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^Jlccessions

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THE SOUL OF THE FAR

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NOTO

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OCCULT JAPAN: THE WAY OF THE GODS.

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HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY,

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New York.

A POSSESSION BY THE GODS UPON

ONTAKfe.

Page 6

OCCULT JAPAN
OR

THE WAY OF THE GODS

AN

ESOTERIC STUDY OF JAPAXESE

PERSONALITY AND POSSESSION

BY

PERCIVAL LOWELL

BOSTON AND NEW YORK

HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY
(Cbc fiibcrsitic press", <CambritiiE
1S95

Copyright, 1894,

By PERCIVAL LOWELL.
All rights reserved.

/9

i /

The Riverside Press, Cambridge, Mass., U. S.A.

H. O. Houghton & Co.

Electrotyped and Priuted by

Z'^r\

IL

CONTENTS.
PAGE

Ontak6

Shinto
Miracles
Incarnations
Pilgrimages and the Pilgrim Clubs
The Gohei
The Shrines of Ise

Noumena
Self

i6

36
97
.

.193
230
270

278

Selfhood a Force
Possession

285
.

Will

'
.

Self as Ideas
Ideas a

290

Mode of Motion

Ideas A Force

Individuality

The Japanese Character

Dreams
Hypnotic Trances
Possession Trances
.The Shinto Gods

.298

....
....

304
307
317

320
323
33^

343
355
3^8

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
A

Possession by the Gods upon

Buddhist Divine Possession

Ontak6
Frontispiece

....

162

The Leader of a Pilgrim Band blessing the

Holy Water
216
A Pilgrim Club ascending Ontak6
.224
.

OCCULT JAPAN.
ONTAKE.
iN

the

alike

heart

Japan, withdrawn

of

by distance and by height from

the commonplaces of the every-day

world, rises

a mountain

or the Honorable Peak.

known
It is

as

Ontake

a fine volcanic

mass, sundered by deep valley-clefts from the

great Hida-Shinshiu range, amidst which

Active once,

stands dignifiedly aloof.

it

it

has

been inactive now beyond the memory of

man.

Yet

its

form

must have been

in

lets
its

one divine what

day.

For upon

summit are the crumbling walls

it

its

of eight suc-

cessive craters, piled in parapet up into the

sky.
It is

not dead

it

slumbers.

For on

its

western face a single solfatara sends heaven-

ward long, slender filaments

of vapor, faint

OCCULT JAPAN.

now

breath of what

cano sunk

Almost unknown

known

sleeps beneath

to foreigners,

For

to the Japanese.

the most

sacred

Upon

peaks.

a vol-

in trance.

of

it

is

it

is

many

Japan's

sacred

every summer, faith

it,

well

perhaps

tells a

rosary of ten thousand pilgrims.

Some
afar

years ago

upon

sweep

this

of its sides

the peak

itself

chanced

holy mount

drew

my

to

gaze from

and,

the

as

eye up to where

stood hidden in a nimbus of

had meant some day to climb

cloud,

Partly for this vision,

probable

more because

picturesqueness

of

it.

of the

the route,

found myself doing so with a friend

in AuBeyond the general fact of its

sanctity, nothing special was supposed to attach to the peak.
That the mountain held
a mystery was undreamed of.

gust,

We
as

89 1.

had reached, after various vicissitudes,

prosaically

as

is

possible

in

unprosaic

Japan, a height of about nine thousand

when we suddenly came upon

tion

as

surprising as

Regardless of

us,

it

the veil

was unsuspected.
v/as thrown aside,

and we gazed into the beyond.

face to face with the gods.

feet,

a manifesta-

We

stood

ONTAA'E

The fathoming

unexpected revela-

of this

tion resulted in the discovery of a world of

were

esoteric practices as significant as they

By way of introduction
cannot do more simply than to

widespread.
I

Set as the scene of

own.

summit
trance

of that

itself,

it

them,

to

my

give

was upon the

slumbering volcano sunk in

a presentation to the gods could

hardly have been more dramatic.

We

had plodded four

pilgrim path.

We

way up the

fifths

had already passed the

snow, and had reached the grotto-like

first

hut at the eighth station

the

high sacred mountains

Japan being pleas-

in

ingly pointed by rest-houses

paths up

we were

all

tar-

rying there a moment, counting our heartbeats,

and wondering how much more

mountain there might be

cloud had cloaked

when

all

to

of the

come, for thick

view on the ascent,

three young men, clad in

full

pilgrim

white, entered the hut from below, and, deaf

to

the hut-keeper's

importunities

passed stolidly out at the upper end

hut

the

having been astutely contrived to

in-

most

as-

close the path, that not even the

cetic

stop,

to

might escape temptation.

The devout

look of the trio struck our fancy.

So, leav-

OCCULT JAPAN.

ing some coppers for our tea and cakes,

amid profuse acknowledgment from the hutkeeper,

we passed

out after them.

not climbed above a score of rods

overtook our young puritans

We

lost in

prayer

before a shrine cut into the face of the

in front of

had

when we
cliff,

which stood two or three benches

conspicuously out of place

in

such a spot.

young men had already laid aside

and staffs, and disclosed the
white fillets that bound their shocks of jetblack hair. We halted on general principles
of curiosity, for we had no inkling of what
They were simply
was about to happen.
the most pious young men we had yet met,

The

three

their hats, mats,

and they interested

us.

The prayer, which seemed an ordinary one,

soon came to an end upon which we expected
;

to see the trio

But instead

of

pack up and be
this

from his sleeve a

one of

them.,

goJiei-waxi^,

off again.

drawing

and certain

other implements of religion, seated himself

upon one of the benches facing the shrine.

At the same time another sat down on a
second bench facing the first, clasped his
hands before his breast, and closed his eyes.

The

third reverently took post near by.

ontakE.

seated than he

No sooner was the first

launched into the most extraordinary performance

modic

With a

have ever beheld.

pointed by a violent

jerk,

spas-

guttural

grunt, he suddenly tied his ten fingers into a

body and soul into

At the same time he began a mothe act.
Gazing raptly at his digital
notonic chant.

knot, throwing his whole

knot, he prayed over

it

thus a

moment

with a second grunt, he resolved

second one, and

and a

his chant with

the

was,

it

then,

into a

and a fourth

stringing his contortions

fifth,

of oaths.

this into a third

all

upon

the vehemence of a string

Startlingly uncouth as the action

compelling

intentness and

sup-

pressed power with which the paroxysmal

pantomime was done, was more so.

His strange action was matched only by
the strange inaction of his vis-a-vis.

man

did not

move

a muscle

if

The

anything, he

grew momentarily more statuesque. And

still the other's monotoned chant rolled on,
startlingly emphasized by the contortion
knots.

At

last

the exorcist

paused

in his

per-

formance, and taking the ^(?-^'z-wand from

beside

him on the bench, placed

it

between

OCCULT JAPAN.

the other's hands,

his

incantation,

motionless one as motionless as ever.

the

So

clenched one above the

Then he resumed

other.

continued for some time,

it

when

all at

once the hands holding the wand began to

twitch convulsively

the twitching rapidly

increased to a spasmodic throe which mo-

mentarily grew more violent

broke forth into the

full

till

suddenly

it

fury of a seemingly

superhuman paroxysm.
It was as if the
wand shook the man, not the man it. It
lashed the air maniacally here and there
above his head, and then slowly settled to a
semi-rigid half-arm holding before his

brow

yet quivering, and sending

quivers

stiff,

through

man was

his

whole frame.

unmistakable.

The

He

its

look of the

had gone com-

pletely out of himself.

Unwittingly we had
come to stand witnesses to a trance.
At the first sign of possession, the exorcist had ceased
incanting and sat bowed

awaiting the coming presence.

When

the

paroxysmal throes had settled into a steady

quiver
off to

much a top does when goes

sleep he leaned forward, put a hand
as

it

on either side the possessed's knees, and

still

bowed, asked in words archaically reverent

ONTAKE.

the name of the god who had thus deigned

to descend.

At

first

Then

there was no reply.

in

voice strangely unnatural, without being exactly artificial, the entranced spake

" I

am

Hakkai."

The

petitioner bent yet lower

ing his look a

little,

what requests he had

peak

w^ould

then

rais-

preferred respectfully
to

make

be clear and

whether the

the pilgrimage

prove propitious, and whether the loved ones

left at

god

home would

And

the

all

be guarded by the

god made answer

the morrow's afternoon

clear,

and the pilgrimage

" Till

the peak

will

shall

be

be blessed."

The man stayed bowed while the god

spake, and when the god had finished speaking, offered up an adoration prayer.
Then
leaning forward, he

touched the pos-

first

sessed on the breast, and then struck

him

on the back several times with increasing

insistency.

Under

this

ungodly treatment

the possessed opened his eyes like one awak-

ing from profound sleep.

set to

and kneaded

cramped

No

The

others then

his arms, body,

in catalepsy,

back

to a

and

normal

legs,
state.

sooner was the ex-god himself again

OCCULT JAPAN.

than the

moved

trio

changed places

the petitioner

the seat of the entranced, the

into

looker-on took the place of the petitioner, and

the entranced retired to the post of lookeron.

Then with

change of persons the

this

ceremony was gone through with again

to a

similar interview, and

similar possession, a

a similar awakening.

At

the

close

of

second trance the

the

three once more revolved cyclically and went

through the performance for the third time.

This rotation in possession so

religiously

observed was not the least strange detail of

this strange

When

drama.

the cycle had been completed, the

three friends offered up a concluding prayer,

and then, donning their outside accoutrements, started upward.

Revolving
so strangely

in our

minds what we had thus

been

suffered to see,

proceeded, and,

being

faster

we

too

walkers, had

We

soon distanced our god-acquaintances.

had not been long upon the summit, however,

when they appeared

again,

and

sooner had they arrived, than they sat

upon some other benches

in the

little

no

down

similarly standing

open space before the

tip-top

ONTAKE.
went through

shrine, and

We

sessions as before.

their cyclical pos-

had not thought

to

see the thing a second time, and were almost

as

much astounded as at first.

Our fear of parting with our young
the summit-hut

turning to

round the crater rim, the

our eyes amid
sight of the

its

dim

pious trio

pilgrims

after

seated

re-

climb

thing to catch

gloom was the

once more

in the full

There were plenty

throes of possession.

other

first

religious

god-

For on

friends proved quite groundless.

round

of

caldron

the

some native meteorologists

in an annex, who had been exiled there for
a month by a paternal government to study
fire,

as well

as

the atmospheric conditions of this island in

Up

the clouds.

to the

time we met them the

weather had been dishearteningly same, consisting,

they informed us somewhat pathet-

ically, of

uninterrupted fog.

The

exorcists,

however, took no notice of them, nor of any

of the other pilgrims, nor did the rest of the

company pay
cists

all

of

the slightest heed to the exor-

which spoke volumes

commonplaceness

We

of the occurrence.

again thought

the gods,

for the

we had seen our

last of

and again were we pleasurably

OCCULT JAPAN.

10

At

disappointed.

five

we

the next morning

had hardly finished a shivery preprandial

peep at the sunrise,
all below us a surging

and turned

sea of cloud,

when

the hut,

igables up and

once more into

there were the three indefat-

communing

again by

way

of

none other, and an

hour later we came upon them before the
breakfast, for they took

tip-top shrine, hard at

And

all

this

noon and

for the fifth time.

it

between four o'clock one

after-

The

cycle

six the

next morning.

was not always completed, one

being

much

of the three

better at possession than the

other two, and one

much

were safely ten trances

worse, but there

in the

few hours that

fringed their sleep's oblivion.

And

nobody, apparently, took any cogni-

zance of what was going on, except us and

the

meteorologists,

who came

out

ternize with us, and volunteered

in a superior

fra-

manner on the senselessness

of the proceeding,

mind not

to

comments

an

imported attitude of

destitute of caricature.

Truly the gods were gracious thus

descend so many times

their devotees to crave so

Doubtless

an

inordinate

to

and truly devout

much communion.
desire

for

their

ONTAKE.
society

gratifying

is

to

frequency of the talks

the gods, but the

took our breath

fairly

had no perceptible effect on

away, though
the young men's nor on the god's, even at
it

The god possessed

that altitude.

tees with comparative ease

exhausting

ing but

for

his devo-

which was edify-

to let another in-

habit one's house always proves hard on the

And

furniture.

all this

took place on top of

a climb of ten thousand feet toward heaven.

In

spite

of

however, these estimable

it,

young men were equal

tramp

to a

over

all

the place during the rest of the morning.

They ascended

religiously to all the crater-

peaks, and descended as piously to

pools

and

crater

climb

down and

hundred and
done

afoot.

then started on

home
much of

their journey

fifty

miles,

That

night

saw

their

of three
it

to

How

far

their

holy

be

them not

only off the mountain, but well on their

beyond.

the

all

way

momentum

them without stopping I know not,

for the last we saw of them was a wave of
farewell as they passed the inn where we
But the most
had put up for the night.
carried

surprising part of the endurance lay in the

fact that

from the moment they began the

OCCULT japan:

12

ascent of the mountain on the early morn-

ing of the one day,

till

they were

late afternoon of the next,

off

it

on the

they ate nothing

and drank only water.

Such was my introduction

of the gods

and

this first

glimpse of

it

only

No

sooner back

made

inquiry into

piqued curiosity to more.

in town, therefore, than

to the society

the

acquaintanceship I had so strangely

formed upon the mountain, to receive the
most convincing assurance of its divinity.

The

fact of possession

enough, but
tion

of

my

the act

was confirmed readily

desire for a private repetiitself

was received

at first

some mystery and more hesitation.

However, with one man after another, offish-

with

ness thawed, until, getting upon

terms of

it was not long before

was holding divine receptions in my own

cordiality with deity,

I

drawing-room.

Exalted

this best of all society

it

proved

society
dull.

find

show

I
it

and

more mundane

to call the best, undeniably

mention this not because

well

that

it

as

unquestionably was,

intellectually, like

we agree

exclusive

did not

worth knowing, but simply to

was every whit the company

purported to be.

it

ONTAKE.

13

II.

The

me

revelation thus strangely vouchsafed

turned out to be as far-reaching as

There proved

sincere.

system

to

was

it

a regular

exist

of divine possession, an esoteric cult

imbedded

in the

very heart and core of the

Japanese character and instinct, with all the

strangeness of that to us enigmatical race.

That other foreigners should not previously have been admitted to this company
of heaven may at first seem the strangest
fact of

Certainly

all.

my

introduction can-

my

not be due to any special sanctity of

own,

me

if

may judge by what my

Nor can

on that subject.

any desire on
whether

to

my

base ambition in either case

of

tell

credit

it

to

part to rise in the world,

peaks or preferments

though not

friends

an equally

Ontake,

for

every-day ascent, has

been

climbed by foreigners several times before.

Rein, that indefatigable

and

statistics,

facts

managed some years ago

get to the top of

again without

of

collector

it

to

and then to the bottom

seeing

anything.

The

old

guide-book, in the person of an enthusiastic

pedestrian, contrived to do the like.

Other

OCCULT

14

JAPAA'.

good locomotive powers

visitors of

also ac-

complished this feat without penetrating the

And

secret of the mountain.

were certainly going on

the guides

who

yet the trances

the time, and

all

piloted these several gentle-

men must have been well aware of the fact.

The explanation is to be sought elsewhere. The fact is that Japan is still very
much of an undiscovered country to us. It
is

not simply that the language proves so

difficult

that but

threshold

few foreigners pass

acquaintance

of

but

farther the foreigner goes, the

this

that

the

more he

per-

ceives the ideas in the two hemispheres to be

What he

fundamentally diverse.
find does not exist,

and what

never dream of looking

Japan

he would

for.

scientifically

is

expects to

exists

an

undiscovered

country even to the Japanese, as a study of

these possessions will disclose.

importance

is

than psychic.
festations in

twofold

They

For

their

archaeologic no less

are other-world mani-

two senses, and the one sense

other.
For they are

helps accentuate the

as essentially Japanese as they are essen-

genuine. That is, they are neither

shams nor importations from China or India,

tially

ONTAKE.

but aboriginal originalities of the Japanese

people.

They

are the hitherto unsuspected

esoteric side of Shinto, the old native faith.

That Japanese Buddhists

also practice

them

but appreciative Buddhist indorsement of

their importance, as I shall show later.
We
is

must begin,
of

therefore, with a short account

Shinto in general.

SHINTO.
I.

