With best regards, in momentary haste,
Lafcadio Hearn.
TO BASIL HALL CHAMBERLAIN
Matsue, May, 1891.
Dear Professor Chamberlain,—I have just returned from a pilgrimage to the famous Kwannon temple of Kiyomizu—about 18 miles from Matsue—where it is said that the sacred fire has never been extinguished for a thousand years, to find your postal card. I do not wait to receive the delightful gift in order to thank you for it; as I hope to have the pleasure of writing you a letter on my impression of it after reading it. You could have imagined nothing to send me more welcome. Mr. Lowell has, I think, no warmer admirer in the world than myself, though I do not agree with his theory in the “Soul of the Far East,” and think he has ignored the most essential and astonishing quality of the race: its genius of eclecticism. The future holds many problems we cannot presume to guess, in regard to the fate of races. But there is not wanting foundation for the belief that the Orient may yet dominate the Occident and absorb it utterly. China seems to many a far greater question than Russia.
About your kind question regarding books. I think I shall be able to get all the books on Japan—in English—that I need; and your “Things Japanese” is a mine of good advice on what to buy. But if I need counsel which I cannot find in your book, then I will write and ask.
I venture to say that I think you have underrated the importance of my suggestion about the Sacred Snake,—of which I have not been able to find the scientific name. If they have such a snake at Ise then I am wrong. But, if not, I think the little snake would be worth having. It does not—like the fire-drill of Kizuki—possess special interest for the anthropologist; but it certainly should have interest for the folk-lorist, as a chapter in one of the most ancient and widely spread (if not universal) religious practices,—the worship of the Serpent. If you ever want an enshrined snake, let me know. It is dried and put into a little miya for the kamidana.
Speaking of folk-lore, I have been interesting myself in the fox-superstition in Izumo. Here, and in Iwami, the superstition has local peculiarities. It is so powerful as to affect the value of real estate to the amount of hundreds of thousands of yen, and keen men have become rich by speculating upon the strength of it. If you want any facts about it, please tell me.
The scenery at Kiyomizu is superb. But there is no clear water except the view of Nanji-umi from the pagoda and the hills. The mamori, I regret to say, are uninteresting. There is, however, a curious Inari shrine. Beside it is a sort of huge trough filled with little foxes of all shapes, designs, and material. If you want anything, you pray, and put a fox in your pocket, and take it home. As soon as the prayer is granted you must take the fox back again and put it just where it was before. I should like to have taken one home; but my servants hate foxes and Inari and tofu and azuki-meshi and abura-gi and everything related to foxes. So I left it alone.