,,gleanings ,,in ,,buddha-,,fields ,,studies ,,of ,,hand ,,and ,,soul ,,in ,,the ,,far ,,east ,,by ,,lafcadio ,,hearn ,,lecturer ,,on ,,english ,,literature ,,in ,,the ,,imperial ,,university ,,of ,,japan ,,boston ,,and ,,new ,,york ,,houghton ,,mifflin ,,company #ahig ,,contents ,i4 ,a ,,living ,,god ,,ii4 ,,out ,,of ,,the ,,street ,,iii4 ,,notes ,,of ,a ,,trip ,,to ,,ky,,to ,,iv4 ,,dust ,v4 ,,about ,,faces ,,en ,,japanese ,,art ,,vi4 ,,ningy-,,no-,,haka ,,vii4 ,,in ,,saka ,,viii4 ,,buddhist ,,allusions ,,in ,,japanese ,,folk-,,song ,,ix4 ,,nirvana ,x4 ,,the ,,rebirth ,,of ,,katsugor ,,xi4 ,,within ,,the ,,circle ,,gleanings ,,in ,,buddha-,,fields ,i ,a ,,living ,,god ,i ,of whatever dimension1 the temples or shrines of pure ,shint are all built in the same archaic style4 ,the typical shrine is a windowless oblong building of unpainted timber1 with a very steep overhanging roof2 the front is the gable end2 and the upper part of the perpetually closed doors is wooden lattice-work1--usually a grating of bars closely set and crossing each other at right angles4 ,in most cases the structure is raised slightly above the ground on wooden pillars2 and the queer peaked faade1 with its visor-like apertures and the fantastic projections of beam-work above its gable-angle1 might remind the ,european traveler of certain old ,gothic forms of dormer4 ,there is no artificial color4 ,the plain wood#a soon turns1 under the action of rain and sun1 to a natural grey1 varying according to surface exposure from the silvery tone of birch bark to the sombre grey of basalt4 ,so shaped and so tinted1 the isolated country yashiro may seem less like a work of joinery than a feature of the scenery1--a rural form related to nature as closely as rocks and trees1--a something that came into existence only as a manifestation of ,ohotsuchi-no-,kami1 the ,earth-god1 the primeval divinity of the land4 ,why certain architectural forms produce in the beholder a feeling of weirdness is a question about which ,i should like to theorize some day3 at present ,i shall venture only to say that ,shinto shrines evoke such a feeling4 ,it grows with familiarity instead of weakening2 and a knowledge of popular beliefs is apt to intensify it4 ,we have no ,english words by which these queer shapes can be sufficiently described1--much less any language able to communicate the peculiar impression which they make4 ,those ,shinto terms which we loosely render by the words temple and shrine are really untranslatable2--,i mean that the ,japanese ideas attaching to them cannot be conveyed by translation4 ,the so-called august house of the ,kami is not so much a temple1 in the classic meaning of the term1 as it is a haunted room1 a spirit-chamber1 a ghost-house2 many of the lesser divinities being veritably ghosts1--ghosts of great warriors and heroes and rulers and teachers1 who lived and loved and died hundreds or thousands of years ago4 ,i fancy that to the ,western mind the word ghost-house will convey1 better than such terms as shrine and temple1 some vague notion of the strange character of the ,shinto miya or yashiro1--containing in its perpetual dusk nothing more substantial than symbols or tokens1 the latter probably of paper4 ,now the emptiness behind the visored front is more suggestive than anything material could possibly be2 and when you remember that millions of people during thousands of years have worshipped their great dead before such yashiro1--that a whole race still believes those buildings tenanted by viewless conscious personalities1--you are apt also to reflect how difficult it would be to prove the faith absurd4 ,nay6 in spite of ,occidental reluctances1--in spite of whatever you may think it expedient to say or not to say at a later time about the experience1--you may very likely find yourself for a moment forced into the attitude of respect toward possibilities4 ,mere cold reasoning will not help you far in the opposite direction4 ,the evidence of the senses counts for little3 you know there are ever so many realities which can neither be seen nor heard nor felt1 but which exist as forces1--tremendous forces4 ,then again you cannot mock the conviction of forty millions of people while that conviction thrills all about you like the air1--while conscious that it is pressing upon your psychical being just as the atmosphere presses upon your physical being4 ,as for myself1 whenever ,i am alone in the presence of a ,shinto shrine1 ,i have the sensation of being haunted2 and ,i cannot help thinking about the possible apperceptions of the haunter4 ,and this tempts me to fancy how ,i should feel if ,i myself were a god1--dwelling in some old ,izumo shrine on the summit of a hill1 guarded by stone lions and shadowed by a holy grove4 ,elfishly small my habitation might be1 but never too small1 because ,i should have neither size nor form4 ,i should be only a vibration1--a motion invisible as of ether or of magnetism2 though able sometimes to shape me a shadow-body1 in the likeness of my former visible self1 when ,i should wish to make apparition4 ,as air to the bird1 as water to the fish1 so would all substance be permeable to the essence of me4 ,i should pass at will through the walls of my dwelling to swim in the long gold bath of a sunbeam1 to thrill in the heart of a flower1 to ride on the neck of a dragon-fly4 ,power above life and power over death would be mine1--and the power of self-extension1 and the power of self-multiplication1 and the power of being in all places at one and the same moment4 ,simultaneously in a hundred homes ,i should hear myself worshiped1 ,i should inhale the vapor of a hundred offerings3 each evening1 from my place within a hundred household shrines1 ,i should see the holy lights lighted for me in lamplets of red clay1 in lamplets of brass1--the lights of the ,kami1 kindled with purest fire and fed with purest oil4 ,but in my yashiro upon the hill ,i should have greatest honor3 there betimes ,i should gather the multitude of my selves together2 there should ,i unify my powers to answer supplication4 ,from the dusk of my ghost-house ,i should look for the coming of sandaled feet1 and watch brown supple fingers weaving to my bars the knotted papers which are records of vows1 and observe the motion of the lips of my worshipers making prayer3-- --,harai-tamai kiyom-tama6 444 ,we have beaten drums1 we have lighted fires2 yet the land thirsts and the rice fails4 ,deign out of thy divine pity to give us rain1 ,o ,daimyjin6 --,harai-tamai kiyom-tama6 444 ,i am dark1 too dark1 because ,i have toiled in the field1 because the sun hath looked upon me4 ,deign thou augustly to make me white1 very white1--white like the women of the city1 ,o ,daimyjin6 --,harai-tamai kiyom-tama6444 ,for ,tsukamoto ,motokichi our son1 a soldier of twenty-nine3 that he may conquer and come back quickly to us1--soon1 very soon1--we humbly supplicate1 ,o ,daimyjin6 ,sometimes a girl would whisper all her heart to me3 ,maiden of eighteen years1 ,i am loved by a youth of twenty4 ,he is good2 he is true2 but poverty is with us1 and the path of our love is dark4 ,aid us with thy great divine pity6--help us that we may become united1 ,o ,daimyjin6 ,then to the bars of my shrine she would hang a thick soft tress of hair1--her own hair1 glossy and black as the wing of the crow1 and bound with a cord of mulberry-paper4 ,and in the fragrance of that offering1--the simple fragrance of her peasant youth1--,i1 the ghost and god1 should find again the feelings of the years when ,i was man and lover4 ,mothers would bring their children to my threshold1 and teach them to revere me1 saying1 ,bow down before the great bright ,god2 make homage to the ,daimyjin4 ,then ,i should hear the fresh soft clapping of little hands1 and remember that ,i1 the ghost and god1 had been a father4 ,daily ,i should hear the plash of pure cool water poured out for me1 and the tinkle of thrown coin1 and the pattering of dry rice into my wooden box1 like a pattering of rain2 and ,i should be refreshed by the spirit of the water1 and strengthened by the spirit of the rice4 ,festivals would be held to honor me4 ,priests1 black-coiffed and linen-vestured1 would bring me offerings of fruits and fish and seaweed and rice-cakes and rice-wine1--masking their faces with sheets of white paper1 so as not to breathe upon my food4 ,and the miko their daughters1 fair girls in crimson hakama and robes of snowy white1 would come to dance with tinkling of little bells1 with waving of silken fans1 that ,i might be gladdened by the bloom of their youth1 that ,i might delight in the charm of their grace4 ,and there would be music of many thousand years ago1--weird music of drums and flutes1--and songs in a tongue no longer spoken2 while the miko1 the darlings of the gods1 would poise and pose before me3--444 ,whose virgins are these1--the virgins who stand like flowers before the ,deity8 ,they are the virgins of the august ,deity4 ,the august music1 the dancing of the virgins1--the ,deity will be pleased to hear1 the ,deity will rejoice to see4 ,before the great bright ,god the virgins dance1--the virgins all like flowers newly opened4 444 99 ,votive gifts of many kinds ,i should be given3 painted paper lanterns bearing my sacred name1 and towels of divers colors printed with the number of the years of the giver1 and pictures commemorating the fulfillment of prayers for the healing of sickness1 the saving of ships1 the quenching of fire1 the birth of sons4 ,also my ,karashishi1 my guardian lions1 would be honored4 ,i should see my pilgrims tying sandals of straw to their necks and to their paws1 with prayer to the ,karashishi-,sama for strength of foot4 ,i should see fine moss1 like emerald fur1 growing slowly1 slowly1 upon the backs of those lions2--,i should see the sprouting of lichens upon their flanks and upon their shoulders1 in specklings of dead-silver1 in patches of dead-gold2--,i should watch1 through years of generations1 the gradual sideward sinking of their pedestals under-mined by frost and rain1 until at last my lions would lose their balance1 and fall1 and break their mossy heads off4 ,after which the people would give me new lions of another form1--lions of granite or of bronze1 with gilded teeth and gilded eyes1 and tails like a torment of fire4 ,between the trunks of the cedars and pines1 between the jointed columns of the bamboos1 ,i should observe1 season after season1 the changes of the colors of the valley3 the falling of the snow of winter and the falling of the snow of cherry-flowers2 the lilac spread of the miyakobana2 the blazing yellow of the natan2 the sky--blue mirrored in flooded levels1--levels dotted with the moon-shaped hats of the toiling people who would love me2 and at last the pure and tender green of the growing rice4 ,the muku-birds and the uguisu would fill the shadows of my grove with ripplings and purlings of melody2--the bell-insects1 the crickets1 and the seven marvelous cicadas of summer would make all the wood of my ghost-house thrill to their musical storms4 ,betimes ,i should enter1 like an ecstasy1 into the tiny lives of them1 to quicken the joy of their clamor1 to magnify the sonority of their song4 99 ,but ,i never can become a god1--for this is the nineteenth century2 and nobody can be really aware of the nature of the sensations of a god--unless there be gods in the flesh4 ,are there8 ,perhaps--in very remote districts--one or two4 ,there used to be living gods4 ,anciently any man who did something extraordinarily great or good or wise or brave might be declared a god after his death1 no matter how humble his condition in life4 ,also good people who had suffered great cruelty and injustice might be apotheosized2 and there still survives the popular inclination to pay posthumous honor and to make prayer to the spirits of those who die voluntary deaths under particular circumstances1--to souls of unhappy lovers1 for example4 7,probably the old customs which made this tendency had their origin in the wish to appease the vexed spirit1 although to-day the experience of great suffering seems to be thought of as qualifying its possessor for divine conditions of being2--and there would be no foolishness whatever in such a thought47 ,but there were even more remarkable deifications4 ,certain persons1 while still alive1 were honored by having temples built for their spirits1 and were treated as gods2 not1 indeed1 as national gods1 but as lesser divinities1--tutelar deities1 perhaps1 or village-gods4 ,there was1 for instance1 ,hamaguchi ,gohei1 a farmer of the district of ,arita in the province of ,kishu1 who was made a god before he died4 ,and ,i think he deserved it4 ,footnote #a3 ,usually hinoki 7,chamcyparis obtusa74 ,,ii ,before telling the story of ,hamaguchi ,gohei1 ,i must say a few words about certain laws--or1 more correctly speaking1 customs having all the force of laws--by which many village communities were ruled in pre-,meiji times4 ,these customs were based upon the social experience of ages2 and though they differed in minor details according to province or district1 their main signification was everywhere about the same4 ,some were ethical1 some industrial1 some religious2 and all matters were regulated by them1--even individual behavior4 ,they preserved peace1 and they compelled mutual help and mutual kindness4 ,sometimes there might be serious fighting between different villages1--little peasant wars about questions of water supply or boundaries2 but quarreling between men of the same community could not be tolerated in an age of vendetta1 and the whole village would resent any needless disturbance of the internal peace4 ,to some degree this state of things still exists in the more old-fashioned provinces3 the people know how to live without quarreling1 not to say fighting4 ,any-where1 as a general rule1 ,japanese fight only to kill2 and when a sober man goes so far as to strike a blow1 he virtually rejects communal protection1 and takes his life into his own hands with every probability of losing it4 ,the private conduct of the other sex was regulated by some remarkable obligations entirely outside of written codes4 ,a peasant girl1 before marriage1 enjoyed far more liberty than was permitted to city girls4 ,she might be known to have a lover2 and unless her parents objected very strongly1 no blame would be given to her3 it was regarded as an holiest union1--honest1 at least1 as to intention4 ,but having once made a choice1 the girl was held bound by that choice4 ,if it were discovered that she met another admirer secretly1 the people would strip her naked1 allowing her only a shuro-leaf for apron1 and drive her in mockery through every street and alley of the village4 ,during this public dis-grace of their daughter1 the parents of the girl dared not show their faces abroad2 they were expected to share her shame1 and they had to remain in their house1 with all the shutters fastened up4 ,afterward the girl was sentenced to banishment for five years4 ,but at the end of that period she was considered to have expiated her fault1 and she could return home with the certainty of being spared further reproaches4 ,the obligation of mutual help in time of calamity or danger was the most imperative of all communal obligations4 ,in case of fire1 especially1 everybody was required to give immediate aid to the best of his or her ability4 ,even children were not exempted from this duty4 ,in towns and cities1 of course1 things were differently ordered2 but in any little country village the universal duty was very plain and simple1 and its neglect would have been considered unpardonable4 ,a curious fact is that this obligation of mutual help extended to religious matters3 everybody was expected to invoke the help of the gods for the sick or the unfortunate1 whenever asked to do so4 ,for example1 the village might be ordered to make a sendo-mairi#a on behalf of some one seriously ill4 ,on such occasions the ,kumi-ch 7each ,kumi-ch was responsible for the conduct of five or more families7 would run from house to house crying1 ,such and such a one is very sick3 kindly hasten all to make a sendo-mairi6 ,thereupon1 however occupied at the moment1 every soul in the settlement was expected to hurry to the temple1--taking care not to trip or stumble on the way1 as a single misstep during the performance of a sendo-mairi was believed to mean misfortune for the sick4444 ,footnote #a3 ,to perform a sendo-mairi means to make one thousand visits to a temple1 and to repeat one thousand invocations to the deity4 ,but it is considered necessary only to go from the gate or the torii of the temple-court to the place of prayer1 and hack1 one thousand times1 repeating the invocation each time2 and the task may be divided among any number of persons1--ten visits by one hundred persons1 for instance1 being quite as efficacious as a thousand visits by a single person4 ,,iii ,now concerning ,hamaguchi4 ,from immemorial time the shores of ,japan have been swept1 at irregular intervals of centuries1 by enormous tidal waves1--tidal waves caused by earthquakes or by submarine volcanic action4 ,these awful sudden risings of the sea are called by the ,japanese tsunami4 ,the last one occurred on the evening of ,june #ag1 #ahif1 when a wave nearly two hundred miles long struck the northeastern provinces of ,miyagi1 ,iwat1 and ,aomori1 wrecking scores of towns and villages1 ruining whole districts1 and destroying nearly thirty thousand human lives4 ,the story of ,hamaguchi ,gohei is the story of a like calamity which happened long before the era of ,meiji1 on another part of the ,japanese coast4 ,he was an old man at the time of the occurrence that made him famous4 ,he was the most influential resident of the village to which he belonged3 he had been for many years its muraosa1 or headman2 and he was not less liked than respected4 ,the people usually called him ,ojiisan1 which means ,grandfather2 but1 being the richest member of the community1 he was sometimes officially referred to as the ,chja4 ,he used to advise the smaller farmers about their interests1 to arbitrate their disputes1 to advance them money at need1 and to dispose of their rice for them on the best terms possible4 ,hamaguchi's big thatched farmhouse stood at the verge of a small plateau overlooking a bay4 ,the plateau1 mostly devoted to rice culture1 was hemmed in on three sides by thickly wooded summits4 ,from its outer verge the land sloped down in a huge green concavity1 as if scooped out1 to the edge of the water2 and the whole of this slope1 some three quarters of a mile long1 was so terraced as to look1 when viewed from the open sea1 like an enormous flight of green steps1 divided in the centre by a narrow white zigzag1--a streak of mountain road4 ,ninety thatched dwellings and a ,shint temple1 composing the village proper1 stood along the curve of the bay2 and other houses climbed straggling up the slope for some distance on either side of the narrow road leading to the ,chja's home4 99 ,one autumn evening ,hamaguchi ,gohei was looking down from the balcony of his house at some preparations for a merry-making in the village below4 ,there had been a very fine rice-crop1 and the peasants were going to celebrate their harvest by a dance in the court of the ujigami4#a ,the old man could see the festival banners 7nobori7 fluttering above the roofs of the solitary street1 the strings of paper lanterns festooned between bamboo poles1 the decorations of the shrine1 and the brightly colored gathering of the young people4 ,he had nobody with him that evening but his little grandson1 a lad of ten2 the rest of the household having gone early to the village4 ,he would have accompanied them had he not been feeling less strong than usual4 ,the day had been oppressive2 and in spite of a rising breeze there was still in the air that sort of heavy heat which1 according to the experience of the ,japanese peasant1 at certain seasons precedes an earthquake4 ,and presently an earthquake came4 ,it was not strong enough to frighten anybody2 but ,hamaguchi1 who had felt hundreds of shocks in his time1 thought it was queer1--a long1 slow1 spongy motion4 ,probably it was but the after-tremor of some immense seismic action very far away4 ,the house crackled and rocked gently several times2 then all became still again4 ,as the quaking ceased ,hamaguchi's keen old eyes were anxiously turned toward the village4 ,it often happens that the attention of a person gazing fixedly at a particular spot or object is suddenly diverted by the sense of something not knowingly seen at all1--by a mere vague feeling of the unfamiliar in that dim outer circle of unconscious perception which lies beyond the field of clear vision4 ,thus it chanced that ,hamaguchi became aware of something unusual in the offing4 ,he rose to his feet1 and looked at the sea4 ,it had darkened quite suddenly1 and it was acting strangely4 ,it seemed to be moving against the wind4 ,it was running away from the land4 ,within a very little time the whole village had noticed the phenomenon4 ,apparently no one had felt the previous motion of the ground1 but all were evidently astounded by the movement of the water4 ,they were running to the beach1 and even beyond the beach1 to watch it4 ,no such ebb had been witnessed on that coast within the memory of living man4 ,things never seen before were making apparition2 unfamiliar spaces of ribbed sand and reaches of weed-hung rock were left bare even as ,hamaguchi gazed4 ,and none of the people below appeared to guess what that monstrous ebb signified4 ,hamaguchi ,gohei himself had never seen such a thing before2 but he remembered things told him in his childhood by his father's father1 and he knew all the traditions of the coast4 ,he understood what the sea was going to do4 ,perhaps he thought of the time needed to send a message to the village1 or to get the priests of the ,buddhist temple on the hill to1 sound their big bell4444 ,but it would take1 very much longer to tell what he might have thought than it took him to think4 ,he simply called to his grandson3-- ,tada6--quick1--very quick6 444 ,light me a torch4 ,taimatsu1 or pine-torches1 are kept in many coast dwellings for use on stormy nights1 and also for use at certain ,shinto festivals4 ,the child kindled a torch at once2 and the old man hurried with it to the fields1 where hundreds of rice-stacks1 representing most of his invested capital1 stood awaiting transportation4 ,approaching those nearest the verge of the slope1 he began to apply the torch to them1--hurrying from one to another as quickly as his aged limbs could carry him4 ,the sun-dried stalks caught like tinder2 the strengthening sea-breeze blew the blaze landward2 and presently1 rank behind rank1 the stacks burst into flame1 sending skyward columns of smoke that met and mingled into one enormous cloudy whirl4 ,tada1 astonished and terrified1 ran after his grandfather1 crying1-- ,ojiisan6 why8 ,ojiisan6 why8--why8 ,but ,hamaguchi did not answer3 he had no time to explain2 he was thinking only of the four hundred lives in peril4 ,for a while the child stared wildly at the blazing rice2 then burst into tears1 and ran back to the house1 feeling sure that his grandfather had gone mad4 ,hamaguchi went on firing stack after stack1 till he had reached the limit of his field2 then he threw down his torch1 and waited4 ,the acolyte of the hill-temple1 observing the blaze1 set the big bell booming2 and the people responded to the double appeal4 ,hamaguchi watched them hurrying in from the sands and over the beach and up from the village1 like a swarming of ants1 and1 to his anxious eyes1 scarcely faster2 for the moments seemed terribly long to him4 ,the sun was going down2 the wrinkled bed of the bay1 and a vast sallow speckled expanse beyond it1 lay naked to the last orange glow2 and still the sea was fleeing toward the horizon4 ,really1 however1 ,hamaguchi did not have very long to wait before the first party of succor arrived1--a score of agile young peasants1 who wanted to attack the fire at once4 ,but the ,chja1 holding out both arms1 stopped them4 ,let it burn1 lads6 he commanded1 let it be6 ,i want the whole mura here4 ,there is a great danger1--taihen da6 ,the whole village was coming2 and ,hamaguchi counted4 ,all the young men and boys were soon on the spot1 and not a few of the more active women and girls2 then came most of the older folk1 and mothers with babies at their backs1 and even children1--for children could help to pass water2 and the elders too feeble to keep up with the first rush could be seen well on their way up the steep ascent4 ,the growing multitude1 still knowing nothing1 looked alternately1 in sorrowful wonder1 at the flaming fields and at the impassive face of their ,chja4 ,and the sun went down4 ,grandfather is mad1--,i am afraid of him6 sobbed ,tada1 in answer to a number of questions4 ,he is mad4 ,he set fire to the rice on purpose3 ,i saw him do it6 ,as for the rice1 cried ,hamaguchi1 the child tells the truth4 ,i set fire to the rice4 444 ,are all the people here8 ,the ,kumi-ch and the heads of families looked about them1 and down the hill1 and made reply3 ,all are here1 or very soon will be4444 ,we cannot understand this thing4 ,kita6 shouted the old man at the top of his voice1 pointing to the open4 ,say now if ,i be mad6 ,through the twilight eastward all looked1 and saw at the edge of the dusky horizon a long1 lean1 dim line like the shadowing of a coast where no coast ever was1--a line that thickened as they gazed1 that broadened as a coast-line broadens to the eyes of one approaching it1 yet incomparably more quickly4 ,for that long darkness was the returning sea1 towering like a cliff1 and coursing more swiftly than the kite flies4 ,tsunami6 shrieked the people2 and then all shrieks and all sounds and all power to hear sounds were annihilated by a nameless shock heavier than any thunder1 as the colossal swell smote the shore with a weight that sent a shudder through the hills1 and with a foam-burst like a blaze of sheet-lightning4 ,then for an instant nothing was visible but a storm of spray rushing up the slope like a cloud2 and the people scattered back in panic from the mere menace of it4 ,when they looked again1 they saw a white horror of sea raving over the place of their homes4 ,it drew back roaring1 and tearing out the bowels of the land as it went4 ,twice1 thrice1 five times the sea struck and ebbed1 but each time with lesser surges3 then it returned to its ancient bed and stayed1--still raging1 as after a typhoon4 ,on the plateau for a time there was no word spoken4 ,all stared speechlessly at the desolation beneath1--the ghastliness of hurled rock and naked riven cliff1 the bewilderment of scooped-up deep-sea wrack and shingle shot over the empty site of dwelling and temple4 ,the village was not2 the greater part of the fields were not2 even the terraces had ceased to exist2 and of all the homes that had been about the bay there remained nothing recognizable except two straw roofs tossing madly in the offing4 ,the after-terror of the death escaped and the stupefaction of the general loss kept all lips dumb1 until the voice of ,hamaguchi was heard again1 observing gently1-- ,that was why ,i set fire to the rice4 ,he1 their ,chja1 now stood among them almost as poor as the poorest2 for his wealth was gone--but he had saved four hundred lives by the sacrifice4 ,little ,tada ran to him1 and caught his hand1 and asked forgiveness for having said naughty things4 ,whereupon the people woke up to the knowledge of why they were alive1 and began to wonder at the simple1 unselfish foresight that had saved them2 and the headmen prostrated themselves in the dust before ,hamaguchi ,gohei1 and the people after them4 ,then the old man wept a little1 partly because he was happy1 and partly because he was aged and weak and had been sorely tried4 ,my house remains1 he said1 as soon as he could find words1 automatically caressing ,tada's brown cheeks2 and there is room for many4 ,also the temple on the hill stands2 and there is shelter there for the others4 ,then he led the way to his house2 and the people cried and shouted4 99 ,the period of distress was long1 because in those days there were no means of quick communication between district and district1 and the help needed had to be sent from far away4 ,but when better times came1 the people did not forget their debt to ,hamaguchi ,gohei4 ,they could not make him rich2 nor would he have suffered them to do so1 even had it been possible4 ,moreover1 gifts could never have sufficed as an expression of their reverential feeling towards him2 for they believed that the ghost within him was divine4 ,so they declared him a god1 and thereafter called him ,hamaguchi ,,daimy,,jin1 thinking they could give him no greater honor2--and truly no greater honor in any country could be given to mortal man4 ,and when they rebuilt the village1 they built a temple to the spirit of him1 and fixed above the front of it a tablet bearing his name in ,chinese text of gold2 and they worshiped him there1 with prayer and with offerings4 ,how he felt about it ,i cannot say2--,i know only that he continued to live in his old thatched home upon the hill1 with his children and his children's children1 just as humanly and simply as before1 while his soul was being worshiped in the shrine below4 ,a hundred years and more he has been dead2 but his temple1 they tell me1 still stands1 and the people still pray to the ghost of the good old farmer to help them in time of fear or trouble4 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 ,i asked a ,japanese philosopher and friend to explain to me how the peasants could rationally imagine the spirit of ,hamaguchi in one place while his living body was in another4 ,also ,i inquired whether it was only one of his souls which they had worshiped during his life1 and whether they imagined that particular soul to have detached itself from the rest to receive homage4 ,the peasants1 my friend answered1 think of the mind or spirit of a person as something which1 even during life1 can be in many places at the same instant4444 ,such an idea is1 of course1 quite different from ,western ideas about the soul4 ,any more rational8 ,i mischievously asked4 ,well1 he responded1 with a ,buddhist smile1 if we accept the doctrine of the unity of all mind1 the idea of the ,japanese peasant would appear to contain at least some adumbration of truth4 ,i could not say so much for your ,western notions about the soul4 ,footnote #a3 ,shinto parish temple4 ,,ii ,,out ,,of ,,the ,,street ,i ,these1 said ,manyemon1 putting on the table a roll of wonderfully written ,japanese manuscript1 are ,vulgar ,songs4 ,if they are to be spoken of in some honorable book1 perhaps it will be good to say that they are ,vulgar1 so that ,western people may not be deceived4 99 ,next to my house there is a vacant lot1 where washermen 7sentukaya7 work in the ancient manner1--singing as they work1 and whipping the wet garments upon big flat stones4 ,every morning at daybreak their singing wakens me2 and ,i like to listen to it1 though ,i cannot often catch the words4 ,it is full of long1 queer1 plaintive modulations4 ,yesterday1 the apprentice--a lad of fifteen--and the master of the washermen were singing alternately1 as if answering each other2 the contrast between the tones of the man1 sonorous as if boomed through a conch1 and the clarion alto of the boy1 being very pleasant to hear4 ,whereupon ,i called ,manyemon and asked him what the singing was about4 ,the song of the boy1 he said1 is an old song3-- ,things never changed since the ,time of the ,gods3 ,the flowing of water1 the ,way of ,love4 ,i heard it often when ,i was myself a boy4 ,and the other song8 ,the other song is probably new3-- ,three years thought of her1 ,five years sought for her2 ,only for one night held her in my arms4 ,a very foolish song6 ,i don't know1 ,i said4 ,there are famous ,western romances containing nothing wiser4 ,and what is the rest of the song8 ,there is no more3 that is the whole of the song4 ,if it be honorably desired1 ,i can write down the songs of the washermen1 and the songs which are sung in this street by the smiths and the carpenters and the bamboo-weavers and the rice-cleaners4 ,but they are all nearly the same4 ,thus came it to pass that ,manyemon made for me a collection of ,vulgar ,songs4 99 ,by vulgar ,manyemon meant written in the speech of the common people4 ,he is himself an adept at classical verse1 and despises the hayari-uta1 or ditties of the day2 it requires something very delicate to please him4 ,and what pleases him ,i am not qualified to write about2 for one must be a very good ,japanese scholar to meddle with the superior varieties of ,japanese poetry4 ,if you care to know how difficult the subject is1 just study the chapter on prosody in ,aston's ,grammar of the ,japanese ,written ,language1 or the introduction to ,professor ,chamberlain's ,classical ,poetry of the ,japanese4 ,her poetry is the one original art which ,japan has certainly not borrowed either from ,china or from any other country2 and its most refined charm is the essence1 irreproducible1 of the very flower of the language itself3 hence the difficulty of representing1 even partially1 in any ,western tongue1 its subtler delicacies of sentiment1 allusion1 and color4 ,but to understand the compositions of the people no scholarship is needed3 they are characterized by the greatest possible simplicity1 directness1 and sincerity4 ,the real art of them1 in short1 is their absolute artlessness4 ,that was why ,i wanted them4 ,springing straight from the heart of the eternal youth of the race1 these little gushes of song1 like the untaught poetry of every people1 utter what belongs to all human experience rather than to the limited life of a class or a time2 and even in their melodies still resound the fresh and powerful pulsings of their primal source4 99 ,manyemon had written down forty-seven songs2 and with his help ,i made free renderings of the best4 ,they were very brief1 varying from seventeen to thirty-one syllables in length4 ,nearly all ,japanese poetical metre consists of simple alternations of lines of five and seven syllables2 the frequent exceptions which popular songs offer to this rule being merely irregularities such as the singer can smooth over either by slurring or by prolonging certain vowel sounds4 ,most of the songs which ,manyemon had collected were of twenty-six syllables only2 being composed of three successive lines of seven syllables each1 followed by one of five1 thus3-- ,ka-mi-yo ko-no-ka-ta ,ka-wa-ra-nu mo-no wa3 ,mi-dzu no na-ga-r to ,ko-i no mi-chi4#a ,among various deviations from this construction ,i found #g-g-g-g-e1 and #e-g-g-g-e1 and #g-e-g-e1 and #e-g-e2 but the classical five-line form 7tanka17 represented by #e-g-e-g-g1 was entirely absent4 ,terms indicating gender were likewise absent2 even the expressions corresponding to ,i and you being seldom used1 and the words signifying beloved applying equally to either sex4 ,only by the conventional value of some comparison1 the use of a particular emotional tone1 or the mention of some detail of costume1 was the sex of the speaker suggested1 as in this verse3-- ,i am the water-weed drifting1--finding no place of attachment3 ,where1 ,i wonder1 and when1 shall my flower begin to bloom8 ,evidently the speaker is a girl who wishes for a lover3 the same simile uttered by masculine lips would sound in ,japanese ears much as would sound in ,english ears a man's comparison of himself to a violet or to a rose4 ,for the like reason1 one knows that in the following song the speaker is not a woman3-- ,flowers in both my hands1--flowers of plum and cherry3 ,which will be1 ,i wonder1 the flower to give me fruit8 ,womanly charm is compared to the cherry flower and also to the plum flower2 but the quality symbolized by the plum flower is moral always rather than physical4#b ,the verse represents a man strongly attracted by two girls3 one1 perhaps a dancer1 very fair to look upon2 the other beautiful in character4 ,which shall he choose to be his companion for life8 ,one more example3-- ,too long1 with pen in hand1 idling1 fearing1 and doubting1 ,i cast my silver pin for the test of the tatamizan4 ,here we know from the mention of the hairpin that the speaker is a woman1 and we can also suppose that she is a geisha2 the sort of divination called tatamizan being especially popular with dancing-girls4 ,the rush covering of floor-mats 7tatami17 woven over a frame of thin strings1 shows on its upper surface a regular series of lines about three fourths of an inch apart4 ,the girl throws her pin upon a mat1 and then counts the lines it touches4 ,according to their number she deems herself lucky or unlucky4 ,sometimes a little pipe--geishas' pipes are usually of silver--is used instead of the hairpin4 99 ,the theme of all the songs was love1 as indeed it is of the vast majority of the ,japanese chansons des rues et des bois2 even songs about celebrated places usually containing some amatory suggestion4 ,i noticed that almost every simple phase of the emotion1 from its earliest budding to its uttermost ripening1 was represented in the collection2 and ,i therefore tried to arrange the pieces according to the natural passional sequence4 ,the result had some dramatic suggestiveness4 ,footnote #a3 ,literally1 ,god-,age-since not-changed-things as-for3 water of flowing and love-of way4 ,footnote #b3 ,see ,glimpses of ,unfamiliar ,japan1 ii4 #ceg4 ,,ii ,the songs really form three distinct groups1 each corresponding to a particular period of that emotional experience which is the subject of all4 ,in the first group of seven the surprise and pain and weakness of passion find utterance2 beginning with a plaintive cry of reproach and closing with a whisper of trust4 ,i ,you1 by all others disliked6--oh1 why must my heart thus like you8 ,,ii ,this pain which ,i cannot speak of to any one in the world3 ,tell me who has made it1--whose do you think the fault8 ,,iii ,will it be night forever8--,i lose my way in this darkness3 ,who goes by the path of ,love must always go astray6 ,,iv ,even the brightest lamp1 even the light electric1 ,cannot lighten at all the dusk of the ,way of ,love4 ,v ,always the more ,i love1 the more it is hard to say so3 ,oh6 how happy ,i were should the loved one say it first6 ,,vi ,such a little word6--only to say1 ,i love you6 ,why1 oh1 why do ,i find it hard to say like this8#a ,footnote #a3 ,inimitably simple in the original3-- ,horeta wai na to ,sukoshi no koto ga3 ,naz ni kono y ni ,iinikui8 ,,vii ,clicked-to#b the locks of our hearts2 let the keys remain in our bosoms4 ,after which mutual confidence the illusion naturally deepens2 suffering yields to a joy that cannot disguise itself1 and the keys of the heart are thrown away3 this is the second stage4 ,footnote #b3 ,in the original this is expressed by an onomatope1 pinto1 imitating the sound of the fastening of the lock of a tansu1 or chest of drawers3-- ,pinto kokoro ni ,jmai oroshi3 ,kagi wa tagai no ,mun ni aru4 ,i ,the person who said before1 ,i hate my life since ,i saw you1 ,now after union prays to live for a thousand years4 ,,ii ,you and ,i together--lilies that grow in a valley3 ,this is our blossoming-time--but nobody knows the fact4 ,,iii ,receiving from his hand the cup of the wine of greeting1 ,even before ,i drink1 ,i feel that my face grows red4 ,,iv ,i cannot hide in my heart the happy knowledge that fills it2 ,asking each not to tell1 ,i spread the news all round4#e ,footnote #c3 ,much simpler in the original3-- ,mun ni tsutsumenu ,urshii koto wa2-- ,kuchidom shinagara ,furaruku4 ,v ,all crows alike are black1 everywhere under heaven4 ,the person that others like1 why should not ,i like too8 ,,vi ,going to see the beloved1 a thousand ri are as one ri2#d ,returning without having seen1 one ri is a thousand ri4 ,footnote #d3 ,one ri is equal to about two and a half ,english miles4 ,,vii ,going to see the beloved1 even the