Latest / Around the Clock in Europe : A Travel Sequence / Kamakura-Yone Noguchi

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Kamakura-Yone Noguchi · Around the Clock in Europe : A Travel Sequence

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Part one of Kamakura by Yoni Noguchi. This is a
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  Speaker 1: LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: By the Engakuji Temple Moon night, through the breath of perfume,
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  Speaker 1: Who music of musics down creeps the moon, to fill
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  Speaker 1: my cup of song with memories. Whine across the song
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  Speaker 1: of night and moon, Oh, perfume of perfumes. My soul
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  Speaker 1: as a wind whose heart's too fold to sing, only
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  Speaker 1: roams astray than the tide of the sweet night. Oh,
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  Speaker 1: the ecstasy's gentle rise. The birds, flowers and trees are
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  Speaker 1: glad at once to fall into oblivion's ruin white and
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: of Part one Part two of Kamakura by Yoni Noguchi.
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. The Temple
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: of Silence. I stepped into the desolation of the Temple
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: of Silence, Engakuji of famous Kamakura, that completely awakened temple
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  Speaker 1: under the blessing of dusk. It is at evening that
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  Speaker 1: the temple tragically soars into the magnificence of loneliness under
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: a chill air stirred up from the mountains and glades
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: by the roll of the evening bell. I stepped in
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  Speaker 1: Engakuji at the right hour. I had journeyed from Tokyo,
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  Speaker 1: the hive of noise, here to read a page or
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  Speaker 1: two of the whole language of silence, which, far from
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: mocking you with all sorts of crazy shaped interrogation, marks
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  Speaker 1: soothes you with the song of prayer in true if
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  Speaker 1: I came here to confess how little is our human intellect.
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  Speaker 1: I slowly climbed the steps and passed by many a
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  Speaker 1: tatchu temple like shore An Zorikuan dere Is this name
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  Speaker 1: of Tortoise Temple, and others which serve as vassals to
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  Speaker 1: great Engakuji, and finally reached the priest hall to learn,
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  Speaker 1: to my no small delight, the opening ceremony of Dissection,
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  Speaker 1: or great Meeting with Spirit was going to be held
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: that night. The year for the priests of the Zen
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: sect to which this Engakuji belongs is divided into four parts,
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  Speaker 1: each called a gheh, which is three months and the
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  Speaker 1: two guests, running from February fifteenth to May fifteenth, and
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  Speaker 1: from August fifteenth to November fifteenth, called gekan o seikan,
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  Speaker 1: meaning excused from rule, are the months of freedom for
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  Speaker 1: the daishu, as we call priests, while they have to
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  Speaker 1: say strictly observed every asceticism during the other two gays
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  Speaker 1: we call these within the rule or schu. And the
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  Speaker 1: most important time during the situs is the week of dissection,
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  Speaker 1: which falls three times during the period from May fifteenth
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  Speaker 1: to August fifteenth. Now, as this was the fourteenth of May,
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  Speaker 1: I was to have an opportunity to be present at
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  Speaker 1: the opening ceremony of the Great Meeting with the Spirit,
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: which I had wished to attend for some long time.
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  Speaker 1: The hall was not yet lighted, as it was a
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  Speaker 1: little before seven o'clock, that is the time of candles lighted.
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: When I quietly crawled into it like a wandering breeze
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  Speaker 1: after the soul of nirvana, and I was at once
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  Speaker 1: conducted by a young priest into the assembly chamber. I
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: said he was a young man, but who knows whether
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: he were not an old priest. It seemed to me
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: that I was already led in a magic atmosphere on
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  Speaker 1: whose world old incense. What a song of exclamation. I
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  Speaker 1: lost all sense of time and place. Here the priests,
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  Speaker 1: wrapped in silence, appeared to my eyes as if they
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  Speaker 1: had returned a long time ago to the great elements
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  Speaker 1: of nature, which stand above life and death. And it
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  Speaker 1: is the very problem of life and death you have
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  Speaker 1: to solve with the zen philosophy, if you like to
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  Speaker 1: call it philosophy. The chamber, although it was quite dark,
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  Speaker 1: already could be seen to be wider than fifty mats,
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  Speaker 1: And here and there I observed that the courges or
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  Speaker 1: laymen were taking their own places, doubtless communing in souls
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  Speaker 1: with the silence which does not awe you, but to
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  Speaker 1: which you have to submit yourself without a challenge, with
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  Speaker 1: a prayer. Silence is not here a weapon, as it
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  Speaker 1: might happen to be in some other place. It is
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  Speaker 1: a gospel whose unwritten words can be read through the
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  Speaker 1: virtue of self forgetting. I was gracefully entering into a dream,
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  Speaker 1: which is the retreat in the world of silence, when
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  Speaker 1: no wind or speech are When the priest brought into
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  Speaker 1: the chamber the lighted candles, announcing that the ceremony would
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  Speaker 1: soon begin, rite before me a candle whose yellow flame
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  Speaker 1: rose in the shape of your folded hands in prayer,
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  Speaker 1: to the Buddhist idol, which I could observe behind the
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  Speaker 1: lattice door of the Holy dais of the chamber, but
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  Speaker 1: a face of profundity, which is but mystery, and that
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  Speaker 1: mystery will grow at once the soul of simplicity, which
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  Speaker 1: is that of nature. I was told that the budder
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  Speaker 1: was nobody but the right mind, to whom the perfect
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  Speaker 1: assimilation with great nature is emancipation, and that you and
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  Speaker 1: I could be the budder right on the spot. It
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  Speaker 1: is the dignity of this send Buddhism to soar out
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  Speaker 1: from devotion, pity, love and the like. It is not
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  Speaker 1: a religion, in your understanding, perhaps, but the high state
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  Speaker 1: of mind before yourself was born, breaking the cord of
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  Speaker 1: the world. You have to leave your human knowledge before
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  Speaker 1: you may enter here, and so I did to the
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  Speaker 1: best of my ability. The Hangi or wooden block was tapped,
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  Speaker 1: and the priests, fifty in all, slipped into the chamber
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  Speaker 1: from another independent house called the Meditation House, shaven headed,
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  Speaker 1: black robed specters from the abyss of night, and they
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  Speaker 1: muttered the Holy name, then sat down in a row
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: by the shorges. A moments later, a gray, coughing voice
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: was heard without, and then the stepping sound of straw
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: slippers on the pavement. I looked back and observed three bombodies,
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  Speaker 1: paper shaded hand candlesticks floating forward, and then the four
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  Speaker 1: figures of priests. The chief priest, who lives in a
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  Speaker 1: house on the other side, was coming, led by his attendants.
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  Speaker 1: The silence of the chamber was intensified when they stepped
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  Speaker 1: in and took their own places. The chief priest, by
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  Speaker 1: the name of Sokai Miadji, sat before the Budda Idol's
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  Speaker 1: lattice door. He was a man of sixty, heavily built,
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  Speaker 1: and sleepy in face, doubtless from his saturation in silence.
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  Speaker 1: He wore robe of yellowish brown color and a large
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  Speaker 1: scarf of old brocade across his shoulder. He looked around
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  Speaker 1: and said, hi, We, with all the priests, bent our
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  Speaker 1: heads upon the mat and kept them so while the
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  Speaker 1: chief priest finished the reading of Shogaku ko Kushi's words
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  Speaker 1: of warning. We have three classes of students. One who
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  Speaker 1: casts away every affinity with fire and studies his own
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  Speaker 1: self is the very best. There is one whose practice
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  Speaker 1: is not so particularly pure, but he loves to learn.
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  Speaker 1: He is in the middle class, while one who quenches
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  Speaker 1: his own spiritual light and delights in licking the Buddh's
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  Speaker 1: saliva is of the lowest. If there's one who drinks
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: only the beauty of books and lives by writing, we
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  Speaker 1: call him a shaven headed layman. That he cannot be
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  Speaker 1: in even the lowest class of our students. How despicable
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: is one who writes for writing's sake. And of course
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  Speaker 1: we cannot admit one into our Buddhist circle who spends
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  Speaker 1: his time dissolutely, eating and sleeping too fully. The ancient
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  Speaker 1: worthies used to call such a one a clothes horse
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  Speaker 1: and a rice bag. He is not a priest at all,
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  Speaker 1: and cannot be allowed to step into the temple ground
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  Speaker 1: as a student. Indeed, even his temporary visit cannot be permitted,
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  Speaker 1: And of course he cannot beg to stay here with us.
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  Speaker 1: Thus I say, but you must not regard me as
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  Speaker 1: one who lacks sympathy and love. And I only wish
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  Speaker 1: our students to find out they're wrong and correct their faults,
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  Speaker 1: so as to become a seed and grass of Buddhism
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  Speaker 1: and grow. Then, the chief priest told a story Joe
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  Speaker 1: Ubon of the tow dynasty of China. One day was
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  Speaker 1: drinking under an oak tree with his friend when he
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  Speaker 1: fell asleep. Presently, he was told by a man dressed
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  Speaker 1: in black that he was sent to take him to
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  Speaker 1: the palace of the Kingdom of Oak Tree under the
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  Speaker 1: king's command. Who Bonn and the messenger rode in a
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  Speaker 1: carriage together and reached the gates of the kingdom, where
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  Speaker 1: the king, in white dress and red crown welcomed Dubon,
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  Speaker 1: and he was told by the king that he had
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  Speaker 1: to marry his daughter, who was lovely as a fairy.
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  Speaker 1: One hundred musicians played music, and ten thousand candles were
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  Speaker 1: lighted when Ubon was conducted to the wedding hall. They
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  Speaker 1: married and were happy, and they soon became father and
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  Speaker 1: mother of many children. There's nothing like days which were
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  Speaker 1: run so speedily. Hubon was appointed king of the Kingdom
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  Speaker 1: of Peach Blossom, whither he took his wife and a
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  Speaker 1: thousand servants with him, and the story says that he
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  Speaker 1: stayed there some twenty years, though Hubon thought it was
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  Speaker 1: only yesterday that he reached the Kingdom of Peach Blossom.
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  Speaker 1: Then he was summoned back to the Kingdom of Oak
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  Speaker 1: tree and asked to take of the office of his
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  Speaker 1: father in law. And about that time his wife died,
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  Speaker 1: with the song of grief and tears. He buried her,
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  Speaker 1: and after that Hubon began to think of his old home,
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  Speaker 1: his love, for which he could not forget. The old
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  Speaker 1: King consented to his return home. One day. He sent
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  Speaker 1: him out with the same carriage which he rode in
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  Speaker 1: such a long time ago, along the same road he
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  Speaker 1: traveled before when he first came to the kingdom. In truth,
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: his dream was ended, and there he thought that the
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  Speaker 1: sight of the gate of the kingdom was behind a cloud.
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  Speaker 1: He looked around and saw the boys sweeping the ground
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  Speaker 1: by the oak tree, who Bonne explored with his friend
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  Speaker 1: the big hollow of the oak tree. Whence a thousand
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  Speaker 1: ants swarmed, and among them was one biggest ant, reddish
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  Speaker 1: headed with white wings. He looked, apparently to be the
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  Speaker 1: king of the ants. It reminded Ubon of the old
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  Speaker 1: king in his dream. And also he observed a little
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  Speaker 1: heap of clay which was the crude shape of the
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  Speaker 1: grave of his dead wife of his dream. He thought
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  Speaker 1: it strange and even ghastly. That night it rained hard
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  Speaker 1: when he visited the tree again next morning, all the
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  Speaker 1: ants he found were gone away somewhere. Now which was
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  Speaker 1: the dream and which was the reality? The chief priest asked,
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  Speaker 1: there is no dream which is not borne from the
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  Speaker 1: bosom of reality, and we have no reality which does
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  Speaker 1: not sing of dream. You might call our life a
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  Speaker 1: dream if you will, and there is no harm either
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  Speaker 1: to think of it as a reality. But the main
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  Speaker 1: point is that you have to soar out from the
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  Speaker 1: dream and the reality of life. And let me say
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  Speaker 1: from life itself. You must not be fettered by life.
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  Speaker 1: And death is nothing but another phase of nature, and
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  Speaker 1: we hear another harmony of beauty and music in it,
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  Speaker 1: as in life. Let the pine tree be green and
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  Speaker 1: the roses red. We have to observe the mystery of
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  Speaker 1: every existence, human or non human, which do not challenge,
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  Speaker 1: but submit to one another and complete the truth of
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  Speaker 1: the universe. And to connect mystery with our zen religion
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: does no justice. There is no mystery whatever in the world,
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  Speaker 1: and truth which may appear to an uncle their mind
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  Speaker 1: to be a secret his simplicity itself, which is the
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  Speaker 1: soul of nature and Budda. To attain to the state
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  Speaker 1: of Buddha through the virtue of meditation, whose word is silence,
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  Speaker 1: is our salvation. The language of silence cannot be understood
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  Speaker 1: by the way of reason, but through the force of impulse,
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  Speaker 1: which is abstraction. Shakyamuni, it is said, picked a flower,
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  Speaker 1: which he showed to all the priests who gathered at
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  Speaker 1: Raisan Kaijo. All of them were silent, but Caio Sonja smiled.
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  Speaker 1: That smile is the truth of self possession and deliverance.
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  Speaker 1: We long for it. All the priests stood and read
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  Speaker 1: the dava Ani of great mercy, and ended with their
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  Speaker 1: vows of consecration. We vowed to save all unlimited mankind.
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  Speaker 1: We vow to cut down all the exhaustless lusts. We
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  Speaker 1: vow to learn all the bows bundless laws. We vow
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  Speaker 1: to complete all the peerless understanding. Then the tea was
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  Speaker 1: poured in our cups. Some parched rice slightly sugared, was
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  Speaker 1: divided on pieces of paper, which we carried. It is
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  Speaker 1: the temple's rule not to trouble another's hand. We drank
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  Speaker 1: the tea and bit the rice. When the chief priest
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  Speaker 1: rose and departed in silence, accompanied by his three attendant
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  Speaker 1: priests as before, and when their steps became inaudible in
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: the silence of night, and their bomberries disappeared in the
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: bosom of darkness. All the priests rose and retired into
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  Speaker 1: their meditation house, and I into the guest room next
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  Speaker 1: to the assembly chamber, conducted by one of the Fuzuis
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: or under secretaries of this priest hall, who left with
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  Speaker 1: me a piece of written paper. Rising two o'clock a
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: m prayer, three o'clock breakfast, four o'clock offering to the budder,
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  Speaker 1: eight o'clock prayer, nine o'clock dinner, ten o'clock bell struck,
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  Speaker 1: eleven o'clock lecture, one o'clock PM prayer, half past two
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  Speaker 1: o'clock supper, four o'clock evening, bell struck, twenty minutes past
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  Speaker 1: six o'clock prayer, seven o'clock sleep, nine o'clock. The room
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  Speaker 1: in which I found myself had all the desolation of
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: the senses which scorns the flame of enthusiasm. The subduing
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: of enthusiasm is the first principle here that I found
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: in the assembly chamber. The silence I felt thickening when
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: I thought that I had nobody, not even a priest,
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: silent as a ghost around me. Now and then the
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: moaning voice of an owl searched my ear from the
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: back mountain, and the candle burned lonesomely as my own soul. Indeed,
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  Speaker 1: I thought it time to hear the very voice of
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  Speaker 1: my own soul. Some time ago I heard the hangies struck,
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  Speaker 1: announcing the time to put the light out and go
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  Speaker 1: to sleep. I'm sure that there is many a priest
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  Speaker 1: who will meditate all night, sitting up in the darkness.
