The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-11-06

poet of Japan, was buried on the after noon of the 29th with Buddhist rite. The 1 funeral service was held in his most be- loved temple Ji-sho-in, of Ichlgaya, or the Kobudera as the people call 1t, in whose garden he walked every afternoon. Some forty. Japanese professors and one | hundred Japanese students from the im- perial University and the Waseda uni- versity, sad in heart and full of respect for the memory of the dead teacher. att tended the service. The flowers. chrysan- | themums and mokusei- blossoms richly | perfumed-which he loved best, adorned his cofin. A wreath of laurel with the following inscription was presented from his former students.
 Tn memory of Lafeadio Hearn whose pen was mightier than the sword of the victorious nation which he loved and iiv- ed among, and whose highest honor it shall ever be to have given him citizen l shin and alas, a grave"
 Seven Buddhist priests read the Sutra. i, There were the clouds of incense-sweet like the breath of the Lord Buddha We were sad. His widow dropped her head. l His eldest son and his other two little boys knelt before their fathers cofin and bowed as do the Japanese boys. Then
 
 the holy name. The bells rang and there was the greatest silence from the sad dest feeling when the services were fin- l ished. His funeral was the most sincere one held in a long time.
 Only three foreigners, Americans, were present at the service. He lived outside the American colony No one among them knew where he lived. I am sure l he would be glad to be followed to his l grave by Japanese students more than | foreigners or cabinet members, but he was always glad to sec a poorly dressed student r
 It was on the 26th that he dled suddenly from heart failure. There Is no other for eigner who has been buried with the Buddhist rite. But Lafcadio Hearn was a Japanese through and through. How satisfied will his spirit De to have his | funeral sanctifed in the Kobudera, and ! the priests, his own personal friends, to read the sacred book. How he loved the | Buddha books. He was studying them under Professor Murakami. We had looked forward to having his own Eng I fish version. He may not be Buddhist, l or he may not be a Christian in the worldly meaning. In his heart he was a Buddhist as well as a Christian. What | difference is there between the real Bud dhist and Christianity?
 | It was from his beloved temple there l that he gathered the material for the wonderfully weird study 'eThe Literature | of the Dead' in his Exotics and Retros- l pectives. Yes, every afternoon did he i spend in the Kodudera garden, especially | in it's graveyard. He wrote: T like to wander in that cemetery-partly because in the twilight of it's green trees and in | the silence of centuries which have gath | cred about them. one can forget the city and it's turmoil. and dream out of space and time-but more because 1t is full of i beauty and the poetry of great faith. 1 Indeed, of such poetry 1t possesses rich ' es quite exceptional" So he wandered in 1 the Kobuderas cemetery and the world was given the Literature of the Dead" | He studied there in the Kobudera's ceme- | tery with the immemorial trees. the evergreen mazes of shrubbery trimmed Into quaintest shapes, the carpet softness l of the messed path, the weird but un- questionable art of of the monuments i The Chinese scriptures ehiseled into the granite of tombs, or limned by a master brush upon the smooth wood of the soto- ba-a long slender piece of wood for mon- ument Yes. Lafsdio Hearn turned al- ready into a sotoba. And his sotoba bore: "shoshin In, HolSo, Hachun Koji." 1 (Who knows that a secoLd Lafcadio Hearn will not come along some day in the future and translate his "dead name" and put in another Literature of the Dead. ?
 Alas. that he is dead To use a Unin- csc expression of sadness, "The heavens and earth cried over his death, trees and birds were still from grief" In his death the wife has lost her husband. the child ren have lost their beloved father, and | Japan has lost her greatest spokesman to the English speaking world. And the world has lost one of the most wonder full writers. He had the clear vision of a poet and an extraordinary power of Il md truthful things. He went far into the mysterious depths of peoples life with such a marvellous endowment of the powers of penetration-a power to which i the mystical bent of his mind gave ad- ded force.
 i And he possessed the unusual gift also In clothing his thoughts with language whose exuberance never detrdcted from its crystalline clearness In one word he was a great artist in the truest meaning.
 He died at the right time, if he must die. How he loved autumn-the Japanese autumn-Japan expresses fully sadness in beauty in autumn. He was the poet of loneliness and beauty The Japanese l autumn is the season of longing and meditation, the season of shadow and memory. You will be lounging in Japan's autumn after the shrilling and whirr Of happy winged things, the chorus of ci- cado and bird, the lisping and laughing Of water, the undertOne or leaIaBe aStlr. You will be longing after the smell of flower and fruitage. after all sharp sweet odors of sap. You will feel the quicken ing of the living air-"the thrilling of the great Blue Ghost" He said some l where:
 But all this comes to them. filtered through the bars and veils of their re- birth, only as dreams of home to hope less exile, of child-bliss to desolate age, of remembered vision to the blind"
 How he will be pleased to lay under such a season of Japan's autumn. And more than that. he will be most happy to be buried at Zoshigaya.
 l To appreciate Japan's autumn you must walk to Zoshigaya one afternoon. It will be a perfect picture of sweet long ! ing and sadness in beauty" As he told Mrs Hearn, and as he left in his will he would like to be buried at the lone 1 Hest spot
 And so be is now sleeping at Zoshigaya, the most lonely place place-at the out skirts of Tokyo. How often he used to walk at Zoshigaya with his devoted wife. Mrs. Hearn told me that he used to say that every bird over there sung more sadly and more beautifully than any, where else. I am sure that his spirit will come out once and a while and wander around Omokage Bashi (the bridge of | shadow). I wish I could walk slowly with him in the ground of Kishiboshln Temple. He was the most sad and most beautinful soul of the world. And he was the poet of Japan.