water of rice-fields#e ,ever becomes1 as ,i drink1 nectar of gods#f to the taste4 ,footnote #e3 ,in the original dorota2 literally mud rice-fields1-- meaning rice-fields during the time of flushing1 before the grain has fairly grown up4 ,the whole verse reads3-- ,horet kayoyeba ,dorota no midzu mo ,nomba kanro no ,aji ga suru4 ,footnote #f3 ,kanro1 a ,buddhist word1 properly written with two ,chinese characters signifying sweet dew4 ,the real meaning is amrita1 the drink of the gods4 ,,viii ,you1 till a hundred years2 ,i1 until nine and ninety2 ,together we still shall be in the time when the hair turns white4 ,,ix ,seeing the face1 at once the folly ,i wanted to utter ,all melts out of my thought1 and somehow the tears come first6#g ,footnote #g3 ,iitai guchi say ,kao miriya kiyt ,tokakii namida ga ,saki ni deru4 ,the use of tokaku 7somehow1 for some reason or other7 gives a peculiar pathos to the utterance4 ,x ,crying for joy made wet my sleeve that dries too quickly2 ',t is not the same with the heart1--that cannot dry so soon6 ,,xi ,to ,heaven with all my soul ,i prayed to prevent your going2 ,already1 to keep you with me1 answers the blessed rain4 ,so passes the period of illusion4 ,the rest is doubt and pain2 only the love remains to challenge even death3-- ,i ,parted from you1 my beloved1 ,i go alone to the pine-field2 ,there is dew of night on the leaves2 there is also dew of tears4 ,,ii ,even to see the birds flying freely above me ,only deepens my sorrow1--makes me thoughtful the more4 ,,iii ,coming8 or coming not8 ,far down the river gazing1 --,only yomogi shadows#h astir in the bed of the stream4 ,footnote #h3 ,the plant yomogi 7,artemisia vulgaris7 grows wild in many of the half-dry beds of the ,japanese rivers4 ,,iv ,letters come by the post2 photographs give me the shadow6 ,only one thing remains which ,i cannot hope to gain4 ,v ,if ,i may not see the face1 but only look at the letter1 ,then it were better far only in dreams to see4 ,,vi ,though his body were broken to pieces1 though his bones on the shore were bleaching1 ,i would find my way to rejoin him1 after gathering up the bones4#i ,footnote #i3 ,mi wa kuda kuda ni ,hon we isob ni ,sarasoto mama yo ,hiroi atsumt ,st misho4 ,the only song of this form in the collection4 ,the use of the verb soi implies union as husband and wife4 ,,iii ,thus was it that these little songs1 composed in different generations and in different parts of ,japan by various persons1 seemed to shape themselves for me into the ghost of a romance1--into the shadow of a story needing no name of time or place or person1 because eternally the same1 in all times and places4 99 ,manyemon asks which of the songs ,i like best2 and ,i turn over his manuscript again to see if ,i can make a choice4 ,without1 in the bright spring air1 the washers are working2 and ,i hear the heavy pon-pon of the beating of wet robes1 regular as the beating of a heart4 ,suddenly1 as ,i muse1 the voice of the boy soars up in one long1 clear1 shrill1 splendid rocket-tone1--and breaks1--and softly trembles down in coruscations of fractional notes2 singing the song that ,manyemon remembers hearing when he himself was a boy3-- ,things never changed since the ,time of the ,gods3 ,the flowing of water1 the ,way of ,love4 ,i think that is the best1 ,i said4 ,it is the soul of all the rest4 ,hin no nusubito1 koi no uta1 interpretatively murmurs ,manyemon4 ,even as out of poverty comes the thief1 so out of love the song6 ,,iii ,,notes ,,of ,a ,,trip ,,to ,,ky,,to ,i ,it had been intended to celebrate in spring the eleven hundredth anniversary of the foundation of ,kyto2 but the outbreak of pestilence caused postponement of the festival to the autumn1 and the celebration began on the #aeth of the tenth month4 ,little festival medals of nickel1 made to be pinned to the breast1 like military decorations1 were for sale at half a yen each4 ,these medals entitled the wearers to special cheap fares on all the ,japanese railroad and steamship lines1 and to other desirable privileges1 such as free entrance to wonderful palaces1 gardens1 and temples4 ,on the #bc;d of ,october ,i found myself in possession of a medal1 and journeying to ,kyoto by the first morning train1 which was over-crowded with people eager to witness the great historical processions announced for the #bdth and #beth4 ,many had to travel standing1 but the crowd was good-natured and merry4 ,a number of my fellow-passengers were ,osaka geisha going to the festival4 ,they diverted themselves by singing songs and by playing ken with some male acquaintances1 and their kittenish pranks and funny cries kept everybody amused4 ,one had an extraordinary voice1 with which she could twitter like a sparrow4 ,you can always tell by the voices of women conversing anywhere--in a hotel1 for example--if there happen to be any geisha among them1 because the peculiar timbre given by professional training is immediately recognizable4 ,the wonderful character of that training1 however1 is fairly manifested only when the really professional tones of the voice are used1--falsetto tones1 never touching1 but often curiously sweet4 ,now1 the street singers1 the poor blind women who sing ballads with the natural voice only1 use tones that draw tears4 ,the voice is generally a powerful contralto2 and the deep tones are the tones that touch4 ,the falsetto tones of the geisha rise into a treble above the natural range of the adult voice1 and as penetrating as a bird's4 ,in a banquet-hall full of guests1 you can distinctly hear1 above all the sound of drums and samisen and chatter and laughter1 the thin1 sweet cry of the geisha playing ken1-- ,futats6 futats6 futats6-- while you may be quite unable to hear the shouted response of the man she plays with1-- ,mits6 mits6 mits6 ,,ii ,the first surprise with which ,kyoto greeted her visitors was the beauty of her festival decorations4 ,every street had been prepared for illumination4 ,before each house had been planted a new lantern-post of unpainted wood1 from which a lantern bearing some appropriate design was suspended4 ,there were also national flags and sprigs of pine above each entrance4 ,but the lanterns made the charm of the display4 ,in each section of street they were of the same form1 and were fixed at exactly the same height1 and were protected from possible bad weather by the same kind of covering4 ,but in different streets the lanterns were different4 ,in some of the wide thoroughfares they were very large2 and while in some streets each was sheltered by a little wooden awning1 in others every lantern had a ,japanese paper umbrella spread and fastened above it4 ,there was no pageant on the morning of my arrival1 and ,i spent a couple of hours delightfully at the festival exhibition of kakemono in the imperial summer palace called ,omuro ,gosho4 ,unlike the professional art display which ,i had seen in the spring1 this represented chiefly the work of students2 and ,i found it incomparably more original and attractive4 ,nearly all the pictures1 thousands in number1 were for sale1 at prices ranging from three to fifty yen2 and it was impossible not to buy to the limit of one's purse4 ,there were studies of nature evidently made on the spot3 such as a glimpse of hazy autumn rice-fields1 with dragonflies darting over the drooping grain2 maples crimsoning above a tremendous gorge2 ranges of peaks steeped in morning mist2 and a peasant's cottage perched on the verge of some dizzy mountain road4 ,also there were fine bits of realism1 such as a cat seizing a mouse in the act of stealing the offerings placed in a ,buddhist household shrine4 ,but ,i have no intention to try the reader's patience with a description of pictures4 ,i mention my visit to the display only because of something ,i saw there more interesting than any picture4 ,near the main entrance was a specimen of handwriting1 intended to be mounted as a kakemono later on1 and temporarily fixed upon a board about three feet long by eighteen inches wide1--a ,japanese poem4 ,it was a wonder of calligraphy4 ,instead of the usual red stamp or seal with which the ,japanese calligrapher marks his masterpieces1 ,i saw the red imprint of a tiny1 tiny hand1--a living hand1 which had been smeared with crimson printing-ink and deftly pressed upon the paper4 ,i could distinguish those little finger-marks of which ,mr4 ,galton has taught us the characteristic importance4 ,that writing had been done in the presence of ,his ,imperial ,majesty by a child of six years1--or of five1 according to our ,western method of computing age from the date of birth4 ,the prime minister1 ,marquis ,ito1 saw the miracle1 and adopted the little boy1 whose present name is therefore ,ito ,medzui4 ,even ,japanese observers could scarcely believe the testimony of their own eyes4 ,few adult calligraphers could surpass that writing4 ,certainly no ,occidental artist1 even after years of study1 could repeat the feat performed by the brush of that child before the ,emperor4 ,of course such a child can be born but once in a thousand years1--to realize1 or almost realize1 the ancient ,chinese legends of divinely inspired writers4 ,still1 it was not the beauty of the thing in itself which impressed me1 but the weird1 extraordinary1 indubitable proof it afforded of an inherited memory so vivid as to be almost equal to the recollection of former births4 ,generations of dead calligraphers revived in the fingers of that tiny hand4 ,the thing was never the work of an individual child five years old1 but beyond all question the work of ghosts1--the countless ghosts that make the compound ancestral soul4 ,it was proof visible and tangible of psychological and physiological wonders justifying both the ,shinto doctrine of ancestor worship and the ,buddhist doctrine of prexistence4 ,,iii ,after looking at all the pictures ,i visited the great palace garden1 only recently opened to the public4 ,it is called the ,garden of the ,cavern of the ,genii4 7,at least genii is about the only word one can use to translate the term ,sennin1 for which there is no real ,english equivalent2 the ,sennin1 who are supposed to possess immortal life1 and to haunt forests or caverns1 being ,japanese1 or rather ,chinese mythological transformations of the ,indian ,rishi47 ,the garden deserves its name4 ,i felt as if ,i had indeed entered an enchanted place4 ,it is a landscape-garden1--a ,buddhist creation1 belonging to what is now simply a palace1 but was once a monastery1 built as a religious retreat for emperors and princes weary of earthly vanities4 ,the first impression received after passing the gate is that of a grand old ,english park3 the colossal trees1 the shorn grass1 the broad walks1 the fresh sweet scent of verdure1 all awaken ,english memories4 ,but as you proceed farther these memories are slowly effaced1 and the true ,oriental impression defines3 you perceive that the forms of those mighty trees are not ,european2 various and surprising exotic details reveal themselves2 and then you are gazing down upon a sheet of water containing high rocks and islets connected by bridges of the strangest shapes4 ,gradually1--only gradually1--the immense charm1 the weird ,buddhist charm of the place1 grows and grows upon you2 and the sense of its vast antiquity defines to touch that chord of the aesthetic feeling which brings the vibration of awe4 ,considered as a human work alone1 the garden is a marvel3 only the skilled labor of thousands could have joined together the mere bones of it1 the prodigious rocky skeleton of its plan4 ,this once shaped and earthed and planted1 ,nature was left alone to finish the wonder4 ,working through ten centuries1 she has surpassed--nay1 unspeakably magnified--the dream of the artist4 ,without exact information1 no stranger unfamiliar with the laws and the purpose of ,japanese garden-construction could imagine that all this had a human designer some thousand years ago3 the effect is that of a section of primeval forest1 preserved untouched from the beginning1 and walled away from the rest of the world in the heart of the old capital4 ,the rock-faces1 the great fantastic roots1 the shadowed by-paths1 the few ancient graven monoliths1 are all cushioned with the moss of ages2 and climbing things have developed stems a foot thick1 that hang across spaces like monstrous serpents4 ,parts of the garden vividly recall some aspects of tropical nature in the ,antilles2--though one misses the palms1 the bewildering web and woof of lianas1 the reptiles1 and the sinister day-silence of a ,west ,indian forest4 ,the joyous storm of bird life overhead is an astonishment1 and proclaims gratefully to the visitor that the wild creatures of this monastic paradise have never been harmed or frightened by man4 ,as ,i arrived at last1 with regret1 at the gate of exit1 ,i could not help feeling envious of its keeper3 only to be a servant in such a garden were a privilege well worth praying for4 ,,iv ,feeling hungry1 ,i told my runner to take me to a restaurant1 because the hotel was very far2 and the kuruma bore me into an obscure street1 and halted before a rickety-looking house with some misspelled ,english painted above the entrance4 ,i remember only the word forign4 ,after taking off my shoes ,i climbed three flights of breakneck stairs1 or rather ladders1 to find in the third story a set of rooms furnished in foreign style4 ,the windows were glass2 the linen was satisfactory2 the only things ,japanese were the mattings and a welcome smoking-box4 ,american chromo-lithographs decorated the walls4 ,nevertheless1 ,i suspected that few foreigners had ever been in the house3 it existed by sending out ,western cooking1 in little tin boxes1 to native hotels2 and the rooms had doubtless been fitted up for ,japanese visitors4 ,i noticed that the plates1 cups1 and other utensils bore the monogram of a long-defunct ,english hotel which used to exist in one of the open ports4 ,the dinner was served by nice-looking girls1 who had certainly been trained by somebody accustomed to foreign service2 but their innocent curiosity and extreme shyness convinced me that they had never waited upon a real foreigner before4 ,suddenly ,i observed on a table at the other end of the room something resembling a music-box1 and covered with a piece of crochet-work6 ,i went to it1 and discovered the wreck of a herophone4 ,there were plenty of perforated musical selections4 ,i fixed the crank in place1 and tried to extort the music of a ,german song1 entitled ,five ,hundred ,thousand ,devils4 ,the herophone gurgled1 moaned1 roared for a moment1 sobbed1 roared again1 and relapsed into silence4 ,i tried a number of other selections1 including ,les ,cloches de ,corneville2 but the noises produced were in all cases about the same4 ,evidently the thing had been bought1 together with the monogram-bearing delft and britannia ware1 at some auction sale in one of the foreign settlements4 ,there was a queer melancholy in the experience1 difficult to express4 ,one must have lived in ,japan to understand why the thing appeared so exiled1 so pathetically out of place1 so utterly misunderstood4 ,our harmonized ,western music means simply so much noise to the average ,japanese ear2 and ,i felt quite sure that the internal condition of the herophone remained unknown to its ,oriental proprietor4 99 ,an equally singular but more pleasant experience awaited me on the road back to the hotel4 ,i halted at a second-hand furniture shop to look at some curiosities1 and perceived1 among a lot of old books1 a big volume bearing in letters of much-tarnished gold the title1 ,,atlantic ,,monthly4 ,looking closer1 ,i saw ,vol4 ,v4 ,boston3 ,ticknor ,fields4 #ahfj4 ,volumes of ,the ,atlantic of #ahfj are not common anywhere4 ,i asked the price2 and the ,japanese shopkeeper said fifty sen1 because it was a very large book4 ,i was much too pleased to think of bargaining with him1 and secured the prize4 ,i looked through its stained pages for old friends1 and found them1--all anonymous in #ahfe1 many world-famous in #ahie4 ,there were installments of ,elsie ,venner1 under the title of ,the ,professor's ,story2 chapters of ,roba di ,roma2 a poem called ,pythagoras1 but since renamed ,metempsychosis1 as lovers of ,thomas ,bailey ,aldrich are doubtless aware2 the personal narrative of a filibuster with ,walker in ,nicaragua2 admirable papers upon the ,maroons of ,jamaica and the ,maroons of ,surinam2 and1 among other precious things1 an essay on ,japan1 opening with the significant sentence1 ,the arrival in this country of an embassy from ,japan1 the first political delegation ever vouchsafed to a foreign nation by that reticent and jealous people1 is now a topic of universal interest4 ,a little farther on1 some popular misapprehensions of the period were thus corrected3 ,although now known to be entirely distinct1 the ,chinese and ,japanese 444 were for a long time looked upon as kindred races1 and esteemed alike4444 ,we find that while1 on close examination1 the imagined attractions of ,china disappear1 those of ,japan become more definite4 ,any ,japanese of this self-assertive twenty-eighth year of ,meiji could scarcely find fault with ,the ,atlantic's estimate of his country thirty-five years ago3 ,its commanding position1 its wealth1 its commercial resources1 and the quick intelligence of its people1--not at all inferior to that of the people of the ,west1 although naturally restricted in its development1--give to ,japan 444 an importance far above that of any other ,eastern country4 ,the only error of this generous estimate was an error centuries old1--the delusion of ,japan's wealth4 ,what made me feel a little ancient was to recognize in the quaint spellings ,ziogoon1 ,tycoon1 ,sintoo1 ,kiusiu1 ,fide-yosi1 ,nobanunga1--spellings of the old ,dutch and old ,jesuit writers1--the modern and familiar ,shgun1 ,taikun1 ,shint1 ,kysh1 ,hideyoshi1 and ,nobunaga4 99 ,i passed the evening wandering through the illuminated streets1 and visited some of the numberless shows4 ,i saw a young man writing ,buddhist texts and drawing horses with his feet2 the extraordinary fact about the work being that the texts were written backwards1--from the bottom of the column up1 just as an ordinary calligrapher would write them from the top of the column down1--and the pictures of horses were always commenced with the tail4 ,i saw a kind of amphitheatre1 with an aquarium in lieu of arena1 where mermaids swam and sang ,japanese songs4 ,i saw maidens made by glamour out of flowers by a ,japanese cultivator of ,chrysanthemums4 ,and between whiles ,i peeped into the toy-shops1 full of novelties1 ,what there especially struck me was the display of that astounding ingenuity by which ,japanese inventors are able to reach1 at a cost too small to name1 precisely the same results as those exhibited in our expensive mechanical toys4 ,a group of cocks and hens made of paper were set to pecking imaginary grain out of a basket by the pressure of a bamboo spring1--the whole thing costing half a cent4 ,an artificial mouse ran about1 doubling and scurrying1 as if trying to slip under mats or into chinks3 it cost only one cent1 and was made with a bit of colored paper1 a spool of baked clay1 and a long thread2 you had only to pull the thread1 and the mouse began to run4 ,butterflies of paper1 moved by an equally simple device1 began to fly when thrown into the air4 ,an artificial cuttlefish began to wriggle all its tentacles when you blew into a little rush tube fixed under its head4 ,when ,i decided to return1 the lanterns were out1 the shops were closing2 and the streets darkened about me long before ,i reached the hotel4 ,after the great glow of the illumination1 the witchcrafts of the shows1 the merry tumult1 the sea-like sound of wooden sandals1 this sudden coming of blankness and silence made me feel as if the previous experience had been unreal1--an illusion of light and color and noise made just to deceive1 as in stories of goblin foxes4 ,but the quick vanishing of all that composes a ,japanese festival-night really lends a keener edge to the pleasure of remembrance3 there is no slow fading out of the phantasmagoria1 and its memory is thus kept free from the least tinge of melancholy4 ,v ,while ,i was thinking about the fugitive charm of ,japanese amusements1 the question put itself1 ,are not all pleasures keen in proportion to their evanescence8 ,proof of the affirmative would lend strong support to the ,buddhist theory of the nature of pleasure4 ,we know that mental enjoyments are powerful in proportion to the complexity of the feelings and ideas composing them2 and the most complex feelings would therefore seem to be of necessity the briefest4 ,at all events1 ,japanese popular pleasures have the double peculiarity of being evanescent and complex1 not merely because of their delicacy and their multiplicity of detail1 but because this delicacy and multiplicity are adventitious1 depending upon temporary conditions and combinations4 ,among such conditions are the seasons of flowering and of fading1 hours of sunshine or full moon1 a change of place1 a shifting of light and shade4 ,among combinations are the fugitive holiday manifestations of the race genius3 fragilities utilized to create illusion2 dreams made visible2 memories revived in symbols1 images1 ideographs1 dashes of color1 fragments of melody2 countless minute appeals both to individual experience and to national sentiment4 ,and the emotional result remains incommunicable to ,western minds1 because the myriad little details and suggestions producing it belong to a world incomprehensible without years of familiarity1--a world of traditions1 beliefs1 superstitions1 feelings1 ideas1 about which foreigners1 as a general rule1 know nothing4 ,even by the few who do know that world1 the nameless delicious sensation1 the great vague wave of pleasure excited by the spectacle of ,japanese enjoyment1 can only be described as the feeling of ,japan4 99 ,a sociological fact of interest is suggested by the amazing cheapness of these pleasures4 ,the charm of ,japanese life presents us with the extraordinary phenomenon of poverty as an influence in the development of aesthetic sentiment1 or at least as a factor in deciding the direction and expansion of that development4 ,but for poverty1 the race could not have discovered1 ages ago1 the secret of making pleasure the commonest instead of the costliest of experiences1--the divine art of creating the beautiful out of nothing6 ,one explanation of this cheapness is the capacity of the people to find in everything natural--in landscapes1 mists1 clouds1 sunsets1--in the sight of birds1 insects1 and flowers--a much keener pleasure than we1 as the vividness of their artistic presentations of visual experience bears witness4 ,another explanation is that the national religions and the old-fashioned education have so developed imaginative power that it can be stirred into an activity of delight by anything1 however trifling1 able to suggest the traditions or the legends of the past4 ,perhaps ,japanese cheap pleasures might be broadly divided into those of time and place furnished by nature with the help of man1 and those of time and place invented by man at the suggestion of nature4 ,the former class can be found in every province1 and yearly multiply4 ,some locality is chosen on hill or coast1 by lake or river3 gardens are made1 trees planted1 resting-houses built to command the finest points of view2 and the wild site is presently transformed into a place of pilgrimage for pleasure-seekers4 ,one spot is famed for cherry-trees1 another for maples1 another for wistaria2 and each of the seasons--even snowy winter--helps to make the particular beauty of some resort4 ,the sites of the most celebrated temples1 or at least of the greater number of them1 were thus selected1--always where the beauty of nature could inspire and aid the work of the religious architect1 and where it still has power to make many a one wish that he could become a ,buddhist or ,shinto priest4 ,religion1 indeed1 is everywhere in ,japan associated with famous scenery3 with landscapes1 cascades1 peaks1 rocks1 islands2 with the best places from which to view the blossoming of flowers1 the reflection of the autumn moon on water1 or the sparkling of fireflies on summer nights4 ,decorations1 illuminations1 street displays of every sort1 but especially those of holy days1 compose a large part of the pleasures of city life which all can share4 ,the appeals thus made to aesthetic fancy at festivals represent the labor1 perhaps1 of tens of thousands of hands and brains2 but each individual contributor to the public effort works according to his particular thought and taste1 even while obeying old rides1 so that the total ultimate result is a wondrous1 a bewildering1 an incalculable variety4 ,anybody can contribute to such an occasion2 and everybody does1 for the cheapest material is used4 ,paper1 straw1 or stone makes no real difference2 the art sense is superbly independent of the material4 ,what shapes that material is perfect comprehension of something natural1 something real4 ,whether a blossom made of chicken feathers1 a clay turtle or duck or sparrow1 a pasteboard cricket or man-tis or frog1 the idea is fully conceived and exactly realized4 ,spiders of mud seem to be spinning webs2 butterflies of paper delude the eye4 ,no models are needed to work from2--or rather1 the model in every case is only the precise memory of the object or living fact4 ,i asked at a doll-maker's for twenty tiny paper dolls1 each with a different coiffure1--the whole set to represent the principal ,kyoto styles of dressing women's hair4 ,a girl went to work with white paper1 paint1 paste1 thin slips of pine2 and the dolls were finished in about the same time that an artist would have taken to draw a similar number of such figures4 ,the actual time needed was only enough for the necessary digital movements1--not for correcting1 comparing1 improving3 the image in the brain realized itself as fast as the slender hands could ,work4 ,thus most of the wonders of festival nights are created3 toys thrown into existence with a twist of the fingers1 old rags turned into figured draperies with a few motions of the brush1 pictures made with sand4 ,the same power of enchantment puts human grace under contribution4 ,children who on other occasions would attract no attention are converted into fairies by a few deft touches of paint and powder1 and costumes devised for artificial light4 ,artistic sense of line and color suffices for any transformation4 ,the tones of decoration are never of chance1 but of knowledge3 even the lantern illuminations prove this fact1 certain tints only being used in combination4 ,but the whole exhibition is as evanescent as it is wonderful4 ,it vanishes much too quickly to be found fault with4 ,it is a mirage that leaves you marveling and dreaming for a month after having seen it4 99 ,perhaps one inexhaustible source of the contentment1 the simple happiness1 belonging to ,japanese common life is to be found in this universal cheapness of pleasure4 ,the delight of the eyes is for everybody4 ,not the seasons only nor the festivals furnish enjoyment3 almost any quaint street1 any truly ,japanese interior1 can give real pleasure to the poorest servant who works without wages4 ,the beautiful1 or the suggestion of the beautiful1 is free as air4 ,besides1 no man or woman can be too poor to own something pretty2 no child need be without delightful toys4 ,conditions in the ,occident are otherwise4 ,in our great cities1 beauty is for the rich2 bare walls and foul pavements and smoky skies for our poor1 and the tumult of hideous machinery1--a hell of eternal ugliness and joylessness invented by our civilization to punish the atrocious crime of being unfortunate1 or weak1 or stupid1 or overconfident in the morality of one's fellow-man4 ,,vi ,when ,i went out1 next morning1 to view the great procession1 the streets were packed so full of people that it seemed impossible for anybody to go anywhere4 ,nevertheless1 all were moving1 or rather circulating2 there was a universal gliding and slipping1 as of fish in a shoal4 ,i find no difficulty in getting through the apparently solid press of heads and shoulders to the house of a friendly merchant1 about half a mile away4 ,how any crowd could be packed so closely1 and yet move so freely1 is a riddle to which ,japanese character alone can furnish the key4 ,i was not once rudely jostled4 ,but ,japanese crowds are not all alike3 there are some through which an attempt to pass would be attended with unpleasant consequences4 ,of course the yielding fluidity of any concourse is in proportion to its gentleness2 but the amount of that gentleness in ,japan varies greatly according to locality4 ,in the central and eastern provinces the kindliness of a crowd seems to be proportionate to its inexperience of the new civilization4 ,this vast gathering1 of probably not less than a million persons1 was astonishingly good-natured and good-humored1 because the majority of those composing it were simple country folk4 ,when the police finally made a lane for the procession1 the multitude at once arranged itself in the least egotistical manner possible1--little children to the front1 adults to the rear4 ,though announced for nine o'clock1 the procession did not appear till nearly eleven2 and the long waiting in those densely packed streets must have been a strain even upon ,buddhist patience4 ,i was kindly given a kneeling-cushion in the front room of the merchant's house2 but although the cushion was of the softest and the courtesy shown me of the sweetest1 ,i became weary of the immobile posture at last1 and went out into the crowd1 where ,i could vary the experience of waiting by standing first oh one foot1 and then on the other4 ,before thus deserting my post1 however1 ,i had the privilege of seeing some very charming ,kyto ladies1 including a princess1 among the merchant's guests4 ,kyto is famous for the beauty of its women2 and the most charming ,japanese woman ,i ever saw was in that house1--not the princess1 but the shy young bride of the merchant's eldest son4 ,that the proverb about beauty being only skin-deep is but a skin-deep saying ,herbert ,spencer has amply proved by the laws of physiology2 and the same laws show that grace has a much more profound significance than beauty4 ,the charm of the bride was just that rare form of grace which represents the economy of force in the whole framework of the physical structure1--- the grace that startles when first seen1 and appears more and more wonderful every time it is again looked at4 ,it is very seldom indeed that one sees in ,japan a pretty woman who would look equally pretty in another than her own beautiful national attire4 ,what we usually call grace in ,japanese women is daintiness of form and manner rather than what a ,greek would have termed grace4 ,in this instance1 one felt assured that long1 light1 slender1 fine1 faultlessly knit figure would ennoble any costume3 there was just that suggestion of pliant elegance which the sight of a young bamboo gives when the wind is blowing4 99 ,to describe the procession in detail would needlessly tire the reader2 and ,i shall venture only a few general remarks4 ,the purpose of the pageant was to represent the various official and military styles of dress worn during the great periods of the history of ,kyto1 from the time of its foundation in the eighth century to the present era of ,meiji1 and also the chief military personages of that history4 ,at least two thousand persons marched in the procession1 figuring daimy1 kug1 hatamoto1 samurai1 retainers1 carriers1 musicians1 and dancers4 ,the dancers were impersonated by geisha2 and some were attired so as to look like butterflies with big gaudy wings4 ,all the armor and the weapons1 the ancient head-dresses and robes1 were veritable relics of the past1 lent for the occasion by old families1 by professional curio-dealers1 and by private collectors4 ,the great captains--,oda ,nobunaga1 ,kato ,kiyomasa1 ,iyeyasu1 ,hideyoshi--were represented according to tradition2 a really monkey-faced man having been found to play the part of the famous ,taik4 ,while these visions of dead centuries were passing by1 the people kept perfectly silent1--which fact1 strange as the statement may seem to ,western readers1 indicated extreme pleasure4 ,it is not really in accordance with national sentiment to express applause by noisy demonstration1--by shouting and clapping of hands1 for example4 ,even the military cheer is an importation2 and the tendency to boisterous demonstrativeness in ,tky is probably as factitious as it is modern4 ,i remember two impressive silences in ,kob during #ahie4 ,the first was on the occasion of an imperial visit4 ,there was a vast crowd2 the foremost ranks knelt down as the ,emperor passed2 but there was not even a whisper4 ,the second remarkable silence was on the return of the victorious troops from ,china1 who marched under the triumphal arches erected to welcome them without hearing a syllable from the people4 ,i asked why1 and was answered1 ,we ,japanese think we can better express our feelings by silence4 ,i may here observe1 also1 that the sinister silence of the ,japanese armies before some of the late engagements terrified the clamorous ,chinese much more than the first opening of the batteries4 ,despite exceptions1 it may be stated as a general truth that the deeper the emotion1 whether of pleasure or of pain1 and the more solemn or heroic the occasion1 in ,japan1 the more naturally silent those who feel or act4 ,some foreign spectators criticised the display as spiritless1 and commented on the unheroic port of the great captains and the undisguised fatigue of their followers1 oppressed under a scorching sun by the unaccustomed weight of armor4 ,but to the ,japanese all this only made the pageant seem more real2 and ,i fully agreed with them4 ,as a matter of fact1 the greatest heroes of military history have appeared at their best in exceptional moments only2 the stoutest veterans have known fatigue2 and undoubtedly ,nobunaga and ,hideyoshi and ,kato ,kiyomasa must have more than once looked just as dusty1 and ridden or marched just as wearily1 as their representatives in the ,kyoto procession4 ,no merely theatrical idealism clouds1 for any educated ,japanese1 the sense of the humanity of his country's greatest men3 on the contrary1 it is the historical evidence of that ordinary humanity that most endears them to the common heart1 and makes by contrast more admirable and exemplary all of the inner life which was not ordinary4 99 ,after the procession ,i went to the ,dai-,kioku-,den1 the magnificent memorial ,shint temple built by the government1 and described in a former book4 ,on displaying my medal ,i was allowed to pay reverence to the spirit of good ,kwammu-,tenn1 and to drink a little rice wine in his honor1 out of a new wine-cup of pure white clay presented by a lovely child-miko4 ,after the libation1 the little priestess packed the white cup into a neat wooden box and bade me take it home for a souvenir2 one new cup being presented to every purchaser of a medal4 ,such small gifts and memories make up much of the unique pleasure of ,japanese travel4 ,in almost any town or village you1 can buy for a souvenir some pretty or curious thing made only in that one place1 and not to be found elsewhere4 ,again1 in many parts of the interior a trifling generosity is certain to be acknowledged by a present1 which1 however cheap1 will seldom fail to prove a surprise and a pleasure4 ,of all the things which ,i picked up here and there1 in traveling about the country1 the prettiest and the most beloved are queer little presents thus obtained4 ,,vii ,i wanted1 before leaving ,kyto1 to visit the tomb of ,yuko ,hatakeyama4 ,after having vainly inquired of several persons where she was buried1 it occurred to me to ask a ,buddhist priest who had come to the hotel on some parochial business4 ,he answered at once1 ,in the cemetery of ,makkeiji4 ,makkeiji was a temple not mentioned in guide-books1 and situated somewhere at the outskirts of the city4 ,i took a kuruma forthwith1 and found myself at the temple gate after about half an hour's run4 ,a priest1 to whom ,i announced the purpose of my visit1 conducted me to the cemetery1--a very large one1--and pointed out the grave4 ,the sun of a cloudless autumn day flooded everything with light1 and tinged with spectral gold the face of a monument on which ,i saw1 in beautiful large characters very deeply cut1 the girl's name1 with the ,buddhist prefix ,retsujo1 signifying chaste and true1-- ,,retsujo ,,hatakeyama ,,yuko ,,haka4 ,the grave was well kept1 and the grass had been recently trimmed4 ,a little wooden awning3 erected in front of the stone sheltered the offerings of flowers and sprays of shikimi1 and a cup of fresh water4 ,i did sincere reverence to the heroic and unselfish spirit1 and pronounced the customary formula4 ,some other visitors1 ,i noticed1 saluted the spirit after the ,shint manner4 ,the tombstones were so thickly crowded about the spot that1 in order to see the back of the monument1 ,i found ,i should have to commit the rudeness of stepping on the grave4 ,but ,i felt sure she would forgive me2 so1 treading reverently1 ,i passed round1 and copied the inscription3 ,yuko1 of ,nagasagori1 ,kamagawamachi 444 from day of birth always good4444 ,meiji1 the twenty-fourth year1 the fifth month1 the twentieth day 444 cause of sorrow the country having 444 the ,kyto government-house to went 444 and her own throat cut 444 twenty and seven years 444 ,tani ,tetsuomi made 444 ,kyto-folk-by erected this stone is4 ,the ,buddhist ,kaimy read1 ,gi-yu-in-ton-shi-chu-my-ky--apparently signifying1 ,right-meaning and valiant woman1 instantly attaining to the admirable doctrine of loyalty4 99 ,in the temple1 the priest showed me the relics and mementos of the tragedy3 a small ,japanese razor1 blood-crusted1 with the once white soft paper thickly wrapped round its handle caked into one hard red mass2 the cheap purse2 the girdle and clothing1 blood-stiffened 7all except the kimono1 washed by order of the police before having been given to the temple72 letters and memoranda2 photographs1 which ,i secured1 of ,yuko and her tomb2 also a photograph of the gathering in the cemetery1 where the funeral rites were performed by ,shint priests4 ,this fact interested me2 for1 although condoned by ,buddhism1 the suicide could not have been regarded in the same light by the two faiths4 ,the clothing was coarse and cheap3 the girl had pawned her best effects to cover the expenses of her journey and her burial4 ,i bought a little book containing the story of her life and death1 copies of her last letters1 poems written about her by various persons1--some of very high rank1--and a clumsy portrait4 ,in the photographs of ,yuko and her relatives there was nothing remarkable3 such types you can meet with every day and anywhere in ,japan4 ,the interest of the book was psychological only1 as regarded both the author and the subject4 ,the printed letters of ,yuko revealed that strange state of ,japanese exaltation in which the mind remains capable of giving all possible attention to the most trivial matters of fact1 while the terrible purpose never slackens4 ,the memoranda gave like witness3-- ,meiji twenty-fourth year1 fifth month1 eighteenth day4 #e sen to kurumaya from ,nihonbashi to ,uyeno4 ,nineteenth day4 #e sen to kurumaya to ,asakusa ,umamachi4 #a sen #e rin for sharpening something to hair-dresser in ,shitaya4 #aj yen received from ,sano1 the pawnbroker in ,baba4 #bj sen for train to ,shincho4 #a yen #b sen for train from ,hama to ,shidzuoka4 ,twentieth day4 #b yen #i sen for train from ,shidzuoka to ,hama4 #f sen for postage-stamps for two letters4 #ad sen in ,kiyomidzu4 #ab sen #e rin for umbrella given to kurumaya4 ,but in strange contrast to the methodical faculty thus manifested was the poetry of a farewell letter1 containing such