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: The darkness for him would be the budder's light to
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: lead him into the silence of conception. I tried, but
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: in vain to go to sleep. When my own soul,
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: whatever it was, became more awakened, I read the words
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: written on a kakemono hung at the tokonoma. Hear the
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: voice of thy hand. It must be one of these
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: questions of which I have heard put by the chief priest,
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: to be answered by the student's priests through their own understanding.
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  Speaker 1: Here we must find our own salvation by the power
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  Speaker 1: of our contemplation. What is the voice of your hand
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: except in yourself? And again, where is the truth except
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: in your own soul? To understand your own self is
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  Speaker 1: to understand the truth. The voice of truth is the
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: voice of your own hand. I raised my head toward
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  Speaker 1: the shoji, through whose broken paper I encountered a star
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  Speaker 1: of profundity of silence. Silence is emancipation, I cried. I
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  Speaker 1: could not rise at two o'clock next morning as I
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: wished to, and I felt ashamed to be called up
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  Speaker 1: by a priest to leave my bed and sit up
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: for breakfast. When I made my presence in the assembly chamber,
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: which was the dining room, in turn, all the priests
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: were already seated silently and even solemnly, as on the
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: previous evening. They muttered a short prayer before they brought
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: out their own bowls and chopsticks from under their black robes.
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: They had their only belongings beside one or two sacred books.
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  Speaker 1: I with them, had the severest breakfast ever, I ate,
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: which consisted only of some gruel, chiefly of barley with rice,
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: as little as an apology with a few slices of
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: greens dipped in salt water. However, I enjoyed it as
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: they did. I thought that their diet was far beyond simplicity,
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: while I admit their pride of high thinking, and I
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: wondered if it was asceticism, to leave every human lust
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: and to give the way for spiritual exaltation, to fly
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: in the air as a bird, not to walk like
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: any other animal. It is written, I am told in
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: the Holy Book of the dignity of poverty, which should
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: be protected as a sacred law. Oh, to think of
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: the luxuries of the west, those priests will be sent
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: out begging far and near every month. Begging is regarded
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: as divine, while a gift, the expression of sacrifice and
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: self immolation. They live on charity. They do not beg
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: for the sake of begging, but for the spirit of
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: the Buddha's law. Then there is no begging. Meik of Toganawo,
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: the Buddhist teacher of Yasutoki Hojo, the Hojo feudal prince,
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  Speaker 1: was asked to accept a great piece of land of
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: the Tamba province for his temple expenses, and he refused
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  Speaker 1: with many thanks, saying that there was no greater enemy
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: than luxury, for the priests who under its mockery might
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: become dissolute from not observing every holy law. Mighty poverty,
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: I pray on to thy dignity to protect Buddhism from
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: spiritual ruin, he exclaimed, such as the zen's loftiness. I
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: remember somebody said that he could pray better when he
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: was hungry. I read the list of charity receiving in
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: the office of the Fusu or Chief Secretary. Ten yen
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: for the great feast, ten yen for Prajhna reading, eight
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: yen for the gen feasting, four yen for feasting, three
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  Speaker 1: yen and a half for lunch giving, three yen for
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  Speaker 1: gruel giving, two yen and a half for rice giving
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: as a side food, two yen for gruel giving as
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: a side food, seventy cen for cake, giving, thirty cent
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: for bath giving. No woman is privileged to enter the
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: priest hall. Here the priests themselves wash, cook, and sow.
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: The four priests under the tensurio take upon themselves the
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: cook's responsibility, while the densu priests attend to cleaning the
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: dais and idols. And there are the two priests at
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: the djeshario who will serve Monjubasatsu, the holy idol enshrined
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: in the meditation house, to whom they offer tea and
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: bulls of rice at the proper time. Those who take
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: care of the vegetables are called yenju, and there are
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: three attendant priests. So the chief Priest and the chief Secretary,
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: with his two assistants, manages the whole business of the
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: priest hall. This Engakuji, which embraces the mountainous ground of
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: some five hundred acres, where in the olden days, when
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: we had more devotion, more than forty small temples used
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: to stand, though today only twenty of them survived the
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: accidental destruction of fire or natural ruin. By the way,
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: the priest hall belongs to sizokuin one of the Tatchu temples,
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: was founded by Taki Munehojo, the glorious hero of the
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: Hojo feudal government, who cut off the heads of the
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: envoys of Kublai Khan at Tatsunoguchi and then destroyed the
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: Mogul armies on the Sugushi seas. He was a great
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: believer in the Zen Buddhism, from whose power he nourished
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: his wonderful spirit of conviction and bravery, which triumphed in
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: Japan's first battle with the foreign invasion some six hundred
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: years ago. And it was to the Chinese priest called
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: Sogenzenji whom he invited here to this Ngakuji, that he
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: made his students obeisance. Indeed, here where I walk in
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: silence under the reign of the twittering of birds from
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: the temple eaves through the sentinel straight cedar trees, is
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: the very place here he exchanged confidence and faith with
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: mountains and stars. He must have been sitting too in
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: the meditation house as those fifty priests whom we see
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: today in truth Sazen or sitting in abstraction is the
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: way to concentrate and intensify your mind, which will never
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: be alarmed, even when facing thunder and mountains falling right
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: before your eyes. You have to bend your right leg
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: and set it in the crotch of your left leg,
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: which two must be put on your right leg. Then
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: the back of your right hand shall be placed on
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: the left leg, and the back of your left hand
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: within your right palm, and both of your thumbs shall
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: be raised and joined to form a circle. You must
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: not look up nor down. Your ears and shoulders shall
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: be balanced straight in line, and also your nose and navel.
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: Open your eyes as usual, and breathe in and out slowly.
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: Above all, you must find the place of imaginary existence
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: of your soul right in your left palm. Then your
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: mind will grow into silence as the budder upon the
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: lotus flower. What a pure silence of the flower swimming
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: on the peace of the universe, not encroached by the
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: sense of life and death, you and nature being perfectly united.
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: Silence is the force of nature. It is the true
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: state in which to perfect one's existence. It is non action,
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: which does not mean inactivity. It is the full swing
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: of active actionlessness. It is the very completion of one's
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: health and spirit. Our forefathers of the fighting age regarded
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: it as a matter of great pride to die right
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: before their master's horse in battle. They thought, as one
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: saying goes, that to die was to return home, and
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: life for them was a temporary lodge itself which should
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: not be taken seriously. They respected frugality as a virtue.
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: They did not think that speech was a proper defense,
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: and settled themselves in the language of silence. The temple
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: of silence, such as engakuji and others, was for them
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: an indispensable sanctum of spiritual education. Here at Kamakura they
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: found their own sanctuaries Engakuji was burned down three or
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: four times by the warrior's fire, all except a little
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: temple called Shaddiden beside the meditation house, when some particles
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: of Buddah's bones, some part of his jaw, as it
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: is said, are enshrined. I believe that even the boorish
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: hearts of warriors were mellowed under the Budder's halo. It
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: is a small affair of thirty six foot square, crowned
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: with a thatched roof, has perfect harmony with nature, not
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: only spiritually but also materially. Is the keynote of zen Buddhism.
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: The soft, dark brown aged color of thatch was preferred.
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: The colour itself is that of contentment and submission. The
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: small Shaddy then is now under the government's protection as
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: a model structure, though it is small of the zensect
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: temples of the Kamakura period, which followed the Source style
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: of China. The second gate of the temple ground that
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: enormity of structure of two stories, carrying all the weariness
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: and silence of ages in colour, is a giant of surprise,
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: which however, does not alle strike you unnecessarily, but the
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: magnificent aspect of its settled power will make you really
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: wonder whether there may not be a certain power of
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: spirit burning under its ash and surface, by which it
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: is still keeping immensity of dignity. Not only the gate,
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: many other things of the ground seem soaring out from
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: the grasp of ruin. I dare say they will exist
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: indefinitely by the power of prayer and silence. Indeed, this
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: is the ground of mystery. However the Zen Buddhism may
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: deny it. You will learn. I am sure that carvings, gargoyle,
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: dragons and the like are not everything, even for a
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: Japanese temple. And what a grandeur of simplicity. Let us
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: learn here the grace simplicity of truth. A somewhat squat
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: building of a similar character of structure with the gate
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: tower some fifteen ken square one ken is six feet
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: will receive you after the if you wish to offer
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: your prayer. Prayer is the great, shining, clear treasure of
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: your mind, signified by the tablets carved from the autograph
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: of the Emperor Gokugen, which you see above the doors.
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: The floor is paved with the lichen green squares of tiles,
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: which add their tragic emphasis to the already twilight zone
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: of the edifice. The strangely gesticulating incense is seen rising
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: from the altar towards Shakyamuni, colossal black visaged, gold robed
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: and with a gold crown, who is accompanied by two
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: lonely figures of guardian Bosatsus. This is the place where
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: you can, by virtue of your prayer, forget your human
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: speech and rise up into the light of silence. If
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: one could stay here till the blessed day of Miroccu,
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: the expected Messiah whom Buddha promised us to give after
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: the lapse of five thousand years. End of Part two,
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: Part three of Kamakura by Yoni Noguchi. This LibriVox recording
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: is in the public domain. A legend of the Budder's
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: tooth from the Japangazette during the tenth eighteen ninety two.
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: In the Nehankyo Nirvana Sutra, it is written the Budda said,
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: onto the Lord of Heaven, now will I give thee
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: a relic. I will give thee a tooth from my
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: right upper jaw, and thou shalt build a tower in
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: the heavens and worship. And it shall come to pass
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: that thou shalt suttain onto everlasting happiness. Then did Taishaku Indra,
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: the supreme Ruler, bring onto the place of cremation a
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: precious jar ship on Okami, a jar of seven treasures
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: and vessels of worship. And behold, the fire was extinguished spontaneously.
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: Then did he open the coffin and take one tooth,
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: and returning to the heavens, he builded a tower and
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: made offerings. Now, two swift devils, making themselves invisible, walked
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: behind Thaishaku and did steal the relic of the Buddha's tooth.
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: But Bishamonteno vay is Ramana, the god of war, pursued
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: them and forced them to return the relic. In the
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: period of the toe Tang dynasty, there lived a certain
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: holy priest named nanzandor Zen Rishi, who devoutly believed in
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: and worshiped Bishamonteno and a saint called Da ten Veda Raga,
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: and who had received such miraculous answers to his prayers
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: from both that he marveled greatly at the benevolent results
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: of worshiping and trusting to their power and mercy. One day,
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: having read in the Nehankio about the Budda's tooth. He
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: prayed to be ENLiGHT and as to the meaning of
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: the passage, and to be allowed to see the relic,
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: and this being granted, he found that the tooth was
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: actually the same as spoken about in the Sacred Book.
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: He'd Atten further told Nanzan dos Sen Rishi that the
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: relic was now in his he'd Attend's possession, and then
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: bestowed it on the priest. Overjoyed at receiving such an
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: inestimable treasure, that Ishi guarded the sacred relic as one
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: would hold a jewel in the palm of the hand,
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: whether sleeping or waking, kept it constantly in safety. At night,
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: he slept holding the relic in his hands, and in
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: the daytime he concealed it in a hole in the ground,
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: and at last he bequeathed it to his disciple Unko Rihi.
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: During the Toe Tang dynasty, the Emperor Daiso desired to
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: see the relic, and again during the so Sung dynasty,
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: the Emperor Taiso and his son Taiso, disbelieving the story
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: and doubting that the tooth was not a real relic
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: of the Buddha, ordered it to be tried by fire
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: but as the color even under, whence no change. He
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: reverenced it, and writing a prayer upon it, placed the
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: relic into a silver pagoda and worshiped. Later on, the
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: emperors shinso Jin, so Eso, and Kuiso worshiped the relic
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: in their palaces and prayed for blessings at its shrine,
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: And afterwards it was placed in the Noningi Temple in
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: the capital of China. One night, the Kamakura Udaijin lord
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: Sanetomo Minamoto, had the following vision. He thought he went
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: to the kingdom of so sung and entering a splendid temple,
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: he saw a priest whom he thought to be the abbot,
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: surrounded by a large concourse of priests and people who
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: were so numerous as to fill the entire grounds of
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: the church. Then Stanitomo inquired from a priest whose looking on,
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: who the abbot was and what temple he was in,
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: And the priest replied, this is the Nominji temple of
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: the capital, and that abbot is Nanzan dozen Rishi, the Founder. Again,
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: Sanetomo spoke and said, but the Rishi died ages ago,
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: how can he then be here in the land of
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: the living it is hard to measure and understand the
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: path of sages, said the priest. Therefore, although dead, they live,
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: and although living, yet they are with the dead. According
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: to the time and place they live and die, and
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: die and live. He is now Sanatomo of Great Japan,
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: and in life the priest, now standing to the left
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: of the abbots, has been born again. It is the
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: rule of sansara metempsychosis. He lives in Yukinoshta at Kamakura
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: and Isryoshin Sodsu. Shortly afterward, Sanetomo awoke and, thinking the
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: dream very songe, sent a messenger to call Ryushin Sodsu.
