News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1921-02-02
AT JAPAN SNRlMl .
Sights Worth Seeing in the En-
pres Temple Cities.
/ ItifuI Scenery. of Nikto and the
Fowery Great Yeddo In the Cap
ital Well Repay Vlsito'
for the Excursion.


"Many feet are now tIeadlng tEelr
| way to the shrnes in the temple cities
| of Japan" says the third Of II series
of bulletins from the National Ge-
ographic society oR the places wlrr'
will be visited by members Of con
gress on their trip to tn. Orient.
Eager Americans will stroll ~ ia
the shady streets Of Nikko 70
tombS of the shoguns and drink In
indescribabIe beautiful scenery, the
lips all the while murmuring the : r.
unese word kekko Beautifully, wb
the Japanese say one never learns &.
pronounce until he has seen the eli
of Nikl.o. In Tokyo, called the Flln-
cry Great Yeddo, the capital or tho
empire, they will see the imperial pl
ace and TIE remains of the fornnp
glory of the shoguns. family of mil
itary governors who were the virtpH
rulers Of Japan for several centuriee
and in Kyoto they will probably gel
a confused, hazy idea of one or two
of the 500 Buddhist temples and 81
Shinto shrines.
"Perhaps, too, in, the temples Of
Tokyo bit Of American pocket mon
ey win 60 to a pr S, i rnjn
pretty prayer on a slip of paper, which
the visitor, in true pilgrim fashion
will press to his forehead and to his
breast and then fasten to the TEN.
pie wall in order that it may be per-
petual petition. But then when there
are 10000 deities to whom devOut Jap
anese write, few American pleas will
scarcely clog the celestial postal serv-
ice
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 the fox
god, feel that they must send out
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 tie emiSSary
travel in state. Life for him loses
most of it's perpeXities He is
equipped with a cheap white cotton
shirt that can be easily washed, tight
fitting trousers and a loose white cot
ton 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 umbrella by day and
as bed at night.
an NkkO, though he does not come
to visit the tOmbs of the
shpguns. he 'loafs and invites his soul |
within the shadow of the two great |
of the founder of the line
and his grandson, TIE merciless enc ,
nv Of christianity, which stand on the |
side OF he mountain. Up, up, up, he
climbs through courtyard and garden, |
past one snlpndor after another, until
he re cles the beautiful temple and
he actual burial place of line of
'ulcrs who usurped the sovereignty of
lie empire and held it fer almost three
making the few years COW
ring the glory of Napoleon and Crom-
veil insignificant indeed. When the
,ilgrim reaches the top of the noun
ain he prays. Then he smokes a pipe
n two and leisurely takes up his jour
icy to the next shrine.
In August the pilgrim rolls off his
nat and the visitor from foreign lands
limbs out of bed attic crack of dawn
0 hear the lotus flower bloom for the
,uds burst with a pleasing character
site sound.
"If Nikko is the,most beautifuLcity
n Japan, Kyoto can be called the most
Here the feminine visitor
nds herself bewildered by the most
xquisitely wrought OF all the eXQuis-
te pottery, cloisonne, bronzes, fans
nd velvets. After she has bought
lOre than she can comfortably get
ONE with, she probably will want to
ae a bit of the mikadO's palace which
overs over % acres of ground and is
urrOunded by a great wall with six
ates, or journey out TO see the larg-
st lake in Japan, Lake Biwa, and the
pine tree which stands
ear it,"