230 



Discovi;i<^ 



ami but lialf-acknowk'dgcil by the educated Japanese 

 themselves, though it is of psychological and scientific 

 interest to the student and the medical man. 



Japan is one of the most richly watered countries in 

 the world, and as nearly all swift-flowing rivers and 

 impetuous mountain torrents have their own presiding 

 divinities, we arc notsurpriscd to find them credited with 

 power to hurt or help the lands through which their 

 waters pass. In districts liable to damage through 

 inundations, services of intercession are held in the third 

 month, our April, and at popular shrines like those of the 

 River Goddess of Kofu, in the broad and fertile plain 

 of Koshu, in central Japan. The goddess is taken out 

 for an airin" in Iht s.irn'd car. aiul carnrst supplica- 



a grave shake of the head. " What I do you mean to say 

 that it has come to giving her rice ? " In other words. 

 " The poor thing must be in a bad way ! " 



The chief festival of this season is that of the God of 

 Hailstorms, and many an an.xious farmer in the silk- 

 producing districts in the great inland provinces of 

 Shinshu and Kofu then visits the ancient village shrine 

 to pray for the preservation of his precious mulberry 

 trees from the dreaded scourge. Strangely enough, 

 however, these are said to be almost immune from 

 lightning, and there is a popular belief that a man 

 caught in the open in a thunderstorm has only to call 

 out " kiiicabara," i.e. "mulberry grove," in order to 

 surround himself with the prophylactic properties of 



rmi lONlioAWA RIV 

 In the rainy season it is filled w 



lions are addressed to her for the protection of the 

 fields and farms of the peasantry in the coming days, 

 when, with the melting of the winter snows, and the 

 storms of early summer and autumn, the myriad 

 mountain torrents swell the parent rivers on their 

 resistless course through the cultivated plains to their 

 wide and populated deltas at the sea. 



The month of May sees the country-side under its 

 brightest, busiest, and most varied aspects, and in all 

 its activities nearly everyone, old or young, has his or 

 her part to play. Barley, wheat, and (especially) millet 

 are ripening, and "honourable" tea is now ready to 

 be picked. The grains enumerated are the real staple 

 food of the rural districts, for though all who can live 

 on rice, most of the peasantry, especially in the remoter 

 parts, cannot afford to do so, and only indulge in it 

 on high days and holidays, or in cases of sickness. A 

 friend of mine tells me of an old lady whom he heard 

 remark of a sick neighbour in a country hamlet, with 



ER IX CENTRAL JAPAN. 



iUi scmetimcs overwhelming floods. 



that valued object and so avert the threatened danger. 

 The Christian Japanese farmer can read with SNinpa- 

 thetic interest the story of the plague of hail in Exodus 

 ix, where we learn that " the flax and the barley was 

 smitten, Jor the barley was in the ear and the flax U'as 

 boiled " (i.e. in bud). Nearly every article of food 

 and domestic utility is committed to the care of its own 

 guardian divinity, and a Japanese writer has observed 

 that, if the interests of the peasantry are not protected 

 by unseen Powers, it is not for want of earnest suppli- 

 cations addressed to them at all seasons and for every 

 possible boon desired. 



Of special significance is the festival of the rice har- 

 vest, with its twin observances (like those of the ancient 

 Hebrews) of the offering of the First-fruits known 

 as Kanname-sai — in the middle of October — with its 

 complement in the Niinaine-sai — on November 23rd, 

 when the Emperor tastes the new rice that has just 

 been presented at the holiest of all the shrines of Japan 



