Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1895-06-21
NERVE
JAPANESE JOSSES.
The Interesting and Diversified Collection
of q Curio Dealer.

of a Curio Dealer.
Lafcadio Hearn writes in The Atlantic
Of visit to n Japanese curio dealer, who
elbows him his collection of josses. He
says:
In tho dusk of the great goodwin the
spectacle was moro than weird; it was ap-
paritional Arhats and Buddhas and
Bodhisattvas and the shapes of a mythol-
ogy older than they filled all the shadowy
space, not ranked by hicrarchics, as in a
temple, but mingled without order, Us in
silent panic. Out of the wilderness of
multiple heads and broken aurcoles and
hands upliftod in menace or in prayer,
shimmering confusion OF dusty gold half
lighted by cobwcbbcd air holes in the
heavy walls, could at first discern little.
Then, as the dimncss cleared, began to
distinguish personalities. l saw VIVIAN
non of many forms, Jczo of many names,
Shaka, Yakushi, Amida, the Buddhas and
their disciples. They We're very old, and
their art was not all of Japan, nor of any
ono place or time. There were shapes from
Korea, China, India-treasures brought
over sea in the rich days of the early Bud
dhist missions. Some were seated upon
lotus flowers, the lotus flowers of the ap-
paritionai birth. Some rode lcopartls ii
gers, lions or monsters mystical, typifying
lightning, typifying death. One triple
headed and many handed sinister and
splendid, seemed moving through the
gloom on throne of gold, unified by a
phalanx of elephants. Fudo saw, shroud-
cd and shrined in fire, and Maya tujin,
riding her CELESTIAL peacock, and strangely
mingling with these Buddhist visions, as
in the anachronisln of Limbo, armorcd
effigies OF daimio and images of the Chi
ncse sages There were huge forms of
wrath. grasping thundcrbolts and rising
to the roof, the Dcva kings, like impcrso
nations of hurricane power, the Mo
guardians of long vanished temple gates.
Also there were forms voluptuously fclni-
nine. The light grace Of the limbs folded
within their lotus cups, the suppleness OF
the fingers numbering the numbers of the
good law, were ideals possibly inspired in
some forgotten time bylhc charm OF an
Indian dancing girl Shclycd against the
naked brickwork above, l could perceive
multitudcs of lesser shapes; demon figures
with eyes that burned through the dark
like the eyes Of q black cat, and figures
half man, half bird, winged and bcaked
like eagles-the Tcngu of Japanese fancy
"WellS' quericd the curio dealer, with
chuckle of satisfaction at my evident
surprise.
''It is a very great collection" re-
sponded.
He clappcd his hand on my shoulder and
exclaimed triumphantly in my car, Cost
me $50, 000."
But the images themselves told me how
much more was their cost to forgotten
piety, notwithstanding the cheapness Of
artistic labor in the east; also they told me
of the dead millions whose pilgrim feet
had worn hollow the steps leading to their
shrines, of the buried mothers who used to
suspend little baby dresses before their al
tars, of the generations of children taught
to murmur prayers to them, of the count
less sorrows and hopes confided to them.
Ghosts of the worship of centuries had fol-
lowed them into exile. A thin, sweet odor
of incense haunted all the dusty place.
Captain Thomas L. Henry, the once
noted guerrilla of Crittenden county, Ky,
has been church member IA years. The
other day he knelt down in the dust, cry
ing, II am sanctifedw He now intends