At the farther end of the bridge, close to the wharf where the little
steamboats are, is a very small Jizo temple (Jizo-do). Here are kept
many bronze drags; and whenever anyone has been drowned and the body not
recovered, these are borrowed from the little temple and the river is
dragged. If the body be thus found, a new drag must be presented to the
temple.
From here, half a mile southward to the great Shinto temple of Tenjin,
deity of scholarship and calligraphy, broadly stretches Tenjinmachi, the
Street of the Rich Merchants, all draped on either side with dark blue
hangings, over which undulate with every windy palpitation from the lake
white wondrous ideographs, which are names and signs, while down the
wide way, in white perspective, diminishes a long line of telegraph
poles.
Beyond the temple of Tenjin the city is again divided by a river, the
Shindotegawa, over which arches the bridge Tenjin-bashi. Again beyond
this other large quarters extend to the hills and curve along the
lake shore. But in the space between the two rivers is the richest and
busiest life of the city, and also the vast and curious quarter of the
temples. In this islanded district are likewise the theatres, and the
place where wrestling-matches are held, and most of the resorts of
pleasure.
Parallel with Tenjinmachi runs the great street of the Buddhist temples,
or Teramachi, of which the eastern side is one unbroken succession
of temples--a solid front of court walls tile-capped, with imposing
gateways at regular intervals. Above this long stretch of tile-capped
wall rise the beautiful tilted massive lines of grey-blue temple
roofs against the sky. Here all the sects dwell side by side in
harmony--Nichirenshu, Shingon-shu, Zen-shu, Tendai-shu, even that
Shin-shu, unpopular in Izumo because those who follow its teaching
strictly must not worship the Kami. Behind each temple court there is
a cemetery, or hakaba; and eastward beyond these are other temples,
and beyond them yet others--masses of Buddhist architecture mixed
with shreds of gardens and miniature homesteads, a huge labyrinth of
mouldering courts and fragments of streets.
To-day, as usual, I find I can pass a few hours very profitably in
visiting the temples; in looking at the ancient images seated within
the cups of golden lotus-flowers under their aureoles of gold; in buying
curious mamori; in examining the sculptures of the cemeteries, where I
can nearly always find some dreaming Kwannon or smiling Jizo well worth
the visit.
The great courts of Buddhist temples are places of rare interest for
one who loves to watch the life of the people; for these have been for
unremembered centuries the playing-places of the children. Generations
of happy infants have been amused in them. All the nurses, and little
girls who carry tiny brothers or sisters upon their backs, go thither
every morning that the sun shines; hundreds of children join them; and
they play at strange, funny games--'Onigokko,' or the game of
Devil, 'Kage-Oni,' which signifies the Shadow and the Demon, and
'Mekusangokko,' which is a sort of 'blindman's buff.'
Also, during the long summer evenings, these temples are
wrestling-grounds, free to all who love wrestling; and in many of them
there is a dohyo-ba, or wrestling-ring. Robust young labourers and
sinewy artisans come to these courts to test their strength after the
day's tasks are done, and here the fame of more than one now noted
wrestler was first made. When a youth has shown himself able to
overmatch at wrestling all others in his own district, he is challenged
by champions of other districts; and if he can overcome these also,
he may hope eventually to become a skilled and popular professional
wrestler.
It is also in the temple courts that the sacred dances are performed and
that public speeches are made. It is in the temple courts, too, that the
most curious toys are sold, on the occasion of the great holidays--toys
most of which have a religious signification. There are grand old trees,
and ponds full of tame fish, which put up their heads to beg for food
when your shadow falls upon the water. The holy lotus is cultivated
therein.
'Though growing in the foulest slime, the flower remains pure and
undefiled.
'And the soul of him who remains ever pure in the midst of temptation is
likened unto the lotus.
'Therefore is the lotus carven or painted upon the furniture of temples;
therefore also does it appear in all the representations of our Lord
Buddha.
'In Paradise the blessed shall sit at ease enthroned upon the cups of
golden lotus-flowers.' [7]
A bugle-call rings through the quaint street; and round the corner
of the last temple come marching a troop of handsome young riflemen,
uniformed somewhat like French light infantry, marching by fours so
perfectly that all the gaitered legs move as if belonging to a single
body, and every sword-bayonet catches the sun at exactly the same
angle, as the column wheels into view. These are the students of the
Shihan-Gakko, the College of Teachers, performing their daily military
exercises. Their professors give them lectures upon the microscopic
study of cellular tissues, upon the segregation of developing nerve
structure, upon spectrum analysis, upon the evolution of the colour
sense, and upon the cultivation of bacteria in glycerine infusions.
And they are none the less modest and knightly in manner for all their
modern knowledge, nor the less reverentially devoted to their dear old
fathers and mothers whose ideas were shaped in the era of feudalism.