CHAPTER XXXIII
Number of People on the Road—Princely Retinues—Pilgrims to Ise—Junrei Pilgrims—Naked Devotees—Religious Beggars—Begging Order of Nuns—Yama-Bushi, or Mountain Priests—Buddhist Beggars—Singular Bell-chiming—Hucksters and Peddlers—Courtesans.
“It is scarce credible,” says Kämpfer, “what numbers of people daily travel in this country; and I can assure the reader, from my own experience, having passed it four times, that Tōkaidō, which is, indeed, the most frequented of the seven great roads in Japan, is upon some days more crowded than the public streets in any of the most populous towns in Europe. This is owing partly to the country’s being extremely populous, partly to the frequent journeys which the natives undertake, oftener than perhaps any other people.
“It is the duty of the princes and lords of the empire, as also of the governors of the imperial cities and crown lands, to go to court once a year to pay their homage and respect. They are attended, going up and returning, by their whole court, and travel with a pomp and magnificence becoming as well their own quality and riches as the majesty of the powerful monarch whom they are going to see. The train of some of the most eminent fills up the road for some days. Though we travelled pretty fast, yet we often met the baggage and fore-runners, consisting of the servants and inferior officers, for two days together, dispersed in several troops, and the prince himself followed but the third day, attended with his numerous court, all marching in admirable order. The retinue of one of the chief Daimiōs, as they are called, is computed to amount to about twenty thousand men, more or less; that of a Shōmiō to about ten thousand; that of a governor of the imperial cities and crown lands to from one to several hundreds, according to his quality or revenues.[4]
“If two or more of these princes and lords should chance to travel the same road at the same time, they would prove a great hindrance to one another, particularly if they should happen to meet at the same post-house or village; to prevent which it is usual for great princes and lords to bespeak the several post-houses by which they are to pass, with all the inns, those of the first quality a month, others a week or two, before their arrival. The time of their intended arrival is also notified in all the cities, villages, and hamlets, by putting up small boards on high poles of bamboo, signifying in a few characters what day of the month such or such a lord will be at that village, to dine or sleep there.
A Native Postman;
Toko-no-ma
“Numerous troops of fore-runners, harbingers, clerks, cooks, and other inferior officers go before to provide lodgings, victuals, and other things necessary for the entertainment of their prince and master, and his court. They are followed by the prince’s heavy baggage, packed up either in small trunks, as already described, and carried upon horses, each with a banner, bearing the coat of arms and the name of the possessor, or else in large chests, covered with red lackered leather, again with the possessor’s coat of arms, and carried upon men’s shoulders, with multitudes of inspectors to look after them. Next come great numbers of smaller retinues, belonging to the chief officers and noblemen attending the prince, with pikes, scymetars, bows and arrows, umbrellas, palanquins, led horses, and other marks of their grandeur, suitable to their birth, quality, and office. Some of these are carried in norimono, others in kago, and others go on horseback.
