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Lafcadio Hearn - Glimpses of an Unfamiliar Japan, 1
A-ra-ho-no-san-no-sa, Iya-ho-en-ya!
Ghi!
Ghi!
And we touch the mossed and ancient wharves of stone again: over one mile of lucent sea we have
floated back a thousand years! I turn to look at the place of that sinister vision - and lo! - there is nothing
there! Only the level blue of the flood under the hollow blue of the sky - and, just beyond the
promontory, one far, small white speck: the sail of a junk. The horizon is naked. Gone! - but how
soundlessly, how swiftly! She makes nineteen knots. And, oh! Koto-shiro-nushi-no-Kami, there probably
existed eggs on board!
Chapter Eleven Notes on Kitzuki
1
KITZUKI, July 20, 1891.
AKIRA is no longer with me. He has gone to Kyoto, the holy Buddhist city, to edit a Buddhist magazine;
and I already feel without him like one who has lost his way - despite his reiterated assurances that he
could never be of much service to me in Izumo, as he knew nothing about Shinto.
But for the time being I am to have plenty of company at Kitzuki, where I am spending the first part of
the summer holidays; for the little city is full of students and teachers who know me. Kitzuki is not only
the holiest place in the San-indo; it is also the most fashionable bathing resort. The beach at Inasa bay is
one of the best in all Japan; the beach hotels are spacious, airy, and comfortable; and the bathing houses,
with hot and cold freshwater baths in which to wash off the brine after a swim, are simply faultless. And
in fair weather, the scenery is delightful, as you look out over the summer space of sea. Closing the bay
on the right, there reaches out from the hills overshadowing the town a mighty, rugged, pine-clad spur -
the Kitzuki promontory. On the left a low long range of mountains serrate the horizon beyond the
shore-sweep, with one huge vapoury shape towering blue into the blue sky behind them - the truncated
silhouette of Sanbeyama. Before you the Japanese Sea touches the sky. And there, upon still clear nights,
there appears a horizon of fire - the torches of hosts of fishing-boats riding at anchor three and four miles
away - so numerous that their lights seem to the naked eye a band of unbroken flame.
The Guji has invited me and one of my friends to see a great harvest dance at his residence on the
evening of the festival of Tenjin. This dance - Honen-odori - is peculiar to Izumo; and the opportunity to
witness it in this city is a rare one, as it is going to be performed only by order of the Guji.
The robust pontiff himself loves the sea quite as much as anyone in Kitzuki; yet he never enters a beach
hotel, much less a public bathing house. For his use alone a special bathing house has been built upon a
ledge of the cliff overhanging the little settlement of Inasa: it is approached by a narrow pathway
shadowed by pine-trees; and there is a torii before it, and shimenawa. To this little house the Guji
ascends daily during the bathing season, accompanied by a single attendant, who prepares his bathing
dresses, and spreads the clean mats upon which he rests after returning from the sea. The Guji always
bathes robed. No one but himself and his servant ever approaches the little house, which commands a
charming view of the bay: public reverence for the pontiff's person has made even his resting-place holy
ground. As for the country-folk, they still worship him with hearts and bodies. They have ceased to
believe as they did in former times, that anyone upon whom the Kokuzo fixes his eye at once becomes
unable to speak or move; but when he passes among them through the temple court they still prostrate
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