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Lafcadio Hearn - Glimpses of an Unfamiliar Japan, 1
two provinces. Not only do the motions and gestures vary according to locality, but also the airs of the
songs sung - and this even when the words are the same. In some places the measure is slow and solemn;
in others it is rapid and merry, and characterised by a queer jerky swing, impossible to describe. But
everywhere both the motion and the melody are curious and pleasing enough to fascinate the spectator
for hours. Certainly these primitive dances are of far greater interest than the performances of geisha.
Although Buddhism may have utilised them and influenced them, they are beyond doubt incomparably
older than Buddhism.
Notes for Chapter Seven
1 Thick solid sliding shutters of unpainted wood, which in Japanese houses serve both as shutters and
doors.
2 Tanabiku.
3 Ama-terasu-oho-mi-Kami literally signifies 'the Heaven-Shining Great- August-Divinity.' (See
Professor Chamberlain's translation of the Kojiki.)
4 'The gods who do harm are to be appeased, so that they may not punish those who have offended them.'
Such are the words of the great Shinto teacher, Hirata, as translated by Mr. Satow in his article, ~ The
Revival of Pure .Shintau.
5 Machi, a stiff piece of pasteboard or other material sewn into the waist of the hakama at the back, so as
to keep the folds of the garment perpendicular and neat-looking.
6 Kush-no-ki-Matsuhira-Inari-Daimyojin.
7 From an English composition by one of my Japanese pupils.
8 Rin, one tenth of one cent. A small round copper coin with a square hole in the middle.
9 An inn where soba is sold.
10 According to the mythology of the Kojiki the Moon-Deity is a male divinity. But the common people
know nothing of the Kojiki, written in an archaic Japanese which only the learned can read; and they
address the moon as O-Tsuki-San, or 'Lady Moon,' just as the old Greek idyllists did.
Notes for Chapter Eight
1 The most ancient book extant in the archaic tongue of Japan. It is the most sacred scripture of Shinto. It
has been admirably translated, with copious notes and commentaries, by Professor Basil Hall
Chamberlain, of Tokyo.
2 The genealogy of the family is published in a curious little book with which I was presented at Kitzuki.
Senke Takanori is the eighty-first Pontiff Governor (formerly called Kokuzo) of Kitzuki. His lineage is
traced back through sixty-five generations of Kokuzo and sixteen generations of earthly deities to
Ama-terasu and her brother Susanoo-no- mikoto.
3 In Sanscrit pretas. The gaki are the famished ghosts of that Circle of Torment in hell whereof the
penance is hunger; and the mouths of some are 'smaller than the points of needles.'
4 Mionoseki.
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