“The prince’s own numerous train, marching in an admirable and curious order, is divided into several troops, each headed by a proper commanding officer, as, 1. Five, more or less, fine horses, each led by two grooms, one on each side, two footmen walking behind. 2. Five or six, and sometimes more, porters, richly clad, walking one by one, and carrying lackered chests, and japanned neat trunks and baskets, upon their shoulders, wherein are kept the wearing apparel and other necessaries for the daily use of the prince, each porter attended by two footmen. 3. Ten or more fellows, walking one by one, and carrying rich scymetars, pikes of state, fire-arms, and other weapons, in lackered wooden cases, as, also, quivers with bows and arrows. Sometimes, for magnificence sake, there are more chest-bearers and led horses following this troop. 4. Two, three, or more men, who carry pikes of state, as the badges of the prince’s power and authority, adorned at the upper end with bunches of cock feathers, or other ornaments peculiar to such or such a prince. They walk one by one, and are attended each by two footmen. 5. A gentleman, attended by two footmen, carrying the prince’s hat, worn as a shelter from the heat of the sun, and which is covered with black velvet. 6. A gentleman carrying the prince’s sombrero, or umbrella, which is covered in like manner with black velvet, this person also attended by two footmen. 7. Some more bearers of trunks, covered with varnished leather, with the prince’s coat of arms upon them, each with two men to take care of it. 8. Sixteen, more or less, of the prince’s pages, and gentlemen of his bed-chamber, taken out from among the first quality of his court, richly clad, and walking two and two before his norimono. 9. The prince himself, sitting in a stately norimono, carried by six or eight men, clad in rich liveries, with several others walking at the norimono’s sides, to take it up by turns; also, two or three gentlemen of the prince’s bed-chamber, to give him what he wants and asks for, and to assist and support him in getting in or out. 10. Two or three horses of state, the saddles covered with black. One of these horses carries a large elbow-chair, which is sometimes covered with black velvet. These horses are attended each by several grooms and footmen in liveries, and some are led by the prince’s own pages. 11. Two pike-bearers. 12. Ten or more people, carrying each two baskets of a monstrous size, fixed to the ends of a pole, which they lay on their shoulders in such a manner that one basket hangs down before and the other behind them. These baskets are more for state than for any use. Sometimes some chest-bearers walk among them, to increase the troop. In this order marches the prince’s own train, which is followed by six to twelve led horses with their leaders, grooms, and footmen, all in liveries. The procession is closed by a multitude of the prince’s domestics and other officers of his court, with their own numerous trains and attendants, pike-bearers, chest-bearers, and footmen, in liveries. Some of these are carried in kago, and the whole troop is headed by the prince’s high-steward, carried in a norimono. If one of the prince’s sons accompanies his father in this journey to court, he follows with his own train immediately after his father’s norimono.
“It is a sight exceedingly curious and worthy of admiration, to see all the persons who compose the numerous train of a great prince, clad, the pike-bearers, the norimono-men and livery-men only excepted, in black silk, marching in an elegant order, with a decent, becoming gravity, and keeping so profound a silence that not the least noise is to be heard, save what must necessarily arise from the motion and rushing of their dresses, and the trampling of the horses and men. On the other hand, it appears ridiculous to an European to see all the pike-bearers and norimono-men, with their clothes tucked up above their waists, exposing their nakedness to the spectators’ view, with only a piece of cloth about their loins. What appears still more old and whimsical is to see the pages, pike-bearers, umbrella and hat bearers, chest-bearers, and all the footmen in liveries, affect, when they pass through some remarkable town, or by the train of another prince or lord, a strange mimic march or dance. Every step they make, they draw up one foot quite to their backs, stretching out the arm on the opposite side as far as they can, and putting themselves in such a posture as if they had a mind to swim through the air. Meanwhile the pikes, hats, umbrellas, chests, boxes, baskets, and whatever else they carry are danced and tossed about in a very singular manner, answering to the motion of their bodies. The norimono-men, who have their sleeves tied with a string as near the shoulders as possible, so as to leave their arms naked, carry the pole of the norimono either upon their shoulders, or else upon the palms of their hands, holding it above their heads. Whilst they hold it up with one arm, they stretch out the other, putting the hand into a horizontal posture, whereby, and by their short, deliberate steps and stiff knees, they affect a ridiculous fear and circumspection. If the prince steps out of his norimono into one of the green huts which are purposely built for him at convenient distances on the road, or if he goes into a private house, either to drink a dish of tea or for any other purpose, he always leaves a koban with the landlord as a reward for his trouble. At dinner or supper the expense is much greater.
“All the pilgrims who go to Ise, whatever province of the empire they come from, must travel over part of this great road. This pilgrimage is made at all times of the year, but particularly in the spring, at which season vast multitudes of these pilgrims are seen upon the roads. The Japanese of both sexes, young and old, rich and poor, undertake this meritorious journey, generally speaking, on foot, in order to obtain, at this holy place, indulgences and remission of their sins. Some of these pilgrims are so poor that they must live wholly upon what they get by begging. On this account, and by reason of their great number, they are exceedingly troublesome to the princes and lords who at that time of the year go to court, or come thence, though otherwise they address themselves in a very civil manner, bareheaded, and with a low, submissive voice, saying, ‘Great Lord, be pleased to give the poor pilgrim a zeni, towards the expense of his journey to Ise,’ or words to that effect. Of all the Japanese, the inhabitants of Yedo and the province Oshū are the most inclined to this pilgrimage. Children, if apprehensive of severe punishment for their misdemeanors, will run away from their parents and go to Ise, thence to fetch an Oharai, or indulgence, which upon their return is deemed a sufficient expiation of their crimes, and a sure means to reconcile them to their friends. Multitudes of these pilgrims are obliged to pass whole nights lying in the open fields, exposed to all the injuries of wind and weather, some for want of room in inns, others out of poverty; and of these last many are found dead upon the road, in which case their Oharai, if they have any about them, is carefully taken up and hid in the next tree or bush.