HINTO,
the

or the

name

Way

of the Gods, is

of the oldest religious be-

Japanese people.

The

belief itself indefinitely antedates its

name,

lief

for

it

the

of

has come

down

to us

from a time when

sole possession of the field precluded denomi-

nation.

It

knew no

christening

till

Buddhism

was adopted from China in the sixth century

of our era, and was then first called Shinto,
or the

Way

of the

from Butsudo, or the

if

it

Gods, to distinguish

Way

of

it

Buddha.

thus acquired a name,

it

largely lost

For Buddhism proceeded

to appropriate its possessions, temporal and
spiritual. It had been both church and state.
Buddhism became the state, and assumed

local

the

habitation.

greater part of the churches

paying

Shinto the compliment of incorporating, without acknowledgment, such as

it

fancied of

SHINTO.
the Shinto

rites,

and

the more popular

avatars

of

its

of kindly recognizing

Shinto

gods

Under

own.

for

lower

generous

this

adoption on the one hand, and relegation to

an inferior place

in

on the other, very

of Shinto,

Lost

the national pantheon

ostensibly,

little,

was

left

just enough to swear by.

the splendor of Buddhist show,

in

Shint5 lay obscured thus for a millenium

lingering chiefly

At

superstition.

-dawned.

as

last,

twilight

of

however, a

popular

new

era

long peace, following the firm

establishing of the Shogunate, turned men's

thoughts to criticism, and begot the commentators, a line of

literati,

who, beginning

with Mabuchi, in the early part of the eighteenth century, devoted themselves to a study
of the past,

and continued

century and a

half,

to

comment,

for a

upon the old Japanese

tra-

ditions buried in the archaic language of the

Kojiki and the Nihongi, the history-bibles of

As

the race.
elucidations
practical

science,

are

chiefly

the

commentators'

comic,

outcome was immense.

of the past begot criticism

but

their

Criticism

of the present,

and started a chauvinistic movement, which

overthrew the Shogunate and restored the

OCCULT JAPAN.

Mikado

with

the irony of

all

these litterateurs

owed

fate,

since

their existence to the

patronage of those they overthrew.

was the restoration

of

Shinto came

1868.

back as part and parcel

This

The

of the old.

temples Buddhism had usurped were purified

that

is,

they were stripped of Buddhist

ornament, and handed over again to the

Shinto priests.

The

faith

of the nation's

summer

springtime entered upon the Indian

of its

life.

This happy state of things was not to

last.

Buddhism, and especially the great wave of

western ideas, proved

From

submerging.

filling

one half the government,

affairs

were degraded,

first

spiritual

to a department,

then to a bureau, and then to a sub-bureau.

The Japanese upper

faith

But

classes

had found a new

and Herbert Spencer was

its

prophet.

in the nation's heart the Shinto senti-

ment throbbed on

as

strong as ever.

Japanese cabinet minister found this out to

his cost.

In 1887, Mori Arinori, one of the

most advanced Japanese

new-lights,

then

minister of state for education, went on a

certain occasion to the Shrines of Ise,

studiously treated

them with

disrespect.

and
It

X
SHINTO.

19

and apparently on good author-

was

alleged,

ity,

that he trod with his boots on the

mat

outside the portal of the palisade, and then

poked the curtain apart with

stick.

He was

his

the assassin was cut

down by

and then Japan rose in a body

not to the murdered man, but
derer.

Even

it

the guards,
to

do honor,

mur-

to his

managed

the muzzled press

hint on which side

editorials as

walking-

assassinated in consequence

to

was, by som.e as curious

As

were ever penned.

for the

ways about it;

you had thought the murderer some great
people, there were no two

patriot

Folk by thou-

dying for his country.

sands flocked with flowers to his grave, and

pilgrimages were
shrine.

It is still

made

to

the singing-girls bring

it

of the spirit of

little

buried there

which they

may become

call so

to

still

some
to-day

their branches of

plum blossoms, with a prayer

that a

as

it,

kept green

to the gods

him who

theirs

lies

that spirit

proudly the Yamato Ko-

koro, the heart of old Japan.

'

For

in truth

not down.

Shinto

is

so Japanese

It is the faith of

is

what they learned

will

these people's

birthright, not of their adoption.

lore

it

at the

Its folk-

knee

of the

OCCULT JAPAN.

20

race-mother, not what they were taught from

Buddhist they are by virtue of beShinto by virtue of being.

abroad.
lief

Shinto

is

cosmos.

the Japanese coTiception of the

combination of the worship

and of their own ancestors. But

It is a

of nature

the character of the combination

is

ethno-

For a lack of psychic

development has enabled these seemingly
diverse elements to fuse into a homogeneous
logically instructive.

whole.

Both, of course, are aboriginal in-

Next

stincts.

nomena,

the fear of natural phe-

to

in point of primjtiveness,

comes the

fear of one's father, as children and savages

show.

But races,

differentiate the

like

individuals, tend

two as they develop.

the suggestive thing about the Japanese

that they did not do so.

and by virtue
more,

till

it

of not

filled

of morals, but

cosmogony.

becoming

less,

became

not only the whole sphere

their parents,

Awe

which these people could

comprehend, lent explanation

nature, which

of

the Japanese eye, the uni-

verse itself took on the paternal look.

of

is,

Filial respect lasted,

expanded into the sphere

To

to

Now,

they could

not.

dread of

to

Quite co-

gently, to their minds, the thunder

and the

SHINTO.

typhoon, the sunshine and the earthquake,

were the work not only of anthropomorphic

beings, but of beings ancestrally related to

In short, Shinto, their explana-

themselves.

tion of things in general,

is

simply the patri-

archal principle projected without perspective

distance

dilating with

the past,

into

into

deity.

That their dead should thus

on to them

by the way

alleled

on

in

thought

in the

definitely live

nothing strange.

is

is

par-

which the dead

live

It

young

of the

Actual personal immortality

generally.

the instant

is

The

inevitable inference of the child-mind.

dead do thus survive

living,

and

is

it

in the

the

subjective

clothe this

memories

of the

natural deduction to

idea with

objective

existence.

Shinto

:i

thus

is

wraiths, or of

aginaries of the

the analysis

with

its

an

adoration

of

family

imputed family wraiths

first

of

the

im-

and the second order

universeA

ultimate Nirvana

antithesis of this.

is

in

in

Buddhism
a sense the

For while simple Shinto

regards the dead as spiritually living, philosophic Buddhism regards the living as spiritually

dead

two aspects

of the

same

shield.

OCCULT JAPAN.

22

The Japanese thus conceive themselves

own gods.
Their Mikado they look upon as the lineal
descendant of Niniginomikoto, the first God
Emperor of Japan. And the gods live in
heaven much as men, their descendants, do
on earth. The concrete quality of the Japthe direct descendants of their

anese mind has barred abstractions on the

The gods have never so much as

" Obey the Mikaa moral code.
do," and otherwise "follow your own heart"
is the sum of their commands
as parental
subject.
laid

down

injunctions as could well be framed.

So

is

the attitude of the Japanese toward their

gods

familiar,

filially

shocks more teleologic

an

attitude

faiths,

which

but in which

they themselves see nothing irreverent.

the same

way

In

their conception of a future

that of a definite immaterial extension

life is

of the present one.

To

foreign students in consequence, Shinto

has seemed

better than the ghost of a

little

belief, far too insubstantial a

hold a heart.
hole

To

its folk-lore

of a study of

Nor

is

its

body

ticket its gods

of faith to

and pigeon-

has appeared to be the end

its cult.

outward appearance

less unin-

SHINTO.

23

With

vitingly skeleton-like.

a deal barn of

a building for temple, a scant set of deal

paraphernalia, and

nothing

else, its

so

speak a deal of

to

appearance certainly leaves

For

something to be desired.
good Puritan

souls,

Feeling

sensuous setting.

which

faith

in

all

save

the religious idea craves

sights, sounds,

is

the fuel of

and perfumes fan

Sense may not be of the essence

into flame.

of religion, but incense

is.

II.

In but one thing

in gods.

has

little

than

rice

Shinto patently rich

much

devotees

to worship as
It

it

has more gods

know what

do with.

to

the Goddess of the Sun to the gods of

and

earth

is

has as

to worship with.

its

From

It

agriculture,

stand

pantheon.

few things

unrepresented in

in

heaven or

its

catholic

Biblical biography puts the

num-

ber roundly at eighty myriads, but in Jap-

anese speech "eighty" and "myriad" are

neither of

them mathematical terms, the one

being a mystic number and the other a conventional confession of arithmetical incom-

both expressions being rigorously

rendered in English by the phrase " no end."

petency

OCCULT japan:

24

Nobody ever pretended

to count the gods.

Indeed, to do so would be pious labor lost

for the roll

is

being constantly increased by

Any

promotions from the ranks.

may become

death

a god, and

one

is

it

at

of the

entailed responsibilities of greatness that the

very exalted must do

so.

Of course no merely

finite

sibly worship so infinite a

man

number

can pos-

of deities,

though time be to him of oriental

So each makes

ness.

his

limitless-

choice

of

inti-

mates, and clubs the rest in a general petition,

from time to time,

His

choice

first

parents.

presented

at

The

sulted in

god on

Next

industry

god's

the affair

is

preference
;

him by

his

the babe

is

is

not

con-

he becomes tutelary
matter of course.

For every branch

specially superintended

Men may deem

trade,

for

birth

importance to the tutelary god

in business,

his

after

notification, as a
in

prevent accidents.

the temple {miya niairi) and

the patron god.

god.

to

made

the protection of some special

put under
deity.

week

is

it

of

is

human

by some

beneath them to be

but the gods do not.

Each has

and spends much time looking

after his apprentices.

But

it

is

work

with-

SHINTO.
out worry,

easy-going East

the

befitting

25
;,

the god of honest labor being portrayed as a

fisherman, very comfortably seated,

jolly, fat

chuckling at having just caught a carp.

Pleasures,

with

whom

have their

too,

special

gods

their notaries are

perforce

inasmuch

peculiarly intimate terms,

on

as such,

gods are very boon-companion patrons of the

Furthermore, every one chooses his
sport.
gods for a general compatibility of temper
He thus lives under conwith himself.
genial guardianship

his life.

all

Simple as such conceptions are, there is

fine in their sweet simplicity.

something

The very barrenness

has a beauty of

Japanese

its

taste.

of the faith's buildings

own, touched as

Through those

plain portals a simple

yet

it all

is

by

here passes to a

life

simpler one beyond

cryptomerea lend

it

gracefully

and the solemn

the natural grandeur

that so fittingly canopies the old.

So are the few Shinta

effect.

rites

perfect in

Finished fashionings from afar past,

they are so beautifully complete, that one

forgets the frailty of

rounded perfection

One

th'="

conception in the

of the form.

sees at once

how

aboriginal

all this

OCCULT JAPAN.

26

conceptions embalmed

Childish

is.

exquisite etiquette

an

in

so Shinto might have

been ticketed.
'

HI.

mummy

But the mythologic

By

evidence of soul.

opposed to

its

showed no

the soul of a faith, as

mere body

of belief,

mean

by direct

that informing spirit vouchsafed

communion between god and man which

all

proclaim of themselves, and pooh-pooh

.faiths

of all the others.

It

was

unexpectedly revealed

this soul that so

itself

to

me upon

Ontake.

We

must now see what the Japanese con-

ceive this soul to be.

phy

is

Now

Shinto philoso-

Japanese are

artists,

not scientists.

And

in

show the same

their revelations their gods

simple and attractive character.

fore,

The

not the faith's strong point.

If,

there-

the Shinto scheme of things seem at

times incompatible with

itself,

selves are responsible, not

sions on

my part

I,

excepted.

from one whose authority

of the god's

own

the gods them-

errors

and omis-

For

have

is

it all

nothing short

words, vouchsafed to him

in trance, ni}' friend the

high priest of the

SHINTO.
Shinshiu

So that

sect.

the subject

is

27

my knowledge

but second-hand divine,

nearer the source of inspiration than

come

ever hope in reason to

To begin

with, then,

of

much
I

can

again.

things in heaven

all

and earth are composed of three elements,

or karada)

{gotai

and

spirit,

body,

{taniashii)

{sJiinki)

mind or
and

Stocks

soul.

some men have

no soul, being made up entirely of body and
mind. The behavior of some men seems to
stones, plants, animals, and

lend support to this theory.

Gods, on the

other hand, are bodiless and consist of spirit

and

except the supreme god, Ame-no-

soul,

who

minaka-nashi-no-mikoto,
SJiinki,
shii,

much

soul,

attributes

as

ception of the

first

of these philosophic va-

will find

no

Furthermore,

second.

difficulty

spirit

blank,

it

comes

it.

with the

and soul may

coexist separately in one body.

clarifies,

its

same substance
you can manage the con-

If

you

a substance with

related to the

is

without them.

cuities,

is all soul.

god-spirit, is related to tania-

lit.

As

the spirit

becomes more and more

approaches soul and finally be-

that

The one

is,

thing

common,

therefore,

to all

OCCULT JAPAN.

28

things, both of this world and the next,

has

its

god-spirit.

and particular as
it is

Each spirit is as separate

yet
the body it inhabits
;

capable of indefinite expansion or con-

traction, of

permeating matter and of going

and coming according

It

is

Everything, from gods to granite,

spirit.

to laws

of

own.

its

may, perhaps, be looked upon provision-

ally as a gas.

never

Spirit

When

man

dies,

body duly decays, but

on alone or returns
ervoirs of

spirit,

no-kami and

only

it

or animal
its

circulates.

or plant dies
spirit

to those

its

either lives

two great

res-

the gods Takami-musubi-

From

Kami-musubi-no-kami.

them a continual circulation of spirit

up through the universe. Whether a
personality persists

or not

is

is

kept

spirit's

a matter de-

cided by the supreme god, and depends upon

the greatness or the

goodness of the de-

For example, Kan Shojo, the god of

calligraphy, has persisted thus posthumously

funct.

for almost

hoped

for the

thousand years.
sake

brushmanship, that he

of

Spirit

is

Japan's

will

vive and be worshiped for

It

is

to

be

beautiful

continue to sur-

some time

yet.

by no means necessarily good.

SHINTO.
It

is

29

manifest that, viewed from the

standpoint,

some things

human

are harmful,

some

harmless, both among plants, animals, and

men.

The harmful ones are therefore bad

may or may not be good.

the harmless ones

Why
ple,

one,

certain inoffensive animals, for

exam-

have got a bad name, or even a good

the
is as inscrutable as the cause of

gender of Latin nouns.

bad name, and that

is

They

are given a

cause enough.

It will

be observed that in this system of ethics

man

has no monopoly of original

sin.

Similarly the gods themselves are divided

into the sheep
ciful

and the goats, but by a mer-

dispensation of something or other the

good gods are mightier than the bad. Indeed, a certain evolutionary process is going

on throughout the universe, by which the

bad spirits grow good and the good better.
It is

described as a continued clarification,

terminating in total blankness.

Spirit not only circulates after death

may do

so during

life.

Usually

it

it

does not

wander in this way, simply because it is at

home where it is and inertia keeps it there.
But in some cases it is not so wedded to the
body with which it is associated, and the

OCCULT JAPAN.

30
purer

becomes the more

it

is

given to

it

occasional volatilizing.

Now

esoteric Shinto consists in compel-

ling this spirit to circulate for particular ends.

This

is

not a

difficult

undertaken.

It is

For the degree

purification.

mines the degree

is

matter,

if it is

properly-

accomplished through

of purity deter-

Possession

of possession.

simply the entrance into one body

other body's

spirit,

self-

of an-

and the simultaneous

expulsion or subjugation of the spirit originally there.

This shift of

spirit

any two bodies

may take

in nature.

place between

Nor does such

interchange differ in kind, no matter what

the bodies be.

But

for

the

sake of psy-

chology rather than religion, we

ably consider

it

may

profit-

under the two aspects of

god-possession of things and god-possession

The one

of people.
cles

gives rise to the mira-

the other to the incarnations.

Both

kinds of possession occurred spontaneously,

that

at

is,

times,

the will of the gods, in olden

and presumably so occur

ent day

at the pres-

but the gods have also graciously

granted pure
acceptedly.

men

the power to pray for them

SHINTO.