thoughts as these3-- ,the eighty-eighth night that is1 from the festival of the ,setsubun having passed like a dream1 ice changed itself into clear drops1 and snow gave place to rain4 ,then cherry-blossoms came to please everybody2 but now1 poor things6 they begin to fall even before the wind touches them4 ,again a little while1 and the wind will make them fly through the bright air in the pure spring weather4 ,yet it may be that the hearts of those who love me will not be bright1 will feel no pleasant spring4 ,the season of rains will come next1 and there will be no joy in their hearts4444 ,oh6 what shall ,i do8 ,there has been no moment in which ,i have not thought of you4444 ,but all ice1 all snow1 becomes at last free water2 the incense buds of the kiku will open even in frost4 ,i pray you1 think later about these things4444 ,even now1 for me1 is the time of frost1 the time of kiku buds3 if only they can blossom1 perhaps ,i shall please you much4 ,placed in this world of sorrow1 but not to stay1 is the destiny of all4 ,i beseech you1 think me not unfilial2 say to none that you have lost me1 that ,i have passed into the darkness4 ,bather wait and hope for the fortunate time that shall come4 99 ,the editor of the pamphlet betrayed rather too much of the ,oriental manner of judging woman1 even while showering generous praise upon one typical woman4 ,in a letter to the authorities ,yuko had spoken of a family claim1 and this was criticised as a feminine weakness4 ,she had1 indeed1 achieved the extinction of personal selfishness1 but she had been very foolish to speak about her family4 ,in some other ways the book was disappointing4 ,under the raw1 strong light of its commonplace revelations1 my little sketch1 ,yuko1 written in #ahid1 seemed for the moment much too romantic4 ,and yet the real poetry of the event remained unlessened1--the pure ideal that impelled a girl to take her own life merely to give proof of the love and loyalty of a nation4 ,no small1 mean1 dry facts could ever belittle that large fact4 ,the sacrifice had stirred the feelings of the nation much more than it had touched my own4 ,thousands of photographs of ,yuko and thousands of copies of the little book about her were sold4 ,multitudes visited her tomb and made offerings there1 and gazed with tender reverence at the relics in ,makkeiji2 and all this1 ,i thought1 for the best of reasons4 ,if commonplace facts are repellent to what we are pleased1 in the ,west1 to call refined feeling1 it is proof that the refinement is factitious and the feeling shallow4 ,to the ,japanese1 who recognize that the truth of beauty belongs to the inner being1 commonplace details are precious3 they help to accentuate and verify the conception of a heroism4 ,those poor blood-stained trifles--the coarse honest robes and girdle1 the little cheap purse1 the memoranda of a visit to the pawnbroker1 the glimpses of plain1 humble1 every-day humanity shown by the letters and the photographs and the infinitesimal precision of police records--all serve1 like so much ocular evidence1 to perfect the generous comprehension of the feeling that made the fact4 ,had ,yuko been the most beautiful person in ,japan1 and her people of the highest rank1 the meaning of her sacrifice would have been far less intimately felt4 ,in actual life1 as a general rule1 it is the common1 not the uncommon person who does noble things2 and the people1 seeing best1 by the aid of ordinary facts1 what is heroic in one of their own class1 feel themselves honored4 ,many of us in the ,west will have to learn our ethics over again from the common people4 ,our cultivated classes have lived so long in an atmosphere of false idealism1 mere conventional humbug1 that the real1 warm1 honest human emotions seem to them vulgar2 and the natural and inevitable punishment is inability to see1 to hear1 to feel1 and to think4 ,there is more truth in the little verse poor ,yuko wrote on the back of her mirror than in most of our conventional idealism3-- ,by one keeping the heart free from stain1 virtue and right and wrong are seen clearly as forms in a mirror4 ,,viii ,i returned by another way1 through a quarter which ,i had never seen before1--all temples4 ,a district of great spaces1--vast and beautiful and hushed as by enchantment4 ,no dwellings or shops4 ,pale yellow walls only1 sloping back from the roadway on both sides1 like fortress walls1 but coped with a coping or rootlet of blue tiles2 and above these yellow sloping walls 7pierced with elfish gates at long1 long intervals71 great soft hilly masses of foliage--cedar and pine and bamboo--with superbly curved roofs sweeping up through them4 ,each vista of those silent streets of temples1 bathed in the gold of the autumn afternoon1 gave me just such a thrill of pleasure as one feels on finding in some poem the perfect utterance of a thought one has tried for years in vain to express4 ,yet what was the charm made with8 ,the wonderful walls were but painted mud2 the gates and the temples only frames of wood supporting tiles2 the shrubbery1 the stonework1 the lotus-ponds1 mere landscape-gardening4 ,nothing solid1 nothing enduring2 but a combination so beautiful of lines and colors and shadows that no speech could paint it4 ,nay6 even were those earthen walls turned into lemon-colored marble1 and their tiling into amethyst2 even were the material of the temples transformed into substance precious as that of the palace described in the ,sutra of the ,great ,king of ,glory1--still the aesthetic suggestion1 the dreamy repose1 the mellow loveliness and softness of the scene1 could not be in the least enhanced4 ,perhaps it is just because the material of such creation is so frail that its art is so marvelous4 ,the most wonderful architecture1 the most entrancing landscapes1 are formed with substance the most imponderable1--the substance of clouds4 ,but those who think of beauty only in connection with costliness1 with stability1 with firm reality1 should never look for it in this land1--well called the ,land of ,sunrise1 for sunrise is the hour of illusions4 ,nothing is more lovely than a ,japanese village among the hills or by the coast when seen just after sunrise1--through the slowly lifting blue mists of a spring or autumn morning4 ,but for the matter-of-fact observer1 the enchantment passes with the vapors3 in the raw1 clear light he can find no palaces of amethyst1 no sails of gold1 but only flimsy sheds of wood and thatch and the unpainted queerness of wooden junks4 ,so perhaps it is with all that makes life beautiful in any land4 ,to view men or nature with delight1 we must see them through illusions1 subjective or objective4 ,how they appear to us depends upon the ethical conditions within us4 ,nevertheless1 the real and the unreal are equally illusive in themselves4 ,the vulgar and the rare1 the seemingly transient and the seemingly enduring1 are all alike mere ghostliness4 ,happiest he who1 from birth to death1 sees ever through some beautiful haze of the soul1--best of all1 that haze of love which1 like the radiance of this ,orient day1 turns common things to gold4 ,,iv ,,dust ,let the ,bodhisattva look upon all things as having the nature of space1--as permanently equal to space2 without essence1 without substantiality4--,,saddharma-,,pundar,,k a4 ,i have wandered to the verge of the town2 and the street ,i followed has roughened into a country road1 and begins to curve away through rice-fields toward a hamlet at the foot of the hills4 ,between town and rice-fields a vague unoccupied stretch of land makes a favorite playground for children4 ,there are trees1 and spaces of grass to roll on1 and many butterflies1 and plenty of little stones4 ,i stop to look at the children4 ,by the roadside some are amusing themselves with wet clay1 making tiny models of mountains and rivers and rice-fields2 tiny mud villages1 also1--imitations of peasants' huts1--and little mud temples1 and mud gardens with ponds and humped bridges and imitations of stone-lanterns 7tr72 likewise miniature cemeteries1 with bits of broken stone for monuments4 ,and they play at funerals1--burying corpses of butterflies and semi 7cicad71 and pretending to repeat ,buddhist sutras over the grave4 ,to-morrow they will not dare to do this2 for to-morrow will be the first day of the festival of the ,dead4 ,during that festival it is strictly forbidden to molest insects1 especially semi1 some of which have on their heads little red characters said to be names of ,souls4 ,children in all countries play at death4 ,before the sense of personal identity comes1 death cannot be seriously considered2 and childhood thinks in this regard more correctly1 perhaps1 than self-conscious maturity4 ,of course1 if these little ones were told1 some bright morning1 that a playfellow had gone away forever1--gone away to be reborn elsewhere1--there would be a very real though vague sense of loss1 and much wiping of eyes with many-colored sleeves2 but presently the loss would be forgotten and the playing resumed4 ,the idea of ceasing to exist could not possibly enter a child-mind3 the butterflies and birds1 the flowers1 the foliage1 the sweet summer itself1 only play at dying2--they seem to go1 but they all come back again after the snow is gone4 ,the real sorrow and fear of death arise in us only through slow accumulation of experience with doubt and pain2 and these little boys and girls1 being ,japanese and ,buddhists1 will never1 in any event1 feel about death just as you or ,i do4 ,they will find reason to fear it for somebody else's sake1 but not for their own1 because they will learn that they have died millions of times already1 and have forgotten the trouble of it1 much as one for-gets the pain of successive toothaches4 ,in the strangely penetrant light of their creed1 teaching the ghostliness of all substance1 granite or gossamer1--just as those lately found ,x-rays make visible the ghostliness of flesh1--this their present world1 with its bigger mountains and rivers and rice-fields1 will not appear to them much more real than the mud landscapes which they made in childhood4 ,and much more real it probably is not4 ,at which thought ,i am conscious of a sudden soft shock1 a familiar shock1 and know myself seized by the idea of ,substance as ,non-,reality4 99 ,this sense of the voidness of things comes only when the temperature of the air is so equably related to the temperature of life that ,i can forget having a body4 ,cold compels painful notions of solidity2 cold sharpens the delusion of personality2 cold quickens egotism2 cold numbs thought1 and shrivels up the little wings of dreams4 ,to-day is one of those warm1 hushed days when it is possible to think of things as they are1--when ocean1 peak1 and plain seem no more real than the arching of blue emptiness above them4 ,all is mirage1--my physical self1 and the sunlit road1 and the slow rippling of the grain under a sleepy wind1 and the thatched roofs beyond the haze of the ricefields1 and the blue crumpling of the naked hills behind everything4 ,i have the double sensation of being myself a ghost and of being haunted1--haunted by the prodigious luminous ,spectre of the ,world4 99 ,there are men and women working in those fields4 ,colored moving shadows they are2 and the earth under them--out of which they rose1 and back to which they will go--is equally shadow4 ,only the ,forces behind the shadow1 that make and unmake1 are real1--therefore viewless4 ,somewhat as ,night devours all lesser shadow will this phantasmal earth swallow us at last1 and itself thereafter vanish away4 ,but the little shadows and the ,shadow-,eater must as certainly reappear1--must rematerialize somewhere and somehow4 ,this ground beneath me is old as the ,milky ,way4 ,call it what you please1--clay1 soil1 dust3 its names are but symbols of human sensations having nothing in common with it4 ,really it is nameless and unnamable1 being a mass of energies1 tendencies1 infinite possibilities2 for it was made by the beating of that shoreless ,sea of ,birth and ,death whose surges billow unseen out of eternal ,night to burst in foam of stars4 ,lifeless it is not3 it feeds upon life1 and visible life grows out of it4 ,dust it is of ,karma1 waiting to enter into novel combinations1---dust of elder ,being in that state between birth and birth which the ,buddhist calls ,ch-,u4 ,it is made of forces1 and of nothing else2 and those forces are not of this planet only1 but of vanished spheres innumerable4 99 ,is there aught visible1 tangible1 measurable1 that has never been mixed with sentiency8--atom that has never vibrated to pleasure or to pain8--air that has never been cry or speech8--drop that has never been a tear8 ,assuredly this dust has felt4 ,it has been everything we know2 also much that we cannot know4 ,it has been nebula and star1 planet and moon1 times unspeakable4 ,deity also it has been1--the ,sun-,god of worlds that circled and worshiped in other ons4 ,remember1 ,man1 thou art but dust6--a saying profound only as materialism1 which stops short at surfaces4 ,for what is dust8 ,remember1 ,dust1 thou hast been ,sun1 and ,sun thou shalt become again6444 ,thou hast been ,light1 ,life1 ,love2--and into all these1 by ceaseless cosmic magic1 thou shalt many times be turned again6 99 ,for this ,cosmic ,apparition is more than evolution alternating with dissolution3 it is infinite metempsychosis2 it is perpetual palingenesis4 ,those old predictions of a bodily resurrection were not falsehoods2 they were rather foreshadowings of a truth vaster than all myths and deeper than all religions4 ,suns yield up their ghosts of flame2 but out of their graves new suns rush into being4 ,corpses of worlds pass all to some solar funeral pyre2 but out of their own ashes they are born again4 ,this earth must die3 her seas shall be ,saharas4 ,but those seas once existed in the sun2 and their dead tides1 revived by fire1 will pour their thunder upon the coasts of another world4 ,transmigration--transmutation3 these are not fables6 ,what is impossible8 ,not the dreams of alchemists and poets2--dross may indeed be changed to gold1 the jewel to the living eye1 the flower into flesh4 ,what is impossible8 ,if seas can pass from world to sun1 from sun to world again1 what of the dust of dead selves1--dust of memory and thought8 ,resurrection there is1--but a resurrection more stupendous than any dreamed of by ,western creeds4 ,dead emotions will revive as surely as dead suns and moons4 ,only1 so far as we can just now discern1 there will be no return of identical individualities4 ,the reapparition will always be a recombination of the preexisting1 a readjustment of affinities1 a reintegration of being informed with the experience of anterior being4 ,the ,cosmos is a ,karma4 99 ,merely by reason of illusion and folly do we shrink from the notion of self-instability4 ,for what is our individuality8 ,most certainly it is not individuality at all3 it is multiplicity incalculable4 ,what is the human body8 ,a form built up out of billions of living entities1 an impermanent agglomeration of individuals called cells4 ,and the human soul8 ,a composite of quintillions of souls4 ,we are1 each and all1 infinite compounds of fragments of anterior lives4 ,and the universal process that continually dissolves and continually constructs personality has always been going on1 and is even at this moment going on1 in every one of us4 ,what being ever had a totally new feeling1 an absolutely new idea8 ,all our emotions and thoughts and wishes1 however changing and growing through the varying seasons of life1 are only compositions and recompositions of the sensations and ideas and desires of other folk1 mostly of dead people1--millions of billions of dead people4 ,cells and souls are themselves recombinations1 present aggregations of past knittings of forces1--forces about which nothing is known save that they belong to the ,shadow-,makers of universes4 ,whether you 7by you ,i mean any other agglomeration of souls7 really wish for immortality as an agglomeration1 ,i cannot tell4 ,but ,i confess that my mind to me a kingdom is--not6 ,rather it is a fantastical republic1 daily troubled by more revolutions than ever occurred in ,south ,america2 and the nominal government1 supposed to be rational1 declares that an eternity of such anarchy is not desirable4 ,i have souls wanting to soar in air1 and souls wanting to swim in water 7sea-water1 ,i think71 and souls wanting to live in woods or on mountain tops4 ,i have souls longing for the tumult of great cities1 and souls longing to dwell in tropical solitude2--souls1 also1 in various stages of naked savagery--souls demanding nomad freedom without tribute2--souls conservative1 delicate1 loyal to empire and to feudal tradition1 and souls that are ,nihilists1 deserving ,siberia2 --sleepless souls1 hating inaction1 and hermit souls1 dwelling in such meditative isolation that only at intervals of years can ,i feel them moving about2--souls that have faith in fetiches2--polytheistic souls2--souls proclaiming ,islam2--and souls medival1 loving cloister shadow and incense and glimmer of tapers and the awful altitude of ,gothic glooms4 ,cooperation among all these is not to be thought of3 always there is trouble1--revolt1 confusion1 civil war4 ,the majority detest this state of things3 multitudes would gladly emigrate4 ,and the wiser minority feel that they need never hope for better conditions until after the total demolition of the existing social structure4 99 ,i an individual1--an individual soul6 ,nay1 ,i am a population1--a population unthinkable for multitude1 even by groups of a thousand millions6 ,generations of generations ,i am1 ons of ons6 ,countless times the concourse now making me has been scattered1 and mixed with other scatterings4 ,of what concern1 then1 the next disintegration8 ,perhaps1 after trillions of ages of burning in different dynasties of suns1 the very best of me may come together again4 99 ,if one could only imagine some explanation of the ,why6 ,the questions of the ,whence and the ,whither are much less troublesome1 since the ,present assures us1 even though vaguely1 of ,future and ,past4 ,but the ,why6 99 ,the cooing voice of a little girl dissolves my reverie4 ,she is trying to teach a child brother how to make the ,chinese character for ,man1--,i mean ,man with a big ,m4 ,first she draws in the dust a stroke sloping downwards from right to left1 so3-- ,illustration then she draws another curving downwards from left to right1 thus3-- ,illustration joining the two so as to form the perfect ji1 or character1 hito1 meaning a person of either sex1 or mankind3-- ,illustration ,then she tries to impress the idea of this shape on the baby memory by help of a practical illustration1--probably learned at school4 ,she breaks a slip of wood in two pieces1 and manages to balance the pieces against each other at about the same angle as that made by the two strokes of the character4 ,now see1 she says3 each stands only by help of the other4 ,one by itself cannot stand4 ,therefore the ji is like mankind4 ,without help one person cannot live in this world2 but by getting help and giving help everybody can live4 ,if nobody helped anybody1 all people would fall down and die4 ,this explanation is not philologically exact2 the two strokes evolutionally standing for a pair of legs1--all that survives in the modern ideograph of the whole man figured in the primitive picture-writing4 ,but the pretty moral fancy is much more important than the scientific fact4 ,it is also one charming example of that old-fashioned method of teaching which invested every form and every incident with ethical signification4 ,besides1 as a mere item of moral information1 it contains the essence of all earthly religion1 and the best part of all earthly philosophy4 ,a world-priestess she is1 this dear little maid1 with her dove's voice and her innocent gospel of one letter6 ,verily in that gospel lies the only possible present answer to ultimate problems4 ,were its whole meaning universally felt1--were its whole suggestion of the spiritual and material law of love and help universally obeyed1--forthwith1 according to the ,idealists1 this seemingly solid visible world would vanish away like smoke6 ,for it has been written that in whatsoever time all human minds accord in thought and will with the mind of the ,teacher1 there shall not remain even one particle of dust that does not enter into ,buddhahood4 ,v ,,about ,,faces ,,in ,,japanese ,,art ,i ,a very interesting essay upon the ,japanese art collections in the ,national ,library was read by ,mr4 ,edward ,strange at a meeting of the ,japan ,society held last year in ,london4 ,mr4 ,strange proved his appreciation of ,japanese art by an exposition of its principles1--the subordination of detail to the expression of a sensation or idea1 the subordination of the particular to the general4 ,he spoke especially of the decorative element in ,japanese art1 and of the ,ukiyo-y school of color-printing4 ,he remarked that even the heraldry of ,japan1 as illustrated in little books costing only a few pence each1 contained an education in the planning of conventional ornament4 ,he referred to the immense industrial value of ,japanese stencil designs4 ,he tried to explain the nature of the advantage likely to be gained in the art of book illustration from the careful study of ,japanese methods2 and he indicated the influence of those methods in the work of such artists as ,aubrey ,beardsley1 ,edgar ,wilson1 ,steinlen ,ibels1 ,whistler1 ,grasset1 ,cheret1 and ,lautrec4 ,finally1 he pointed out the harmony between certain ,japanese principles and the doctrines of one of the modern ,western schools of ,impressionism4 ,such an address could hardly fail to provoke adverse criticism in ,england1 because it suggested a variety of new ideas4 ,english opinion does not prohibit the importation of ideas3 the public will even complain if fresh ideas be not regularly set before it4 ,but its requirement of them is aggressive3 it wants to have an intellectual battle over them4 ,to persuade its unquestioning acceptance of new beliefs or thoughts1--to coax it to jump to a conclusion1--were about as easy as to make the mountains skip like rams4 ,though willing to be convinced1 providing the idea does not appear morally dangerous1 it must first be assured of the absolute correctness of every step in the mental process by which the novel conclusion has been reached4 ,that ,mr4 ,strange's just but almost enthusiastic admiration of ,japanese art could pass without challenge was not possible2 yet one would scarcely have anticipated a challenge from the ranks of the ,japan ,society itself4 ,the report1 however1 shows that ,mr4 ,strange's views were received even by that society in the characteristic ,english way4 ,the idea that ,english artists could learn anything important from the study of ,japanese methods was practically pooh-poohed2 and the criticisms made by various members indicated that the philosophic part of the paper had been either misunderstood or unnoticed4 ,one gentleman innocently complained that he could not imagine why ,japanese art should be utterly wanting in facial expression4 ,another declared that there could never have been any lady like the ladies of the ,japanese prints2 and he described the faces therein portrayed as absolutely insane4 ,then came the most surprising incident of the evening1--the corroboration of these adverse criticisms by his excellency the ,japanese ,minister1 with the apologetic remark that the prints referred to were only regarded as common things in ,japan4 ,common things6 ,common1 perhaps1 in the judgment of other generations2 aesthetic luxuries to-day4 ,the artists named were ,hokusai1 ,toyokuni1 ,hiroshig1 ,kuniyoshi1 ,kunisada6 ,but his excellency seemed to think the subject trifling2 for he took occasion to call away the attention of the meeting1 irrelevantly as patriotically1 to the triumphs of the war4 ,in this he reflected faithfully the ,japanese ,zeitgeist1 which can scarcely now endure the foreign praise of ,japanese art4 ,unfortunately1 those dominated by the just and natural martial pride of the hour do not reflect that while the development and maintenance of great armaments--unless effected with the greatest economical caution--might lead in short order to national bankruptcy1 the future industrial prosperity of the country is likely to depend in no small degree upon the conservation and cultivation of the national art sense4 ,nay1 those very means by which ,japan won her late victories were largely purchased by the commercial results of that very art sense to which his excellency seemed to attach no importance4 ,japan must continue to depend upon her aesthetic faculty1 even in so commonplace a field of industry as the manufacture of mattings2 for in mere cheap production she will never be able to undersell ,china4 ,,ii ,although the criticisms provoked by ,mr4 ,strange's essay were unjust to ,japanese art1 they were natural1 and indicated nothing worse than ignorance of that art and miscomprehension of its purpose4 ,it is not an art of which the meaning can be read at a glance3 years of study are necessary for a right comprehension of it4 ,i cannot pretend that ,i have mastered the knowledge of its moods and tenses1 but ,i can say truthfully that the faces in the old picture-books and in the cheap prints of to-day1 especially those of the illustrated ,japanese newspapers1 do not seem to me in the least unreal1 much less absolutely insane4 ,there was a time when they did appear to me fantastic4 ,now ,i find them always interesting1 occasionally beautiful4 ,if ,i am told that no other ,european would say so1 then ,i must declare all other ,europeans wrong4 ,i feel sure that1 if these faces seem to most ,occidentals either absurd or soulless1 it is only because most ,occidentals do not understand them2 and even if his excellency the ,japanese ,minister to ,england be willing to accept the statement that no ,japanese women ever resembled the women of the ,japanese picture-books and cheap prints1 ,i must still refuse to do so4#a ,those pictures1 ,i contend1 are true1 and reflect intelligence1 grace1 and beauty4 ,i see the women of the ,japanese picture--books in every ,japanese street4 ,i have beheld in actual life almost every normal type of face to be found in a ,japanese picture-book3 the child and the girl1 the bride and the mother1 the matron and the grandparent2 poor and rich2 charming or commonplace or vulgar4 ,if ,i am told that trained art critics who have lived in ,japan laugh at this assertion1 ,i reply that they cannot have lived in ,japan long enough1 or felt her life intimately enough1 or studied her art impartially enough1 to qualify themselves to understand even the commonest ,japanese drawing4 ,before ,i came to ,japan ,i used to be puzzled by the absence of facial expression in certain ,japanese pictures4 ,i confess that the faces1 although not even then devoid of a certain weird charm1 seemed to me impossible4 ,afterwards1 during the first two years of ,far-,eastern experience1--that period in which the stranger is apt to imagine that he is learning all about a people whom no ,occidental can ever really understand1--,i could recognize the grace and truth of certain forms1 and feel something of the intense charm of color in ,japanese prints2 but ,i had no perception of the deeper meaning of that art4 ,even the full significance of its color ,i did not know3 much that was simply true ,i then thought outlandish4 ,while conscious of the charm of many things1 the reason of the charm ,i could not guess4 ,i imagined the apparent conventionalism of the faces to indicate the arrested development of an otherwise marvelous art faculty4 ,it never occurred to me that they might be conventional only in the sense of symbols which1 once interpreted1 would reveal more than ordinary ,western drawing can express4 ,but this was because ,i still remained under old barbaric influences1--influences that blinded me to the meaning of ,japanese drawing4 ,and now1 having at last learned a little1 it is the ,western art of illustration that appears to me conventional1 undeveloped1 semi-barbarous4 ,the pictorial attractions of ,english weeklies and of ,american magazines now impress me as flat1 coarse1 and clumsy4 ,my opinion on the subject1 however1 is limited to the ordinary class of ,western illustration as compared with the ordinary class of ,japanese prints4 ,perhaps somebody will say that1 even granting my assertion1 the meaning of any true art should need no interpretation1 and that the inferior character of ,japanese work is proved by the admission that its meaning is not universally recognizable4 ,whoever makes such a criticism must imagine ,western art to be everywhere equally intelligible4 ,some of it--the very best--probably is2 and some of ,japanese art also is4 ,but ,i can assure the reader that the ordinary art of ,western book illustration or magazine engraving is just as incomprehensible to ,japanese as ,japanese drawings are to ,europeans who have never seen ,japan4 ,for a ,japanese to understand our common engravings1 he must have lived abroad4 ,for an ,occidental to perceive the truth1 or the beauty1 or the humor of ,japanese drawings1 he must know the life which those drawings reflect4 ,one of the critics at the meeting of the ,japan ,society found fault with the absence of facial expression in ,japanese drawing as conventional4 ,he compared ,japanese art on this ground with the art of the old ,egyptians1 and held both inferior because restricted by convention4 ,yet surely the age which makes ,laocon a classic ought to recognize that ,greek art itself was not free from conventions4 ,it was an art which we can scarcely hope ever to equal2 but it was more conventional than any existing form of art4 ,and since it proved that even the divine could find development within the limits of artistic convention1 the charge of formality is not a charge worth making against ,japanese art4 ,somebody may respond that ,greek conventions were conventions of beauty1 while those of ,japanese drawing have neither beauty nor meaning4 ,but such a statement is possible only because ,japanese art has not yet found its ,winckelmann nor its ,lessing1 whereas ,greek art1 by the labor of generations of modern critics and teachers1 has been made somewhat more comprehensible to us than it could have been to our barbarian forefathers4 ,the ,greek conventional face cannot be found in real life1 no living head presenting so large a facial angle2 but the ,japanese conventional face can be seen everywhere1 when once the real value of its symbol in art is properly understood4 ,the face of ,greek art represents an impossible perfection1 a superhuman evolution4 ,the seemingly inexpressive face drawn by the ,japanese artists represents the living1 the actual1 the every-day4 ,the former is a dream2 the latter is a common fact4 ,footnote #a3 ,that ,japanese art is capable of great things in ideal facial expression is sufficiently proved by its ,buddhist images4 ,in ordinary prints the intentional conventionalism of the faces is hardly noticeable when the drawing is upon a small scale2 and the suggestion of beauty is more readily perceived in such cases4 ,but when the drawing has a certain dimension1--when the face-oval1 for instance1 has a diameter of more than an inch1--the same treatment may seem inexplicable to eyes accustomed to elaborated detail4 ,,iii ,a partial explanation of the apparent physiognomical conventionalism in ,japanese drawing is just that law of the subordination of individualism to type1 of personality to humanity1 of detail to feeling1 which the miscomprehended lecturer1 ,mr4 ,edward ,strange1 vainly tried to teach the ,japan ,society something about4 ,the ,japanese artist depicts an insect1 for example1 as no ,european artist can do3 he makes it live2 he shows its peculiar motion1 its character1 everything by which it is at once distinguished as a type1--and all this with a few brush-strokes4 ,but he does not attempt to represent every vein upon each of its wings1 every separate joint of its antennae #a he depicts it as it is really seen at a glance1 not as studied in detail4 ,we never see all the details of the body of a grasshopper1 a butterfly1 or a bee1 in the moment that we perceive it perching somewhere2 we observe only enough to enable us to decide what kind of a creature it is4 ,we see the typical1 never the individual peculiarities4 ,therefore the ,japanese artist paints the type alone4 ,to reproduce every detail would be to subordinate the type character to the individual peculiarity4 ,a very minute detail is rarely brought out except when the instant recognition of the type is aided by the recognition of the detail2 as1 for example1 when a ray of light happens to fall upon the joint of a cricket's leg1 or to reverberate from the mail of a dragonfly in a double-colored metallic flash4 ,so likewise in painting a flower1 the artist does not depict a particular1 but a typical flower3 he shows the morphological law of the species1 or1 to speak symbolically1 nature's thought behind the form4 ,the results of this method may astonish even scientific men4 ,alfred ,russel ,wallace speaks of a collection of ,japanese sketches of plants as the most masterly things that he ever saw4 ,every stem1 twig1 and leaf1 he declares1 is produced by single touches of the brush2 the character and perspective of very complicated plants being admirably given1 and the articulations of stem and leaves shown in a most scientific manner4 7,the italics are my own47 ,observe that while the work is simplicity itself produced by single touches of the brush1 it is nevertheless1 in the opinion of one of the greatest living naturalists1 most scientific4 ,and why8 ,because it shows the type character and the law of the type4 ,so again1 in portraying rocks and cliffs1 hills and plains1 the ,japanese artist gives us the general character1 not the wearisome detail of masses2 and yet the detail is admirably suggested by this perfect study of the larger law4 ,or look at his color studies of sunsets and sunrises3 he never tries to present every minute fact within range of vision1 but offers us only those great luminous tones and chromatic blendings which1 after a thousand petty details have been forgotten1 still linger in the memory1 and there recreate the feeling of what has been seen4 ,now this general law of the art applies to ,japanese representations of the human figure1 and also 7though here other laws too come into play7 of the human face4 ,the general types are given1 and often with a force that the cleverest ,french sketcher could scarcely emulate2 the personal trait1 the individual peculiarity1 is not given4 ,even when1 in the humor of caricature or in dramatic representation1 facial expression is strongly marked1 it is rendered by typical1 not by individual characteristics1 just as it was rendered upon the antique stage by the conventional masks of ,greek actors4 ,footnote #a3 ,unless he carves it4 ,in that case1 his insect--cut in bone or horn or ivory1 and appropriately colored--can sometimes scarcely be distinguished from a real insect1 except by its weight1 when held in the hand4 ,such absolute realism1 however1 is only curious1 not artistic4 ,,iv ,a few general remarks about the treatment of faces in ordinary ,japanese drawing may help to the understanding of what that treatment teaches4 ,youth is indicated by the absence of all but essential touches1 and by the clean1 smooth curves of the face and neck4 ,excepting the touches which suggest eyes1 nose1 and mouth1 there are no lines4 ,the curves speak sufficiently of fullness1 smoothness1 ripeness4 ,for story-illustration it is not necessary to elaborate feature1 as the age or condition is indicated by the style of the coiffure and the fashion of the dress4 ,in female figures1 the absence of eyebrows indicates the wife or widow2 a straggling tress signifies grief2 troubled thought is shown by an unmistakable pose or gesture4 ,hair1 costume1 and attitude are indeed enough to explain almost everything4 ,but the ,japanese artist knows how1 by means of extremely delicate variations in the direction and position of the half dozen touches indicating feature1 to give some hint of character1 whether sympathetic or unsympathetic2 and this hint is seldom lost upon a ,japanese eye4#a ,again1 an almost imperceptible hardening or softening of these touches has moral significance4 ,still1 this is never individual3 it is only the hint of a physiognomical law4 ,in the case of immature youth 7boy and girl faces71 there is merely a general indication of softness and gentleness1--the abstract rather than the concrete charm of childhood4 ,in the portrayal of maturer types the lines are more numerous and more accentuated1 illustrating the fact that character necessarily becomes more marked in middle age1 as the facial muscles begin to show4 ,but there is only the suggestion of this change1 not any study of individualism4 ,in the representation of old age1 the ,japanese artist gives us all the wrinkles1 the hollows1 the shrinking of tissues1 the crow's-feet1 the gray hairs1 the change in the line of the face following upon loss of teeth4 ,his old men and women show character4 ,they delight us by a certain worn sweetness of expression1 a look of benevolent resignation2 or they repel us by an aspect of hardened cunning1 avarice1 or envy4 ,there are many types of old age2 but they are types of human conditions1 not of personality4 ,the picture is not drawn from a model2 it is not the reflection of an individual existence3 its value is made by the recognition which it exhibits of a general physiognomical or biological law4 ,here it is worth while to notice that the reserves of ,japanese art in the matter of facial expression accord with the ethics of ,oriental society4 ,for ages the rule of conduct has been to mask all personal feeling as far as possible1--to hide pain and passion under an exterior semblance of smiling amiability or of impassive resignation4 ,one key to the enigmas of ,japanese art is ,buddhism4 ,footnote #a3 ,in modern ,japanese newspaper illustrations 7,i refer particularly to the admirable woodcuts illustrating the feuilletons of the saka ,asahi ,shimbun7 these indications are quite visible even to a practiced foreign eye4 ,the artist of the ,asahi ,shimbun is a woman4 ,i am here reminded of a curious fact which ,i do not remember having seen mention of in any book about ,japan4 ,the newly arrived ,westerner often complains of his inability to distinguish one ,japanese from another1 and attributes this difficulty to the absence of strongly marked physiognomy in the race4 ,he does not imagine that our more sharply accentuated ,occidental physiognomy produces the very same effect upon the ,japanese4 ,many and many a one has said to me1 ,for a long time ,i found it very hard to tell one foreigner from another3 they all seemed to me alike4 ,v ,i have said that when ,i now look at a foreign illustrated newspaper or magazine ,i can find little pleasure in the engravings4 ,most often they repel me4 ,the drawing seems to me coarse and hard1 and the realism of the conception petty4 ,such work leaves nothing to the imagination1 and usually betrays the effort which it cost4 ,a common ,japanese drawing leaves much to the imagination1--nay1 irresistibly stimulates it1--and never betrays effort4 ,everything in a common ,european engraving is detailed and individualized4 ,everything in a ,japanese drawing is impersonal and suggestive4 ,the former reveals no law3 it is a study of particularities4 ,the latter invariably teaches something of law1 and suppresses particularities except in their relation to law4 ,one may often hear ,japanese say that ,western art is too realistic2 and the judgment contains truth4 ,but the realism in it which offends ,japanese taste1 especially in the matter of facial expression1 is not found fault with merely because of minuteness of detail4 ,detail in