“Others make this pilgrimage in a comical and merry way, drawing people’s eyes upon them as well as getting their money. They form themselves into companies, generally of four persons, clad in white linen, after the fashion of the Kuge, or persons of the holy ecclesiastical court of the Dairi. Two of them walking a grave, slow, deliberate pace, and standing often still, carry a large barrow, adorned and hung about with fir-branches and cut white paper, on which they place a resemblance of a large bell, made of light substance, or a kettle, or something else, alluding to some old romantic history of their gods and ancestors; whilst a third, with a commander’s staff in his hand, adorned, out of respect to his office, with a bunch of white paper, walks, or rather dances, before the barrow, singing with a dull, heavy voice, a song relating to the subject they are about to represent. Meanwhile, the fourth goes begging before the houses, or addresses himself to charitable travellers, and receives and keeps the money which is given them. Their day’s journeys are so short that they can easily spend the whole summer upon such an expedition.
“The Junrei, another remarkable sight travellers meet with upon the roads, are people who go to visit in pilgrimage the thirty-three chief Kwannon temples, which lie dispersed throughout the empire. They commonly travel two or three together, singing a miserable Kwannon-song from house to house, and sometimes playing upon a fiddle, or upon a guitar, as vagabond beggars do in Germany. However, they do not importune travellers for their charity. They have the names of such Kwannon temples as they have not yet visited writ upon a small board hanging about their necks. They are clad in white, after a very singular fashion, peculiar only to this sect. Some people like so well to ramble about the country after this manner that they will apply themselves to no other trade and profession, but choose to end their days in this perpetual pilgrimage.
“Sometimes one meets with very odd sights; as, for instance, people running naked along the roads in the hardest frosts, wearing only a little straw about their waists. These people generally undertake so extraordinary and troublesome a journey to visit certain temples, pursuant to religious vows, which they promised to fulfil in case they should obtain, from the bounty of their gods, deliverance from some fatal distemper, they themselves, their parents or relations, labor under, or from some other great misfortunes they were threatened with. They live very poorly and miserably upon the road, receive no charity, and proceed on their journey by themselves, almost perpetually running.
“Multitudes of beggars crowd the roads in all parts of the empire, but particularly on the so much frequented Tōkaidō, among them many lusty young fellows, who shave their heads. To this shaved begging tribe belongs a certain remarkable religious order of young girls, called Bikuni, which is as much as to say, nuns. They live under the protection of the nunneries at Kamakura and Miyako, to which they pay a certain sum a year, of what they get by begging, as an acknowledgment of their authority. They are, in my opinion, by much the handsomest girls we saw in Japan. The daughters of poor parents, if they be handsome and agreeable, apply for and easily obtain this privilege of begging in the habit of nuns, knowing that beauty is one of the most persuasive inducements to generosity. The Yamabushi, or begging mountain priests (of whom more hereafter), frequently incorporate their own daughters into this religious order, and take their wives from among these Bikuni. Some of them have been bred up as courtesans, and having served their time, buy the privilege of entering into this religious order, therein to spend the remainder of their youth and beauty. They live two or three together, and make an excursion every day some few miles from their dwelling-house. They particularly watch people of fashion, who travel in norimono, or in kago, or on horseback. As soon as they perceive somebody coming, they draw near and address themselves, though not all together, but singly, every one accosting a gentleman by herself singing a rural song; and if he proves very liberal and charitable, she will keep him company and divert him for some hours. As, on the one hand, very little religious blood seems to circulate in their veins, so, on the other, it doth not appear that they labor under any considerable degree of poverty. It is true, indeed, they conform themselves to the rules of their order, by shaving their heads, but they take care to cover and to wrap them up in caps or hoods made of black silk. They go decently and neatly dressed, after the fashion of ordinary people. They wear also a large hat to cover their faces, which are often painted, and to shelter themselves from the heat of the sun. They commonly have a shepherd’s rod or hook in their hands. Their voice, gestures, and apparent behavior, are neither too bold and daring, nor too much dejected and affected, but free, comely, and seemingly modest. However, not to extol their modesty beyond what it deserves, it must be observed, that they make nothing of laying their bosoms quite bare to the view of charitable travellers, all the while they keep them company, under pretence of its being customary in the country; and, for aught I know, they may be, though never so religiously shaved, full as impudent and lascivious as any public courtesan.