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: But in the meanwhile, Ryushin Sodsu had likewise had a
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: vision and had started out to visit the Udaijin's palace, so,
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: meeting the messenger half way, both came into Sanetomo's presence. Together,
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: on comparing notes, it was found that their dreams were
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: both alike, and while they wondered at the coincidence, the
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: founder of the Jofukuji, Senkozenshi, arrived had told the same story. Sanetomo,
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: now clearly perceiving that he was nanzan Do sen Rishi
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: in a new birth conceived a great desire to travel
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: to China, see the sacred soil and worship the Budda's tooth,
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: but the project was discountenanced by Yoshitoki Hujo, lord of Sagami,
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: and his younger brother Tokifusa, lord of Musashi, who strongly
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: admonished him and advised him not to proceed. Sanetomo, however,
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: was not so easily led, and, determining to carry out
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: his idea, ordered a sea going vessel to be constructed
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: for the voyage. But the officers and artisans engaged in
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: the task consulted together and purposely built a boat which
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: would not sail properly, and when it was finished it was,
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: of course quite unmanageable. Although greatly incensed at the failure
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: of his plans, Sanetomo at last abandoned his design and
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: sent messengers in his stead to China. Among the other
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: members of the embassy were Ryoshian, Sodsu, Katsuzan, Guanze, Ottomobungo
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: no Kami, Shooni, magottaro O Yama, shichiro's i'm on uts
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: on Ama, Shimbei, Kikuchi, Shiro Murakamijiro, Mura shodinoske Un no Kotaro, Katsumata,
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: Hyogo no Kami, and Nanjo Jiro. The embassy carried with
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: them gold, silver, and various precious things, also timber and utensils, tools,
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: et cetera, and, on reaching their destination at the capital
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: of China, related the story of the dream, presented money
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: and offering to the priests, and built a gate for
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: the temple. Greatly rejoiced, the Chinese priests desired to make
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: return presents to Sanetomo, and therefore held the consultation on
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: the subject. But the Japanese said, we have in our
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: country money and treasure in abundance, and the Shogun therefore
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: desires nothing. All we desire is to be favored by
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: a loan of the Buddha's tooth, in order that we
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: may take it to our lord so that he may
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: worship it and thus gladden his heart. After this we
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: will return it to you. The Chinese priests, having been
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: ordered to guard the relic by their emperor, and the
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: tooth being sealed, they said it was a difficult request
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: to comply with. Yet, as this was such a special request,
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: they would lend the t on the understanding that it
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: should be returned after Sanitomo had worshiped it. Accordingly, the
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: relic was handed over to the Japanese messengers and they
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: returned homeward, accompanied by several Chinese priests. As they passed
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: through Kyoto, the Japanese Emperor heard the news, and, requesting
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: that the sacred tooth be deposited in his palace, kept
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: it there for about half a year. The messengers having
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: returned to Kamakura and related the action of his Majesty,
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: Sanitomo became very angry and ordered one of his people
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: to go to Kyoto and fetch the relic. A certain
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: old man named Tokuo Morinaga, over eighty years of age,
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: volunteered to go, and visiting the Emperor urged his cause
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: with such success that although his Majesty was loath to
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: part with the treasure, Morinaga was unable to carry the
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: tooth back to Kamakura with him. And in honor of
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: this event, Sani Phetomo, surrounded by a brilliant following of
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: lords and vassals, came out to meet his aged messenger
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: as far as Odawara, and it is affirmed that many
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: marvelous signs and wonders and strange phenomena marks the arrival
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: of the sacred relic in the land. A temple, the
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: Daijiji Temple of Great Mercy, was speedily constructed and the
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: relic duly placed therein, and later on in the time
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: of Sadatoki Hojo became sicken. In twelve eighty four, it
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: was considered that the position of the Engakuji, being between
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: the Inu and the e hound and Swine, two of
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: the names of the Chinese zodiac, was auspicious for the
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: preservation of the relic, as it would bring happiness to
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: and guard the city. A special shaddy Den relic shrine
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: was therefore constructed at the Engakuji, and the sacred tooth
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: was removed there too. It is said that during periods
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: of war, strife, famine, pestilence, drought and floods, if prayers
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: were addressed to this shrine, a wonderful answer was always vouchsafed.
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: Also that in the periods of the Mongolian invasion in
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: Bunei and Koan twelve sixty four to twelve seventy four
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: and twelve seventy eight to twelve eighty seven, an auspicious
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: omen was given through the power of the relic. It
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: is further related that the god of the Hatchiman shrine
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: at Surugualka appeared to the son of Yoshitoki Hojo when
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: he was but eight years of age, and said, it
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: is the greatest of all treasures, the most benevolent blessing,
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: this relic of the Buddha which has come to Japan.
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: I worshiped it daily and received countless blessings, after which
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: he vanished. Such marvelous occurrences were very frequent. On the
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: twenty third of July thirteen eighty four, the government issued
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: a notification giving grants of land to the monastery in
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: Idzusagami and Kadzusa. This document is still in existence, but
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: during the civil wars the lands were lost. Of late years,
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: the church has been thrown into a state of confusion
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: by various changes, and the religious ceremonies attendant on the
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: worship of the relic have been more or less neglected. However,
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: the world is now in a peaceful state, and all
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: mankind basque in the clemency of the Emperor's benevolence. Therefore,
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: we should earnestly pray that this peace may long continue
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: and that the Imperial House may flourish throughout ten thousand years.
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: In the Dai Hankyakyo Maha Prajna Paramita Sutra, it is written,
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: if good young men and virtuous young women respectfully and
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: devoutly worship the relic of the Buddha, they will certainly
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: not fall into either of the three evil paths of jigoku, khaki, bikusho, purgatory, hungry,
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: devils and beasts, but will be reborn in the state
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: of human beings and celestial beings, will be blessed with
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: wealth and happiness, and according to their prayers, will ride
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: upon the three conveyances Triana into Nirvana. In the Hikuakio
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: is likewise written, in this world of suffering, my relics
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: shall change to an emerald duel for the sake of
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: the poor and unfortunate, and shall scatter seven treasures upon
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: all mankind. I will grant their prayers. The golden words
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: of Buddha are perfectly true. End of Part three, Part
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: four of Kamakura by Yoni no Gucci. This LibriVox recording
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: is in the public domain by a Budda temple in
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: the voices of a bear well where prayer like a
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: light all day kisses the shadow like chest of faith.
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: I a wearied note of life, have a home along
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: the path of the breeze, where love lone but happy
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: sings and roams. I gather the petals of thought, nursed
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: by the slumber of peace. Truth, like the moon of
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: day and night, ever perfect, all silent and gold, shed
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: thy light over sorrow and cheer. Make me regain my
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: rest and song. Ah through the mountains and rivers, that
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: thy vastness thrill like that of air. I read thy
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: word in the flash of a leaf, thy mystery in
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: the whisper of a grass. End of Part four, Part
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: five of Kamakura by yon In Nogucci. This libruvox recording
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: is in the public domain. Undiscovered Kamakura. After all this,
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: Kamakura is still almost an undiscovered country to foreign travelers.
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: Although it is supposed to be the first or second
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: calling spot in the course of their Japanese pilgrimage, I
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: dare say it is unknown also to the present Japanese themselves.
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: By Kamakura, I do not mean the town of the
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: colossal statue of Buddha or the striking figure of Quannon
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: of Hasse all golden in the dark, or the red
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: painted Hatchiman Temple with the beautifully green background. I admit
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: that they are historical, at least to the Japanese mind,
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: and fantastically suggestive, no doubt to the Western visitors. But
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: my artistic sense is always repelled by the thought of
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: the town generally known as Kamakura, which is most artlessly
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: built and commercially schemed. I know that the real Kamakura
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: in the older, meaning the most reverential town of Buddhism
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: and prayer, is not the town we see to day.
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: Once upon a time, it is a long time ago,
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: a mighty cataclysm of nature, a tremendous wave of the
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: sea dashing far inland, destroyed the whole town and left
• 43:20
  Speaker 1: it a perfect ruin for many centuries till modern Japan
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: found it as a summer resort. When it awoke from
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: the ashes and dusts alas, it did not find the
• 43:31
  Speaker 1: old glory and song, but only the hastily built villas
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: of rich men and nobles. It is sad to see
• 43:39
  Speaker 1: the holy Budda and Quannon in an atmosphere and surroundings
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: not congenial to their own spirits. They are obliged to
• 43:47
  Speaker 1: stand in their own old places like lost spirits, and
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: saddest of all, they are showpieces which are always shown
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: out of place. Therefore known, Kamakura is one of the
• 43:59
  Speaker 1: most miserable sights, and I dare say it is not
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: real Kamakura at all. Oh where is then undiscovered Kamakura?
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: As I say, for three long months of summer, I
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: was almost wretched in feeling here at Kamakura that commercialism
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: rained over it. It is not only here, but in
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: any place called a summer resort, that your commercial value
• 44:25
  Speaker 1: is the first thing to be considered. But with the
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: passing of September, when the fierily quick song of the
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: sicada gave place to the gentler chance of the cricket,
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: the summer people, we might say, ebbed away. And when
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: we are done with the uncertain weather, usually with rain
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: and wind, which is bound to follow after summer, we
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: are as I am today, with the autumn, mellow and kind,
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: the season of the clearest sky and softest breeze. It
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: was natural that I found myself by the yuigahammer shore,
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: where I had not dared to step for two or
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: three months, as I had been afraid to confront the
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: bathing crowd. As I expected, I met nobody here to day.
• 45:09
  Speaker 1: To my satisfaction, I sat with the sea for a
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: long while and dreamed, and then into the homelessness of
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: the sea I awoke, Oh, my heart of the wind
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: and spray. I am glad to be no man today
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: with the laughter and dance of the sea soul. Dip
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: the song of the sea and wind, throw it into
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: my heart of longing. I like to be with the
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: clan of the waters and air. Oh, my soul of
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: the sea, soul and surge. Roll in the wonder of
• 45:44
  Speaker 1: the heart and sea. Oh, my joy of the sea,
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: soul and flash. Gather all the lights of the wind
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: and sea to guard against the black night. Of course,
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: the sky was as blue as could be. It seems
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: that the snow already touched Fujiyama. As I saw far
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: away the divinely white cone transcending the green foliage and
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: hills which faced me, I am glad that Enoshima, the
• 46:13
  Speaker 1: holy isle of the Goddess of the Sea or Benten,
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: is so near to me that I can almost talk
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: with it. This is the season when you can open
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: your own heart to Mother Nature, and she will reveal
• 46:25
  Speaker 1: her truest soul to you, in which you may find
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: your own salvation. I believe that even the ugly part
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: of the town, or the part of known Kamakurha would
• 46:35
  Speaker 1: not look this bad under this lovely autumnal weather. I
• 46:39
  Speaker 1: am sure great Budder will appear as the perfect form
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: of contemplation or satisfaction with the decided background of the
• 46:47
  Speaker 1: deep blue sky, not today under the uncertainty of cloud
• 46:52
  Speaker 1: and sky of the summer season. And the red paint
• 46:56
  Speaker 1: of the Hatcheman shrine, which looked horridly oppressive under the
• 46:59
  Speaker 1: hots on, should now I imagine, be toned down even
• 47:03
  Speaker 1: beautifully through the soft air. Indeed, this is the time
• 47:07
  Speaker 1: when you can find real kamakura, whose loveliness is sung
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: in old poetry. And again, this is the season when
• 47:15
  Speaker 1: we reflect on ourselves and I adventure even into the unknown.
• 47:19
  Speaker 1: And if you are a Buddhistic believer into the thought
• 47:23
  Speaker 1: of the paradise or nirvana, it is not unprofitable to
• 47:27
  Speaker 1: think a bit of your future life or after death.
• 47:32
  Speaker 1: I walked by the beach towards Kotsubol, the fishing village.
• 47:37
  Speaker 1: I have nothing to do with the village, but My
• 47:39
  Speaker 1: aim is to find out and discovered Kamakura, the old
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: town of Buddhism and prayer, as I know how to
• 47:46
  Speaker 1: find it. Because this is the thirteenth of October, the
• 47:50
  Speaker 1: opening night of Juya or ten night prayer held annually
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: at Komyoji Temple. Again, this is the very season when
• 47:58
  Speaker 1: we feel like praying. I approached Saimukuza where Komyoji Temple,
• 48:04
  Speaker 1: one of the five greatest temples in Kamakura, is situated
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: close by the water, whose rhythmical sound beating the sands
• 48:12
  Speaker 1: and pebbles echoes to the hearts of Buddhistic faith as
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: the tireless repetition of the holy name of Buddha Amidabah.
• 48:21
  Speaker 1: The temple belongs to the Jodo sect, which proclaims that
• 48:25
  Speaker 1: the real salvation is gained only through fervency in calling
• 48:29
  Speaker 1: on His name. Prayer in the real meaning is better
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: than reasoning, and the shortest prayer is the best. The
• 48:37
  Speaker 1: single exclamation of namu Amida is said to be worthy
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: enough to make you born in the paradise. Here I
• 48:44
  Speaker 1: will say that you must go to the water to
• 48:47
  Speaker 1: learn the secret of prayer, and in another word, the
• 48:50
  Speaker 1: secret of the Jodo sect of Buddhism. Thus, while I
• 48:54
  Speaker 1: mused on one thing or another, my footsteps were already
• 48:58
  Speaker 1: in the main street which lied to the entrance gate
• 49:01
  Speaker 1: of the temple. What a sight, what a crowd, and
• 49:05
  Speaker 1: what booths. Although there was some little while yet before
• 49:10
  Speaker 1: the real dusk, every booth was already lighted by candles
• 49:14
  Speaker 1: and lanterns. It is not exaggeration at all to say
• 49:19
  Speaker 1: that there were almost a thousand booths which were eager
• 49:21
  Speaker 1: to make business with the people who came here to
• 49:24
  Speaker 1: pray and hold awake before the Holy Buddha. There was,
• 49:28
  Speaker 1: in fact nothing in the world that you might not find,
• 49:32
  Speaker 1: even from the dust pan and broom to needles and threads.
• 49:36
  Speaker 1: As it was a Japanese affair in the country, the
• 49:39
  Speaker 1: eating booths occupied a prominent part at this religious festival too. We,
• 49:45
  Speaker 1: as somebody remarked, do not forget pleasures of the senses
• 49:49
  Speaker 1: even in religion. Asceticism is not trying if you know
• 49:53
  Speaker 1: how to undertake it. This Ten Nights prayer is, on
• 49:57
  Speaker 1: the other hand, the happiest sort of annual pleasure making
• 50:00
  Speaker 1: in country life. I think that it was even necessary
• 50:04
  Speaker 1: for fishermen and farmers in the olden time, before the
• 50:07
  Speaker 1: age of railroad and carriage, to come here and do
• 50:10
  Speaker 1: the whole year's marketing. Even to day, when civilization and
• 50:15
  Speaker 1: a bigger town are only one step out, they seem
• 50:18
  Speaker 1: to find a joy in buying one thing or two
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: and recollecting a tradition or history. I walked amid the
• 50:25
  Speaker 1: crowds and dinn through the booths, and slowly entered the
• 50:29
  Speaker 1: temple gates. On both sides of the pathway, numerous shows
• 50:34
  Speaker 1: were put up temporarily where children swarmed. I thought, its freedom,
• 50:39
  Speaker 1: which lets the joy hunters follow after their own purpose.
• 50:44
  Speaker 1: Who wishes to pray and repeats the holy name as
• 50:47
  Speaker 1: to step into the main temple. I entered too. The
• 50:53
  Speaker 1: Chief Father, with the other thirty and more monks, already
• 50:56
  Speaker 1: had taken his seats before the Budda's holy dais. The
• 51:00
  Speaker 1: sixteen little girls called Chigo in two lines left and
• 51:05
  Speaker 1: right by the dais, with golden crowns on their heads.
• 51:09
  Speaker 1: Paper made flowers of lotus and peony in hand, dressed
• 51:13
  Speaker 1: in red and white, were charming pictures. When the sutra
• 51:17
  Speaker 1: reading commenced, more candles were lighted and more incense burned.
• 51:23
  Speaker 1: The people who sat in the hall with the hearts
• 51:25
  Speaker 1: of prayer were silent as a deep sea. The reading
• 51:29
  Speaker 1: was finished, the Father turned from the dais to the people,
• 51:32
  Speaker 1: who called in profound voice the holy name three times
• 51:36
  Speaker 1: after his lead Namu Amidah. Then the father and monks
• 51:41
  Speaker 1: and chigos left the prayer hall noiselessly, leaving the people,
• 51:46
  Speaker 1: more than one thousand in number, to repeat the Buddha's
• 51:50
  Speaker 1: name at their own wills. I was permitted to stay
• 51:55
  Speaker 1: over the night. A little room in the monk's residence
• 51:58
  Speaker 1: quarter was given me for sleeping. As I wanted to
• 52:02
  Speaker 1: pass my hours quietly. I did not dare to go
• 52:05
  Speaker 1: into the crowd again. When I wished to sleep, I
• 52:09
  Speaker 1: was perfectly restless, being haunted by the praying sound of
• 52:12
  Speaker 1: a thousand persons in the hall that rounded me, as
• 52:16
  Speaker 1: if a voice of the far off sea or forgotten ghosts.