31

In the case of people the act of possession

is

nowadays known

as kami-oroshi,

utsicshi, or kami-tctsiiri, that

is,

kami-

"the causing

come down," "the causing the

god to transform " or "god transformation."
The first two names thus view the thing
of the god to

from the human standpoint, the

But

the divine.
rary

point

of

view,

from

last

matter of the tempo-

this is

three expressions,

all

with others such as nori-uisuri, " to change

vehicles," being used indifferently according
to the speaker's preference.

Possession

may be

intermediary, that

is,

partial,

complete, or

may

the alien spirit

share the head of the person with the native

spirit,
it

or

down

it

may

drive

it

into the belly.

out, or

it

may

drive

But such degrees of

tenancy are grades rather of the proficiency

attained during novitiate into the cult.

In

actual possessions the chief distinction consists in

the character of the god

who comes.

Possession of things are in like manner

possible through purity in the person

would bring them about.

kamhvasa or

god-arts,

only the gods, and

now

who

They

are called

because

originally

only the gods and

the godly, can perform them.

OCCULT JAPAN.

32

IV.

Before entering upon the miracles,

it

is

necessary to explain the present position of

Shinto with regard to these esoteric practices generally.

when we look

For, though as

we

shall see

later into their history,

it

is

probable that originally they were the com-

mon

property of

Shintoists, they are not

all

so to-day.

Of the present ten

sects that

compose the

Shinto church, only two practice the possession-cult, the Shinshiu and the Mitakd

That they do so while the others do

sects.

not

is

not matter of creed, but of tradition.

Though

called

not properly so

they

differ

sects, the

much

different gods.

by identically worshiping

Each

though with

ers' gods.

For

not by differently worshiping an

identical god, but

ships,

Shinto sects are

sects as sections.

of

them likewise wor-

less assiduity, all the oth-

Each looks

shrine dedicated to

specially to the great

its special

but two, one of which

is

gods

and

all

a sort of general

bureau of church organism, make pilgrimages

to their shrine once or twice a year.

These sects date only from since the time

SHINTO.
of the revival of

33

pure Shinto twenty years

But under another name the

ago.

sors of the cult hold

from the far

past.

it

in

profes-

unbroken practice

Whether during the time

of Shint5's long eclipse the possession cult

was kept up by the few remaining pure Shintoists,

if

indeed there can be said to have

been any pure Shintoists then

ful,

at

all, is

doubt-

although the priests to-day assert that

was always practiced by the pious

Certain

it is,

of Shinto

it

in secret.

however, that during the lapse

from national regard practice of

the cult passed to

all

intents

and purposes

to

Buddhism known as
Ryobu or Both, because it was indeed manu-

a hybrid of Shint5 and

factured of both creeds.

The

great

Kobo Daishi

father of Ryobu.

he

was

known

as

Kukai

reputed

the

who

Kobo

Daishi

by the way was never

while

is

This worthy soul

called

was
was known at
was the founder of the Shingon sect
all
He seems to have
of Buddhism in Japan.
been singularly energetic. The peak* he
climbed, the pictures he painted, and the
divers deeds of one sort and another which
he accomplished, would have kept Methuse-

called

anything

so long as he

he

OCCULT JAPAN.

34
lah on the

jump

nial

Nevertheless, he found time amid

it

life.

for the

invent Ryobu.

all to

sisted in a judicious

and Buddhist

met

whole of

his millen-

His invention con-

hodge-podge of Shinto

popularities.

His

diligence

The newly invented faith

became very popular, because it let
everybody in. It was essentially an open
its

reward.

instantly

much given

air faith,
trait

from

it

to mountaineering, a

might be supposed

its

father,

were

to

have inherited

not instinctive in a

it

Japanese to climb.

Ry5bu has more than one

sect,

but

it

was

only the Ontake sect of the belief that practiced god-possession.

It

for a thousand years,

and then, when pure

kept the cult alive

Shinto was revived at the time of the Restoration,

and hybrids were abolished by impe-

rial edict,

the Ontake Ryobuists came back

again into the Shinto

fold.

Besides Ry5bu, some of the Buddhist sects

early

saw the advantage

with deity, and

Kobo

taught the means to

peror Sanga, so

it

it

of being intimate

Daishi, after

being

by the Shinto Em-

is said,

not satisfied with

Ryobu apd incorporating it

took it for his own Shingon

inventing

in that,

boldly

sect of

SHINTO.
Buddhism.

And

the Shingon sect

tices the cult to-day.

Denkyo

founder of the Tendai

captivated by
belief.

art

it

35

sect,

still

prac-

Daishi, the

was likewise

and incorporated

it

into his

Lastly, the Nichiren sect learned the

and indulges

in

it

now more than

either

of the other two.

We thus

find at the present

time

among

the professors of the cult some Shintoists,

some Ryobuists, and some Buddhists, each

claiming

it

stoutly for its own.

MIRACLES.

ULLARDS
cacy

To touch
them not

to touch

that there

is

than they suspect.

with

it

at

deli-

strength.

a subject lightly

" dead in earnest "

them

always deem

will

incompatible

for

is

Yet the phrase

all.

might perhaps hint

more

to

virtue in liveliness

It is quite possible to

see

the comic side of things without losing sight

of their serious aspect.

both sides
life,

is

missing

people.

As

In

fact,

not to see

to get but a superficial

view of

So much

for the

its

substance.

for the priests,

is

it

only neces-

sary to say that few are more essentially sincere and lovable than the Shinto ones

few religions

With

in a

sense more true.

this preface for life-preserver I

and

plunge boldly

into the miracles.

Kamiwaza
but

to

or god-arts are of

Japanese piety are

all

many

sorts,

kind,

of

MIRACLES.

37

though some are spectacular, some merely

Causing the descent

useful.

der-God

down

calling

the Thun-

of

from Heaven

fire

rooting burglars to the spot, and so forth,

and bring-

to say nothing of killing snakes

ing

them

again, together with innu-

to life

merable like performances, are

in the category,

and are

all

Nichiren, for ex-

affairs to the truly good.

ample,

broke

would-be

him

in

two

the

blade

his

of

by exorcism taught

executioner

of the Shint5 priests.

the explanation

included

all

simple enough

may be

The

fact without

read of in histories

of Japan.

In Shinto the miracles are not so important matters as the incarnations

for

good

reason, since the god but shows his

power

the one case, his self in the other.

Yet the
them for

church takes pleasure

pious purposes.

ing sects

is

Any

more

in displaying

in

fete-day of the possess-

likely

than not to have a

miracle for central show, and for his great

semi-annual festivals
priest of the

ment

my

friend

the head

Shinshiu sect has announce-

of a couple of

them printed

regularly

as special attractions on his invitation cards.

So

far as piety classifies

them

at

all,

it

OCCULT JAPAN.

38

does so according to their scenic effect or

for the difficulty of doing them.

psychologic point of
fall

view,

From

very conveniently under two heads

account of the former

since

sub-

and objective ones.

miracles

jective

may

however, they

An

properly precede,

includes those which, on the whole,

it

are considered the greater.

among

Chief

what are

the three great

the trio

the subjective miracles are

collectively the

called

is

Sankei or

The bond connecting

rites.

apparently purely extrinsic, con-

sisting solely in

agreement

consequence, on

very

in greatness.

important

In

festivals

lasting two or three days, they are performed

in turn successively.

II.

The

first

Great Rites

and simplest
is

of

these Three

the Kugadacki or Ordeal by

Boiling Water.

The word kugadacki

In

is

archaic Japanese.

Hepburn's dictionary a dagger stabs

obsolete.

Furthermore,

the

departed

it

is

given no character, being epitaphed solely

in the

Japanese

sidescript.

Such absence

of ideograph implies for the expression an

MIRACLES.

39

age antedating the time when the Japanese

learned to write

out by folk-lore.

an inference

tioned

more than once

seems

to

as

in

borne

men-

is

the Kojiki, and

have been quite popular in pre

In those direct days

historic times.

applied

fully

For the ordeal

was

it

touchstone to actual guilt

in

these more teleologic times merely as test

of theoretic guilelessness.

The arrangements

for the rite are prim-

itively picturesque.

huge iron

might be some witches'

moniously
court.

square.

it

cut

hempen

From

ropes.

bamboo, tufted

inclosed
or

is

at their

ground some eight

frond to frond are

hung

This makes an airy sort of

palisade, designed to

able devils.

it

cere-

then built a magic

is

tops, are stuck into the

feet apart.

is

midst of the garden or

set in the

About
Four

pot, as

caldron,

keep out the undesir-

Just outside of the space thus

placed a deal table, on which one

more deal boxes, open on the

side,

consecrated pedestals for the gohei.

gohei are very important

shall

have much

ment

it

affairs, of

to say later.

will suffice to state that

make
The

which

For the mothey are zig-

zag strips of paper festooning a wand, and

OCCULT JAPAN.

40

are the outward and visible symbols of the

front

In

gods.

them upon the

of

table

stands a saucer of salt; while behind them

bamboo fronds stuck

into stands rise into a

background of plumes.^
and

then

brought

in

poured into the caldron.

On my

first

water

Spring

is

casion of witnessing the miracle

this
little

point graciously permitted to dab

finger into the water.

to see

glad

why

My

I did.

quite
I

fail

am

at

my
now
very

request turned out a most

productive of

indiscretion,

discreet

desired to do so, but

oc-

was

much

spiritual significance later on.

was then kindled beneath, and we,

professionals and amateurs, stood round
fire

about the square, watching for the water to

boil.
rise,

When

at

last

the steam started to

the officiating acolyte emerged from

the holy bathhouse near by, where he had

been

purifying

That

white robe.
1

The wood

on account of
is

the hinoki,

vit(E.

Its

tors to be

sticks

himself,

in

single

the robe was white

have here and elsewhere translated " deal,"

its
lit.

appearance, which
" sun-wood," the

name sun-wood
due

is,

clad

to its

is

said

is

simple to a degree,

Thuya

obtusa, or

Arbor

by some priestly exposi-

having furnished the prehistoric two

from whose rubbing

first

came

fire.

MIRACLES.
theoretically

practically

it

41

was a

post-dilu-

vian gray, a hue which the rite soon sufficiently explained.

On
his

entering the mystic square he clapped

the invariable Japanese method
summoning anybody from gods to

hands

this,

of

servants.

It is

worth noting here, as instan-

cing the familiar terms on which the Japanese

stand with their gods, that they should thus

summon deities and

The young priest then started

domestics.

indifferently

to circum-

ambulate the kettle through a whole series

of rites, each

made up
and

basis of speech

of an endlessly similar
action.

Now

it

all

is

very well to preach against vain repetitions,

but

with

anthropomorphic

ordinary mortals,

it

one would succeed

Shinto priests

one who

looks

in one's

realize

oughly act upon

it,

with

this

is

Like

if

request.

The

and

thor-

fact,

impatiently past

practical effect

as

too thoroughly to

etitions to their result.

its

gods,

simply has to be done

all

the

suit

rep-

good works,

on the worker.

Pantomime and prayer wove the double

strand on which his more particular beads of
rosary were told

uncouth finger-twists and

monotonic formulae pointed by expressive

OCCULT JAPAN.

42

Upon

grunts.

guttural

of wellnigh

this

undercurrent

man was

automatic action the

insensibly carried along through successive

cycles of

the

of

Beginning at the north end

rite.

he

square,

facing the caldron

made incantation

first

then walking absorbedly

round to the south, digitating as he did

he faced the kettle and repeated

his

so,

spell.

Continuing as before, he went through the

same performance

at the

west side

then at

the east, the northwest, the northeast, and

the southwest,
circuit

making thus

between each

most particular

point.

at least a half

All this was

though as a matter

of fact

the orientation of the points was hypothetical.

This constituted the simple motif, as

were.

No

sooner was

started on

it

was

From

salt.

it

it

completed, than he

again with variations.

First

it

the saucer on the stand he

helped himself to a handful of

and mak-

this,

ing circuits of the kettle as before, deposited

a pinch of

it

at

each of the compass points

in turn, digitating

did so, after the

with the free hand as he

manner

of

one enjoining

implicit compliance with his act.

he tossed more

salt into

After this

the air toward each

of the four quarters of the heavens.

MIRACLES.
In the same
a

and

flint

43

way he made the rounds with

steel,

Then he took

proper places.

wand, and exorcised the water

by cuts in the

ion,

Lastly,

lence.

bamboo

the gohei-

in like fash-

imprecatory vio-

air of

he made the

circuit with

two

fronds, one in each hand, which he

dipped into the seething

lifting

the

scattering sparks at

liquid,

and then,

boiling water, lashed

them loaded with

the air above his head, the spray falling in

a scaldins: shower-bath

he did north, south,

all

over him.

east,

west, and

This
then

over again from the beginning, on and on,

in

one continuous round.

To

this boiling

shower-bath there seemed

Round and round

no end.
religiously

compassing

the

man

went,

his points, repeating

the scalding douche at each with ever-grow-

ing self-abandonment.
of the affair

on the

rite

Up to

this final

he had seemed
now, the

carrying him on.

rite

to

seemed

Still, circuit

phase

be carrying
to

be

after circuit

he made, his exaltation rising with each fresh

dip till he was as one possessed, lashing
;

maniacally

with

the

first

the water and then the air

fronds,

scattering

the

scalding

douche not only over himself, but over

all

OCCULT JAPAN.

44

the innocent bystanders as well, giving

thus,

them

by the way, the most convincing proof

Higher and

of the genuineness of the feat.

higher rose the pitch of his possession

at last, nature could

no farther

the acme of his paroxysm he

go,

all at

till,

and from
once

col-

lapsed into a lump of limp rag upon the

The

ground.

others rushed in and bore him

away, the wilted semblance of a man.

While he was gone

more
to

for this world, the high priest explained

me

the spirit of the

The moon,
a

to prepare himself once

it

rite.

seems,

is

the cause of

it all

step in elucidation, to follow which

first

requires less stretch of the western imagination than the next succeeding one.

lunacy-inducing body

is, it

For that

appears, the origin

on the Incus a noii principle, we

must suppose, inasmuch as it has none to
of water

speak

But, whatever the cause, the spirit

of.

of water resides in the

cold water, be

it

moon

the spirit of

understood, cold water and

hot water being, in Japanese eyes, quite

ferent substances with different names.
spirit of

hot water

is

the spirit of

rose to the water in the

fire

below

at the

moment

fire.

dif-

The
This

caldron from the

the water boiled.

MIRACLES.

"Now,"

45

as the priest quaintly put

as there are veins in man's body,

and

it,

"just

fissures

in the earth, so are there arteries in the air

and

own

to each spirit its

therefore, the spirit of water

descends from

When,

arteries.
is

properly be-

abode, the moon,

sought,

it

by

appropriate paths, and; dispossesses

its

the spirit of

fire,

which

the charcoal whence

the hot water

is

sink's

came.

it

no longer

This happy result

fection

its

of course

hot.

w#rked

is

amid the purity

bark again to

And

'

to easier per-

of the peaks.

It

is,

of course, an irrelevant detail that water at

those altitudes should boil at a lower temperature.

The

thin air of the peaks

purely pious reasons, conducive to

all

is,

for

manner

of etherealization.

In

addition

to the lunar action

on the

^boiling water, the performer himself

is,

so

the priest said, temporarily possessed by the

lunar

spirit,

and so

is

to the heat, which, as

exist, so that

rendered insensible

we

just saw, does not

the second action might seem

A double

nega-

tive of the sort appears, however, to

make

to savor of the superfluous.

assurance doubly sure.

When

the

man

returned, clothed and in

OCCULT JAPAN.

46

mind once more, he was asked

right

his

whether he

felt

He

the ordeal.

the heat of the water during

sometimes he

replied that

did and sometimes he did not

stance he said he had

in this in-

He was

nothing.

felt

a frail-looking youth, of ecstatic eye, evidently

a good "subject," though

in the early

The head

stages of his novitiate.

much

still

priest, a

stronger man, and an adept, said he

always

the water, but not the heat of

felt

it

an interesting distinction.

Here came
extent of a

in

the importance of

Though

in the basin.

little

ligious permission,

finger,

preventing

becoming

it

my dabble

had been but

and

had,

it

that

to the

by

as

cold

water there from

the
as

elsewhere.

For the

acolyte averred that he had perceived a

ference between the two.

said that he
of

He

it.

re-

appeared, par-

the miracle on that side of the

tially spoiled

caldron,

it

had not

felt

But he had

dif-

just

the heat of any part

had therefore detected a

distinc-

tion without a difference, a degree of divinity

quite transcending the simply not feeling at

all.

