason of your

subject misbehaving in this way, and let me know the result.

If it turns out that the fox has no adequate reason to give for his

behaviour, you are to arrest and punish him at once. If you hesitate to

take action in this matter, I shall issue orders for the destruction of

every fox in the land.

Any other particulars that you may wish to be informed of in reference

to what has occurred, you can learn from the high-priest YOSHIDA.

Apologising for the imperfections of this letter, I have the honour to

be, Your obedient servant, HIDEYOSHI TAIKO [5]

But there certainly were some distinctions established in localities,

owing to the worship of Inari by the military caste. With the samurai

of Izumo, the Rice-God, for obvious reasons, was a highly popular

deity; and you can still find in the garden of almost every old shizoku

residence in Matsue, a small shrine of Inari Daimyojin, with little

stone foxes seated before it. And in the imagination of the lower

classes, all samurai families possessed foxes. But the samurai foxes

inspired no fear. They were believed to be 'good foxes'; and the

superstition of the Ninko or Hito-kitsune does not seem to have

unpleasantly affected any samurai families of Matsue during the feudal

era. It is only since the military caste has been abolished, and its

name, simply as a body of gentry, changed to shizoku, [6] that some

families have become victims of the superstition through intermarriage

with the chonin or mercantile classes, among whom the belief has always

been strong.

By the peasantry the Matsudaira daimyo of Izumo were supposed to be

the greatest fox-possessors. One of them was believed to use foxes as

messengers to Tokyo (be it observed that a fox can travel, according to

popular credence, from Yokohama to London in a few hours); and there

is some Matsue story about a fox having been caught in a trap [7] near

Tokyo, attached to whose neck was a letter written by the prince of

Izumo only the same morning. The great Inari temple of Inari in the

castle grounds--O-Shiroyama-no-Inari-Sama--with its thousands upon

thousands of foxes of stone, is considered by the country people a

striking proof of the devotion of the Matsudaira, not to Inari, but to

foxes.

At present, however, it is no longer possible to establish distinctions

of genera in this ghostly zoology, where each species grows into every

other. It is not even possible to disengage the ki or Soul of the Fox

and the August-Spirit-of-Food from the confusion in which both have

become hopelessly blended, under the name Inari by the vague conception

of their peasant-worshippers. The old Shinto mythology is indeed quite

explicit about the August-Spirit-of-Food, and quite silent upon the

subject of foxes. But the peasantry in Izumo, like the peasantry of

Catholic Europe, make mythology for themselves. If asked whether they

pray to Inari as to an evil or a good deity, they will tell you that

Inari is good, and that Inari-foxes are good. They will tell you of

white foxes and dark foxes--of foxes to be reverenced and foxes to be

killed--of the good fox which cries 'kon-kon,' and the evil fox which

cries 'kwai-kwai.' But the peasant possessed by the fox cries out: 'I am

Inari--Tamabushi-no-Inari!'--or some other Inari.

Sec. 5

Goblin foxes are peculiarly dreaded in Izumo for three evil habits

attributed to them. The first is that of deceiving people by

enchantment, either for revenge or pure mischief. The second is that of

quartering themselves as retainers upon some family, and thereby making

that family a terror to its neighbours. The third and worst is that

of entering into people and taking diabolical possession of them and

tormenting them into madness. This affliction is called 'kitsune-tsuki.'

The favourite shape assumed by the goblin fox for the purpose of

deluding mankind is that of a beautiful woman; much less frequently the

form of a young man is taken in order to deceive some one of the other

sex. Innumerable are the stories told or written about the wiles of

fox-women. And a dangerous woman of that class whose art is to enslave

men, and strip them of all they possess, is popularly named by a word of

deadly insult--kitsune.

Many declare that the fox never really assumes human shape; but that

he only deceives people into the belief that he does so by a sort of

magnetic power, or by spreading about them a certain magical effluvium.

The fox does not always appear in the guise of a woman for evil

purposes. There are several stories, and one really pretty play, about a

fox who took the shape of a beautiful woman, and married a man, and

bore him children--all out of gratitude for some favour received--the

happiness of the family being only disturbed by some odd carnivorous

propensities on the part of the offspring. Merely to achieve a

diabolical purpose, the form of a woman is not always the best disguise.

There are men quite insusceptible to feminine witchcraft. But the fox is

never at a loss for a disguise; he can assume more forms than Proteus.

Furthermore, he can make you see or hear or imagine whatever he wishes

you to see, hear, or imagine. He can make you see out of Time and Space;

he can recall the past and reveal the future. His power has not been

destroyed by the introduction of Western ideas; for did he not, only a

few years ago, cause phantom trains to run upon the Tokkaido railway,

thereby greatly confounding, and terrifying the engineers of the

company? But, like all goblins, he prefers to haunt solitary places.

At night he is fond of making queer ghostly lights, [8] in semblance of

lantern-fires, flit about dangerous places; and to protect yourself from

this trick of his, it is necessary to learn that by joining your hands

in a particular way, so as to leave a diamond-shaped aperture between

the crossed fingers, you can extinguish the witch-fire at any distance

simply by blowing through the aperture in the direction of the light and

uttering a certain Buddhist formula.

But it is not only at night that the fox manifests his power for

mischief: at high noon he may tempt you to go where you are sure to get

killed, or frighten you into going by creating some apparition or making

you imagine that you feel an earthquake. Consequently the old-fashioned

peasant, on seeing anything extremely queer, is slow to credit the

testimony of his own eyes. The most interesting and valuable witness

of the stupendous eruption of Bandai-San in 1888--which blew the huge

volcano to pieces and devastated an area of twenty-seven square miles,

levelling forests, turning rivers from their courses, and burying

numbers of villages with all their inhabitants--was an old peasant

who had watched the whole cataclysm from a neighbouring peak as

unconcernedly as if he had been looking at a drama. He saw a black

column of ashes and steam rise to the height of twenty thousand feet and

spread out at its summit in the shape of an umbrella, blotting out the

sun. Then he felt a strange rain pouring upon him, hotter than the water

of a bath. Then all became black; and he felt the mountain beneath him

shaking to its roots, and heard a crash of thunders that seemed like

the sound of the breaking of a world. But he remained quite still until

everything was over. He had made up his mind not to be afraid--deeming

that all he saw and heard was delusion wrought by the witchcraft of a

fox.

Sec. 6

Strange is the madness of those into whom demon foxes enter. Sometimes

they run naked shouting through the streets. Sometimes they lie down

and froth at the mouth, and yelp as a fox yelps. And on some part of the

body of the possessed a moving lump appears under the skin, which

seems to have a life of its own. Prick it with a needle, and it glides

instantly to another place. By no grasp can it be so tightly compressed

by a strong hand that it will not slip from under the fingers. Possessed

folk are also said to speak and write languages of which they were

totally ignorant prior to possession. They eat only what foxes are

believed to like--tofu, aburage, [9] azukimeshi, [10] etc.--and they

eat a great deal, alleging that not they, but the possessing foxes, are

hungry.