• 52:21
  Speaker 1: The voice of prayer is old as the truest heart
• 52:24
  Speaker 1: is old. I thought I had seen the religion of
• 52:27
  Speaker 1: prayer in its still living life and fire. Genku, the
• 52:32
  Speaker 1: founder of this Jodo sect, left the principle on his deathbed.
• 52:37
  Speaker 1: The method of final salvation that I have given for
• 52:40
  Speaker 1: all mankind is neither a sort of meditation, such as
• 52:44
  Speaker 1: is practiced by many scholars in China and Japan. Nor
• 52:48
  Speaker 1: is it a repetition of a Budda's name by those
• 52:51
  Speaker 1: who have studied and understood the deep meaning of the
• 52:54
  Speaker 1: Buddah Ami Daba without even any doubt of his mercy,
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: whereby one may be born in the happiest land of
• 53:01
  Speaker 1: the Buddha. The mere repetition with firm faith includes all
• 53:07
  Speaker 1: the practical details, such as the threefold preparation of mind
• 53:11
  Speaker 1: and the four methods of religious service. If I, as
• 53:16
  Speaker 1: an individual, have any doctrine more profound than this, I
• 53:19
  Speaker 1: should miss the mercy of the two honorable ones, Amidaba
• 53:24
  Speaker 1: and Sakyamuni, and be left out of the convent of
• 53:27
  Speaker 1: the Buddha Ami Daba. Those who believe this should, though
• 53:31
  Speaker 1: they clearly understand all the teachings of Sakyamuni throughout his
• 53:36
  Speaker 1: whole life, behave themselves like simple people who know not
• 53:40
  Speaker 1: a single letter, or like ignorance nuns or monks whose
• 53:44
  Speaker 1: faith is implicitly simple. Thus, without pedantic heirs, they should
• 53:49
  Speaker 1: practice fervently the repetition of the name of Ami Daba,
• 53:53
  Speaker 1: and that alone. In the days of the old glory
• 53:58
  Speaker 1: of Kamakura when such as saying, quanto Hakakuku wamote Nippon Kokkunitaishi,
• 54:04
  Speaker 1: Kamakura omoti, quanto Hakakokkunitaisu. The quanto eight provinces can match
• 54:11
  Speaker 1: the whole of Japan, and here Kamakura can match the
• 54:14
  Speaker 1: whole of those eight provinces was minted in gold in
• 54:19
  Speaker 1: those days. To be a Kamakura bushi or a Kamakura
• 54:23
  Speaker 1: man meant to be a man on the face of earth.
• 54:27
  Speaker 1: A cluster of fishermen's villagers suddenly became the capital of
• 54:30
  Speaker 1: the Eastern Provinces under Yoritomo, who originated the first feudal government.
• 54:36
  Speaker 1: Here and the place, as I said, demonstrated the mightiest
• 54:39
  Speaker 1: power ever known in history. However, Yoritomo and his family
• 54:44
  Speaker 1: lasted only forty years in real power, being followed by
• 54:48
  Speaker 1: Yoshitoki Hojo, wisely under the title of Shikeen or administrator,
• 54:54
  Speaker 1: and his family remained for one hundred and fifty years,
• 54:57
  Speaker 1: grasping at the breasts of japan sixty six provinces and dictating,
• 55:03
  Speaker 1: but not just the always till the downfall of Takatokiyojo
• 55:08
  Speaker 1: in thirteen hundred and seven. However, the Hojo family started
• 55:13
  Speaker 1: its administration with no small wisdom and creditable justice, which
• 55:17
  Speaker 1: the people welcomed glad to breathe freely under the age
• 55:21
  Speaker 1: of peace. Peace soon bloomed into the mellowness of prosperity,
• 55:26
  Speaker 1: which reached its height. It is said under Yasutoki and Tokiyodi,
• 55:31
  Speaker 1: the successors of Tokimasa, they encouraged simplicity of living and
• 55:36
  Speaker 1: rejected every habit of ease and luxury, and their minds
• 55:40
  Speaker 1: were turned to the amelioration of people's condition and the
• 55:43
  Speaker 1: desire to renew their prosperity. They instilled the very spirit
• 55:48
  Speaker 1: of bushido the precepts of knighthood into their souls. Above all,
• 55:55
  Speaker 1: they respected the Imperial House in Kyoto, and they tried
• 55:58
  Speaker 1: to impress upon the people that their guiding principle was
• 56:02
  Speaker 1: to adore the gods and the Buddhas, as was clearly
• 56:05
  Speaker 1: expressed in the Gosai Bai Shikimuku code. They built temples
• 56:10
  Speaker 1: and invited many priests to Kamakura, to whom they made
• 56:14
  Speaker 1: obeysins as students. Koben of Toganoo, a priest in those days,
• 56:21
  Speaker 1: once exclaimed were Buddhism, a religion represented by the present
• 56:26
  Speaker 1: generation of priests, it would be the worst in the world.
• 56:31
  Speaker 1: In truth, the religious decadence had almost reached headwater mark.
• 56:36
  Speaker 1: The priests had lost the people's respect, and Buddhism turned
• 56:40
  Speaker 1: to a childish rite itself. Its real spirit utterly vanished. However,
• 56:46
  Speaker 1: its revival in one form or another was expected when
• 56:50
  Speaker 1: Yoritomo came to power and the time ripened with the
• 56:54
  Speaker 1: rise of the Hojo family. Yasutoki and Tokiyori and others
• 56:59
  Speaker 1: found their religion ideal in the Zen Buddhism. Tokiyodi, the
• 57:04
  Speaker 1: then Shicken, who went to China for the purpose of
• 57:07
  Speaker 1: studying the Zen Buddhism, received Bosatsky, and afterward he invited
• 57:12
  Speaker 1: a so priest named Dodyu from China and built for
• 57:16
  Speaker 1: him the Kenchoji Temple, which might be said today to
• 57:19
  Speaker 1: be the companion temple of the Engakuji Temple. The latter
• 57:24
  Speaker 1: was built so later by the famous Tokimuni, the very
• 57:27
  Speaker 1: son of Tokiyori, the fourth administrator of the Hojo family.
• 57:32
  Speaker 1: The Zen Buddhism, which professes to seek salvation in your
• 57:35
  Speaker 1: own soul, that is to say, through the virtue of
• 57:38
  Speaker 1: your meditation was not, however, accessible for the masses only
• 57:43
  Speaker 1: belonging to the upper class of intelligence and culture. And
• 57:47
  Speaker 1: then how should the souls of the masses, ignorant and
• 57:51
  Speaker 1: uncouth be saved? Here? Nena of the Jodo sect entered
• 57:57
  Speaker 1: into Kamakura with his religion of prayer, and at once
• 58:00
  Speaker 1: became the light and law to them. What is religion
• 58:04
  Speaker 1: if not faith? Faith is fire and life with it,
• 58:09
  Speaker 1: indeed you live and die. It was Sunetoki, the second
• 58:15
  Speaker 1: administrator of the Hojo family, who built this Komyoji temple
• 58:19
  Speaker 1: for Nina, originally at Sassoke Gayatsu, as soon afterward moved
• 58:24
  Speaker 1: its here to Zaimukaza, where it still stands. The Imperial
• 58:29
  Speaker 1: court often invited him and his successors to Kyoto and
• 58:33
  Speaker 1: thought their presence and honor. Many emperors expressed their respect
• 58:38
  Speaker 1: toward the temple in one thing or another. We see
• 58:41
  Speaker 1: still today the imperial writings in their autograph, most of
• 58:46
  Speaker 1: them being preserved as tablets hung at the proper place.
• 58:50
  Speaker 1: It was at the time of the emperor got suchimikado
• 58:54
  Speaker 1: that Yusu, the chief father of the ninth generation of
• 58:57
  Speaker 1: the temple, started this Juya and Nu festival under the
• 59:01
  Speaker 1: imperial command. As you see, the festival has a long history,
• 59:06
  Speaker 1: being more than five hundred years old. I read somewhere
• 59:10
  Speaker 1: that the people born and bred among natural beauties are
• 59:14
  Speaker 1: far more religious than those deprived of them. It is
• 59:18
  Speaker 1: certainly a great wisdom to build a temple in the
• 59:21
  Speaker 1: beautiful spot with hills and waters, as Komyoji Temple is situated.
• 59:27
  Speaker 1: It is most natural for anybody, when the grandson sinks
• 59:30
  Speaker 1: in the bluest fathoms of sea, to turn his head
• 59:34
  Speaker 1: to the west, where doubtless the evening glow brightens the horizon,
• 59:39
  Speaker 1: and think of the place of Nirvana or Paradise, which,
• 59:43
  Speaker 1: as the story says, lies in the west. Appreciation of
• 59:48
  Speaker 1: nature is, after all, appreciation of religion. Gets faith in
• 59:54
  Speaker 1: the sun, mountains and seas. Then your soul is saved.
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 1: And of part five, Part six of Kamakura ba Yoni Nogucci,
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 1: this LibriVox recording is in the public domain. The wonder
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 1: of bronze. We have also a time, quite frequently when
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 1: a little dissatisfaction at once turns even to a full
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 1: sized cynicism. And like a foreign traveler who has become
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 1: suddenly sad, losing all excitement. As things grow familiar, we
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 1: feel even a ridiculous littleness in houses, in gardens, in everything,
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 1: above all in set manners. It is at such a
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 1: time that we take the most indifferent attitude, as if
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 1: we were not all in part responsible and gladly speculating
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 1: cold blood upon the degradation of modern Japan. Where is
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 1: artistic surprise, thing wonderful and intense that still in fact
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 1: exists such if one knows where to find it. Japan
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 1: is not wholly lost. And if you see it at
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 1: the unexpected corner, particularly when you are in a bad humor,
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 1: your joy will be surely doubled. It is exactly my
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 1: own case whenever I see the Dai butsu Oh holiness, holiness,
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 1: And it is singular enough that the place where the
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 1: statue dwells always appears to me strange and sudden. I
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 1: assure you, however, I have seen it a hundred times,
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 1: and at least I make myself believe the place is
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 1: sudden and strange, to make my prosaic life interesting with
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 1: a happy break. Indeed, Japanese life is not so romantic
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 1: as it is written in a story. It is not
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 1: easy for anybody to think that such a wonder of
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 1: human creation Dai butsu great and eternal ever stands quite
• 1:01:59
  Speaker 1: near the station at Kamakura. It is not much more
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 1: than one mile from there, taking the main thoroughfare at
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 1: the right. I am sure you would never think that
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 1: you will come at the end to anything worthy when
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 1: you see about yourself a common source of country town
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 1: of modern Japan, not much different from the others, perhaps
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 1: less individual and striking, because ambition looks merely to going
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 1: into commercialism, and you cannot, under the heaven make yourself
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 1: believe the town is connected with one of the greatest
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 1: arts that today exists. If you are not sure the
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 1: great idol of Buddha is waiting for you at a
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 1: certain place, you will, I believe, turn back at the
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 1: start as quick as you can. It is true, it
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 1: will wait for your coming if necessary, even one thousand years.
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 1: This may be a proper place to tell you that
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 1: this town of Kamakura, the great seat of the Shoguns
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 1: from eleven eighty nine onward, and of the so called
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 1: region of the Hudjo family during the troublous Middle Age,
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 1: was the city of religious faith and art, and being
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 1: taken by storm and burnt to the ground in fourteen
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 1: fifty five, and again in fifteen twenty six. It's gradually
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 1: lost its importance. You would see that the ancient city
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 1: of Kamakura was not altogether uncongenial to your artistic temperament,
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 1: and can well suppose that the Great Idol found quite
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 1: a satisfactory home, whereas today a shop of picture cards
• 1:03:31
  Speaker 1: and souvenirs their study. In olden day, a mansion or
• 1:03:35
  Speaker 1: castle of fighting heroes, where today we see a restaurant,
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 1: even with a sign board in English, may have been
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 1: the home of an eminent swordsmith or painter. Kamakura is
• 1:03:46
  Speaker 1: nothing if she has no history. For the sake of
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 1: that history, we try not to see the present. I
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 1: do not think it necessary to tell you to turn
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 1: to the right after you have followed the main road.
• 1:04:00
  Speaker 1: You can trust in your artistic impulse in turning right.
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 1: And when you once have turned right, you are already
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 1: under the soft and gray Buddhistic atmosphere and even feel
• 1:04:11
  Speaker 1: the influence of the Great Idol. There is only ten
• 1:04:15
  Speaker 1: or fifteen minutes walk before you reach the temple gate,
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 1: where the Niwo, the guardian gods watch for any undesirable intruder,
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 1: and you see face to face the great holiness right
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 1: beyond the gate, having a long courtyard in good order
• 1:04:30
  Speaker 1: between Professor Chamberlain says in Things Japanese, he who has
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 1: time should visits the Daibutsu repeatedly, for like Niagara, like
• 1:04:43
  Speaker 1: Saint Peter's and several other of the greatest works of
• 1:04:46
  Speaker 1: nature and art, it fails to produce its full effect
• 1:04:49
  Speaker 1: on a first or even on the second visit, but
• 1:04:53
  Speaker 1: the impression it produces grows on the beholder each time
• 1:04:56
  Speaker 1: that he gazes afresh at the calm, intellectual, passionless face,
• 1:05:01
  Speaker 1: which seems to concentrate in itself the whole philosophy of Buddhism,
• 1:05:06
  Speaker 1: the triumph of mind over sense of eternity, over fleeting time,
• 1:05:10
  Speaker 1: of the enduring majesty of nirvana, over the trivial prattle,
• 1:05:14
  Speaker 1: the transitory agitations of mundane existence. That is said beautifully
• 1:05:21
  Speaker 1: and truly. But if you know the diebuts whose real measurements,
• 1:05:26
  Speaker 1: you will be surprised at its large scale and great size.
• 1:05:29
  Speaker 1: And yet you must have a power to perceive a
• 1:05:32
  Speaker 1: wonder of its proportion. The measurements are as follows, height,
• 1:05:38
  Speaker 1: forty nine feet seven inches, circumference ninety seven feet two
• 1:05:43
  Speaker 1: point two inches. Length of face eight feet five point
• 1:05:48
  Speaker 1: one five inches, width from ear to ear seventeen feet
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 1: nine point two inches, round white boss on forehead one
• 1:05:57
  Speaker 1: foot three point four seven inches. Length of eye three
• 1:06:01
  Speaker 1: foot eleven point six inches. Length of eyebrow four feet
• 1:06:06
  Speaker 1: one point nine eight inches, length of ear six feet
• 1:06:10
  Speaker 1: six point five four inches. Length of nose three feets
• 1:06:14
  Speaker 1: nine point two two inches. Length of mouth three feet
• 1:06:19
  Speaker 1: two point zero eight inches. Height of bump of wisdom
• 1:06:23
  Speaker 1: nine point five two inches. Diameter of bump of wisdom
• 1:06:28
  Speaker 1: two feet four point five six inches curls of which
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 1: there are eight hundred and thirty height nine point five
• 1:06:36
  Speaker 1: two inches curls of which there are eight hundred and
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 1: thirty diameter eleven point nine inches. Length from knee to
• 1:06:44
  Speaker 1: knee thirty five feet eight point four inches. Circumference of
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 1: thumb say three feet. The eyes are of pure gold,
• 1:06:55
  Speaker 1: and the silver boss weighs thirty pounds of vua dupois.
