File:Old and new Japan (1907) (14771202552).jpg

Identifier: oldnewjapan00holl (find matches)
Title: Old and new Japan
Year: 1907 (1900s)
Authors: Holland, Clive, 1866-1959 Smyth, Montagu
Subjects: Japan
Publisher: London : J.M. Dent & Co. New York : E.P. Dutton & Co.
Contributing Library: Northeastern University, Snell Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Northeastern University, Snell Library

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tombs to the never-returning dead. There are also many people who believe that thedrowned never make the journey to the Meido (Worldof the Dead), but float for ever in the currents off thecoast, oscillate with movements almost lifelike in theswing of the tides, and that it is they who drag down theswimmer with white ghostly hands amid the breakers andthe surf. So seamen always speak reverently, or at leastrespectfully, of O-bakd, or the honourable ghosts, who are,strangely enough, believed to dread cats ; and thus it isthat on most Japanese vessels one is carried as a talisman.Of all cats those of three colours are for some reason orother most esteemed. In the many fishing hamlets round the coast there aresad hearts, as in those of other lands. All the sadder, per-haps, because from most homes some one has gone acrossthe sea never to return ; some one whose ghostly figurewill never reach Meido, and can, therefore, never return incompany with the other beloved ghosts of departed ones.
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IRISES BY THE LAKE. SUPERSTITIONS, LEGENDS, & STORIES 263 Amid the swirl of tides, in the eddies of currents in whichdwell the dreaded Kappa, amid the surf that breaks boom-ing on the sandy shore, they are doomed to remain for alltime; dreamed of often by sorrowing ones, who in theend frequently beseech Buddha that they may rememberthem in the night-watches no more. _ Connected also with the sea is the abode of the littlechildrens ghosts, where, in a wonderful and beautifulcavern at Kaka-ura, is the great granite figure of Jizo, thegod and protector of the little ones. Though a Buddhistdeity, before the figure are found not only a tiny torii, butalso gohei, showing that as regards reverence for this godthe^ two faiths meet, and that at the feet of the tenderdivinity who so loves the little childrens ghosts, there isno division brought about by conflicting creeds. In thisdeep, beautiful grotto are other figures of Jizo and manylittle towers (piles of stones), which the ghosts of th

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