Bennington semi-weekly banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 1894-1902, 1895-07-05
JAPANESE LOSSES.
The Interesting and Diversified Collection
of Curio Dealer.


Lafcadio Hearn writes In The Atlantic
of visit to Japanese curio dealer, who
elbows him his collection of josses He
says:
In the dusk Of the great goodwin the
spectacle was more than weird; 1t was ap-
paritional. Arhats and Buddhas and
tBodhisattvas and the shapes of a mythol-
ogy older than they filled all the shadowy
space, not ranked by hierarchies, as in q
temple, but mingled without order, as In
silent panic. Out of the wilderness of
multiple heads and broken aureoles and
hands uplifted In menace or in prayer, n
shimmering confusion of dusty gold half
lighted by cobwebbed air holes In tho
heavy walls, I could at first discern little
Then, as the dimness cleared, began to
distinguish personalities. 1 saw VIVIAN
non of many forms, Jezo Of many Names
Shaka, Yakushl, Amida the Buddhas and
their disciples. They were very old, and
their art was not all of Japan, nor Of any
one 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 lotns flowers of the ap-
paritional birth. Some rode loopards, til
gers, lions or monsters mystical, typifying
lightning typifying death. One, triple
headed and many handed, sinister and
splendid, seemed moving through the
gloom on q throne of gold, unified by a
phalanx of elephants. Fudo saw, shroud-
ed and shrined in fire, and Maya-Fujin,
riding her celestial peacock and strangely
mingling with these Buddhist Visions as
in the anachronism of n Limbo, armOred
effigies of daimio and images of the Chi
nese sages. There were huge forms Of
wrath, grasping thunderbolts and rising
to the roof, the Dova kings like imperso-
nations of hurricane power, the Mo,
guardians of long vanished temple gates
Also there were forms voluptuously femi-
nine. Th light grace of the limbs folded
within 'h,i' lotus cups, the suppleness Of
the I ',.- numbering the numbers of the
good l:,>2. zero ideals possibly inspired in
some t"- ten time by the charm of an
Indian d'.ncing girl. Shelved against the
naked brio FORK above l could perceive
multitudcs of lesser shapes; demon figures
with eyes that burned through the dark
like the eyes Of black cat and figures
half man, half bird, winged and beaked
like eaglcs-the Tcngu of Japanese fancy.
"Well? queried the curio dealer, with
q chucllle Of satisfaction at my evident
surprise.
"It is a very great collection" re-
sponded
He clapped his hand on my shoulder and
exclaimed triumPhantly in my ear, Cost
me $50, OOO."
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 conhded 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.