“Sometimes one meets with very odd sights; as, for instance, people running naked along the roads in the hardest frosts, wearing only a little straw about their waists. These people generally undertake so extraordinary and troublesome a journey to visit certain temples, pursuant to religious vows, which they promised to fulfil in case they should obtain, from the bounty of their gods, deliverance from some fatal distemper, they themselves, their parents or relations, labor under, or from some other great misfortunes they were threatened with. They live very poorly and miserably upon the road, receive no charity, and proceed on their journey by themselves, almost perpetually running.
“Multitudes of beggars crowd the roads in all parts of the empire, but particularly on the so much frequented Tōkaidō, among them many lusty young fellows, who shave their heads. To this shaved begging tribe belongs a certain remarkable religious order of young girls, called Bikuni, which is as much as to say, nuns. They live under the protection of the nunneries at Kamakura and Miyako, to which they pay a certain sum a year, of what they get by begging, as an acknowledgment of their authority. They are, in my opinion, by much the handsomest girls we saw in Japan. The daughters of poor parents, if they be handsome and agreeable, apply for and easily obtain this privilege of begging in the habit of nuns, knowing that beauty is one of the most persuasive inducements to generosity. The Yamabushi, or begging mountain priests (of whom more hereafter), frequently incorporate their own daughters into this religious order, and take their wives from among these Bikuni. Some of them have been bred up as courtesans, and having served their time, buy the privilege of entering into this religious order, therein to spend the remainder of their youth and beauty. They live two or three together, and make an excursion every day some few miles from their dwelling-house. They particularly watch people of fashion, who travel in norimono, or in kago, or on horseback. As soon as they perceive somebody coming, they draw near and address themselves, though not all together, but singly, every one accosting a gentleman by herself singing a rural song; and if he proves very liberal and charitable, she will keep him company and divert him for some hours. As, on the one hand, very little religious blood seems to circulate in their veins, so, on the other, it doth not appear that they labor under any considerable degree of poverty. It is true, indeed, they conform themselves to the rules of their order, by shaving their heads, but they take care to cover and to wrap them up in caps or hoods made of black silk. They go decently and neatly dressed, after the fashion of ordinary people. They wear also a large hat to cover their faces, which are often painted, and to shelter themselves from the heat of the sun. They commonly have a shepherd’s rod or hook in their hands. Their voice, gestures, and apparent behavior, are neither too bold and daring, nor too much dejected and affected, but free, comely, and seemingly modest. However, not to extol their modesty beyond what it deserves, it must be observed, that they make nothing of laying their bosoms quite bare to the view of charitable travellers, all the while they keep them company, under pretence of its being customary in the country; and, for aught I know, they may be, though never so religiously shaved, full as impudent and lascivious as any public courtesan.
“Another religious begging order is that of Yamabushi, as they are commonly called; that is, the mountain priests, or rather Yamabu, mountain soldiers, because at all times they go armed with swords and scymetars. They do not shave their heads, but follow the rules of the first founder of this order, who mortified his body by climbing up steep, high mountains; at least, they conform themselves thereunto in their dress, apparent behavior, and some outward ceremonies; for they are fallen short of his rigorous way of life. They have a head, or general, of their order, residing at Miyako, to whom they are obliged to bring a certain sum of money every year, and who has the distribution of dignities and of titles, whereby they are known among themselves. They commonly live in the neighborhood of some famous Kami temple, and accost travellers in the name of that Kami which is worshipped there, making a short discourse of his holiness and miracles, with a loud, coarse voice. Meanwhile, to make the noise still louder, they rattle their long staffs, loaded at the upper end with iron rings, to take up the charity money which is given them; and last of all, they blow a trumpet made of a large shell. They carry their children along with them upon the same begging errand, clad like their fathers, but with their heads shaved. Those little bastards are exceedingly troublesome and importunate with travellers, and commonly take care to light on them, as they are going up some hill or mountain, where, because of the difficult ascent, they cannot well escape, nor indeed otherwise get rid of them without giving them something. In some places they and their fathers accost travellers in company with a troop of Bikuni, and, with their rattling, singing, trumpeting, chattering, and crying, make such a frightful noise as would make one almost mad or deaf. These mountain priests are frequently applied to by superstitious people for conjuring, fortune-telling, foretelling future events, recovering lost goods, and the like purposes. They profess themselves to be of the Kami religion, as established of old, and yet they are never suffered to attend, or to take care of, any of the Kami temples.
