igooH Nikko Glories 



to whose silent sepulchers these triumphantly gor- 

 geous shrines form the approach. Set on a steep 

 hillside against a somber forest of huge Cryptomeria 

 trees, very straight and tall like our coast redwoods, 

 they are overpowering in their riot of color and 

 design. Truly, as the old Japanese proverb puts it: 



Until you have seen Nikko 

 Never say magnificent! ' 



Throughout these edifices wood is practically con- Riotous 

 verted into ornament — line, structure, and mass <"■««»»««' 

 seeming to serve merely as accessories to an amazing 

 pictorial exuberance of red, gold, and black lacquers. 

 Architecturally, therefore, the Nikko temples are 

 said to fall short of consummate achievement. But 

 of this I myself am not a judge. Nor shall I try to 

 give the reader any further impression of this unpar- 

 alleled memorial to passing glory. 



According to Otaki the real purpose underlying the sodd 

 grandeur of Nikko was "to keep the people both ^'■'"t^sy 

 busy and poor." Can it be that imperishable monu- 

 ments in some other lands had similar reason for 

 being? Self-interest at least played some part even 

 in cathedral building, and Ulrich von Hutten asserted 

 that from those structures " the stones wandered by 

 night to the palaces of the Medici." 



5 



On our final lap toward Tokyo, we stopped by 

 special invitation to meet the teachers of Utsunomiya. 

 Arriving there at noon, we were escorted by a group 

 of city fathers to the oflftcial hall, where we found 



1 Nikko wo minai uchi wa 

 Kekko to iu na. 



C 71 1 