It not infrequently happens that the victims of fox-possession are

cruelly treated by their relatives--being severely burned and beaten

in the hope that the fox may be thus driven away. Then the Hoin [11] or

Yamabushi is sent for--the exorciser. The exorciser argues with the fox,

who speaks through the mouth of the possessed. When the fox is reduced

to silence by religious argument upon the wickedness of possessing

people, he usually agrees to go away on condition of being supplied

with plenty of tofu or other food; and the food promised must be brought

immediately to that particular Inari temple of which the fox declares

himself a retainer. For the possessing fox, by whomsoever sent, usually

confesses himself the servant of a certain Inari though sometimes even

calling himself the god.

As soon as the possessed has been freed from the possessor, he falls

down senseless, and remains for a long time prostrate. And it is said,

also, that he who has once been possessed by a fox will never again

be able to eat tofu, aburage, azukimeshi, or any of those things which

foxes like.

Sec. 7

It is believed that the Man-fox (Hito-kitsune) cannot be seen. But if

he goes close to still water, his SHADOW can be seen in the water. Those

'having foxes' are therefore supposed to avoid the vicinity of rivers

and ponds.

The invisible fox, as already stated, attaches himself to persons. Like

a Japanese servant, he belongs to the household. But if a daughter

of that household marry, the fox not only goes to that new family,

following the bride, but also colonises his kind in all those families

related by marriage or kinship with the husband's family. Now every fox

is supposed to have a family of seventy-five--neither more, nor less

than seventy-five--and all these must be fed. So that although such

foxes, like ghosts, eat very little individually, it is expensive to

have foxes. The fox-possessors (kitsune-mochi) must feed their foxes at

regular hours; and the foxes always eat first--all the seventy-five.

As soon as the family rice is cooked in the kama (a great iron

cooking-pot), the kitsune-mochi taps loudly on the side of the vessel,

and uncovers it. Then the foxes rise up through the floor. And although

their eating is soundless to human ear and invisible to human eye, the

rice slowly diminishes. Wherefore it is fearful for a poor man to have

foxes.

But the cost of nourishing foxes is the least evil connected with the

keeping of them. Foxes have no fixed code of ethics, and have proved

themselves untrustworthy servants. They may initiate and long maintain

the prosperity of some family; but should some grave misfortune fall

upon that family in spite of the efforts of its seventy-five invisible

retainers, then these will suddenly flee away, taking all the valuables

of the household along with them. And all the fine gifts that foxes

bring to their masters are things which have been stolen from somebody

else. It is therefore extremely immoral to keep foxes. It is also

dangerous for the public peace, inasmuch as a fox, being a goblin, and

devoid of human susceptibilities, will not take certain precautions. He

may steal the next-door neighbour's purse by night and lay it at his own

master's threshold, so that if the next-door neighbour happens to get up

first and see it there is sure to be a row.

Another evil habit of foxes is that of making public what they hear said

in private, and taking it upon themselves to create undesirable scandal.

For example, a fox attached to the family of Kobayashi-San hears his

master complain about his neighbour Nakayama-San, whom he secretly

dislikes. Therewith the zealous retainer runs to the house of

Nakayama-San, and enters into his body, and torments him grievously,

saying: 'I am the retainer of Kobayashi-San to whom you did

such-and-such a wrong; and until such time as he command me to depart, I

shall continue to torment you.'

And last, but worst of all the risks of possessing foxes, is the danger

that they may become wroth with some member of the family. Certainly

a fox may be a good friend, and make rich the home in which he is

domiciled. But as he is not human, and as his motives and feelings are

not those of men, but of goblins, it is difficult to avoid incurring his

displeasure. At the most unexpected moment he may take offence without

any cause knowingly having been given, and there is no saying what

the consequences may be. For the fox possesses Instinctive Infinite

Vision--and the Ten-Ni-Tsun, or All-Hearing Ear--and the Ta-Shin-Tsun,

which is the Knowledge of the Most Secret Thoughts of Others--and

Shiyuku-Mei-Tsun, which is the Knowledge of the Past--and

Zhin-Kiyan-Tsun, which means the Knowledge of the Universal Present--and

also the Powers of Transformation and of Transmutation. [12] So that

even without including his special powers of bewitchment, he is by

nature a being almost omnipotent for evil.

Sec. 8

For all these reasons, and, doubtless many more, people believed to have

foxes are shunned. Intermarriage with a fox-possessing family is out of

the question; and many a beautiful and accomplished girl in Izumo cannot

secure a husband because of the popular belief that her family harbours

foxes. As a rule, Izumo girls do not like to marry out of their own

province; but the daughters of a kitsune-mochi must either marry into

the family of another kitsune-mochi, or find a husband far away from

the Province of the Gods. Rich fox-possessing families have not overmuch

difficulty in disposing of their daughters by one of the means above

indicated; but many a fine sweet girl of the poorer kitsune-mochi is

condemned by superstition to remain unwedded. It is not because there

are none to love her and desirous of marrying her--young men who have

passed through public schools and who do not believe in foxes. It is

because popular superstition cannot be yet safely defied in country

districts except by the wealthy. The consequences of such defiance would

have to be borne, not merely by the husband, but by his whole family,

and by all other families related thereunto. Which are consequences to

be thought about!

Among men believed to have foxes there are some who know how to turn the

superstition to good account. The country-folk, as a general rule, are

afraid of giving offence to a kitsune-mochi, lest he should send some of

his invisible servants to take possession of them. Accordingly, certain

kitsune-mochi have obtained great ascendancy over the communities in

which they live. In the town of Yonago, for example, there is a certain

prosperous chonin whose will is almost law, and whose opinions are never

opposed. He is practically the ruler of the place, and in a fair way of

becoming a very wealthy man. All because he is thought to have foxes.

Wrestlers, as a class, boast of their immunity from fox-possession,

and care neither for kitsune-mochi nor for their spectral friends. Very

strong men are believed to be proof against all such goblinry. Foxes are

said to be afraid of them, and instances are cited of a possessing fox

declaring: 'I wished to enter into your brother, but he was too strong

for me; so I have entered into you, as I am resolved to be revenged upon

some one of your family.'

Sec. 9

Now the belief in foxes does not affect persons only: it affects

property. It affects the value of real estate in Izumo to the amount of

hundreds of thousands.

The land of a family supposed to have foxes cannot be sold at a fair

price. People are afraid to buy it; for it is believed the foxes may

ruin the new proprietor. The difficulty of obtaining a purchaser is

most great in the case of land terraced for rice-fields, in the

mountain districts. The prime necessity of such agriculture is

irrigation--irrigation by a hundred ingenious devices, always in the

face of difficulties. There are seasons when water becomes terribly

scarce, and when the peasants will even fight for water. It is feared

that on lands haunted by foxes, the foxes may turn the water away from

one field into another, or, for spite, make holes in the dikes and so

destroy the crop.

There are not wanting shrewd men to take advantage of this queer belief.

One gentleman of Matsue, a good agriculturist of the modern school,

speculated in the fox-terror fifteen years ago, and purchased a vast

tract of land in eastern Izumo which no one else would bid for. That

land has sextupled in value, besides yielding generously under his

system of cultivation; and by selling it now he could realise an immense

fortune. His success, and the fact of his having been an official of the

government, broke the spell: it is no longer believed that his farms are

fox-haunted. But success alone could not have freed the soil from the

curse of the superstition. The power of the farmer to banish the

foxes was due to his official character. With the peasantry, the word

'Government' is talismanic.