• 1:06:59
  Speaker 1: The image is formed of sheets of bronze cast separately,
• 1:07:03
  Speaker 1: raisen together, and finished off on the outside with a chisel.
• 1:07:09
  Speaker 1: It is not out of place to tell a bit
• 1:07:11
  Speaker 1: of its history. I believe it is said that there
• 1:07:14
  Speaker 1: has been a temple in the place since the eighth century,
• 1:07:17
  Speaker 1: but its precise history is involved in obscurity. Tradition says
• 1:07:22
  Speaker 1: that the shogun Yoditomo, when taking part in the dedication
• 1:07:26
  Speaker 1: of the restored daibutsu at Nara in the sixth year
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 1: of Kenkyu eleven ninety five, to which place he had
• 1:07:33
  Speaker 1: been called by the emperor to supervise the ceremony, conceived
• 1:07:37
  Speaker 1: the desire of having a similar object of worship at
• 1:07:40
  Speaker 1: his own capital of Kamakura, but died before he could
• 1:07:44
  Speaker 1: put his plan into execution. Itano Nutsubone, one of his
• 1:07:49
  Speaker 1: waiting ladies, undertook to collect funds for the purpose, and
• 1:07:53
  Speaker 1: the priest Joko assisted her with such devotion that in
• 1:07:56
  Speaker 1: the first year of genin twelve twenty four, the first image,
• 1:08:00
  Speaker 1: which was of wood, was begun to be built, and
• 1:08:03
  Speaker 1: it was completed in the first year of rekinin twelve
• 1:08:07
  Speaker 1: thirty eight. A splendid chapel was also constructed here in
• 1:08:11
  Speaker 1: the first year of Kwangen twelve forty three, but in
• 1:08:15
  Speaker 1: the autumn of the second year of the Hoji twelve
• 1:08:17
  Speaker 1: forty eight, the chapel was overthrown by a storm and
• 1:08:21
  Speaker 1: the image badly damaged, and it a no subone was
• 1:08:24
  Speaker 1: called to action, being assisted by the shogun Prince Munitaka,
• 1:08:29
  Speaker 1: who provided the metal to cast a bronze image and
• 1:08:32
  Speaker 1: restored the temple in all its former splendor. The image
• 1:08:37
  Speaker 1: was commenced in the fourth year of Kencho, and the
• 1:08:39
  Speaker 1: maker was gorriyemon Uno, an artificer of Yanamura of the
• 1:08:44
  Speaker 1: Kadsasar Province. It is indeed sad that nothing is known
• 1:08:48
  Speaker 1: about him, but his glorious work remains as it is.
• 1:08:52
  Speaker 1: It was the first time that such a marvelous piece
• 1:08:54
  Speaker 1: of metal work had been successfully attempted in Japan. Had
• 1:08:58
  Speaker 1: the perfect mastery of foreman and beauty and grandeur of
• 1:09:01
  Speaker 1: outline is a great triumph of Japanese art. It is
• 1:09:06
  Speaker 1: in the words of a true friend that John Lafarge said,
• 1:09:10
  Speaker 1: like all work done on archaic principles, the main accentuations
• 1:09:14
  Speaker 1: are overstated, as saved in their relations by great subtleties.
• 1:09:18
  Speaker 1: In the large surfaces. It is emphatically modeled for a colossus.
• 1:09:23
  Speaker 1: It is not a little thing made big like our
• 1:09:26
  Speaker 1: modern colossal statues. It has always been big and would
• 1:09:31
  Speaker 1: be so if reduced to life size. Further, he remarks,
• 1:09:37
  Speaker 1: astounding success of the artist in what he has really done,
• 1:09:41
  Speaker 1: for there is no trace of means. The sum of
• 1:09:44
  Speaker 1: realism is so slight, the conventional has so great a part.
• 1:09:49
  Speaker 1: Each detail is almost more of an ornament than of
• 1:09:52
  Speaker 1: a representation. One almost believes that the result may be
• 1:09:56
  Speaker 1: partly accidental. That as one cannot fathom the reason of
• 1:10:00
  Speaker 1: the expressiveness of a countenance, or of the influence of
• 1:10:03
  Speaker 1: a few musical notes, so it seems difficult to grant
• 1:10:07
  Speaker 1: that there were once many paths opened before it. And
• 1:10:11
  Speaker 1: still more do I believe that the accident of the
• 1:10:14
  Speaker 1: great tempest has given a yet more potent and subtle
• 1:10:17
  Speaker 1: meaning to the entire figure. Once upon a time is details. Indeed,
• 1:10:23
  Speaker 1: if not its entirety, must have looked more delicate in
• 1:10:26
  Speaker 1: the reflected light of the temple building, when the upper
• 1:10:29
  Speaker 1: part of the figure glittered in answer to the opening
• 1:10:32
  Speaker 1: of the doors. But could anything ever have rivaled the
• 1:10:37
  Speaker 1: undecidedness of this background of veiled sky and shifting blue,
• 1:10:41
  Speaker 1: which makes one believe at times that the figure soon
• 1:10:44
  Speaker 1: must move as one looks longer and longer at it,
• 1:10:48
  Speaker 1: with everything around it gently changing, and the shadows shifting
• 1:10:52
  Speaker 1: upon its surface. The tension of expectation rises to anxiety.
• 1:10:58
  Speaker 1: The trees rustle and wave behind it, and the light
• 1:11:01
  Speaker 1: dances up and down the green boughs with the wind.
• 1:11:05
  Speaker 1: It must move, but there is no change, and it
• 1:11:08
  Speaker 1: shall sit forever. Indeed, it is far better to see
• 1:11:13
  Speaker 1: this gigantic divinity of bronze with folded hands and head
• 1:11:17
  Speaker 1: inclined in ecstatic contemplation, in the open air, rather than
• 1:11:22
  Speaker 1: in the house, because we can go straight with its
• 1:11:25
  Speaker 1: presence right before our faces, now looming above the trees,
• 1:11:30
  Speaker 1: then almost appearing to move through their openings, into the
• 1:11:33
  Speaker 1: true heart of Mother nature, the hills, the sky, what depth,
• 1:11:39
  Speaker 1: the sunshine and air. To truly understand it is the
• 1:11:43
  Speaker 1: very way of one's own salvation. When you look upon
• 1:11:47
  Speaker 1: the daibutsu's unwinking, changeless face, perfectly free from all the
• 1:11:52
  Speaker 1: disturbance of the world, which is always subject to time
• 1:11:55
  Speaker 1: and change, you are entering into the state of nirvana,
• 1:11:59
  Speaker 1: or ready on the spot. It is here that once
• 1:12:03
  Speaker 1: I wrote, I that sit in your haven, a'm a
• 1:12:07
  Speaker 1: sea tossed boat. I lay my body and sail under
• 1:12:10
  Speaker 1: your breath. You that's pitied me. You that greeted me. Oh,
• 1:12:16
  Speaker 1: what a sense that is. The Lord Buddha's here. The
• 1:12:20
  Speaker 1: air missed purple is laden with prayer. Ah, let me
• 1:12:25
  Speaker 1: join to your prayer and soul. Ah, Holiness, Holiness touch me,
• 1:12:30
  Speaker 1: heal my sea wounded heart. Your hand blessed is butts Theavanna's.
• 1:12:39
  Speaker 1: It has been my joy now for many years to
• 1:12:41
  Speaker 1: see it and linger about it. In spring and autumn,
• 1:12:44
  Speaker 1: under the sunshine or rain. I see its soft gray
• 1:12:49
  Speaker 1: and violet tone. When a faint but lovely autumn fills
• 1:12:53
  Speaker 1: fully the little hollow, the haven of peace and prayer,
• 1:12:56
  Speaker 1: And when the hot summer light falls on it, its
• 1:12:59
  Speaker 1: color is curiously pale. I again agree with mister Lafarge
• 1:13:04
  Speaker 1: that it was just as well not to have any
• 1:13:07
  Speaker 1: imposing monuments like the great Cryptomeria around here, as the
• 1:13:11
  Speaker 1: whole impression comes only from the statue. He was always
• 1:13:15
  Speaker 1: right in the matter of art. End of Part six,
• 1:13:27
  Speaker 1: Part seven of Kamakura bay Yoni Noguchi. This libryvox recording
• 1:13:32
  Speaker 1: is in the public domain by the daibutsu at Kamakura
• 1:13:39
  Speaker 1: Above the old songs turned to ashes and pain, under
• 1:13:43
  Speaker 1: which death then shrouds the idols and trees with mist
• 1:13:46
  Speaker 1: of sigh, where a Kamakura's rising days and life of
• 1:13:51
  Speaker 1: old with hearts heightened to hush, the daibutsu forever sits oh, holiness,
• 1:13:58
  Speaker 1: holiness of try umph, and voicelessness. At times the lone
• 1:14:04
  Speaker 1: pilgrims in whiteness of prayer, called by the sudden voice
• 1:14:08
  Speaker 1: of shadow, chanting the dream as seen as the swallows
• 1:14:12
  Speaker 1: upon the sadness of seas. Oh, the ghosts stirring the
• 1:14:17
  Speaker 1: ruins of faith from mortal hearts, leave not the world
• 1:14:23
  Speaker 1: and humanity to be wholly lost, Save the idols and
• 1:14:27
  Speaker 1: songs from the century's sigh. Build again the house of
• 1:14:31
  Speaker 1: lights on the prayer of earth, Where is the world
• 1:14:35
  Speaker 1: with the navana sky and thrill of faith? I pray
• 1:14:40
  Speaker 1: and again pray namu ami dabbsu on the ground the
• 1:14:45
  Speaker 1: pale shadows of the daibutsu and myself the moon swings
• 1:14:50
  Speaker 1: through the grayness of sad trees and eve with the
• 1:14:54
  Speaker 1: idol and moon. I hear step with my head bent.
• 1:14:59
  Speaker 1: We three in the rapture of eternity and silence. End
• 1:15:05
  Speaker 1: of Part seven, Part eight of Kamakura bay Yoni Noguchi.
• 1:15:16
  Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Nichiaren, Let
• 1:15:23
  Speaker 1: me note down a brief history of Buddhism in Japan.
• 1:15:27
  Speaker 1: As with the development of any other phase of civilization.
• 1:15:30
  Speaker 1: What a vast difference between the civilizations ancient and modern.
• 1:15:35
  Speaker 1: We translated Buddhism most literally at the beginning, and then
• 1:15:39
  Speaker 1: we saw the formation of Japanese Buddhism, that is to say,
• 1:15:43
  Speaker 1: Buddhism Japanized. It was in the reign of Kinmei, the
• 1:15:47
  Speaker 1: twenty ninth emperor, that Buddhism was first introduced from China.
• 1:15:52
  Speaker 1: The Prince Shotoku built the temple Tenwuji as early as
• 1:15:56
  Speaker 1: five hundred and eighty seven a d at present Osaka. Nanyua,
• 1:16:00
  Speaker 1: as it was then called. Buddhism soon became a great
• 1:16:04
  Speaker 1: faith among the populace as the emperors led its course,
• 1:16:08
  Speaker 1: all of them in the Nara dynasty seven hundred eight
• 1:16:11
  Speaker 1: to seven hundred sixty nine. We have enough of temples
• 1:16:15
  Speaker 1: even to day that will serve to explain what power
• 1:16:18
  Speaker 1: this new religion attained. When Saijo and Kukai, two Buddhistic scholars,
• 1:16:24
  Speaker 1: returned home from China at the beginning of the ninth century,
• 1:16:28
  Speaker 1: they were officially commissioned to build the temples, the former
• 1:16:32
  Speaker 1: at Izan, northeast of the capital Kiyoto then and the
• 1:16:35
  Speaker 1: latter at the south end, where Toji with famous pagoda
• 1:16:39
  Speaker 1: stands to day. As of old, they can be properly
• 1:16:43
  Speaker 1: called the founders of Japanese Buddhism, under whose power it
• 1:16:46
  Speaker 1: took deep root in Japan. The number of the sects
• 1:16:50
  Speaker 1: that had been already introduced then here were counted eight.
• 1:16:55
  Speaker 1: After the death of the famous Kukai, we had no
• 1:16:58
  Speaker 1: introduction of any new set, but the religious fire was
• 1:17:02
  Speaker 1: never extinguished. Emperor after emperor, noble after noble built temples
• 1:17:08
  Speaker 1: of their own faith and beautified them with new altars,
• 1:17:12
  Speaker 1: bronze idols, pagodas, and bell towers. The Age of religion
• 1:17:17
  Speaker 1: and art was soon followed by the Age of Swords
• 1:17:20
  Speaker 1: that lasted for some time, but when it subsided near
• 1:17:24
  Speaker 1: the close of the twelfth century, the religious enthusiasm again
• 1:17:28
  Speaker 1: took fire, but in a different form. Perhaps the Zen
• 1:17:32
  Speaker 1: or meditative school of Buddhism that was brought from China
• 1:17:36
  Speaker 1: in the early part of the so called Kamakura Age
• 1:17:39
  Speaker 1: tacitly denied the pomp and formalism that belonged to the
• 1:17:43
  Speaker 1: other sects. Its esoterism or metaphysics, interested the minds of
• 1:17:49
  Speaker 1: the ruling classes. But the populace found a more simple
• 1:17:52
  Speaker 1: belief in the priest called Genku, who established the Jodo
• 1:17:56
  Speaker 1: or the pure Land sect. His teaching was only to
• 1:18:00
  Speaker 1: tell them that calling on Buddha's name in Namu amidabtsu,
• 1:18:04
  Speaker 1: I commit myself to thee o Ami Daba was the
• 1:18:07
  Speaker 1: assurance of their entering into paradise. The Shin sect, which
• 1:18:12
  Speaker 1: might be called a branch of this Jodo sect, was
• 1:18:15
  Speaker 1: started by Saint Schinlan, who at once broke with the
• 1:18:19
  Speaker 1: views or rules of chastity and combined priesthood with the
• 1:18:23
  Speaker 1: common joy of life. Its vulgarization, as one might say,
• 1:18:28
  Speaker 1: made at once the approach of the people to religion easier.
