The herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1893-1900, 1897-07-18
raAxno ron BLACK HAIR
gaPan's Gentle Goddess, Who Cares
for the Nations Tresses

for the Nations Tresses
The little temple of O-Kyaku-san
stands outside the village called Sugata-
mura on the slops of the ridge
overlooking leagues of rice fields.
It Is a very simple Shinto miya, with
= matched roof, butt there Is as hand
some granite tori at the entrace to its
court. To THE tori are fastened tresses
Of human hair as votive offerings-long
hair Of women and children. There are
stone lamps and stone lions in the court
ana q dancing platform protected by
. straw roof. Children sometimes dance
sacred dances there to please the divini-
ty. The shrine itself is nearly black with
age. To its gratings, also, are tied Of
ferings of hair, together with strands
of hemp, dyed so as to look like real
hair. And on the walls. especially under
the broad caves and on either side of
the gratings, are pasted cheap colored
prints of the kind called Edo-ye, or Yedo
Iictures-views of Tokyo, landscapes,
heads Of pretty singing girls, and, curl
ously enough, scenes of the late war with
China The shrine is elevated about two
feet above the ground and the vacant
space under its floor is almost filled with
smooth, round stones. apparently gath
cred from some river course.
There Is nothing extraordinary in the
appearance of the shrine or in the gen.
eral character of its ex-votos; offerings
of hair and pictures and heapngs of
little stones may be seen at hundreds of
other yashiro. But the story of the tenn
pie and the character of the worship
paid to it's divinity are both peculiar and
interesting.
Prayers for handsome hair are made
to O-Kyaku- Perhaps the visitor
will notice that some of the offerings of
real hair are not black, but brown. Girls
who have Drawn or wavy hair pray O.
KyakuSan to make it black and
straight Mothers visit the temple to
pray that the hair of their children may
be beautiful. Each petitioner selects a
stone from the pile under the shrine
and takes it home, and every day strokes
with it her own hair or the hair of her
child, with a prayer to O-Kyaku-San.
After the prayer has been granted the
stone must be returned to it's place un-
der the shrine. (Such prayers would
seem often to have been heard, for al
though many japanese children are born
with brown hair, the hair darkens as
they grow up) Nearly all the stones
which 1 saw at the shrine had become
quite polished on one side; very probably
they had been pressed upon many gen.
erations of young heads.
Who is, or rather. who was, O-Kyaku-
San? The appellation is singular one;
it means 1.-The honorable lady guest" l
can only answer by repeating the story
told at Sugata-mura.
The term honorable lady guest" was
once a respectful designation for the
favorite-not the wife-of prince or
grandee. Tradition says that the O.
Kyaku-San of Sugata-mura occupied
such q place hundreds of years ago in
the court of a daimio. She had great
beauty, and the prince loved her, but
she had many jealous enemies who in
trigued against her, These discovered
that her hair was not perfectly black,
and they reproached her SO persist
emily and so maMciously with this defect
that she became tired of living and killed
herself But her fate evoked much
sympathy and sorrow, and temple was
built for her spirit by way of atonement.
And the peasant women pray to her for
beautiful hair and they buy Yedo pic
lures for her, because it is still remem-
bered that she used to be very fond of
such pictures.
Offerings of tobacco are also made to
O-Kyaku- San-the only instance know
of tobacco being used as an offering at
any shrine. Ordinarily, the peasant
simply takes pinch of tobacco out of
his pouch and throws it into the shrine
box.