Indeed, the richest and the most successful farmer of Izumo, worth more

than a hundred thousand yen--Wakuri-San of Chinomiya in Kandegori--is

almost universally believed by the peasantry to be a kitsune-mochi. They

tell curious stories about him. Some say that when a very poor man he

found in the woods one day a little white fox-cub, and took it home, and

petted it, and gave it plenty of tofu, azukimeshi, and aburage--three

sorts of food which foxes love--and that from that day prosperity came

to him. Others say that in his house there is a special zashiki, or

guest-room for foxes; and that there, once in each month, a great

banquet is given to hundreds of Hito-kitsune. But Chinomiya-no-Wakuri,

as they call him, can afford to laugh at all these tales. He is a

refined man, highly respected in cultivated circles where superstition

never enters.

Sec. 10

When a Ninko comes to your house at night and knocks, there is a

peculiar muffled sound about the knocking by which you can tell that

the visitor is a fox--if you have experienced ears. For a fox knocks at

doors with its tail. If you open, then you will see a man, or perhaps

a beautiful girl, who will talk to you only in fragments of words, but

nevertheless in such a way that you can perfectly well understand. A fox

cannot pronounce a whole word, but a part only--as 'Nish... Sa...'

for 'Nishida-San'; 'degoz...' for 'degozarimasu, or 'uch... de...?' for 'uchi desuka?' Then, if you are a friend of foxes, the visitor

will present you with a little gift of some sort, and at once vanish

away into the darkness. Whatever the gift may be, it will seem much

larger that night than in the morning. Only a part of a fox-gift is

real.

A Matsue shizoku, going home one night by way of the street called

Horomachi, saw a fox running for its life pursued by dogs. He beat the

dogs off with his umbrella, thus giving the fox a chance to escape.

On the following evening he heard some one knock at his door, and on

opening the to saw a very pretty girl standing there, who said to him:

'Last night I should have died but for your august kindness. I know not

how to thank you enough: this is only a pitiable little present. And she

laid a small bundle at his feet and went away. He opened the bundle and

found two beautiful ducks and two pieces of silver money--those

long, heavy, leaf-shaped pieces of money--each worth ten or twelve

dollars--such as are now eagerly sought for by collectors of antique

things. After a little while, one of the coins changed before his eyes

into a piece of grass; the other was always good.

Sugitean-San, a physician of Matsue, was called one evening to attend a

case of confinement at a house some distance from the city, on the hill

called Shiragayama. He was guided by a servant carrying a paper lantern

painted with an aristocratic crest. [13] He entered into a magnificent

house, where he was received with superb samurai courtesy. The mother

was safely delivered of a fine boy. The family treated the physician

to an excellent dinner, entertained him elegantly, and sent him home,

loaded with presents and money. Next day he went, according to Japanese

etiquette, to return thanks to his hosts. He could not find the house:

there was, in fact, nothing on Shiragayama except forest. Returning

home, he examined again the gold which had been paid to him. All was

good except one piece, which had changed into grass.

Sec. 11

Curious advantages have been taken of the superstitions relating to the

Fox-God.

In Matsue, several years ago, there was a tofuya which enjoyed an

unusually large patronage. A tofuya is a shop where tofu is sold--a curd

prepared from beans, and much resembling good custard in appearance. Of

all eatable things, foxes are most fond of tofu and of soba, which is

a preparation of buckwheat. There is even a legend that a fox, in the

semblance of an elegantly attired man, once visited Nogi-no-Kuriharaya,

a popular sobaya on the lake shore, and ate much soba. But after the

guest was gone, the money he had paid changed into wooden shavings.

The proprietor of the tofuya had a different experience. A man in

wretched attire used to come to his shop every evening to buy a cho of

tofu, which he devoured on the spot with the haste of one long famished.

Every evening for weeks he came, and never spoke; but the landlord saw

one evening the tip of a bushy white tail protruding from beneath the

stranger's rags. The sight aroused strange surmises and weird hopes.

From that night he began to treat the mysterious visitor with obsequious

kindness. But another month passed before the latter spoke. Then what he

said was about as follows:

'Though I seem to you a man, I am not a man; and I took upon myself

human form only for the purpose of visiting you. I come from Taka-machi,

where my temple is, at which you often visit. And being desirous to

reward your piety and goodness of heart, I have come to-night to save

you from a great danger. For by the power which I possess I know that

tomorrow this street will burn, and all the houses in it shall be

utterly destroyed except yours. To save it I am going to make a charm.

But in order that I may do this, you must open your go-down (kura) that

I may enter, and allow no one to watch me; for should living eye look

upon me there, the charm will not avail.'

The shopkeeper, with fervent words of gratitude, opened his storehouse,

and reverently admitted the seeming Inari and gave orders that none of

his household or servants should keep watch. And these orders were

so well obeyed that all the stores within the storehouse, and all the

valuables of the family, were removed without hindrance during the

night. Next day the kura was found to be empty. And there was no fire.

There is also a well-authenticated story about another wealthy

shopkeeper of Matsue who easily became the prey of another pretended

Inari. This Inari told him that whatever sum of money he should leave at

a certain miya by night, he would find it doubled in the morning--as the

reward of his lifelong piety. The shopkeeper carried several small

sums to the miya, and found them doubled within twelve hours. Then he

deposited larger sums, which were similarly multiplied; he even risked

some hundreds of dollars, which were duplicated. Finally he took all his

money out of the bank and placed it one evening within the shrine of the

god--and never saw it again.

Sec. 12

Vast is the literature of the subject of foxes--ghostly foxes. Some

of it is old as the eleventh century. In the ancient romances and the

modern cheap novel, in historical traditions and in popular fairy-tales,

foxes perform wonderful parts. There are very beautiful and very sad and

very terrible stories about foxes. There are legends of foxes discussed

by great scholars, and legends of foxes known to every child in

Japan--such as the history of Tamamonomae, the beautiful favourite of

the Emperor Toba--Tamamonomae, whose name has passed into a proverb,

and who proved at last to be only a demon fox with Nine Tails and Fur

of Gold. But the most interesting part of fox-literature belongs to

the Japanese stage, where the popular beliefs are often most humorously

reflected--as in the following excerpts from the comedy of Hiza-Kuruge,

written by one Jippensha Ikku:

[Kidahachi and Iyaji are travelling from Yedo to Osaka. When within a

short distance of Akasaka, Kidahachi hastens on in advance to secure

good accommodations at the best inn. Iyaji, travelling along leisurely,

stops a little while at a small wayside refreshment-house kept by an old

woman]

OLD WOMAN.--Please take some tea, sir. IYAJI.--Thank you! How far is it

from here to the next town?--Akasaka? OLD WOMAN.--About one ri. But

if you have no companion, you had better remain here to-night, because

there is a bad fox on the way, who bewitches travellers. IYAJI.--I am

afraid of that sort of thing. But I must go on; for my companion has

gone on ahead of me, and will be waiting for me.

[After having paid for his refreshments, Iyaji proceeds on his way. The

night is very dark, and he feels quite nervous on account of what the

old woman has told him. After having walked a considerable distance,

he suddenly hears a fox yelping--kon-kon. Feeling still more afraid, he

shouts at the top of his voice:]

IYAJI.--Come near me, and I will kill you!

