484 A NATURALIST ON THE "CHALLENGER." 



received the case of lots from an attendant priest, and hastened 

 off with it to one of the shrines. 



From Kobe, the large city Osaka, is reached by rail. As we 

 left the railway station at Osaka, a crowd of pilgrims was just 

 entering it. The pilgrims were clad in white, and carried long 

 staves, and had bottle-gourds of water or saki slung round their 

 necks. They were returning from the holy shrines. A passer- 

 by begged a blessing of one of these pilgrims who was lagging 

 behind the rest. The suppliant crouched down in the street, 

 and the pilgrim blessed him, making passes over him with his 

 wand. This looked strange in front of a brand new railway 

 station. 



Pilgrimages are extremely popular in Japan. On the journey 

 along the Tokaido, the road was thronged with pilgrims, going to 

 the ancient shrine of Ise, the oldest temple in Japan of the 

 Shinto religion, the ancient State religion of the country, of 

 which the Mikado, descended from the gods, is the supreme head. 



In one large town, which we reached at night, all the inns 

 were full of pilgrims, and we had to journey 10 miles farther 

 to find a resting-place. It was a curious sight to see a string 

 of blind pilgrims on the road, travelling on foot, holding on one 

 behind the other, and led by one man who could see. 



In Osaka, I spent much of my time in the booksellers' quarter, 

 where there is nearly a mile of continuous book-shops. I bought 

 here a large collection of illustrated books. The shops of each 

 kind of wares are mostly placed together in the city. 



Most interesting are the shops for articles used in religious 

 worship. Here rosaries of the forms proper to the various sects 

 of Buddhism, are manufactured by the gross, religious pictures 

 are sold, and small shrines of the various gods are supplied for 

 domestic worship, with miniature altars, candlesticks, and in- 

 cense-censers. To these also the family god can be sent, when 

 shabby, to be regilt. 



Beautiful miniature lacquered shrines are also made at the 

 shops, containing the goddess Kanon or some other popular deity. 

 The shrines close with a pair of small doors, and are sold in great 

 quantities to pilgrims at the temples, which they visit ; as, for 

 example, at the Moon Temple near Kobe. 



