Lafcadio Hearn.
TO BASIL HALL CHAMBERLAIN
Matsue, September, 1890.
Dear Professor,—I have just returned from my first really great Japanese experience,—a trip to Kizuki. The two trips were beautiful. From Shōbara the route lies through a superb plain of rice fields, with mountain ranges closing the horizon to left and right.
Reaching Kizuki at night, I sent a letter of introduction from Mr. Nishida of the Chūgakkō to Senke Takamori,—the princely person whose family for 82 generations have been in charge of the great temple. I paid a visit to the grounds the same evening, and was amazed by the great scale and dignity of the buildings, and the nobility of the approaches to them, under succession of colossal torii.
Next morning a messenger came from Mr. Senke, announcing that I would be received at the temple. My attendant had, however, to put on hakamas and perform other personal corrections of dress before entering the august presence.
We were then received with a courtesy and kindness impossible to praise sufficiently or to qualify too gratefully. After performing the requisite ablution of hands, we were received into the inner shrine of the chief deity—(my baggage not yet having arrived, I have not your “Kojiki” by me to correct misspelling, but I think the name is Ōnamuji-no-Mikoto). I was told that I was the first European ever allowed to enter the shrine, though seven or eight other foreigners had visited the grounds.
There are some 19 shrines not consecrated to any particular deities,—in which the Kami are supposed to assemble during the Kami-ari-zuki,—after a preliminary visit to a much smaller temple erected on the seashore,—where, it is said, the sovereignty of Izumo was first divinely guaranteed by the great deity.
We were received by the Gūji (Senke) in ceremonial costumes. His robes were white, those of the attendant priests purple with gold figuring—very beautiful. I acknowledge that I felt considerable awe in the presence of these superb Japanese, who realized for me all that I had imagined about the daimyōs, and grandees of the past. He who used to be called the Iki-gami—said to descend from Susa-no-o-no-Mikoto—is a fine portly man, with a full beard. The ceremonial was imposing, and the sense of the immense antiquity and dignity of the cult, and of the generations of its officiants, might have impressed even a more unbelieving mind than my own.
The temple is really very noble, with its huge pillars, and the solidity of its vast beamwork. Since the prehistoric era it has been rebuilt 28 times. It is said to be the oldest of all Shintō places of worship, and holier than Ise. There are many curiosities and valuable historical documents. The chief shrine faces west,—unlike others.