Yet he was unconscious

and conscientious

afterward.

spoiling the miracle,

that

then,

it

at the time,

By

partially

would seem

had considerably improved

it.

MIRACLES.

47

III.

The second
Rites

is

Bed

foot over a

To

miracle of

of

Live Coals.

the faithful this

is

one of the regular

when you become

stock miracles, and

known

the Three Great

the Hiwatari or the Walking Bare-

to the profession for a

well

collector of

such curios, you shall have offers of

formance

in

your own back-yard.

per-

If also

you

be friend to the high-priest of the Shinshiu

you may have a chance

sect,

to witness

spring and autumn in special

grounds of the

sect's

head temple

There, beside the miracle

its

scarcely less curious

it

in

glory in the
in town.

shall

itself,

setting,

you see

an intent

multitude framing the walkers round about,

worked up

at last to part participation itself.

For

working the miracle

in its

democratic.

Even

professionally

star performance, but

whole company.

sionals.

after

it

is

not a

Fellowship, they say, adds

duces to exaltation.
is

eminently

an exhibition by the

to the purity of the rite.

performance

is

It

certainly con-

In the second place,

not confined to the

They indeed have

profes-

the pas,

they have thus broken the

but

ice the pop-

OCCULT japan:

48
iilace

permitted to indulge

is

same way

in the

itself

For while the bed is

possessed by the god any sufficiently pure
to

satiety.

person

may

tread

cuticle

and

great

The two go
in,

gain

The

together.

own

will cross

purity.

difficulty

unscathed

understanding

comes

the degree

of

one be pure enough he

If
;

will

of his deficiency.

his

good luck.

his

to

in accurately estimating

one's

rial

with impunity to

it

It

doubting Thomases.

more matespeedily acquaint him

not, his

if

proves a sad

to

trial

In their case, to pre-

vious anguish of spirit

is

added after agony

of sole.

The bed

to be traversed

is

usually from

twelve to eighteen feet long and from three

The width

feet wide.

to six

of the

bed

is

not so vital to the miracle as the length of

it

the length

is

it

has to be walked

that

over and grows tedious.

needed to do
the length

only

Here

sion.

this

it is

And

the

purity

increases pari passu with

in

geometrical

not the

first

progres-

step that costs,

but the last one.

In

Ryobu

poster.

the bed

Eight

of state

bamboo,

still

is

an eight-

fronded,

are

stuck into the ground, making slender posts

MIRACLES.
the

about

palisade

to

49

Between

pyre.

them runs a hempen rope from frond

about
this

feet

five

hang

to frond

above the ground.

From

These

details

forty-four

goJiei.

bam-

are important in ordinary cases, as the

heavenly

dedicated to the eight

boo are

dragons, rainmakers and drawers

But

generally.

if

of

the ground be holy, such

outer guarding becomes unnecessary

indeed

it is

and

a fundamental principle in eso-

terics that the purer the

he

paraphernalia

more simple

performer the less

in its rites

Shint5

Pure

needs.

Ordinarily the bed

water

is

than Ry5bu.

is

made

mattress of straw mats

is

follows

as

laid

upon the

ground, and on this a sheet of seashore sand.

This

be

done

is

in order that everything

as pure as possible.

are laid

first

fire.

gohei

is

approved principle of laying

the very centre of the pyre a

stood up on

In theory the bed

compass

points.

its

wand.

is laid

four-square to the

In practice one side

veniently assumed to be north, which

as

good

may

top of this sheet

twigs and then sticks criss-cross,

after the usual

In

On

in the

eyes of the gods,

who

is

con-

is

just

are sub-

limely superior to such mere matters of fact.

OCCULT JAPAN.

50

For

fuel,

free

Sticks

pine

wood

is

from knots

the proper

article.

are preferred, for

and has a spirit hard

So long as a man is truly good he
does not care. But the least admixture of
sin in his soul causes him to mind these
resin lurks in the knots
to quell.

knotty spots acutely.

Pine

still

is

used in the country and

in

town when the authorities are not aware

the

Legally, however, charcoal

fact.

danger

joined instead, owing to the

flagration

from flying wood-ashes

the law

is

of

en-

of con-

and

high-priest's functions

is

at the

dutifully

observed.

To

give

scene of

life to

the drama,

where

first

head temple
Kanda, the heart

grounds
sect,

it

of the

in

will set

saw

it,

in

the
the

of the Shinshiu
of

The

Tokyo.

crowd had already collected by the time we

the bed had been laid and fired, and
arrived
;

the whole temple company, with the exception of the high-priest himself,

moment

busied about

were

the pyre,

at

the

some

fan-

ning the flames assiduously with open fans

strapped to the end of long poles, while
others
staves.

pounded the

coals

All were robed

in

flat

again with

white and were

MIRACLES.

The

barefooted.

51

made

thing

a fine pageant,

framed by the eager faces of the multitude,

and

Septem-

set in the cool, clear light of a

ber afternoon.

When

they judged the bed to have been

sufficiently

made, they began upon the

in-

god to descend into

vitation to the

good old soul

led

full of

it.

devoutness and dignity

Proceeding solemnly to the north-

off.

ern end of the glowing charcoal, he faced

the bed, clapped his hands, bowed his head
in prayer,

and then with energetic

finger-

the

same.

twistings

cabalistically

Then he

started slowly

sealed
to

circumambulate

the pyre, stopping at the middle of each side

to repeat his act.

When
followed
fourth,

he was well under way, another

in

repetition

and so on down

youth of

ecstatic eye,

body and soul into the

in all

then a third and a

to the youngest, a

who threw
rite.

were thus strung out

Seven
in line

round about the pyre and sealing

in purification.

As

it

it

himself
of

them

walking
digitally

was not incumbent on

the exorcists, once started, to travel at the

same

rate, the

march soon took on the look

of a holy go-as-you-please race.

OCCULT JAPAN.

52

The bed was

yond the

circuited interminably, be-

possibility of count, so riveting to

one's attention

was the pantomime.

At the

conclusion of the dedicatory prayer the salt

made

its

appearance.

may

statement

For,

damaging as the

sound, every Shint5 miracle

many

has to be taken with a great

In this instance the

it.

stintedly.

grains of

was used un-

salt

large bowl filled with

it

stood

handily on one corner of the temple veranda,

and each

priest, as

self to a fistful,

upon the

he came up, helped him-

and then proceeded to sow

coals, finger-twisting

it

with the free

The sowing was done

some vehemence, each throw being
pointed by a violent grunt that so suited the
hand

as he did so.

with

fury of the action

an imprecation.
phatic

command

it

sounded ominously like

But

it

was only an em-

to the evil spirits to avaunt.

After considerable

salt

had thus been sown

from the cardinal points, the head of the

company struck sparks from a flint and steel

in the same oriented way over the bed, the
others
for

still

throwing on

general efficacy.

salt

was thus scattered over the

either

end

of the

promiscuously

In addition to what
coals, a

mat

bed was spread with salt

at

MIRACLES.
During

all

53

this time the high-priest,

took no active

part

in

who

himself,

the rite

being busied with his duties as host, was

nevertheless

engaged upon a private

therance of the
told

me

affair,

afterward.

ing modulately in
lips.

This action

shall see later.

it

It

quite obliviously, he

consisted in breath-

and out of
is

It is

fur-

his pursed-up

a great purifier

as

we

only to the godless that

suggests an inexpert whistler vainly

at-

tempting a favorite tune.

pause in the

rite

now informed

every-

body that the god had come, and everybody

watched intently for what was to follow;
with mixed emotion,

fancy, for the enter-

the characters

of

mass, a martyrdom, and a melodrama

all

in

tainment

partook

of

one.

The
off.

original old

Taking post

he piously clapped

gentleman once more led

at the bed's

his hands,

northern end,

muttered a few

consecrated words, and then salting his soles

by a rub on the mat, stepped boldly on to

the burning bed and strode with dignified
unconcern the whole length of it. He did
this without the least

symptom of discomfort
own act.

or even of notice of his

OCCULT JAPAN.

54

In their order the others followed, each

much

crossing with as

indifference as

When

bed were mother-earth.

had gone

went over again.

over, all
It

all

the

if

was now the turn

The

of the laymen.

passing of the priests had been a pageant,

and slow

dignified

common

folk

was

its

had seemed superior

the procession of the

burlesque.

to the situation

lay brethren often fell ludicrously

Any

The

priests
;

their

below

it.

one who would was invited to try his

foot at

it

not,

somewhat

Xo

circus.

may

add, in the spirit of

similar secular invitation

at

the

deception whatever lay hidden

For the pure are sure to

him who crosses with

behind the permit.

cross in safety, and to

impunity, substantial benefits accrue.

Many

bystanders availed themselves of the

privilege.

Indeed, not a few had

for the purpose.

Some

understanding that the

burn

fire

could not longer

others apparently upon a

odium

more skep-

One

firm believer incurred no

for the

extreme character of his

tical footing.
little

come there

did so on the pious

con\ictions.

now harmless

So persuaded was he of the

state of the charcoal that

he

sauntered solemnly across, rapt in revery,

MIRACLES.
quite oblivious to a
folk

whom

his

want

55

string

of

less

devout

of feeling kept in mid-

bed on tenterhooks behind him.

In the ex-

tremity of their woe they began hopping

undignifiedly

up and down, and

their desperation

pushed him

was somewhere

in

off at the last,

For

to his very near capsizing.

finally

in spirit

he

unsuspicious of

else, utterly

a sudden irreligious shove from behind.

Another

individual found

it

hotter than he

had hoped, and, after taking one step

enough,

lost all

stolidly

sense of self-respect at the

second, and began skipping from foot to foot

in vain attempts at amelioration, to the derision of the lookers-on, especially of such as

not dare venture themselves.

did

ently,

or

he thought better of

it

Appar-

little later,

perhaps he found himself more scared

than scarred.

For soon

after I noticed that

he had adventured himself again, and this

time, to his credit, with

becoming majesty

of march.

Indeed, the procession was as humorous

as humanity.

All

sorts

and conditions

men, women, and children went over

last.

first

of

and

All were gain to religion, for nothing

showed more conspicuous than the buoyant

OCCULT JAPAN.

56

power

of faith.

It

was not the

but the

sole,

self that trod there, stripped of social cover-

In the heat of the

ing.

their fellow-men

forgot

moment

the walkers

and walked alone

Characters came out vividly

with their god.

in the process, like

hidden writing before the

Each contrasted oddly with

fire.

bors, often treading close

on

jostling emotion itself

heels,

Now

position.

its

neigh-

its

opposite's

by the

juxta-

a sturdy jinrikisha man, per-

suaded that the crossing would bring him

went over

fares,
in his

as a matter of business,

wake a small

and

boy, unable to resist so

divine a variety of tittle-ties on thin

ice, fol-

lowed for doubtless a very different reason.

Then

a family in due order of etiquette ven-

tured successfully along in a

line.

Now

dear old grandam, bent by years to a question

mark

of

life,

notwithstanding
straight

fair little girl,

and slim as an admiration

formed the

the arms

touch of

of

scene a glamour which,

was

its

one of the

the fine in

that tended to film the eyes,

ligious,

point, per-

feat vicariously, but I doubt not

as effectively, in
priests.

hobbled bravely across

and now a

if

all

this

and lend the

not strictly re-

very close of kin.

MIRACLES.

57

Many

of the lay-folk, not content with

one

more
the church
kindly permitting any number of repetitions.
Indeed, the performance was exceedingly
returned

crossing,

for

popular.

When

the last enthusiast had had enough,

the embers were prodded by the poles into

This airing

pi.

of his

bed causes the god not

After he has gone

unnaturally to depart.

no one may cross unscathed

attempted to do

more

tainly
cially

with

than surface ones, espe-

fiery

function.

use of the salt deserves further menIn this instance

rite,

manded
"

it

was a

salient fea-

it

appeared, than the

But as the deity had com-

under the somewhat poetic

Flower

had been

it

and had been enjoined by

less a personage,

god himself.
of

are cer-

prayer pointed with finger-pan-

final

ture of the

and no one

salt.

The

no

coals

the latter have been well sprinkled

if

tomime closed the

tion.

Under

so.

of the

at

first

title

Waves," the high-priest

at a loss,

so he said, to

comprehend the divine meaning. Later the

god had condescended to an explanation.
Nevertheless,

this

flowery

title,

so

am

-^

OCCULT JAPAN.

58

given to understand,

in

is

common

secular

use.

To

mind the

the undevout

salting of the

bed would seem to conduce to the success

For

of the feat.
heat,

get

and

it,

salt

do pretty much anything to

will

however menial, from melting snow

on horse-car tracks
Cooling coals
for

it.

caloric

The

is

freezing ice-cream.

to

therefore quite in character

its

unappeasable appetite for

unknown

not

priests

The

is

This,

mitigated the

for

a very glutton of

is

nobly

the

profession.

admitted that the

full rigor of

miracle

to

salt

the miracle.

does not, however, depend

performance upon

use

its

only one has

be holier to work the miracle without

to

At times

fire-walking

is

it.

done quite fresh

preferably amid the purity of the

hills,

with

whose freshness its own is then in keepBut it is occasionally so performed in

ing.
town.

The

origin

of

extreme antiquity.

the rite
It

mounts back

to

dates from before there

were men to walk, having been instituted of

the gods in the days
in

the

its

essence

land.
;

when they alone

Walking, indeed,
peripatetic

is

proof being

lived

not of
but a

MIRACLES.

59

mode of showing one's immunity to

The possibility of such immunity was

special
fire.

first

demonstrated by a lady, the goddess

who

rejoices

protracted

no-mikoto.
lated

sounds better when trans-

It

Goddess

as the

who makes

She

buds to open.

somewhat

of Ko-no-hana-saka-ya-hime-

the Goddess

simple but

the

in

name

is

the Flower-

perhaps better known

She invented the

of Fuji,

miracle in order to persuade her doubting

spouse,

god

the

Ninigi-no-mikoto,

of

the

falsehood of certain suspicions which he had

been ungallant enough to entertain about

her.

She

built herself a

house against her

confinement, and then, after the babe was

born, burnt

without so
baby.

it

to the

much

ground over her head,

as scorching herself or the

This of course reassured Ninigi-no-

mikoto, and

is

chiefly

noteworthy as an

stance of a miracle converting a god

Those who care

in-

himself.

to read all the evidence in

the case will find

it

in

the Nihonshoki,

an invaluable work in fifteen volumes of

archaic Japanese.

Walking over the

coals with impunity

is

attributable only in part to virtue in the per-

former.

Immunity from harm

is

chiefly

due

OCCULT JAPAN.

60

power

to the fact that the fire has lost its

burn.

It

has parted with

considered, the

fire

ually speaking

it

when

spirit of

cross

without a

it

driven the spirit of

Any

to his

This

extinct.

is

why,

own

The

blister.

water has descended to

moon and
coals.

Materially

there, but spirit-

has been once exorcised, the veriest

it

may

tyro

is

its spirit.

still

is

to

fire

it

from the

out of the

skeptic might soon prove this

satisfaction

by just walking over

the coals himself, were true piety compatible

with doubt.
"

The

priest

object

expounded

may

ulace

the rite," so the high-

of
it

to me, "

see that the god

is

that the pop-

when duly

sought can take away the burning

while

fire

remain.

men

permitting

body

of

it

For so can he do with the hearts

the bad spirit

the

be-

spirit of

the good put in

its

may be

to

of

driven out and

place while

still

the

man

continues to exist."

To

the coldly critical eye of science two

things conduce to the performance of this

feat.

ern
less

One
sole.

is

the toughness of the far east-

The

sensitive

far Oriental inherits a

much

nervous organization than

is

the birthright of a European, and his cuticle

MIRACLES.
is

further calloused to something not unlike

by

leather

exposed

constant

This

use.

leaves the distance to be traversed between

the natural sensitiveness and the induced

sensitiveness considerably less

be with

The

us.

than

it

intervening step

By

result of exaltation.

first

ing that no pain will be

in-

would
the

is

firmly believ-

and then

felt

in-

ducing a state of ecstasy whose preoccupa-

no

tion the afferent sensation fails to pierce,

pain

is

perceived.

More than
there

is

this,

the burn

the

same

by

followed

a more or less

The

blisters.

and that

is

For

complete absence of

part burnt

the end of

probably not

is

after-effects.

is

burnt like cloth,

No

it.

whatever follows the act

inconvenience

among

the truly

good.