itself is not condemned by any art2 and the highest art is that in which detail is most exquisitely elaborated4 ,the art which saw the divine1 which rose above nature's best1 which discovered supramundane ideals for animal and even floral shapes1 was characterized by the sharpest possible perfection of detail4 ,and in the higher ,japanese art1 as in the ,greek1 the use of detail aids rather than opposes the aspirational aim4 ,what most displeases in the realism of our modern illustration is not multiplicity of detail1 but1 as we shall presently see1 signification of detail4 ,the queerest fact about the suppression of physiognomical detail in ,japanese art is that this suppression is most evident just where we should least expect to find it1 namely1 in those creations called ,this-miserable-world pictures 7,ukiyo-y71 or1 to use a corresponding ,western term1 ,pictures of this ,vale of ,tears4 ,for although the artists of this school have really given us pictures of a very beautiful and happy world1 they professed to reflect truth4 ,one form of truth they certainly presented1 but after a manner at variance with our common notions of realism4 ,the ,ukiyo-y artist drew actualities1 but not repellent or meaningless actualities2 proving his rank even more by his refusal than by his choice of subjects4 ,he looked for dominant laws of contrast and color1 for the general character of nature's combinations1 for the order of the beautiful as it was and is4 ,otherwise his art was in no sense aspirational2 it was the art of the larger comprehension of things as they are4 ,thus he was rightly a realist1 notwithstanding that his realism appears only in the study of constants1 generalities1 types4 ,and as expressing the synthesis of common fact1 the systematization of natural law1 this ,japanese art is by its method scientific in the true sense4 ,the higher art1 the aspirational art 7whether ,japanese or old ,greek71 is1 on the contrary1 essentially religious by its method4 ,where the scientific and the aspirational extremes of art touch1 one may expect to find some universal aesthetic truth recognized by both4 ,they agree in their impersonality3 they refuse to individualize4 ,and the lesson of the very highest art that ever existed suggests the true reason for this common refusal4 ,what does the charm of an antique head express1 whether in marble1 gem1 or mural painting1--for instance1 that marvelous head of ,leucothea which prefaces the work of ,winckelmann8 ,needless to seek the reply from works of mere art critics4 ,science alone can furnish it4 ,you will find it in ,herbert ,spencer's essay on ,personal ,beauty4 ,the beauty of such a head signifies a superhumanly perfect development and balance of the intellectual faculties4 ,all those variations of feature constituting what we call expression1 represent departures from a perfect type just in proportion as they represent what is termed character2--and they are1 or ought to be1 more or less disagreeable or painful because the aspects which please us are the outward correlatives of inward perfections1 and the aspects which displease us are the outward correlatives of inward imperfections4 ,mr4 ,spencer goes on to say that although there are often grand natures behind plain faces1 and although fine countenances frequently hide small souls1 these anomalies do not destroy the general truth of the law any more than the perturbations of planets destroy the general ellipticity of their orbits4 ,both ,greek and ,japanese art recognized the physiognomical truth which ,mr4 ,spencer put into the simple formula1 ,expression is feature in the making ,the highest art1 ,greek art1 rising above the real to reach the divine1 gives us the dream of feature perfected4 ,japanese realism1 so much larger than our own as to be still misunderstood1 gives us only feature in the making1 or rather1 the general law of feature in the making4 ,,vi ,thus we reach the common truth recognized equally by ,greek art and by ,japanese art1 namely1 the non-moral significance of individual expression4 ,and our admiration of the art reflecting personality is1 of course1 non-moral1 since the delineation of individual imperfection is not1 in the ethical sense1 a subject for admiration4 ,although the facial aspects which really attract us may be considered the outward correlatives of inward perfections1 or of approaches to perfections1 we generally confess an interest in physiognomy which by no means speaks to us of inward moral perfections1 but rather suggests perfections of the reverse order4 ,this fact is manifested even in daily life4 ,when we exclaim1 ,what force6 on seeing a head with prominent bushy brows1 incisive nose1 deep-set eyes1 and a massive jaw1 we are indeed expressing our recognition of force1 but only of the sort of force underlying instincts of aggression and brutality4 ,when we commend the character of certain strong aquiline faces1 certain so-called ,roman profiles1 we are really com-mending the traits that mark a race of prey4 ,it is true that we do not admire faces in which only brutal1 or cruel1 or cunning traits exist2 but it is true also that we admire the indications of obstinacy1 aggressiveness1 and harshness when united with certain indications of intelligence4 ,it may even be said that we associate the idea of manhood with the idea of aggressive power more than with the idea of any other power4 ,whether this power be physical or intellectual1 we estimate it in our popular preferences1 at least1 above the really superior powers of the mind1 and call intelligent cunning by the euphemism of shrewdness4 ,probably the manifestation in some modern human being of the ,greek ideal of masculine beauty would interest the average observer less than a face presenting an abnormal development of traits the reverse of noble1--since the intellectual significance of perfect beauty could be realized only by persons capable of appreciating the miracle of a perfect balance of the highest possible human faculties4 ,in modern art we look for the feminine beauty which appeals to the feeling of sex1 or for that child-beauty which appeals to the instincts of parenthood2 and we should characterize real beauty in the portrayal of manhood not only as unnatural1 but as effeminate4 ,war and love are still the two dominant tones in that reflection of modern life which our serious art gives4 ,but it will be noticed that when the artist would exhibit the ideal of beauty or of virtue1 he is still obliged to borrow from antique knowledge4 ,as a borrower1 he is never quite successful1 since he belongs to a humanity in many respects much below the ancient ,greek level4 ,a ,german philosopher has well said1 ,the resuscitated ,greeks would1 with perfect truth1 declare our works of art in all departments to be thoroughly barbarous4 ,how could they be otherwise in an age which openly admires intelligence less because of its power to create and preserve than because of its power to crush and destroy8 ,why this admiration of capacities which we should certainly not like to have exercised against ourselves8 ,largely1 no doubt1 because we admire what we wish to possess1 and we understand the immense value of aggressive power1 intellectual especially1 in the great competitive struggle of modern civilization4 ,as reflecting both the trivial actualities and the personal emotionalism of ,western life1 our art would be found ethically not only below ,greek art1 but even below ,japanese4 ,greek art expressed the aspiration of a race toward the divinely beautiful and the divinely wise4 ,japanese art reflects the simple joy of existence1 the perception of natural law in form and color1 the perception of natural law in change1 and the sense of life made harmonious by social order and by self-suppression1 ,modern ,western art reflects the thirst of pleasure1 the idea of life as a battle for the right to enjoy1 and the unamiable qualities which are indispensable to success in the competitive struggle4 99 ,it has been said that the history of ,western civilization is written in ,western physiognomy4 ,it is at least interesting to study ,western facial expression through ,oriental eyes4 ,i have frequently amused myself by showing ,european or ,american illustrations to ,japanese children1 and hearing their artless comments upon the faces therein depicted4 ,a complete record of these comments might prove to have value as well as interest2 but for present purposes ,i shall offer only the results of two experiments4 ,the first was with a little boy1 nine years old1 before whom1 one evening1 ,i placed several numbers of an illustrated magazine4 ,after turning over a few of the pages1 he exclaimed1 ,why do foreign artists like to draw horrible things8 ,what horrible things8 ,i inquired4 ,these1 he said1 pointing to a group of figures representing voters at the polls4 ,why1 those are not horrible1 ,i answered4 ,we think those drawings very good4 ,but the faces6 ,there cannot really be such faces in the world4 ,we think those are ordinary men4 ,really horrible faces we very seldom draw4 ,he stared in surprise1 evidently suspecting that ,i was not in earnest4 99 ,to a little girl of eleven ,i showed some engravings representing famous ,european beauties4 ,they do not look bad1 was her comment4 ,but they seem so much like men1 and their eyes are so big6444 ,their mouths are pretty4 ,the mouth signifies a great deal in ,japanese physiognomy1 and the child was in this regard appreciative4 ,i then showed her some drawings from life1 in a ,new ,york periodical4 ,she asked1 ,is it true that there are people like those pictures8 ,plenty1 ,i said4 ,those are good1 common faces1--mostly country folk1 farmers4 ,farmers6 ,they are like ,oni demons from the jigoku ,buddhist hell4 ,no1 ,i answered1 there is nothing very bad in those faces4 ,we have faces in the ,west very much worse4 ,only to see them1 she exclaimed1 ,i should die6 ,i do not like this book4 ,i set before her a ,japanese picture-book1--a book of views of the ,tokaido4 ,she clapped her hands joyfully1 and pushed my half-inspected foreign magazine out of the way4 ,,vi ,,ningy-,,no-,,haka ,manyemon had coaxed the child indoors1 and made her eat4 ,she appeared to be about eleven years old1 intelligent1 and pathetically docile4 ,her name was ,in1 which means springing rice2 and her frail slimness made the name seem appropriate4 ,when she began1 under ,manyemon's gentle persuasion1 to tell her story1 ,i anticipated something queer from the accompanying change in her voice4 ,she spoke in a high thin sweet tone1 perfectly even1--a tone changeless and unemotional as the chanting of the little kettle over its charcoal bed4 ,not unfrequently in ,japan one may hear a girl or a woman utter something touching or cruel or terrible in just such a steady1 level1 penetrating tone1 but never anything indifferent4 ,it always means that feeling is being kept under control4 ,there were six of us at home1 said ,in1 mother and father and father's mother1 who was very old1 and my brother and myself1 and a little sister4 ,father was a hyguya1 a paper-hanger3 he papered sliding-screens and also mounted kakemono4 ,mother was a hair-dresser4 ,my brother was apprenticed to a seal-cutter4 ,father and mother did well3 mother made even more money than father4 ,we had good clothes and good food2 and we never had any real sorrow until father fell sick4 ,it was the middle of the hot season4 ,father had always been healthy3 we did not think that his sickness was dangerous1 and he did not think so himself4 ,but the very next day he died4 ,we were very much surprised4 ,mother tried to hide her heart1 and to wait upon her customers as before4 ,but she was not very strong1 and the pain of father's death came too quickly4 ,eight days after father's funeral mother also died4 ,it was so sudden that everybody wondered4 ,then the neighbors told us that we must make a ningy-no-haka at once1--or else there would be another death in our house4 ,my brother said they were right2 but he put off doing what they told him4 ,perhaps he did not have mercy enough1 ,i do not know2 but the haka was not made4 444 99 ,what is a ningy-no-haka8 ,i interrupted4 ,i think1 ,manyemon made answer1 that you have seen many ningy-no-haka without knowing what they were2--they look just like graves of children4 ,it is believed that when two of a family die in the same year1 a third also must soon die4 ,there is a saying1 ,always three graves4 ,so when two out of one family have been buried in the same year1 a third grave is made next to the graves of those two1 and in it is put a coffin containing only a little figure of straw1--wara-ningy2 and over that grave a small tombstone is set up1 bearing a kaimy4#a ,the priests of the temple to which the graveyard belongs write the kaimy for these little gravestones4 ,by making a ningy-no-haka it is thought that a death may be prevented4444 ,we listen for the rest1 ,in4 ,the child resumed3-- ,there were still four of us1--grandmother1 brother1 myself1 and my little sister4 ,my brother was nineteen years old4 ,he had finished his apprenticeship just before father died3 we thought that was like the pity of the gods for us4 ,he had become the head of the house4 ,he was very skillful in his business1 and had many friends3 therefore he could maintain us4 ,he made thirteen yen the first month2--that is very good for a seal-cutter4 ,one evening he came home sick3 he said that his head hurt him4 ,mother had then been dead forty-seven days4 ,that evening he could not eat4 ,next morning he was not able to get up2--he had a very hot fever3 we nursed him as well as we could1 and sat up at night to watch by him2 but he did not get better4 ,on the morning of the third day of his sickness we became frightened--because he began to talk to mother4 ,it was the forty-ninth day after mother's death1--the day the ,soul leaves the house2--and brother spoke as if mother was calling him3--',yes1 mother1 yes6--in a little while ,i shall come6' ,then he told us that mother was pulling him by the sleeve4 ,he would point with his hand and call to us3-',there she is6--there6--do you not see her8 ',we would tell him that we could not see anything4 ,then he would say1 ',ah6 you did not look quick enough3 she is hiding now2--she has gone down under the floor-mats4' ,all the morning he talked like that4 ,at last grandmother stood up1 and stamped her foot on the floor1 and reproached mother1--speaking very loud4 ',taka6' she said1 ',taka1 what you do is very wrong4 ,when you were alive we all loved you4 ,none of us ever spoke unkind words to you4 ,why do you now want to take the boy8 ,you know that he is the only pillar of our house4 ,you know that if you take him there will not be any one to care for the ancestors4 ,you know that if you take him1 you will destroy the family name6 ,o ,taka1 it is cruel6 it is shameful6 it is wicked6' ,grandmother was so angry that all her body trembled4 ,then she sat down and cried2 and ,i and my little sister cried4 ,but our brother said that mother was still pulling him by the sleeve4 ,when the sun went down1 he died4 ,grandmother wept1 and stroked us1 and sang a little song that she made herself4 ,i can remember it still3-- ,oy a no nai ko to ,hamab no chidori3 ,higur-higur ni ,sod shiboru4#b ,so the third grave was made1--but it was not a ningy-no-haka2--and that was the end of our house4 ,we lived with kindred until winter1 when grandmother died4 ,she died in the night1--when1 nobody knew3 in the morning she seemed to be sleeping1 but she was dead4 ,then ,i and my little sister were separated4 ,my sister was adopted by a tatamiya1 a mat-maker1--one of father's friends4 ,she is kindly treated3 she even goes to school6 ,aa fushigi na koto da6--aa komatta ne8 murmured ,manyemon4 ,then there was a moment or two of sympathetic silence4 ,in prostrated herself in thanks1 and rose to depart4 ,as she slipped her feet under the thongs of her sandals1 ,i moved toward the spot where she had been sitting1 to ask the old man a question4 ,she perceived my intention1 and immediately made an indescribable sign to ,manyemon1 who responded by checking me just as ,i was going to sit down beside him4 ,she wishes1 he said1 that the master will honorably strike the matting first4 ,but why8 ,i asked in surprise1---noticing only that under my unshod feet1 the spot where the child had been kneeling felt comfortably warm4 ,manyemon answered3-- ,she believes that to sit down upon the place made warm by the body of another is to take into one's own life all the sorrow of that other person1--unless the place be stricken first4 ,whereat ,i sat down without performing the rite2 and we both laughed4 ,in1 said ,manyemon1 the master takes your sorrows upon him4 ,he wants --7,i cannot venture to render ,manyemon's honorifics7--to understand the pain of other people4 ,you need not tear for him1 ,in4 ,footnote #a3 ,the posthumous ,buddhist name of the person buried is chiseled upon the tomb or haka4 ,footnote #b3 ,children without parents1 like the seagulls of the coast4 ,evening after evening the sleeves are wrung4 ,the word chidori--indiscriminately applied to many kinds of birds1--is here used for seagull4 ,the cries of the seagull are thought to express melancholy and desolation3 hence the comparison4 ,the long sleeve of the ,japanese robe is used to wipe the eyes as well as to hide the face in moments of grief4 ,to wring the sleeve--that is1 to wring the moisture from a tear-drenched sleeve--is a frequent expression in ,japanese poetry4 ,,vi ,in ,,saka ,takaki ya ni ,noborit mirba ,kemuri tat su2-- ,tami no kamado wa ,nigiwai ni kri4 7,when ,i ascend a high place and look about me1 lo6 the smoke is rising3 the cooking ranges of the people are busy47 ,song of the ,emperor ,,nintoku4 ,i ,nearly three hundred years ago1 ,captain ,john ,saris1 visiting ,japan in the service of the ,eight ,honourable ,companye1 ye4 marchants of ,london trading into ye4 ,east ,indyes1 wrote concerning the great city of saka 7as the name is now transliterated73 ,we found ,osaca to be a very great towne1 as great as ,london within the walls1 with many faire timber bridges of a great height1 seruing to passe over a riuer there as wide as the ,thames at ,london4 ,some faire houses we found there1 but not many4 ,it is one of the chiefe sea-ports of all ,iapan2 hauing a castle in it1 maruellous large and strong 444 ,what ,captain ,saris said of the ,osaka of the seventeenth century is almost equally true of the saka of to-day4 ,it is still a very great city and one of the chief seaports of all ,japan2 it contains1 according to the ,occidental idea1 some faire houses2 it has many faire timber bridges 7as well as bridges of steel and stone7--seruing to passe ouer a river as wide as the ,thames at ,london1--the ,yodogawa2 and the castle marvellous large and strong1 built by ,hideyoshi after the plan of a ,chinese fortress of the ,han dynasty1 still remains something for military engineers to wonder at1 in spite of the disappearance of the many-storied towers1 and the destruction 7in #ahfh7 of the magnificent palace4 saka is more than two thousand five hundred years old1 and therefore one of the most ancient cities of ,japan1--though its present name1 a contraction of ,oye no ,saka1 meaning the ,high ,land of the ,great ,river1 is believed to date back only to the fifteenth century1 before which time it was called ,naniwa4 ,centuries before ,europe knew of the existence of ,japan1 ,osaka was the great financial and commercial centre of the empire2 and it is that still4 ,through all the feudal era1 the merchants of ,osaka were the bankers and creditors of the ,japanese princes3 they exchanged the revenues of rice for silver and gold2--they kept in their miles of fireproof warehouses the national stores of cereals1 of cotton1 and of silk2--and they furnished to great captains the sinews of war4 ,hideyoshi made ,osaka his military capital2--,iyeyasu1 jealous and keen1 feared the great city1 and deemed it necessary to impoverish its capitalists because of their financial power4 ,the saka of #ahif1 covering a vast area has a population of about #fgj1jjj4 ,as to extent and population1 it is now only the second city of the empire2 but it remains1 as ,count ,okuma remarked in a recent speech1 financially1 industrially1 and commercially superior to ,tky4 ,sakai1 and ,hygo1 and ,kob are really but its outer ports2 and the last-named is visibly outgrowing ,yokohama4 ,it is confidently predicted1 both by foreigners and by ,japanese1 that ,kob will become the chief port of foreign trade1 because ,osaka is able to attract to herself the best business talent of the country4 ,at present the foreign import and export trade of saka represents about #abj1jjj1jjj a year2 and its inland and coasting trade are immense4 ,almost everything which everybody wants is made in saka2 and there are few comfortable ,japanese homes in any part of the empire to the furnishing of which saka industry has not contributed something4 ,this was probably the case long before ,tokyo existed4 ,there survives an ancient song of which the burden runs1--,every day to saka come a thousand ships4 ,junks only1 in the time when the song was written2 steamers also to-day1 and deep-sea travelers of all rigs4 ,along the wharves you can ride for miles by a seemingly endless array of masts and funnels1--though the great ,trans-,pacific liners and ,european mail-steamers draw too much water to enter the harbor1 and receive their saka freight at ,kob4 ,but the energetic city1 which has its own steamship companies1 now proposes to improve its port1 at a cost of #aaf1jjj1jjj4 ,an saka with a population of two millions1 and a foreign trade of at least #cjj1jjj1jjj a year1 is not a dream impossible to realize in the next half century4 ,i need scarcely say that saka is the centre of the great trade-guilds1#a and the headquarters of those cotton-spinning companies whose mills1 kept running with a single shift twenty-three hours out of the twenty-four1 turn out double the quantity of yarn per spindle that ,english mills turn out1 and from thirty to forty per cent1 more than the mills of ,bombay4 ,every great city in the world is believed to give a special character to its inhabitants2 and in ,japan the man of saka is said to be recognizable almost at sight4 ,i think it can be said that the character of the man of the capital is less marked than that of the man of saka1--as in ,america the man of ,chicago is more quickly recognized than the ,new ,yorker or ,bostonian4 ,he has a certain quickness of perception1 ready energy1 and general air of being well up to date1 or even a little in advance of it1 which represent the result of industrial and commercial intercompetition4 ,at all events1 the saka merchant or manufacturer has a much longer inheritance of business experience than his rival of the political capital4 ,perhaps this may partly account for the acknowledged superiority of saka commercial travelers2 a modernized class1 offering some remarkable types4 ,while journeying by rail or steamer you may happen to make the casual acquaintance of a gentleman whose nationality you cannot safely decide even after some conversation4 ,he is dressed with the most correct taste in the latest and best mode2 he can talk to you equally well in ,french1 ,german1 or ,english2 he is perfectly courteous1 but able to adapt himself to the most diverse characters2 he knows ,europe2 and he can give you extraordinary information about parts of the ,far ,east which you have visited1 and also about other parts of which you do not even know the names4 ,as for ,japan1 he is familiar with the special products of every district1 their comparative merits1 their history4 ,his face is pleasing1--nose straight or slightly aquiline1--mouth veiled by a heavy black moustache3 the eye-lids alone give you some right to suppose that you are conversing with an ,oriental4 ,such is one type of the saka commercial traveler of #ahif1--;a being as far superior to the average ,japanese petty official as a prince to a lackey4 ,should you meet the same man in his own city1 you would probably find him in ,japanese costume1--dressed as only a man of fine taste can learn how to dress1 and looking rather like a ,spaniard or ,italian in disguise than a ,japanese4 ,footnote #a3 ,there are upwards of four hundred commercial companies in ,osaka4 ,,ii ,from the reputation of saka as a centre of production and distribution1 one would imagine it the most modernized1 the least characteristically ,japanese1 of all ,japanese cities4 ,but saka is the reverse4 ,fewer ,western costumes are to be seen in saka than in any other large city of ,japan4 ,no crowds are more attractively robed1 and no streets more picturesque1 than those of the great mart4 saka is supposed to set many fashions2 and the present ones show an agreeable tendency to variety1 of tint4 ,when ,i first came to ,japan the dominant colors of male costume were dark1--especially dark blue2 any crowd of men usually presenting a mass of this shade4 ,to-day the tones are lighter2 and greys--warm greys1 steel greys1 bluish greys1 purplish greys--seem to predominate4 ,but there are also many pleasing variations1--bronze-colors1 gold-browns1 tea-colors1 for example4 ,women's costumes are of course more varied2 but the character of the fashions for adults of either sex indicates no tendency to abandon the rules of severe good taste2--gay colors appearing only in the attire of children and of dancing-girls1--to whom are granted the privileges of perpetual youth4 ,i may observe that the latest fashion in the silk upper-dress1 or haori1 of geisha1 is a burning sky--blue1--a tropical color that makes the profession of the wearer distinguishable miles away4 ,the higher-class geisha1 however1 affect sobriety in dress4 ,i must also speak of the long overcoats or overcloaks worn out-of-doors in cold weather by both sexes4 ,that of the men looks like an adaptation and modification of our ulster1 and has a little cape attached to it3 the material is wool1 and the color usually light brown or grey4 ,that of the ladies1 which has no cape1 is usually of black broadcloth1 with much silk binding1 and a collar cut low in front4 ,it is buttoned from throat to feet1 and looks decidedly genteel1 though left very wide and loose at the back to accommodate the bow of the great heavy silk girdle beneath4 99 ,architecturally not less than fashionably1 saka remains almost as ,japanese as anybody could wish4 ,although some wide thoroughfares exist1 most of the streets are very narrow1--even more narrow than those of ,kyto4 ,there are streets of three-story houses and streets of two-story houses2 but there are square miles of houses one story high4 ,the great mass of the city is an agglomeration of low wooden buildings with tiled roofs4 ,nevertheless the streets are more interesting1 brighter1 quainter in their signs and sign-painting1 than the streets of ,tky2 and the city as a whole is more picturesque than ,tky because of its waterways4 ,it has not inaptly been termed the ,venice of ,japan2 for it is traversed in all directions by canals1 besides being separated into several large portions by the branchings of the ,yodogawa4 ,the streets facing the river are1 however1 much less interesting than the narrow canals4 ,anything more curious in the shape of a street vista than the view looking down one of these waterways can scarcely be found in ,japan4 ,still as a mirror surface1 the canal flows between high stone embankments supporting the houses1--houses of two or three stories1 all sparred out from the stonework so that their faades bodily overhang the water4 ,they are huddled together in a way suggesting pressure from behind2 and this appearance of squeezing and crowding is strengthened by the absence of regularity in design1--no house being exactly like another1 but all having an indefinable ,far-,eastern queerness1--a sort of racial character1--that gives the sensation of the very-far-away in place and time4 ,they push out funny little galleries with balustrades2 barred1 projecting1 glassless windows with elfish balconies under them1 and rootlets over them like eyebrows2 tiers of tiled and tilted awnings2 and great eaves which1 in certain hours1 throw shadows down to the foundation4 ,as most of the timber-work is dark1--either with age or staining1--the shadows look deeper than they really are4 ,within them you catch glimpses of balcony pillars1 bamboo ladders from gallery to gallery1 polished angles of joinery1--all kinds of jutting things4 ,at intervals you can see mattings hanging out1 and curtains of split bamboo1 and cotton hangings with big white ideographs upon them2 and all this is faithfully repeated upside down in the water4 ,the colors ought to delight an artist1--umbers and chocolates and chestnut-browns of old polished timber2 warm yellows of mattings and bamboo screens2 creamy tones of stuccoed surfaces2 cool greys of tiling4444 ,the last such vista ,i saw was bewitched by a spring haze4 ,it was early morning4 ,two hundred yards from the bridge on which ,i stood1 the house fronts began to turn blue2 farther on1 they were transparently vapory2 and yet farther1 they seemed to melt away suddenly into the light1--a procession of dreams4 ,i watched the progress of a boat propelled by a peasant in straw hat and straw coat1--like the peasants of the old picture-books4 ,boat and man turned bright blue and then grey1 and then1 before my eyes1----glided into ,nirvana4 ,the notion of immateriality so created by that luminous haze was supported by the absence of sound2 for these canal-streets are as silent as the streets of shops are noisy4 99 ,no other city in ,japan has so many bridges as saka3 wards are named after them1 and distances marked by them1--reckoning always from ,koraibashi1 the ,bridge of the ,koreans1 as a centre4 saka people find their way to any place most readily by remembering the name of the bridge nearest to it4 ,but as there are one hundred and eighty-nine principal bridges1 this method of reckoning can be of little service to a stranger4 ,if a business man1 he can find whatever he wants without learning the names of the bridges4 saka is the best-ordered city1 commercially1 in the empire1 and one of the best-ordered in the world4 ,it has always been a city of guilds2 and the various trades and industries are congregated still1 according to ancient custom1 in special districts or particular streets4 ,thus all the money-changers are in ,kitahama1--the ,lombard ,street of ,japan2 the dry-goods trade monopolizes ,honmachi2 the timber merchants are all in ,nagabori and ,nishi-,yokobori2 the toy-makers are in ,minami ,kiuhojimachi and ,kita ,midmae2 the dealers in metal wares have ,andojibashidri to themselves2 the druggists are in ,doshimachi1 and the cabinet-makers in ,hachimansuji4 ,so with many other trades2 and so with the places of amusement4 ,the theatres are in the ,dtombori2 the jugglers1 singers1 dancers1 acrobats1 and fortune-tellers in the ,sennichimae1 close by4 ,the central part of saka contains many very large buildings1--including theatres1 refreshment-houses1 and hotels having a reputation throughout the country4 ,the number of edifices in ,western style is nevertheless remarkably small4 ,there are indeed between eight and nine hundred factory chimneys2 but the factories1 with few exceptions1 are not constructed on ,western plans4 ,the really foreign buildings include a hotel1 a prefectual hall with a mansard roof1 a city hall with a classical porch of granite pillars1 a good modern post-office1 a mint1 an arsenal1 and sundry mills and breweries4 ,but these are so scattered and situated that they really make no particular impression at variance with the ,far-,eastern character of the city4 ,however1 there is one purely foreign corner1--the old ,concession1 dating back to a time before ,kob existed4 ,its streets were well laid out1 and its buildings solidly constructed2 but for various reasons it has been abandoned to the missionaries1--only one of the old firms1 with perhaps an agency or two1 remaining open4 ,this deserted settlement is an oasis of silence in the great commercial wilderness4#a ,no at-tempts have been made by the native merchants to imitate its styles of building3 indeed1 no ,japanese city shows less favor than saka to ,occidental architecture4 ,this is not through want of appreciation1 but because of economical experience4 saka will build in ,western style--with stone1 brick1 and iron--only when and where the advantage of so doing is indubitable4 ,there will be no speculation in such constructions1 as there has been at ,tky3 saka goes slow and invests upon certainties4 ,when there is a certainty1 her merchants can make remarkable offers1--like that to the government two years ago of #ef1jjj1jjj for the purchase and reconstruction of a railway4 ,of all the houses in ,osaka1 the office of the ,asahi ,shimbun most surprised me4 ,the ,asahi ,shimbun is the greatest of ,japanese newspapers1--perhaps the greatest journal published in any ,oriental language4 ,it is an illustrated daily1 conducted very much like a ,paris newspaper1--publishing a feuilleton1 translations from foreign fiction1 and columns of light1 witty chatter about current events4 ,it pays big sums to popular writers1 and spends largely for correspondence and telegraphic news4 ,its illustrations--now made by a woman--offer as full a reflection of all phases of ,japanese life1 old or new1 as ,punch gives of ,english life4 ,it uses perfecting presses1 charters special trains1 and has a circulation reaching into most parts of the empire4 ,so ,i certainly expected to find the ,asahi ,shimbun office one of the handsomest buildings in saka4 ,but it proved to be an old-time ,samurai-yashiki1--about the most quiet and modest-looking place in the whole district where it was situated4 ,i must confess that all this sober and sensible conservatism delighted me4 ,the competitive power of ,japan must long depend upon her power to maintain the old simplicity of life4 ,footnote #a3 ,the foreign legations left saka to take shelter at ,kob in #ahfh1 during the civil war2 for they could not be very well protected by their men-of-war in saka4 ,kob once settled1 the advantages offered by its deep harbor settled the fate of the saka ,concession4 ,,iii saka is the great commercial school of the empire4 ,from all parts of ,japan lads are sent there to learn particular branches of industry or trade4 ,there are hosts of applications for any vacancy2 and the business men are said to be very cautious in choosing their detchi1 or apprentice-clerks4 ,careful inquiries are made as to the personal character and family history of applicants4 ,no money is paid by the parents or relatives of the apprentices4 ,the term of service varies according to the nature of the trade or industry2 but it is generally quite as long as the term of apprenticeship in ,europe2 and in some branches of business it may be from twelve to fourteen years4 ,such1 ,i am told1 is the time of service usually exacted in the dry goods business2 and the detchi in a dry goods house may have to work fifteen hours a day1 with not more than one holiday a month4 ,during the whole of his apprenticeship he receives no wages whatever1--nothing but his board1 lodging1 and absolutely necessary clothing4 ,his master is supposed to furnish him with two robes a year1 and to keep him in sandals1 or geta4 ,perhaps on some great holiday he may be presented with a small gift of pocket money2--but this is not in the bond4 ,when his term of service ends1 however1 his master either gives him capital enough to begin trade for himself on a small scale1 or finds some other way of assisting him substantially1--by credit1 for instance4 ,many detchi marry their employers' daughters1 in which event the young couple are almost sure of getting a good start in life4 ,the discipline of these long apprenticeships may be considered a severe test of character4 ,though a detchi is never addressed harshly1 he has to bear what no ,european clerk would bear4 ,he has no leisure1--no time of his own except the time necessary for sleep2 he must work quietly but steadily from dawn till late in the evening2 he must content himself with the simplest diet1 must keep himself neat1 and must never show ill-temper4 ,wild oats he is not supposed to have1 and no chance is given him to sow them4 ,some detchi never even leave their shop1 night or day1 for months at a time1--sleeping on the same mats where they sit in business hours4 ,the trained salesmen in the great silk stores are especially confined within doors1--and their unhealthy pallor is proverbial4 ,year after year they squat in the same place1 for twelve or fifteen hours every day2 and you wonder why their legs do not fall off1 like those of ,daruma4#a ,occasionally there are moral break-downs4 ,perhaps a detchi misappropriates some of the shop money1 and spends the same in riotous living4 ,perhaps he does even worse4 ,but1 whatever the matter may be1 he seldom thinks of running away4 ,if he takes a spree1 he hides himself after it for a day or two2--then returns of his own accord to confess1 and ask pardon4 ,he will be forgiven for two1 three1 perhaps even four escapades1--provided that he shows no signs of a really evil heart1 -and be lectured about his weakness in its relation to his prospects1 to the feelings of his family1 to the honor of his ancestors1 and to business requirements in general4 ,the difficulties of his position are kindly considered1 and he is never discharged for a small misdemeanor4 ,a dismissal would probably ruin him for life2 and every care is taken to open his eyes to certain dangers4 saka is really the most unsafe place in ,japan to play the fool in2--its dangerous and vicious classes are more to be feared than those of the capital2 and the daily news of the great city furnishes the apprentice with terrible examples of men reduced to poverty or driven to self-destruction through neglect of those very rules of conduct which it is part of his duty to learn4 ,in cases where detchi are taken into service at a very early age1 and brought up in the shop almost like adopted sons1 a very strong bond of affection between master and apprentice is sometimes established4 ,instances of extraordinary devotion to masters1 or members of masters' households1 are often reported4 ,sometimes the bankrupt merchant is restablished in business by his former clerk4 ,sometimes1 again1 the affection of a detchi may exhibit itself in strange extremes4 ,last year there was a curious case4 ,the only son of a merchant--a lad of twelve--died of cholera during the epidemic4 ,a detchi of fourteen1 who had been much attached to the dead boy1 committed suicide shortly after the funeral by throwing himself down in front of a train4 ,he left a letter1 of which the following is a tolerably close translation1--the selfish pronouns being absent in the original3 ,very long time in1 august help received2--honorable mercy even1 not in words to be declared4 ,now going to die1 unfaithful in excess2--yet another state in1 making rebirth1 honorable mercy will repay4 ,spirit anxious only in the matter of little sister ,o-,noto2--with humble salutation1 that she be honorably seen to1 supplicate4 ,to the ,august ,lord ,master1 ,from ,,mano ,,yoshimatsu4 ,footnote #a3 ,in ,japanese popular legend1 ,daruma 7,bodhidharma71 the great ,buddhist patriarch and missionary1 is said to have lost his legs during a meditation which lasted uninterruptedly for nine years4 ,a common child's toy is a comical figure of ,daruma1 without legs1 and so weighted within that1 no matter how thrown down1 it will always assume an upright position4 ,,iv ,it is not true that ,old ,japan is rapidly disappearing4 ,it cannot disappear within at least another hundred years2 perhaps it will never entirely disappear4 ,many curious and beautiful things have vanished2 but ,old ,japan survives in art1 in faith1 in customs and habits1 in the hearts and the homes of the people3 it may be found everywhere by those who know how