[Meanwhile Kidahachi, who has also been frightened by the old woman's

stories, and has therefore determined to wait for Iyaji, is saying to

himself in the dark: 'If I do not wait for him, we shall certainly be

deluded.' Suddenly he hears Iyaji's voice, and cries out to him:]

KIDAHACHI.--O Iyaji-San! IYAJI.--What are you doing there? KIDAHACHI.--I

did intend to go on ahead; but I became afraid, and so I concluded to

stop here and wait for you. IYAJI (who imagines that the fox has taken

the shape of Kidahachi to deceive him).--Do not think that you are going

to dupe me! KIDAHACHI.--That is a queer way to talk! I have some nice

mochi [14] here which I bought for you. IYAJI.--Horse-dung cannot be

eaten! [15] KIDAHACHI.--Don't be suspicious!--I am really Kidahachi.

IYAJI (springing upon him furiously).--Yes! you took the form of

Kidahachi just to deceive me! KIDAHACHI.--What do you mean?--What are

you going to do to me? IYAJI.--I am going to kill you! (Throws him

down.) KIDAHACHI.--Oh! you have hurt me very much--please leave me

alone! IYAJI.--If you are really hurt, then let me see you in your

real shape! (They struggle together.) KIDAHACHI.--What are you

doing?--putting your hand there? IYAJI.--I am feeling for your tail. If

you don't put out your tail at once, I shall make you! (Takes his towel,

and with it ties Kidahachi's hands behind his back, and then drives him

before him.) KIDAHACHI.--Please untie me--please untie me first!

[By this time they have almost reached Akasaka, and Iyaji, seeing a dog,

calls the animal, and drags Kidahachi close to it; for a dog is believed

to be able to detect a fox through any disguise. But the dog takes no

notice of Kidahachi. Iyaji therefore unties him, and apologises; and

they both laugh at their previous fears.]

Sec. 13

But there are some very pleasing forms of the Fox-God.

For example, there stands in a very obscure street of Matsue--one of

those streets no stranger is likely to enter unless he loses his way--a

temple called Jigyoba-no-Inari, [16] and also Kodomo-no-Inari, or 'the

Children's Inari.' It is very small, but very famous; and it has been

recently presented with a pair of new stone foxes, very large, which

have gilded teeth and a peculiarly playful expression of countenance.

These sit one on each side of the gate: the Male grinning with open

jaws, the Female demure, with mouth closed. [17] In the court you will

find many ancient little foxes with noses, heads, or tails broken, two

great Karashishi before which straw sandals (waraji) have been suspended

as votive offerings by somebody with sore feet who has prayed to the

Karashishi-Sama that they will heal his affliction, and a shrine of

Kojin, occupied by the corpses of many children's dolls. [18]

The grated doors of the shrine of Jigyoba-no-Inari, like those of the

shrine of Yaegaki, are white with the multitude of little papers tied

to them, which papers signify prayers. But the prayers are special and

curious. To right and to left of the doors, and also above them, odd

little votive pictures are pasted upon the walls, mostly representing

children in bath-tubs, or children getting their heads shaved. There are

also one or two representing children at play. Now the interpretation of

these signs and wonders is as follows:

Doubtless you know that Japanese children, as well as Japanese adults,

must take a hot bath every day; also that it is the custom to shave the

heads of very small boys and girls. But in spite of hereditary patience

and strong ancestral tendency to follow ancient custom, young children

find both the razor and the hot bath difficult to endure, with their

delicate skins. For the Japanese hot bath is very hot (not less than

110 degs F., as a general rule), and even the adult foreigner must

learn slowly to bear it, and to appreciate its hygienic value. Also, the

Japanese razor is a much less perfect instrument than ours, and is used

without any lather, and is apt to hurt a little unless used by the most

skilful hands. And finally, Japanese parents are not tyrannical with

their children: they pet and coax, very rarely compel or terrify. So

that it is quite a dilemma for them when the baby revolts against the

bath or mutinies against the razor.

The parents of the child who refuses to be shaved or bathed have

recourse to Jigyoba-no-Inati. The god is besought to send one of his

retainers to amuse the child, and reconcile it to the new order of

things, and render it both docile and happy. Also if a child is naughty,

or falls sick, this Inari is appealed to. If the prayer be granted, some

small present is made to the temple--sometimes a votive picture, such

as those pasted by the door, representing the successful result of the

petition. To judge by the number of such pictures, and by the prosperity

of the temple, the Kodomo-no-Inani would seem to deserve his popularity.

Even during the few minutes I passed in his court I saw three young

mothers, with infants at their backs, come to the shrine and pray

and make offerings. I noticed that one of the children--remarkably

pretty--had never been shaved at all. This was evidently a very

obstinate case.

While returning from my visit to the Jigyoba Inani, my Japanese servant,

who had guided me there, told me this story:

The son of his next-door neighbour, a boy of seven, went out to play

one morning, and disappeared for two days. The parents were not at first

uneasy, supposing that the child had gone to the house of a relative,

where he was accustomed to pass a day or two from time to time. But on

the evening of the second day it was learned that the child had not been

at the house in question. Search was at once made; but neither search

nor inquiry availed. Late at night, however, a knock was heard at the

door of the boy's dwelling, and the mother, hurrying out, found her

truant fast asleep on the ground. She could not discover who had

knocked. The boy, upon being awakened, laughed, and said that on the

morning of his disappearance he had met a lad of about his own age, with

very pretty eyes, who had coaxed him away to the woods, where they had

played together all day and night and the next day at very curious funny

games. But at last he got sleepy, and his comrade took him home. He was

not hungry. The comrade promised 'to come to-morrow.'

But the mysterious comrade never came; and no boy of the description

given lived in the neighbourhood. The inference was that the comrade was

a fox who wanted to have a little fun. The subject of the fun mourned

long in vain for his merry companion.

Sec. 14

Some thirty years ago there lived in Matsue an ex-wrestler named

Tobikawa, who was a relentless enemy of foxes and used to hunt and

kill them. He was popularly believed to enjoy immunity from bewitchment

because of his immense strength; but there were some old folks who

predicted that he would not die a natural death. This prediction was

fulfilled:

Tobikawa died in a very curious manner. He was excessively fond of

practical jokes. One day he disguised himself as a Tengu, or sacred

goblin, with wings and claws and long nose, and ascended a lofty tree in

a sacred grove near Rakusan, whither, after a little while, the innocent

peasants thronged to worship him with offerings. While diverting himself

with this spectacle, and trying to play his part by springing nimbly

from one branch to another, he missed his footing and broke his neck in

the fall.

Sec. 15

But these strange beliefs are swiftly passing away. Year by year more

shrines of Inari crumble down, never to be rebuilt. Year by year the

statuaries make fewer images of foxes. Year by year fewer victims of

fox-possession are taken to the hospitals to be treated according to

the best scientific methods by Japanese physicians who speak German.

The cause is not to be found in the decadence of the old faiths: a

superstition outlives a religion. Much less is it to be sought for in

the efforts of proselytising missionaries from the West--most of whom

profess an earnest belief in devils. It is purely educational. The

omnipotent enemy of superstition is the public school, where the

teaching of modern science is unclogged by sectarianism or prejudice;

where the children of the poorest may learn the wisdom of the Occident;

where there is not a boy or a girl of fourteen ignorant of the great

names of Tyndall, of Darwin, of Huxley, of Herbert Spencer. The little

hands that break the Fox-god's nose in mischievous play can also write

essays upon the evolution of plants and about the geology of Izumo.