• 1:18:32
  Speaker 1: And again we had one more branch of the said
• 1:18:34
  Speaker 1: Jodo sect in Jishu, which was more or less similar
• 1:18:38
  Speaker 1: in observance with the sect from which it sprang. Now
• 1:18:42
  Speaker 1: we have the three sects of Buddhism practically created by Japanese,
• 1:18:47
  Speaker 1: and with the Zen's school of the intelligent class, they
• 1:18:50
  Speaker 1: in fact controlled religious Japan. But we found ourselves to
• 1:18:55
  Speaker 1: have one more Japanese religion of Buddhism. Through a boy
• 1:18:58
  Speaker 1: that was born to a fisher family in the village
• 1:19:01
  Speaker 1: of Kominato or Little Haven in the Awa Province, on
• 1:19:05
  Speaker 1: a certain day of January of Tewa, that is twelve
• 1:19:09
  Speaker 1: hundred and twenty two. It is already remarkable to speak
• 1:19:13
  Speaker 1: of the real founder of a new sect and a
• 1:19:16
  Speaker 1: shudra of the sea coast, as he called himself in
• 1:19:18
  Speaker 1: the same breath. His name is Nichiren, and his sect
• 1:19:23
  Speaker 1: is called after it. There are, in fact, few stories
• 1:19:27
  Speaker 1: more wonderful than Nichiren's, and it was mainly enacted here
• 1:19:31
  Speaker 1: at Kamakura, the capital of his own age. I am
• 1:19:35
  Speaker 1: happy to write down the most remarkable points of it.
• 1:19:40
  Speaker 1: Whenever I happen to pass by Comachi Koji, the streets
• 1:19:44
  Speaker 1: that runs east parallel to Wakama Oji, the main thoroughfare
• 1:19:48
  Speaker 1: leading to the Hachiman Shrine, I used to linger round
• 1:19:51
  Speaker 1: the spot where the monumental stone for Nichiren's street preaching
• 1:19:55
  Speaker 1: stands and imagine the undaunted spirits and extraordinary ces viction
• 1:20:00
  Speaker 1: of his religious career. Street preaching was a thing unheard
• 1:20:05
  Speaker 1: of in the land. In twelve fifty four, when Nichereen
• 1:20:08
  Speaker 1: started it, I can hear at once in imagination the
• 1:20:12
  Speaker 1: jibes and railings of the street audience. In fact, he
• 1:20:17
  Speaker 1: was alone in the world with the Pundadica Sutra, in
• 1:20:20
  Speaker 1: which he found the mysterious Law of the White Lotus.
• 1:20:24
  Speaker 1: But his faith that as a promulgator of the sutra,
• 1:20:27
  Speaker 1: he was Shakyamaney's special messenger, and as such Brahma served
• 1:20:32
  Speaker 1: him on his right hand, and Sacra on his left.
• 1:20:35
  Speaker 1: The sun guided him, and the moon followed him, and
• 1:20:38
  Speaker 1: all the deities of the land bent their heads and
• 1:20:41
  Speaker 1: honored him. Made him unafraid of people's persecution. When he
• 1:20:45
  Speaker 1: was accused that it was not proper for a man
• 1:20:48
  Speaker 1: of his order to preach by the wayside, he said
• 1:20:51
  Speaker 1: that it was quite proper for any man to eat
• 1:20:54
  Speaker 1: standing in time of war. Indeed, he was in a
• 1:20:57
  Speaker 1: field of battle with his religion. When he was rebuked
• 1:21:01
  Speaker 1: that the other forms of worship could not all be mistaken,
• 1:21:05
  Speaker 1: he at once shouted aloud that the scaffold was of
• 1:21:08
  Speaker 1: use only till the temple was done. He believed that
• 1:21:12
  Speaker 1: he alone held the secret of the law and was
• 1:21:15
  Speaker 1: the only one messenger of Heaven, sent to save the world.
• 1:21:20
  Speaker 1: He said, somewhere, know that the Jodo is away to hell,
• 1:21:23
  Speaker 1: the Zen the teaching of infernal hosts, the Shingon a
• 1:21:28
  Speaker 1: heresy to destroy the nation, and the Ritsu an enemy
• 1:21:31
  Speaker 1: of the land. These are not my words, but I
• 1:21:35
  Speaker 1: found them in the sutra. Hark to the cuckoo above
• 1:21:38
  Speaker 1: the cloud. He knows the time and warns you to plants.
• 1:21:42
  Speaker 1: Plants now therefore, and do not repent when the harvest
• 1:21:46
  Speaker 1: season comes. Now is the time for planting the Lutu Sutra,
• 1:21:51
  Speaker 1: and I am the messenger sent by the worshipful for
• 1:21:54
  Speaker 1: that end. Mister Kanzo Uchimura says in his head able
• 1:22:00
  Speaker 1: essay on nichean En, most of his doctrines, I grant
• 1:22:04
  Speaker 1: cannot stand the test of present day criticism. His polemics
• 1:22:08
  Speaker 1: were inelegant, that his whole tone was ensanoid. He certainly
• 1:22:12
  Speaker 1: was an unbalanced character, too pointed in only one direction.
• 1:22:17
  Speaker 1: But divest him of his intellectual errors, of his hereditary temperament,
• 1:22:21
  Speaker 1: that have much that his time and surroundings marked upon him,
• 1:22:25
  Speaker 1: and you have a soul sincere to its very core,
• 1:22:28
  Speaker 1: the honestest of men, the bravest of Japanese. A hypocrite
• 1:22:33
  Speaker 1: cannot keep his hypocrisy for twenty five years and more,
• 1:22:37
  Speaker 1: neither can he have thousands of followers ready to lay
• 1:22:40
  Speaker 1: down their lives for him. A false man found a religion,
• 1:22:45
  Speaker 1: Carlyle exclaims why a false man cannot build a brick house.
• 1:22:51
  Speaker 1: I look around me and see five thousand temples manned
• 1:22:55
  Speaker 1: by four thousand priests, and eight thousand teachers, and one million,
• 1:23:00
  Speaker 1: five hundred thousand to two million souls worshiping in them,
• 1:23:04
  Speaker 1: after the manner prescribed by this man, And I am
• 1:23:07
  Speaker 1: told to take all these as the work of a
• 1:23:09
  Speaker 1: shameless mountebank. It is true that there was no man
• 1:23:15
  Speaker 1: of religion like him who made himself a favorite mark
• 1:23:18
  Speaker 1: of attack, and that attack soon began on him when
• 1:23:21
  Speaker 1: he declared he was alone the savior and holy messenger
• 1:23:24
  Speaker 1: to humankind. After Budda had spent many years on different sutras,
• 1:23:30
  Speaker 1: he finally came to the Saddama Pandarika Sutra. For it
• 1:23:35
  Speaker 1: he spent the last eight years of his life. It
• 1:23:38
  Speaker 1: is quite a natural conclusion that his last sutra contained
• 1:23:42
  Speaker 1: the essence of his teaching, and Nichiren found it to
• 1:23:45
  Speaker 1: be the principle of all things, the truth of eternity,
• 1:23:49
  Speaker 1: and the secret importance of Buddha's original state and the
• 1:23:53
  Speaker 1: virtue of his enlightenments. When Nichiren began to preach his
• 1:23:58
  Speaker 1: doctrine and faith, he never excused anybody or any religious
• 1:24:02
  Speaker 1: sect from his attack. And again he was himself the
• 1:24:05
  Speaker 1: very mark to be attacked. He was called a blasphema
• 1:24:10
  Speaker 1: and a sort of charlatan. In truth, he was a
• 1:24:13
  Speaker 1: terror for all the priests at Kamakura in those days.
• 1:24:18
  Speaker 1: When he published ritsu An Kokuron, a treatise on bringing
• 1:24:22
  Speaker 1: peace and righteousness to the country, he was obliged to
• 1:24:25
  Speaker 1: leave the capital in the role of exile on account
• 1:24:28
  Speaker 1: of disturbing the public peace. In the book, he told
• 1:24:32
  Speaker 1: the evils that the false doctrines brought to people, and
• 1:24:35
  Speaker 1: that the remedy could be gained only in the universal
• 1:24:38
  Speaker 1: acceptance of the Pundadica sutar had. He even prophesied a
• 1:24:42
  Speaker 1: civil war and foreign invasion. It is singular enough that
• 1:24:47
  Speaker 1: we soon had a foreign invasion from the Muguls. Although
• 1:24:50
  Speaker 1: I do not believe that his prophecy was fulfilled, as
• 1:24:53
  Speaker 1: his followers are glad to say. This remarkable book it
• 1:24:58
  Speaker 1: is said, was written in a little cave in Matsubagatani
• 1:25:02
  Speaker 1: dale of pine leaves, where he had a little straw hat,
• 1:25:05
  Speaker 1: from which he went to Comachi Koji for street preaching.
• 1:25:10
  Speaker 1: Today a little temple called Ankokuji stands as his memorial,
• 1:25:15
  Speaker 1: and the cave is the one that you see at
• 1:25:16
  Speaker 1: the rights beyond the gates. He resumed his religious battle
• 1:25:22
  Speaker 1: when he returned to Kamakura from Izu, where he was banished.
• 1:25:27
  Speaker 1: His vigor and audacity were almost out of his control
• 1:25:31
  Speaker 1: when the authorities of the Hojo government decided to hand
• 1:25:34
  Speaker 1: him over to the executioner. He was duly taken out
• 1:25:38
  Speaker 1: to Tatsunakutchi to have his last moments. The whole affair
• 1:25:43
  Speaker 1: is the most terrible event of the religious history of Japan,
• 1:25:46
  Speaker 1: as it was the day when the law forbade capital
• 1:25:49
  Speaker 1: punishments for the priest class. How he escaped from death
• 1:25:54
  Speaker 1: is dramatically told in a popular book. When the executioner
• 1:25:58
  Speaker 1: raised his sword to cut him down, he repeated the
• 1:26:01
  Speaker 1: sacred words from the Sutra, whose power brought down a
• 1:26:04
  Speaker 1: sudden wind and thunder. The blade the executioner lifted was
• 1:26:09
  Speaker 1: broken into two or three pieces, and his hands that
• 1:26:12
  Speaker 1: held the sword were at once paralyzed, and soon an
• 1:26:17
  Speaker 1: official messenger from Kamakura reached the spot with a writ
• 1:26:20
  Speaker 1: of release. He was to leave the capitol again for
• 1:26:24
  Speaker 1: a long exile in Sado, a far away island in
• 1:26:27
  Speaker 1: the Japan Sea, of course, the place of death. Whoever
• 1:26:32
  Speaker 1: goes to Enoshima, the holy isle of the goddess Benten,
• 1:26:36
  Speaker 1: taking a car from Kamakura, has to leave the car
• 1:26:39
  Speaker 1: at Katase. Near there. At the height on the right
• 1:26:43
  Speaker 1: hand side, one may see a somewhat prominent looking temple
• 1:26:47
  Speaker 1: called Ryukuji, that is, the temple built in memory of
• 1:26:52
  Speaker 1: Nijereen by his followers after his death, at the place
• 1:26:55
  Speaker 1: where he sat repeating the Sutra under the executioner's sword.
• 1:27:02
  Speaker 1: He was never idle in his life of exile. He
• 1:27:05
  Speaker 1: preached his faith wherever he went. By this time he
• 1:27:09
  Speaker 1: was not religiously alone. On the contrary, the number of
• 1:27:13
  Speaker 1: believers in his doctrine increased, and the authorities at Kamakura
• 1:27:17
  Speaker 1: began to look upon him with fear as well as
• 1:27:19
  Speaker 1: with admiration. And when his prophecy of the foreign invasion
• 1:27:24
  Speaker 1: seemed to be realized, in fact, its attitude wholly changed.
• 1:27:28
  Speaker 1: And he was recalled to the capital in twelve seventy four,
• 1:27:32
  Speaker 1: being given a charter for the free promulgation of his
• 1:27:35
  Speaker 1: faith in the land he finally conquered. Mister Utchimura writes,
• 1:27:42
  Speaker 1: he now began to think of retiring to a mountain
• 1:27:45
  Speaker 1: after the manner of his Hindu master, there to end
• 1:27:48
  Speaker 1: his days in quiet contemplation and instruction of his disciples.
• 1:27:53
  Speaker 1: Herein we believe lies's greatness and the main reason of
• 1:27:57
  Speaker 1: the permanence of his sect. When the world began to
• 1:28:00
  Speaker 1: receive him, he left it. Here was an opportunity for
• 1:28:05
  Speaker 1: stumbling for souls smaller than his. He wisely retired into
• 1:28:11
  Speaker 1: Mount Minnibu, west of Fuji Mountain, under the silence of
• 1:28:15
  Speaker 1: foliage and mist. But he died in twelve hundred and
• 1:28:19
  Speaker 1: eighty two at Tikeegami near Tokyo, where he went as
• 1:28:23
  Speaker 1: a guest of one of his disciples. When an idol
• 1:28:27
  Speaker 1: of Buddha was brought to his death bed, he begged
• 1:28:30
  Speaker 1: to move it away and ordered a kakimono to be
• 1:28:33
  Speaker 1: enrolled before him with the name of the Saddama Bundardika
• 1:28:37
  Speaker 1: Sutra written in Chinese. Then he turned his tired body aside.
• 1:28:43
  Speaker 1: When he clasped his thin hands towards it, twas his
• 1:28:47
  Speaker 1: last moment. As mister Uchimura declares, he was not an idolata,
• 1:28:53
  Speaker 1: but a bibliolata in the real sense. End of Part eight,
• 1:29:05
  Speaker 1: Part nine of Kamakura Bayone Noguchi. This LibriVox recording is
• 1:29:11
  Speaker 1: in the public domain the hatchy Man Shrine. It is
• 1:29:17
  Speaker 1: merely an assemblage of four lines of stone, often of wood,
• 1:29:21
  Speaker 1: but it is one of the creations of art, like
• 1:29:24
  Speaker 1: the obelisk or the pyramid, quite an impressive and original
• 1:29:28
  Speaker 1: symbolic gaits. Whether it came from the sacred heart of
• 1:29:32
  Speaker 1: Northern India or elsewhere, there is something of the beginning
• 1:29:36
  Speaker 1: of man when he lived and talked with the birds.
• 1:29:40
  Speaker 1: As the name Toddy indicates, it may be nothing but
• 1:29:43
  Speaker 1: a perch for fowls. Is it not right to fancy, then,
• 1:29:48
  Speaker 1: that it is the very place where they hail the daybreak?
• 1:29:52
  Speaker 1: There is no other site like the daybreak that takes
• 1:29:55
  Speaker 1: one's mind at once. Back to the age of mythology
• 1:29:58
  Speaker 1: and nature worship, ancestors nay gods lived primitively like the
• 1:30:03
  Speaker 1: fowls on that tory, under the thatched roof of chaia grass.
• 1:30:08
  Speaker 1: If there is a proper entrance to a Shinto shrine,
• 1:30:11
  Speaker 1: the shrine of our ancestors or heroes, that is the tory.
• 1:30:16
  Speaker 1: Primitiveness only inspires reverence pure and simple that you never
• 1:30:21
  Speaker 1: feel before a Buddha temple. You will become awe struck
• 1:30:25
  Speaker 1: by the silence that follows from the complexity of Buddhism.
• 1:30:29
  Speaker 1: But we have a human strength in the simplicity of Shintoism.
• 1:30:33
  Speaker 1: Let us protect our primitive faith. I cannot help bowing
• 1:30:37
  Speaker 1: from my heart of hearts whenever I pass under the tory.
