Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-10-14
JAPAN LOVES NATURE
WORSHIP OF THE BEAUTIFUL
PART OF ITS LIFE.
No Natural Object las Ever Been
Adored as is the Mountain
Of Full.
From the London Globe.

Nowhere in the western world has the
love of nature assumed the intensity of a
national cult. There is plenty of admira-
ton and appreciation of the beauties of
mountain and flood and hill and wood, of
tint and of blossom, but it is confined to a
comparatively few, and those of the edu-
Gated classes. The refined Briton, for in
stance. will give himself some trouble to
get a good view, and will lavish superla-
tives upon grandeur, or picturesqueness, or
simple pastoral beauty, or even weirdness
in nature, but he can do very well without
it. AS for the Briton of the masses, if he be
a rustic, familiarity with nature has bred
in him an indifference to it, and If he be
townsman she excites rather his curiosity
than his enthusiasm, and when he is let
loose among fields and woods regards their
details much as he would regard articles
in a museum, but without anything ap-
preaching to rapture. He will say that he
likes the country for change" but he Is
not very happy when compelled to be long
away from bricks and mortar, and the ami
nation of crowds and shops.
Innate in the Uncultured.
But in Japan admiration of nature as
distinguished from appreciation seems to be
as innate among the uncultured as among
the refined classes. Indeed, one of the main
principles of the ancient Shinto religion OF
Japan is the worship of nature, resulting
in the creation of a Pantheon, in which
every element of nature is represented, ana
of which the simple symbols are every
where noticeable. With the Japanese of
whatever degree, love of nature Is veritabiy
a part and parcel of life. He must al
ways be in touch with her-if not with her
reality, with her counterfeit presentment.
At every opportunity, if he be town dwell
err, he gets away into his beautiful coun.
try, and in his homo surrounds himself
with reproductions of it's features. He goes
not forth, as does the Brton, with the
practical idea of recreation, or health. or
change of scene, but entirely for mdui-
gence in his worship of natures beauties.
He may call his holiday a pilgrimage TO
some famous mountain or shrine, as he
generally does, but it Is very apparent that
the religious performance is very much
subordinate to the aesthetic, and that ne
goes much more strongly lmbued with the
idea of enjoying his beloved nature than
of attending to his spiritual needs. From
the art of Japan as regards genre pictures
and delineation of human life and charac-
ter. the westerner has very little to learn,
but that great mass of native art which
deals with nature is rich with the most
eloquent and valuable lessons. ana even IN
its lowliest and least ambitious forms, such
as the cheap fans, artificiality and COCK
neyism are remarkably absent. The coun-
try of course is favorable to fostering
of taste in this direction, and EXHIBITS the
whole range of what is beautiful in nature,
from the widest and weirdest to the most
TRANQUIL and pastoral-mountain, cataract,
stream wooded hill, many tinted Vallev'
stretches of quiet rice fields. and bright,
yarieeated coast line, all combining to make
a land unrivaled elsewhere
Love of Detail.
But it is in the love of the details. as
they may be termed. of natures handlWork
that the japanese sentiment most remark
ably betrays itself There are no Sums
in our sense of the word in Japan, although
there is plenty of poverty, but the
meanest houses in the meanest streets Will
reveal by trifes the love of nature innate
in their occupants. 1t may be but spray
of blossom in an old saki bottle. or IN the
yard behind the correct representation OF
an entire country side within the space or
a few feet, or poor screen with sketch
of the Peerless mountain upon 1t, but some
token will be evident that the soul OF the
poor toiler is far away beyond the dingy
roofs and fire ladders in the sweet open
country which comes right to the very
gates of the city. There Is no town in
Japan even in this practical. prosaic age
but is bright with patches of green and
f1owery, plea assumes within. and, as RUE,
furnished with pleasant. if not beautiful,
suburbs without. Pretty natural spots
within easy reach are as necessary to the
existence of the japanese townsman as are
cricket and foot ball grounds and tea gar
dens to US. Hither the good citizen and
his family are ready to resort on the finn
sieSt pretense. Ordinarily he has more hol-
idays than any other townsman in the
world, and as if these were not sufficient,
he never needs much pressing to leave his
office or his shop for an hour under the
trees or among the blossoms by the river
side, or, best of ALL at some elevated spot,
whence he can quietly gaze at view with
no more extravagant accompaniment than
his tobacco pouch and a pot of tea.
Fujiyama.
Natural objects have from all time and
in all lands attracted the generation of
men, but probably no such general and en-
thusiastic alteration has ever been lavished
upon "a single natural object as upon Fu-
jiSama by the Japanese. 1t has been
hmned from every possible point of view;
at all seasons and in all weathers; libraries
OF prose and poetry have been devoted to
it; its perfect cone appears on the most
magnificent lacquer as on the most insig
nifcant piece of metal. on the expensive
screen as on the cheap fan; it is the goal of
annual pilgrimage to hundreds of thou
sands of reverent worshipers. Finally, it is
enc of the few famous sights of the world
of which the reality actually surpasSes the
ideal being ranked with Niagara and the
Tai Mahal and Agra. He who possesses
ever SO humble a waysde shanty sit
uated as to command view of Full pays
the rent of a large tea house for it, mas
much as he is assured of constant custom,
and 1t is strange for the Briton, accus-
tened to the apathy of his holiday taking
countrymen to the charms Of scenery, to
note how the poorest and humbieSt of Jap
aneSe Wayfarers squat themselves down on
the mats of these rude ShantieS, and are
Perfectly content K remain thus for half
an hour at a time gaZl ly on the familiar
cone and asking for no further amusement
or excitement. Full is the supreme object
of alteration. but at any spot distinguished
by some beautiful or picturesque feature,
such as a waterfall or a group of pines
or a temple, a mass of rocks, accom-
mediation may be found for the traveller
with an artistic eye.
Nowhere in the west are there such
charming festivals as those which dot the
calendar of the Japanese year, not merely
throughout the country districts, but in
every city and town, and no one who has
attended, say. the cherry blossom festival
at Uyeno in Tokyo, or the peach and maple
festivals in Kyoto, or the purely rural re-
joicings in honor of the bamboo or the pine
tree, can ever forget the genuine spirit of
simple reveling in the bounty and beauty
of nature which marked these occasions.
1t is this profound love of nature which
sends the Japanese of all classes travelling
about his own country to an extent I'M
known among western nations. The aver
age educated Briton, as a rule knows far
more about foreign countries than he does
about his own, while the average British