to look for it1--and nowhere more easily than in this great city of ship-building1 watch-making1 beer-brewing1 and cotton-spinning4 ,i confess that ,i went to saka chiefly to see the temples1 especially the famous ,tennji4 ,tennji1 or1 more correctly1 ,shitennji1 the ,temple of the ,four ,deva ,kings1#a is one of the oldest ,buddhist temples in ,japan4 ,it was founded early in the seventh century by ,umayado-no-,oji1 now called ,shtoku ,taishi1 son of the ,emperor ,ymei1 and prince regent under the ,empress ,suiko 7#egb-fba ,a4 ,d474 ,he has been well called the ,constantine of ,japanese ,buddhism2 for he decided the future of ,buddhism in the ,empire1 first by a great battle in the reign of his father1 ,yomei ,tenn1 and afterwards by legal enactments and by the patronage of ,buddhist learning4 ,the previous ,emperor1 ,bitatsu ,tenn1 had permitted the preaching of ,buddhism by ,korean priests1 and had built two temples4 ,but under the reign of ,yomei1 one ,mononob no ,moriya1 a powerful noble1 and a bitter opponent of the foreign religion1 rebelled against such tolerance1 burned the temples1 banished the priests1 and offered battle to the imperial forces4 ,these1 tradition says1 were being driven back when the ,emperor's son--then only sixteen years old--vowed if victorious to build a temple to the ,four ,deva ,kings4 ,instantly at his side in the fight there towered a colossal figure from before whose face the powers of ,moriya broke and fled away4 ,the rout of the enemies of ,buddhism was complete and terrible2 and the young prince1 thereafter called ,shtoku ,taishi1 kept his vow4 ,the temple of ,tennji was built1 and the wealth of the rebel ,moriya applied to its maintenance4 ,in that part of it called the ,kond1 or ,hall of ,gold1 ,shtoku ,taishi enshrined the first ,buddhist image ever brought to ,japan1--a figure of ,nyo-i-rin ,kwannon1 or ,kwannon of the ,circle of ,wishes1--and the statue is still shown to the public on certain festival days4 ,the tremendous apparition in the battle is said to have been one of the ,four ,kings1--,bishamon 7,vaisravana71 worshiped to this day as a giver of victory4 ,the sensation received on passing out of the bright1 narrow1 busy streets of shops into the mouldering courts of ,tennji is indescribable4 ,even for a ,japanese ,i imagine it must be like a sensation of the supernatural1--a return in memory to the life of twelve hundred years ago1 to the time of the earliest ,buddhist mission work in ,japan4 ,symbols of the faith1 that elsewhere had become for me conventionally familiar1 here seemed but half familiar1 exotic1 prototypal2 and things never before seen gave me the startling notion of a time and place out of existing life4 ,as a matter of fact1 very little remains of the original structure of the temple2 parts have been burned1 parts renovated4 ,but the impression is still very peculiar1 because the rebuilders and the renovators always followed the original plans1 made by some great ,korean or ,chinese architect4 ,any attempt to write of the antique aspect1 the queer melancholy beauty of the place1 would be hopeless4 ,to know what ,tennji is1 one must see the weirdness of its decay1--the beautiful neutral tones of old timbers1 the fading spectral greys and yellows of wall-surfaces1 the eccentricities of disjointing1 the extraordinary carvings under eaves1--carvings of waves and clouds and dragons and demons1 once splendid with lacquer and gold1 now time-whitened to the tint of smoke1 and looking as if about to curl away like smoke and vanish4 ,the most remarkable of these carvings belong to a fantastic five-storied pagoda1 now ruinous3 nearly all the brazen wind-bells suspended to the angles of its tiers of roofs have fallen4 ,pagoda and temple proper occupy a quadrangular court surrounded by an open cloister4 ,beyond are other courts1 a ,buddhist school1 and an immense pond peopled by tortoises and crossed by a massive stone bridge4 ,there are statues and stone lamps and lions and an enormous temple-drum2--there are booths for the sale of toys and oddities2--there are resting-places where tea is served1 and cake-stands where you can buy cakes for the tortoises or for a pet deer1 which approaches the visitor1 bowing its sleek head to beg4 ,there is a two-storied gateway guarded by huge images of the ,ni-1--,ni- with arms and legs muscled like the limbs of kings in the ,assyrian sculptures1 and bodies speckled all over with little balls of white paper spat upon them by the faithful4 ,there is another gateway whose chambers are empty2--perhaps they once contained images of the ,four ,deva ,kings4 ,there are ever so many curious things2 but ,i shall only venture to describe two or three of my queerest experiences4 ,first of all1 ,i found the confirmation of a certain suspicion that had come to me as ,i entered the temple precincts1--the suspicion that the forms of worship were peculiar as the buildings4 ,i can give no reason for this feeling2 ,i can only say that1 immediately after passing the outer gate1 ,i had a premonition of being about to see the extraordinary in religion as well as in architecture4 ,and ,i presently saw it in the bell-tower1--a two-story ,chinese-looking structure1 where there is a bell called the ,ind-no-,kane1 or ,guiding-,bell1 because its sounds guide the ghosts of children through the dark4 ,the lower chamber of the bell-tower is fitted up as a chapel4 ,at the first glance ,i noticed only that a ,buddhist service was going on2 ,i saw tapers burning1 the golden glimmer of a shrine1 incense smoking1 a priest at prayer1 women and children kneeling4 ,but as ,i stopped for a moment before the entrance to observe the image in the shrine1 ,i suddenly became aware of the unfamiliar1 the astonishing4 ,on shelves and stands at either side of the shrine1 and above it and below it and beyond it1 were ranged hundreds of children's ihai1 or mortuary tablets1 and with them thousands of toys2 little dogs and horses and cows1 and warriors and drums and trumpets1 and pasteboard armor and wooden swords1 and dolls and kites and masks and monkeys1 and models of boats1 and baby tea-sets and baby-furniture1 and whirligigs and comical images of the ,gods of ,good ,fortune1--toys modern and toys of fashion forgotten1--toys accumulated through centuries1--toys of whole generations of dead children4 ,from the ceiling1 and close to the entrance1 hung down a great heavy bell-rope1 nearly four inches in diameter and of many colors1--the rope of the ,ind-,kan4 ,and that rope was made of the bibs of dead children1--yellow1 blue1 scarlet1 purple bibs1 and bibs of all intermediate shades4 ,the ceiling itself was invisible1--hidden from view by hundreds of tiny dresses suspended1--dresses of dead children4 ,little boys and girls1 kneeling or playing on the matting beside the priest1 had brought toys with them1 to be deposited in the chapel1 before the tablet of some lost brother or sister4 ,every moment some bereaved father or mother would come to the door1 pull the bell-rope1 throw some copper money on the matting1 and make a prayer4 ,each time the bell sounds1 some little ghost is believed to hear1--perhaps even to find its way back for one more look at loved toys and faces4 ,the plaintive murmur of ,namu ,amida ,butsu2 the clanging of the bell2 the deep humming of the priest's voice1 reciting the ,sutras2 the tinkle of falling coin2 the sweet1 heavy smell of incense2 the passionless golden beauty of the ,buddha in his shrine2 the colorific radiance of the toys2 the shadowing of the baby-dresses2 the variegated wonder of that bell-rope of bibs2 the happy laughter of the little folk at play on the floor1--all made for me an experience of weird pathos never to be forgotten4 99 ,not far from the bell-tower is another curious building1 which shelters a sacred spring4 ,in the middle of the floor is an opening1 perhaps ten feet long by eight wide1 surrounded by a railing4 ,looking down over the railing1 you see1 in the dimness below1 a large stone basin1 into which water is pouring from the mouth of a great stone tortoise1 black with age1 and only half visible1--its hinder part reaching back into the darkness under the floor4 ,this water is called the ,spring of the ,tortoise1--,kam-i-,sui4 ,the basin into which it flows is more than half full of white paper1--countless slips of white paper1 each bearing in ,chinese text the kaimy1 or ,buddhist posthumous name of a dead person4 ,in a matted recess of the building sits a priest who for a small fee writes the kaimy4 ,the purchaser--relative or friend of the dead--puts one end of the written slip into the mouth of a bamboo cup1 or rather bamboo joint1 fixed at right angles to the end of a long pole4 ,by aid of this pole he lowers the paper1 with the written side up1 to the mouth of the tortoise1 and holds it under the gush of water1--repeating a ,buddhist invocation the while1--till it is washed out into the basin4 ,when ,i visited the spring there was a dense crowd2 and several kaimy were being held under the mouth of the tortoise2--numbers of pious folk meantime waiting1 with papers in their hands1 for a chance to use the poles4 ,the murmuring of ,namu ,amida ,butsu was itself like the sound of rushing water4 ,i was told that the basin becomes filled with kaimy every few days2--then it is emptied1 and the papers burned4 ,if this be true1 it is a remarkable proof of the force of ,buddhist faith in this busy commercial city2 for many thousands of such slips of paper would be needed to fill the basin4 ,it is said that the water bears the names of the dead and the prayers of the living to ,shtoku ,taishi1 who uses his powers of intercession with ,amida on behalf of the faithful4 ,in the chapel called the ,taishi-,d there are statues of ,shtoku ,taishi and his attend-ants4 ,the figure of the prince1 seated upon a chair of honor1 is life-size and colored2 he is attired in the fashion of twelve hundred years ago1 wearing a picturesque cap1 and ,chinese or ,korean shoes with points turned up4 ,one may see the same costume in the designs upon very old porcelains or very old screens4 ,but the face1 in spite of its drooping ,chinese moustaches1 is a typical ,japanese face1--dignified1 kindly1 passionless4 ,i turned from the faces of the statues to the faces of the people about me to see the same types1--to meet the same quiet1 half-curious1 inscrutable gaze4 99 ,in powerful contrast to the ancient structures of ,tennji are the vast ,nishi and ,higashi ,hongwanji1 almost exact counterparts of the ,nishi and ,higashi ,hongwanji of ,tokyo4 ,nearly every great city of ,japan has a pair of such ,hongwanji 7,temples of the ,true ,vow7--one belonging to the ,western 7,nishi71 the other to the ,eastern 7,higashi7 branch of this great ,shin sect1 founded in the thirteenth century4#b ,varying in dimension according to the wealth and religious importance of the locality1 but usually built upon the same general plan1 they may be said to represent the most modern and the most purely ,japanese form of ,buddhist architecture1--immense1 dignified1 magnificent4 ,but they likewise represent the almost protestant severity of the rite in regard to symbols1 icons1 and external forms4 ,their plain and ponderous gates are never guarded by the giant ,ni-2--there is no swarming of dragons and demons under their enormous eaves2--no golden hosts of ,buddhas or ,bodhisattvas rise1 rank on rank1 by tiers of aureoles1 through the twilight of their sanctuaries2--no curious or touching witnesses of grateful faith are ever suspended from their high ceilings1 or hung before their altars1 or fastened to the gratings of their doorways2--they contain no ex-votos1 no paper knots recording prayer1 no symbolic image but one1--and that usually small1--the figure of ,amida4 ,probably the reader knows that the ,hongwanji sect represents a movement in ,buddhism not altogether unlike that which ,unitarianism represents in ,liberal ,christianity4 ,in its rejection of celibacy and of all ascetic practices2 its prohibition of charms1 divinations1 votive offerings1 and even of all prayer excepting prayer for salvation2 its insistence upon industrious effort as the duty of life2 its maintenance of the sanctity of marriage as a religious bond2 its doctrine of one eternal ,buddha as ,father and ,saviour2 its promise of ,paradise after death as the immediate reward of a good life2 and1 above all1 in its educational zeal1--the religion of the ,sect of the ,pure ,land may be justly said to have much in common with the progressive forms of ,western ,christianity1 and it has certainly won the respect of the few men of culture who find their way into the missionary legion4 ,judged by its wealth1 its respectability1 and its antagonism to the grosser forms of ,buddhist superstition1 it might be supposed the least emotional of all forms of ,buddhism4 ,but in some respects it is probably the most emotional4 ,no other ,buddhist sect can make such appeals to the faith and love of the common people as those which brought into being the amazing ,eastern ,hongwanji temple of ,kyoto4 ,yet while able to reach the simplest minds by special methods of doctrinal teaching1 the ,hongwanji cult can make equally strong appeal to the intellectual classes by reason of its scholarship4 ,not a few of its priests are graduates of the leading universities of the ,west2 and some have won ,european reputations in various departments of ,buddhist learning4 ,whether the older ,buddhist sects are likely to dwindle away before the constantly increasing power of the ,shinsh is at least an interesting question4 ,certainly the latter has everything in its favor1--imperial recognition1 wealth1 culture1 and solidity of organization4 ,on the other hand1 one is tempted to doubt the efficacy of such advantages in a warfare against habits of thought and feeling older by many centuries than ,shinsh4 ,perhaps the ,occident furnishes a precedent on which to base predictions4 ,remembering how strong ,roman ,catholicism remains to-day1 how little it has changed since the days of ,luther1 how impotent our progressive creeds to satisfy the old spiritual hunger for some visible object of worship1--something to touch1 or put close to the heart1--it becomes difficult to believe that the iconolatry of the more ancient ,buddhist sects will not continue for hundreds of years to keep a large place in popular affection4 ,again1 it is worthy of remark that one curious obstacle to the expansion of the ,shinsh is to be found in a very deeply rooted race feeling on the subject of self-sacrifice4 ,although much corruption undoubtedly exists in the older sects1--although numbers of their priests do not even pretend to observe the vows regarding diet and celibacy1#c--the ancient ideals are by no means dead2 and the majority of ,japanese ,buddhists still disapprove of the relatively pleasurable lives of the ,shinsh priesthood4 ,in some of the remoter provinces1 where ,shinsh is viewed with especial disfavor1 one may often hear children singing a naughty song 7,shinsh bozu e mon da671 which might thus be freely rendered3--4 ,shinsh priest to be1 --,what a nice thing6 ,wife has1 child has1 ,good fish eats4 ,it reminded me of those popular criticisms of ,buddhist conduct uttered in the time of the ,buddha himself1 and so often recorded in the ,vinaya texts1--almost like a refrain3-- ,then the people were annoyed2 and they murmured and complained1 saying3 ',these act like men who are still enjoying the pleasures of this world6' ,and they told the thing to the ,blessed ,one4 ,besides ,tennji1 ,osaka has many famous temples1 both ,buddhist and ,shinto1 with very ancient histories4 ,of such is ,kzu-no-yashiro1 where the people pray to the spirit of ,nintoku1--most beloved in memory of all ,japanese emperors4 ,he had a palace on the same hill where his shrine now stands2 and this site--whence a fine view of the city can be obtained--is the scene of a pleasing legend preserved in the ,kojiki3-- ,thereupon the ,heavenly ,sovereign1 ascending a lofty mountain and looking on the land all round1 spoke1 saying3--',in the whole land there rises no smoke2 the land is all poverty-stricken4 ,so ,i remit all the people's taxes and forced labor from now till three years hence4' ,thereupon the great palace became dilapidated1 and the rain leaked in everywhere2 but no repairs were made4 ,the rain that leaked in was caught in troughs1 and the inmates removed to places where there was no leakage4 ,when later the ,heavenly ,sovereign looked upon the land1 the smoke was abundant in the land4 ,so1 finding the people rich1 he now exacted taxes and forced labor4 ,therefore the peasantry prospered1 and did not suffer from the forced labor4 ,so1 in praise of that august reign1 it was called the ,reign of the ,emperor-,sage4#d ,that was fifteen hundred years ago4 ,now1 could the good ,emperor see1 from his shrine of ,kzu1--as thousands must believe he does1--the smoke of modern ,osaka1 he might well think1 ,my people are becoming too rich4 ,outside of the city there is a still more famous ,shint temple1 ,sumiyoshi1 dedicated to certain sea-gods who aided the ,empress ,jing to conquer ,korea4 ,at ,sumiyoshi there are pretty child-priestesses1 and beautiful grounds1 and an enormous pond spanned by a bridge so humped that1 to cross it without taking off your shoes1 you must cling to the parapet4 ,at ,sakai there is the ,buddhist temple of ,mykokuji1 in the garden of which are some very old palm-trees2--one of them1 removed by ,nobunaga in the sixteenth century1 is said to have cried out and lamented until it was taken back to the temple4 ,you see the ground under these palms covered with what looks like a thick1 shiny1 disordered mass of fur1--half reddish and half silvery grey4 ,it is not fur4 ,it is a heaping of millions of needles thrown there by pilgrims to feed the palms1 because these trees are said to love iron and to be strengthened by absorbing its rust4 ,speaking of trees1 ,i may mention the ,naniwaya ,kasa-matsu1 or ,hat-,pine1--not so much because it is an extraordinary tree as because it supports a large family who keep a little tea-house on the road to ,sakai4 ,the branches of the tree have been trained out-wards and downwards over a framework of poles1 so that the whole presents the appearance of an enormous green hat of the shape worn by peasants and called ,kasa4 ,the pine is scarcely six feet high1 but covers perhaps twenty square yards2--its trunk1 of course1 not being visible at all from outside the framework supporting the branches4 ,many people visit the house to look at the pine and drink a cup of tea2 and nearly every visitor buys some memento of it1--perhaps a woodcut of the tree1 or a printed copy of verses written by some poet in praise of it1 or a girl's hairpin1 the top of which is a perfect little green model ox the tree1--framework of poles and all1--with one tiny stork perched on it1 ,the owners of the ,naniwaya1 as their tea-house is called1 are not only able to make a good living1 but to educate their children1 by the exhibition of this tree1 and the sale of such mementos4 99 ,i do not intend to tax my reader's patience by descriptions of the other famous temples of saka1--several of which are enormously old1 and have most curious legends attached to them4 ,but ,i may venture a few words about the cemetery of the ,temple of ,one ,soul1--or better1 perhaps1 the ,temple of a ,single ,mind3 ,isshinji4 ,the monuments there are the most extraordinary ,i ever saw4 ,near the main gate is the tomb of a wrestler1--,asahigor ,hachir4 ,his name is chiseled upon a big disk of stone1 probably weighing a ton2 and this disk is supported on the back of a stone image of a wrestler1--a grotesque figure1 with gilded eyes starting from their sockets1 and features apparently distorted by effort4 ,it is a very queer thing1--half-comical1 half-furious of aspect4 ,close by is the tomb of one ,hirayama ,hanibei1--a monument shaped like a hytan1--that is to say1 like a wine-gourd such as travelers use for carrying sak4 ,the most usual form of hytan resembles that of an hour-glass1 except that the lower part is somewhat larger than the upper2 and the vessel can only stand upright when full or partly full1--so that in a ,japanese song the wine-lover is made to say to his gourd1 ,with you ,i fall4 ,apparently the mighty to drink wine have a district all to themselves in this cemetery2 for there are several other monuments of like form in the same row1--also one shaped like a very large sak-bottle 7isshdokkuri71#e on which is inscribed a verse not taken from the sutras4 ,but the oddest monument of all is a great stone badger1 sitting upright1 and seeming to strike its belly with its fore-paws4 ,on the belly is cut a name1 ,inouy ,dennosuk1 together with the verse3-- ,tsuki yo yoshi ,nembutsu tonaite ,hara tsudzumi4 ,which means about as follows3--,on fine moonlight-nights1 repeating the ,nembutsu1 ,i play the belly-drum4 ,the flower-vases are in the form of sak-bottles4 ,artificial rock-work supports the monument2 and here and there1 among the rocks1 are smaller figures of badgers1 dressed like ,buddhist priests 7tanuki-bozu74 ,my readers probably know that the ,japanese tanuki#f is credited with the power of assuming human shape1 and of making musical sounds like the booming of a hand-drum by tapping upon its belly4 ,it is said often to disguise itself as a ,buddhist priest for mischievous purposes1 and to be very fond of sak4 ,of course1 such images in a cemetery represent nothing more than eccentricities1 and are judged to be in bad taste4 ,one is reminded of certain jocose paintings and inscriptions upon ,greek and ,roman tombs1 expressing in regard to death--or rather in regard to life--a sentiment1 or an affectation of sentiment1 repellent to modern feeling4 ,footnote #a3 ,they defend the four quarters of the world4 ,in ,japanese their names are ,jikoku1 ,komoku1 ,zocho1 ,bishamon 7or ,tamon72--in ,sanscrit1 ,dhritarashtra1 ,virupaksha1 ,virudhaka1 and ,vaisravana1--the ,kuvera of1 ,brahmanism4 ,footnote #b3 ,the division of the sect during the seventeenth century into two branches had a political1 not a religious cause2 and the sections remain religiously united4 ,their abbots are of ,imperial descent1 whence their title of ,monzeki1 or ,imperial ,offspring4 ,travelers may observe that the walls inclosing the temple grounds of this sect bear the same decorative mouldings as those of the walls of the ,imperial residences4 ,footnote #c3 ,this has been especially the case since the abrogation of the civil laws forbidding priests to marry4 ,the wives of the priests of other sects than the ,shinsh are called by a humorous and not very respectful appellation4 ,footnote #d3 ,see ,professor ,chamberlain's translation of the ,kojiki1 section ,,cxxi4 ,footnote #e3 ,that is1 a bottle containing one sho1--about a quart and a half4 ,footnote #f3 ,although tanuki is commonly translated by badger1 the creature so called is not a real badger1 but a kind of fruit-fox4 ,it is also termed the raccoon-faced dog4 ,the true badger is1 however1 also found in ,japan4 ,v ,i said in a former essay that a ,japanese city is little more than a wilderness of wooden sheds1 and saka is no exception4 ,but interiorly a very large number of the frail wooden dwellings of any ,japanese city are works of art2 and perhaps no city possesses more charming homes than saka4 ,kyoto is1 indeed1 much richer in gardens1--there being comparatively little space for gardens in saka2 but ,i am speaking of the houses only4 ,exteriorly a ,japanese street may appear little better than a row of wooden barns or stables1 but the interior of any dwelling in it may be a wonder of beauty4 ,usually the outside of a ,japanese house is not at all beautiful1 though it may have a certain pleasing oddity of form2 and in many cases the walls of the rear or sides are covered with charred boards1 of which the blackened and hardened surfaces are said to resist heat and damp better than any coating of paint or stucco could do4 ,except1 perhaps1 the outside of a coal-shed1 nothing dingier-looking could be imagined4 ,but the other side of the black walls may be an aesthetic delight4 ,the comparative cheapness of the residence does not much affect this possibility2--for the ,japanese excel all nations in obtaining the maximum of beauty with the minimum of cost2 while the most industrially advanced of ,western peoples--the practical ,americans--have yet only succeeded in obtaining the minimum of beauty with the maximum of cost6 ,much about ,japanese interiors can be learned from ,morse's ,japanese ,homes2 but even that admirable book gives only the black-and-white notion of the subject2 and more than half of the charm of such interiors is the almost inexplicable caress of color4 ,to illustrate ,mr4 ,morse's work so as to interpret the colorific charm would be a dearer and a more difficult feat than the production of ,racinet's ,costumes ,historique4 ,even thus the subdued luminosity1 the tone of perfect repose1 the revelations of delicacy and daintiness waiting the eye in every nook of chambers seemingly contrived to catch and keep the feeling of perpetual summer1 would remain unguessed4 ,five years ago ,i wrote that a little acquaintance with the ,japanese art of flower arrangement had made it impossible for me to endure the sight of that vulgarity1 or rather brutality1 which in the ,west we call a bouquet4 ,to-day ,i must add that familiarity with ,japanese interiors has equally disgusted me with ,occidental interiors1 no matter how spacious or comfortable or richly furnished4 ,returning now to ,western life1 ,i should feel like ,thomas-the-,rhymer revisiting a world of ugliness and sorrow after seven years of fairyland4 ,it is possible1 as has been alleged 7though ,i cannot believe it71 that ,western artists have little more to learn from the study of ,japanese pictorial art4 ,but ,i am quite sure that our house-builders have universes of facts to learn--especially as regards the treatment and tinting of surfaces--from the study of ,japanese interiors4 ,whether the countless styles of these interiors can even be classed appears to me a doubtful question4 ,i do not think that in a hundred thousand ,japanese houses there are two interiors precisely alike 7excluding1 of course1 the homes of the poorest classes71--for the designer never repeats himself when he can help it4 ,the lesson he has to teach is the lesson of perfect taste combined with inexhaustible variety4 ,taste6 --what a rare thing it is in our ,western world6--and how independent of material1--how intuitive1--how incommunicable to the vulgar6 ,but taste is a ,japanese birthright4 ,it is everywhere present1--though varying in quality of development according to conditions and the inheritance depending upon conditions4 ,the average ,occidental recognizes only the commoner forms of it1--chiefly those made familiar by commercial export4 ,and1 as a general rule1 what the ,west most admires in ,japanese conventional taste is thought rather vulgar in ,japan4 ,not that we are wrong in admiring whatever is beautiful in itself4 ,even the designs printed in tints upon a two-cent towel may be really great pictures3 they are sometimes made by excellent artists4 ,but the aristocratic severity of the best ,japanese taste--the exquisite complexity of its refinements in the determination of proportion1 quality1 tone1 restraint--has never yet been dreamed of by the ,west4 ,nowhere is this taste so finely exhibited as in private interiors1--particularly in regard to color4 ,the rules of color in the composition of a set of rooms are not less exacting3 than the rules of color in the matter of dress1--though permitting considerable variety4 ,the mere tones of a private house are enough to indicate its owner's degree of culture4 ,there is no painting1 no varnishing1 no wall-papering1--only staining and polishing of particular parts1 and a sort of paper border about fifteen inches broad fixed along the bottom of a wall to protect it during cleaning and dusting operations4 ,the plastering may be made with sands of different hues1 or with fragments of shell and nacre1 or with quartz-crystal1 or with mica2 the surface may imitate granite1 or may sparkle like copper pyrites1 or may look exactly like a rich mass of bark2 but1 whatever the material1 the tint given must show the same faultless taste that rules in the tints of silks for robes and girdles4 444 ,as yet1 all this interior world of beauty--just because it is an interior world--is closed to the foreign tourist3 he can find at most only suggestions of it in the rooms of such old-fashioned inns or tea-houses as he may visit in the course of his travels4 99 ,i wonder how many foreign travelers understand the charm of a ,japanese inn1 or even think how much is done to please them1 not merely in the matter of personal attentions1 but in making beauty for their eyes4 ,multitudes write of their petty vexations1--their personal acquaintance with fleas1 their personal dislikes and discomforts2 but how many write of the charm of that alcove where every day fresh flowers are placed1--arranged as no ,european florist could ever learn to arrange flowers1--and where there is sure to be some object of real art1 whether in bronze1 lacquer1 or porcelain1 together with a picture suited to the feeling of the time and season8 ,these little aesthetic gratifications1 though never charged for1 ought to be kindly remembered when the gift of tea-money is made4 ,i have been in hundreds of ,japanese hotels1 and ,i remember only one in which ,i could find nothing curious or pretty1--a ramshackle shelter hastily put up to catch custom at a newly-opened railway station4 ,a word about the alcove of my room in ,osaka3--,the wall was covered only with a mixture of sand and metallic filings of some sort1 but it looked like a beautiful surface of silver ore4 ,to the pillar was fastened a bamboo cup containing a pair of exquisite blossoming sprays of wistaria1--one pink and the other white4 ,the kakemono--made with a few very bold strokes by a master-brush--pictured two enormous crabs about to fight after vainly trying to get out of each other's way2--and the humor of the thing was enhanced by a few ,chinese characters signifying1 ,wko-skai1 or1 ,everything goes crookedly in this world4 ,,vii ,my last day in saka was given to shopping1--chiefly in the districts of the toy-makers and of the silk merchants4 ,a ,japanese acquaintance1 himself a shopkeeper1 took me about1 and showed me extraordinary things until my eyes ached4 ,we went to a famous silk-house1--a tumultuous place1 so crowded that we had some trouble to squeeze our way to the floor-platform1 which1 in every ,japanese shop1 serves at once for chairs and counter4 ,scores of barefooted light-limbed boys were running over it1 bearing bundles of merchandise to customers2--for in such shops there is no shelving of stock4 ,the ,japanese salesman never leaves his squatting-place on the mats2 but1 on learning what you want1 he shouts an order1 and boys presently run to you with armfuls of samples4 ,after you have made your choice1 the goods are rolled up again by the boys1 and carried back into the fire-proof storehouses behind the shop4 ,at the time of our visit1 the greater part of the matted floor-space was one splendid shimmering confusion of tossed silks and velvets of a hundred colors and a hundred prices4 ,near the main entrance an elderly superintendent1 plump and jovial of aspect like the ,god of ,wealth1 looked after arriving customers4 ,two keen-eyed men1 standing upon an elevation in the middle of the shop1 and slowly turning round and round in opposite directions1 kept watch for thieves2 and other watchers were posted at the side--doors4 7,japanese shop-thieves1 by the way1 are very clever2 and ,i am told that nearly every large store loses considerably by them in the course of the year47 ,in a side-wing of the building1 under a low skylight1 ,i saw busy ranks of bookkeepers1 cashiers1 and correspondents squatting before little desks less than two feet high4 ,each of the numerous salesmen was attending to many customers at once4 ,the rush of business was big2 and the rapidity with which the work was being done testified to the excellence of the organization established4 ,i asked how many persons the firm employed1 and my friend replied3-- ,probably about two hundred here2 there are several branch houses4 ,in this shop the work is very hard2 but the working-hours are shorter than in most of the silk-houses1--not more than twelve hours a day4 ,what about salaries8 ,i inquired4 ,no salaries4 ,is all the work of this firm done without pay8 ,perhaps one or two of the very cleverest salesmen may get something1--not exactly a salary1 but a little special remuneration every month2 and the old superintendent--7he has been forty years in the house7--gets a salary4 ,the rest get nothing but their food4 ,good food8 ,no1 very cheap1 coarse food4 ,after a man has served his time here1--fourteen or fifteen years1--he may be helped to open a small store of his own4 ,are the conditions the same in all the shops of ,osaka8 ,yes1--everywhere the same4 ,but now many of the detchi are graduates of commercial schools4 ,those sent to a commercial school begin their apprenticeship much later2 and they are said not to make such good detchi as those taught from childhood4 ,a ,japanese clerk in a foreign store is much better off4 ,we do not think so1 answered my friend very positively4 ,some who speak ,english well1 and have learned the foreign way of doing business1 may get fifty or sixty dollars a month for seven or eight hours' work a day4 ,but they are not treated the same way as they are treated in a ,japanese house4 ,clever men do not like to work under foreigners4 ,foreigners used to be very cruel to their ,japanese clerks and servants4 ,but not now8 ,i queried4 ,perhaps not often4 ,they have found that it is dangerous4 ,but they used to beat and kick them4 ,japanese think it shameful to even speak unkindly to detchi or servants4 ,in a house like this there is no unkindness4 ,the owners and the superintendents never speak roughly4 ,you see how very hard all these men and boys are working without pay4 ,no foreigner could get ,japanese to work like that1 even for big wages4 ,i have worked in foreign houses1 and ,i know4 99 ,it is not exaggeration to say that most of the intelligent service rendered in ,japanese trade and skilled industry is unsalaried4 ,perhaps one third of the business work of the country is done without wages2 the relation between master and servant being one of perfect trust on both sides1 and absolute obedience being assured by the simplest of moral conditions4 ,this fact was the fact most deeply impressed upon me during my stay in ,osaka4 ,i found myself wondering about it while the evening train to ,nara was bearing me away from the cheery turmoil of the great metropolis4 ,i continued to think of it while watching the deepening of the dusk over the leagues of roofs1--over the mustering of factory chimneys forever sending up their offering of smoke to the shrine of good ,nintoku4 ,suddenly above the out-twinkling of countless lamps1--above the white star-points of electric lights1--above the growing dusk itself1--,i saw1 rising glorified into the last red splendor of sunset1 the marvelous old pagoda of ,tennji4 ,and ,i asked myself whether the faith it symbolized had not helped to create that spirit of patience and love and trust upon which have been founded all the wealth and energy and power of the mightiest city of ,japan4 ,,viii ,,buddhist ,,allusions ,,in ,,japanese ,,folk-,,song ,perhaps only a ,japanese representative of the older culture could fully inform us to what degree the mental soil of the race has been saturated and fertilized by ,buddhist idealism4 ,at all events1 no ,european could do so2 for to understand the whole relation of ,far-,eastern religion to ,far-,eastern life would require1 not only such scholarship1 but also such experience as no ,european could gain in a lifetime4 ,yet for even the ,western stranger there are everywhere signs of what ,buddhism has been to ,japan in the past4 ,all the arts and most of the industries repeat ,buddhist legends to the eye trained in symbolism2 and there is scarcely an object of handiwork possessing any beauty or significance of form--from the plaything of a child to the heirloom of a prince--which does not in some way proclaim the ancient debt to ,buddhism of the craft that made it4 ,one may discern ,buddhist thoughts in the cheap cotton prints from an ,osaka mill not less than in the figured silks of ,kyoto4 ,the reliefs upon an iron kettle1 or the elephant-heads of bronze making the handles of a shopkeeper's hibachi the patterns of screen-paper1 or the commonest ornamental woodwork of a gateway--the etchings upon a metal pipe1 or the enameling upon a costly vase1--may all relate1 with equal eloquence1 the traditions of faith4 ,there are reflections or echoes of ,buddhist teaching in the composition of a garden2--in the countless ideographs of the long vistas of shop-signs2--in the wonderfully expressive names given to certain fruits and flowers2--in the appellations of mountains1 capes1 waterfalls1 villages1--even of modern railway stations4 ,and the new civilization would not yet seem to have much affected the influence thus manifested4 ,trains and steamers now yearly carry to famous shrines more pilgrims than visited them ever before in a twelvemonth2--the temple bells still1 in despite of clocks and watches1 mark the passing of time for the millions2--the speech of the people is still poetized with ,buddhist utterances2--literature and drama still teem with ,buddhist expressions2--and the most ordinary voices of the street--songs of children playing1 a chorus of laborers at their toil1 even cries of itinerant street-venders--often recall to me some story of saints and ,bodhisattvas1 or the text of some sutra4 ,such an experience first gave me the idea of making a collection of songs containing ,buddhist expressions or allusions4 ,but in view of the extent of the subject ,i could not at once decide where to begin4 ,a bewildering variety of ,japanese songs--a variety of which the mere nomenclature would occupy pages--offers material of this description4 ,among noteworthy kinds may be mentioned the ,utai1 dramatic songs1 mostly composed by high priests1 of which probably no ten lines are without some allusion to ,buddhism2--the ,naga-uta1 songs often of extraordinary length2--and the ,jruri1 whole romances in verse1 with which professional singers can delight their audiences for five or six hours at a time4 ,the mere dimension of such compositions necessarily excluded them from my plan2 but there remained a legion of briefer forms to choose among4 ,i resolved at last to limit my undertaking mainly to dodoitsu1--little songs of twenty-six syllables only1 arranged in four lines 7#g1 #g1 #g1 #e74 ,they are more regular in construction than the street-songs treated of in a former paper2 but they are essentially popular1 and therefore more widely representative of ,buddhist influences than many superior kinds of composition could be4 ,out of a very large number collected for me1 ,i have selected between forty and fifty as typical of the class4 99 ,perhaps those pieces which reflect the ideas of prexistence and of future rebirths will prove especially interesting to the ,western reader1--much less because of poetical worth than because of comparative novelty4 ,we have very little ,english verse of any class containing fancies of this kind2 but they swarm in ,japanese poetry even as commonplaces and conventionalisms4 ,such an exquisite thing as ,rossetti's ,sudden ,light1--bewitching us chiefly through the penetrative subtlety of a thought anathematized by all our orthodoxies for eighteen hundred years1--could interest a ,japanese only as the exceptional rendering1 by an ,occidental1 of fancies and feelings familiar to the most ignorant peasant4 ,certainly no one will be able to find in these ,japanese verses--or1 