There is no place for ghostly foxes in the beautiful nature-world

revealed by new studies to the new generation The omnipotent exorciser

and reformer is the Kodomo.

NOTES

Note for preface

1 In striking contrast to this indifference is the strong, rational,

far-seeing conservatism of Viscount Torio--a noble exception.

Notes for Chapter One

1 I do not think this explanation is correct; but it is interesting, as

the first which I obtained upon the subject. Properly speaking, Buddhist

worshippers should not clap their hands, but only rub them softly

together. Shinto worshippers always clap their hands four times.

2 Various writers, following the opinion of the Japanologue Satow, have

stated that the torii was originally a bird-perch for fowls offered

up to the gods at Shinto shrines--'not as food, but to give warning of

daybreak.' The etymology of the word is said to be 'bird-rest' by some

authorities; but Aston, not less of an authority, derives it from words

which would give simply the meaning of a gateway. See Chamberlain's

Things Japanese, pp. 429, 430.

3 Professor Basil Hall Chamberlain has held the extraordinary position

of Professor of Japanese in the Imperial University of Japan--no small

honour to English philology!

4 These Ni-O, however, the first I saw in Japan, were very clumsy

figures. There are magnificent Ni-O to be seen in some of the great

temple gateways in Tokyo, Kyoto, and elsewhere. The grandest of all are

those in the Ni-O Mon, or 'Two Kings' Gate,' of the huge Todaiji temple

at Nara. They are eight hundred years old. It is impossible not to

admire the conception of stormy dignity and hurricane-force embodied in

those colossal figures. Prayers are addressed to the Ni-O, especially

by pilgrims. Most of their statues are disfigured by little pellets of

white paper, which people chew into a pulp and then spit at them. There

is a curious superstition that if the pellet sticks to the statue the

prayer is heard; if, on the other hand, it falls to the ground, the

prayer will not be answered.

Note for Chapter Two

1 Dainagon, the title of a high officer in the ancient Imperial Court.

Notes for Chapter Three

1 Derived from the Sanscrit stupa.

2 'The real origin of the custom of piling stones before the images of

Jizo and other divinities is not now known to the people. The custom is

founded upon a passage in the famous Sutra, "The Lotus of the Good Law."

'Even the little hoys who, in playing, erected here and there heaps of

sand, with the intention of dedicating them as Stupas to the Ginas,-they

have all of them reached enlightenment.'--Saddharma Pundarika, c. II. v.

81 (Kern's translation), 'Sacred Books of the East,' vol. xxi.

3 The original Jizo has been identified by Orientalists with the

Sanscrit Kshitegarbha; as Professor Chamberlain observes, the

resemblance in sound between the names Jizo and Jesus 'is quite

fortuitous.' But in Japan Jizo has become totally transformed: he may

justly be called the most Japanese of all Japanese divinities. According

to the curious old Buddhist book, Sai no Kawara Kuchi zu sams no den,

the whole Sai-no-Kawara legend originated in Japan, and was first

written by the priest Kuya Shonin, in the sixth year of the period

called Ten-Kei, in the reign of the Emperor Shuyaku, who died in the year

946. To Kuya was revealed, in the village of Sai-in, near Kyoto, during

a night passed by the dry bed of the neighbouring river, Sai-no-Kawa

(said to be the modern Serikawa), the condition of child-souls in the

Meido. (Such is the legend in the book; but Professor Chamberlain has

shown that the name Sai-no-Kawara, as now written, signifies 'The Dry

Bed of the River of Souls,' and modern Japanese faith places that river

in the Meido.) Whatever be the true history of the myth, it is certainly

Japanese; and the conception of Jizo as the lover and playfellow of dead

children belongs to Japan. There are many other popular forms of Jizo,

one of the most common being that Koyasu-Jizo to whom pregnant women

pray. There are but few roads in Japan upon which statues of Jizo may

not be seen; for he is also the patron of pilgrims.

4 Except those who have never married.

5 In Sanscrit, 'Yama-Raja.' But the Indian conception has been totally

transformed by Japanese Buddhism.

6 Funeral customs, as well as the beliefs connected with them, vary

considerably in different parts of Japan. Those of the eastern provinces

differ from those of the western and southern. The old practice of

placing articles of value in the coffin--such as the metal mirror

formerly buried with a woman, or the sword buried with a man of the

Samurai caste--has become almost obsolete. But the custom of putting

money in the coffin still prevails: in Izumo the amount is always six

rin, and these are called Rokudo-kane, or 'The Money for the Six Roads.'

7 Literally 'Western Capital,'--modern name of Kyoto, ancient residence

of the emperors. The name 'Tokyo,' on the other hand, signifies 'Eastern

Capital.'

8 These first ten lines of the original will illustrate the measure of

the wasan:

Kore wa konoyo no koto narazu, Shide no yamaji no suso no naru,

Sai-no-Kawara no monogatari Kiku ni tsuketemo aware nari Futatsu-ya,

mitsu-ya, yotsu, itsutsu, To nimo taranu midorigo ga Sai-no-Kawara ni

atsumari te, Chichi koishi! haha koishi! Koishi! koishi! to naku koe wa

Konoyo no koe towa ko to kawari.

Notes for Chapter Four

1 Yane, 'roof'; shobu, 'sweet-flag' (Acorus calamus).

2 At the time this paper was written, nearly three years ago, I had not

seen the mighty bells at Kyoto and at Nara.

The largest bell in Japan is suspended in the grounds of the grand Jodo

temple of Chion-in, at Kyoto. Visitors are not allowed to sound it. It

was cast in 1633. It weighs seventy-four tons, and requires, they say,

twenty-five men to ring it properly. Next in size ranks the bell of the

Daibutsu temple in Kyoto, which visitors are allowed to ring on payment

of a small sum. It was cast in 1615, and weighs sixty-three tons. The

wonderful bell of Todaiji at Nara, although ranking only third, is

perhaps the most interesting of all. It is thirteen feet six inches

high, and nine feet in diameter; and its inferiority to the Kyoto bells

is not in visible dimensions so much as in weight and thickness. It

weighs thirty-seven tons. It was cast in 733, and is therefore one

thousand one hundred and sixty years old. Visitors pay one cent to sound

it once.

3 In Sanscrit, Avalokitesvara. The Japanese Kwannon, or Kwanze-on, is

identical in origin with the Chinese virgin-goddess Kwanyin adopted by

Buddhism as an incarnation of the Indian Avalokitesvara. (See Eitel's

Handbook of Chinese Buddhism.) But the Japanese Kwan-non has lost all

Chinese characteristics--has become artistically an idealisation of all

that is sweet and beautiful in the woman of Japan.

4 Let the reader consult Mitford's admirable Tales of Old Japan for the

full meaning of the term 'Ronin.'

5 There is a delicious Japanese proverb, the full humour of which is

only to be appreciated by one familiar with the artistic representations

of the divinities referred to: Karutoki no Jizo-gao, Nasutoki no

Emma-gao.

'Borrowing-time, the face of Jizo; Repaying-time, the face of Emma.'

