Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1920-08-01
SHR|NESOF JAPAN
| WORKS OF BEAUTY
American Pilgrims in East
Find Nikko and Kyoto
Centers of Interest.

| Many feet are now treading their
way to the shrines In the temple
cities of Japan" says the third of a
series of bulletins from the National
| Geographic Society on the places
which will be visited by members OF
| Congress on their trip to the orient.
| Eager Americans Will stroll aleng
/ the shady streets of Nikio to the
| tombs of the Shoguns apd drink in
! the indeScri badly beautiful scenery,
| their lips all the while murmuring
| the Japanese word kekko (beauufuD,
which the Japanese say one never
| learns to pronounce until he has seen
| the city of Nikko. In Toxic, called
| the Flowery Great Yedo. the capital
| of the empire. they will see the i'm
! perial palace and the remains OF the
| former glory of the Shoguns. fam
| lily of military governors who were
! the virtual rulers of Japan for sew
eral centuries. and in Kyoto they VIII
| probably get a confused, hazy ldea
! of one or two of the 500 Buddhist
temples and eighty Shinto shrines
Perpetual Petitions.
| Perhaps, too, in the temples OF
money will go TO a priest for writ
ing a pretty prayer on slip of pa
| per, which the visitor. in true Pill
grim fashion, will press to his fore
head and to his breast and then fast
en- to the temple wall in order that it
may be a perpetual petition. But
then, when there are 10000 deitles 10
whom devout Japanese write, a rev
merican pleas will scarcely clog the
celestial postal service.
There will be many native pilgrims
on the way to the shrines. During
the summer months when the crops
have been taken care of. the village
folk, though they have the temples
of their own patron deity and thet 1ox
god. feel that they must send out a
pilgrim or two to the. sacred noun
tains and holy places of Japan to
worship in behalf of those who can
not go, and so they provide fund
for his expenses.
Nor does the emissary travel in
state. Life for him loses most of its
complexities. He is equipped with a
cheap white cotton shirt that can be-
easily washed. tight fitting trousers
and a loose white cotton jacket which
he tucks in with girdle. He wears
an enormous broad. stiff straw hat,
and on his back he carries a piece of
mating which serves him as an UNI
brella by day and as a bed by night.
He carries his luggage in two bun
dies. one on his back and the other
in front, usually labeled with the
name of the shrine he is to visit. and
somewhere about his person there is
hung a little bell which tinkles as he
istumps along over the weary road
from mountain to mountain.
Climbs to Burial Place.
'In Nikko, though he does not come
especially to visit the tombs of the
ShogunS. he 'loafs and invites his
soul within the shadow of the two
great mausolea of the founder of the
| line and his grandson, the merciless
enemy of Christianity, which stand on
the side of the mountain. Up, up, up.
ha al m he !, ,,,-fx rI
den. past one splendor after another
until he reaches the beautiful temple
and the actual burial place of a line
| OF rulers who usurped the sovereignty
of the empire and held it for almost
three centuries. making the few years
covering the glory of Napoleon and
Cromwell insignificant indeed
when the pilgrim reaches the top
| of the mountain he prays. Then he
smokes pipe or two and leisurely
shrine.
In August the pilgrim rolls off
his mat and the visitor from foreign
lands climbs out of bed at the crack
bloom, for the buds burst with a
pleasing. characteristic sound
if Nikko is the most beautiful
city in Japan. Kyoto can be called the
most interesting. Here the feminine
visitor finds herself bewildered by
the most exouisitely wrought of ali
the exquisite pottery. cloisonne,
DronZes, fans and velvets. After she
has bought more than she can COM
fortably get home with she proba-
ply VIII want to see bit of the
1nikados palace. which covers over
twenty-five acres of ground and is
surrounded by a great wall with six
gates. or journey out to see the
largest lake in Japan-Lake Biwa-
and the 1.200year- pine tree
which stands near it,"