rather1 in my own wretchedly prosy translations of them--even a hint of anything like the ghostly delicacy of ,rossetti's imagining3-- ,i have been here before1-- ,but when or how ,i cannot tell3 ,i know the grass beyond the door1 ,the sweet1 keen smell1 ,the sighing sound1 the lights along the shore4 ,you have been mine before1-- ,how long ago ,i may not know3 ,but just when at that swallow's soar ,your neck turned so1 ,some veil did fall1--,i knew it all of yore4 ,yet what a queer living difference between such enigmatically delicate handling of thoughts classed as forbidden fruit in the ,western ,eden of ,dreams and the every-day ,japanese utterances that spring directly out of ancient ,eastern faith6-- ,love1 it is often said1 has nothing to do with reason4 ,the cause of ours must be some ,en in a previous birth4#a ,footnote #a3 ,iro wa shian no ,hoka to-wa ido1 ,kor mo saki-sho no ,en de ar4 ,en is a ,buddhist word signifying affinity1--relation of cause and effect from life to life4 ,even the knot of the rope tying our boats together ,knotted was long ago by some love in a former birth4 ,if the touching even of sleeves be through ,en of a former existence1 ,very much deeper must be the ,en that unites us now6#b ,footnote #b3 ,sod suri- no mo ,tash no en yo1 ,mashit futari ga ,fukai naka4 ,allusion is here made to the old ,buddhist proverb3 ,sod no furi-awas mo tash no en1--,even the touching of sleeves in passing is caused by some affinity operating from former lives4 ,kwah#c this life must be1--this dwelling with one so tender2 --,i am reaping now the reward of deeds in a former birth6 ,footnote #c3 ,the ,buddhist word ,kwah is commonly used instead of other synonyms for ,karma 7such as ingwa1 innen1 etc471 to signify the good1 rather than the bad results of action in previous lives4 ,but it is sometimes used in both meanings4 ,here there seems to be an allusion to the proverbial expression1 ,kwah no yoi hito 7lit43 a person of good ,kwah71 meaning a fortunate individual4 ,many songs of this class refer to the customary vow which lovers make to belong to each other for more lives than one1--a vow perhaps originally inspired by the ,buddhist aphorism1-- ,oya-ko wa1 is-s2 ,ffu wa1 ni-s2 ,shuj wa1 san-z4 ,the relation of parent and child is for one life2 that of wife and husband1 for two lives2 that of master and servant1 for three lives4 ,although the tender relation is thus limited to the time of two lives1 the vow--7as ,japanese dramas testify1 and as the letters of those who kill themselves for love bear witness7--is often passionately made for seven4 ,the following selections show a considerable variety of tone1--ranging from the pathetic to the satirical1--in the treatment of this topic3 ,i have cut my hair for his sake2 but the deeper relation between us ,cannot be cut in this1 nor yet in another life4#d ,footnote #d3 ,kami wa kitt mo ,ni-s made kaketa ,fukai enishi wa ,kiru mono ka8 ,literally3 ,hair have-cut although1 two existences until1 deep relation1 cut-how-can-it-be8 ,by the mention of the hair-cutting we know the speaker is a woman4 ,her husband1 or possibly betrothed lover1 is dead2 and1 according to the ,buddhist custom1 she signifies her desire to remain faithful to his memory by the sacrifice of her hair4 ,for detailed information on this subject see1 in my ,glimpses of ,unfamiliar ,japan1 the chapter1 ,of ,women's ,hair4 ,she looks at the portrait of him to whom for two lives she is promised3 ,happy remembrances come1 and each brings a smile to her face4#e ,footnote #e3 ,ni-s to chigirishi ,shashin we nagam ,omoi-idashit ,warai-gao4 ,lit43 ,two existences that made alliance1 photograph look-at1 thinking bring-out smiling face4 ,the use of the term shashin1 photograph1 shows that the poem is not old4 ,if in this present life we never can hope for union1 ,then we shall first keep house in the ,lotos-,palace beyond4#f ,footnote #f3 ,totmo kono yo d ,sowar-nu naraba ,hasu no utna d ,ara stai4 ,lit43 ,by-any-means1 this-world-in1 cannot-live-together if1 ,lotos-of ,palace-in1 new-housekeeping4 ,it is with this thought that lovers voluntarily die together2 and the song might be called a song of jshi4 ,have we not spoken the vow that binds for a double existence8 ,if we must separate now1 ,i can only wish to die4 ,there6--oh1 what shall we do8444 ,pledged for a double existence1-- ,and now1 as we sit together1 the string of the samisen snaps6#g ,footnote #g3 ,among singing-girls it is believed that the snapping of a samisen-string under such circumstances as those indicated in the above song is an omen of coming separation4 ,he woos by teaching the ,law of ,cause and ,effect for three lives1 ,and makes a contract for two--the crafty-smiling priest6#h ,footnote #h3 ,this song is of a priest who breaks the vow of celibacy4 ,every mortal has lived and is destined to live countless lives2 yet the happy moments of any single existence are not therefore less precious in themselves3-- ,not to have met one night is verily cause for sorrow2 ,since twice in a single birth the same night never comes4 ,but even as a summer unusually warm is apt to herald a winter of exceptional severity1 so too much happiness in this life may signify great suffering in the next3-- ,always ,i suffer thus6444 ,methinks1 in my last existence4 ,too happy ,i must have been1--did not suffer enough4 ,next in point of exotic interest to the songs expressing belief in prexistence and rebirth1 ,i think ,i should place those treating of the doctrine of ingwa1 or ,karma4 ,i offer some free translations from these1 together with one selection from a class of compositions more elaborate and usually much longer than the dodoitsu1 called hauta4 ,in the original1 at least1 my selection from the hauta--which contains a charming simile about the firefly--is by far the prettiest3-- ,weep not6--turn to me6444 ,nay1 all my suspicions vanish6 ,forgive me those words unkind3 some ingwa controlled my tongue6 ,evidently this is the remorseful pleading of a jealous lover4 ,the next might be the answer of the girl whose tears he had caused to flow3 ,i cannot imagine at all by what strange manner of ingwa ,came ,i to fall in love with one so unkind as you6 ,or she might exclaim3-- ,is this the turning of ,en8--am ,i caught in the ,wheel of ,karma8 ,that1 alas6 is a wheel not to be moved from the rut6#i ,footnote #i3 ,meguru en kaya8 ,kuruma no watashi ,hiku ni hikarnu ,kono ingwa4 ,there is a play on words in the original which ,i have not attempted to render4 ,the idea is of an unhappy match--either betrothal or marriage--from which the woman wishes to withdraw when too late4 ,a more remarkable reference to the ,wheel of ,karma is the following3-- ,father and mother forbade1 and so ,i gave up my lover2 --,yet still1 with the whirl of the ,wheel1 the thought of him comes and goes4#aj ,footnote #aj3 ,oya no iken d ,akirameta no we ,mata mo rin-y d ,omoi-dasu4 ,the ,buddhist word ,rin-y1 or ,rinten1 has the meaning of turning the ,wheel1--another expression for passing from birth to birth4 ,the ,wheel here is the great ,circle of ,illusion1--the whirl of ,karma4 ,this is a hauta3-- ,numberless insects there are that call from dawn to evening1 ,crying1 ,i love6 ,i love6--but the ,firefly's silent passion1 ,making its body burn1 is deeper than all their longing4 ,even such is my love 444 yet ,i cannot think through what ingwa ,i opened my heart--alas6--to a being not sincere6#aa ,footnote #aa3 ,kai1 kai to ,naku mushi yori mo ,nakanu hotaru ga ,mi we kogasu4 ,nanno ingwa d ,jitsu naki hito ni ,shin we akashit1-- ,aa kuyashi6 ,lit43 ',i-love-,i-love'-saying-cry-insects than1 better never-cry-firefly1 body scorch6 ,what ,karma because-of1 sincerity-not-is-man to1 inmost-mind opened8--ah6 regret6 444 ,it was formerly believed that the firefly's light really burned its own body4 ,if the foregoing seem productions possible only to our psychological antipodes1 it is quite otherwise with a group of folk-songs reflecting the doctrine of ,impermanency4 ,concerning the instability of all material things1 and the hollowness of all earthly pleasures1 ,christian and ,buddhist thought are very much in accord4 ,the great difference between them appears only when we compare their teaching as to things ghostly1--and especially as to the nature of the ,ego4 ,but the ,oriental doctrine that the ,ego itself is an impermanent compound1 and that the ,self is not the true ,consciousness1 rarely finds expression in these popular songs4 ,for the common people the ,self exists3 it is a real 7though multiple7 personality that passes from birth to birth4 ,only the educated ,buddhist comprehends the deeper teaching that what we imagine to be ,self is wholly illusion1--a darkening veil woven by ,karma2 and that there is no ,self but the ,infinite ,self1 the eternal ,absolute4 ,in the following dodoitsu will be found mostly thoughts or emotions according with universal experience3-- ,gathering clouds to the moon2--storm and rain to the flowers3 ,somehow this world of woe never is just as we like4#ab ,footnote #ab3 ,tsuki ni murakumo1 ,hana ni wa arashi3 ,tokaku uki-yo wa ,mama naranu4 ,this song especially refers to unhappy love1 and contains the substance of two ,buddhist proverbs3 ,tsuki ni murakumo1 hana ni kaz 7cloud-masses to the moon2 wind to flowers72 and ,mama ni naranu wa uki-yo no narai 7to be disappointed is the rule in this miserable world74 ,uki-yo 7this fleeting or unhappy world7 is one of the commonest ,buddhist terms in use4 ,almost as soon as they bloom1 the scented flowers of the plum-tree ,by the wind of this world of change are scattered and blown away4 ,thinking to-morrow remains1 thou heart's frail flower-of-cherry8 ,how knowest whether this night the tempest will not come8#ac ,footnote #ac3 ,asu ari to ,om kokoro no ,ada-zakura3 ,yo wa ni arashi no ,fukanu monokawa8 ,lit43 ,to-morrow-is that think heart-of perishable-cherry flower3 this-night-in-storm blow-not1 is-it-certain8 ,shadow and shape alike melt and flow back to nothing3 ,he who knows this truth is the ,daruma of snow4#ad ,footnote #ad3 ,kag mo katachi mo ,kiyurba moto no ,midzu to satoru zo ,yuki-,daruma4 ,lit43 ,shadow and shape also1 if-melt-away1 original-water is1--that-understands ,snow-,daruma4 ,daruma 7,dharma71 the twenty-eighth patriarch of the ,zen sect1 is said to have lost his legs through remaining long in the posture of meditation2 and many legless toy-figures1 which are so balanced that they will always assume an upright position however often placed upside-down1 are called by his name4 ,the snow-men made by ,japanese children have the same traditional form4--,the ,japanese friend who helped me to translate these verses1 tells me that a ghostly meaning attaches to the word ,kag shadow in the above2--this would give a much more profound signification to the whole verse4 ,as the moon of the fifteenth night1 the heart till the age fifteen3 ,then the brightness wanes1 and the darkness comes with love4#ae ,footnote #ae3 ,according to the old calendar1 there was always a full moon on the fifteenth of the month4 ,the ,buddhist allusion in the verse is to mayoi1 the illusion of passion1 which is compared to a darkness concealing the ,right ,way4 ,all things change1 we are told1 in this world of change and sorrow2 ,but love's way never changes of promising never to change4#af ,footnote #af3 ,kawaru uki-yo ni ,kawaranu mono wa ,kawarumai to no ,koi no michi4 ,lit43 ,change changeable-world-in1 does-not-change that-which1 ',we-will-never-change'-saying of ,love-of ,way4 ,cruel the beautiful flash1--utterly heartless that lightning6 ,before one can look even twice it vanishes wholly away6#ag ,footnote #ag3 ,honni tsurnai ,ano inadzuma wa ,futa m minu uchi ,kiyt yuku4 ,the ,buddhist saying1 ,inadzuma no hikari1 ishi no hi 7lightning-flash and flint-spark71--symbolizing the temporary nature of all pleasures1--is here playfully referred to4 ,the song complains of a too brief meeting with sweet-heart or lover4 ,his very sweetness itself makes my existence a burden6 ,truly this world of change is a world of constant woe6#ah ,footnote #ah3 ,words of a loving but jealous woman1 thus interpreted by my ,japanese friend3 ,the more kind he is1 the more his kindness overwhelms me with anxiety lest he be equally tender to other girls who may also fall in love with him4 ,neither for youth nor age is fixed the life of the body2 --,bidding me wait for a time is the word that forever divides4#ai ,footnote #ai3 ,r-sh fuj no ,mi d ari nagara1 ,jisetsu mat to wa ,kir-kotoba4 ,lit43 ,old-young not-fixed-of body being1 time-wait to-say1 cutting-word4 ,ro-sh fuj is a ,buddhist phrase4 ,the meaning of the song is3 ,since all things in this world are uncertain1 asking me to wait for our marriage-day means that you do not really love me2--for either of us might die before the time you speak of4 ,only too well ,i know that to meet will cause more weeping2#bj ,yet never to meet at all were sorrow too great to bear4 ,footnote #bj3 ,allusion is made to the ,buddhist text1 ,shja hitsu metsu1 esha jri 7,whosoever is born must die1 and all who meet must as surely part71 and to the religious phrase1 ,ai betsu ri ku 7,sorrow of parting and pain of separation74 ,too joyful in union to think1 we forget that the smiles of the evening ,sometimes themselves become the sources of morning-tears4 ,yet1 notwithstanding the doctrine of impermanency1 we are told in another dodoitsu that-- ,he who was never bewitched by the charming smile of a woman1 ,a wooden ,buddha is he--a ,buddha of bronze or stone6#ba ,footnote #ba3 ,much more amusing in the original3-- ,adana -gao ni ,mayowanu mono wa ,ki-,butsu1--kana-,butsu1-- ,ishi-botok ,charming-smile-by bewildered-not1 he-as-for1 wood-,buddha1 metal-,buddha1 stone-,buddha6 ,the term ,ishi-botok especially refers to the stone images of the ,buddha placed in cemeteries4--,this song is sung in every part of ,japan2 ,i have heard it many times in different places4 ,and why a ,buddha of wood1 or bronze1 or stone8 ,because the living ,buddha was not so insensible1 as we are assured1 with jocose irreverence1 in the following3-- ,forsake this fitful world6-- ,lord ,buddha's that was or teaching6 upside-down ,and ,ragora1#bb son of his loins8--was he forgotten indeed8 ,there is an untranslatable pun in the original1 which1 if written in ,romaji1 would run thus3-- ,uki-yo we sutyo t'a ,shaka ,sama ,sorya yo saka-sama ,ragora to i ko we ,wasurt ka8 ,shakamuni is the ,japanese rendering of ,sakyamuni2 ,shaka ,sama is therefore ,lord ,sakya1 or ,lord ,buddha4 ,but saka-sama is a ,japanese word meaning topsy-turvy1 upside down2 and the difference between the pronunciation of ,shaka ,sama and saka-sama is slight enough to have suggested the pun4 ,love in suspense is not usually inclined to reverence4 ,footnote #bb3 ,rhula4 ,even while praying together in front of the tablets ancestral1 ,lovers find chance to murmur prayers never meant for the dead6#bc ,and as for interrupters3-- ,hateful the wind or rain that ruins the bloom of flowers3 ,even more hateful far who obstructs the way of love4 ,yet the help of the ,gods is earnestly besought3-- ,i make my hyaku-d1 traveling ,love's dark pathway4 ,ever praying to meet the owner of my heart4#bd ,footnote #bc3 ,ek suru tot ,hotok no ma y ,futari mukait1 ,konab dat4 ,lit43 ,repeat prayers saying1 dead-of-presence-in twain facing1--small-pan cooking6 ,hotok means a dead person as well as a ,buddha4 7,see my ,glimpses of ,unfamiliar ,japan3 ,the ,household ,shrine7-,konab-dat is an idiomatic expression signifying a lovers' tte--tte4 ,it is derived from the phrase1 ,chin-chin kamo nab7cooking a wild duck in a pan71--the idea suggested being that of the pleasure experienced by an amorous couple in eating out of the same dish4 ,chin-chin1 an onomatope1 expresses the sound of the gravy boiling4 ,footnote #bd3 ,to perform the rite called o-hyaku-d means to make one hundred visits to a temple1 saying a prayer each time4 ,the expression dark way of ,love 7koi no yami or yamiji7 is a ,buddhist phrase2 love1 being due to mayoi1 or illusion1 is a state of spiritual darkness4 ,the term owner of my heart is an attempted rendering of the ,japanese word nushi1 signifying master1 owner1--often1 also1 landlord1--and1 in love-matters1 the lord or master of the affection inspired4 ,the interest attaching to the following typical group of love-songs will be found to depend chiefly upon the ,buddhist allusions3-- ,in the bed of the ,river of ,souls1 or in waiting alone at evening1 ,the pain differs nothing at all3 to a mountain the pebble grows4#be ,who furthest after illusion wanders on ,love's dark pathway ,is ever the clearest-seeing1#bf not the simple or dull4 ,footnote #be3 ,sai-no-kawara to ,nushi matsu yoi wa ,koishi1 koishi ga ,yama to naru4 ,a more literal translation would be3 ,in the ,sai-no-,kawara 7',dry bed of the ,river of ,souls'7 and in the evening when waiting for the loved one1 ',koishi1 ,koishi' becomes a mountain4 ,there is a delicate pun here1--a play on the word ,koishi1 which1 as pronounced1 though not as written1 may mean either a small stone1 or longing to see4 ,in the bed of the phantom river1 ,sai-no-,kawa1 the ghosts of children are obliged to pile up little stones1 the weight of which increases so as to tax their strength to the utmost4 ,there is a reference here also to a verse in the ,buddhist wasan of ,jiz1 describing the crying of the children for their parents3 ,chichi koishi6 haha koishi6 7,see ,glimpses of ,unfamiliar ,japan1 vol4 i4 pp4 #ei-fa47 ,footnote #bf3 ,clearest-sighted1--that is1 in worldly matters4 ,coldly seen from without our love looks utter folly3 ,who never has felt mayoi never could understand6 ,countless the men must be who dwell in three thousand worlds2 ,yet among them all is none worthy to change for mine4#bg ,however fickle ,i seem1 my heart is never unfaithful3 ,out of the slime itself1 spotless the lotos grows4#bh ,so that we stay together1 even the ,hell of the ,blood ,lake-- ,even the ,mountain of ,swords--will signify nothing at all8#bi ,footnote #bg3 ,san-zen skai ni ,otoko wa ardo1 ,nushi ni mi-kayeru ,hito wa nai4 ,san-zen skai1 the three thousand worlds1 is a common ,buddhist expression4 ,literally translated1 the above song runs3 ,three-thousand-worlds-in men are1 but lover-to-exchange person is not4 ,footnote #bh3 ,the familiar ,buddhist simile is used more significantly here than the ,western reader might suppose from the above rendering4 ,these are supposed to be the words either of a professional singing-girl or of a jor4 ,her calling is derisively termed a doro-midzu kagy 7foul-water occupation72 and her citation of the famous ,buddhist comparison in self-defense is particularly1 and pathetically1 happy4 ,footnote #bi3 ,chi-no-,ik-,jigoku mo1 ,tsurugi-no-,yama mo1 ,futari-dzur nara ,itoi 'a snu4 ,the ,hell of the ,blood-,lake is a hell for women2 and the ,mountain of ,swords is usually depicted in ,buddhist prints as a place of infernal punishment for men in especial4 ,not yet indeed is my body garbed in the ink-black habit2 --,but as for this heart bereaved1 already it is a nun4#cj ,my hair1 indeed1 is uncut2 but my heart has become a religious2 ,a nun it shall always be till the hour ,i meet him again4 ,but even the priest or nun is not always exempt from the power of mayoi3-- ,i am wearing the sable garb1--and yet1 through illusion of longing1 ,ever ,i lose my way1--knowing not whither or where6 ,so far1 my examples have been principally chosen from the more serious class of dodoitsu4 ,but in dodoitsu of a lighter class the ,buddhist allusions are perhaps even more frequent4 ,the following group of five will serve for specimens of hundreds3-- ,footnote #cj3 ,in the original much more pretty and much more simple3-- ,sumi no koromo ni ,mi wa yatsusanedo1 ,kokoro hitotsu wa ,ama-hshi4 ,ink-black-koromo priest's or nun's outer robe in1 body not clad1 but heart-one nun4 ,hitotsu1 one1 also means solitary1 forlorn1 bereaved4 ,ama hshi1 lit43 nun-priest4 ,never can be recalled the word too quickly spoken3 ,therefore with ,emma's face the lover receives the prayer4#ca ,thrice did ,i hear that prayer with ,buddha's face2 but hereafter ,my face shall be ,emma's face because of too many prayers4 ,now they are merry together2 but under their boat is ,jigoku4#cb ,blow quickly1 thou river-wind1--blow a typhoon for my sake6 ,vainly1 to make him stay1 ,i said that the crows were night crows2#cc-- ,the bell of the dawn peals doom1--the bell that cannot lie4 ,footnote #ca3 ,the implication is that he has hastily promised more than he wishes to perform4 ,emma1 or ,yemma 7,sansc4 ,yama71 is the ,lord of ,hell and ,judge of ,souls2 and1 as depicted in ,buddhist sculpture and painting1 is more than fearful to look upon4 ,there is an evident reference in this song to the ,buddhist proverb3 ,karu-toki no ,jiz-gao2 nasu-toki no ,emma-gao 7,borrowing-time1 the face of ,jiz2 repaying-time1 the face of ,emma74 ,footnote #cb3 ,jigoku is the ,buddhist name for various hells 7,sansc4 narakas74 ,the allusion here is to the proverb1 ,funa-ita ichi-mai shita wa ,jigoku3 ,under the thickness of a single boat-plank is hell1--referring to the perils of the sea4 ,this song is a satire on jealousy2 and the boat spoken of is probably a roofed pleasure-boat1 such as excursions are made into the sound of music4 ,footnote #cc3 ,tsuki-yo-garasu1 lit43 moon-night crows4 ,crows usually announce the dawn by their cawing2 but sometimes on moonlight nights they caw at all hours from sunset to sunrise4 ,the bell referred to is the bell of some ,buddhist temple3 the ak-no-kane1 or dawn-bell1 being1 in all parts of ,japan1 sounded from every ,buddhist tera4 ,there is a pun in the original2--the expression tsukenai1 cannot tell 7a lie71 might also be interpreted phonetically as cannot strike a bell4 ,this my desire3 ,to kill the crows of three thousand worlds1 ,and then to repose in peace with the owner of my heart6#cd ,footnote #cd3 ,san-zen skai no ,karasu we koroshi ,nushi to soi-n ga ,shit mitai ,i have cited this last only as a curiosity4 ,for it has a strange history1 and is not what it seems1--although the apparent motive was certainly suggested by some song like the one immediately preceding it4 ,it is a song of loyalty1 and was composed by ,kido of ,ch-sh1 one of the leaders in that great movement which brought about the downfall of the ,shgunate1 the restoration of the ,imperial power1 the reconstruction of ,japanese society1 and the introduction and adoption of ,western civilization4 ,kido1 ,saig1 and kubo are rightly termed the three heroes of the restoration4 ,while preparing his plans at ,kyto1 in company with his friend ,saig1 ,kido composed and sang this song as an intimation of his real sentiments4 ,by the phrase1 ravens of the three thousand worlds1 he designated the ,tokugawa partisans2 by the word nushi 7lord1 or heart's-master7 he signified the ,emperor2 and by the term soin 7reposing together7 he referred to the hoped-for condition of direct responsibility to the ,throne1 without further intervention of ,shgun and daimy4 ,it was not the first example in ,japanese history of the use of popular song as a medium for the utterance of opinions which1 expressed in plainer language1 would have invited assassination4 99 ,while ,i was writing the preceding note upon ,kido's song1 the ,buddhist phrase1 ,san-zen skai 7twice occurring1 as the reader will have observed1 in the present collection71 suggested a few reflections with which this paper may fitly conclude4 ,i remember that when ,i first attempted1 years ago1 to learn the outlines of ,buddhist philosophy1 one fact which particularly impressed me was the vastness of the ,buddhist concept of the universe4 ,buddhism1 as ,i read it1 had not offered itself to humanity as a saving creed for one inhabited world1 but as the religion of innumerable hundreds of thousands of myriads of ktis#ce of worlds4 ,and the modern scientific revelation of stellar evolution and dissolution then seemed to me1 and still seems1 like a prodigious confirmation of certain ,buddhist theories of cosmical law4 ,the man of science to-day cannot ignore the enormous suggestions of the new story that the heavens are telling4 ,he finds himself compelled to regard the development of what we call mind as a general phase or incident in the ripening of planetary life throughout the universe4 ,he is obliged to consider the relation of our own petty sphere to the great swarming of suns and systems as no more than the relation of a single noctiluca to the phosphorescence of a sea4 ,by its creed the ,oriental intellect has been better prepared than the ,occidental to accept this tremendous revelation1 not as a wisdom that increaseth sorrow1 but as a wisdom to quicken faith4 ,and ,i cannot but think that out of the certain future union of ,western knowledge with ,eastern thought there must eventually proceed a ,neo-,buddhism inheriting all the strength of ,science1 yet spiritually able to recompense the seeker after truth with the recompense foretold in the twelfth chapter of the ,sutra of the ,diamond-,cutter4 ,taking the text as it stands1--in despite of commentators1--what more could be unselfishly desired from any spiritual teaching than the reward promised in that verse1--,they shall be endowed with the ,highest ,wonder8 ,footnote #ce3 #a kti #aj1jjj1jjj4 ,,ix ,,nirvana ,a ,,study ,,in ,,synthetic ,,buddhism ,i ,it is not possible1 ,o ,subhti1 that this treatise of the ,law should be heard by beings of little faith1--by those who believe in ,self1 in beings1 in living beings1 and in persons4--,the ,diamond-,cutter4 ,there still widely prevails in ,europe and ,america the idea that ,nirvana signifies1 to ,buddhist minds1 neither more nor less than absolute nothingness1--complete annihilation4 ,this idea is erroneous4 ,but it is erroneous only because it contains half of a truth4 ,this half of a truth has no value or interest1 or even intelligibility1 unless joined with the other half4 ,and of the other half no suspicion yet exists in the average ,western mind4 ,nirvana1 indeed1 signifies an extinction4 ,but if by this extinction of individual being we understand soul-death1 our conception of ,nirvana is wrong4 ,or if we take ,nirvana to mean such reabsorption of the finite into the infinite as that predicted by ,indian pantheism1 again our idea is foreign to ,buddhism4 ,nevertheless1 if we declare that ,nirvana means the extinction of individual sensation1 emotion1 thought1--the final disintegration of conscious personality1--the annihilation of everything that can be included under the term ,i1--then we rightly express one side of the ,buddhist teaching4 99 ,the apparent contradiction of the foregoing statements is due only to our ,occidental notion of ,self4 ,self to us signifies feelings1 ideas1 memory1 volition2 and it can scarcely occur to any person not familiar with ,german idealism even to imagine that consciousness might not be ,self4 ,the ,buddhist1 on the contrary1 declares all that we call ,self to be false4 ,he defines the ,ego as a mere temporary aggregate of sensations1 impulses1 ideas1 created by the physical and mental experiences of the race1--all related to the perishable body1 and all doomed to dissolve with it4 ,what to ,western reasoning seems the most indubitable of realities1 ,buddhist reasoning pronounces the greatest of all illusions1 and even the source of all sorrow and sin4 ,the mind1 the thoughts1 and all the senses are subject to the law of life and death4 ,with knowledge of ,self and the laws of birth and death1 there is no grasping1 and no sense-perception4 ,knowing one's self and knowing how the senses act1 there is no room for the idea of or the ground for framing it ,the thought of ',self' gives rise to all sorrows1--binding the world as with fetters2 but having found there is no ',i' that can be bound1 then all these bonds are severed4#a ,the above text suggests very plainly that the consciousness is not the ,real ,self1 and that the mind dies with the body4 ,any reader unfamiliar with ,buddhist thought may well ask1 ,what1 then1 is the meaning of the doctrine of ,karma1 the doctrine of moral progression1 the doctrine of the consequence of acts8 ,indeed1 to try to study1 only with the ontological ideas of the ,west1 even such translations of the ,buddhist ,sutras as those given in the ,sacred ,books of the ,east1 is to be at every page confronted by seemingly hopeless riddles and contradictions4 ,we find a doctrine of rebirth2 but the existence of a soul is denied4 ,we are told that the misfortunes of this life are punishments of faults committed in a previous life2 yet personal transmigration does not take place4 ,we find the statement that beings are reindividualized2 yet both individuality and personality are called illusions4 ,i doubt whether anybody not acquainted with the deeper forms of ,buddhist belief could possibly understand the following extracts which ,i have made from the first volume of ,the ,questions of ,king ,milinda3-- 99 ,the ,king said3 ,nagasena1 is there any one who after death is not reindividualized8 ,nagasena answered3 ,a sinful being is reindividualized2 a sinless one is not4 7p4 #ej47 ,is there1 ,nagasena1 such a thing as the soul8 ,there is no such thing as soul4 7pp4 #hf-hi47 ,the same statement is repeated in a later chapter 7p4 #aaa71 with a qualification3 ,in the highest sense1 ,o ,king1 there is no such thing4 ,is there any being1 ,nagasena1 who transmigrates from this body to another8 ,no3 there is not4 7p4 #aab47 ,where there is no transmigration1 ,nagasena1 can there be rebirth8 ,yes3 there can4 ,does he1 ,nagasena1 who is about to be reborn1 know that he will be reborn8 ,yes3 he knows it1 ,o ,king4 7p4 #aac47 ,naturally the ,western reader may ask1--,how can there be reindividualization without a soul8 ,how can there be rebirth without transmigration8 ,how can there be personal foreknowledge of rebirth without personality8 ,but the answers to such questions will not be found in the work cited4 ,it would be wrong to suppose that the citations given offer any exceptional difficulty4 ,as to the doctrine of the annihilation of ,self1 the testimony of nearly all those ,buddhist texts now accessible to ,english readers is overwhelming4 ,perhaps the ,sutra of the ,great ,decease furnishes the most remarkable evidence contained in the ,sacred ,books of the ,east4 ,in its account of the ,eight ,stages of ,deliverance leading to ,nirvana1 it explicitly describes what we should be justified in calling1 from our ,western point of view1 the process of absolute annihilation4 ,we are told that in the first of these eight stages the ,buddhist seeker after truth still retains the ideas of form--subjective and objective4 ,in the second stage he loses the subjective idea of form1 and views forms as external phenomena only4 ,in the third stage the sense of the approaching perception of larger truth comes to him4 ,in the fourth stage he passes beyond all ideas of form1 ideas of resistance1 and ideas of distinction2 and there remains to him only the idea of infinite space4 ,in the fifth stage the idea of infinite space vanishes1 and the thought comes3 ,it is all infinite reason4 ,here is the uttermost limit1 many might suppose1 of pantheistic idealism2 but it is only the half way resting-place on the path which the ,buddhist thinker must pursue4 ,in the sixth stage the thought comes1 ,nothing at all exists4 ,in the seventh stage the idea of nothingness itself vanishes4 ,in the eighth stage all sensations and ideas cease to exist4 ,and after this comes ,nirvana4 ,the same sutra1 in recounting the death of the ,buddha1 represents him as rapidly passing through the first1 second1 third1 and fourth stages of meditation to enter into that state of mind to which the ,infinity of ,space alone is present1--and thence into that state of mind to which the ,infinity of ,thought alone is present1--and thence into that state of mind to which nothing at all is specially present1--and thence into that state of mind between consciousness and unconsciousness1--and thence into that state of mind in which the consciousness both of sensations and of ideas has wholly passed away4 ,for the reader who has made any serious attempt to obtain a general idea of ,buddhism1 such citations are scarcely necessary2 since the fundamental doctrine of the concatenation of cause and effect contains the same denial of the reality of ,self and suggests the same enigmas4 ,illusion produces action or ,karma2 ,karma1 self-consciousness2 self-consciousness1 individuality2 individuality1 the senses2 the senses1 contact2 contact1 feeling2 feeling1 desire2 desire1 union2 union1 conception2 conception1 birth2 birth1 sorrow and decrepitude and death4 ,doubtless the reader knows the doctrine of the destruction of the twelve ,nidanas2 and it is needless here to repeat it at length4 ,but he may be reminded of the teaching that by the cessation of contact feeling is destroyed2 by that of feeling1 individuality2 and by that of individuality1 self-consciousness4 99 ,evidently1 without a preliminary solution of the riddles offered by such texts1 any effort to learn the meaning of ,nirvana is hopeless4 ,before being able to comprehend the true meaning of those sutras now made familiar to ,english readers by translation1 it is necessary to understand that the common ,occidental ideas of ,god and ,soul1 of matter1 of spirit1 have no existence in ,buddhist philosophy2 their places being occupied by concepts having no real counterparts in ,western religious thought4 ,above all1 it is necessary that the reader should expel from his mind the theological idea of ,soul4 ,the texts already quoted should have made it clear that in ,buddhist philosophy there is no personal transmigration1 and no individual permanent ,soul4 ,footnote #a3 ,fo-,sho-,hing-,tsan-,king4 ,,ii ,o ,bhagavat1 the idea of a self is no idea2 and the idea of a being1 or a living person1 or a person1 is no idea4 ,and why8 ,because the blessed ,buddhas are freed from all ideas4--,the ,diamond-,cutter4 ,and now let us try to understand what it is that dies1 and what it is that is reborn1--what it is that commits faults and what it is that suffers penalties1--what passes from states of woe to states of bliss1--what enters into ,nirvana after the destruction of self-consciousness1--what survives extinction and has power to return out of ,nirvana1--what experiences the ,four ,infinite ,feelings after all finite feeling has been annihilated4 ,it is not the sentient and conscious ,self that enters ,nirvana4 ,the ,ego is only a temporary aggregate of countless illusions1 a phantom-shell1 a bubble sure to break4 ,it is a creation of ,karma1--or rather1 as a ,buddhist friend insists1 it is ,karma4 ,to comprehend the statement fully1 the reader should know that1 in this ,oriental philosophy1 acts and thoughts are forces integrating themselves into material and mental phenomena1--into what we call objective and subjective appearances4 ,the very earth we tread upon1--the mountains and forests1 the rivers and seas1 the world and its moon1 the visible universe in short1--is the integration of acts and thoughts1 is ,karma1 or1 at least1 ,being conditioned by ,karma4#a ,footnote #a3 ,the aggregate actions of all sentient beings give birth to the varieties of mountains1 rivers1 countries1 etc4 444 ,their eyes1 nostrils1 ears1 tongues1 bodies1--as well as their gardens1 woods1 farms1 residences1 servants1 and maids1--men imagine to be their own possessions2 but they are1 in truth1 only results produced by innumerable actions4 --,,kuroda1 ,outlines of the ,mahyana4 ,grass1 trees1 earth1--all these shall become ,buddha4 --,,ch-,,in-,,ky4 ,even swords and things of metal are manifestations of spirit3 within them exist all virtues 7or 'power'7 in their fullest development and perfection4--,,hiz-,h-,,yaku4 ,when called sentient or non-sentient1 matter is ,law-,body 7or 'spiritual body'74--,,chish-,,hish4 ,the ,apparent ,doctrine treats of the four great elements earth1 fire1 water1 air as non-sentient4 ,but in the ,hidden ,doctrine these are said to be the ,sammya-,shin 7,samya-,kaya71 or ,body-,accordant of the ,nyrai 7,tathgata74--,,soku-,,shin-,j-,,butsu-, ,gi4 ,when every phase of our mind shall be in accord with the mind of ,buddha1 444 then there will not be even one particle of dust that does not enter into ,buddhahood4--,,engaku-,,sh4 ,the ,karma-,ego we call ,self is mind and is body2--both perpetually decay2 both are perpetually renewed4 ,from the unknown beginning1 this double--phenomenon1 objective and subjective1 has been alternately dissolved and integrated3 each integration is a birth2 each dissolution a death4 ,there is no other birth or death but the birth and death of ,karma in some form or condition4 ,but at each rebirth the reintegration is never the reintegration of the identical phenomenon1 but of another to which it gives rise1--as growth begets growth1 as motion produces motion4 ,so that the phantom-self changes not only as to form and condition1 but as to actual personality with every rembodiment4 ,there is one ,reality2 but there is no permanent individual1 no constant personality3 there is only phantom-self1 and phantom succeeds to phantom1 as undulation to undulation1 over the ghostly ,sea of ,birth and ,death4 ,and even as the storming of a sea is a motion of undulation1 not of translation1--even as it is the form of the wave only1 not the wave itself1 that travels1--so in the passing of lives there is only the rising and the vanishing of forms1--forms mental1 forms material4 ,the fathomless ,reality does not pass4 ,all forms1 it is written in the ,kong-hannya-haramitsu-,ky1#b are unreal3 he who rises above all forms is the ,buddha4 ,but what can remain to rise above all forms after the total disintegration of body and the final dissolution of mind8 ,footnote #b3 ,vagra-pragn-pramita-,sutra4 ,unconsciously dwelling behind the false consciousness of imperfect man1--beyond sensation1 perception1 thought1--wrapped in the envelope of what we call soul 7which in truth is only a thickly woven veil of illusion71 is the eternal and divine1 the ,absolute ,reality3 not a soul1 not a personality1 but the ,all-,self without selfishness1--the ,muga no ,taiga1--the ,buddha enwombed in ,karma4 ,within every phantom-self dwells this divine3 yet the innumerable are but one4 ,within every creature incarnate sleeps the ,infinite ,intelligence unevolved1 hidden1 unfelt1 unknown1--yet destined from all the eternities to waken at last1 to rend away the ghostly web of sensuous mind1 to break forever its chrysalis of flesh1 and pass to the supreme conquest of ,space and ,time4 ,wherefore it is written in the ,kegon-,ky 7,avatamsaka-,sutra73 ,child of ,buddha1 there is not even one living being that has not the wisdom of the ,tathgata4 ,it is only because of their vain thoughts and affections that all beings are not conscious of this4444 ,i will teach them the holy ,way2--,i will make them forsake their foolish thoughts1 and cause them to see that the vast and deep intelligence which dwells within them is not different from the wisdom of the very ,buddha4 99 ,here we may pause to consider the correspondence between these fundamental ,buddhist theories and the concepts of ,western science4 ,it will be evident that the ,buddhist denial of the reality of the apparitional world is not a denial of the reality of phenomena as phenomena1 nor a denial of the forces producing phenomena objectively or subjectively4 ,for the negation of ,karma as ,karma would involve the negation of the entire ,buddhist system4 ,the true declaration is1 that what we perceive is never reality in itself1 and that even the ,ego that perceives is an unstable plexus of aggregates of feelings which are themselves unstable and in the nature of illusions4 ,this position is scientifically strong1--perhaps impregnable4 ,of substance in itself we certainly know nothing3 we are conscious of the universe as a vast play of forces only2 and1 even while we discern the general relative