Evening star., 1909-03-06

shippers and every house has its shrine.
There are in all Japan. / venture, more
places of worship than in the United
States. In all our denominations we nave
just little more than 100000 church or
ganizations. and these include Catholics
and ProtestantS. Monrovians and Dunk
ards and also the forty-seVen Chinese
Buddhist and the nine Japanese Buddhist
and Shinto establishments. Here there
are 10000 ShrineS alone and more than
10000 temples. There are more than
LOCO temples in this city of kyoto and
some of them far more grand and
more costly than any church of the
which is perhaps the finest building of it's
kind il. the world, cost just s6WO,OOO
The Higashi Hongwanji Temple of Ky
OTTO cost sS.0O0,oOO. and it was about
eleven years in building II covers about
as much ground as the Capitol at WASH
ington and it's great audience room takes
$50 yards of mating to carpet it.
The temple is an immense building with
a ridge roof, which slopes downward in
the shape of a bow. overhanging the
walls The roof is upheld by mighty
beams and the interior is mass of cary
ing. The walls made of sliding
screens. upon which are paintings by old
japanese masters. and the ceilings are Of
richly painted panels framed in lacquer.
with brass lanterns. each as large as
hoeshead. hanging from them. During
recent visit TO the temple | saw 1000
men. women and children sitting on their
bare heels listening 30 bald-headed
priest reading a sermon. and as they
went out ! saw each of them throw one
two coins into the great money chest
which stands there always ready for con-
tributions This temple has an income of
about s20o0O0 a year. and celebration
which it had a few years ago. in honor of
the death of one of its patrlarchs. cost
almost Il million. At one time the tenn
pie needed a loan of $4,000 for a term OF
six months, and it is said that one of the
Japanese banks advanced the money.
taking the key of the contribution box for
security. At the end of every week the
bank sent an official to the temple. and
he had back all of that money. Including
the interest upon it, long before the note
was due.
Buddhism religion has little esteem
for women. One of the sects has a say
ing that the sins of any good woman are
greater than those of the thousand worst
men who have ever lived Nevertheless,
Buddhism came into Japan through a
woman and it is supported largely by
women. The woman who brought it here
was the Empress Jingo. who conquered
Korea centuries ago. and in consequence
introduced the religion of that country.
The women who are supporting 1t form
a large proportion of the Japanese peo-
pie. l see them tramping in crowds on
pilgrmages to the various shrines, l find
them praying by the roadsides, and they
are i'm evidence in every temple One OF
the most remarkable examples OF their
faith is shown in the Higashi Hong
wanji structure, to which 1 have just re-
ferred. The building was made largely
by voluntary work on the part of the
people and women by the hundreds aided
in it. They not only gave their work.
but thousands of them cut off their hair
as an offering to Buddha. and this hair
was twisted and braided into great cables
to drag the logs of which the temple is
built. A big coil of these ropes now lies
outside the temple door, ard l had
chance to carefully examine them. Some
were so large that when ! tried to clasp
them with my hands my thumbs and fin
gers would not meet. l pressed upon
them. and they were solid as cables
of wire. They were as dry as ropes of
manila hemp. All the oil had gone out
of the hair and it looked more dead than
alive. There was an enormous quantity
of these ropes, and the priests told me
that they contained the locks of 100000
women. AS looked / could see that they
represented all ages. In some places the
fine silky black hair of the maidens was
tWined in and out with the whtened
locks of old women. and a the ends of
the cables. where the strands had be-
come loosened, the hair hung down like