Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan (37 page)

(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
[105]
here which I bought for you.
IYAJI.—Horse-dung cannot be eaten!
[106]
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.)

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,
[107]
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.
[108]
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.
[109]

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.

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.

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.

[1]
In striking contrast to this indifference is the strong, rational,
far-seeing conservatism of Viscount Torio—a noble exception.

[2]
Basil Hall Chamberlain.

[3]
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.

[4]
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.

[5]
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!

[6]
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.

[7]
Dainagon, the title of a high officer in the ancient Imperial Court.

[8]
Derived from the Sanscrit stupa.

[9]
'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.

[10]
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 TenKei, 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.

[11]
Except those who have never married.