In less devout folk small blisters are

raised,

but

The

fact

is

without

noticeable

annoyance.

that in burns generally

it

is

cure that constitutes the complaint.

the body's feverish

damage

that causes

be

induces

our

It

is

anxiety to repair the

all

the trouble.

the severest burns very

burnt up, but our

the

little

own alarm

consequent

Even

in

of us is ever

that

it

may

inflammation,

Delboeuf showed this conclusively upon one

of his

hypnotized patients.

OCCULT JAPAN.

62

work

Faith, therefore, does in very truth

We

the miracle.

know

this

now

that mir-

which

acles have ceased to be miraculous;

is

perhaps a

purely pious pur-

late for

little

poses.
IV.

We
three

now come

to the third miracle of the

the Tsiirugi-watari, or the Climbing

the Ladder of Sword-blades.

Among

we

the incredible feats that

are

asked to believe of Indian jugglers, not the

least

astounding

their reputed

is

power

of

treading and even of lying with impunity

upon sword-blades
of us
its

startling

an

ability

which some

inclined to credit to the verb in

are

other sense.

may be

same

Nevertheless, the

unnecessary

if

bit

acrobatism

of

seen every spring in Tokyo quite

secularly done

Asakusa.

To

among

the peep-shows about

such, however, as

skeptical on the subject,

may

it

vincing to learn that the thing

one of the

great

still

miracles

remain

prove con-

is

a miracle,

the

of

Shint5

church.
It

dates

from a dateless antiquity.

the Nihonshoki mention

is

made

than Jiramu Tenn5 himself, the

of

first

it

In

older

human

MIRACLES.

Emperor
to have

Its first instance

of Japan.

been a case

63

of

When

necessity.

Futsu-nushi-no-kami

two gods,

seems
the

Take-

and

mika-tsuchi-no-kami were sent from heaven

to request 0-ana-muchi-no-kami to resign the

Japanese throne,
into

we

are told that on

their swords hilt

coming

imposingly planted

his presence they

downwards

in the ground,

and then, arms akimbo, seated themselves

Unlike the bashstolidly upon the points.
ful individual who sat down upon the spur

moment

of the

their seats

only to

seemed

again,

rise hastily

have proved

to

quite

comfortable, for they delivered a long and

somewhat tedious harangue

in that

not

in-

effective attitude.

This style

of

out of fashion

camp-stool had, however, gone

when

ance of the miracle

ern

mode

made

last

the acquaint-

September

The walking was

over them.

about to be performed, so

said, at Hachioji,

was one

the mod-

of doing the thing being to set the

blades edge up and then walk

rumor

which

it

appeared

of the habitats of the miracle.

For

shrines have their pet miracles as they have

their patron gods.

mor turned

Upon

investigation ru-

out to be correct in

all

but date,

OCCULT JAPAN.

64

the walking having unfortunately taken place

the previous

April, at

which

of the shrine of

annual festival

the
it

was the

and would not be repeated

specialty,

until the April

Seven months seeming long to

following.

wait even for a miracle,

ventured to suggest

They

to the priests a private performance.

instantly expressed themselves as very will-

ing to give

it,

stipulating merely for a week's

prior mortification of the flesh.

gence being a necessity

Such

indul-

any Shinto mir-

to

on for the spectacle was

and some ten days later, on a
morning in early October, we

acle, the date fixed

set duly ahead,

veritable
left

May

Tokyo

to witness

by the morning

for Hachioji

train

it.

There were

five of us,

including two globe-

trotting friends of mine, who, having seen

one miracle, had developed a strong amateur

interest in religion,

From

Hachioji

and Asa,

my

"boy."

we were bowled

in

jinri-

kisha some four miles out of the town to a

small temple
situate

known

as

on the outskirts

Moto-Hachioji.
parasoled

Hachiman
of the

The temple

by ancient

spur overlooking the

trees,
little

Jinja,

hamlet of

buildings, well

stood

valley

upon a

where the

MIRACLES.
grass-grown

roofs

65

the

of

An army

domestically from amid the crops.

mulberry bushes

of

flanked them round

in

very orderly

it

had given

files

about, silk-worm rearing

being the village occupation

that

peeped

village

name

its

so

much

so

to the local pil-

grim-club under whose auspices the function

was

to

Two
dially

god

be performed.
gods shared the temple very cor0-ana-muchi-no-kami, the right-hand
the Ontake

of

trio,

and Hachiman Daijin,

0-ana-muchi-no-kami was

the god of war.

the patron god of the feat

see.

He

upon the

we had come

to

himself was wont not only to walk

blades, but at times

actually to go to sleep

ingly useless

bit of

went

so far as

upon them,

a seem-

bravado only paralleled

by the pains some people are

at to tell

you

how they doze in their dentist's chair.

From the head priest's house we made our
way up a hill to the temple. As we turned
the corner of the outer buildings we caught
sight,

at

the farther

end

of

of so startling a scaffold that

tively

before

means

came
it.

to

point

the

we

all

grounds,
instinc-

of admiration

Evidently this was the material

to the miracle, for against

it

a ladder.

OCCULT JAPAN.

66

with notches suggestively vacant of rungs,

led

up

plank platform raised aston-

to a frail

ishingly high into the

We

air.

had somehow-

assumed that the sword-walking took place

on the

and

flat,

not, as

it

appeared

it

was to

be done, skyward.

When we
our

had

surprise to examine this startling

first

structure,

we found

planted

poles,

from

sufficiently recovered

braced by

it

to consist of four stout

securely

cross-ties,

in

the

and

earth,

holding two thirds

way

up the above-mentioned platform, upon which

stood a shrine.

The height

of this

upper

story above the ground proved to be thirteen

Upon

feet.

a secular ladder at the side

some

were giving a few finishing touches

priests

to the work.

Inclosing the scaffold stood four fronded

bamboo, one

at

each corner of a square, con-

nected eight feet up by a straw rope, with

sixteen goJiei, four on a side, pendent from
it.

This poetic palisade kept out the

spirits

bamboo

railing

evil

below kept out

small boys.

Upon

the shrine above, which was simply

a deal table, stood, dignifiedly straight, and

commandingly lined

in

a row,

three gohei

MIRACLES.
upon

67

their wands.

In front of them, upon a

lower table, stood

five others, colored respec-

tively, yellow, red, black, white,

five far

and

eastern elemental colors.

row represented the gods

of

blue, the

The upper

construction,

placed here to keep an eye on the scaftblding

the lower, the gods of the earth.

Flank-

ing the gohei stood two branches of sakaki,

the sacred tree of Shinto, draped with lace-

At

like filaments of gohei.

the corners of

the platform four tufted bamboo, joined by a

hung with

straw-rope

gohei,

palisade, miniature of the

from a pole

at the

made

a second

one below

while

back floated a banner

Heavenly Gods, Earthly Gods.

Half way up the scaffold two paper

scribed

cards,

pla-

one on either side the ladder, challenged

The

the eye.
tions

in-

right-hand one gave the func-

and functionaries

of the festival

the

Principal Purifier, the Vice-Purifier, the Chief

of

Offerings, the

God-Arts

Purifying Door, and the

the offices preceded, the

the persons followed.

The

names

of

other specified

the various functions of the God-Arts themselves,

and the names of those who bore

them, a certain Mr. Konichi being down as

Drawing the Bow.

This,

it

seemed, was to

OCCULT JAPAN.

68

be taken in a purely ceremonial sense, the

real archer

For

being Mr. Kobayashi.

his benefit, four short posts about four

feet high

had been planted directly under the

platform,

ready to receive two swords, on

the blades of which he was to stand while

engaged
dering

We

in his act.

how he was

could not help won-

to get

upon them.

In-

deed, the elevating nature of the whole per-

formance was not the

of

The reason

it.

least impressive part

for this lay,

we were

told,

high places, because

in the intrinsic purity of

above the ordinary level of mankind.

tainly,

Cer-

with a ladder of sword-blades for sole

means of approach, the platform above did

not seem likely to prove overcrowded.

On

the

left

stood the Kagura-do or dan-

cing-stage, filled with musicians,

the

moment engaged

in

who were

tuning

highly melodious performance at best.

kindly desisted to
stage,

tions

let

at

up not a

They

us lunch upon

the

which we did while the other prepara-

went

on, to

the open-mouthed enjoy-

ment of many small villagers, who had already

begun to collect for the occasion. As soon
as lunch was over the swords were brought
out.
They had not been lashed in place

MIRACLES.

we might

before, in order that

This

them.

we now

They were, one and

the

and

inspect

first

did to our satisfaction.

all,

old samurai blades,

from

would care to handle

as sharp as one
hilt

69

much

sharper than he would

care to handle in any less legitimate manner.

They

seem adapted to treadThere were twelve

loans from the neighborhood,

certainly did not

ing on, even tentatively.

of them,

and

all

every one,

heirlooms,

times not
sounds,

so

the

since

an

great

twenty years ago.

from

knightly

antiquity

as

middle ages were

But

it

but

should never have

imagined so many retired knights or their

The

heirs in so very retired a hamlet.

blades

themselves bore evidence, however, of having been possessed and probably used for
quite an indefinite time
this

by

their

owners

and

touch of local domesticity imparted a

certain sincerity to the act artistically con-

vincing in

itself.

The swords were then

lashed

But as the divine archery was

to

in

place.

precede

the divine climb, and there were twelve sets

of notches

blades in

all,

in

the

ladder

and but twelve

its two lower

upon the shooting-

those destined for

rungs were lashed

first

OCCULT JAPAN.

70

The

Stand.

ladder measured fifteen feet in

length, the rungs being about a Japanese

foot, fifteen inches of

our

feet, apart

doubt-

such distance being found in practice

less

the most comfortable.

After securely tying

on the swords, blades up, the priests departed to dress for the function.

Meanwhile a

pantomime was

capital

progress upon the dancing-stage.

in

dance-

hall is an invariable feature of every well-

appointed Shinto temple, and

are

sometimes

is

put in play

The performers

on every possible occasion.

sometimes men, the

girls,

former doing the serious dancing and the

latter the jocose
capital,

show

and on

Both are always

mimes.

this

occasion

think

the

it

proved

comic enough to keep the religious

in roars.

outdid

itself.

Three buffoons
engaged

in

in fine pudding-faced

masks

turn in an altercation with an

impressive gray-beard.
of an

Certainly

The

altercation

was

intermittent character owing to the

necessity felt by the pudding-faced citizen

of taking the

audience into his confidence

by elaborate asides of
city, digressions which

side-splitting simpliin

no wise prevented

the row's proper emotional increase,

till

at

MIRACLES.
last

it

beard,

a fine

71

culminated in a fight which the gray-

who did nothing but stalk round with

woodeny walk, invariably won. This

was due quite simply

to his god-like great-

ness, and not to the fact that his adversary

went through the

fight with his

lieu of his sword,

scabbard in

having with elaborate

in-

advertence drawn the one for the other, a

mistake at which he was subsequently proportionately surprised.

detracted

not

a whit

All this, of course,

from the sanctity

of

the performance, which, like that of oratorios,

came

in

with the historical characters

the performers were supposed to represent.

In

been

the

with the pick-a-back baby appeared

little girl
first.

Her

growing
I

mean time the countryside had

gathering.
The ubiquitous

silently

followed

familiars

in stature as

they grew

in

waifs

numbers.

them come I only saw them

And they made as modest a setting

did not see

there.

the

to the miracle as do

Japanese painting.
indeed, a

little of

the mountings

to

There was about them,

the ecstatic stupor of the

cow, but the usual bovine stare of modern

Japanese curiosity was here tempered by

instinctive old-fashioned politeness.

OCCULT JAPAN.

72

Japanese street-crowd pleasingly lacks

which distinguishes a western

that brutality

one
its

on the other hand,

it

has a stare of

own, an unobstrusively obstrusive

which knows no outlawing

it

Apparently

never outgrown.

is

and

that almost bars offense.

has a vacancy in
it

stare,

limit of age,

alone

It

would convict the race of a lack of self-consciousness and very nearly of a lack of any

consciousness whatsoever.
ese urchin for
not, but to

all

that,

love the Japan-

whether staring or

me advanced

age in the starer

Or-

stales the infinite unvariety of his act.

derly, however, and good-natured, a Japanese

crowd is past praise, and one would think

past policemen, which

is

not,

Here, however,
their

concourse grew.
folk they

When

And

first

to note

there were two hundred and

the spot, of

all

ages, sizes,

the

still

counted the

numbered one hundred and

Shortly after, as near as

fifty.

could

estimate,

fifty

people on

and conditions.

The whole countryside had turned

or without the baby, according as

or not.

seasons.

was much pleased

conspicuous absence.

why

suppose,

the latter always turn up at such

out,
it

Nobody's occupation seemed

with

existed
to

in-

MIRACLES.

73

terfere with his presence there in the least,

from the

village

ragamuffin to the village

Charming girls I noticed in the act

commenting upon us, I trust favorably

belle.

of

for, as

one

books,

my

of

friends puts

about his

it

would rather please the young

girls

than the old men.

But though we had not reckoned without our host, we had reckoned, it soon turned
our uninvited guest

out, without

evitable policeman.
chairs

Just as

the

on the oratory platform, and had

gotten his existence, he turned up.

so

in-

we had taken

inopportunely for himself, for

He
the

for-

did
first

prayer had begun, and he had perforce to

wait till it was over to put his official questions.

The prayer was

fication rites,

the

first

of the puri-

and was offered before an imThe altar was

provised altar on the oratory.

set out as the

customary divine dinner-table

and displayed the usual choice collection of

indigestibles fortunately always to be taken
;

in a strictly

immaterial manner.

Shinto service

is

nothing but a divine din-

ner-party, with the

this

For every

god

for sole guest.

In

case the aboriginal banquet was offered

to the gohei of 0-ana-muchi-no-mikoto, the

patron god of the occasion.

OCCULT JAPAN.

74

The adjournment made

opportunity.
action were

the

policeman's

Stiffly lifting his hat, as

the

if

bureaucratic au-

part of

itself

tomatism, he challenged a lay brother on the

and proceeded

oratory steps

him on the cause

of the crowd.

interview

to

Apparently

the lay brother worsted him, for at the end

he was so

of the colloquy

simply to send
request to

me

know

his card,

were a noble, as

if

case he wished to salute

which
T

humbled as
with the modest
far

me

in that

properly

to

returned mine with the reply that

was not a

noble,

but an American, and

therefore only the

a sovereign, and left

sixty-millionth

him

part

of

to figure out the

respect due in so complicated a case.

The

occasion, however, soon had a

izing effect even

that

upon

his

human-

officialdom, so

he shortly grew quite tame

and

ac-

cepted at the hands of the lay brother a seat

upon the platform beside

Meanwhile the

us.

priests

were

busy with

prayers and finger-charms on the mats at

when enough of
them had been restored there took place a
solemn walk-round by the whole company
the foot of the ladder, and

about the staging.

MIRACLES.
Konichi,

Mr.

75

Sacred

the

Bow,

and

Mr. Kobayashi, the Chief of God-Arts, then

armed themselves with two beautiful bows

beribboned at the end with a tangle of
ored gohei of the

col-

elemental colors, and

five

proceeded, the one to mount by the secular

ladder,

which had not yet been removed, to

the altar above, where he went through

pantomimic archery
effigy-shooting

the

The Chief

below.

God-Arts was specially

much

other to do like

effective.

the

of

Stretching

bow at each corner of the square in turn,

he made semblance to shoot at the demons,

his

and accentuated his performance by quite

He

unearthly grimaces.

and then

fingers

knotted

first

his

his face in a truly startling

Nature had endowed him with a

manner.

remarkably expressive physiognomy, which

even

in

repose bordered

When

caricature.

heightened by

ance of the

this

art,

rite

upon

perilously

came

to be further

as enthusiastic perform-

demanded, the

effect

was

extreme, quite capable of driving off devils,

which was

its

object,

and very nearly of

ing off the bystanders, which was not.

the most realistic

pious

saw

What

the children saw

in

it

I will

driv-

The
piety.

not pretend to

OCCULT JAPAN.

^6
guess, but

may have had

they

When
off

conceive the nightmares

can

the

consequence.

in

he had thus successfully frightened

he

without,

spirits

evil

entered

within the staging, and before the

As

stand further scared the imps.

we began once more

cism drew to an end and

to

arrow-

the exor-

wonder how he was going to mount his

drum was brought by

hobby-horse, the big

somebody and set up beside the stand. This

solved the enigma and enabled the Chief of
God-Arts, with the help of a pole, to rise
carefully to

place

first

lengthwise

the ends of the posts and to

and

one foot

upon the

then

the other

the forward

blades,

edges coming out between his great and

second
I

He

toes.

then discarded the pole, as

have seen more secular performers

do, to

the catch of an assistant, and stood poised

upon

upon
up

himself

them, he

and

down

the breaking

testing

Not content with

must needs tilt

knife-edges.

the

standing

as

one

power

of

does
a

in

plank.

how much at
Then with
blades.