“There are many more beggars travellers meet with along the roads. Some of these are old, and, in all appearance, honest men, who, the better to prevail upon people to part with their charity, are shaved and clad after the fashion of the Butsudō [Buddhist] priests. Sometimes there are two of them standing together, each with a small, oblong book before him. This book contains part of their Hōkekyō, or Bible, printed in the significant or learned language.[5] However, I would not have the reader think, as if they themselves had any understanding in that language, or know how to read the book placed before them. They only learn some part of it by heart, and speak it aloud, looking towards the book, as if they did actually read in it, and expecting something from their hearers, as a reward for their trouble.
“Others are found sitting near some river, or running water, making a Segaki,—a certain ceremony for the relief of departed souls. This Segaki is made after the following manner: They take a green branch of the Hana Shikimi tree, and, murmuring certain words with a low voice, wash and scour it with some shavings of wood, whereon they had written the names of some deceased persons. This they believe to contribute greatly to relieve and refresh the departed souls confined in purgatory; and, for aught I know, it may answer that purpose full as well as any number of masses, as they are celebrated to the same end in Roman Catholic countries. Any person that hath a mind to purchase the benefit of this washing, for himself or his relations and friends, throws a zeni upon the mat, which is spread out near the beggar, who does not so much as offer to return him any manner of thanks for it, thinking his art and devotion deserve still better; besides that, it is not customary amongst beggars of note to thank people for their charity. Any one who hath learned the proper ceremonies necessary to make the Segaki is at liberty to do it.
“Others of this tribe, who make up far the greater part, sit upon the road all day long upon a small, coarse mat. They have a flat bell, like a broad mortar, lying before them, and do nothing else but repeat, with a lamentable singing tune, the word Namida, which is contracted from Namu Amida Butsu, a short form of prayer wherewith they address Amida as the patron and advocate of departed souls. Meanwhile they beat almost continually with a small wooden hammer upon the aforesaid bell, and this, they say, in order to be the sooner heard by Amida, and, I am apt to think, not without an intent, too, to be the better taken notice of by passengers.
“Another sort we met with as we went along were differently clad, some in an ecclesiastical, others in a secular habit. These stood in the fields, next to the road, and commonly had a sort of altar standing before them, upon which they placed the idol of their Briaréus, or Kwannon, as they call him, carved in wood and gilt; or the pictures of some other idols, scurvily done, as, for instance, the picture of Amida, the supreme judge of departed souls; of Emma, or the head-keeper of the prison, whereunto the condemned souls are confined; of Jizō, or the supreme commander in the purgatory of children; and some others, wherewith, and by some representations of the flames and torments prepared for the wicked in a future world, they endeavor to stir up in passengers compassion and charity.
“Other beggars, and these, to all appearance, honest enough, are met sitting along the road, clad much after the same manner with the Kwannon beggars, with a Jizō staff in their hand. These have made vow not to speak during a certain time, and express their want and desire only by a sad, dejected, woeful countenance.[6]
“Not to mention numberless other common beggars, some sick, some stout and lusty enough, who get people’s charity by praying, singing, playing upon fiddles, guitars, and other musical instruments, or performing some juggler’s tricks, I will close the account of this vermin with an odd, remarkable sort of a beggar’s music, or rather chime of bells, we sometimes, but rarely, met with in our journey to court. A young boy, with a sort of a wooden machine pendent from his neck, and a rope, with eight strings about it, from which hang down eight bells, of different sounds, turns round in a circle, with a swiftness scarce credible, in such a manner that both the machine, which rests upon his shoulders, and the bells, turn round with him horizontally, the boy, in the meanwhile, with great dexterity and quickness, beating them with two hammers, makes a strange, odd sort of a melody. To increase the noise, two people sitting near him beat, one upon a large, the other upon a smaller drum. Those who are pleased with their performance throw them some zeni as they pass.[7]
“The crowd and throng upon the roads is not a little increased by numberless small retail merchants, and children of country people, who run about from morning to night, following travellers, and offering them for sale their poor, for the most part eatable, merchandise,—such as several cakes and sweetmeats, wherein the quantity of sugar is so inconsiderable that it is scarce perceptible, other cakes, of different sorts, made of flour, roots boiled in water and salt, road-books, straw shoes for horses and men, ropes, strings, toothpickers, and a multitude of other trifles, made of wood, straw, reed, and bamboos.