KUMAMOTO, November, 1891.
MY DEAR ŌTANI,--I have just received your most kind letter, for which
my sincerest thanks. But I don't want to correct it, and send it back to
you: I would rather keep it always, as a pleasant remembrance.
It has been very cold in Kumamoto--a sharp frost came last night, with
an icy wind. Everybody says such cold is extraordinary here; but I
am not quite sure if this is really true, because they have told me
everywhere I have been during the last twenty years: "Really we never
saw such weather before."
Kumamoto is not nearly so pretty a city as Matsue, although it is as
neat as Tenjin-machi. There are some very beautiful houses and hotels,
but the common houses are not so fine as those of Matsue. Most of the
old Shizoku houses were burned during the Satsuma war, so that there
are no streets like Kita-bori-machi, and it is very hard to find a nice
house. I have been fortunate enough to find one nearly as nice as the
one I had in Matsue, but the garden is not nearly so pretty; and the
rent is eleven dollars--nearly three times more than what I paid in
Matsue. There is, of course, no lake here, and no beautiful scenery like
that of Shinji-ko; but on clear days we can see the smoke rising from
the great volcano of Aso-san.
As for the Dai Go Kōtō-Chūgakkō, the magnificence of it
greatly surprised me. The buildings are enormous,--of brick for the most
part; and they reminded me at first sight of the Imperial University
of Tōkyō. Most of the students live in the school. There is a
handsome military uniform; but all the boys do not wear it,--some
wear Japanese clothes, and the rules about dress (except during
drilling-time, etc.) are not very strict. There is no bell. The classes
are called and dismissed by the sound of a bugle. There are ten minutes
between class-hours for rest; but the buildings are so long, that it
takes ten minutes to walk through them to the teacher's room, which is
in a separate building. Two of the teachers speak French, and six or
seven English: there are 28 teachers. The students are very nice,--and
we became good friends at once. There are three classes, corresponding
with the three higher classes of the Jinjō Chūgakkō,--and
two higher classes. I do not now teach on Saturdays. There are no
stoves--only _hibachi_. The library is small, and the English books
are not good; but this year they are going to get better books, and
to enlarge the library. There is a building in which _jū-jutsu_ is
taught by Mr. Kano; and separate buildings for sleeping, eating, and
bathing. The bath-room is a surprise. Thirty or forty students can
bathe at the same time; and four hundred can eat at once in the great
dining-hall. There is a separate building also for the teaching of
chemistry, natural history, etc.; and there is a small museum.
You have been kind enough to offer to find out for me something about
Shintō. Well, if you have time, I will ask you to find out for me as
much as you can about the _miya_ of the household,--the household shrine
and _kamidana_ in Izumo. I would like to know what way the _kamidana_
should face--north, south, east, or west.
Also, what is the origin of the curious shape of the little stoppers of
the _omiki-dokkuri_?
[Illustration]
Also, whether the ancestors are ever worshipped before the _kamidana_ in
the same way as they are worshipped before the _butsudan_.
Are the names of the dead ever written upon something to be placed in
the _miya_, in the same way, or nearly the same way, as the _kaimyō_
is written upon the _ihai_ or Buddhist mortuary tablet.
In the Shintō worship of _family_ ancestors (if there is any such
worship, which I doubt), what prayers are said?
Are any particular _family_-prayers said by Buddhists when praying
before the _kaimyō_, or do the common people utter only the ordinary
prayer of their sect--such as "_Namu Amida Butsu_," or, "_Namu
Myōhō Rengekyō_?"
But do not give yourself too much trouble about these things, and take
your own time;--in a month, or two months, or even three months will
be quite time enough. And if you have no time, do not trouble yourself
about it at all; and write to me that you cannot, or would rather
not,--then I will ask some one who is less busy.
I shall be hoping really to see you in Kumamoto next year. You would
like the school very much. Perhaps you would not like the city as well
as Matsue; but the school is not in the city exactly; it is a little
outside of it, and you would live in the school, probably,--or very
near it. The students make excursions to Nagasaki and other places, by
railroad and steamer.
Now about your letter. It was very nice. You made a few mistakes in
using "_will_,"--and in saying "if I would have promote my school." It
ought to have been "if I should go to a higher school."
"This will be a bad letter" ought to have been "I fear this _is_ ...
etc." But you and I and everybody learn best by making mistakes.