This, of course, merely showed

home he

felt

upon the

due deliberation he
notch,

fitted

raised the bow,

an arrow into

and drew

it

its

to his

MIRACLES.
In

shoulder.

this

yy
he

pose

effective

re-

mained a long time, uttering what sounded

uncommonly

an oath, but was in fact a

like

song, sister to this

"

The God

And

The

at

of the

Bow

twang of the

string,

bends down from on high,

string, lo

the

demons

however, did not twang.

the exorcism continued, and the

Indeed, the one was

bent.

fly."

as

For

bow stayed
long drawn

out as the other, and the suspense was be-

coming

positively painful,

released the arrow

mons had

itself

With the
ing

first

he

The

de-

harmlessly in the bushes.

his pose a quarter

way

round, plant-

one foot and then the other care-

Then

discarding the

he again went through the same pan-

tomime

as before, ending in a second release.

His pose
and

at last

assistance of the pole he then

fully across both blades.

pole,

air.

evidently taken the hint, for the

arrow buried

changed

when

into the

at this point

was quite magnificent,

his intentness such that as with his eye

he followed
audience
failed

the

arrow's
did

instinctively

to see the shaft

back, behold

there

it

flight,

his

the

same.

strike,

was

still

whole

We

and, turning
in his

hand.

OCCULT JAPAN.

78

Whether economy
prompted

sin

or the remains of original

this pious framd,

know

not,

but he thus deceived us more than once, as

he turned round quarter-wise upon his holy

pedestal.

Once he

hit a tree, quite

and the crowd applauded.

dent,

had* thus revolved several

by

acci-

After he

times, he called

again for the pole and carefully descended

from his pinnacle.

examined his soles and

found them not only uncut, but barely lined

an unhurt condition which he shortly pro-

ceeded to demonstrate practically upon the

ladder.

The

divine shooting was no sooner over

than the purification

of

ladder began

the

knotted

prayer

rites for the

climbing

the usual

thread of

with

finger-twists

gone through with upon the mats in

Then, that there might be no mistake

minds

of the

being
front.
in the

populace as to the genuine-

ness of the miracle, the Chief of God-Arts as-

cended the secular ladder, which still leaned

against the platform, and producing sheets of
paper from his sleeve, cut them elaborately
into little bits

and

let

When

upon each blade

in succession,

the pieces flutter to the ground.

he had finished the secular ladder

was removed.

MIRACLES.
Nothing now

led

up to the goal of

this

but the consecrated

pilgrimage

acrobatic

79

Ad astra per aspera

ladder of sword-blades.

Nevertheless the Chief

with a vengeance.

God-Arts, calling once more upon the

of

gods, prepared

mount.

to

Girding up his

might not catch

his feet

his

in

loins

that

tunic,

and grasping parts of the upper blades

with his hands, he planted one foot lengthwise along the lowest sword-edge, and then,
to its level, placed the

drawing himself up

Then

other similarly on the blade above.

he rose in like

manner

to the third rung,

and

He

did

the fourth, and so on heavenward.

this
it

carefully

but deliberately.

was merely a question

Evidently

of foot-placing with

him.

The

higher he got the less he seemed to

think of his footing and the more of effect,

till

in

mid-ascent he was minded to

religious

pas

sent.

Posing on one

\.xy

foot,

a.

he

turned deftly to face the crowd, and with

the appropriate swing kicked out with the

other high

into the

air,

flaunting his

foot

before the rapt concourse of people in the

most approved p7-wia assohita manner.

this

unexpected

terpsichorean

touch

At
the

OCCULT JAPAN.

80

populace burst into applause

climb, continued boldly up

eral

gasp of

topped the

relief

and the Chief

triumphantly to his

of God-Arts, turning

amid a gen-

till

from the crowd below he

rung and stepped out un-

last

scathed upon the platform.

Instantly he

sank

in

While he was

shrine.

prayer before the

at his

devotions the

second or secular ladder was brought round

and

to another side of the scaffolding

up against

for

what purpose did not

at first

For, his prayer finished, the Chief

appear.

of

it,

tilted

God-Arts turned again to the ladder

swords and exorcised

as he

was about

descent, as

we

secular ladder

lady

who

of

Then

afresh.

foot on

it

just

for the

thought, he turned back and

to our astonishment

reminded

it

to set

of

came

instead.

the

quietly

the

devout but inconsequent

told a friend that "

she should go to

down

was unavoidably

New York

She thought

on Wednesday,

D. v.," but, reflecting a moment, "that she

should

That

come back on Saturday anyway."

his taking to the back-stairs for the

descent was not due, however, to any

ability

in-

on his part to come down by the

front ones

was shortly evident by

his

mak-

MIRACLES.

ing soon after the ascent of the sword-blades

The

nonchalantly a second time.

truth was,

the miracle was supposed to end at the top,

and the secular ladder

be as invisible a

to

return to the original position as back-stairs

generally.

As

the Chief of God-Arts came

down thus

incognito by the back way, a second priest

made ready

to go

up by the front one.

His

performance was largely a repetition of the

first's

except that before starting the others

weighted him with some boxes

which they strapped upon

full of

charms,

consecrated by the ascent for subsequent

tribution.

What he

no difference to him.

carried

He

be

his back, to

dis-

made apparently

stepped up boldly

and, after due suspense on the part of the

populace, stepped out safely at the top.

The next
himself.

ascend was the head priest

This was a special compliment to

us, since the

ally

to

climbs,

head priest no longer habitu-

He

being well on in years.

got up, however, with impunity, save for a

slight cut

upon one palm.

The

ticed that the others

were very thin

ice,

had shied

third blade

We

from the top did the business.

at

and when

it

it

had noas

if

came

it

to

OCCULT japan:

82

the older skin of the head priest, he simply

went through.

This mishap conclusively

showed, the priests stated, that for some cause

the blade was

They were

impure.

after-

wards able to prove their prognostication

quite right, for on subsequent investigation

the blade was found to have recently killed a

dog and not

have been properly purified

to

since.

After the head priest

up

in turn,

of

them

the others went

all

including the lay-brother

several

lengthwise was the favorite

cedure, but

in

particular

difference

up as

if

of rungs

how he

it

and he

Inasmuch

as

when

some

of pro-

the foot

To one
make small

instead.

seemed

trod.

the blades

to

He jumped

jauntily

were an every-day

set

in a hurry.

imitation

flattery, the priests

pleased

mode

when more convenient

was put across the blade

man

Planting the feet

times.

is

the

sincerest

should have been greatly

at this point

Asa,

my

house-

boy, fired to emulation, suddenly pulled off

European boots and socks, rolled up his

European trousers, and presented himself as

his

candidate

for

the climb.

To my eye

the

outlandishness of his dress, amid the archaic

MIRACLES.
costume of the

priests,

83

gave him at once

that unsuitable appearance to the deed so

consecrated to

who

the

volunteers at the circus.

tainly

have had

my

countryman

supposed

uineness of his inexperience had

him

for

my own

should cer-

doubts about the gen-

"boy."

The

known

not

priests,

how-

him most kindly, and after

sprinkling him with a shower of sparks and

ever, received

properly finger-twisting over him, to purify

and I doubt not
him as much as possible,

he needed

it,

showed him how to plant his

and started him up the

surprise, and I think his

feet on the rungs

To my

ladder.

own, he went as well as the best of them.

We watched him with some vanity and more
concern, and were suddenly electrified when,
half way to the top, he turned, and, with a

triumphant smile, made, he

corypliie

down

kick high into the

too, the
air.

the house but not the boy,

tinued on successfully

till

at last

out triumphantly at the top.

brought

who

con-

he stepped

He was

to abbreviate the prayer, from not

it,

approved

It

obliged

knowing

and then he too came down the regulation

back-stairs.

Exactly what happened after this

is

a mys-

OCCULT JAPAN.

84

Whether

tery.

in

his exaltation

and hurry

to get back to his place he forgot the pro-

jecting tips of the sword-blades, or whether

in

coming round the corner he

one of the
thing

priests,

we knew,

was not

collided with

clear, for the first

the boy was on the ground

bleeding pretty freely from a gash

in the

top

of his foot, while the priests did their best to

stanch the blood.

The

point of one of the

swords had ripped him as he passed.

Neverhe shortly after hobbled to the oratory veranda and then, while a proper bandage
theless,

was being fetched, promptly fainted. When

duly swathed he was dispatched to the head
priest's house,

where he underwent consider-

able exorcism, which, as he informed

me later,

him a world of good. Evidently he possessed more latent piety than I had given
him credit for.
did

How many

more enthusiasts might have

gone up the divine ladder had

regrettable

this

known.

For by

diversion
tacit

it

not been for

will

never

be

consent the episode

closed the performance.

It

by no means, however, ended the

tivity.

fes-

Several pleasing adjuncts to this had

miraculously appeared, unperceived, during

MIRACLES.
miracle

the performance of the

hne

long

85
itself.

had

booth - mats

of

suddenly-

sprouted mushroom-like out of the ground

beyond the oratory and was now attempting to beguile the crowd by every species of
toy and gimcrack, visibly connected or un-

There were
paper masks and clay foxes and baby bows
and arrows and papier-mache swords. The
connected with the occasion.

last

caught our fancy, as being suited for

presentation

to

some

of

the urchins

who

were standing interestedly about, and who

instantly put them to proper use by making
us the objects of pantomimic attack as soon
as ever our backs were turned.

Through this running fire we made our

way safely to the head priest's house, from
which, loaded with charms consecrated

we were bundled

the miracle,

by

into our jinri-

kisha and trundled regretfully toward home.

And now

to explain the miracle

but doubtless,

family of

them

is

the mother of mir-

with the far eastern

a pachydermatous sole step-

of them are
Of the three great
the Ordeal by Boiling Water

fathers the process.

questions

For most

cuticle.

of

Shinto rites

also,

Doubtless credulity
acles,

OCCULT JAPAN.

86

the Walking across

Live Coals

Climbing upon Sword-blades,

it

is

equal to the feat without

preliminary purification
success of

my

boy,

his

But a certain other physical

fact enters

commonly

appreciated,

this last miracle not

which by

the innocent manipulation of

the priests the miracle

immense

due

is

difference in cutting

a stationary and a
is

evident from the

is

who simply picked up

and walked.

skirts

to

depend upon

all

That the average

for easy performance.

Japanese sole

and the

moving

aware that there

people realize

is

to wit, the

power between

Everybody

blade.

a difference, but few

how very

great

it

is.

press your finger upon the sharp

your knife, you

will

nity

but

if,

sinks

edge of

with impu-

it

ever so gently, you draw the

across

the

skin,

instantly

it

in.

The

principle involved

the wedge.

By drawing

the direction of
that

you

be surprised to find what

a pressure you can put upon

knife -blade

If

its

is

the principle of

the blade along in

edge

at the

you press down, you thin

any desired

tenuity.

You have

same time

its

angle to

but to grad-

uate the horizontal motion to the vertical

MIRACLES.

As

force.

lessened

is

the

the force necessary

sharpens,

enter

the angle of

indefinitely.

tingly apply this principle

And

anything.

we

8y

as this

Furthermore,

we
it

We

unwit-

whenever we cut

our normal

is

forget that the blade

not as cutting as

wedge thus
to make it

is,

state,

statically used,

think.

will

be remembered

that,

as a rule, the priests took heed in placing

Most

their feet.

of

them were

careful to

minimize the impact.

These are some

of the points that

miracle-working possible

ence

is

There

miracles.

the priests,

it

sympathetic

renders Japan a very paradise of

is

thus a twofold reason

success

for a miracle's

ple.

but a good audi-

equally necessary.

populace

make

a thicker

and a thicker

skin in

skull in the peo-

This double lack of penetration makes

easier both to do, and to be done by, a

miracle than

it

Pondering

would be elsewhere.

in

advantages for

wise

upon the great

successful

miracle-working

this

pachyder-

possessed by priests of an

artistic,

matous people over those

of a thin-skinned,

scientific one,

grandeur

and half lamenting the

of that pious past

lost

whose childish

OCCULT JAPAN.

88

imaginings loomed so large and

vanish so
search,

sadly before

we were

rolled

life-like,

and

our bull's-eyes of

through the broad

quiet twilight of tillage toward the growing

twinkle of the town.

To give a full account of Shinto

we have now to consider quite a
class of

simple.

them

The

miracles,
different

the objective ones, pure and

nomenclature

matter of distinction.

mere

not

is

For the

kind

first

are brought about by the unintentional but

efficient

subjective

performer

himself

action

the

of

the latter

independently of him.

It

is

miracle-

take

place

distinction

unimportant as regards the things, but of

vital

consequence as

For though

it

regards

the people.

be open to the looker-on to

doubt whether the water or the

fire in

two ordeals above be rendered any the

hot by having

parted with

its

spirit,

the
less
it

is

not open to him to doubt the difference of

perception of that heat

and abnormal states

question

is

in

the man's normal

of consciousness.

This

quaintly begged by believers, by

stating that the god withdraws the spirit of

MIRACLES.
the

or permits

fire

89

to return momentarily,

it

the

according to the character of

tester.

Skeptics settle the whole matter off-hand

by denying the
to call

But

fact.

upon a noumenon unnecessarily, even

Universal ne-

an annihilating character.

of

unscientific

is

it

gation of a sense distinction implies univer-

and men are both too sim-

sal

charlatanry

ple

and too astute for that

to

be possible.

Charlatans ape but they do not

A counterfeit

implies a genuine, and a sham-

mer something

To

to sham.

the objective miracles there

chic or divine side

vined

originate.

psychical

Odojigokushiki,

Thunder-God,"

is

no psy-

they are due to undi-

principles
"

or

is

one of

The

merely.

The Descent
these.

of

the

He

de-

scends into so plebeian a thing as a kettle

of steaming rice, the rice being afterward of-

For

fered in banquet to the temple deities.

to have rice taste like thunder

peculiarly pleasing to the gods.

working

of

Upon
upon
set

is

said to

this miracle is as follows

a small urn

the kettle

was placed a

a rice

on as to leave a

be

The manner
:

kettle

and

steamer, the hd so

slit

on one

young acolyte then appeared

in

side.

the

usual

OCCULT JAPAN.

90

pilgrimage robe, his hair dank from the bath

and his whole person

a spark from

and, striking
steel,

shivering with cold,

proceeded to light the

encourage

its

some
fire

flint

and

and then to

combustion by the usual

fin-

ger-twisting, scattering of salt, prayer, strik-

ing of sparks, and brandishing of

\\\q.

goJiei-

wand.
After the exorcism was well under way,
the head priest

came forward and

sat

down

before the kettle in order to perfect the rite,

the acolyte falling back to the part of mute.

In keeping with the good

man's extreme

purity, his finishing touches were very simple.

They

consisted of a soundless whistle

which he kept up through

and of certain
bolic of pulling

toward him.
sat perfectly

He

his

archaic finger

pursed

lips

charms sym-

some very heavy substance

Then,
still

still

mutely whistling, he

and watched.

had not long

to wait.

Suddenly a roar

rose out of the body of the kettle, and at

almost the same instant the priest's

body began

to

sway back and

followed the roar

it

Steam

then, after a couple of sec-

onds, the roar ceased.

be told that

forth.

own

We

was the voice

did not have to

of the

Thunder-

MIRACLES.

God

and when

it

ceased

91

we knew the god

had gone.
Press of business the priest gave as excuse
for the shortness

of the divine

visit.

But

we were very fortunate, it seemed,

getting him to come at all, for often

indeed
in

the deity does not deign to descend, even for

a

moment, being otherwise occupied.

sides,

if

he refuses

The

to

come on conscientious grounds.

priest averred that at the

possession he always
his stomach.

of his

Be-

every accessory be not perfectly pure

He

body was

felt

also said that the

to induce

trifle late

of

a violent punch in

swaying

by symbolic

tion the presence of the god,

seemed a

moment

though

for the purpose.

it

trac-

had

Doubt-

god can be so constrained, but doubtalso, the kettle is for something in the

less the
less,

subsequent conversation.

