SIMODA. 411 



for good luck to the next day's fishing. Tlie mariners' temple is one of the handsomest 

 structures in Simoda. A solid stone causeway, leading over an arched hridgc, with a low, well- 

 constructed wall on either side, leads to the steps of the building. The temple is huilt in the 

 usual style, with a projecting roof of tiles ornamentally arrang<'d in cornices of flowers and 

 graceful scrolls, and supported by lacquered pillars. Over the door-way there is a fine 

 specimen of carved wood work, representing the sacred crane, on the wing, symbolizing as it 

 were the unsettled life of the mariner. The body of the building is closed partly with wall and 

 partly with oiled paper casements. The usual stone lantern is found on the left, and from the 

 door hangs a straw rope, which, being connected with a bell inside, is pulled by the devotee to 

 ring up the deity, that he may be aware of the call, and be wide awake to the spiritual necessities 

 of his visitor. 



The expense of these numerous religious establishments must be very great, and the tax upon 

 the people of Simoda proportionately burdensome, but it was impossible to obtain any very 

 exact data in regard to the amount. As the voluntary system prevails to a great extent, and 

 ecclesiastical prosperity depends chiefly upon the generosity of the pious, the priests are 

 very naturally stimulated into a very vigorous exercise of their functions, and are undoubtedly 

 indefatigable laborers in their peculiar field. 



The country about Simoda is beautifully varied with hill and dale. There are the usual signs 

 of elaborate Japanese culture, although from the more sparse population of the neighborhood 

 there is more land left in a comparatively barren condition than further up the bay towards the 

 capital. The bottoms and sides of the valleys are covered with gardens and fields, which are 

 well watered by the streamlets which flow through every valley, and which, by artificial 

 arrangement, are diverted from their course, and pour their fertilizing waters over the land from 

 terrace to terrace. There are four principal villages near Simoda. Kaki-zaki, or Persimmon 

 point, lies at the end of the harbor and contains barely two hundred houses. One of its 

 monasteries, known by the name of Goku-zhen-zhi, was set apart, like the Rio-zhen-zhi in 

 Simoda, as a place of resort for the foreigners ; and within the ground attached is the burial 

 place appropriated to Americans. There is a good anchorage at Kaki-zaki for junks, and many 

 of them take in their cargoes there rather than at Simoda. 



Passing over the hills in a southeasterly direction, we come to the village of Susaki, which 

 with its two hundred houses or so, hangs upon the acclivity of a wooded hill side, with its front 

 extending down to the beach and facing the waters of the inlet. Its inhabitants are generally 

 fishermen, and their boats, and even larger vessels, can approach the shore at all states of the 

 tide. From Susaki a good road leads in a northeasterly direction to the village of Sotowra, 

 a small hamlet, also situated on the seaside, but with a pleasing landscape inland, varied by 

 cultivated fields and an undergrowth of dwarf oaks. A larger place, the town of Shira-hama, 

 or White Beach, extends its houses along a sandy beach some three miles distant from Sotowra, 

 and is comparatively a flourishing settlement. Several quarries of trachyte, or greenstone, are 

 worked in the neighborhood, and large quantities of charcoal are prepared on the forest-crowned 

 hills in the rear. 



Turning westwardly and ascending the hill beyond Shira-hama, the highest summit within five 

 miles of Simoda is reached, from which the whole southern area and breadth of the peninsula 

 of Idzu can be seen at one glance. Barren peaks rise to the view out of thickly wooded hills, 

 whose sides open into valleys, down which the wild vegetation throngs until checked by the 



