Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan Volume II Part 26

12 Except in those comparatively rare instances where the family is exclusively Shinto in its faith, or, although belonging to both faiths, prefers to bury its dead according to Shinto rites. In Matsue, as a rule, high officials only have Shinto funeral.

13 Unless the dead be buried according to the Shinto rite. In Matsue the mourning period is usually fifty days. On the fifty-first day after the decease, all members of the family go to Enjoji-nada (the lake-sh.o.r.e at the foot of the hill on which the great temple of Enjoji stands) to perform the ceremony of purification. At Enjoji-nada, on the beach, stands a lofty stone statue of Jizo. Before it the mourners pray; then wash their mouths and hands with the water of the lake. Afterwards they go to a friend's house for breakfast, the purification being always performed at daybreak, if possible. During the mourning period, no member of the family can eat at a friend's house. But if the burial has been according to the Shinto rite, all these ceremonial observances may be dispensed with.

14 But at samurai funerals in the olden time the women were robed in black.

Notes for Chapter Five

1 As it has become, among a certain sect of Western Philistines and self-const.i.tuted art critics, the fashion to sneer at any writer who becomes enthusiastic about the truth to nature of j.a.panese art, I may cite here the words of England's most celebrated living naturalist on this very subject. Mr. Wallace's authority will scarcely, I presume, be questioned, even by the Philistines referred to:

'Dr. Mohnike possesses a large collection of coloured sketches of the plants of j.a.pan made by a j.a.panese lady, which are the most masterly things I have ever seen. Every stem, twig, and leaf is produced by single touches of the brush, the character and perspective of very complicated plants being admirably given, and the articulations of stem and leaves shown in a most scientific manner.' (Malay Archipelago, chap.

xx.)

Now this was written in 1857, before European methods of drawing had been introduced. The same art of painting leaves, etc., with single strokes of the brush is still common in j.a.pan--even among the poorest cla.s.s of decorators.

2 There is a Buddhist saying about the kadomatsu:

Kadomatsu Meido no tabi no Ichi-ri-zuka.

The meaning is that each kadomatsu is a milestone on the journey to the Meido; or, in other words, that each New Year's festival signal only the completion of another stage of the ceaseless journey to death.

3 The difference between the shimenawa and shimekazari is that the latter is a strictly decorative straw rope, to which many curious emblems are attached.

4 It belongs to the sarga.s.sum family, and is full of air sacs. Various kinds of edible seaweed form a considerable proportion of j.a.panese diet.

5 'This is a curiously shaped staff with which the divinity Jizo is commonly represented. It is still carried by Buddhist mendicants, and there are several sizes of it. That carried by the Yaku-otoshj is usually very short. There is a tradition that the shakujo was first invented as a means of giving warning to insects or other little creatures in the path of the Buddhist pilgrim, so that they might not be trodden upon unawares.

6 I may make mention here of another matter, in no way relating to the Setsubun.

There lingers in Izumo a wholesome--and I doubt not formerly a most valuable--superst.i.tion about the sacredness of writing. Paper upon which anything has been written, or even printed, must not be crumpled up, or trodden upon, or dirtied, or put to any base use. If it be necessary to destroy a doc.u.ment, the paper should be burned. I have been gently reproached in a little hotel at which I stopped for tearing up and crumpling some paper covered with my own writing.

NOtes for Chapter Six

1 'A bucket honourably condescend [to give].

2 The Kappa is not properly a sea goblin, but a river goblin, and haunts the sea only in the neighbourhood of river mouths. About a mile and a half from Matsue, at the little village of Kawachi-mura, on the river called Kawachi, stands a little temple called Kawako-no-miya, or the Miya of the Kappa. (In Izumo, among the common people, the word 'Kappa' is not used, but the term Kawako, or 'The Child of the River.') In this little shrine is preserved a doc.u.ment said to have been signed by a Kappa. The story goes that in ancient times the Kappa dwelling in the Kawachi used to seize and destroy many of the inhabitanta of the village and many domestic animals. One day, however, while trying to seize a horse that had entered the river to drink, the Kappa got its head twisted in some way under the belly-band of the horse, and the terrified animal, rushing out of the water, dragged the Kappa into a field. There the owner of the horse and a number of peasants seized and bound the Kappa. All the villagers gathered to see the monster, which bowed its head to the ground, and audibly begged for mercy. The peasants desired to kill the goblin at once; but the owner of the horse, who happened to be the head-man of the mura, said: 'It is better to make it swear never again to touch any person or animal belonging to Kawachi- mura. A written form of oath was prepared and read to the Kappa. It said that It could not write, but that It would sign the paper by dipping Its hand in ink, and pressing the imprint thereof at the bottom of the doc.u.ment. This having been agreed to and done, the Kappa was set free.

