The path to Sakusa, for the last mile of the journey, at least, is
extremely narrow, and has been paved by piety with large flat rocks laid
upon the soil at intervals of about a foot, like an interminable line of
stepping-stones. You cannot walk between them nor beside them, and you
soon tire of walking upon them; but they have the merit of indicating
the way, a matter of no small importance where fifty rice-field paths
branch off from your own at all bewildering angles. After having been
safely guided by these stepping-stones through all kinds of labyrinths
in rice valleys and bamboo groves, one feels grateful to the peasantry
for that clue-line of rocks. There are some quaint little shrines in the
groves along this path--shrines with curious carvings of dragons and of
lion-heads and flowing water--all wrought ages ago in good keyaki-wood,
[3] which has become the colour of stone. But the eyes of the
dragons and the lions have been stolen because they were made of fine
crystal quartz, and there was none to guard them, and because neither
the laws nor the gods are quite so much feared now as they were before
the period of Meiji.
Sakusa is a very small cluster of farmers' cottages before a temple at
the verge of a wood--the temple of Yaegaki. The stepping-stones of
the path vanish into the pavement of the court, just before its lofty
unpainted wooden torii between the torii and the inner court, entered
by a Chinese gate, some grand old trees are growing, and there are
queer monuments to see. On either side of the great gateway is a shrine
compartment, inclosed by heavy wooden gratings on two sides; and in
these compartments are two grim figures in complete armour, with bows
in their hands and quivers of arrows upon their backs--the Zuijin, or
ghostly retainers of the gods, and guardians of the gate. Before nearly
all the Shinto temples of Izumo, except Kitzuki, these Zuijin keep grim
watch. They are probably of Buddhist origin; but they have acquired a
Shinto history and Shinto names. [4] Originally, I am told, there was
but one Zuijin-Kami, whose name was Toyo-kushi-iwa-mato-no-mikoto. But
at a certain period both the god and his name were cut in two--perhaps
for decorative purposes. And now he who sits upon the left is
called Toyo-iwa-ma-to-no-mikoto; and his companion on the right,
Kushi-iwa-ma-to-no-mikoto.
Before the gate, on the left side, there is a stone monument upon which
is graven, in Chinese characters, a poem in Hokku, or verse of seventeen
syllables, composed by Cho-un:
Ko-ka-ra-shi-ya Ka-mi-no-mi-yu-ki-no Ya-ma-no-a-to.
My companion translates the characters thus:--'Where high heap the dead
leaves, there is the holy place upon the hills, where dwell the gods.'
Near by are stone lanterns and stone lions, and another monument--a
great five-cornered slab set up and chiselled--bearing the names in
Chinese characters of the Ji-jin, or Earth-Gods--the Deities who protect
the soil: Uga-no-mitama-no-mikoto (whose name signifies the
August Spirit-of-Food), Ama-terasu-oho-mi-Kami, Ona-muji-no-Kami,
Kaki-yasu-hime-no-Kami, Sukuna-hiko-na-no-Kami (who is the Scarecrow
God). And the figure of a fox in stone sits before the Name of the
August Spirit-of-Food.
The miya or Shinto temple itself is quite small--smaller than most of
the temples in the neighbourhood, and dingy, and begrimed with age.
Yet, next to Kitzuki, this is the most famous of Izumo shrines. The main
shrine, dedicated to Susano-o and Inada-hime and their son, whose
name is the name of the hamlet of Sakusa, is flanked by various lesser
shrines to left and right. In one of these smaller miya the spirit
of Ashi-nadzu-chi, father of Inada-hime, is supposed to dwell; and in
another that of Te-nadzu-chi, the mother of Inada-hime. There is also
a small shrine of the Goddess of the Sun. But these shrines have no
curious features. The main temple offers, on the other hand, some
displays of rarest interest.
To the grey weather-worn gratings of the doors of the shrine hundreds
and hundreds of strips of soft white paper have been tied in knots:
there is nothing written upon them, although each represents a heart's
wish and a fervent prayer. No prayers, indeed, are so fervent as those
of love. Also there are suspended many little sections of bamboo,
cut just below joints so as to form water receptacles: these are tied
together in pairs with a small straw cord which also serves to hang
them up. They contain offerings of sea-water carried here from no small
distance. And mingling with the white confusion of knotted papers there
dangle from the gratings many tresses of girls' hair--love-sacrifices
[5]--and numerous offerings of seaweed, so filamentary and so
sun-blackened that at some little distance it would not be easy to
distinguish them from long shorn tresses. And all the woodwork of the
doors and the gratings, both beneath and between the offerings, is
covered with a speckling of characters graven or written, which are
names of pilgrims.
And my companion reads aloud the well-remembered name of--AKIRA!
If one dare judge the efficacy of prayer to these kind gods of Shinto
from the testimony of their worshippers, I should certainly say that
Akira has good reason to hope. Planted in the soil, all round the edge
of the foundations of the shrine, are multitudes of tiny paper flags of
curious shape (nobori), pasted upon splinters of bamboo. Each of these
little white things is a banner of victory, and a lover's witness of
gratitude. [6] You will find such little flags stuck into the ground
about nearly all the great Shinto temples of Izumo. At Kitzuki they
cannot even be counted--any more than the flakes of a snowstorm.
And here is something else that you will find at most of the famous miya
in Izumo--a box of little bamboo sticks, fastened to a post before the
doors. If you were to count the sticks, you would find their number to
be exactly one thousand. They are counters for pilgrims who make a vow
to the gods to perform a sendo-mairi. To perform a sendo-mairi means
to visit the temple one thousand times. This, however, is so hard to do
that busy pious men make a sort of compromise with the gods, thus: they
walk from the shrine one foot beyond the gate, and back again to the
shrine, one thousand times--all in one day, keeping count with the
little splints of bamboo.
There is one more famous thing to be seen before visiting the holy
grove behind the temple, and that is the Sacred Tama-tsubaki, or
Precious-Camellia of Yaegaki. It stands upon a little knoll, fortified
by a projection-wall, in a rice-field near the house of the priest; a
fence has been built around it, and votive lamps of stone placed before
it. It is of vast age, and has two heads and two feet; but the twin
trunks grow together at the middle. Its unique shape, and the good
quality of longevity it is believed to possess in common with all of its
species, cause it to be revered as a symbol of undying wedded love,
and as tenanted by the Kami who hearken to lovers'
prayers--enmusubi-no-kami.
There is, however, a strange superstition, about tsubaki-trees; and this
sacred tree of Yaegaki, in the opinion of some folk, is a rare exception
to the general ghastliness of its species. For tsubaki-trees are goblin
trees, they say, and walk about at night; and there was one in the
garden of a Matsue samurai which did this so much that it had to be cut
down. Then it writhed its arms and groaned, and blood spurted at every
stroke of the axe.