6 This old legend has peculiar interest as an example of the efforts

made by Buddhism to absorb the Shinto divinities, as it had already

absorbed those of India and of China. These efforts were, to a great

extent, successful prior to the disestablishment of Buddhism and the

revival of Shinto as the State religion. But in Izumo, and other parts

of western Japan, Shinto has always remained dominant, and has even

appropriated and amalgamated much belonging to Buddhism.

7 In Sanscrit 'Hariti'--Karitei-Bo is the Japanese name for one form of

Kishibojin.

Notes for Chapter Five

1 It is related in the same book that Ananda having asked the Buddha how

came Mokenren's mother to suffer in the Gakido, the Teacher replied that

in a previous incarnation she had refused, through cupidity, to feed

certain visiting priests.

2 A deity of good fortune

Notes for Chapter Six

1 The period in which only deities existed.

2 Hyakusho, a peasant, husbandman. The two Chinese characters forming

the word signify respectively, 'a hundred' (hyaku), and 'family name'

(sei). One might be tempted to infer that the appellation is almost

equivalent to our phrase, 'their name is legion.' And a Japanese friend

assures me that the inference would not be far wrong. Anciently the

peasants had no family name; each was known by his personal appellation,

coupled with the name of his lord as possessor or ruler. Thus a hundred

peasants on one estate would all be known by the name of their master.

3 This custom of praying for the souls of animals is by no means

general. But I have seen in the western provinces several burials of

domestic animals at which such prayers were said. After the earth

was filled in, some incense-rods were lighted above the grave in each

instance, and the prayers were repeated in a whisper. A friend in the

capital sends me the following curious information: 'At the Eko-in

temple in Tokyo prayers are offered up every morning for the souls

of certain animals whose ihai [mortuary tablets] are preserved in the

building. A fee of thirty sen will procure burial in the temple-ground

and a short service for any small domestic pet.' Doubtless similar

temples exist elsewhere. Certainly no one capable of affection for our

dumb friends and servants can mock these gentle customs.

4 Why six Jizo instead of five or three or any other number, the reader

may ask. I myself asked the question many times before receiving any

satisfactory reply. Perhaps the following legend affords the most

satisfactory explanation:

According to the Book Taijo-Hoshi-mingyo-nenbutsu-den, Jizo-Bosatsu was

a woman ten thousand ko (kalpas) before this era, and became filled

with desire to convert all living beings of the Six Worlds and the Four

Births. And by virtue of the Supernatural Powers she multiplied herself

and simultaneously appeared in all the Rokussho or Six States of

Sentient Existence at once, namely in the Jigoku, Gaki, Chikusho, Shura,

Ningen, Tenjo, and converted the dwellers thereof. (A friend insists

that in order to have done this Jizo must first have become a man.)

Among the many names of Jizo, such as 'The Never Slumbering,' 'The

Dragon-Praiser,' 'The Shining King,' 'Diamond-of-Pity,' I find the

significant appellation of 'The Countless Bodied.'

5 Since this sketch was written, I have seen the Bon-odori in many

different parts of Japan; but I have never witnessed exactly the same

kind of dance. Indeed, I would judge from my experiences in Izumo, in

Oki, in Tottori, in Hoki, in Bingo, and elsewhere, that the Bonodori is

not danced in the same way in any two provinces. Not only do the motions

and gestures vary according to locality, but also the airs of the songs

sung--and this even when the words are the same. In some places the

measure is slow and solemn; in others it is rapid and merry, and

characterised by a queer jerky swing, impossible to describe. But

everywhere both the motion and the melody are curious and pleasing

enough to fascinate the spectator for hours. Certainly these primitive

dances are of far greater interest than the performances of geisha.

Although Buddhism may have utilised them and influenced them, they are

beyond doubt incomparably older than Buddhism.

Notes for Chapter Seven

1 Thick solid sliding shutters of unpainted wood, which in Japanese

houses serve both as shutters and doors.

2 Tanabiku.

3 Ama-terasu-oho-mi-Kami literally signifies 'the Heaven-Shining

Great-August-Divinity.' (See Professor Chamberlain's translation of the

Kojiki.)

4 'The gods who do harm are to be appeased, so that they may not punish

those who have offended them.' Such are the words of the great Shinto

teacher, Hirata, as translated by Mr. Satow in his article, 'The

Revival of Pure Shintau.'

5 Machi, a stiff piece of pasteboard or other material sewn into the

waist of the hakama at the back, so as to keep the folds of the garment

perpendicular and neat-looking.

6 Kush-no-ki-Matsuhira-Inari-Daimyojin.

7 From an English composition by one of my Japanese pupils.

8 Rin, one tenth of one cent. A small round copper coin with a square

hole in the middle.

9 An inn where soba is sold.

10 According to the mythology of the Kojiki the Moon-Deity is a male

divinity. But the common people know nothing of the Kojiki, written in

an archaic Japanese which only the learned can read; and they address

the moon as O-Tsuki-San, or 'Lady Moon,' just as the old Greek idyllists

did.

Notes for Chapter Eight

1 The most ancient book extant in the archaic tongue of Japan. It is the

most sacred scripture of Shinto. It has been admirably translated, with

copious notes and commentaries, by Professor Basil Hall Chamberlain, of

Tokyo.

2 The genealogy of the family is published in a curious little book with

which I was presented at Kitzuki. Senke Takanori is the eighty-first

Pontiff Governor (formerly called Kokuzo) of Kitzuki. His lineage

is traced back through sixty-five generations of Kokuzo and sixteen

generations of earthly deities to Ama-terasu and her brother

Susanoo-no-mikoto.

3 In Sanscrit pretas. The gaki are the famished ghosts of that Circle

of Torment in hell whereof the penance is hunger; and the mouths of some

are 'smaller than the points of needles.'

4 Mionoseki.

5 Now solidly united with the mainland. Many extraordinary changes, of

rare interest to the physiographer and geologist, have actually taken

place along the coast of Izumo and in the neighbourhood of the great

lake. Even now, each year some change occurs. I have seen several very

strange ones.

6 The Hakuja, or White Serpent, is also the servant of Benten, or

Ben-zai-ten, Goddess of Love, of Beauty, of Eloquence, and of the Sea.

'The Hakuja has the face of an ancient man, with white eyebrows and

wears upon its head a crown.' Both goddess and serpent can be identified

with ancient Indian mythological beings, and Buddhism first introduced

both into Japan. Among the people, especially perhaps in Izumo, certain

divinities of Buddhism are often identified, or rather confused, with

certain Kami, in popular worship and parlance.

Since this sketch was written, I have had opportunity of seeing a Ryu-ja

within a few hours after its capture. It was between two and three feet

long, and about one inch in diameter at its thickest girth The upper

part of the body was a very dark brown, and the belly yellowish white;

toward the tail there were some beautiful yellowish mottlings. The body

was not cylindrical, but curiously four-sided--like those elaborately

woven whip-lashes which have four edges. The tail was flat and

triangular, like that of certain fish. A Japanese teacher, Mr. Watanabe,

of the Normal School of Matsue, identified the little creature as a

hydrophid of the species called Pelamis bicalor. It is so seldom seen,

however, that I think the foregoing superficial description of it may

not be without interest to some readers.

7 Ippyo, one hyo; 2 1/2 hyo make one koku = 5.13 bushels. The word hyo

means also the bag made to contain one hyo.

