John L. Stoddard's Lectures, Vol. 03 (of 10) by John L. (John Lawson) Stoddard

Author:John L. (John Lawson) Stoddard [Stoddard, John L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: American, Classics, Poetry, Fiction & Literature
ISBN: 9781117893686
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: BCR (Bibliographical Center for Research)
Published: 2010-03-11T00:00:00+00:00

BRONZE HORSE.

A MONSTER BELL, KIOTO.

A TEMPLE IN KIOTO.

Accepting the invitation which that bell conveyed to us, we strolled toward one of Kioto's many temples. In the one we entered, five bells, with long white cords attached, were hanging in the lacquered porch. The worshiper pulls one of these, to call the attention of the god; then, having said a prayer, he drops a coin into a grated box and goes his way. On one occasion, we saw a pretty baby, three months old, brought hither in its mother's arms, and made to pull the bell-rope with its tiny hand. Then the great-grand-mother of the child, herself almost eighty-six years old, advanced with trembling limbs and rang it for the second time. It was a suggestive picture,—this vision of old age and infancy, like opposite poles of an electric battery, completing here a circuit of four generations; pathetic emblems of the past and future,—the smiling infant looking forward to anticipated blessings, the feeble matron thankful for the gifts received.

A JAPANESE BELFRY.

The Japanese have really two religions, in some respects rivals of each other. The elder, or original faith, is Shintoism; the younger, which has struggled to supplant it for twelve hundred years, is Buddhism.

It is difficult to comprehend exactly what Shintoism is. The name means, literally, "The way of the gods," but it is the vaguest known religion. It has no bible, no dogmas, and not even a moral code. It dimly hints at immortality, but has no definite heaven or hell. Its gods, are either deified national heroes or else personifications of nature, such as the glorious sun, the all-surrounding ocean, and the innumerable deities of mountains, rivers, rocks, and trees. Its shrines for worship, with their gray stone lanterns and majestic torii, are severely plain, its services extremely simple, and all its priests appear like laymen in the streets, donning their clerical robes only when they officiate in the temples.

ENTRANCE TO A JAPANESE TEMPLE.

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