Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1904-07-08
JAPAh'S HERO WORSHIP
Honors to the Memory of Men
Who Fell In Battle.
NARA PROUD OTHER GALLANT SONS
Empires Eighth Century Capital
Was Represented by Heroes Who
Died For the Mikado ON Boat
sunk by Russians-Relics of Many
battles In Narn's Temples.

sunk by Russians-Relics of Many
battles In Nara's Temples.
The heart of old Japan abides still
at Nara, the capital of the empire dur
ing the eighth century and religious
capital before and since the reigns of
those seven Nara emperOrs. says Eliza
Il. Scidmore, the Chicago Tribune's
correspondent in Japan. Like Kama
kura, it is now but shadow of itself.
the city of half million inhabitants
shrunk TO country town less than a
tenth of that population, its one long
street running down from the temple
gates to the railway track, a ribbon be-
tween green fields.
Here and there on the green plain
and among the groves at the foot of the
hills are soaring temple roofs and slen-
der spired pagodas that were once sur
rounded by the dwellings and all the
busy life of great city. The oldest
Buddhist temples in Japan are at Nara
and its vicinity, and to one of them an
emperor bequeathed all his personal
possessions, every article which his
palace COMMUNICATIVE most unique treas
ure house in all the world.
The life of the eighth century is
there complete. and the furniture and
domestic utensils. the art treasures and
ornaments. the books. the costumes, the
musical instruments and every possible
belonging have been stored there in
tact for LOO years in a wooden build
ing that has mercifully escaped de-
struction by fire.
Nara by no means lives in the past
entirely, and within few weeks it has
been TO the forefront in the eyes of all
Japan. The Thirty-seventh regiment of
the Osaka division is the Nara regi-
ment, and a company of that Nara regi-
ment was on board the little coasting
schooner Kinshiu Maru, which was tor
pedoed and sunk by the Vladivostoll
squadron off Wonsau. Korea.
Those We're Nara men who quietly re-
manned below until summoned TO sur
render, when they lined upon deck and
fired volleys at the big, black Russian
cruiser, well knowing that it would
be answered by machine guns and tor
pedoes, and then knelt down on the
deck and met the honorable death of
seppuku or harakiri. That was in
accordance with the best traditions of
the Japanese code of honor. of the
samurai's cult of Bushido, and to the
japanese is one of the greatest Incl
dents of the war.
All Nara glows with pride at mention
Of the Kinshiu Maru, and they point
out the homes of the relatives of the
men who died a samurais death rath-
er than be led to a Russian prison.
1T was magnificent, maybe, but it
was not modern war;" says the Euro
pean.
"It was magnificent" say the Nara
people and all Japan, "and it is Nara's s
greatest glory that these men came
from our midst, walked our streets,
worked these fields and made their
vows at these temples before they went
to war"
Funeral services have been held at
all the Nara temples, and in time there
will be some fitting monument to these
men of idolized memory, which will be
shrine of chivalry second only to
that one of the Forty-seven Ronius.
The hero lives eternal in Japan, and
at Momoyama the other day the cody
stopped the jinrikisha and pointed in
under slender tori or skeleton gate
way by the roadside. "Hattori San!
Hattori San! Fuji Kanr' he said and
made me dismount and go in to the
shrine and family tomb of the hero of
the great naval incident of the Chinese
war of 1900.
"Hattori San. Hattori SAM said a
Japanese in the train another day as
we ran by the little tori and stopped
at Momoyama station. He rose and
bowed his head, as did the others in
the car. in honor to Captain Hattori
who fell in the attack on the Taku
forts and was such another son of
Hachimau, the god of war, as the later
Mars, Commander Hirose.
Past the noble old pagoda of Yakushi
and three miles out on the Nara rice
plain is the village of KOriyama, IA
nous now because three of its men
were on board the Kinshiu Maru and
all died 'the honorable death by their
own hands. Three miles farther on
the village of Horiuji boasts that three
of its men were in the Thirty seventh S
ranks and on board the boat of fame.
Two committed harakiri and one is
missing, but the people will not believe
that he surrendered.
When the news was given out the
whole countryside flocked to the great
temple of Horiuji, which is the Oldest
Buddhist temple in Japan and lacks
only three years of celebrating the thir-
teenth centenary of its founding.
There is a hoary little octagonal tenn
pie on a mound beyond the temple,
which is only 1856 years old, to be ex-
net, that is dedicated to Yakushi, the
healing or pitying Buddha, which Is
the refuge of all distressed souls in
time of need Outside and inside the
little temple is heaped up and covered
over with votive offerings and pictures,
as it has been throughout the cen
fIlrins A uraypr and n VOW are made