Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-02-28

throne, stands the wonderous Mirror
Tabari-no-K o-Kagami-refecting the state of
souls and all the happenings of the world.
| A landscape now shadows its surface-a
landscape of cliffs and lakes and shipping,
with figures of pedestrians and sailors. On
the right upon tall-stemmed fiat stand
such as offerings to the gods are placed upon
in the temple, monstrous shape appears,
like double-faced head freshly cut off and
set upright upon the stump Of the neck.
Souls Awaiting the Judgment.
The two fans are the witnesses-the face
of the woman (Mirume) sees all that goes
on in the Shaba; the other fan is the face of
| bearded man, the face of Kaguhana, who
smells all odors, and by them is aware of all
that human beings do. Close to them, upon
a reading stand, a great book is open-the
| record book of deeds. And between the
mirror and the witnesses white, shuddering
souls await judgment.
Further down 1 see the sufferings of souls
already sentenced. One, in life time liar,
is having his tongue torn out by demon
armed with heated pincers. Other souls,
flung by scores into fiery carts, are being
dragged away bv demons. The carts are of
iron; but resemble exactly in form those
hand wagons which one sees every day
being pulled and pushed through the streets
by bare-limbed Japanese laborers, chanting
always the same melancholy alternating
chorus-Haidahl-h i!-haidahi-he But
these demon wagoners-naked, ,blood-colored,
having the feet of lions and the heads of
bulls, move with their flaming wagons at
run-like jinrikisha men.
All the souls so ter limned are souls of
adults. The souls of children are not judged
by Eunna.
Third Kakemono: A furnace with souls
for fuel, blazing up into darkness. Demons
stir the fire with poles of iron. Through
the superior blackness white souls are
descending, head downwards, into the
flames.
The Children After Death.
Below this scene opens shadowy land
scape, faint-blue and faint-gray world of
hills and wales, through whicha river ser
pentines, the Saino-Kawara. Thronging
the banks of the pale river are the ghosts of
little children trying to pile up stones.
They are very, very pretty, the child souls,
pretty as real Japanese children are Git is
astonishing how e1quisitely is child beauty
felt and expressed by the artists of Japan;
one would say these men had the souls of
women)! Each child has one little short
white dress.
In the foreground a horrible devil with an
iron club has just dashed down and scat
tered pile of stones built by one of the
children. The infant ghost seated by the
ruin of its poor little work is crying, with
both pretty hands IN its eyes. The devil
appears to sneer. Other children also are
weeping nearby. But. 10! Jizo comes, all
light and sweetness, with glory moving
behind him, like great full moon, and he
holds out his shakinjo, his strong and holy
staff, and the little ghosts catch it and cling
to it, and are drawn into the circle of his |
1ar nd fhar iy,ro &c hor
caught his great sleeves, and one has been
lifted to the angel bosom of the God. Below
this Sailo-Kawara scene appears yet an
other shadow world-a wilderness of bam-
boos! Only white-robed shapes of women
appear in it. They are weeping; the fingers |
OF all are bleeding. With finger nails |
plucked out must they continue through |
centuries to pick the sharp-edged bamboo |
grass
Paipting Of Miraculous Lotos.
Fourth Kakemono: Floating in glory,
Dali i-Nyori - Kwanoon Sama-Amida |
Buddha. Far below them, as hell from
heaven, surges lake of blood, in which |
souls float. The shores of the lake are preci-
pices studded with sword blades thickly set |
as teeth in the jaws of shark-and demons
are driving other naked ghosts up the. ap.
palling slopes-but out of the crimson lake,
clear waterspout; the stem of a aower-a
miraculous lotos, bearing up soul to the
feet of priest, standing above the verge of
the abyss. By virtue of his sanity prayer
was shaped the lotos which thus lifted up
and saved suffering soul.
The priest has found in some mysterious
cupboard one more Kakemono, a very large
one, which he unrolls and suspends besides
the others. A vision of beauty, indeed, but
what has this to do with faith or ghosts? In
the foreground garden by the waters of
like that at Kakemono, full of exquisite
miniature landscape work, cascades, grot-
toes, lily ponds, curved bridges and trees
snowy with blossom, and dainty pavilions
over the placid azure water.
Here children are playing, peacocks are
strutting. And the walks of the garden
lead to beautiful buildings like teahouses,
with. white shojis all open to the summer
lay, and matted floors whereon guests are
-eposing. And further and vaster, mar
velous magnifcence of lofty edifces, rising
.oof beyond roof to glorious altitude in faint
blue haze, in summer vapor, creations all
lerial, gracious, light as dreams
The Idea of Paradise.
Why this is Paradise! The Gokurakul
md all these quiet guests are soulsl
wen, Wndt after alI Is the heaven OF any
aith but ideal reiteration and prolongation
# happy experiences remembered, the
lream of dead days resurrected for us, and
made eternal?
And if you think this Japanese ideal too
imple, too naive-if you say there are e1-
,eriences of the material lite more worthy
# portrayal in a picture of heaven, than
ny memory of days passed in Japanese
.ardens and teahouses-it is perhaps be-
ause you do not know Japan, the soft,
weet loveliness of its sky, the tender color
# its waters, the gentle splendor of its
unny days, the exquisite charm and COM
ort of its interiors. where the least object
ppeals to the sense of beauty with the air
# something not made, but caressed into
xistence. LAFCADIo HEARN
sIsAL GRASS OF YUCATAH..