Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-03-13
A GOD IN A BELL.
The Great Tube of Metal at Enoshima
in Far-0f Japan.
ITS VOICE Is LIKE THUNDER,
Yet 1t Is Rich and Pure and Pleases With
Its Mighty Volume.
USED BY PRIESTS FOE $50 YEARS
WRITTEN FOR THE prspArcH.r

WRITTEN FOR THE DIsPATcH.I
During my visit to Japan Akira, my
| faithful servant, took. me on pilgrimage to
Enoshima. After we had finished the great
temple of Eu-gaku-ji, Akira said: 'Now
we shall go to look at the big bell"
We turn to the left as we descend, alonga
path cut between hills faced for the height
of seven or eight feet with protection walls,
made green by moss; and reach a flight of
extraordinarily dilapidated steps, with
grass springing between their every joint
and break-steps so worn down and dis
placed by countless feet that they have be-
come ruins, painful and even dangerous to
mount. We reach the summit, however.
without mischief, and find ourselves before
little temple, on the summit of which an
old priest awaits us, with smiling bow of
welcome. We return his salutation, but
ere entering the temple turn to look at the
tsurigane on the right-the famous bell
Peculiar Shape of the Bell.
Under lofty open shed. with tiled
Chinese roof. the great bell is hung. I
should judge it to be fully nine feet high
and about five feet in diameter, with walls
about eight inches thick. The shape of it
is not like that of our bells, which broaden
toward the lips; this has the same diameter
through all its height, and it is covered
with Buddhist texts cut into the smooth
metal of it. 1t is hung by means of heavy
swinging beam, suspended from the roof by
chains, and moved like battering ram.
There are loops of palm-fre rope attached
to this beam to pull it bv; and when YOU
pull hard enough, so as to give it a good
i+
flower on the side of the bell. This it must
have done many hundred times; for the
square fiat end of it, though showing the
grain of very dense wood, has been battered
into convex disk with ragged protruding
edges, like the surface of a loug-used print
er's mallet.
A priest makes sign to me to ring the
bell. 1 first touch the great lips with nv
hand very lightly, and low, rich murmur
comes from them. Then L set the beam
swinging strongly, and sound deep as
thunder, rich as the bass of a mighty organ
"a sound enormous, extraordinary, vet
beautiful, rolls over the hills and away.
Then swiftly follows another and lesser and
sweeter billowing of tone; then another;
then wondrous eddying of waves of echoes
Only once was it struck, the astonishing
bell; yet it continues to sob and moan for at
least ten minutes!
And the age of this bell is $50 years In
the little temple near by the priest shows us
a series of curious paintings, representing
the six hundredth anniversary of the cast
ing of the bell, for this is sacred bell, and
the spirit of god is believed to dwell
within it. Otherwise the temple has little
of interest.
A God Dwells Within 1t.
In nearly every celebrated temple 1ittle
japanese prints are sold, containing the
history of the shrine and its miraculous
legends. 1 find several such things on sale
at the door of the temple, and in one of
them, .ornamented with a curious engraving
of the bell, discovered the following ira
dition:
In the twelfth year of Bummei, this bell
rang itself And one who laughed on be-
ing told of the miracle met with misfortune;
and another who believed, thereafter pros
pered and obtained all his desires
Now. in that time there died in the
village of Tamanawa a sick man whose
name was Ono-no-Kimi; and Ono-no-Kimi
descended to the region of the dead, and
went before the judgment seat of Eunna-O.
Curious Legends Of the Bell.
And Eunna-O, Judge of Souls, said to
him: ''You have come too sooni-the
measure of life allotted you in the Shaba-
world has not yet been exhausted-go back
at once" But Ono-no-Kimi pleaded, saw
ing: Chow may go back-not knowing
my way through the darkness?" And
Eunna answered him: "You can find your
way back by listening to the sound of the
bell of Eu-gaku-ji, which is heard in the
Nan-en-budi world, going south" And
Ono-no-Kimi went south, and heard the
bell, and found his way through the dark
ness, and revived in the Shade.
Also in those days there appeared in
many provinces Buddhist priest of giant
stature, whom none remembered to have
seen before, and whose name no man knew,
travelling through the land. and everywhere
exhorting the people to pray before the bell
of Eu-gaku-ji. And it was at last discov-
cred that the giant priest was the holy bell
ITSELF transformed by supernatural power
into the form of priest. And after these
things had happened, many prayed before
the bell and obtained their wishes.
LAFCADIO HEARN.