Chap, xix.] JAPANESE SHRINES. 



419 



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, candle- 

 sticks, and incense-censers. To these also the family god can 

 be sent, when shabby, to be re-gilt. 



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. 



At one temple, that of Tennoji, near Osaka, was a children's 

 shrine, which was hung inside with great quantities of the 

 finest toys of all sorts, and bright holiday clothes, placed there 

 as offerings by children. 



From Osaka, the road to Kioto leads all the way along the 

 summit of the great embankment of the Ogawa (great river). 

 These earthworks rather reminded me of the great embank- 

 ments of the ancient tanks of Ceylon. At intervals, there are 

 sluice-gates to let the water in upon the rice-fields. The sluice- 

 gates are at the bottom of wells, sunk in the centres of the 

 embankments. In the ancient Cingalese embankments there 

 are similar wells sunk through the middles of the embankments 

 to meet the outflow channels from the tanks which traverse 

 their bases. I was shown such an arrangement at Anurad- 

 hapura, by Mr. Rhys Davids, who told me that its use was not 

 understood by engineers. 



The land along the road is in the very highest culture. A 

 great deal of it was covered with yellow-blossomed crops of 

 rape, whilst here and there were \vheat crops. The straight- 

 ness of the lines of planting, and the regularity of their distances 



