DISCOVERY 



127 



at all ready to talk to the stranger about either the 

 details of their old-world practices or the principles 

 on which those practices are based. Such details will 

 only be gleaned by one w^ho has been able to move 

 among them during years of friendly intercourse, and 

 to gain their confidence without exciting suspicion 

 either by the inquisitiveness of the investigator or the 

 superiority of the critic. 



The present paper is an attempt to illustrate, 

 mainly from personal observation, some of the popular 

 ways of regarding the unseen powers that lie behind 

 the phenomena of the visible world, and of the obser- 

 vances that are the natural result of that outlook 

 upon it. It must be owned at the outset that the 

 subject is one in which the modern and very much 

 up-to-date representative of that Japan which is, and 

 very naturall}^ chiefly concerned with its own won- 

 derful achievements in the adoption of Western 

 civiHsation, takes little interest, and for which it has 

 but little use. 



The religious ideas of rural Japan with which we are 

 now dealing are such as have been widely held almost 

 from the dawn of the nation's history, and for the 

 most part long preceded the introduction of Buddhism 

 from China in a.d. 552. For the purposes of the 

 present paper it may be convenient to define religion 

 as that which includes all man's relations with the 

 Divine, while religious conduct may be said to consist 

 in doing that which is pleasing to the superior powers 

 and in refraining from such acts as may be thought 

 offensive to them. WTiile not forgetting the influence 

 exerted in the past by the ancestor-worship and 

 Buddhism mainly derived from abroad, the real 

 religion of rural Japan may broadly be described as a 

 deification of the powers of nature by a people who 

 were on every hand, and to an extent beyond all other 

 peoples, not only in closest contact with the operations 

 of those powers, but possessing every reason to study 

 their workings and to desire to be on the best possible 

 terms with them. The character of the Japanese 

 peasant's religion cannot clearly be understood until 

 we realise the enormous influence exerted on his whole 

 outlook upon life by the physical surroundings in 

 which he dwells. 



In no other land of a similar area do the aspects of 

 nature combine such a varietur of grandeur, destruc- 

 tiveness, and beauty. Almost everywhere volcanic 

 eruptions and earthquakes are frequent ; towns and 

 villages on the sea-coast are often much damaged by 

 tidal waves ; and the typhoon is more dangerous on 

 the mainland even than at sea. The floods of rain 

 that never fail to usher in the summer and autumn 

 seasons frequently leave behind therrt landslides and 

 inundations which take a heavy toll of life and precious 

 farm land. Along thejagged coast-line the winds and 



currents are changeable, and perplexing to the mariner 

 and fisher-folk, to whose arduous toil fresh dangers 

 are added by the sunken and half-concealed rocks 

 that so often line the shore. On the other hand, the 

 splendour of a vegetation which includes more than 

 half the known varieties of flowers, shrubs, and trees 

 m the world, the varied beauties of the landscape, 

 and an atmosphere of unusual clearness, unite to 

 persuade the Japanese peasant that his land is one on 

 which the " gods " are looking down with special 

 favour. So it comes to pass that his outlook on that 

 spirit world behind things seen is one of trust and hope, 

 of reverence, and often of affection rather than of 

 repulsion and dread. And we do not wonder, there- 

 fore, that on ever}' attainable lofty mountain peak, 

 by each lake and cascade — indeed, at whatever spot 

 excites the imagination of the beholder by its beauty 

 or its suggestion of power — there is almost certain to 

 be found a shrine set up to the genius loci. 



V\Tiile two-thirds of the cultivated land is occupied 

 by the rice-crops, three-quarters of the whole area of 

 the country is composed of mountains, many of which 

 rise to a height of upwards of 10,000 feet, and form a 

 conspicuous part of every view. The rice-iields are 

 held to be under the special care of Inari Sama, the 

 Goddess of Food, in whose honour are reared many 

 gaily-painted shrines, and at whose special festival,^ 

 early in the spring, intercessions are offered on behalf 

 of a fruitful harvest later in the year. The attitude 

 of the country-folk towards this divinity is mainly 

 that of a sort of respectful familiarity and gratitude. 

 For most of the mountains, however, there is manifested 

 a reverential awe usually inclining towards fear. The 

 sentiment often varies with the nature of the peak 

 and its capacity for help or harm. Of the hundreds 

 of volcanoes ^^■hose graceful forms rise in every part 

 of the country, no less than fifty are active, and some 

 of them prove a frequent source of disaster to life 

 and propertv. On most mountains there are shrines 

 to their guardian divinities. In two cases hereditarj- 

 caretakers are attached to them, who make appropriate 

 offerings to the divinity on important occasions. 



I pointed out in the paper already alluded to in a 

 footnote, that most of the popular festivals of rural 

 Japan are those connected with the crops, on which 

 in the long-run the chief prosperity of the country 

 depends. A striking, though very little known, 

 example of this came to my knowledge some years ago, 

 the scene of w-hich was a Buddhist temple called 

 Bukkyoji, near the town of Tsuyama, in the province 

 of Mimasaka in Central Japan. This festival is called 

 Go-ho, and the title of the divinity in whose honour 

 it is held is Go-ho-zenjin, i.e. " the good god who pro- 

 tects the ears of corn." Its object is to supplicate 

 1 See Discovery, Vol. II, No. 21, p. 229. 