meaning of laws expressed in the action of those forces1 all that which is ,non-,ego is revealed to us merely through the vibrations of a nervous structure never exactly the same in any two human beings4 ,yet through such varying and imperfect perception we are sufficiently assured of the impermanency of all forms1--of all aggregates objective or subjective4 ,the test of reality is persistence2 and the ,buddhist1 finding in the visible universe only a perpetual flux of phenomena1 declares the material aggregate unreal because non-persistent1--unreal1 at least1 as a bubble1 a cloud1 or a mirage4 ,again1 relation is the universal form of thought2 but since relation is impermanent1 how can thought be persistent8444 ,judged from these points of view1 ,buddhist doctrine is not ,anti-,realism1 but a veritable ,transfigured ,realism1 finding just expression in the exact words of ,herbert ,spencer3--,every feeling and thought being but transitory2--an entire life made up of such feelings and thoughts being also but transitory2--nay1 the objects amid which life is passed1 though less transitory1 being severally in the course of losing their individualities1 whether quickly or slowly1--we learn that the one thing permanent is the ,unknowable ,reality hidden under all these changing shapes4 ,likewise1 the teaching of ,buddhism1 that what we call ,self is an impermanent aggregate1--a sensuous illusion1--will prove1 if patiently analyzed1 scarcely possible for any serious thinker to deny4 ,mind1 as known to the scientific psychologist1 is composed of feelings and the relations between feelings2 and feelings are composed of units of simple sensation which are physiologically coincident with minute nervous shocks4 ,all the sense-organs are fundamentally alike1 being evolutional modifications of the same morphological elements2--and all the senses are modifications of touch4 ,or1 to use the simplest possible language1 the organs of sense--sight1 smell1 taste1 even hearing--have been alike developed from the skin6 ,even the human brain itself1 by the modern testimony of histology and embryology1 is1 at its first beginning1 merely an infolding of the epidermic layer2 and thought1 physiologically and evolutionally1 is thus a modification of touch4 ,certain vibrations1 acting through the visual apparatus1 cause within the brain those motions which are followed by the sensations of light and color2--other vibrations1 acting upon the auditory mechanism1 give rise to the sensation of sound2--other vibrations1 setting up changes in specialized tissue1 produce sensations of taste1 smell1 touch4 ,all our knowledge is derived and developed1 directly or indirectly1 from physical sensation1--from touch4 ,of course this is no ultimate explanation1 because nobody can tell us what feels the touch4 ,everything physical1 well said ,schopenhauer1 is at the same time meta-physical4 ,but science fully justifies the ,buddhist position that what we call ,self is a bundle of sensations1 emotions1 sentiments1 ideas1 memories1 all relating to the physical experiences of the race and the individual1 and that our wish for immortality is a wish for the eternity of this merely sensuous and selfish consciousness4 ,and science even supports the ,buddhist denial of the permanence of the sensuous ,ego4 ,psychology1 says ,wundt1 proves that not only our sense-perceptions1 but the memorial images that renew them1 depend for their origin upon the functionings of the organs of sense and movement4444 ,a continuance of this sensuous consciousness must appear to her irreconcilable with the facts of her experience4 ,and surely we may well doubt whether such continuance is an ethical requisite3 more1 whether the fulfillment of the wish for it1 if possible1 were not an intolerable destiny4 ,,iii ,o ,subhti1 if ,i had had an idea of a being1 of a living being1 or of a person1 ,i should also have had an idea of malevolence4444 ,a gift should not be given by any one who believes in form1 sound1 smell1 taste1 or anything that can be touched4--,the ,diamond-,cutter4 ,the doctrine of the impermanency of the conscious ,ego is not only the most remarkable in ,buddhist philosophy3 it is also1 morally1 one of the most important4 ,perhaps the ethical value of this teaching has never yet been fairly estimated by any ,western thinker4 ,how much of human unhappiness has been caused1 directly and indirectly1 by opposite beliefs1--by the delusion of stability1--by the delusion that distinctions of character1 condition1 class1 creed1 are settled by immutable law1--and the delusion of a changeless1 immortal1 sentient soul1 destined1 by divine caprice1 to eternities of bliss or eternities of fire6 ,doubtless the ideas of a deity moved by everlasting hate1--of soul as a permanent1 changeless entity destined to changeless states1--of sin as unatonable and of penalty as never-ending1--were not without value in former savage stages of social development4 ,but in the course of our future evolution they must be utterly got rid of2 and it may be hoped that the contact of ,western with ,oriental thought will have for one happy result the acceleration of their decay4 ,while even the feelings which they have developed linger with us1 there can be no true spirit of tolerance1 no sense of human brotherhood1 no wakening of universal love4 ,buddhism1 on the other hand1 recognizing no permanency1 no finite stabilities1 no distinctions of character or class or race1 except as passing phenomena1--nay1 no difference even between gods and men1--has been essentially the religion of tolerance4 ,demon and angel are but varying manifestations of the same ,karma2--hell and heaven mere temporary halting-places upon the journey to eternal peace4 ,for all beings there is but one law1--immutable and divine3 the law by which the lowest must rise to the place of the highest1--the law by which the worst must become the best1--the law by which the vilest must become a ,buddha4 ,in such a system there is no room for prejudice and for hatred4 ,ignorance alone is the source of wrong and pain2 and all ignorance must finally be dissipated in infinite light through the decomposition of ,self4 99 ,certainly while we still try to cling to the old theories of permanent personality1 and of a single incarnation only for each individual1 we can find no moral meaning in the universe as it exists4 ,modern knowledge can discover no justice in the cosmic process2--the very most it can offer us by way of ethical encouragement is that the unknowable forces are not forces of pure malevolence4 ,neither moral nor immoral1 to quote ,huxley1 but simply unmoral4 ,evolutional science cannot be made to accord with the notion of indissoluble personality2 and if we accept its teaching of mental growth and inheritance1 we must also accept its teaching of individual dissolution and of the cosmos as inexplicable4 ,it assures us1 indeed1 that the higher faculties of man have been developed through struggle and pain1 and will long continue to be so developed3 but it also assures us that evolution is inevitably followed by dissolution1--that the highest point of development is the point likewise from which retrogression begins4 ,and if we are each and all mere perishable forms of being1--doomed to pass away like plants and trees1--what consolation can we find in the assurance that we are suffering for the benefit of the future8 ,how can it concern us whether humanity become more or less happy in another myriad ages1 if there remains nothing for us but to live and die in comparative misery8 ,or1 to repeat the irony of ,huxley1 what compensation does the ,eohippus get for his sorrows in the fact that1 some millions of years afterwards1 one of his descendants wins the ,derby8 ,but the cosmic process may assume quite another aspect if we can persuade ourselves1 like the ,buddhist1 that all being is ,unity1 --that personality is but a delusion hiding reality1--that all distinctions of ,i and thou are ghostly films spun out of perishable sensation1--that even ,time and ,place as revealed to our petty senses are phantasms1--that the past and the present and the future are veritably ,one4 ,suppose the winner of the ,derby quite well able to remember having been the ,eohippus8 ,suppose the being1 once man1 able to look back through all veils of death and birth1 through all evolutions of evolution1 even to the moment of the first faint growth of sentiency out of non-sentiency2--able to remember1 like the ,buddha of the ,jatakas1 all the experiences of his myriad incarnations1 and to relate them like fairy-tales for the sake of another ,ananda8 ,we have seen1 that it is not the ,self but the ,non-,self--the one reality underlying all phenomena4--which passes from form1 to form4 ,the striving for ,nirvana is a struggle perpetual between false and true1 light and darkness1 the sensual and the supersensual2 and the ultimate victory can be gained only by the total decomposition of the mental and the physical individuality4 ,not one conquest of self can suffice3 millions of selves must be overcome4 ,for the false ,ego is a compound of countless ages1--possesses a vitality enduring beyond universes4 ,at each breaking and shedding of the chrysalis a new chrysalis appears1--more tenous1 perhaps1 more diaphanous1 but woven of like sensuous material1--a mental and physical texture spun by ,karma from the inherited illusions1 passions1 desires1 pains and pleasures1 of innumerable lives4 ,but what is it that feels8--the phantom or the reality8 ,all phenomena of ,self-consciousness belong to the false self1--but only as a physiologist might say that sensation is a product of the sensiferous apparatus1 which would not explain sensation4 ,no more in ,buddhism than in physiological psychology is there any real teaching of two feeling entities4 ,in ,buddhism the only entity is the ,absolute2 and to that entity the false self stands in the relation of a medium through which right perception is deflected and distorted1--in which and because of which sentiency and impulse become possible4 ,the unconditioned ,absolute is above all relations3 it has nothing of what we call pain or pleasure2 it knows no difference of ,i and thou1--no distinction of place or time4 ,but while conditioned by the illusion of personality1 it is aware of pain or pleasure1 as a dreamer perceives unrealities without being conscious of their unreality4 ,pleasures and pains and all the feelings relating to self-consciousness are hallucinations4 ,the false self exists only as a state of sleep exists2 and sentiency and desire1 and all the sorrows and passions of being1 exist only as illusions of that sleep4 ,but here we reach a point at which science and ,buddhism diverge4 ,modern psychology recognizes no feelings not evolutionally developed through the experiences of the race and the individual2 but ,buddhism asserts the existence of feelings which are immortal and divine4 ,it declares that in this ,karma-state the greater part of our sensations1 perceptions1 ideas1 thoughts1 are related only to the phantom self2--that our mental life is little more than a flow of feelings and desires belonging to selfishness2--that our loves and hates1 and hopes and fears1 and pleasures and pains1 are illusions2#a--;but it also declares there are higher feelings1 more or less latent within us1 according to our degree of knowledge1 which have nothing to do with the false self1 and which are eternal4 ,though science pronounces the ultimate nature of pleasures and pains to be inscrutable1 it partly confirms the ,buddhist teaching of their impermanent character4 ,both appear to belong rather to secondary than to primary elements of feeling1 and both to be evolutions1--forms of sensation developed1 through billions of life-experiences1 out of primal conditions in which there can have been neither real pleasure nor real pain1 but only the vaguest dull sentiency4 ,the higher the evolution the more pain1 and the larger the volume of all sensation4 ,after the state of equilibration has been reached1 the volume of feeling will begin to diminish4 ,the finer pleasures and the keener pains must first become extinct2 then by gradual stages the less complex feelings1 according to their complexity2 till at last1 in all the refrigerating planet1 there will survive not even the simplest sensation possible to the lowest form of life4 ,but1 according to the ,buddhist1 the highest moral feelings survive races and suns and universes4 ,the purely unselfish feelings1 impossible to grosser natures1 belong to the ,absolute4 ,in generous natures the divine becomes sentient1--quickens within the shell of illusion1 as a child quickens in the womb 7whence illusion itself is called ,the ,womb of the ,tathgata74 ,in yet higher natures the feelings which are not of self find room for powerful manifestation1--shine through the phantom-,ego as light through a vase4 ,such are purely unselfish love1 larger than individual being1--supreme compassion1--perfect benevolence3 they are not of man1 but of the ,buddha within the man4 ,and as these expand1 all the feelings of self begin to thin and weaken4 ,the condition of the phantom-,ego simultaneously purifies3 all those opacities which darkened the reality of ,mind within the mirage of mind begin to illumine2 and the sense of the infinite1 like a thrilling of light1 passes through the dream of personality into the awakening divine4#b ,but in the case of the average seeker after truth1 this refinement and ultimate decomposition of self can be effected only with lentor inexpressible4 ,the phantom-individuality1 though enduring only for the space of a single lifetime1 shapes out of the sum of its innate qualities1 and out of the sum of its own particular acts and thoughts1 the new combination which succeeds it1--a fresh individuality1 another prison of illusion for the ,self-without-selfishness4#c ,as name and form1 the false self dissolves2 but its impulses live on and recombine2 and the final destruction of those impulses--the total extinction of their ghostly vitality1--may require a protraction of effort through billions of centuries4 ,perpetually from the ashes of burnt-out passions subtler passions are born1--perpetually from the graves of illusions new illusions arise4 ,the most powerful of human passions is the last to yield3 it persists far into superhuman conditions4 ,even when its grosser forms have passed away1 its tendencies still lurk in those feelings originally derived from it or interwoven with it1--the sensation of beauty1 for example1 and the delight of the mind in graceful things4 ,on earth these are classed among the higher feelings4 ,but in a supramundane state their indulgence is fraught with peril3 a touch or a look may cause the broken fetters of sensual bondage to reform4 ,beyond all worlds of sex there are strange zones in which thoughts and memories become tangible and visible objective facts1--in which emotional fancies are materialized1--in which the least unworthy wish may prove creative4 ,it may be said1 in ,western religious phraseology1 that throughout the greater part of this vast pilgrimage1 and in all the zones of desire1 the temptations increase according to the spiritual strength of resistance4 ,with every successive ascent there is a further expansion of the possibilities of enjoyment1 an augmentation of power1 a heightening of sensation4 ,immense the reward of self-conquest2 but whosoever strives for that reward strives after emptiness4 ,one must not desire heaven as a state of pleasure2 it has been written1 ,erroneous thoughts as to the joys of heaven are still entwined by the fast cords of lust4 ,one must not wish to become a god or an angel4 ,whatsoever brother1 ,o ,bhikkus1--the ,teacher said1--may have adopted the religious life thinking1 to himself1 ',by this morality ,i shall become an angel2' his mind does not incline to zeal1 perseverance1 exertion4 ,perhaps the most vivid exposition of the duty of the winner of happiness is that given in the ,sutra of the ,great ,king of ,glory4 ,this great king1 coming into possession of all imaginable wealth and power1 abstains from enjoyments1 despises splendors1 refuses the caresses of a ,queen dowered with the beauty of the gods1 and bids her demand of him1 out of her own lips1 that he forsake her4 ,she1 with dutiful sweetness1 but not without natural tears1 obeys him2 and he passes at once out of existence4 ,every such refusal of the prizes gained by virtue helps to cause a still more fortunate birth in a still loftier state of being4 ,but no state should be desired2 and it is only after the wish for ,nirvana itself has ceased that ,nirvana can be attained4 99 ,and now we may venture for a little while into the most fantastic region of ,buddhist ontology1--since1 without some definite notion of the course of psychical evolution therein described1 the suggestive worth of the system cannot be fairly judged4 ,certainly ,i am asking the reader to consider a theory about what is beyond the uttermost limit of possible human knowledge4 ,but as much of the ,buddhist doctrine as can be studied and tested within the limit of human knowledge is found to accord with scientific opinion better than does any other religious hypothesis2 and some of the ,buddhist teachings prove to be incomprehensible anticipations of modern scientific disco very1--can it1 therefore1 seem unreasonable to claim that even the pure fancies of a faith so much older than our own1 and so much more capable of being reconciled with the widest expansions of nineteenth-century thought1 deserve at least respectful consideration8 ,footnote #a3 ,pleasures and pains have their origin from touch3 where there is no touch1 they do not arise4--,atthakavagga1 #aa4 ,footnote #b3 ,to reach the state of the perfect and everlasting happiness is the highest ,nirvana2 for then all mental phenomena--such as desires1 etc4--are annihilated4 ,and as such mental phenomena are annihilated1 there appears the true nature of true mind with all its innumerable functions and miraculous actions4--,,kuroda1 ,outlines of the ,mahyana4 ,footnote #c3 ,it is on the subject of this propagation and perpetuation of characters that the doctrine of ,karma is in partial agreement with the modern scientific teaching-of the hereditary transmission of tendencies4 ,,iv ,non-existence is only the entrance to the ,great ,vehicle4 --,daibon-,kyi4 ,and in which way is it1 ,siha1 that one speaking truly could say of me3 ',the ,samana ,gotama maintains annihilation2--he teaches the doctrine of annihilation'8 ,i proclaim1 ,siha1 the annihilation of lust1 of ill-will1 of delusion2 ,i proclaim the annihilation of the manifold conditions 7of heart7 which are evil and not good4--,mahavagga1 vi4 #ca4 #g4 ,nin mit1 h tok 7see first the person1 then preach the law7 is a ,japanese proverb signifying that ,buddhism should be taught according to the capacity of the pupil4 ,and the great systems of ,buddhist doctrine are actually divided into progressive stages 7five usually71 to be studied in succession1 or otherwise1 according to the intellectual ability of the learner4 ,also there are many varieties of special doctrine held by the different sects and sub-sects1--so that1 to make any satisfactory outline of ,buddhist ontology1 it is necessary to shape a synthesis of the more important and non-conflicting among these many tenets4 ,i need scarcely say that popular ,buddhism does not include concepts such as we have been examining4 ,the people hold to the simpler creed of a veritable transmigration of simpler ,the people understand ,karma only as the law that makes the punishment or reward of faults committed in previous lives4 ,the people do not trouble themselves about ,nehan or ,nirvana2#a but they think much about heaven 7,gokuraku17 which the members of many sects believe can be attained immediately after this life by the spirits of the good4 ,the followers of the greatest and richest of the modern sects--the ,shinsh--hold that1 by the invocation of ,amida1 a righteous person can pass at once after death to the great ,paradise of the ,west1--the ,paradise of the ,lotos-,flower-,birth4 ,i am taking no account of popular beliefs in this little study1 nor of doctrines peculiar to any one sect only4 ,but there are many differences in the higher teaching as to the attainment of ,nirvana4 ,some authorities hold that the supreme happiness can be won1 or at least seen1 even on this earth2 while others declare that the present world is too corrupt to allow of a perfect life1 and that only by winning1 through good deeds1 the privilege of rebirth into a better world1 can men hope for opportunity to practice that holiness which leads to the highest bliss4 ,the latter opinion1 which posits the superior conditions of being in other worlds1 better expresses the general thought of contemporary ,buddhism in ,japan4 99 ,the conditions of human and of animal being belong to what are termed the ,worlds of ,desire 7,yoku-,kai71--which are four in number4 ,below these are the states of torment or hells 7,jigoku17 about which many curious things are written2 but neither the ,yoku-,kai nor the ,jigoku need be considered in relation to the purpose of this little essay4 ,we have only to do with the course of spiritual progress from the world of men up to ,nirvana1--assuming1 with modern ,buddhism1 that the pilgrimage through death and birth must continue1 for the majority of mankind at least1 even after the attainment of the highest conditions possible upon this globe4 ,the way rises from terrestrial conditions to other and superior worlds1--passing first through the ,six ,heavens of ,desire 7,yoku-,ten72--thence through the ,seventeen ,heavens of ,form 7,shiki-,kai72--and lastly through the ,four ,heavens of ,formlessness 7,mushiki-,kai71 beyond which lies ,nirvana4 ,the requirements of physical life--the need of food1 rest1 and sexual relations--continue to be felt in the ,heavens of ,desire1--which would seem to be higher physical worlds rather than what we commonly understand by the expression heavens4 ,indeed1 the conditions in some of them are such as might be supposed to exist in planets more favored than our own1--in larger spheres warmed by a more genial sun4 ,and some ,buddhist texts actually place them in remote constellations1--declaring that the ,path leads from star to star1 from galaxy to galaxy1 from universe to universe1 up to the ,limit of ,existence4#b ,in the first of the heavens of this zone1 called the ,heaven of the ,four ,kings 7,shi-,tenn-,ten71 life lasts five times longer than life on this earth according to number of years1 and each year there is equal to fifty terrestrial years4 ,but its inhabitants eat and drink1 and marry and give in marriage1 much after the fashion of mankind4 ,in the succeeding heaven 7,sanjiu-san-,ten17 the duration of life is doubled1 while all other conditions are correspondingly improved2 and the grosser forms of passion disappear4 ,the union of the sexes persists1 but in a manner curiously similar to that which a certain ,father of the ,christian ,church wished might become possible1--a simple embrace producing a new being4 ,in the third heaven 7called ,emma-,ten71 where longevity is again doubled1 the slightest touch may create life4 ,in the fourth1 or ,heaven of ,contentment 7,tochita-,ten17 longevity is further increased4 ,in the fifth1 or ,heaven of the ,transmutation of ,pleasure 7,keraku-,ten17 strange new powers are gained4 ,subjective pleasures become changed at will into objective pleasures2--thoughts as well as wishes become creative forces2--and even the act of seeing may cause conception and birth4 ,in the sixth heaven 7,tak-jizai-,ten17 the powers obtained in the fifth heaven are further developed2 and the subjective pleasures trans-muted into objective can be presented to others1 or shared with others1--like material gifts4 ,but the look of an instant1--one glance of the eye1--may generate a new ,karma4 ,the ,yoku-,kai are all heavens of sensuous life1--heavens such as might answer to the dreams of artists and lovers and poets4 ,but those who are able to traverse them without falling--7and a fall1 be it observed1 is not difficult7--pass into the ,supersensual ,zone1 first entering the ,heavens of ,luminous ,observation of ,existence and of ,calm ,meditation upon ,existence 7,ujin-ushi-shryo1 or ,kak-kwan74 ,these are in number three1--each higher than the preceding1--and are named ,the ,heaven of ,sanctity1 ,the ,heaven of ,higher ,sanctity1 and ,the ,heaven of ,great ,sanctity4 ,after these come the heavens called the ,heavens of ,luminous ,observation of ,non-,existence and of ,calm ,meditation upon ,non-,existence 7,mjin-mushi-shryo74 ,these also are three2 and the names of them in their order signify1 ,lesser ,light1 ,light ,unfathomable1 and ,light ,making ,sound1 or1 ,light-,sonorous4 ,here there is attained the highest degree of supersensuous joy possible to temporary conditions4 ,above are the states named ,riki-shryo1 or the ,heavens of the ,meditation of the ,abandonment of ,joy4 ,the names of these states in their ascending order are1 ,lesser ,purity1 ,purity ,unfathomable1 and ,purity ,supreme4 ,in them neither joy nor pain1 nor forceful feeling of any sort exist3 there is a mild negative pleasure only1--the pleasure of heavenly ,equanimity4#c ,higher than these heavens are the eight spheres of ,calm ,meditation upon the ,abandonment of all ,joy and ,pleasure 7,riki-raku-shryo47 ,they are called ,the ,cloudless1 ,holiness-,manifest1 ,vast ,results1 ,empty of ,name1 ,void of ,heat1 ,fair-,appearing1 ,vision-,perfecting1 and ,the ,limit of ,form4 ,herein pleasure and pain1 and name and form1 pass utterly away4 ,but there remain ideas and thoughts4 ,he who can pass through these supersensual realms enters at once into the ,mushiki-,kai1--the spheres of ,formlessness4 ,these are four4 ,in the first state of the ,mushiki-,kai1 all sense of individuality is lost3 even the thought of name and form becomes extinct1 and there survives only the idea of ,infinite ,space1 or ,emptiness4 ,in the second state of the ,mushiki-,kai1 this idea of space vanishes2 and its place is filled by the ,idea of ,infinite ,reason4 ,but this idea of reason is anthropomorphic3 it is an illusion2 and it fades out in the third state of the ,mushiki-,kai1 which is called the ,state-of-,nothing-to-take-hold-of1 or ,m-sho--sh-j4 ,here is only the ,idea of ,infinite ,nothingness4 ,but even this condition has been reached by the aid of the action of the personal mind4 ,this action ceases3 then the fourth state of the ,mushiki-,kai is reached1--the ,his-hihis-sh1 or the state of neither-namelessness-nor-not-namelessnes s4 ,something of personal mentality continues to float vaguely here1--the very uttermost expiring vibration of ,karma1--the last vanishing haze of being4 ,it melts2--and the immeasurable revelation comes4 ,the dreaming ,buddha1 freed from the last ghostly bond of ,self1 rises at once into the infinite bliss of ,nirvana4#d 99 ,but every being does not pass through all the states above enumerated3 the power to rise swiftly or slowly depends upon the acquisition of merit as well as upon the character of the ,karma to be overcome4 ,some beings pass to ,nirvana immediately after the present life2 some after a single new birth2 some after two or three births2 while many rise directly from this world into one of the ,supersensuous ,heavens4 ,all such are called ,ch1--the ,leapers1--of whom the highest class reach ,nirvana at once after their death as men or women4 ,there are two great divisions of ,ch1--the ,fu-,kwan1 or ,never-,returning-,ones1#e and the ,kwan1 ,returning ,ones1 or revenants4 ,sometimes the return may be in the nature of a prolonged retrogression2 and1 according to a ,buddhist legend of the origin of the world1 the first men were beings who had fallen from the ,kw-on-,ten1 or ,heaven of ,sonorous ,light4 ,a remarkable fact about the whole theory of progression is that the progression is not conceived of 7except in very rare cases7 as an advance in straight lines1 but as an advance by undulations1--a psychical rhythm of motion4 ,this is exemplified by the curious ,buddhist classification of the different short courses by which the ,kwan or revenants may hope to reach ,nirvana4 ,these short courses are divided into ,even and ,uneven2--the former includes an equal number of heavenly and of earthly rebirths2 while in the latter class the heavenly and the earthly intermediate rebirths are not equal in number4 ,there are four kinds of these intermediate stages4 ,a ,japanese friend has drawn for me the accompanying diagrams1 which explain the subject clearly4 ,fantastic this may be called2 but it harmonizes with the truth that all progress is necessarily rhythmical4 ,illustration ,,nirvana ,,reached ,,from ,,the ,,heavens ,,through #c ,,even ,,births3-- ,,through #c ,,uneven ,,births3-- ,,nirvana ,,reached ,,from ,,the ,,state ,,of ,,man ,,through #c ,,even ,,births3-- ,,through #c ,,uneven ,,births3-- ,,nirvana ,,reached ,,from ,,the ,,heavens ,,through #b ,,even ,,births-- --,,through #b ,,uneven ,,births3-- ,,nirvana ,,reached ,,from ,,the--,,through #b ,,uneven ,,births3-- ,,state ,,of ,,man ,,through #b ,,even ,,births3-- ,though all beings do not pass through every stage of the great journey1 all beings who attain to the highest enlightenment1 by any course whatever1 acquire certain faculties not belonging to particular conditions of birth1 but only to particular conditions of psychical development4 ,these are1 the ,roku-,jindz 7,abhidjn71 or ,six ,supernatural ,powers3#f 7#a7 ,shin-,ky-,tsu1 the power of passing any-whither through any obstacles1--through solid walls1 for example2--7#b7 ,tengen-,ts1 the power of infinite vision2--7#c7 ,tenni-,ts1 the power of infinite hearing2--7#d7 ,tashin-,ts1 the power of knowing the thoughts of all other beings2--7#e7 ,shuku-j-,ts1 the power of remembering former births2--7#f7 ,rojin--,ts1 infinite wisdom with the power of entering at will into ,nirvana4 ,the ,roku-jindz first begin to develop in the state of ,shmon 7,sravaka71 and expand in the higher conditions of ,engaku 7,pratyeka-,buddha7 and of ,bosatsu 7,bodhisattva or ,mahsattva74 ,the powers of the ,shmon may be exerted over two thousand worlds2 those of the ,engaku or ,bosatsu1 over three thousand2--but the powers of ,buddhahood extend over the total cosmos4 ,in the first state of holiness1 for example1 comes the memory of a certain number of former births1 together with the capacity to foresee a corresponding number of future births2--in the next higher state the number of births remembered increases2--and in the state of ,bosatsu all former births are visible to memory4 ,but the ,buddha sees not only all of his own former births1 but likewise all births that ever have been or can be1--and all the thoughts and acts1 past1 present1 or future1 of all past1 present1 or future beings4444 ,now these dreams of supernatural power merit attention because of the ethical teaching in regard to them1--the same which is woven through every ,buddhist hypothesis1 rational or unthinkable1--the teaching of self-abnegation4 ,the ,supernatural ,powers must never be used for personal pleasure1 but only for the highest beneficence1--the propagation of doctrine1 the saving of men4 ,any exercise of them for lesser ends might result in their loss1--would certainly signify retrogression in the path4#g ,to show them for the purpose of exciting admiration or wonder were to juggle wickedly with what is divine2 and the ,teacher himself is recorded to have once severely rebuked a needless display of them by a disciple4#h ,this giving up not only of one life1 but of countless lives1--not only of one world1 but of innumerable worlds1--not only of natural but also of supernatural pleasures1--not only of selfhood but of godhood1--is certainly not for the miserable privilege of ceasing to be1 but for a privilege infinitely outweighing all that even paradise can give4 ,nirvana is no cessation1 but an emancipation4 ,it means only the passing of conditioned being into unconditioned being1--the fading of all mental and physical phantoms into the light of ,formless ,omnipotence and ,omniscience4 ,but the ,buddhist hypothesis holds some suggestion of the persistence of that which has once been able to remember all births and states of limited being1--the persistence of the identity of the ,buddhas even in ,nirvana notwithstanding the teaching that all ,buddhas are one4 ,how reconcile this doctrine of monism with the assurance of various texts that the being who enters ,nirvana can1 when so desirous1 reassume an earthly personality8 ,there are some very remarkable texts on this subject in the ,sutra of the ,lotos of the ,good ,law3 those for instance in which the ,tathgata ,prabhtartna is pictured as sitting perfectly extinct upon his throne and speaking before a vast assembly to which he has been introduced as the great ,seer who1 although perfectly extinct for many ktis of ons1 now comes to hear the ,law4 ,these texts themselves offer us the riddle of multiplicity in unity2 for the ,tathgata ,prabhtartna and the myriads of other extinct ,buddhas who appear simultaneously1 are said to have been all incarnations of but a single ,buddha4 ,a reconciliation is offered by the hypothesis of what might be called a pluristic monism1--a sole reality composed of groups of consciousness1 at once independent and yet interdependent1--or1 to speak of pure mind in terms of matter1 an atomic spiritual ultimate4 ,this hypothesis1 though not doctrinably enunciated in ,buddhist texts1 is distinctly implied both by text and commentary4 ,the ,absolute of ,buddhism is one as ether is one4 ,ether is conceivable only as a composition of units4#i ,the ,absolute is conceivable only 7according to any attempt at a synthesis of the ,japanese doctrines7 as composed of ,buddhas4 ,but here the student finds himself voyaging farther1 perhaps1 beyond the bar of the thinkable than ,western philosophers have ever ventured4 ,all are ,one2--each by union becomes equal with ,all6 ,we are not only bidden to imagine the ultimate reality as composed of units of conscious being1--but to believe each unit permanently equal to every other and infinite in potentiality4#aj ,the central reality of every living creature is a pure ,buddha3 the visible form and thinking self1 which encell it1 being but ,karma4 ,with some degree of truth it might be said that ,buddhism substitutes for our theory of a universe of physical atoms the hypothesis of a universe of psychical units4 ,not that it necessarily denies our theory of physical atoms1 but that it assumes a position which might be thus expressed in words3 ,what you call atoms are really combinations1 unstable aggregates1 essentially impermanent1 and therefore essentially unreal4 ,atoms are but ,karma4 ,and this position is suggestive4 ,we know nothing whatever of the ultimate nature of substance and motion3 but we have scientific evidence that the known has been evolved from the unknown2 that the atoms of our elements are combinations2 and that what we call matter and force are but different manifestations of a single and infinite ,unknown ,reality4 ,there are wonderful ,buddhist pictures which at first sight appear to have been made1 like other ,japanese pictures1 with bold free sweeps of a skilled brush1 but which1 when closely examined1 prove to have been executed in a much more marvelous manner4 ,the figures1 the features1 the robes1 the aureoles1--also the scenery1 the colors1 the effects of mist or cloud1--all1 even to the tiniest detail of tone or line1 have been produced by groupings of microscopic ,chinese characters1--tinted according to position1 and more or less thickly massed according to need of light or shade4 ,in brief1 these pictures are composed entirely out of texts of ,sutras3 they are mosaics of minute ideographs1--each ideograph a combination of strokes1 and the symbol at once of a sound and of an idea4 ,is our universe so composed8--an endless phantasmagory made only by combinations of combinations of combinations of combinations of units finding quality and form through unimaginable affinities2--now thickly massed in solid glooms2 now palpitating in tremulosities of light and color2 always and everywhere grouped by some stupendous art into one vast mosaic of polarities2--yet each unit in itself a complexity inconceivable1 and each in itself also a symbol only1 a character1 a single ideograph of the undecipherable text of the ,infinite ,riddle8444 ,ask the chemists and the mathematicians4 ,footnote #a3 ,scarcely a day passes that ,i do not hear such words uttered as ingwa1 gokuraku1 gsh1--or other words referring to ,karma1 heaven1 future life1 past life1 etc4 ,but ,i have never heard a man or woman of the people use the word ,nehan2 and whenever ,i have ventured to question such about ,nirvana1 ,i found that its philosophical meaning was unknown4 ,on the other hand1 the ,japanese scholar speaks of ,nehan as the reality1--of heaven1 either as a temporary condition or as a parable4 ,footnote #b3 ,this astronomical localization of higher conditions of being1 or of other ,buddha-fields1 may provoke a smile2 but it suggests undeniable possibilities4 ,there is no absurdity in supposing that potentialities of life and growth and development really pass1 with nebular diffusion and concentration1 from expired systems to new systems4 ,indeed1 not to suppose this1 in our present state of knowledge1 is scarcely possible for the rational mind4 ,footnote #c3 ,one is reminded by this conception of ,mr4 ,spencer's beautiful definition of ,equanimity3--,equanimity may be compared to white light1 which1 though composed of numerous colors1 is colorless2 while pleasurable and painful moods of mind may be compared to the modifications of light that result from increasing the proportions of some rays1 and decreasing the proportions of others4--,principles of ,psychology4 ,footnote #d3 ,the expression infinite bliss as synonymous with ,nirvana is taken from the ,questions of ,king ,milinda4 ,footnote #e3 ,in the ,sutra of the ,great ,decease we find the instance of a woman reaching this condition3--,the ,sister ,nanda1 ,o ,ananda1 by the destruction of the five bonds that bind people to this world1 has become an inhabitant of the highest heaven1--there to pass entirely away1--thence never to return4 ,footnote #f3 ,different ,buddhist systems give different enumerations of these mysterious powers whereof the ,chinese names literally signify3--7#a7 ,calm--,meditation-outward-pouring-no-ob stacle-wisdom 7#b7 ,heaven-,eye-no-obstacle-wisdom2 7#c7 ,heaven ,ear-no-obstacle-wisdom2--7#d7 ,other-minds-no-obstacle-wisdom2--7#e7 ,fornier-,states-no-obstacle-wisdom2--7# f7 ,leak-,extinction-no-obstacle-wisdom4 ,footnote #g3 ,beings who have reached the state of ,engaku or of ,sosatsu are not supposed capable of retrogression1 or of any serious error2 but it is otherwise in lower spiritual states4 ,footnote #h3 ,see a curious legend in the ,vinaya texts1--,kullavagga1 ,v4 #h1 #b4 ,footnote #i3 ,this position1 it will be observed1 is very dissimilar from that of ,hartmann1 who holds that all plurality of individuation belongs to the sphere of phenomenality4 7vol4 ii4 page #bcc of ,english translation47 ,one is rather reminded of the thought of ,galton that human beings may contribute more or less unconsciously to the manifestation of a far higher life than our own1--somewhat as the individual cells of one of the more complex animals contribute to the manifestation of its higher order of personality4 7,hereditary ,genius1 p4 #cfa47 ,another thought of ,galton's1 expressed on the same page of the work just quoted from1 is still more strongly suggestive of the ,buddhist concept3--,we must not permit ourselves to consider each human or other personality as something supernaturally added to the stock of nature1 but rather as a segregation of what already existed1 under a new shape1 and as a regular consequence of previous conditions4444 ,neither must we be misled by the word 'individuality4' 