When we left Matsue by steamer on our way to Tottori prefecture I saw middle-school eights at practice. An agriculturist told me of the custom of giving holidays to oxen and horses. The villagers carefully brush their animals, decorate them and lead them to pastures where, tethered to rings attached to a long rope, "they may graze together pleasantly." One of the islands we visited bore the name of the giant radish, Daikon, which is itself a corruption of the word for octopus. The island devoted itself mainly to the growing of peonies and ginseng. The ginseng is largely exported to China and Korea, but there is a certain consumption in Japan. Ginseng is sometimes chewed, but is generally soaked, the liquid being drunk. Ginseng is popularly supposed to be an invigorant, and Japanese doctors in Korea have lately declared that it has some value. The root is costly, hence the proverb about eating ginseng and hanging oneself, i.e. getting into debt.
In walking across the island I passed a forlorn little shrine. It was merely a rough shed with a wide shelf at the back, on which stood a row of worn and dusty figures, decked with the clothes of children whose recovery was supposed to have been due to their influence. It was raining and the shelter was full of children playing in the company of an old crone with a baby on her back. Further on in the village I came across a new public bath. The price of admission was one sen, children half price.
A small port was pointed out to me as being open to foreign trade. Everybody is not aware that in Japan there is a restriction upon foreign shipping except at sixty specified places.[[193]] The reason given for the restriction is the unprofitableness of custom houses at small places. One day, perhaps, the world will wake up to the inconvenience and financial burden imposed by the custom-house system of raising revenue.
We stayed the night at a little place at the eastern extremity of the Shimane promontory where there is a shrine and no cultivation of any sort is allowed "for fear of defilement." Waste products are taken away by boat. I marked a contrast between theoretical and practical holiness. Our inn overlooked a special landing-place where, because a "sacred boat" from the shrine is launched there, a notice had been put up forbidding the throwing of rubbish into the sea. A few minutes after the board had been pointed out to me I saw an old man cast a considerable mass of rubbish into the water not six feet away from it. When we visited the shrine three pilgrims were at their devotions. The next morning when our steamer left and the chief priest of the shrine was bidding us adieu my attention was attracted by loud conversation in the second storey of an inn, the shoji of which were open. Our pilgrims, two of whom were bald, had spent the night at an inn of bad character and were now in the company of prostitutes in the sight of all men. One pilgrim had a girl on his knee, another was himself on a girl's knee and a third had his arm round a girl's neck. In this "sacred" place of 2,000 inhabitants there were forty "double license" girls, five being natives. A few years ago all the girls were natives. A "double license" girl means one who is licensed both as a geisha and a prostitute. The plan of issuing "double licenses" is adopted at Kyoto and elsewhere. As to the pilgrims to whom I have referred, someone quoted to me the saying, "It is only half a pilgrimage going to the shrine without seeing the girls."
Returning to the custom of launching a sacred boat it is not without significance that many Japanese deities have some connection with the sea. Even in the case of the deities of shrines a long way from the sea the ceremony of "going down to the sea" is sometimes observed. Sand and sea water are sent for in order to be mixed with the water used to cleanse the car in which the figure of the deity is drawn through the streets.
The social and financial position of tenants was illustrated by an incident at an inn. As the maid came from the country I asked her if her father were a tenant or an owner. My companion interrupted to tell me that the question was not judiciously framed because the girl would "think it a disgrace to own that her father was a tenant." The name of a tenant used long ago to be "water drinker." This waiting-maid was a good-looking and rather clever girl. I was dismayed when my friend told me that she had said to him quite simply that she had thoughts of becoming a joro. She thought it would be a "more interesting life."
When we reached Tottori prefecture we found ourselves in a country which grows more cotton than any other. Japanese cotton (grown on about 400 chō) is unsuitable for manufacture into thread, but because of its elasticity is considered to be valuable for the padding of winter clothing and for futon and zabuton. Their softness is maintained by daily sunning.
At a county office I noted that the persons who were receiving relief were classified as follows: Illness, 26; cripples, 17; old age, 16; schoolboys, 12; infancy, 1.
In the course of our journey a Shinto priest was pointed out to me as observing the priestly taboo by refusing tea and cake. I noticed, however, that he smoked. I was told that when he was in Tokyo he purified himself in the sea even in midwinter. I did not like his appearance. Nor for the matter of that was I impressed by the countenances of some Buddhist priests I encountered in the train from time to time. "Thinking always of money," someone said. But every now and again I saw fine priestly faces.
I have noted down very little in regard to the crops and the countryside in Tottori. Things seemed very much the same as I had seen in Shimane. At an agricultural show in the city of Tottori the varieties of yam and taro were so numerous as to deceive the average Westerner into believing that he was seeing the roots of different kinds of plants. A feature of the show was a large realistic model of a rice field with two life-size figures.