Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan Volume I Part 25

The shopkeeper, with fervent words of grat.i.tude, 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 G.o.d--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 j.a.pan-- such as the history of Tamamonomae, the beautiful favourite of the Emperor Toba--Tamamonomae, whose name has pa.s.sed 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 j.a.panese 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-G.o.d.

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 mult.i.tude 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 j.a.panese children, as well as j.a.panese 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 j.a.panese 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 j.a.panese 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, j.a.panese 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 G.o.d 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 pet.i.tion. 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 pa.s.sed 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 j.a.panese 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 pa.s.s 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 pa.s.sing 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 j.a.panese physicians who speak German. The cause is not to be found in the decadence of the old faiths: a superst.i.tion 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 superst.i.tion 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-G.o.d'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 n.o.ble 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 j.a.panologue Satow, have stated that the torii was originally a bird-perch for fowls offered up to the G.o.ds 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 j.a.panese, pp. 429, 430.

3 Professor Basil Hall Chamberlain has held the extraordinary position of Professor of j.a.panese in the Imperial University of j.a.pan--no small honour to English philology!

4 These Ni-O, however, the first I saw in j.a.pan, 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 superst.i.tion 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 t.i.tle 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 pa.s.sage in the famous Sutra, "The Lotus of the Good Law."