“Another religious begging order is that of Yamabushi, as they are commonly called; that is, the mountain priests, or rather Yamabu, mountain soldiers, because at all times they go armed with swords and scymetars. They do not shave their heads, but follow the rules of the first founder of this order, who mortified his body by climbing up steep, high mountains; at least, they conform themselves thereunto in their dress, apparent behavior, and some outward ceremonies; for they are fallen short of his rigorous way of life. They have a head, or general, of their order, residing at Miyako, to whom they are obliged to bring a certain sum of money every year, and who has the distribution of dignities and of titles, whereby they are known among themselves. They commonly live in the neighborhood of some famous Kami temple, and accost travellers in the name of that Kami which is worshipped there, making a short discourse of his holiness and miracles, with a loud, coarse voice. Meanwhile, to make the noise still louder, they rattle their long staffs, loaded at the upper end with iron rings, to take up the charity money which is given them; and last of all, they blow a trumpet made of a large shell. They carry their children along with them upon the same begging errand, clad like their fathers, but with their heads shaved. Those little bastards are exceedingly troublesome and importunate with travellers, and commonly take care to light on them, as they are going up some hill or mountain, where, because of the difficult ascent, they cannot well escape, nor indeed otherwise get rid of them without giving them something. In some places they and their fathers accost travellers in company with a troop of Bikuni, and, with their rattling, singing, trumpeting, chattering, and crying, make such a frightful noise as would make one almost mad or deaf. These mountain priests are frequently applied to by superstitious people for conjuring, fortune-telling, foretelling future events, recovering lost goods, and the like purposes. They profess themselves to be of the Kami religion, as established of old, and yet they are never suffered to attend, or to take care of, any of the Kami temples.
“There are many more beggars travellers meet with along the roads. Some of these are old, and, in all appearance, honest men, who, the better to prevail upon people to part with their charity, are shaved and clad after the fashion of the Butsudō [Buddhist] priests. Sometimes there are two of them standing together, each with a small, oblong book before him. This book contains part of their Hōkekyō, or Bible, printed in the significant or learned language.[5] However, I would not have the reader think, as if they themselves had any understanding in that language, or know how to read the book placed before them. They only learn some part of it by heart, and speak it aloud, looking towards the book, as if they did actually read in it, and expecting something from their hearers, as a reward for their trouble.
“Others are found sitting near some river, or running water, making a Segaki,—a certain ceremony for the relief of departed souls. This Segaki is made after the following manner: They take a green branch of the Hana Shikimi tree, and, murmuring certain words with a low voice, wash and scour it with some shavings of wood, whereon they had written the names of some deceased persons. This they believe to contribute greatly to relieve and refresh the departed souls confined in purgatory; and, for aught I know, it may answer that purpose full as well as any number of masses, as they are celebrated to the same end in Roman Catholic countries. Any person that hath a mind to purchase the benefit of this washing, for himself or his relations and friends, throws a zeni upon the mat, which is spread out near the beggar, who does not so much as offer to return him any manner of thanks for it, thinking his art and devotion deserve still better; besides that, it is not customary amongst beggars of note to thank people for their charity. Any one who hath learned the proper ceremonies necessary to make the Segaki is at liberty to do it.
