KITZUKI, July 20, 1891.
AKIRA is no longer with me. He has gone to Kyoto, the holy Buddhist
city, to edit a Buddhist magazine; and I already feel without him like
one who has lost his way--despite his reiterated assurances that he
could never be of much service to me in Izumo, as he knew nothing about
Shinto.
But for the time being I am to have plenty of company at Kitzuki, where
I am spending the first part of the summer holidays; for the little city
is full of students and teachers who know me. Kitzuki is not only the
holiest place in the San-indo; it is also the most fashionable bathing
resort. The beach at Inasa bay is one of the best in all Japan; the
beach hotels are spacious, airy, and comfortable; and the bathing
houses, with hot and cold freshwater baths in which to wash off the
brine after a swim, are simply faultless. And in fair weather, the
scenery is delightful, as you look out over the summer space of
sea. Closing the bay on the right, there reaches out from the hills
overshadowing the town a mighty, rugged, pine-clad spur--the Kitzuki
promontory. On the left a low long range of mountains serrate the
horizon beyond the shore-sweep, with one huge vapoury shape towering
blue into the blue sky behind them--the truncated silhouette of
Sanbeyama. Before you the Japanese Sea touches the sky. And there, upon
still clear nights, there appears a horizon of fire--the torches of
hosts of fishing-boats riding at anchor three and four miles away--so
numerous that their lights seem to the naked eye a band of unbroken
flame.
The Guji has invited me and one of my friends to see a great harvest
dance at his residence on the evening of the festival of Tenjin. This
dance--Honen-odori--is peculiar to Izumo; and the opportunity to witness
it in this city is a rare one, as it is going to be performed only by
order of the Guji.
The robust pontiff himself loves the sea quite as much as anyone in
Kitzuki; yet he never enters a beach hotel, much less a public bathing
house. For his use alone a special bathing house has been built upon
a ledge of the cliff overhanging the little settlement of Inasa: it is
approached by a narrow pathway shadowed by pine-trees; and there is a
torii before it, and shimenawa. To this little house the Guji ascends
daily during the bathing season, accompanied by a single attendant, who
prepares his bathing dresses, and spreads the clean mats upon which he
rests after returning from the sea. The Guji always bathes robed. No
one but himself and his servant ever approaches the little house, which
commands a charming view of the bay: public reverence for the pontiff's
person has made even his resting-place holy ground. As for the
country-folk, they still worship him with hearts and bodies. They have
ceased to believe as they did in former times, that anyone upon whom the
Kokuzo fixes his eye at once becomes unable to speak or move; but when
he passes among them through the temple court they still prostrate
themselves along his way, as before the Ikigami.