8 Either at Kitzuki or at Sada it is possible sometimes to buy a

serpent. On many a 'household-god-shelf' in Matsue the little serpent

may be seen. I saw one that had become brittle and black with age, but

was excellently preserved by some process of which I did not learn the

nature. It had been admirably posed in a tiny wire cage, made to fit

exactly into a small shrine of white wood, and must have been, when

alive, about two feet four inches in length. A little lamp was lighted

daily before it, and some Shinto formula recited by the poor family to

whom it belonged.

9 Translated by Professor Chamberlain the 'Deity

Master-of-the-Great-Land'-one of the most ancient divinities of Japan,

but in popular worship confounded with Daikoku, God of Wealth. His son,

Koto-shiro-nushi-no-Kami, is similarly confounded with Ebisu, or Yebisu,

the patron of honest labour. The origin of the Shinto custom of clapping

the hands in prayer is said by some Japanese writers to have been a sign

given by Koto-shiro-nushi-no-Kami.

Both deities are represented by Japanese art in a variety of ways, Some

of the twin images of them sold at Kitzuki are extremely pretty as well

as curious.

10 Very large donations are made to this temple by wealthy men. The

wooden tablets without the Haiden, on which are recorded the number of

gifts and the names of the donors, mention several recent presents of

1000 yen, or dollars; and donations of 500 yen are not uncommon. The

gift of a high civil official is rarely less than 50 yen.

11 Taku is the Japanese name for the paper mulberry.

12 See the curious legend in Professor Chamberlain's translation of the

Kojiki.

13 From a remote period there have been two Kokuzo in theory, although

but one incumbent. Two branches of the same family claim ancestral right

to the office,--the rival houses of Senke and Kitajima. The government

has decided always in favour of the former; but the head of the Kitajima

family has usually been appointed Vice-Kokuzo. A Kitajima to-day

holds the lesser office. The term Kokuzo is not, correctly speaking, a

spiritual, but rather a temporal title. The Kokuzo has always been the

emperor's deputy to Kitzuki,--the person appointed to worship the deity

in the emperor's stead; but the real spiritual title of such a deputy is

that still borne by the present Guji,--'Mitsuye-Shiro.'

14 Haliotis tuberculata, or 'sea-ear.' The curious shell is pierced with

a row of holes, which vary in number with the age and size of the animal

it shields.

15 Literally, 'ten hiro,' or Japanese fathoms.

16 The fire-drill used at the Shinto temples of Ise is far more

complicated in construction, and certainly represents a much more

advanced stage of mechanical knowledge than the Kitzuki fire-drill

indicates.

17 During a subsequent visit to Kitzuki I learned that the koto-ita is

used only as a sort of primitive 'tuning' instrument: it gives the right

tone for the true chant which I did not hear during my first visit.

The true chant, an ancient Shinto hymn, is always preceded by the

performance above described.

18 The tempest of the Kokuzo.

19 That is, according to Motoori, the commentator. Or more briefly: 'No

or yes?' This is, according to Professor Chamberlain, a mere fanciful

etymology; but it is accepted by Shinto faith, and for that reason only

is here given.

20 The title of Kokuzo indeed, still exists, but it is now merely

honorary, having no official duties connected with it. It is actually

borne by Baron Senke, the father of Senke Takanori, residing in the

capital. The active religious duties of the Mitsuye-shiro now devolve

upon the Guji.

21 As late as 1890 I was told by a foreign resident, who had travelled

much in the interior of the country, that in certain districts many old

people may be met with who still believe that to see the face of the

emperor is 'to become a Buddha'; that is, to die.

22 Hideyoshi, as is well known, was not of princely extraction

23 The Kojiki dates back, as a Written work, only to A.D. 722. But

its legends and records are known to have existed in the form of oral

literature from a much more ancient time.

24 In certain provinces of Japan Buddhism practically absorbed Shinto

in other centuries, but in Izumo Shinto absorbed Buddhism; and now

that Shinto is supported by the State there is a visible tendency to

eliminate from its cult certain elements of Buddhist origin.

Notes for Chapter Nine

1 Such are the names given to the water-vessels or cisterns at which

Shinto worshippers must wash their hands and rinse their mouths ere

praying to the Kami. A mitarashi or o-chozubachi is placed before

every Shinto temple. The pilgrim to Shin-Kukedo-San should perform this

ceremonial ablution at the little rock-spring above described, before

entering the sacred cave. Here even the gods of the cave are said to

wash after having passed through the seawater.

2 'August Fire-Lady'; or, 'the August Sun-Lady,' Amaterasu-oho-mi-Kami.

Notes for Chapter Ten

1 Mionoseki

2 Zashiki, the best and largest room of a Japanese dwelling--the

guest-room of a private house, or the banquet-room of a public inn.

Notes for Chapter Eleven

1 Fourteenth of August.

2 In the pretty little seaside hotel Inaba-ya, where I lived during

my stay in Kitzuki, the kind old hostess begged her guests with almost

tearful earnestness not to leave the house during the Minige.

3 There are ten rin to one sen, and ten mon to one rin, on one hundred

to one sen. The majority of the cheap toys sold at the matsuri cost from

two to nine rin. The rin is a circular copper coin with a square hole in

the middle for stringing purposes.

4 Why the monkey is so respectfully mentioned in polite speech, I do not

exactly know; but I think that the symbolical relation of the monkey,

both to Buddhism and to Shinto, may perhaps account for the use of the

prefix 'O' (honourable) before its name.

5 As many fine dolls really are. The superior class of O-Hina-San, such

as figure in the beautiful displays of the O-Hina-no-Matsuri at rich

homes, are heirlooms. Dolls are not given to children to break; and

Japanese children seldom break them. I saw at a Doll's Festival in the

house of the Governor of Izumo, dolls one hundred years old--charming

figurines in ancient court costume.

6 Not to be confounded with Koshin, the God of Roads.

7 Celtis Wilidenowiana. Sometimes, but rarely, a pine or other tree is

substituted for the enoki.

8 'Literally, 'The Dance of the Fruitful Year.'

9 First,--unto the Taisha-Sama of Izunio; Second,--to Irokami-Sama of

Niigata; Third,--unto Kompira-Sama of Sanuki; Fourth,--unto Zenkoji-Sama

of Shinano; Fifth,--to O-Yakushi-San of Ichibata; Sixth,--to O-Jizo-Sama

of Rokkakudo; Seventh,--to O-Ebisu-Sama of Nana-ura; Eighth,--unto

Hachiman-Sama of Yawata; Ninth,--unto everyholy shrine of Koya;

Tenth,--to the Ujigami-Sama of our village.' Japanese readers will

appreciate the ingenious manner in which the numeral at the beginning of

each phrase is repeated in the name of the sacred place sung of.

Notes for Chapter Twelve

1 This deity is seldom called by his full name, which has been shortened

by common usage from Susano-o-no-mikoto.

2 A kichinyado is an inn at which the traveller is charged only the

price of the wood used for fuel in cooking his rice.

3 The thick fine straw mats, fitted upon the floor of every Japanese

room, are always six feet long by three feet broad. The largest room in

the ordinary middle-class house is a room of eight mats. A room of one

hundred mats is something worth seeing.

4 The kubi-oke was a lacquered tray with a high rim and a high cover.

The name signifies 'head-box.' It was the ancient custom to place

the head of a decapitated person upon a kubi-oke before conveying the

ghastly trophy into the palace of the prince desirous of seeing it.