The

slit-

in its lid

has been suggested as capable of explaining

the miracle, could

can

it

only talk as well as

it

roar.

VI.

We

now come

to a miracle

which might

possibly be turned to practical account.

It is

perhaps the most wonderful of the objective

ones.

It consists in

bringing

down

fire

from

OCCULT JAPAN.

92

heaven by simple incantation. The spark

thus obtained may be used to light anyfor purposes of

sticks preferably

two

thing, the prehistoric

At

warmth

the time

was

I was not in need of

degrees Fahrenseventy-five
was
caloric,
so I was permitted to
heit in the shade,
witness its working upon the comparatively

shown

vile

this miracle,

body

it

of

my own

freshly

filled,

unlighted

pipe.

This

is

Indeed,

a very difficult miracle.

even when

succeeds

it

it

is

scarcely an eco-

nomical method of firing one's tobacco daydreams, so

cost.

sations

But

and

much time and trouble does it

who hunt new sen-

to epicureans

to

word "dear"
it

may

safely

likely as yet,

whom
is

the one meaning of the

synonymous with the

For it

be recommended.
if

may argue from

other,
is

not

my own

experience, to be generally taken up.

To

insure

success

should be sunshiny.

even a cloudy day

in

the city, the day

Among

the mountains

will do, so I

am

informed.

I cannot speak confidently on this latter point,

because my own investigations were confined

to the ridge-pole of

the turf

my house

immediately below

in town,

it.

and

to

MIRACLES.

The

priest

who performed

"93

the miracle be-

gan by douching himself in the bathroom,

from which, between the plumps of water,
issued

uncouth sounds, sputterings

of for-

mulae and grunts as he finger-twisted.

He

emerged with nothing on but a blue pockethandkerchief for loin-cloth, the small blue

and white rag with which the Japanese dab

In this attire

themselves in lieu of towel.

he

sallied forth into the garden,

ing the side of a

hill

and

select-

as a propitious spot,

squatted in the ordinary Japanese posture on

its slope.

Cradling the pipe between his hands, he

prayed over
it,

tilted

Then he

exhaustively.

it

put

toward the sun, in front of him, and

exorcised

very energetically by finger-

it

charms, one of which strikingly resembled

an imaginary burning-glass.
ever,

He

There was, how-

nothing between his fingers but

had spent

contortions,

fifteen

minutes thus in

when he suddenly

air.

digital

stopped, dis-

tressed, and, complaining that the ants tickled

him by promenading over

his bare skin, said

he thought he would go upon the

roof.

So

a ladder was brought and tilted against the

eaves, and

up

it

he mounted to the

tiles,

and

OCCULT japan:

94

In
thence by easy slopes to the ridge-pole.
this conspicuous yet solitary position he continued the incantation.
sat beside

Part of the time

him on the roof

part of the time

below upon the ground, looking intently up

into heaven for the advent of the god.

Three quarters of an hour passed thus in

momentary expectation of his descent, but

At

nothing happened.
the priest
that

it

down

last,

much

chagrined,

informed us from the ridge-pole

was

of

no use that day, and came

but he signified his intention of

peating the rite

till

this pious resolve,

re-

he succeeded, and, with

left.

was there again two

and remembering poignantly the
disturbing ants, he decided to ascend at once
Before he did so, I examto the ridge-pole.

True

to his word, he

days

later,

ined

him

to a certain extent, although

my own very

had on only one of

towels. Then two of us took post

den commanding the

him

ridge-pole,

in the gar-

and watched

for the better part of an hour

vantage points.

den had been

manding

he

smallest

from our

In another part of the gar-

set the lunch table, also

com-

the ridge-pole, for the expected

divine visit was sublimely ill-timed, and

we

MIRACLES.
hoped

thus,

if

bine god and

hour

necessary, to be able to com-

We

mammon.

off as long as possible,

put the

to our delayed repast, firmly

We

did so

religiously

we

till

exorcist.

him a
Suddenly the
forgot

moment for the vol-aii-vent.

man on the roof uttered a cry, went
into

We

the garden, lighted.

pented

our forgetfulness

of

mammon.

cursed our love of

into inci-

threw the pipe

convulsions, and

pient

to sit

purposing

keep one eye constantly on the

to

evil

at last nature

till

we decided

could wait no longer, and

down

95

off

instantly re-

the

god,

But too

and
late,

as the miracle had been wrought.

Exactly

am

how

the miracle

unable to guess.

scant

means

of

was managed,

The man

certainly had

concealment about his bare

however,

we were

not

person.

Naturally,

satisfied,

and he professed himself willing to

repeat the

act.

He

tried the trick after this

time and time again, but never succeeded

more.

much
is

So there
in

the

this miracle remains,

air.

said to be very

common

But

very

should say that

commonly done

it

a more

thing, indeed, in Japan, than I can

conceive burning-glasses to be.

To make

the catalogue complete,

ought

OCCULT JAPAN.

96

to mention what, spiritually viewed, are orna-

mental miracles

such as

bringing them to

life

killing snakes

and

again, rooting burglars

to the spot, arresting the attempts of assassins

in

the

act,

and defending one's

But

against discourteous dogs.

need not be dwelt upon

are very simple

and, like

some

affairs

all

at length, as

to

self

such acts
they

the truly good,

scientific inventions, too ex-

pensive for general use.

INCARNATIONS.

FTER

the miracles, or possessions of

things,

follow,

in order of

esoteric

ascension, the incarnations, or possessions of people.

The

miracles, as I have hinted, are per-

formed largely with an eye,

to the public.

one eye,

at least

To drench

one's self with

scalding water or to saunter unconcernedly

across several yards of scorching coals are

not in themselves feats that lead particularly

to heaven, difficult as they

may be

to do.

Esoterically regarded, they are rather tests

of the

Way

proficiency

of the

already attained in

Gods than portions

of that

way

The

real

needing actually to be traversed.

burning question

is

the

whether the believer be

pure enough to perform them pleasurably.

To establish such

own satthe wonder

capability to one's

isfaction in the first place,

and to

98

OCCULT JAPAN.

of

an open-mouthed multitude

in the second,

are the objects the pious promoters have in

view.

Not

so the incarnations.

They

are, like

in-

But whereas

deed, serve a double purpose.

they

too,

the miracles, measures of the

value of the purity of the man, they are also

mediums

practical

human

spirit

exchange between the

of

and the

Foregone

divine.

directly profitable ends, loss of self

is

for

the

necessary price of an instant part in the

kingdom

of heaven.

Perhaps the most startling thing about

these Japanese divine possessions

number

unless

their

is

be that being so numer-

it

ous they should have remained so long un-

known.

But

it

what no one

is

is

to

be remembered that

interested

stay a long while hid.

to

may

reveal

For, with quite

An-

glican etiquette, the Japanese never thought

to introduce

foreign

their

divine guests and their

ones to each other.

Once

intro-

duced, the two must have met at every turn.

Indeed, the visitants from the spirit-world

remind one

of

those ghost-like

forms of

clever cartoonists, latent in the outlines of

more

familiar shapes,

till,

by some chance

'

^INCARNATIONS.
'

99

divined, they start to view, to remain ever

most conspicuous things

after the

the

in

picture.

Thoroughly
not

the

in

religious, the possessions are

hierarchic.

least

theory

In

esoteric enough, in practice they are, in the

older sense of that word, profane.

possession
is

open

is

to

no perquisite
all

the

For god-

of the priests.

reason for this lack of exclusiveness

is

It

The

sufficiently pure.

to be

sought in the essentially every-day family

Everybody

Shinto.

character of

is

de-

scendant of the gods, and therefore intrinsically

if

no

ship, the

Japanese people

good their claim

if it

were part

Purity

is

certainly

divine

to

descent.

make
For

the world beyond

they pass in and out of

as

Indeed,

less holy than his neighbor.

ease of intercourse be any proof of kin-

of this world below.

the one

prerequisite to divine

possession, and though to acquire sufficient

purity be an

art, it is

an art patent rather in

the older unindividualized sense of the w^ord.

Any one who

is

pure

may

give lodgment to

a god, just as any plutocrat

modern

royalty.

The

may

entertain

gods, like latter day

princes, are no respecters of persons.

They

OCCULT JAPAN.

lOO

condescend
ration

house,

is

to

come wherever due prepa-

made

for them..

It

the host's

is

not the host that they

visit

the

presence of the host himself being graciously

The man's mind must have

dispensed with.

been vacated of

meaner

all

lodgers, includ-

ing himself, before the god

habit

it,

who

but

Such humble
are

among

the

man

will

is, is

deign to

immaterial.

folk as barbers and fishmongers

the most favored entertainers of

divinity.

But though the

social standing of the

be immaterial, the

social

god, on the other hand,

point in the matter.

with the supernatural

is

man

standing of the
a most material

For mere association

is

not in Japan neces-

sarily a question of piety or

even of impiety.

Often

To become

it

is

pure accident.

pos-

sessed by a devil, of which bewitchment by a

fox

is

the commonest form,

may be

so purely

an act of the devil that no blame beyond carelessness attaches to the unfortunate victim.

Religion claims no monopoly of intercourse

with the unseen.
is

What

religion does claim

the ability to admit one to the very best

heavenly society.

mere animal

For, to

spirits,

say nothing of

there are

all

grades in

INCARNA TIONS.

gods, good gods and bad gods, great gods

and

Access

ones.

little

able divinities

most

to the

desir-

the privilege to which the

is

church holds the keys.

Capability to commune is thus in a general
way endemic, much as salvation is held to be
in some places, or infant damnation in others.

And

to

Japanese thought the gods are very

close at hand.

ence be by

Unsuspected as such pres-

foreigners, in the people's eyes

the gods are constantly visiting their temples

and other favorite spots,

tous manner.

the

them

most ubiqui-

Indeed, after introduction to

their Augustnesses,

clude

in a

in

population

one

tempted

is

to in-

the census and to consider

of

Japan as composed

natives, globe-trotters,

The gods resemble

of

and gods.
the globe-trotters in

this, that

both are a source of profit to the

people.

For finding themselves

in

communi-

cation with the superhuman, the Japanese

early turned the
count.

intimacy to practical ac-

They importuned

tives for that of

need, the

these their rela-

which men stand most

curing of disease.

Out

of

in

this

arose a national school of divinopathy.

Civilized cousins of the medicine-men of

OCCULT JAPAN.

102

North America,

shamans of savage
and of Christian sci-

of the

tribes the world over,

entists generally, the Japanese practitioners

differ

from most members

in the

widespread popular character of their

For though

craft.

religious

the profession

the practitioners are

men, they are by no

means

Except for a difference

priests.

the

all

of

between the

distinction

all

degree,

in

who

priests

practice and the practicing lay brethren lies

in the

professional or avocational character

of their

performance.

The

priests, of course,

have no other business than to

and

to

be temporarily a god

is

bfe

sion to being perpetually godlike.

brethren, on

pious,

an easy exten-

The

lay

the other hand, practice such

possession only as an outside calling, each

having his more mundane trade to boot.

The

above-mentioned barber, for example, besides

industriously shaving man,

this detail of the toilet

indulged

in,

in Japan,

woman, and

child,

being universally

was able

to carry

on

a very lucrative business as a popular other-

world physician.
of the

gone

But he made no analogue

European barber - surgeon

by.

No

of

times

particular pursuit has privi-

lege of the divine practice, barbers being no

IO3

IXCARNATIONS.

better than other folk in the eyes of the god.

divinopathist's earthly trade

wine-shop are among the latest

specimen occupations

men
this

any-

Plastering and clerk-

thing under heaven.

ing in a

may be

engaged

thus

have met with

business

in

of

both with

world and the next.

These doctors

of divinity receive regular

diplomas, without which they are not allowed

Nominally they are not allowed

to practice.

to practice with them, for in the certificates

no mention
for

is

which the

made

of the special

object

certificates are issued, permis-

sion being granted merely to perform prayer,

which comprehensive phrase covers a multitude of saintly

acts.

The reason

the certificates read so beauti-

vague

not that religion conceives her

fully

is

esoteric cults to be profoundly secret, but

that the

government imagines them to be

barbarous because not in keeping with foreign

At

manners and customs.

the paternal powers-that-be

scribe them.

Japanese

to

The

fact

time,
pro-

they are both too

be countenanced and too Jap-

anese to be suppressed

wink

is,

same

dare not

the

at their practice.

so the authorities

The Japanese

gov-

OCCULT JAPAN.

104

ernment

much

is,

in

more matters than this one, in

awkward state of mind as the

the same

Irish legislator,

"for the

bill

who

declared himself to be

and agin

enforcement."

its

Divinopathy has one great advantage over

other schools of medicine

by the very prep-

aration for healing others the physician heals

For mere

himself.
titioner

is

itself

qualification to be a prac-

a preventive to earthly

much as vaccination

ills

The

precludes small-pox.

only question might be whether the cure be

not worse than

the

After an

complaint.

account of the rigid

self-discipline

to

be

undergone before a diploma be possible, and

then
in

largely

force, I

open

to the doubt.

men who

up

kept

think

lead this

it

will

for

it

to

continue

seem uncommonly

Yet there are plenty of

life of daily hardship and

renunciation for the explicit purpose of en-

joying the

an invalid

life

will

they renounce
give up

all

just as

that

many

makes

life

worth living for the sake of living the undesirable residue longer.

But

if

the self-martyrdom be duly per-

formed, the god practically always descends

on application, and vouchsafes

to

the cure of the complaint.

his opinion as

Of course

his

INCARNA TIONS.

05

prescriptions are religiously followed, and

if

report speak truth, with an unusually large

Any

percentage of success.

and

all

diseases

are thus cured on presentation, subject only

This proviso

to the willingness of the god.

the few unfortunate

satisfactorily explains
failures.

Divine possession

is

not

limited

in

applications to the curing of disease.

rally the divine opinion is quite as

valuable

on other subjects as on medicine, and

much

sequently quite as

in

its

Natu-

con-

is

demand.

From

the nature of the gods themselves to the

weather

coming month, anything a

of the

man may

w'ant

exercised

know is
Due care

to

about of deity.
to grade

the

thus

inquired

only must

be

importance of the

question to the importance of the gods.

For

gods of high rank stand as much on their

dignity as

and

men

both

in

the matter of coming

in the matter of talking after they

have

remember once a most superior

person, as gods go, who grew very angry
because I asked him a question he deemed
it beneath him to answer, although he had
come.

descended on purpose to impart information,

and told me, quite up and down,

to go to the

OCCULT JAPAN.

I06

god

of agriculture (Inari-sama) for trivialities

of the kind.

The

company sought

character of the

what renders excessive

cessary.

is

self-mortification ne-

only to the very best heavenly

It is

society that introductions are so hard to get.

Inferior gods permit intimacy

terms.

Ordinary

icJiiko,

whose

for instance,

deities

on much easier

or trance-diviners,

rank much lower,

go through a preparation which

is

mild in

comparison.
II.

The one
possession
is,

thing needful to insure divine

is

purity.

If

you are pure, that

blank enough, you can easily give habita-

Now some men

tion to a god.

are born

blanker than others, but none are by nature

quite blank enough for religious purposes,

though secularly they often seem

tional vacuity

so.

Addi-

must somehow be acquired,

the amount varying not only with the man,

but with the rank of the god by

desires to be possessed.
of inanity

In the

is

the object

days

of

To
of

Ry5bu

whom

he

reach this state

the

austerities

there were two

INCARNA TIONS.
classes of

men who

O/

indulged in mortification

of the flesh to the attainment of thus losing

gyoja snd

themselves,
Shint5, that

the past pure

faith,

rally not popular,

the

With pure

skiiija.

the present resurrection of

is,

these names are natu-

inasmuch as they savor of

millennial lapse from

But

orthodoxy.

the course in practical piety pursued by the

would-be pure, having

rigueur, remains

still

Gyoja, translated,
ities;"

and heaven

always been de

itself

substantially the same.

means "a man

is

Short of actual martyrdom,

He

need a cast-iron constitution

strain

is.

can imagine few

thornier paths to perfection.

to

of auster-

witness that he

he cheerfully puts upon

would seem

to stand the

it.

Even

to

be

a sJiinja necessitates a regimen that strikes

Though

the unregenerate with awe.

means simply "a

works

is

enough

of

be-

be accepted would

most people.

The curriculum has

more

to

sJihija

amount

must perform

this simple believer

fore his faith

appall

believer," the

secular ones, that

this in

one end usually comes out

less protracted

austerity

which case he quits

common

whoso goes

with

in at the

at the other, un-

fall

upon him

in the middle.

