The foundations of Japan

by J. W. Robertson Scott

We spoke of the considerable consumption of pickles, highly salted or fermented. For example, in the ordinary 25-sen bento (lunch) box there are three or four different kinds of pickles. The doctor said that pickles were not only a means of taking salt and so appetisers to help the rice down, but digestives; fermented pickles supplied diastase which enabled the stomach to deal promptly with the large quantities of rice swallowed.

I asked for the doctor's opinion as to the prevalence of tumours, displacements and cancer among women who labour in the fields and have to bring up children and do all the housework of a peasant's dwelling. The doctor replied that he was disposed to think that cases of the ailments I spoke of were not numerous. Cancer was certainly rare. He knew that in Japan rickets, goitre and gout were all less common than in the West. He expressed the opinion that childbirth was easier than in the West. It was a delight to see the fine carriage of the women and girls astride on the high saddles of the horses. [^[197]] Both sexes in the district wear over their kimonos blue cotton trousers, something like a plumber's overall only tighter in the legs. The women are certainly strong. One day I saw a woman carrying uphill on her back two wooden doors about 6 ft. by 5 ft. 6 ins. An old woman I met on the road volunteered her view that women were "stronger" than men. She was very much concerned to know how foreigners could live without eating rice. She said—and this is characteristically Japanese—that she envied me being able to travel all over the world.

OFF TO THE UPLAND FIELDS

The Buddhist temple is built wholly of wood and the roof is thatched. Whenever there was an earthquake the timbers seemed to crackle rather than creak. The temple is relatively new and seems to have been built with materials given by the villagers and by means of a gift of 1,000 yen. The workmanship was local and a good deal of it was faulty. This may have been due to lack of experience, but it is more likely that the cause was limited funds. The plan and proportions of the building are excellent and the carving is first-rate. The right of "presentation to the living" is in the hands of the village. The priest and his family live in a large house on one side of the temple. On the other side is a small Shinto shrine to which the priest seems to give such attention as is necessary. The temple is Shingon. There is a sermon once a year only, or "when some famous man comes." The actual temple in which the priest, who showed me a fine collection of robes, conducts his services is between forty and fifty mats in area. Behind it is the room in which the ihai or tablets of the dead are arranged. This part of the building is covered on the outside with plaster in the manner of a kura (godown) so as to be fire-proof. On either side of the actual temple are rooms very much as in a spacious private house. There are two of eighteen and fifteen mats, two of twelve and ten mats and two small ones. There is also a wide covered engawa (verandah) in front and at the sides. A small kitchen and what the auctioneers call the usual offices complete the building.

Right round the temple there is a nice garden which keeps the priest's man, a picturesque, sweet-tempered, guileless old fellow, occupied much of his time. The priest conducted a service twice a day, at 5:30 in the morning and at 7:30 in the evening. When he fell ill and had to be carried in a litter to the nearest town for an operation, we missed his beautiful chanting and expert sounding of the deep-toned gong of the sanctuary. The great bell in the court-yard was struck by the priest's boy at sundown. The priest kept the old rule against meat. He and his wife would not eat even cake or biscuits because they feared that there might be milk and butter in them. The couple were very kind to us and we enjoyed a delightfully quiet life in the lofty sunny temple rooms. I should judge that Otera San (Mr. Temple) was respected in the village. His wife was a bustling woman of such sweetness and simplicity of nature as can only be found in a far valley.

I have mentioned that the total incomings of the priest are probably about 250 yen. He receives no salary but has his house free. He must "discuss about anything wanted in the temple." I do not suppose he had to ask anybody whether he might lodge us or not. He receives considerable gifts of rice, perhaps to the value of 120 yen, at any rate enough for the whole year. He has also the rent of the "glebe," which consists of 12 tan of paddy, 2 tan of dry field and 10 tan of woodland. Then there are the gifts which are made to him at funerals and for the services he conducts at the villagers' houses on the days of the dead. One day during the Bon season every household sent a little girl or boy with a present to the priest. In return these small visitors were given sweets. During the Bon season some very old men of the village came and worshipped at the Shinto shrine and were entertained with saké by the priest on the engawa of his temple. The amount in the collecting box in front of the little Shinto shrine in the temple yard, largely in rin, would not be more than 10 or 15 sen in the year. Most of the contributions are in the form of pinches of rice. The priest may give 10 yen a year to his man who works about the temple and his house and accompanies him to funerals and to the memorial services at the villagers' dwellings; but this servitor, like his master, no doubt receives presents.

The Shinto priest is probably not so well off as the Buddhist priest. The village makes a small payment to him twice a year. At New Year 3 yen in all may be flung in the collecting box at the shrine, but the priest has presents made to him when he goes to see ailing folk and when he officiates at the building of a new house. Most people when they are ill seem to send for the Shinto priest. But he explained to me that he does not expect a sick man to "worship only." He is accustomed to say to the people, "Doctor first, god second," from which I was to conclude, one who heard told me, that the priest was "rather a civilised man." The Shinto priest had succeeded a relative in his position. The village had found its Buddhist priest in a neighbouring district.

The Buddhist priest told me that every year 150 or 160 men and women made a pilgrimage to a famous shrine some few miles off. The custom was for every house to be represented in the pilgrimage. Half a dozen people in the year might go on personal pilgrimages and fifty or so might visit a little shrine on a neighbouring mountain.