OCR Text |
Show THE TEMPLE CITIES OF JAPAN Many feet have been treading their way to the Mirlne In the temple cities of Japan Ju lecent months. In tho temples of Tokyo many bits of American ocket money went to a priest for writing a pretty pra.vcr on a slip of paper, which the visitor, In true pilgrim fashion, pressed to his forehead and to his breast and then, fastened to the temple wnll In order that It might be a perpetual petition. There are SO.000 deities to whom devout de-vout Jupano. write, so a few Americans' Amer-icans' pleas scarcely .clogged the celestial ce-lestial postal service. ' There were many native pilgrims on the way to tho nhrlnes. During the summer months when tho crops have been taken euro of, tho village folk, though they have the temples of their own patron deity ami the fox god, feel that they intuit send out n pilgrim or two to the sacred mountains nnd holy places of Japan to worship In behalf of those who caunoi go, nnd no they provide n fund for his expenses. Nor does the emissary travel In state. Life fur bliu loses most of Its complexities. Ho Is equipped with a cheap white cotton shirt that can be easily washed, tight-lilting trousers and a loose, white cotton Jacket which bo tuck Ik with a girdle. Hu wears an enormous broad, stllT straw hat, and on bis back Ito carries a piece of matting which serves him as an umbrella um-brella by day and as u bed by night, lie carries his luggage In two bundles, oie on his back nnd the other In front, usually labeled with tho namo of the shrine ho Is to visit, nnd somewhere about bis person there In hung a little bell which tinkler us be stumps along over the weary road from mountain to mountain. In August the pilgrim rolls o(T bis mat nnd the vi.itor from foreign lands climbs out of bod nt the crack of dawn to hear tho lotus flower bloom, for the buds burst with a pleasing characteristic sound. If Nlkko Is the most beautiful city In Japan, Kyoto can bo called the most IntoruHtlng. Hero the fcmlnlno visitor Anils hoiwelf bewildered by the most oxqulsltely wrought of all tho exquisite exquis-ite pottery, clolsonno, bronzes, fans and velvets. After she has bought more than she can comfortably get homo with, sho probably will want to see a bit of tho mikado's palace which covers over twenty-flvn acres of ground and Is surrounded by n Kf"t wall with six gutw. or Journey out to see tho largest lake In Japan, Lake Ulwii, and tbo l,200- oar-old pine tree which stands near It. |