444 ,we may look upon each individual as something not wholly detached from its parent-source1--as a wave that has been lifted and shaped by normal conditions in an unknown and illimitable ocean4 ,the reader should remember that the ,buddhist hypothesis does not imply either individuality or personality in ,nirvana1 but simple entity1--not a spiritual body1 in our meaning of the term1 but only a divine consciousness4 ,heart1 in the sense of divine mind1 is a term used in some ,japanese texts to describe such entity4 ,in the ,dai-,nichi ,ky ,s 7,commentary on the ,dai-,nichi ,sutra71 for example1 is the statement ,when all seeds of ,karma-life are entirely burnt out and annihilated1 then the vacuum-pure ,bodhi-heart is reached4 7,i may observe that ,buddhist metaphysicians use the term vacuum-bodies to describe one of the high conditions of entity47 ,the following1 from the fifty-first volume of the work called ,daiz-h-s will also be found interesting ,by experience the ,tathgata possesses all forms1--forms for multitude numberless as the dust-grains of the universe4444 ,the ,tathgata gets himself born in such places as he desires1 or in accord with the desire of others1 and there saves lit41 'carries over'--that is1 over the ,sea of ,birth and ,death all sentient beings4 ,wheresoever his will finds an abiding-point1 there is he embodied3 this is called ,will-,birth ,body4444 ,the ,buddha makes ,law his body1 and remains pure as empty space3 this is called ,law-,body4 ,footnote #aj3 ,half of this ,buddhist thought is really embodied in ,tennyson's line1--,boundless inward1 in the atom2 boundless outward1 in the ,whole4 ,v 444 ,all beings that have life shall lay ,aside their complex form1--that aggregation ,of mental and material qualities ,that gives them1 or in heaven or on earth1 ,their fleeting individuality4 ,the ,book of the ,great ,decease4 ,in every teleological system there are conceptions which cannot bear the test of modern psychological analysis1 and in the foregoing unfilled outline of a great religious hypothesis there will doubtless be recognized some ghosts of beliefs haunting those mazes of verbal propositions in which metaphysicians habitually lose themselves4 ,but truths will be perceived also1--grand recognitions of the law of ethical evolution1 of the price of progress1 and of our relation to the changeless ,reality abiding beyond all change4 ,the ,buddhist estimate of the enormity of that opposition to moral progress which humanity must overcome is fully sustained by our scientific knowledge of the past and perception of the future4 ,mental and moral advance has thus far been effected only through constant struggle against inheritances older than reason or moral feeling1--against the instincts and the appetites of primitive brute life4 ,and the ,buddhist teaching1 that the average man can hope to leave his worse nature behind him only after the lapse of millions of future lives1 is much more of a truth than of a theory4 ,only through millions of births have we been able to reach even this our present imperfect state2 and the dark bequests of our darkest past are still strong enough betimes to prevail over reason and ethical feeling4 ,every future forward pace upon the moral path will have to be taken against the massed effort of millions of ghostly wills4 ,for those past selves which priest and poet have told us to use as steps to higher things are not dead1 nor even likely to die for a thousand generations to come3 they are too much alive2--they have still power to clutch the climbing feet1--sometimes even to fling back the climber into the primeval slime4 ,again1 in its legend of the ,heavens of ,desire1--progress through which depends upon the ability of triumphant virtue to refuse what it has won1--,buddhism gives us a wonder-story full of evolutional truth4 ,the difficulties of moral self-elevation do not disappear with the amelioration of material social conditions2--in our own day they rather increase4 ,as life becomes more complex1 more multiform1 so likewise do the obstacles to ethical advance1--so likewise do the results of thoughts and acts4 ,the expansion of intellectual power1 the refinement of sensibility1 the enlargement of the sympathies1 the intensive quickening of the sense of beauty1--all multiply ethical dangers just as certainly as they multiply ethical opportunities4 ,the highest material results of civilization1 and the increase of possibilities of pleasure1 exact an exercise of self-mastery and a power of1 ethical balance1 needless and impossible in older and lower states of existence4 ,the ,buddhist doctrine of impermanency is the doctrine also of modern science3 either might be uttered in the words of the other4 ,natural knowledge1 wrote ,huxley in one of his latest and finest essays1 tends more and more to the conclusion that 'all the choir of heaven and furniture of the earth' are the transitory forms of parcels of cosmic substance wending along the road of evolution from nebulous potentiality1--through endless growths of sun and planet and satellite1--through all varieties of matter1--through infinite diversities of life and thought1--possibly through modes of being of which we neither have a conception nor are competent to form any1--back to the indefinable latency from which they arose4 ,thus the most obvious attribute of the ,cosmos is its impermanency4#a ,and1 finally1 it may be said that ,buddhism not only presents remarkable accordance with nineteenth century thought in regard to the instability of all integrations1 the ethical signification of heredity1 the lesson of mental evolution1 the duty of moral progress1 but it also agrees with science in repudiating equally our doctrines of materialism and of spiritualism1 our theory of a ,creator and of special creation1 and our belief in the immortality of the soul4 ,yet1 in spite of this repudiation of the very foundations of ,occidental religion1 it has been able to give us the revelation of larger religious possibilities1--the suggestions of a universal scientific creed nobler than any which has ever existed4 ,precisely in that period of our own intellectual evolution when faith in a personal ,god is passing away1--when the belief in an individual soul is becoming impossible1--when the most religious minds shrink from everything that we have been calling religion1--when the universal doubt is an ever-growing weight upon ethical aspiration1--light is offered from the ,east4 ,there we find ourselves in presence of an older and a vaster faith1--holding no gross anthropomorphic conceptions of the immeasurable ,reality1 and denying the existence of soul1 but nevertheless inculcating a system of morals superior to any other1 and maintaining a hope which no possible future form of positive knowledge can destroy4 ,reinforced by the teaching of science1 the teaching of this more ancient faith is that for thousands of years we have been thinking inside-out and upside-down4 ,the only reality is ,one2--all that we have taken for ,substance is only ,shadow2--the physical is the unreal2--and the outer-man is the ghost4 ,footnote #a3 ,evolution and ,ethics4 ,x ,,the ,,rebirth ,,of ,,katsugor ,i ,the following is not a story1--at least it is not one of my stories4 ,it is only the translation of an old ,japanese document--or rather series of documents--very much signed and sealed1 and dating back to the early part of the present century4 ,various authors appear to have made use of these documents3 especially the compiler of the curious collection of ,buddhist stories entitled ,bukky-hyakkwa-zensh1 to whom they furnished the material of the twenty-sixth narrative in that work4 ,the present translation1 however1 was made from a manuscript copy discovered in a private library in ,tky4 ,i am responsible for nothing beyond a few notes appended to the text4 ,although the beginning will probably prove dry reading1 ,i presume to advise the perusal of the whole translation from first to last1 because it suggests many things besides the possibility of remembering former births4 ,it will be found to reflect something of the feudal ,japan passed away1 and something of the old-time faith1--not the higher ,buddhism1 but what is incomparably more difficult for any ,occidental to obtain a glimpse of3 the common ideas of the people concerning prexistence and rebirth4 ,and in view of this fact1 the exactness of the official investigations1 and the credibility of the evidence accepted1 necessarily become questions of minor importance4 ,,ii #a4--;,,copy ,,of ,,the ,,report ,,of ,,tamon ,,dempachir4 ,the case of ,katsugor1 nine years old1 second son of ,genz1 a farmer on my estate1 dwelling in the ,village called ,nakano-mura in the ,district called ,tamagri in the ,province of ,musashi4 ,some time during the autumn of last year1 the above-mentioned ,katsugor1 the son of ,genz1 told to his elder sister the story of his previous existence and of his rebirth4 ,but as it seemed to be only the fancy of a child1 she gave little heed to it4 ,afterwards1 however1 when ,katsugor had told her the same story over and over again1 she began to think that it was a strange thing1 and she told her parents about it4 ,during the twelfth month of the past year1 ,genz himself questioned ,katsugor about the matter1 whereupon ,katsugor declared1-- ,that he had been in his former existence the son of a certain ,kybei1 a farmer of ,hodokubo-mura1 which is a village within the jurisdiction of the ,lord ,komiya1 in the district called ,tamagri1 in the province of ,musashi2-- ,that he1 ,katsugor1 the son of ,kybei1 had died of smallpox at the age of six years1--and ,that he had been reborn thereafter into the family of the ,genz before-mentioned4 ,though this seemed unbelievable1 the boy repeated all the circumstances of his story with so much exactness and apparent certainty1 that the ,headman and the elders of the village made a formal investigation of the case4 ,as the news of this event soon spread1 it was heard by the family of a certain ,hanshir1 living in the village called ,hodokubo-mura2 and ,hanshir then came to the house of the ,genz aforesaid1 a farmer belonging to my estate1 and found that everything was true which the boy had said about the personal appearance and the facial characteristics of his former parents1 and about the aspect of the house which had been his home in his previous birth4 ,katsugor was then taken to the house of ,hanshir in ,hodokubo-mura2 and the people there said that he looked very much like their ,tz1 who had died a number of years before1 at the age of six4 ,since then the two families have been visiting each other at intervals4 ,the people of other neighboring villages seem to have heard of the matter2 and now persons come daily from various places to see ,katsugor4 99 ,a deposition regarding the above facts having been made before me by persons dwelling on my estate1 ,i summoned the man ,genz to my house1 and there examined him4 ,his answers to my questions did not contradict the statements before-mentioned made by other parties4 ,occasionally in the world some rumor of such a matter as this spreads among the people4 ,indeed1 it is hard to believe such things4 ,but ,i beg to make report of the present case1 hoping the same will reach your august ear1--so that ,i may not be charged with negligence4 ,signed ,,tamon ,,dempachir4 ,the ,fourth ,month and the ,sixth ,year of ,bunsei #ahbc4 #b4--;,,copy ,,of ,,letter ,,written ,,by ,,kazunawo ,,to ,,teikin1 ,,priest ,,of ,,sengakuji4 ,i have been favored with the accompanying copy of the report of ,tamon ,dempachir by ,shiga ,hyomon ,sama1 who brought it to me2 and ,i take great pleasure in sending it to you4 ,i think that it might be well for you to preserve it1 together with the writing from ,kwan-zan ,sama1 which you kindly showed me the other day4 ,signed ,,kazunawo4 ,the twenty-first day of the ,sixth ,month4 ,no other date4 #c4--;,,copy ,,of ,,the ,,letter ,,of ,,matsudaira ,,kwanzan ,,daimy ,,to ,,the ,,priest ,,teikin ,,of ,,the ,,temple ,,called ,,sengakuji4 ,i herewith enclose and send you the account of the rebirth of ,katsugor4 ,i have written it in the popular style1 thinking that it might have a good effect in helping to silence those who do not believe in the doctrines of the ,buddha4 ,as a literary work it is1 of course1 a wretched thing4 ,i send it to you supposing that it could only amuse you from that point of view4 ,but as for the relation itself1 it is without mistake2 for ,i myself heard it from the grandmother of ,katsugor4 ,when you have read it1 please return it to me4 ,signed ,,kwanzan4 ,twentieth day4 ,no date4 ,,copy4 ,,relation ,,of ,,the ,,rebirth ,,of ,,katsugor4 #d4--7;,introductory ,note by the ,priest ,teikin47 ,this is the account of a true fact2 for it has been written by ,matsudaira ,kwanzan ,sama1 who himself went to ,nakano-mura on the twenty-second day of the third month of this year for the special purpose of inquiring about the matter4 ,after having obtained a glimpse of ,katsugoro1 he questioned the boy's grandmother as to every particular2 and he wrote down her answers exactly as they were given4 ,afterwards1 the said ,kwanzan ,sama condescended to honor this temple with a visit on the fourteenth day of this fourth month1 and with his own august lips told me about his visit to the family of the aforesaid ,katsugor4 ,furthermore1 he vouchsafed me the favor of permitting me to read the before-mentioned writing1 on the twentieth day of this same month4 ,and1 availing myself of the privilege1 ,i immediately made a copy of the writing4 ,signed ,,teikin ,s ,sengaku-ji ,facsimile of the priest's kakihan1 or private sign-manual1 made with the brush4 ,the twenty-first day of the ,fourth ,month of the ,sixth ,year of ,bunsei #ahbc ,,copy4 #e4--,,names ,,of ,,the ,,members ,,of ,,the ,,two ,,families ,,concerned4 ,family of ,genz4 ,,katsugor4--,born the #ajth day of the #ajth month of the twelfth year of ,bunkwa #ahae4 ,nine years old this sixth year of ,bunsei #ahbc4a ,second son of ,genz1 a farmer living in ,tanitsuiri in ,nakano-mura1 district of ,tamagri1 province of ,musashi4--,estate of ,tamon ,dempachir1 whose yashiki is in the street called ,shichikench1 ,nedzu1 ,yedo4--,jurisdiction of ,yusuki4 ,,genz4--,father of ,katsugor4 ,family name1 ,koyada4 ,forty-nine years old this sixth year of ,bunsei4 ,being poor1 he occupies himself with the making of baskets1 which he sells in ,yedo4 ,the name of the inn at which he lodges while in ,yedo is ,sagamiya1 kept by one ,kihei1 in ,bakuro-ch4 ,,sei4--,wife of ,genz and mother of ,katsugoro4 ,thirty-nine years old this sixth year of ,bunsei4 ,daughter of ,murata ,kichitar1 samurai1--once an archer in the service of the ,lord of ,owari4 ,when ,sei was twelve years old she was a maid-servant1 it is said1 in the house of ,honda ,dainoshin ,dono4 ,when she was thirteen years old1 her father1 ,kichitar was dismissed forever for a certain cause from the service of the ,lord of ,owari1 and he became a rnin4#b ,he died at the age of seventy-five1 on the twenty-fifth day of the fourth month of the fourth year of ,bunkwa #ahjg4 ,his grave is in the cemetery of the temple called ,eirin-ji1 of the ,zen sect1 in the village of ,shimo-,yusuki4 ,,tsuya4--,grandmother of ,katsugoro4 ,seventy-two years old this sixth year of ,bunsei4 ,when young she served as maid in the household of ,matsudaira ,oki-no-,kami ,dono ,daimy4 ,,fusa4--,elder sister of ,katsugoro4 ,fifteen years old this year4 ,,otojir4--,elder brother of ,katsugoro4 ,fourteen years old this year4 ,,tsun4--,younger sister of ,katsugoro4 ,four years old this year4 ,family of ,hanshir4 ,t,z4--,died at the age of six in ,hodo-kubo-mura1 in the district called ,tamagori in the province of ,musashi4 ,estate of ,nakan ,uyemon1 whose yashiki is in the street ,ata-rashi-bashi-dri1 ,shitaya1 ,yedo4 ,jurisdiction of ,komiya4--,tz was born in the second year of ,bunkwa #ahje1 and died at about the fourth hour of the day #aj o'clock in the morning on the fourth clay of the second month of the seventh year of ,bunkwa #ahaj4 ,the sickness of which he died was smallpox4 ,buried in the graveyard on the hill above the village before-mentioned1--,hodokubo-mura4--,par ochial temple3 ,iwji in ,misawa-mura4 ,sect3 ,zen-sh4 ,last year the fifth year of ,bunkwa #ahbb1 the ji-san kwaiki#c was said for ,tz4 ,,hanshir4--,stepfather of ,tz4 ,family name3 ,suzaki4 ,fifty years old this sixth year of ,bunsei4 ,,shidzu4--,mother of ,tz4 ,forty-nine years old this sixth year of ,bunsei4 ,,ky,,bei 7afterwards ,,tog,r74--,real father of ,tz4 ,original name1 ,kybei1 afterwards changed to ,togr4 ,died at the age of forty-eight1 in the sixth year of ,bunkwa #ahji1 when ,tz was five years old4 ,to replace him1 ,hanshir became an iri-muko4#d ,,children3 ,,two ,,boys ,,and ,,two ,,girls4--,these are ,hanshir's children by the mother of ,tz4 #f4--;,,copy ,,of ,,the ,,account ,,written ,,in ,,popular ,,style ,,by ,,matsudaira ,,kwanzan ,,dono1 ,,daimy4 ,some time in the eleventh month of the past year1 when ,katsugor was playing in the rice-field with his elder sister1 ,fusa1 he asked her1-- ,elder ,sister1 where did you come from before you were born into our household8 ,fusa answered him3-- ,how can ,i know what happened to me before ,i was born8 ,katsugoro looked surprised and exclaimed3 ,then you cannot remember anything that happened before you were born8 ,do you remember8 asked ,fusa4 ,indeed ,i do1 replied ,katsugor4 ,i used to be the son of ,kybei ,san of ,hodo-kubo1 and my name was then ,tz--do you not know all that8 ,ah6 said ,fusa1 ,i shall tell father and mother about it4 ,but ,katsugor at once began to cry1 and said3-- ,please do not tell6--it would not be good to tell father and mother4 ,fusa made answer1 after a little while3-- ,well1 this time ,i shall not tell4 ,but the next time that you do anything naughty1 then ,i will tell4 ,after that day whenever a dispute arose between the two1 the sister would threaten the brother1 saying1 ,very well1 then--,i shall tell that thing to father and mother4 ,at these words the boy would always yield to his sister4 ,this happened many times2 and the parents one day overheard ,fusa making her threat4 ,thinking ,katsugor must have been doing something wrong1 they desired to know what the matter was1 and ,fusa1 being questioned1 told them the truth4 ,then ,genz and his wife1 and ,tsuya1 the grandmother of ,katsugor1 thought it a very strange thing4 ,they called ,katsugor1 therefore2 and tried1 first by coaxing1 and then by threatening1 to make him tell what he had meant by those words4 ,after hesitation1 ,katsugor said3--,i will tell you everything4 ,i used to be the son of ,kybei ,san of ,hodokubo1 and the name of my mother then was ,o-,shidzu ,san4 ,when ,i was five years old1 ,kybei ,san died2 and there came in his place a man called ,hanshir ,san1 who loved me very much4 ,but in the following year1 when ,i was six years old1 ,i died of smallpox4 ,in the third year after that ,i entered mother's honorable womb1 and was born again4 ,the parents and the grandmother of the boy wondered greatly at hearing this2 and they decided to make all possible inquiry as to the man called ,hanshir of ,hodokubo4 ,but as they all had to work very hard every day to earn a living1 and so could spare but little time for any other matter1 they could not at once carry out their intention4 ,now ,sei1 the mother of ,katsugor1 had nightly to suckle her little daughter ,tsun1 who was four years old2#e--;and ,katsugor therefore slept with his grandmother1 ,tsuya4 ,sometimes he used to talk to her in bed2 and one night when he was in a very confiding mood1 she persuaded him to tell her what happened at the time when he had died4 ,then he said3--,until ,i was four years old ,i used to remember everything2 but since then ,i have become more and more forgetful2 and now ,i forget many1 many things4 ,but ,i still remember that ,i died of smallpox2 ,i remember that ,i was put into a jar2#f ,i remember that ,i was buried on a hill4 ,there was a hole made in the ground2 and the people let the jar drop into that hole4 ,it fell pon6--,i remember that sound well4 ,then somehow ,i returned to the house1 and ,i stopped on my own pillow there4#g ,in a short time some old man1--looking like a grandfather--came and took me away4 ,i do not know who or what he was4 ,as ,i walked ,i went through empty air as if flying4 ,i remember it was neither night nor day as we went3 it was always like sunset-time4 ,i did not feel either warm or cold or hungry4 ,we went very far1 ,i think2 but still ,i could hear always1 faintly1 the voices of people talking at home2 and the sound of the ,nembutsu#h being said for me4 ,i remember also that when the people at home set offerings of hot botamochi#i before the household shrinen butsudan1 ,i inhaled the vapor of the offerings4444 ,grandmother1 never forget to offer warm food to the honorable dead ,hotok ,sama1 and do not forget to give to priests--,i am sure it is very good to do these things4#aj 444 ,after that1 ,i only remember that the old man led me by some roundabout way to this place--,i remember we passed the road beyond the village4 ,then we came here1 and he pointed to this house1 and said to me3--',now you must be reborn1--for it is three years since you died4 ,you are to be reborn in that house4 ,the person who will become your grandmother is very kind2 so it will be well for you to be conceived and born there4' ,after saying this1 the old man went away4 ,i remained a little time under the kaki-tree before the entrance of this house4 ,then ,i was going to enter when ,i heard talking inside3 some one said that because father was now earning so little1 mother would have to go to service in ,yedo4 ,i thought1 ,i will not go into that house2 and ,i stopped three days in the garden4 ,on the third clay it was decided that1 after all1 mother would not have to go to ,yedo4 ,the same night ,i passed into the house through a knot-hole in the sliding-shutters2--and after that ,i stayed for three days beside the kamado4#aa ,then ,i entered mother's honorable womb4#ab 444 ,i remember that ,i was born without any pain at all4--,grandmother1 you may tell this to father and mother1 but please never tell it to anybody else4 99 ,the grandmother told ,genz and his wife what ,katsugor had related to her2 and after that the boy was not afraid to speak freely with his parents on the subject of his former existence1 and would often say to them3 ,i want to go to ,hodokubo4 ,please let me make a visit to the tomb of ,kybei ,san4 ,genz thought that ,katsugor1 being a strange child1 would probably die before long1 and that it might therefore be better to make inquiry at once as to whether there really was a man in ,hodokubo called ,hanshir4 ,but he did not wish to make the inquiry himself1 because for a man to do so under such circumstances8 would seem inconsiderate or forward4 ,therefore1 instead of going himself to ,hodokubo1 he asked his mother ,tsuya1 on the twentieth day of the first month of this year1 to take her grandson there4 ,tsuya went with ,katsugor to ,hodokubo2 and when they entered the village she pointed to the nearer dwellings1 and asked the boy1 ,which house is it8--is it this house or that one8 ,no1 answered ,katsugor1--it is further on--much further1--and he hurried before her4 ,reaching a certain dwelling at last1 he cried1 ,this is the house6--and ran in1 without waiting for his grandmother4 ,tsuya followed him in1 and asked the people there what was the name of the owner of the house4 ,hanshir1 one of them answered4 ,she asked the name of ,hanshir's wife4 ,shidzu1 was the reply4 ,then she asked whether there had ever been a son called ,tz born in that house4 ,yes1 was the answer2 but that boy died thirteen years ago1 when he was six years old4 ,then for the first time ,tsuya was convinced that ,katsugor had spoken the truth2 and she could not help shedding tears4 ,she related to the people of the house all that ,katsugor had told her about his remembrance of his former birth4 ,then ,hanshir and his wife wondered greatly4 ,they caressed ,katsugor and wept2 and they remarked that he was much handsomer now than he had been as ,tz before dying at the age of six4 ,in the mean time1 ,katsugor was looking all about2 and seeing the roof of a tobacco shop opposite to the house of ,hanshir1 he pointed to it1 and said3--,that used not to be there4 ,and he also said1--,the tree yonder used not to be there4 ,all this was true4 ,so from the minds of ,hanshir and his wife every doubt departed ga wo orishi4 ,on the same day ,tsuya and ,katsugor returned to ,tanitsuiri1 ,nakano-mura4 ,afterwards ,genz sent his son several times to ,hanshir's house1 and allowed him to visit the tomb of ,kybei his real father in his previous existence4 ,sometimes ,katsugor says3--,i am a ,nono-,sama3#ac therefore please be kind to me4 ,sometimes he also says to his grandmother3--,i think ,i shall die when ,i am sixteen2 but1 as ,ontak ,sama#ad has taught us1 dying is not a matter to be afraid of4 ,when his parents ask him1 ,would you not like to become a priest8 he answers1 ,i would rather not be a priest4 ,the village people do not call him ,katsugoro any more2 they have nicknamed him ,hodokubo-,koz 7the ,acolyte of ,hodokubo74#ae ,when any one visits the house to see him1 he becomes shy at once1 and runs to hide himself in the inner apartments4 ,so it is not possible to have any direct conversation with him4 ,i have written down this account exactly as his grandmother gave it to me4 ,i asked whether ,genz1 his wife1 or ,tsuya1 could any of them remember having done any virtuous deeds4 ,genz and his wife said that they had never done anything especially virtuous2 but that ,tsuya1 the grandmother1 had always been in the habit of repeating the ,nembutsu every morning and evening1 and that she never failed to give two mon#af to any priest or pilgrim who came to the door4 ,but excepting these small matters1 she never had done anything which could be called a particularly virtuous act4 7--,this is the ,end of the ,relation of the ,rebirth of ,katsugor47 #g4--7,note by the ,translator47 ,the foregoing is taken from a manuscript entitled ,chin ,setsu ,sh ,ki2 or1 ,manuscript-,collection of ,uncommon ,stories1--made between the fourth month of the sixth year of ,bunsei and the tenth month of the sixth year of ,tempo #ahbc-ahce4 ,at the end of the manuscript is written1--,from the years of ,bunsei to the years of ,tempo4--,minamisempa1 ,owner3 ,kurumach1 ,shiba1 ,yedo ,under this1 again1 is the following note3--,bought from ,yamatoya ,sakujir ,nishinohubo3 twenty-first day 81 ,second ,year of ,meiji #ahfi4 ,from which it would appear that the manuscript had been written by ,minamisempa1 who collected stories told to him1 or copied them from manuscripts obtained by him1 during the thirteen years from #ahbc to #ahce1 inclusive4 ,,iii ,perhaps somebody will now be unreasonable enough to ask whether ,i believe this story1--as if my belief or disbelief had anything to do with the matter6 ,the question of the possibility of remembering former births seems to me to depend upon the question what it is that remembers4 ,if it is the ,infinite ,all-,self in each one of us1 then ,i can believe the whole of the ,jatakas without any trouble4 ,as to the ,false ,self1 the mere woof and warp of sensation and desire1 then ,i can best express my idea by relating a dream which ,i once dreamed4 ,whether it was a dream of the night or a dream of the day need not concern any one1 since it was only a dream4 ,footnote #a3 ,the ,western reader is requested to bear in mind that the year in which a ,japanese child is born is counted always as one year in the reckoning of age4 ,footnote #b3 ,lit43 ,a wave-man1--a wandering samurai without a lord4 ,the rnin were generally a desperate and very dangerous class2 but there were some fine characters among them4 ,footnote #c3 ,the ,buddhist services for the dead are celebrated at regular intervals1 increasing successively in length1 until the time of one hundred years after death4 ,the ji-san kwaiki is the service for the thirteenth year after death4 ,by thirteenth in the context the reader must understand that the year in which the death took place is counted for one year4 ,footnote #d3 ,the second husband1 by adoption1 of a daughter who lives with her own parents4 ,footnote #e3 ,children in ,japan1 among the poorer classes1 are not weaned until an age much later than what is considered the proper age for weaning children in ,western countries4 ,but four years old in this text may mean considerably less1 than three by ,western reckoning4 ,footnote #f3 ,from very ancient time in ,japan it has been the custom to bury the dead in large jars1--usually of red earthenware1--called ,kam4 ,such jars are still used1 although a large proportion of the dead are buried in wooden coffins of a form unknown in the ,occident4 ,footnote #g3 ,the idea expressed is not that of lying down with the pillow under the head1 but of hovering about the pillow1 or resting upon it as an insect might do4 ,the bodiless spirit is usually said to rest upon the roof of the home4 ,the apparition of the aged man referred to in the next sentence seems a thought of ,shinto rather than of ,buddhism4 ,footnote #h3 ,the repetition of the ,buddhist invocation ,namu ,amida ,butsu6 is thus named4 ,the nembutsu is repeated by many ,buddhist sects besides the sect of ,amida proper1--the ,shinsh4 ,footnote #i3 ,botamochi1 a kind of sugared rice-cake4 ,footnote #aj3 ,such advice is a commonplace in ,japanese ,buddhist literature4 ,by ,hotok ,sama here the boy means1 not the ,buddhas proper1 but the spirits of the dead1 hopefully termed ,buddhas by those who loved them1--much as in the ,west we sometimes speak of our dead as angels4 ,footnote #aa3 ,the cooking-place in a ,japanese kitchen4 ,sometimes the word is translated kitchen-range1 but the kamado is something very different from a ,western kitchen-range4 ,footnote #ab3 ,here ,i think it better to omit a couple of sentences in the original rather too plain for ,western taste1 yet not without interest4 ,the meaning of the omitted passages is only that even in the womb the child acted with consideration1 and according to the rules of filial piety4 ,footnote #ac3 ,nono-,san 7or ,sama7 is the child-word for the ,spirits of the dead1 for the ,buddhas1 and for the ,shint ,gods1--,kami4 ,nono-,san wo ogamu1--to pray to the ,nono-,san1 is the child-phrase for praying to the gods4 ,the spirits of the ancestors become ,nono-,san1--,kami1--according to ,shint thought4 ,footnote #ad3 ,the reference here to ,ontak ,sama has a particular interest1 but will need some considerable explanation4 ,ontak1 or ,mitak1 is the name of a celebrated holy peak in the province of ,shinano--a great resort for pilgrims4 ,during the ,tokugawa ,shgunate1 a priest called ,isshin1 of the ,rissh ,buddhists1 made a pilgrimage to that mountain4 ,returning to his native place 7,sakamoto-ch1 ,shitaya1 ,yedo71 he began to preach certain new doctrines1 and to make for himself a reputation as a miracle-worker1 by virtue of powers said to have been gained during his pilgrimage to ,ontak4 ,the ,shgunate considered him a dangerous person1 and banished him to the island of ,hachij1 where he remained for some years4 ,afterwards he was allowed to return to ,yedo1 and there to preach his new faith1--to which he gave the name of ,azuma-,ky4 ,it was ,buddhist teaching in a ,shint disguise1--the deities especially adored by its followers being ,okuni-nushi and ,sukuna-hi-kona as ,buddhist avatars4 ,in the prayer of the sect called ,kaibyaku-,norito it is said3--,the divine nature is immovable 7fud72 yet it moves4 ,it is formless1 yet manifests itself in forms4 ,this is the ,incomprehensible ,divine ,body4 ,in ,heaven and ,earth it is called ,kami2 in all things it is called ,spirit2 in ,man it is called ,mind4444 ,from this only reality came the heavens1 the four oceans1 the great whole of the three thousand universes2--from the ,one ,mind emanate three thousands of great thousands of forms4 444 ,in the eleventh year of ,bunkwa 7#ahad7 a man called ,shi moyama ,osuk1 originally an oil-merchant in ,heiyemon-ch1 ,asakusa1 ,yedo1 organized1 on the basis of ,isshin's teaching1 a religious association named ,tomoy-,ko4 ,it flourished until the overthrow of the ,shgunate1 when a law was issued forbidding the teaching of mixed doctrines1 and the blending of ,shint with ,buddhist religion4 ,shimo-yama ,osuk then applied for permission to establish a new ,shinto sect1 under the name of ,mitak-,ky1--popularly called ,ontak-,ky2 and the permission was given in the sixth year of ,meiji 7#ahgc74 ,osuk then remodeled the ,buddhist sutra ,fud ,ky into a ,shinto prayer-book1 under the title1 ,shint-,fud-,norito4 ,the sect still flourishes2 and one of its chief temples is situated about a mile from my present residence in ,tky4 ,ontak ,san 7or ,sama7 is a popular name given to the deities adored by this sect4 ,it really means the ,deity dwelling on the peak ,mitak1 or ,ontak4 ,but the name is also sometimes applied to the high-priest of the sect1 who is supposed to be oracularly inspired by the deity of ,ontak1 and to make revelations of truth through the power of the divinity4 ,in the mouth of the boy ,katsugoro ,ontak ,sama means the high-priest of that time 7#ahbc71 almost certainly ,osuk himself1--then chief of the ,tomoy-,ky4 ,footnote #ae3 ,koz is the name given to a ,buddhist acolyte1 or a youth studying for the priesthood4 ,but it is also given to errand-boys and little boy-servants sometimes1--perhaps because in former days the heads of little boys were shaved4 ,i think that the meaning in this text is acolyte4 ,footnote #af3 ,in that time the name of the smallest of coins #a_/aj of #a cent4 ,it was about the same as that now called rin1 a copper with a square hole in the middle and bearing ,chinese characters4 ,,xi ,,within ,,the ,,circle ,neither personal pain nor personal pleasure can be really expressed in words4 ,it is never possible to communicate them in their original form4 ,it is only possible1 by vivid portrayal of the circumstances or conditions causing them1 to awaken in sympathetic minds some kindred qualities of feeling4 ,but if the circumstances causing the pain or the pleasure be totally foreign to common human experience1 then no representation of them can make fully known the sensations which they evoked4 ,hopeless1 therefore1 any attempt to tell the real pain of seeing my former births4 ,i can say only that no combination of suffering possible to individual being could be likened to such pain1--the pain of countless lives interwoven4 ,it seemed as if every nerve of me had been prolonged into some monstrous web of sentiency spun back through a million years1--and as if the whole of that measureless woof and warp1 over all its shivering threads1 were pouring into my consciousness1 out of the abysmal past1 some ghastliness without name1--some horror too vast for human brain to hold4 ,for1 as ,i looked backward1 ,i became double1 quadruple1 octuple2--,i multiplied by arithmetical progression2--,i became hundreds and thousands1--and feared with the terror of thousands1--and despaired with the anguish of thousands1--and shuddered with the agony of thousands2 yet knew the pleasure of none4 ,all joys1 all delights appeared but mists or mockeries3 only the pain and the fear were real1--and always1 always growing4 ,then in the moment when sentiency itself seemed bursting into dissolution1 one divine touch ended the frightful vision1 and brought again to me the simple consciousness of the single present4 ,oh6 how unspeakably delicious that sudden shrinking back out of multiplicity into unity6--that immense1 immeasurable collapse of ,self into the blind oblivious numbness of individuality6 99 ,to others also1 said the voice of the divine one who had thus saved me1--to others in the like state it has been permitted to see something of their prexistence4 ,but no one of them ever could endure to look far4 ,power to see all former births belongs only to those eternally released from the bonds of ,self4 ,such exist outside of illusion1--outside of form and name2 and pain cannot come nigh them4 ,but to you1 remaining in illusion1 not even the ,buddha could give power to look back more than a little way4 ,still you are bewitched by the follies of art and of poetry and of music1--the delusions of color and form1--the delusions of sensuous speech1 the delusions of sensuous sound4 ,still that apparition called ,nature--which is but another name for emptiness and shadow--deceives and charms you1 and fills you with dreams of longing for the things of sense4 ,but he who truly wishes to know1 must not love this phantom ,nature1--must not find delight in the radiance of a clear sky1--nor in the sight of the sea1--nor in the sound of the flowing of rivers1--nor in the forms of peaks and woods and valleys1--nor in the colors of them4 ,he who truly wishes to know must not find delight in contemplating the works and the deeds of men1 nor in hearing their converse1 nor in observing the puppet-play of their passions and of their emotions4 ,all this is but a weaving of smoke1--a shimmering of vapors1--an impermanency1--a phantasmagory4 ,for the pleasures that men term lofty or noble or sublime are but larger sensualisms1 subtler falsities3 venomous fair-seeming flowerings of selfishness1--all rooted in the elder slime of appetites and desires4 ,to joy in the radiance of a cloudless day1--to see the mountains shift their tintings to the wheeling of the sun1--to watch the passing of waves1 the fading of sunsets1--to find charm in the blossoming of plants or trees3 all this is of the senses4 ,not less truly of the senses is the pleasure of observing actions called great or beautiful or heroic1--since it is one with the pleasure of imagining those things for which men miserably strive in this miserable world3 brief love and fame and honor1--all of which are empty as passing foam4 ,sky1 sun1 and sea2--the peaks1 the woods1 the plains2--all splendors and forms and colors1--are spectres4 ,the feelings and the thoughts and the acts of men1--whether deemed high or low1 noble or ignoble1--all things imagined or done for any save the eternal purpose1 are but dreams born of dreams and begetting hollowness4 ,to the clear of sight1 all feelings of self1--all love and hate1 joy and pain1 hope and regret1 are alike shadows2--youth and age1 beauty and horror1 sweetness and foulness1 are not different2--death and life are one and the same2 and ,space and ,time exist but as the stage and the order of the perpetual ,shadow-play4 ,all that exists in ,time must perish4 ,to the ,awakened there is no ,time or ,space or ,change1--no night or day1--no heat or cold1--no moon or season1--no present1 past1 or future4 ,form and the names of form are alike nothingness3--,knowledge only is real2 and unto whomsoever gains it1 the universe becomes a ghost4 ,but it is written3--',he who hath overcome ,time in the past and the future must be of exceedingly pure understanding4' ,such understanding is not yours4 ,still to your eyes the shadow seems the substance1--and darkness1 light1--and voidness1 beauty4 ,and therefore to see your former births could give you only pain4 99 ,i asked3-- ,had ,i found strength to look back to the beginning1--back to the verge of ,time1--could ,i have read the ,secret of the universe8 ,nay1 was answer made4 ,only by ,infinite ,vision can the ,secret be read4 ,could you have looked back incomparably further than your power permitted1 then the ,past would have become for you the ,future4 ,and could you have endured even yet more1 the ,future would have orbed back for you into the ,present4 ,yet why8 ,i murmured1 marveling4444 ,what is the ,circle8 ,circle there is none1 was the response2--,circle there is none but the great phantom-whirl of birth and death to which1 by their own thoughts and deeds1 the ignorant remain condemned4 ,but this has being only in ,time2 and ,time itself is illusion4