“Others of this tribe, who make up far the greater part, sit upon the road all day long upon a small, coarse mat. They have a flat bell, like a broad mortar, lying before them, and do nothing else but repeat, with a lamentable singing tune, the word Namida, which is contracted from Namu Amida Butsu, a short form of prayer wherewith they address Amida as the patron and advocate of departed souls. Meanwhile they beat almost continually with a small wooden hammer upon the aforesaid bell, and this, they say, in order to be the sooner heard by Amida, and, I am apt to think, not without an intent, too, to be the better taken notice of by passengers.
“Another sort we met with as we went along were differently clad, some in an ecclesiastical, others in a secular habit. These stood in the fields, next to the road, and commonly had a sort of altar standing before them, upon which they placed the idol of their Briaréus, or Kwannon, as they call him, carved in wood and gilt; or the pictures of some other idols, scurvily done, as, for instance, the picture of Amida, the supreme judge of departed souls; of Emma, or the head-keeper of the prison, whereunto the condemned souls are confined; of Jizō, or the supreme commander in the purgatory of children; and some others, wherewith, and by some representations of the flames and torments prepared for the wicked in a future world, they endeavor to stir up in passengers compassion and charity.
“Other beggars, and these, to all appearance, honest enough, are met sitting along the road, clad much after the same manner with the Kwannon beggars, with a Jizō staff in their hand. These have made vow not to speak during a certain time, and express their want and desire only by a sad, dejected, woeful countenance.[6]
“Not to mention numberless other common beggars, some sick, some stout and lusty enough, who get people’s charity by praying, singing, playing upon fiddles, guitars, and other musical instruments, or performing some juggler’s tricks, I will close the account of this vermin with an odd, remarkable sort of a beggar’s music, or rather chime of bells, we sometimes, but rarely, met with in our journey to court. A young boy, with a sort of a wooden machine pendent from his neck, and a rope, with eight strings about it, from which hang down eight bells, of different sounds, turns round in a circle, with a swiftness scarce credible, in such a manner that both the machine, which rests upon his shoulders, and the bells, turn round with him horizontally, the boy, in the meanwhile, with great dexterity and quickness, beating them with two hammers, makes a strange, odd sort of a melody. To increase the noise, two people sitting near him beat, one upon a large, the other upon a smaller drum. Those who are pleased with their performance throw them some zeni as they pass.[7]
“The crowd and throng upon the roads is not a little increased by numberless small retail merchants, and children of country people, who run about from morning to night, following travellers, and offering them for sale their poor, for the most part eatable, merchandise,—such as several cakes and sweetmeats, wherein the quantity of sugar is so inconsiderable that it is scarce perceptible, other cakes, of different sorts, made of flour, roots boiled in water and salt, road-books, straw shoes for horses and men, ropes, strings, toothpickers, and a multitude of other trifles, made of wood, straw, reed, and bamboos.
“Nor must I forget to take notice of the numberless wenches, the great and small inns, and the tea-booths and cook-shops in villages and hamlets are furnished withal. About noon, when they have done dressing and painting themselves, they make their appearance, standing under the door of the house, or sitting upon the small gallery around it, whence, with a smiling countenance and good words, they invite the travelling troops that pass by to call in at their inn, preferably to others. In some places, where there are several inns standing near one another, they make, with their chattering and rattling, no inconsiderable noise, and prove not a little troublesome.
“I cannot forbear mentioning in this place a small mistake of Mr. Caron, in his account of Japan, where he shows so tender a regard for the honor of the Japanese sex (perhaps out of respect to his lady, who was a Japan woman) as to assert that, except in the privileged houses devoted to it, this trade is not elsewhere carried on. It is unquestionably true that there is hardly a public inn upon the great island Nippon, but what is provided with courtesans, and if too many customers resort to one place, the neighboring inn-keepers will lend their wenches, on condition that what money they get shall be faithfully paid them. Nor is it a new custom come up but lately, or since Mr. Caron’s time. On the contrary, it is of very old date, and took its rise, as the Japanese say, many hundred years ago, in the times of that brave general and first secular monarch, Yoritomo, who, apprehensive lest his soldiers, weary of his long and tedious expeditions, and desirous to return home to their wives and children, should desert his army, thought it much more advisable to indulge them in this particular.”