• 1:30:43
  Speaker 1: When I say that here we have three tories belonging
• 1:30:46
  Speaker 1: to the Hatchyman Shrine, you already understand that it has
• 1:30:49
  Speaker 1: nothing to do with Buddhism. All of them, artistically speaking,
• 1:30:54
  Speaker 1: are splendid pieces of art, especially the first, which stands
• 1:30:58
  Speaker 1: farthest from the shrine, on the road called wakama Uji,
• 1:31:02
  Speaker 1: nearer to the sea amid the big pines. It is
• 1:31:05
  Speaker 1: now under government protection. But the precinct of the Hatchyman
• 1:31:10
  Speaker 1: Shrine probably begins with the second toddy, which you see
• 1:31:13
  Speaker 1: at your left when you leave the station. Till you
• 1:31:16
  Speaker 1: get to the third torry, you have to pass by
• 1:31:19
  Speaker 1: the shops of a thousand varieties of shell work souvenirs,
• 1:31:22
  Speaker 1: and many inns for pilgrims. Beyond the torry you see
• 1:31:27
  Speaker 1: at once a large stone bridge, which is a perfect semicircle,
• 1:31:31
  Speaker 1: of whose origin we know almost nothing. It was regarded,
• 1:31:35
  Speaker 1: I believe, most sacred in the ancient age, only meant
• 1:31:39
  Speaker 1: for the quiet crossing of the gods. The bridge on
• 1:31:43
  Speaker 1: the left is flat, very common, being of wood painted
• 1:31:47
  Speaker 1: red for daily use. When we pass over it we
• 1:31:51
  Speaker 1: see on both sides of the sacred ground large ponds
• 1:31:54
  Speaker 1: of lotus flowers. As I have had my temporary home
• 1:31:59
  Speaker 1: at en Gaguji for some time, far beyond the Hatchiman shrine,
• 1:32:04
  Speaker 1: I used to pass by it almost daily, especially in
• 1:32:07
  Speaker 1: the summer, on my way to the sea, and admire
• 1:32:09
  Speaker 1: the lotus gracefully veiled in the purple haze of the
• 1:32:12
  Speaker 1: august sunlight, some of them gesticulating as if on the
• 1:32:17
  Speaker 1: point of flight, and others dropping their heads quite sadly.
• 1:32:22
  Speaker 1: Why it is sad, my thought of fantastic turn often
• 1:32:25
  Speaker 1: tried to fancy. I often imagine that it had ample
• 1:32:29
  Speaker 1: reason to be sad, as the old glory of famous
• 1:32:32
  Speaker 1: Kamakura is only to be traced in odds and ends.
• 1:32:37
  Speaker 1: When I smelled a faint odor of the flowers rising
• 1:32:40
  Speaker 1: in lazy whiffs, I thought it to be a ghost
• 1:32:43
  Speaker 1: hunting after memories old. The lotus flowers never appear gay
• 1:32:48
  Speaker 1: to our Japanese mind, but to be sadly pious, evidently
• 1:32:52
  Speaker 1: a religious sort of beauty, as in fact it is
• 1:32:55
  Speaker 1: a Buddhistic flower. I see that when the Riobu Shinto,
• 1:33:00
  Speaker 1: a mixed religion, prevailed a compromise between Buddhism and Shintoism itself,
• 1:33:06
  Speaker 1: that is, before the Grand Restoration, had people thought that
• 1:33:09
  Speaker 1: they were the same thing, while they looked opposed, at
• 1:33:12
  Speaker 1: least in usage. There were round here many Buddhistic buildings,
• 1:33:17
  Speaker 1: the gate with the guardian god of Niwo to begin with,
• 1:33:20
  Speaker 1: the bell tower, the Chinese pagoda, the temple called Gomado
• 1:33:25
  Speaker 1: where the incense was burned day and night, the building
• 1:33:28
  Speaker 1: of the Holy books, the main temple of prayer, as
• 1:33:31
  Speaker 1: well as the habitations of the priests. But they were
• 1:33:35
  Speaker 1: abolished some fifty years ago when it was proclaimed that
• 1:33:39
  Speaker 1: the Shintoism should return to its original simplicity, and only
• 1:33:43
  Speaker 1: the lotus ponds remain here to make us think of
• 1:33:46
  Speaker 1: the old days. It is sad that the famous Niwo,
• 1:33:50
  Speaker 1: the work of the eminent sculptor Unke, was deprived of
• 1:33:54
  Speaker 1: its own home, and at present keeps its unhappy life
• 1:33:57
  Speaker 1: at the Jufukuji Temple of some disas distance. Though it
• 1:34:03
  Speaker 1: may not be so beautiful as Lafcadio Herne once wrote
• 1:34:06
  Speaker 1: somewhere on the approaches to high places of worship or
• 1:34:10
  Speaker 1: of rest, the ways that go to nowhere, and the
• 1:34:13
  Speaker 1: steps that lead to nothing. This sacred ground has its
• 1:34:16
  Speaker 1: own special charm. Here Nature's fine moods of light and
• 1:34:21
  Speaker 1: form and color are verily well united with man's handiwork. Oh,
• 1:34:27
  Speaker 1: what a lovely contrast of green of many giant trees
• 1:34:31
  Speaker 1: and red of the Hatchiman's shrine, which comfortably cuddles in
• 1:34:35
  Speaker 1: the bosom of the back hill. When you are in
• 1:34:38
  Speaker 1: the next precinct a few steps higher, you are already
• 1:34:41
  Speaker 1: facing the most stupendous stone steps sixty two in number,
• 1:34:46
  Speaker 1: which lead you to the upper principal shrine of Hatchiman,
• 1:34:49
  Speaker 1: which consists of entrance tower of the main building and
• 1:34:53
  Speaker 1: of the roofed corridor around the main shrine. Where are
• 1:34:56
  Speaker 1: the swords, armours, banners, and the thousand relics of right
• 1:35:00
  Speaker 1: and art, most of them belonging to this Kamakura Age.
• 1:35:05
  Speaker 1: Hachiman belongs to the heroic period of the Empire. He
• 1:35:09
  Speaker 1: was the son of the Empress Jingu, the conqueror of
• 1:35:11
  Speaker 1: the three Kingdoms of Korea two hundred a d. Naturally
• 1:35:15
  Speaker 1: the bravest of soldiers. When she had attained the age
• 1:35:20
  Speaker 1: of one hundred years, she transmitted the scepter and crown
• 1:35:23
  Speaker 1: to him. He was then already seventy one years old.
• 1:35:27
  Speaker 1: He reigned gloriously for forty three years under the name
• 1:35:31
  Speaker 1: of Jin, and was raised after his death to the
• 1:35:34
  Speaker 1: rank of a protecting god of the country, and he
• 1:35:37
  Speaker 1: was the patron of soldiers. There is no doubt that Yoditomo,
• 1:35:41
  Speaker 1: the real founder of the Kamakura feudalism, made the Hatchiman
• 1:35:46
  Speaker 1: shrine most important and made his followers promise to live
• 1:35:49
  Speaker 1: up to their fighter's name. His own age was still
• 1:35:53
  Speaker 1: bloody and barbarous. Although the later time of the Kamakura Age,
• 1:35:58
  Speaker 1: which lasted some one hundred five fifty years, might be
• 1:36:01
  Speaker 1: called the period of art and religion, it was only
• 1:36:05
  Speaker 1: after the overthrow of the Taira family his trust was
• 1:36:09
  Speaker 1: in his swords and bows. He was a mere slip
• 1:36:12
  Speaker 1: of an orphan born of Yoshitomo, and he was less
• 1:36:15
  Speaker 1: than fifty years old when he became the shogun literally generalissimo,
• 1:36:20
  Speaker 1: through sheer force and tact in the battlefield, the most
• 1:36:24
  Speaker 1: powerful man of the empire in his days, whose finger
• 1:36:27
  Speaker 1: tip was strong enough to move hold Japan. Let us
• 1:36:32
  Speaker 1: stand before the entrance tower and look down over the
• 1:36:36
  Speaker 1: valley where present Kamakura shows its existence. You will see
• 1:36:40
  Speaker 1: white wave after wave washing the Yuigahama shore far away,
• 1:36:45
  Speaker 1: and here right before you a stretch of pine trees
• 1:36:49
  Speaker 1: paraded like a sentinel. But you will be astonished to
• 1:36:53
  Speaker 1: discover that what you can see is really small, and
• 1:36:57
  Speaker 1: wonder whether this is the place where Kamakura, the ancient
• 1:37:00
  Speaker 1: feudal city, the habitation of a million people, once had
• 1:37:04
  Speaker 1: its seat. When we descend the steps, we see at
• 1:37:09
  Speaker 1: the left a shrine called Shtanomiya, the Lower Shrine, the
• 1:37:13
  Speaker 1: sight of which makes us at once imagine the most
• 1:37:16
  Speaker 1: dramatic scene of Japanese history. It is the very place
• 1:37:20
  Speaker 1: it is said where Shizuka, that mistress of Yoshisune, the
• 1:37:24
  Speaker 1: youngest brother of Yoritomo, was summoned even by force, to
• 1:37:28
  Speaker 1: appear before the shogun Yoritomo and dance as she was
• 1:37:32
  Speaker 1: originally a famous dancer to please his whim. I can
• 1:37:37
  Speaker 1: well fancy that it should have been a great occasion,
• 1:37:39
  Speaker 1: as I read in the book that Sukitsuni, Kudo, Shigetada, Hatekiyama,
• 1:37:44
  Speaker 1: and other famous warriors of the day also made their
• 1:37:47
  Speaker 1: presence to play an accompaniment of Shizuka's dance. As I said,
• 1:37:52
  Speaker 1: she was forced to dance before the shogun and his followers.
• 1:37:56
  Speaker 1: She objected at first, as Yoritomo was no other but
• 1:38:00
  Speaker 1: to her enemy, her lord Yoshitsune was brutally driven away
• 1:38:04
  Speaker 1: by him, as he appeared a great opponent to his
• 1:38:07
  Speaker 1: own ambition. And what a great work Yoshitsune did toward
• 1:38:11
  Speaker 1: the speedy overthrow of the Tirera clan, and how he
• 1:38:14
  Speaker 1: helped to bring his eldest brother to that distinguished position.
• 1:38:19
  Speaker 1: Now he was obliged to leave the capital as if
• 1:38:22
  Speaker 1: he were a shamefaced criminal, and Shizuka was summoned to
• 1:38:25
  Speaker 1: dance before her enemy as if she were a professional
• 1:38:29
  Speaker 1: dancer for money. How could she stand such treatment? My
• 1:38:34
  Speaker 1: imaginative eyes can clearly see her egg shaped face tragically white,
• 1:38:39
  Speaker 1: her eyebrows straight and almost immovable, her sadness touched with ghostliness.
• 1:38:45
  Speaker 1: If the Shogun wished her to dance, she thought she
• 1:38:48
  Speaker 1: must dance. But people would soon see what she could do.
• 1:38:53
  Speaker 1: The music was already begun. She rose before the hundred
• 1:38:57
  Speaker 1: warriors with open fan lo Her dance was commenced, and
• 1:39:02
  Speaker 1: she sang what song? She sang a louder love song,
• 1:39:06
  Speaker 1: lamenting her lost lover and lord, and even wished that
• 1:39:10
  Speaker 1: the days of the past would soon become the present again.
• 1:39:14
  Speaker 1: It is said that all the warriors were almost frightened,
• 1:39:17
  Speaker 1: as they did not know what the Shogun would do
• 1:39:20
  Speaker 1: with her. She was such an undaunted spirit, as she
• 1:39:23
  Speaker 1: thought she was perfectly right in loving her own lord.
• 1:39:28
  Speaker 1: Jonny Tomo got mad. He immediately retired. It is said
• 1:39:32
  Speaker 1: within the screen, Oh, what a difference to the women
• 1:39:36
  Speaker 1: of the former age, especially at Kiyoto, when the imperial
• 1:39:40
  Speaker 1: court was a rendezvous of superstition and love, the Emperor's
• 1:39:43
  Speaker 1: and ladies spending day after day over music and poetry.
• 1:39:48
  Speaker 1: They were a symphony of softness and exuberance, like the
• 1:39:51
  Speaker 1: crimson masses of the flower or the lower clouds seen
• 1:39:54
  Speaker 1: through the spring mists. But how vague and delicate they were.
• 1:40:00
  Speaker 1: They were, indeed the most transient characters of cherry blossom,
• 1:40:03
  Speaker 1: whose beauty speedily departs under rain or wind. Had What
• 1:40:07
  Speaker 1: a wonderful soul those women of the fighting clans, like
• 1:40:11
  Speaker 1: that Shizuka had. Even the shogun could not trample down
• 1:40:15
  Speaker 1: their will. I walked around here slowly and meditatively. My
• 1:40:21
  Speaker 1: imagination saw a thin, little old priest who was giving
• 1:40:25
  Speaker 1: a cat of silver to a boy. The priest was
• 1:40:29
  Speaker 1: the famous poet Saigyo. He talked over the night with
• 1:40:34
  Speaker 1: yod Tomo, who, at the poet's departure, gave him the
• 1:40:37
  Speaker 1: silver cat of great price. What use was it for
• 1:40:41
  Speaker 1: the poet? A spirit of wind? The shogun was, again,
• 1:40:46
  Speaker 1: as with Shizuka, outwitted by the poet. And there are
• 1:40:50
  Speaker 1: many people, I believe, who would wish to be a
• 1:40:53
  Speaker 1: Saigyo rather than a Yoritomo. I am one of them.
• 1:40:59
  Speaker 1: End of Part nine, Part ten of Kamakura by Yonin Ogucci.
• 1:41:11
  Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Enoshima written
• 1:41:17
  Speaker 1: by Lafcadio Herne. The road slopes before us as we
• 1:41:22
  Speaker 1: go sinks down between cliffs steep as the walls of
• 1:41:25
  Speaker 1: a canyon and curves. Suddenly we emerge from the cliffs
• 1:41:30
  Speaker 1: and reach the sea. It is blue, like the unclouded sky,
• 1:41:35
  Speaker 1: a soft, dreamy blue, and our path turns sharply to
• 1:41:39
  Speaker 1: the right and winds along cliff summits, overlooking a broad
• 1:41:43
  Speaker 1: beach of dun colored sand, and the sea wind blows deliciously,
• 1:41:48
  Speaker 1: with the sweet saline scent urging the lungs to fill themselves.
• 1:41:52
  Speaker 1: To the very utmost and far away before me, I
• 1:41:56
  Speaker 1: perceive a beautiful, high green mass and iland foliage covered,
• 1:42:01
  Speaker 1: rising out of the water, about a quarter of a
• 1:42:04
  Speaker 1: mile from the mainland. In Oshima, the holy island sacred
• 1:42:09
  Speaker 1: to the Goddess of the Sea, the Goddess of beauty.
• 1:42:13
  Speaker 1: I can already distinguish a tiny town grace sprinkling its
• 1:42:17
  Speaker 1: steep slope. Evidently it can be reached today on foot,
• 1:42:22
  Speaker 1: for the tide is out and has left bare a
• 1:42:24
  Speaker 1: long broad reach of sand extending to it from the
• 1:42:28
  Speaker 1: opposite village, which we are approaching like a causeway. At Katasse,
• 1:42:34
  Speaker 1: the little settlement facing the island, we must leave our
• 1:42:38
  Speaker 1: jin Rikshah and walk the dunes between the villages and
• 1:42:42
  Speaker 1: the beach are too deep to pull the vehicle over.
