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Lafcadio Hearn - Glimpses of an Unfamiliar Japan, 1
mourned long in vain for his merry companion.
14
Some thirty years ago there lived in Matsue an ex-wrestler named Tobikawa, who was a relentless enemy
of foxes and used to hunt and kill them. He was popularly believed to enjoy immunity from bewitchment
because of his immense strength; but there were some old folks who predicted that he would not die a
natural death. This prediction was fulfilled:
Tobikawa died in a very curious manner. He was excessively fond of practical jokes. One day he
disguised himself as a Tengu, or sacred goblin, with wings and claws and long nose, and ascended a lofty
tree in a sacred grove near Rakusan, whither, after a little while, the innocent peasants thronged to
worship him with offerings. While diverting himself with this spectacle, and trying to play his part by
springing nimbly from one branch to another, he missed his footing and broke his neck in the fall.
15
But these strange beliefs are swiftly passing away. Year by year more shrines of Inari crumble down,
never to be rebuilt. Year by year the statuaries make fewer images of foxes. Year by year fewer victims
of fox-possession are taken to the hospitals to be treated according to the best scientific methods by
Japanese physicians who speak German. The cause is not to be found in the decadence of the old faiths: a
superstition outlives a religion. Much less is it to be sought for in the efforts of proselytising missionaries
from the West - most of whom profess an earnest belief in devils. It is purely educational. The
omnipotent enemy of superstition is the public school, where the teaching of modern science is
unclogged by sectarianism or prejudice; where the children of the poorest may learn the wisdom of the
Occident; where there is not a boy or a girl of fourteen ignorant of the great names of Tyndall, of Darwin,
of Huxley, of Herbert Spencer. The little hands that break the Fox-god's nose in mischievous play can
also write essays upon the evolution of plants and about the geology of Izumo. There is no place for
ghostly foxes in the beautiful nature-world revealed by new studies to the new generation The
omnipotent exorciser and reformer is the Kodomo.
NOTES
Note for preface
1 In striking contrast to this indifference is the strong, rational, far-seeing conservatism of Viscount Torio
- a noble exception.
Notes for Chapter One
1 I do not think this explanation is correct; but it is interesting, as the first which I obtained upon the
subject. Properly speaking, Buddhist worshippers should not clap their hands, but only rub them softly
together. Shinto worshippers always clap their hands four times.
2 Various writers, following the opinion of the Japanologue Satow, have stated that the torii was
originally a bird-perch for fowls offered up to the gods at Shinto shrines - 'not as food, but to give
warning of daybreak.' The etymology of the word is said to be 'bird-rest' by some authorities; but Aston,
not less of an authority, derives it from words which would give simply the meaning of a gateway. See
Chamberlain's Things Japanese, pp. 429, 430.
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