File:Japan and her people (1902) (14773933184).jpg

Identifier: japanherpeopl01hart (find matches)
Title: Japan and her people
Year: 1902 (1900s)
Authors: Hartshorne, Anna C
Subjects:
Publisher: Philadelphia, Coates
Contributing Library: University of British Columbia Library
Digitizing Sponsor: University of British Columbia Library

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s for a head-dress tensmiling little faces of herself. According to tradition,this figure and another were carved by two of the godsthemselves from the trunk of a huge camphor tree;and this one, being cast into the sea, traveled all theway from Yamato to Kamakura, and was broughtashore by some fishermen. The temple itself is large,but not otherwise remarkable, except for its beautifulsituation, far up the side of the hill, commanding awide view. It is reached by three flights of broadstone steps, time-worn and greened with moss andlichens. Noble old trees stand around and behind,and the delicate dwarf maples that put out crimsonleaves in the spring; and between the branches youlook dowu on the tiny checker-board of a plain, andthe cliffs opposite, and the curving bay, where, as theysay, those pious fishermen found the image of IvAvan-non floating in a halo of marvelous light. The figureis not bronze, but wood covered with gold lacquer,and it seems to glow still in the dim inner shrine
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KAMAKURA—A FORSAKEN CITY. 75 where it stands, lighted only by a few pale lamps.They do not show it at all times, but at certain festi-vals, or in response to special offerings. Artistically,a small bronze Buddha in a side shrine is of far morevalue. It dates from the middle of the fifteenth cen-tury, the time of the Ashikaga Shoguns at Kamakura,which was one of the most brilliant periods of Japan-ese art. Outside, near the entrance, there is a quaintlife-sized figure of Binzuru, a very popular deity withthe unlettered classes, the touch of whose image is be-lieved to have healing powers. He sits outside, be-cause, although he was one of the Sixteen Disciplesof Buddha —the Rakan—he once marred his saint-ship by noticing the beauty of a woman, and may nottherefore come inside the temple itself. Then there is Engakuji, which has a bell eight feethigh, the largest in Kamakura, though hardly morethan two-thirds the size of the great bells at Kyotoand Nara ; not hung in a bell-tower,

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