Notes for Chapter Thirteen

1 Yama-no-mono ('mountain-folk,'--so called from their settlement on

the hills above Tokoji),--a pariah-class whose special calling is the

washing of the dead and the making of graves. 2 Joro: a courtesan. 3

Illicium religiosum 4 Literally: 'without shadow' or 'shadowless.' 5

Umi-yama-no-on. 6 Kusaba-no-kage 7 Or 'him.' This is a free rendering.

The word 'nushi' simply refers to the owner of the house.

Notes for Chapter Fourteen

1 "Eight clouds arise. The eightfold [or, manifold] fence of Idzumo

makes an eightfold [or, manifold] fence for the spouses to retire

within. Oh! that eightfold fence!" This is said to be the oldest song in

the Japanese language. It has been differently translated by the great

scholars and commentators. The above version and text are from Professor

B. H. Chamberlain's translation of the Kojiki (pp.60-64).

2 Professor Chamberlain disputes this etymology for excellent reasons.

But in Izumo itself the etymology is still accepted, and will be

accepted, doubtless, until the results of foreign scholarship in the

study of the archaic texts is more generally known.

3 Planeca Japonica.

4 So absolutely has Shinto in Izumo monopolised the Karashishi, or stone

lions, of Buddhist origin, that it is rare in the province to find a

pair before any Buddhist temple. There is even a Shinto myth about their

introduction into Japan from India, by the Fox-God!

5 Such offerings are called Gwan-hodoki. Gwan wo hodoki, 'to make a

vow.'

6 A pilgrim whose prayer has been heard usually plants a single

nobori as a token. Sometimes you may see nobori of five colours

(goshiki),--black, yellow, red, blue, and white--of which one hundred or

one thousand have been planted by one person. But this is done only in

pursuance of some very special vow.

7 'On being asked if there were any other love charm, the Newt replied,

making a ring with two of his toes--"Only this." The sign signifies,

"Money."'

8 There are no less than eleven principal kinds of Japanese names. The

jitsumyo, or 'true name,' corresponds to our Christian name. On this

intricate and interesting topic the reader should consult Professor B.

H. Chamberlain's excellent little book, Things Japanese, pp. 250-5.

9 'That I may be wedded to Takaki-Toki, I humbly pray.--A youth of

eighteen.'

10 The gengebana (also called renge-so, and in Izumo miakobana) is an

herb planted only for fertilizing purposes. Its flowers are extremely

small, but so numerous that in their blossoming season miles of fields

are coloured by them a beautiful lilaceous blue. A gentleman who wished

to marry a joro despite the advice of his friends, was gently chided by

them with the above little verse, which, freely translated, signifies:

'Take it not into thy hand: the flowers of the gengebans are fair to

view only when left all together in the field.'

Notes for Chapter Fifteen

1 Toyo-uke-bime-no-Kami, or Uka-no-mi-tana (who has also eight

other names), is a female divinity, according to the Kojiki and its

commentators. Moreover, the greatest of all Shinto scholars, Hirata,

as cited by Satow, says there is really no such god as Inari-San at

all--that the very name is an error. But the common people have created

the God Inari: therefore he must be presumed to exist--if only for

folklorists; and I speak of him as a male deity because I see him so

represented in pictures and carvings. As to his mythological existence,

his great and wealthy temple at Kyoto is impressive testimony.

2 The white fox is a favourite subject with Japanese artists. Some very

beautiful kakemono representing white foxes were on display at the

Tokyo exhibition of 1890. Phosphorescent foxes often appear in the old

coloured prints, now so rare and precious, made by artists whose names

have become world-famous. Occasionally foxes are represented wandering

about at night, with lambent tongues of dim fire--kitsune-bi--above

their heads. The end of the fox's tail, both in sculpture and drawing,

is ordinarily decorated with the symbolic jewel (tama) of old Buddhist

art. I have in my possession one kakemono representing a white fox with

a luminous jewel in its tail. I purchased it at the Matsue temple of

Inari--'O-Shiroyama-no-Inari-Sama.' The art of the kakemono is clumsy;

but the conception possesses curious interest.

3 The Japanese candle has a large hollow paper wick. It is usually

placed upon an iron point which enters into the orifice of the wick at

the flat end.

4 See Professor Chamberlain's Things Japanese, under the title

'Demoniacal Possession.'

5 Translated by Walter Dening.

6 The word shizoku is simply the Chinese for samurai. But the term now

means little more than 'gentleman' in England.

7 The fox-messenger travels unseen. But if caught in a trap, or injured,

his magic fails him, and he becomes visible.

8 The Will-o'-the-Wisp is called Kitsune-bi, or 'fox-fire.'

9 'Aburage' is a name given to fried bean-curds or tofu.

10 Azukimeshi is a preparation of red beans boiled with rice.

11 The Hoin or Yamabushi was a Buddhist exorciser, usually a priest.

Strictly speaking, the Hoin was a Yamabushi of higher rank. The

Yamabushi used to practise divination as well as exorcism. They were

forbidden to exercise these professions by the present government; and

most of the little temples formerly occupied by them have disappeared or

fallen into ruin. But among the peasantry Buddhist exorcisers are still

called to attend cases of fox-possession, and while acting as exorcisers

are still spoken of as Yamabushi.

12 A most curious paper on the subject of Ten-gan, or Infinite

Vision--being the translation of a Buddhist sermon by the priest Sata

Kaiseki--appeared in vol. vii. of the Transactions of the Asiatic

Society of Japan, from the pen of Mr. J. M. James. It contains an

interesting consideration of the supernatural powers of the Fox.

13 All the portable lanterns used to light the way upon dark nights bear

a mon or crest of the owner.

14 Cakes made of rice flour and often sweetened with sugar.

15 It is believed that foxes amuse themselves by causing people to

eat horse-dung in the belief that they are eating mochi, or to enter a

cesspool in the belief they are taking a bath.

16 'In Jigyobamachi, a name signifying 'earthwork-street.' It stands

upon land reclaimed from swamp.

17 This seems to be the immemorial artistic law for the demeanour of

all symbolic guardians of holy places, such as the Karashishi, and the

Ascending and Descending Dragons carved upon panels, or pillars. At

Kumano temple even the Suijin, or warrior-guardians, who frown

behind the gratings of the chambers of the great gateway, are thus

represented--one with mouth open, the other with closed lips.

On inquiring about the origin of this distinction between the two

symbolic figures, I was told by a young Buddhist scholar that the male

figure in such representations is supposed to be pronouncing the

sound 'A,' and the figure with closed lips the sound of nasal

'N'--corresponding to the Alpha and Omega of the Greek alphabet, and

also emblematic of the Beginning and the End. In the Lotos of the Good

Law, Buddha so reveals himself, as the cosmic Alpha and Omega, and the

Father of the World,--like Krishna in the Bhagavad-Gita.

18 There is one exception to the general custom of giving the dolls of

dead children, or the wrecks of dolls, to Kojin. Those images of the God

of Calligraphy and Scholarship which are always presented as gifts to

boys on the Boys' Festival are given, when broken, to Tenjin himself,

not to Kojin; at least such is the custom in Matsue.

End of Project Gutenberg's Glimpses of an Unfamiliar Japan, by Lafcadio

Hearn