SINTOO TEMPLES, HAKODADI. 



445 



HxJ 



1x1 



i\ 



Bll - 



water-power, and very appropriately styles it a prayer mill. In the course of tlie progress ol 

 tlie Japanese in tlie mechanical arts, this, with their usual readiness in adopting new improve- 

 ments, will no douht he introduced, or perhaps the more effective 

 jjower of steam will he applied to their praying machines, and 

 with the introduction of steamhoats and railroads may commence 

 an era of locomotive devotion. 



There are three large 3Iia, or Sintoo temples, in Hakodadi, 

 called respectively the Sheumei, the Hachiman, and the Penten, 

 dedicated to national deified heroes and gods. They are not in 

 so flourishing condition as their competitors, the Buddhist tem- 

 ples, which have gained the ascendancy, and are fast ahsorhing 

 the whole devotional interests of the Japanese people. The Sintoo 

 places of worship are generally got up on a cheaper scale, and are 

 much less resorted to. They have no hurying grounds attached, 

 and are not surrounded hy any defined enclosure. There are, 

 however, several gateways, with" ornaments sculptured on stone 

 spanning the approach, hut the area which surrounds the temples 

 is open and the puhlic road passes through it. A curator with 

 his family, whose duty it is to keep the idols polished up and the 

 sacred grounds in a tidy condition, generally resides on or near the 

 premises. The Hachiman house of worship presents a peculiarity 

 in its architecture not elsewhere observed, which consists of a 

 projection from the roof like a dormer window, underneath which 

 there is an entablature adorned with a few carvings in wood. The 

 effect, in an architectural point of view, is good, as it relieves the 

 blankness of a great exjianse of roof, and is in harmony with the 

 ornaments of the eaves below. 



Upon the summits and acclivities of the hills in the neighbor- 

 hood of Hakodadi, and in niches and small shrines under shadow 

 of groves of cypress and other trees by the wayside, are frequent 

 Praye7 Wheel. "°^ stouB statucs of Buddha, venerable with age and moss-grown, 



about four feet high, elevated upon small pedestals, and the innumerable offerings of copper 

 cash, rags, flowers, and written papers, strewed before them, prove the large number of devotees 

 and the attention of the people to their devotional duties. The Japanese resort frequently to 

 these roadside deities, and the higher they are perched, and the more inaccessible their approach, 

 the greater is esteemed the merit in invoking them. These idols are supposed to have great 

 power in warding off the storms or disasters to which mariners on that inhospitable coast are 

 exposed, and most of the offerings are made with a view to propitiate Buddha and his associate 

 deities in the event of an approaching danger. In addition to the statues there are distributed 

 along the roads and pathways frequent stone slabs with inscriptions and a gallows-shaped 

 gateway, fancifully carved and ornamented beams, with two vertical and a single horizontal one 

 crossing them at the top. These are never passed by the pious Japanese without a genuflexion 

 and the utterance of a passing prayer ; and so frequent are the stoppages in consequence, that 