• 1:42:45
  Speaker 1: Scores of other jin Rikshah are waiting here in the
• 1:42:48
  Speaker 1: little narrow street for pilgrims who have preceded me. But
• 1:42:52
  Speaker 1: today I am told, I am the only European who
• 1:42:55
  Speaker 1: visits the shrine of Benten. Our two men lead the
• 1:42:59
  Speaker 1: way over the dunes, and we soon descend upon damp,
• 1:43:03
  Speaker 1: firm sand. As we near the island, the architectural details
• 1:43:09
  Speaker 1: of the little town define delightfully through the faint sea haze,
• 1:43:14
  Speaker 1: curved bluish sweeps of fantastic roofs, angles of airy balconies,
• 1:43:19
  Speaker 1: high peaked curious gables, all above a fluttering of queerly
• 1:43:24
  Speaker 1: shaped banners covered with mysterious lettering. We pass the sand
• 1:43:29
  Speaker 1: flats and the ever open portal of the sea city,
• 1:43:32
  Speaker 1: the City of the Dragon Goddess, is before us. A
• 1:43:35
  Speaker 1: beautiful toddy, all of bronze. It is with Schimmenhauer of
• 1:43:40
  Speaker 1: bronze above it, and a brazen tablet inscribed with characters
• 1:43:44
  Speaker 1: declaring this is the Palace of the Goddess of Anoshima.
• 1:43:49
  Speaker 1: About the bases of the ponderous pillars are strange designs
• 1:43:53
  Speaker 1: in radjevo eddyings of waves with tortoises struggling in the floe.
• 1:43:59
  Speaker 1: This is really the game of the city facing the
• 1:44:01
  Speaker 1: shrine of Benten by the land approach, But it is
• 1:44:04
  Speaker 1: only the third Toddy of the imposing series. Through Katase
• 1:44:09
  Speaker 1: we did not see the others, having come by way
• 1:44:12
  Speaker 1: of the coast, and lo we are in an Oshima.
• 1:44:17
  Speaker 1: High before us slopes the single street, a street of
• 1:44:21
  Speaker 1: broad steps, a street shadowy, full of multi colored flags
• 1:44:26
  Speaker 1: and dark blue drapery, dashed with white fantasticalities, which are
• 1:44:30
  Speaker 1: words fluttered by the sea wind. It is lined with
• 1:44:35
  Speaker 1: taverns and miniature shops. At every one I must pause
• 1:44:39
  Speaker 1: to look, and to dare to look at anything in
• 1:44:41
  Speaker 1: Japan is to want to buy it. So I buy
• 1:44:44
  Speaker 1: and buy and buy. But verily tis a city of
• 1:44:48
  Speaker 1: mother of pearl, this Enoshima. In every shop, behind the
• 1:44:53
  Speaker 1: lettered draperies, there are miracles of shell work for sale
• 1:44:57
  Speaker 1: at absurdly small prices. The glazed cases laid flat upon
• 1:45:02
  Speaker 1: the matted platforms, the shelved cabinets set against the walls
• 1:45:07
  Speaker 1: are all opalescent with necreous things, extraordinary surprises, incredible ingenuities, strings,
• 1:45:15
  Speaker 1: of Mother of Pearl, fish strings of Mother of Pearl,
• 1:45:18
  Speaker 1: birds all shimmering with rainbow colors. There are little kittens
• 1:45:24
  Speaker 1: of Mother of Pearl, and little foxes of Mother of Pearl,
• 1:45:27
  Speaker 1: and little puppies of Mother of Pearl, and girls, hair
• 1:45:30
  Speaker 1: combs and cigarette holders and pipes too beautiful to use.
• 1:45:36
  Speaker 1: There are little tortoises not larger than a shilling, made
• 1:45:39
  Speaker 1: of shells that, when you touch them, however lightly, begin
• 1:45:43
  Speaker 1: to move head, legs, and tail, all at the same time,
• 1:45:47
  Speaker 1: alternately with drawing or protruding their limbs, so much like
• 1:45:51
  Speaker 1: real tortoises as to give one a shock of surprise.
• 1:45:56
  Speaker 1: There are stalks and birds, and beetles, and butterflies, and
• 1:45:59
  Speaker 1: crabs and lobsters, made so cunningly of shells that only
• 1:46:04
  Speaker 1: touch convinces you they are not alive. There are bees
• 1:46:08
  Speaker 1: of shell poised on flowers of the same material poised
• 1:46:12
  Speaker 1: on wire in such a way that they seem to
• 1:46:14
  Speaker 1: buzz if moved only with the tip of a feather.
• 1:46:18
  Speaker 1: There is shell work, jewelry, indescribable things that Japanese girls
• 1:46:22
  Speaker 1: have enchantments in Mother of Pearl, hairpins carven in a
• 1:46:27
  Speaker 1: hundred forms, brooches, necklaces, and there are photographs of Enoshima.
• 1:46:34
  Speaker 1: This curious street ends at another toddy, a wooden toddy
• 1:46:38
  Speaker 1: with a steeper flight of stone steps ascending to it.
• 1:46:43
  Speaker 1: At the foot of the steps are votive stone lamps
• 1:46:46
  Speaker 1: and a little well and a stone tank at which
• 1:46:49
  Speaker 1: all pilgrims wash their hands and rinse their mouths before
• 1:46:52
  Speaker 1: approaching the temples of the gods. And hanging beside the
• 1:46:56
  Speaker 1: tank are bright blue towels with large white cha Chinese
• 1:47:00
  Speaker 1: characters upon them. I ask Akira what these characters signify.
• 1:47:06
  Speaker 1: Ho Ken is the sound of the characters in the Chinese,
• 1:47:09
  Speaker 1: but in Japanese the same characters are pronounced kenjitade matsuru
• 1:47:14
  Speaker 1: and signify that these towels are most humbly offered to
• 1:47:18
  Speaker 1: bend ten. They are what you call votive offerings, and
• 1:47:22
  Speaker 1: there are many kinds of votive offerings to be made
• 1:47:25
  Speaker 1: to famous shrines. Some people give towels, some give pictures,
• 1:47:30
  Speaker 1: some give vases, some offer lanterns of paper or bronze
• 1:47:34
  Speaker 1: or stone. It is common to promise such offerings when
• 1:47:38
  Speaker 1: making petitions to the gods, and it is usual to
• 1:47:41
  Speaker 1: promise a tori. The tori may be small or great,
• 1:47:45
  Speaker 1: according to the wealth of him who gives it. The
• 1:47:49
  Speaker 1: very rich pilgrim may offer to the gods a tori
• 1:47:52
  Speaker 1: of metal, such as that below, which is the gate
• 1:47:55
  Speaker 1: of Enoshima. Now we are going to visit the dragon,
• 1:48:00
  Speaker 1: not so called Akida says because the dragon of Benten
• 1:48:04
  Speaker 1: ever dwelt therein, but because the shape of the cavern
• 1:48:08
  Speaker 1: is the shape of a dragon. The path descends towards
• 1:48:12
  Speaker 1: the opposite side of the island and suddenly breaks into
• 1:48:15
  Speaker 1: a flight of steps cut out of the pale, hard rock,
• 1:48:18
  Speaker 1: exceedingly steep and worn and slippery and perilous. Overlooking the sea,
• 1:48:25
  Speaker 1: A vision of low pale rocks and surf bursting among them,
• 1:48:29
  Speaker 1: and a toro or votive stone lamp in the center
• 1:48:31
  Speaker 1: of them, all seen as in a bird's eye view
• 1:48:34
  Speaker 1: over the verge of an awful precipice. I see also
• 1:48:38
  Speaker 1: deep round holes in one of the rocks. There used
• 1:48:42
  Speaker 1: to be a tea house below, and the wooden pillars
• 1:48:44
  Speaker 1: supporting it were fitted into those holes. I descend with caution.
• 1:48:51
  Speaker 1: The Japanese seldom slip in their straw sandals, but I
• 1:48:54
  Speaker 1: can only proceed with the aid of the guide. At
• 1:48:58
  Speaker 1: almost every step I slip. Surely these steps could never
• 1:49:02
  Speaker 1: have been thus worn away by the straw sandals of
• 1:49:04
  Speaker 1: pilgrims who came to see only stones and serpents. At last,
• 1:49:11
  Speaker 1: we reach a plank gallery carried along the face of
• 1:49:14
  Speaker 1: the cliff, above the rocks and pools, and following it
• 1:49:17
  Speaker 1: round a projection of the cliff entered the sacred cave.
• 1:49:22
  Speaker 1: The lights dims as we advance, and the sea waves
• 1:49:25
  Speaker 1: running after us into the gloom beg a stupefying roar,
• 1:49:29
  Speaker 1: multiplied by the extraordinary echo. Looking back, I see the
• 1:49:35
  Speaker 1: mouth of the cavern like a prodigious sharply angled rent
• 1:49:38
  Speaker 1: in blackness, showing a fragment of azure sky. We reach
• 1:49:44
  Speaker 1: a shrine with no deity in it, pay a fee,
• 1:49:47
  Speaker 1: and lamps being lighted and given to each of us,
• 1:49:50
  Speaker 1: we proceed to explore a series of underground passages so
• 1:49:55
  Speaker 1: black they are that even with the light of the
• 1:49:58
  Speaker 1: three lamps, I can at fir see nothing. In a while, however,
• 1:50:03
  Speaker 1: I can distinguish stone figures in relief chiseled on slabs
• 1:50:07
  Speaker 1: like those I saw in the Buddhist graveyard. These are
• 1:50:11
  Speaker 1: placed at regular intervals along the rock walls. The guide
• 1:50:15
  Speaker 1: approaches his light to the face of each one and
• 1:50:18
  Speaker 1: utters a name Daiko, Kusama, Fudo Sama, quandon Samma. Sometimes
• 1:50:24
  Speaker 1: in lieu of a statue there is an empty shrine
• 1:50:27
  Speaker 1: only with a money box before it, and these void
• 1:50:30
  Speaker 1: shrines have the names of Shinto gods Daijingo, hachiman Inarisama.
• 1:50:37
  Speaker 1: All the statues are black or seen black in the
• 1:50:40
  Speaker 1: yellow lamplight, and sparkle as if frosted. I feel as
• 1:50:45
  Speaker 1: if I were in some mortuary pit, some subterranean burial
• 1:50:48
  Speaker 1: place of dead gods. Interminable the corridor appears, yet there
• 1:50:54
  Speaker 1: is at last an end, an end with a shrine
• 1:50:57
  Speaker 1: in it, where the rocky ceiling descends so low that
• 1:51:00
  Speaker 1: to reach the shrine one must go down on hands
• 1:51:03
  Speaker 1: and knees, and there is nothing in the shrine. This
• 1:51:07
  Speaker 1: is the tail of the dragon. We do not return
• 1:51:11
  Speaker 1: to the light at once, but enter into other lateral
• 1:51:14
  Speaker 1: black corridors, the wings of the dragon, more sable effiges
• 1:51:19
  Speaker 1: of dispossessed gods, more empty shrines, more stone faces covered
• 1:51:25
  Speaker 1: with saltpeter, and more money boxes, possible only to reach
• 1:51:29
  Speaker 1: by stooping, where more offerings should be made, and there
• 1:51:32
  Speaker 1: is no benten, either of wood or stone. I am
• 1:51:37
  Speaker 1: glad to return to the light. Here our guide strips
• 1:51:41
  Speaker 1: naked and suddenly leaps head foremost into a black, deep,
• 1:51:46
  Speaker 1: swirling current between rocks. Five minutes later he reappears, and,
• 1:51:51
  Speaker 1: clambering out, lays at my feet a living, squirming sea
• 1:51:55
  Speaker 1: snail and an enormous shrimp. Then he resumes his robe,
• 1:52:00
  Speaker 1: and we reascend the mountain. And this, the reader may say,
• 1:52:06
  Speaker 1: this is all that you went forth to see. A toddy,
• 1:52:09
  Speaker 1: some shells, a small damask snake, some stones. It is true,
• 1:52:16
  Speaker 1: And nevertheless I know that I am bewitched. There is
• 1:52:19
  Speaker 1: a charm indefinable about the place, a sort of charm
• 1:52:22
  Speaker 1: which comes with a little ghostly thrill never to be forgotten.
• 1:52:28
  Speaker 1: Not of strange sights alone is this charm made, but
• 1:52:31
  Speaker 1: of numberless subtle sensations and ideas, interwoven and into blended.
• 1:52:37
  Speaker 1: The sweet, sharp sense of grove and sea, the blood brightening,
• 1:52:41
  Speaker 1: vivifying touch of the free wind, the dumb appeal of
• 1:52:45
  Speaker 1: ancient mystic mossy things, vague reverence evoked by knowledge of
• 1:52:50
  Speaker 1: treading soil called wholly for a thousand years, and a
• 1:52:54
  Speaker 1: sense of sympathy as a human duty, compelled by the
• 1:52:57
  Speaker 1: vision of steps of rock worn down to shapelessness by
• 1:53:01
  Speaker 1: the pilgrim feet of vanished generations, and other memories ineffaceable.
• 1:53:08
  Speaker 1: The first sight of the sea girt city of Pearl
• 1:53:12
  Speaker 1: through a fairy veil of haze, the windy approach to
• 1:53:15
  Speaker 1: the lovely island over the velvety, soundless brown stretch of sand,
• 1:53:20
  Speaker 1: The weird majesty of the giant gate of bronze, the queer,
• 1:53:24
  Speaker 1: high sloping, fantastic, quaintly gabled street flinging down sharp shadows
• 1:53:30
  Speaker 1: of aerial balconies, the flutter of colored draperies in the
• 1:53:34
  Speaker 1: sea wind, and of flags with their riddles of lettering,
• 1:53:38
  Speaker 1: the pearly glimmering of the astonishing shapes and impressions of
• 1:53:44
  Speaker 1: the enormous day, the day of the land of the Gods,
• 1:53:48
  Speaker 1: a loftier day than ever our summers know. And the
• 1:53:51
  Speaker 1: glory of the view from those green, sacred, silent heights
• 1:53:55
  Speaker 1: between sea and sun. And the remembrance of the sky
• 1:54:00
  Speaker 1: skies spiritual as holiness, a sky with clouds, ghost pure
• 1:54:04
  Speaker 1: and white as the light itself, seeming indeed not clouds
• 1:54:10
  Speaker 1: but dreams, or souls of Bodisatvas about to melt forever
• 1:54:15
  Speaker 1: into some blue nirvana. And the romance of Benten too,
• 1:54:20
  Speaker 1: the deity of beauty, the Divinity of Love, the Goddess
• 1:54:24
  Speaker 1: of eloquence, rightly as she named Goddess of the Sea.
• 1:54:28
  Speaker 1: For is not the sea most ancient and the most
• 1:54:31
  Speaker 1: excellent of speakers, The eternal poet, chanter of that mystic
• 1:54:36
  Speaker 1: hymn whose rhythm shakes the world, whose mighty syllables no
• 1:54:41
  Speaker 1: man may learn. End of Part ten, end of Kamakura
• 1:54:47
  Speaker 1: Bayon in Agucci