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TIIK NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



nearly every one, old or young, has his 

 or her part to play. Barley, wheat, and 

 (especially) millet are ripening and "hon- 

 orable" tea is now ready to be picked. 



The grains enumerated arc 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 daws and holidays 

 or in cases of sickness. 



A friend of mine tells me of an old 

 lady whom he heard remark of a sick 

 neighbor in a country hamlet, with a grave 

 shake of the head : "What ! 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 !" 



SUPPLICATION IS MADE TO GOD OF HAIL- 

 STORMS 



The chief festival of this season is that 

 of the God of Hailstorms, and many an 

 anxious farmer in the silk-producing dis- 

 tricts in the great inland provinces of 

 Shinano and Kai then visits the ancient 

 village shrine to pray for the preserva- 

 tion of his precious mulberry trees from 

 the dread scourge. 



Strangely enough, however, these trees 

 are said to be almost immune from light- 

 ning, and there is a popular belief that a 

 man caught in the open in a thunder- 

 storm has only to call out "kuwabara" — 

 i. e. } "mulberry grove" — in order to sur- 

 round himself with the prophylactic prop- 

 erties of that valued object and so avert 

 the threatened danger. 



The Christian Japanese farmer can 

 read with sympathetic interest the story 

 of the plague of hail in Exodus ix, where 

 we learn that "the flax and the barley was 

 smitten: for the barley was in the car and 

 the flax was boiled" (/'. e., in bud). 



Nearly every article of food and do- 

 mestic 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 un- 

 seen powers, it is not for want of earnest 

 supplications addressed to them at all 

 seasons and for every possible boon de- 

 sired. 



Of special significance is the festival 

 of the rice harvest, with its twin observ- 

 ances (like those of the ancient Hebrews) 

 of the offering of the first fruits — in the 



middle of ( October — known as Kannamc- 



saij with its complement in the X iinaiuc- 

 Siii, on the 23d of November, when the 

 Emperor tastes the new rice that has 

 just been presented at the holiest of all 

 the shrines of Japan — that of the Im- 

 perial Ancestors at Jse — at the climax of 

 the ingathering. 



The former of these festivals is an 

 essentially popular one, and the best of 

 the precious grain is presented at thou- 

 sands of village altars throughout the 

 length and breadth of the land. 



Close by these, on the stages which are 

 usually found at the side of the most 

 ancient shrines and erected for the pur- 

 pose, a pantomimic dance, known as O 

 Kagura — "The Seat of the Gods" — is 

 then performed to entertain the guardian 

 divinity in grateful acknowledgment of 

 his kindly care, a thought which is 

 further impressed on the children them- 

 selves by the closing of the schools, in 

 order to set them free to keep the festi- 

 val with innocent gaiety. 



The arrangements which enable neigh- 

 boring villages to hold their celebrations 

 on different days, like those in English 

 country parishes at harvest-tide, and so 

 to share their mutual rejoicings, make for 

 a friendly community of interest and 

 neighborly good feeling. 



EBISU is the dEae god among japan's 

 EIGHT MILLION DIVINITIES 



There is one other festival which is 

 highly popular with the peasantry in late 

 autumn, that of Ebisu, the God of Honest 

 Hard Work, as well as of Wealth. This 

 is kept with twofold energy, partly be- 

 cause all desire to be rich and partly be- 

 cause, on the basis of "sympathetic 

 magic," it is felt that one who controls 

 the gift of prosperity should naturally be 

 courted with every sign of merriment and 

 enjoyment of the good things of life. 



At this festival, in the Province of Kii, 

 when the procession bearing the appro- 

 priate offerings approaches the shrine the 

 village head-man calls out in a loud voice, 

 "According to our annual custom, let us 

 all laugh" ; to which exhortation a hearty 

 response is given. 



The reason given for this is that Ebisu 

 alone of all the eight million divinities 

 has not gone to visit the great Shinto 

 shrine in Izumo on the annual holiday 



