GLEANINGS IN BUDDHA-FIELDS
STUDIES OF HAND AND SOUL
IN THE FAR EAST
BY
LAFCADIO HEARN
LECTURER ON ENGLISH LITERATURE IN THE
IMPERIAL UNIVERSITY OF JAPAN
BOSTON AND NEW YORK
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
1897
CONTENTS
| I. | A LIVING GOD | |
| II. | OUT OF THE STREET | |
| III. | NOTES OF A TRIP TO KYŌTO | |
| IV. | DUST | |
| V. | ABOUT FACES EN JAPANESE ART | |
| VI. | NINGYŌ-NO-HAKA | |
| VII. | IN ŌSAKA | |
| VIII. | BUDDHIST ALLUSIONS IN JAPANESE FOLK-SONG | |
| IX. | NIRVANA | |
| X. | THE REBIRTH OF KATSUGORŌ | |
| XI. | WITHIN THE CIRCLE |
GLEANINGS IN BUDDHA-FIELDS
I
A LIVING GOD
I
Of whatever dimension, the temples or shrines of pure Shintō are allbuilt in the same archaic style. The typical shrine is a windowlessoblong building of unpainted timber, with a very steep overhangingroof; the front is the gable end; and the upper part of the perpetuallyclosed doors is wooden lattice-work,—usually a grating of barsclosely set and crossing each other at right angles. In most casesthe structure is raised slightly above the ground on wooden pillars;and the queer peaked façade, with its visor-like apertures and thefantastic projections of beam-work above its gable-angle, might remindthe European traveler of certain old Gothic forms of dormer. There isno artificial color. The plain wood[1] soon turns, under the action ofrain and sun, to a natural grey, varying according to surface exposurefrom the silvery tone of birch bark to the sombre grey of basalt. Soshaped and so tinted, the isolated country yashiro may seem less likea work of joinery than a feature of the scenery,—a rural form relatedto nature as closely as rocks and trees,—a something that came intoexistence only as a manifestation of Ohotsuchi-no-