From that time forward no inhabitant or animal of Kawachi-mura was ever a.s.saulted by the goblin.

3 The Buddhist symbol. [The small ill.u.s.tration cannot be presented here. The arms are bent in the opposite direction to the n.a.z.i swastika.

Preparator's note]

4 'Help! help!'

5 Furuteya, the estab!ishment of a dea!er in second-hand wares--furute.

6 Andon, a paper lantern of peculiar construction, used as a night light. Some forms of the andon are remarkably beautiful.

7 'Ototsan! washi wo shimai ni s.h.i.tesas.h.i.ta toki mo, chodo kon ya no yona tsuki yo data-ne?'--Izumo dialect.

Notes for Chapter Seven

1 The Kyoto word is maiko.

2 Guitars of three strings.

3 It is sometimes customary for guests to exchange cups, after duly rinsing them. It is always a compliment to ask for your friend's cup.

4 Once more to rest beside her, or keep five thousand koku? What care I for koku? Let me be with her!'

There lived in ancient times a haramoto called Fuji-eda Geki, a va.s.sal of the Shogun. He had an income of five thousand koku of rice--a great income in those days. But he fell in love with an inmate of the Yoshiwara, named Ayaginu, and wished to marry her. When his master bade the va.s.sal choose between his fortune and his pa.s.sion, the lovers fled secretly to a farmer's house, and there committed suicide together. And the above song was made about them. It is still sung.

5 'Dear, shouldst thou die, grave shall hold thee never! I thy body's ashes, mixed with wine, wit! drink.'

6 Maneki-Neko

7 Buddhist food, containing no animal substance. Some kinds of shojin- ryori are quite appetising.

8 The terms oshiire and zendana might be partly rendered by 'wardrobe'

and 'cupboard.' The fusuma are sliding screens serving as doors.

9 Tennin, a 'Sky-Maiden,' a Buddhist angel.

10 Her shrine is at Nara--not far from the temple of the giant Buddha.

Notes for Chapter Eight

1 The names Dozen or Tozen, and Dogo or Toga, signify 'the Before- Islands' and 'the Behind-Islands.'

2 'Dokoe, dokoel' 'This is only a woman's baby' (a very small package). 'Dokoe, dokoel' 'This is the daddy, this is the daddy' (a big package). 'Dokoe, dokoel' ''Tis very small, very small!' 'Dokoe, dokoel'

'This is for Matsue, this is for Matsue!' 'Dokoe, dokoel' 'This is for Koetsumo of Yonago,' etc.

3 These words seem to have no more meaning than our 'yo-heaveho.' Yan- yui is a cry used by all Izumo and Hoki sailors.

4 This curious meaning is not given in j.a.panese-English dictionaries, where the idiom is translated merely by the phrase 'as aforesaid.'

5 The floor of a j.a.panese dwelling might be compared to an immense but very shallow wooden tray, divided into compartments corresponding to the various rooms. These divisions are formed by grooved and polished woodwork, several inches above the level, and made for the accommodation of the fusurna, or sliding screens, separating room from room. The compartments are filled up level with the part.i.tions with tatami, or mats about the thickness of light mattresses, covered with beautifully woven rice-straw. The squared edges of the mats fit exactly together, and as the mats are not made for the house, but the house for the mats, all tatami are exactly the same size. The fully finished floor of each roam is thus like a great soft bed. No shoes, of course, can be worn in a j.a.panese house. As soon as the mats become in the least soiled they are replaced by new ones.

6 See article on Art in his Things j.a.panese.

7 It seems to be a black, obsidian.

8 There are several other versions of this legend. In one, it is the mare, and not the foal, which was drowned.

9 There are two ponds not far from each other. The one I visited was called 0-ike, or 'The Male Pond,' and the other, Me-ike, or 'The Female Pond.'