“Another remarkable thing we met with, as we travelled along, were the places of public execution, easily known by crosses, posts, and other remains of former executions. They commonly lie without the cities or villages, on the west side.
A Dry-goods Shop
“In this heathen country fewer capital crimes are tried before the courts of justice, and less criminal blood shed by the hands of public executioners, than perhaps in any part of Christendom. So powerfully works the fear of an inevitable, shameful death upon the minds of a nation, otherwise so stubborn as the Japanese, and so regardless of their lives, that nothing else but such strictness would be able to keep them within due bounds. ’Tis true, indeed, Nagasaki cannot boast of that scarcity of executions; for besides that this place hath been in a manner consecrated to cruelty and blood, by being made the common butchery of many thousand Japanese Christians, there have not been since wanting frequent executions, particularly of those people who, contrary to the severe imperial edict, cannot leave off carrying on a smuggling trade with foreigners, and who alone perhaps of the whole nation seem to be more pleased with this unlawful gain, than frightened by the shameful punishment which they must inevitably suffer if caught in the fact or betrayed to the governors.
“Of all the religious buildings to be seen in this country, the Tera, that is, the Buddhist temples, with the adjoining convents, are, doubtless, the most remarkable, as being far superior to all others, by their stately height, curious roofs, and numberless other beautiful ornaments. Such as are built within cities or villages, stand commonly on rising grounds and in the most conspicuous places. Others, which are without, are built on the ascent of hills and mountains. All are most sweetly seated,—a curious view of the adjacent country, a spring or rivulet of clear water, and the neighborhood of a wood, with pleasant walks, being necessary for the spots on which these holy structures are to be built.
“All these temples are built of the best cedars and firs, and adorned within with many carved images. In the middle of the temple stands a fine altar, with one or more gilt idols upon it, and a beautiful candlestick, with sweet-scented candles burning before it. The whole temple is so neatly and curiously adorned, that one would fancy himself transported into a Roman Catholic church, did not the monstrous shape of the idols, which are therein worshipped, evince the contrary. The whole empire is full of these temples, and their priests are without number. Only in and about Miyako they count three thousand eight hundred and ninety-three temples, and thirty-seven thousand and ninety-three Shukke, or priests, to attend them.
“The sanctity of the Miya, or temples sacred to the gods of old worshipped in the country, requires also that they should be built in some lofty place, or, at least, at some distance from unclean, common grounds. I have elsewhere observed that they are attended only by secular persons[173]. A neat broad walk turns in from the highway towards these temples. At the beginning of the walk is a stately and magnificent gate, built either of stone or of wood, with a square table, about a foot and a half high, on which the name of the god to whom the temple is consecrated is written or engraved in golden characters.
“Of this magnificent entry one may justly say, Parturiunt Montes; for if you come to the end of the walk, which is sometimes several hundred paces long, instead of a pompous, magnificent building, you find nothing but a low, mean structure of wood, often all hid amidst trees and bushes, with one single grated window to look into it, and within either all empty, or adorned only with a looking-glass of metal, placed in the middle, and hung about with some bundles of straw, or cut white paper, tied to a long string, in form of fringes, as a mark of the purity and sanctity of the place. The most magnificent gates stand before the temples of Tenshō daijin, of Hachiman, and of that Kami, or god, whom particular places choose to worship as their tutelar deity, who takes a more particular care to protect and defend them[174].
“Other religious objects travellers meet with along the roads are the Hotoke, or foreign idols, chiefly those of Amida and Jizō, as also other monstrous images and idols, which we found upon the highways in several places, at the turning in of sideways, near bridges, convents, temples, and other buildings. They are set up partly as an ornament to the place, partly to remind travellers of the devotion and worship due to the gods. For this same purpose, drawings of these idols printed upon entire or half sheets of paper, are pasted upon the gates of cities and villages, upon wooden posts, near bridges, upon the proclamation-cases above described, and in several other places upon the highway, which stand the most exposed to the traveller’s view. Travellers, however, are not obliged to fall down before them, or to pay them any other mark of worship and respect than they are otherwise willing to do.
“On the doors and houses of ordinary people (for men of quality seldom suffer to have theirs thus disfigured) there is commonly pasted a sorry picture of one of their Lares, or house gods, printed upon a half sheet of paper. The most common is the black-horned Gion, otherwise called Gozutennō,—that is, according to the literal signification of the Chinese characters for this name, the ox-headed prince of heaven,—whom they believe to have the power of keeping the family from distempers, and other unlucky accidents, particularly from the small-pox, which proves fatal to great numbers of their children. Others fancy they thrive extremely well, and live happy, under the protection of a countryman of Yezo, whose monstrous, frightful picture they paste upon their doors, being hairy all over his body, and carrying a large sword with both hands, which they believe he makes use of to keep off, and, as it were, to parry, all sorts of distempers and misfortunes endeavoring to get into the house.