DEAR PROFESSOR CHAMBERLAIN,--You will remember having invited
humble me to make a few criticisms if I could, about "Things Japanese."
I am now going to pray you with all my heart and soul to change that
article about Japanese Music in the next edition of the book. I am,
and have been for months unspeakably charmed with Japanese music,--I
think it is as dainty and playfully sweet and pretty as the Japanese
girls who sing it and play it; and I feel sure there is a very fine
subtle art-feeling in it. I am sorry to say, however, that while making
this plea, I must in honesty confess that I am not an appreciant of
Wagner, and that I have always been much impressed and charmed by
primitive music. African music, and Spanish-American melodies I am quite
infatuated about, and neither of these would be considered as related to
the higher musical sense. But I feel sure if you were in Izumo, I could
make you hear some music, both instrumental and vocal, which you would
acknowledge to be more than "pretty."
I think I will be able to get a model of the fire-drill made in a while.
I have arranged for a week at Kizuki during the coming vacation.
The importance of Shintō here as compared with Buddhism impresses me
more and more every day. Most of the _kakemono_ in the _tokonomas_ are
Shintō rather than Buddhist. The story of the Sun-goddess is a favourite
theme with local artists. Here also the gods of Good-Fortune have become
after a fashion adopted by Shintō.
I expect to send you some _mamori_ shortly from two places--Ichibata
and Sakusa. The Shintō shrine at Sakusa would probably interest
you. Lovers in doubt go there to pray to the _kami_ who set the single
in family, and who have decided in advance the coupling of all human
creatures. In this shrine are the spirits of Susa-no-o-no-Mikoto and his
wife enshrined,--his first wife whom he met accompanied by her father
before he went to kill the Serpent. The ghost of the father-in-law,
"Foot-stroking Elder," is supposed to reside in the same place,--also
that of the mother-in-law. Almost every spot in hill or valley here has
a shrine marking an act or footstep of Susa-no-o. Every place where the
Serpent (Orochi) could possibly have been, still holds a legend of it.
I am no longer in a hotel, but have a very beautiful house, fronting
on the lake, and from my window I could see with a telescope almost to
Kizuki over a beautiful stretch of blue water. And every peak I see
has some divine story attached to it, and several are named after the
primæval gods.
I am perfectly treated here, and would be very, very happy if I had only
a little more time to work. It is now a busy season. The examinations
have come upon me; and I interrupted this letter twice before sending
it, in order to get some examination papers done. I have twelve large
classes to examine and give marks to on Dictation, Reading, Composition,
and Conversation. But now the trouble is over, and I shall have plenty
of time to write again.