The

in

fact

OCCULT JAPAN.

I08
that so

many graduate shows

traordinary capacity
deed,

is

no ex-

that

required to do so

in-

the capacity for incapacity that

it is

necessary.

Plodding perseverance

wins the day.

For the course

is

what

is

is terrifically

arduous and terribly long.

To

the purification of the

the road

spirit,

through the cleansing of the body. To

this end the two chief exercises are washing

lies

{suigyo)

and fasting

Unlimited

{danjiki).

bathing, with most limited meals

the backbone

treatment, being the

two, claims notice

Washing

is

is

external

more important

of the

first.

the most obvious kind of puri-

fication the world over.

is

such

The

of the regimen.

next to godliness

Cleanliness,

though

we

say,

at times in indi-

two would seem not to

have made each other's acquaintance. But
vidual specimens the

Japan cleanliness very nearly is godliness.

This charming compatibility is due possibly

in

to the

godliness

being

less,

but certainly

chiefly to the cleanliness being more.

Even

secularly the

naturally cleanly.

Japanese are super-

Every day

of their lives

forty millions of folk parboil like one.

Nor

do they hurry themselves in the

The

act.

INCA RNA TIONS.

09

nation spends an inordinate amount of time

tub

in the national

when you

apparent

as

becomes pecuniarily

hire a

stranger yet, by the job.

suppose your

at times to

either

toiler

to emotional exaggeration

due

on

beyond prejudice that he

tub a good working minority of

part, but

soaks in his

continuously

Doubtless such

tubbing or teaing.

totality is

your

man by the day, or,

You are tempted

it is

his time.

When

it

comes

would seem as

if

matters,

religious

to

this estimable quality

carried to its inevitable defect.

it

were

For, from a

pardonable pastime, bathing here becomes an

The would-be devotee

all-engrossing pursuit.

spends his waking

sleeps less than
is it

his

life

bounden duty
every

times in

and he
Not only

at little else,

most men

at that.

to bathe six appointed

twenty-four hours, but he

should also bathe as often as he

The more he bathes the

tween.

may

be-

better he

becomes.

Now,

if

he simply soaked

in a hot

water

tub as his profane friends do, this might be

merely the ecstatic height of

But he does nothing

parboiling

is

of the kind.

his portion

dissipation.

No

gentle

perpetual goose-

no
flesh

OCCULT JAPAN.
is

his

lot.

For

amelioration of nature

his

in
is

case no such

Whatever

allowed.

the season of the year, his ablutions must be

made

in

water of untempered temperature,

fresh from the spring

in the

depth of win-

ter a thing of cold comfort indeed.

It

then

goes by the expressive name of kmigyo, or

What is more, he takes
the cold austerity.
this uncongenial application in the mode to

produce the most poignant effect

with the

shock of a shower-bath.
Esoterically there are grades in the clean-

sing capabilities of shower-baths.

For him

who would reach

the height of holiness the

correct thing

to

is

and be soused.

walk under a waterfall

This luxury

only to be had in the

is,

of course,

In default of

hills.

a waterfall, a douche from a dipper will do.

But on religious grounds

it is

not to be rec-

ommended.
Man-made methods are imperative
owing

in

town

to the lack of natural ones, which

one reason why the

hills

are

is

the proper

habitat for novitiates into the higher

life.

In

the good old days such habitat was a necessity, not that men were less pure then, but,
on the contrary, that they strove to become

INCARNA TIONS.
yet purer, so gydja aver

1 1

pure Shint5 says

was because they had then lapsed from

However

thodoxy.

that be,

it

or-

when gydja were

gydja they were anchorites pure and simple.

They dwelt

as hermits

among

the

hills,

seeing

no man by the space of three years, and reducing themselves as nearly as might be to a
state of nature

of the inoffensive kind, for,

as their diet will show, they belonged rather

to the herbivorous than to the carnivorous

order of wild animal.

come

quite

After they had be-

detached from

that

all

distin-

guishes humanity, they returned to the world

to live hermitically in the midst of

it,

repair-

ing again at suitable seasons to mountaineer-

Such were the men who

ing meditation.

opened, as the consecrated

take, that
its

is,

who

first

sacred summit.

phrase

succeeded

There are

is,

reaching

still

a few of

these estimable creatures at large in the

I

On-

in

hills,

have myself met some of them, there and

elsewhere, after their return to society, and

have gazed with interest

to

me which

at caves pointed out

they had once inhabited.

But gydja generally have deteriorated with

the world at large.

They

what they were, so

far that a conscientious

are far from being

OCCULT JAPAN.

112

man

hardly feels that he has the right to call

himself a gydja at

all,

as one of

the class

humbly informed me. He blushed, he said,

when he thought of the austerities of the
olden time.
A modern gydja was little more
austere than a shinja who made his summer
pilgrimages when he could.
This was perhaps a gloomy view to take of the situation,
for

one usually finds the past not so superior

to

the present

as

report

But

represents.

even at its worst, the deterioration would

seem a case only for professional sympathy.
For whatever the regimen may have been,
there

is

at all events

to satisfy

enough severity

any decent desire

left it

for self-martyr-

dom.

That mountains should be deemed peculgood points for entering another world

iarly
is

With

not unnatural.

do not conduce to socia-

cultivation, they
bility,

inclines incapable of

but enable the dweller there the more

effectively to meditate himself into inanity.

Unjogged by suggestion, the average mind

lapses into a comatose condition,

comes eventually
land of trance.
for

everybody to

till

the

man

to exist upon the border-

But as

it is

retire to the

not convenient
hills

for three

INCARNA TIONS.

1 1

years at a time, even for this sublime purpose,

has been found possible to combine

it

purity enough for vacuity with a tolerably

The gyo

secular existence.

differ only as a state of

two cases

in the

nature differs from

a condition of civilization.

This brings us back again

for

we

the bath,

to

are not half through with

it

yet.

If

the neophyte be not taking the waterfall in

all

simplicity on

his head,

he

Diogenes by living not simply

tubbing.

day, another

brings

it

outdoing

is

in his tub,

but

cold water douche begins the

marks

its

to a close.

meridian, and a third

But the day does not

bring the douche to a close.

Just before

turning in the neophyte must take another

dip, after

which

would savor

most

might indeed be thought

But such

of

pandering to the

flesh.

vital ablution of all, therefore,

piirificationis,

At

it

he should sleep in peace.

that

this

occurs at two

A. m. {yatsiigyo).

unearthly hour the poor creature

must wake himself

to the waterfall

up, stagger half asleep

or bathroom, souse himself

with a dipper or be soused by the

his teeth

twist

The

the cnix

fall,

while

chatter a prayer and his fingers

themselves into cabalistic knots, he

OCCULT JAPAN.

114

himself shivering the while from top to toe

then, brought up standing in this manner,

try

he may

if

to sleep again.

he succeed, his doze

for

may

Even should

not be for long,

with the dawn he must douche again,

the sunrise austerity

{/li-no-de-gyo).

of night,

and even the

sleep, the

ad-

for precisely such

it is

attribute that the time

dead

may

midnight hour

Unearthly the

visedly be called, for

is

At

chosen.

when every sound

is

that

hushed,

plants, they say, lie locked in

And

gods can the better hear.

this,

oddly enough, in spite of their being

very

much engaged

ings

and

ofods of
falls,

for

the

gods them-

then taking their baths,

are

selves

with their own spatter-

sputterings,

the mountains

and the gods

ers thereof.

the

under their water-

of the plain

in the riv-

In Japan, even the gods wash

and are clean, and,

like their

relations, apparently

make

of social reunion

human poor

of the bath a time

They

and merriment.

hear,

nevertheless, and reward the bather accordingly.

With a
optional.

shinja this nocturnal exercise

It all

is

depends upon how pure he

intends to become.

Of course

it

is

a great

INCARNATIONS.

II5

deal better to be thorough, and not for the

sake of the flesh to shirk what shall etherethe

alize

do no

soul.

more bathing can

kill, which is beside

little

harm unless

it

the point.

Extras, that

is

baths at odd hours, are to

be taken ad libitum by

When

The

all.

This extreme lavatory exercise

nitely
it.

as

And

through
its

rule

is

in doubt, douche.
lasts indefi-

long as the devotee can stand

in

diminishing doses

life.

To

those

kept up

it is

who perform

rigor under the waterfalls in

it

in all

the

hills,

the gods graciously show signs of accepted

favor.

For round the head

he stands beneath the

fall,

of the holy, as

the sunlight glan-

cing through the spray rims a halo which

men may

proof of sanctity.
ascribe

it

The

own head

like

will certainly

cast, as

venuto

possibly

having per-

he sat in the

saddle,-

of a polo field.

He

do so when he perceives sim-

halos about

friends.

may

around the shadow of

upon the clipped grass

ilar

skeptic

to a different cause,

chance seen the

his

all

see and the reverent recognize as

the heads of his

Yet that abandoned

Cellini,

godless

character, Ben-

on suddenly remarking one

OCCULT

1 1

JAPAN'.

day an aureole radiating from the reflection

of his head in the water, as

he leaned over
once for sign

the side of a boat, took

it

certain that his salvation

was assured.

at

So much for the fresh-water

it

up

in a

maxim,

cure.

adapting

To sum

to its gentler

warfare with the spirits of evil Danton's

celebrated one about war in general,

we

may

say that the three essentials to success

in

are

at

it

"

De

I'eau

douce

de I'eau douce

"

encore de I'eau douce

III.

Fasting {danjiki)
to the flesh.

is

the next mortification

The poor

brute of a body un-

equally yoked to so indomitable a spirit fares

ill.

ficial

For

it is

deprived at once both of super-

gratification

and of

The would-be pure must

from

fish,

nourishment.

solid

abstain from meat,

from things cooked, and, compre-

hensively, from whatever has taste or smell.

In short, he should lead gastronomically an

utterly insipid existence.

He may

indulge in the national

a beverage taste-

less

tea,

and bodiless enough

to escape proscription.

be shunned (skhvodachi).

in

Salt

all

is

It is

not even

conscience
specially to

worth noting

INCARNA TIONS.
that on the

way

to a higher life the appar-

ently harmless

work

11

chloride

sodium should

of

as banefully within a

man

as

it

works

beneficially without him.

Greater deprivation than

tobacco

falls

all

under the ban.

these, even

In that earthly

paradise of smokers, the Japanese Islands,

where the use

even to sex,

it

of

the

seems

weed

rises

superior

indeed hard that only

those dedicate to deity should be debarred

But the road

knows

no

material

it.

peace of mind

to immaterial

narcotic

by the way.

After he has attained to a holy calm without

it,

the lay brother returns to moderate indul-

gence

The

in this least gross

form of gluttony.

professed ascetic continues to abjure

it

his life long.

Nuts and berries form the staple of the

gyqjds diet, if he be living a hermit among
the hills buckwheat flour if, though not of
;

the world, he be

still

in

He may also eat

it.

vegetables and dried persimmons and grapes

in

their

season

he

but

sparingly of whatever

it

be.

must

eat

most

One bowl of

buckwheat and a dish of greens at noon is

Breakfast
sustenance enough for the day.
and supper are forbidden panderings to the

OCCULT. JAPAN.

1 1

To wash

flesh.

cold water

have

applications

enough

of

this next to

allowed him,

is

nothing down
if

his external

already given him

not

it.

Not unnaturally a diet of such subtraction

speedily reduces him to his lowest mental
terms, a state which he

still

further simpli-

by purely mental means.

fies

To

start with, the general character of his

existence conduces to that end.

he be living an actual anchorite

Whether
among the

mountains or only a would-be one in town,

solitude

complete or partial tends by well-

known laws

to

convert him into either a

To

maniac or a simpleton.
latter

To
tary

ambition to

a species of the

attain.

it is

his

this

end untold repetitions

elemen-

of

prayers admirably conduce.

It

be hard indeed to overestimate the

of

would

efificacy

such process for producing utter blank-

ness of mind.

The subdued chanting by

rote over and over again of

words

to

which

any thought has long since bade good-by

tends in a twofold manner to mental vacuity.

There is just enough mental action going

on to keep the mind from thinking of anything

else,

and yet

it

is

so ineffably unin-

-.ITT 1

INCARNA TIOiVS.

nods.

inevitably

do what

attention,

that

teresting

It

a mistake

is

it

will,

to

sup-

pose that the soothing effects of church are

wholly due to sound sleep during the

Any

mon.

compel

to

auditory routine
it.

potent a lullaby
song.
sleep

Rhythmic monotone is as
as more consecrated cradle-

The eventual end

as we see with the

an infant

of

gentlemen

latter in the case

an

own

their pews, and in our

in

when we conquer our

insomnia by methodically

hundred

would be

of both

his crib or of middle-aged

in

case with the former

The

is

ser-

competent

counting

number

indefinite

of

to

times.

chanter does not attain to this supreme

nirvana because
the

preaching

power

it

he himself

is

sermon

but

that

the

is

soporific

of these rites in helping to a virtuous

vacancy

of

mind

is

quite specific, and partly

accounts incidentally for the long-windedness of preachers.

To

this

same

intent, the

brother practices upon

One

genious devices.
of

these

is

scrutinizes

of the

most

concentrating

the

attention upon his

he

more searching

himself further

own

each

breathing.
expiration

in-

effective

his

whole

Mentally,

the

in-

OCCULT JAPAN.

120

appear

spirations

be somewhat better

to

able to look after themselves

Each breath

ular minuteness.

out

with molec-

thus subjected to the

is

By

challenge.

manner

to the

giving his whole

mere method

mind unawares.

duty of the

good

nods

at

in this

he

from stealing

After prolonged

her post

unlike the good sentinels,

picket

mind

consciousness, like

sort,

sentinels,

passes

it

of existence,

effectually prevents any ideas

into that

as

spirit's

lies

all

really

which,

in

the virtue of

the deed, though unsuspected of the doer.

For divine possession

Japanese things,

The

is

in Japan,

like other

not a science but an

art.

reason given by religion for this inspec-

tion of one's breathing

is

that by prayerful

concentration upon the source of spirit one's

evil

spirit

afflatus

when

may

drawn

expelled

be

in.

One

and a

good

of the truly pious

quantitively questioned told

me

that

he had thus kept watch on himself for three

weeks

at a time,

only pausing in the pursuit

unavoidably to eat

and

sleep.

It is

sadden-

ing to think to what farther tenuities

miofht not have attained

thus grossly shackled

he

had he not been

to the flesh.

Ablutions and abstinence are thus the two

INCARNATIONS.
great

gyo,

121

which endless prayers, mechan-

ical finger-charms, and careful breathing help

accentuate.

But besides the regular stock

austerities,

there are several supererogatory ones. There

the gyo called tsumadachi,

for example,

is,

which consists

walking on the

in

tips of one's

toes wherever one has occasion

to go.

species of pious ballet-dancing this.

Then

there

is

the austerity of never look-

woman's face. This martyrdom

the ascetic who had practiced it spoke of
But
as a very severe self-infliction indeed.
ing upon

in

view

of the vast

subjective

disturbance

wrought even unconsciously by the

should judge
tial

it

to

austerities of

man

nothing

sex,

be one of the most essenall.

For no man who

is

can take that absorbing interest in

at all

which the rules require while

a pair of piquant eyes and a petticoat lead

his imagination their irresistible dance.

To

be insensible to such charm were to have

attained to complete insensibility already.

Compared with

this renunciation, the next

gyo must be a positive pleasure.

in

It

consists

letting unlimited mosquitoes bite one to

satiety for seven consecutive nights.

OCCULT JAPAN.

122

The

aptitude of

end desired

is

these artifices to the

all

more

or less apparent

some

tending to slow down the whole machine

or by weakening the body, or by tiring the

mind, some to dull the sense perceptions

by persistent attention to what

incapable of holding

it,

all

is

essentially

to reduce the

The road

brain to an inactive state.

is

un-

because originally discov-

necessarily long

ered by chance, and then blindly followed by

succeeding ages without

ment.

rational

An immense amount

thrown away.

in point of fact

improve-

of labor

is

thus

How much

quicker a like result can be obtained by the

application of a

science,

little

modern hyp-

notism shows.

Now
list

there will have been noticed in the

of austerities

a steady departure from

primitive simplicity.

This decrease in sim-

by the decrease
Everybody washed,
though comparatively few poised on their
The several vogue of the austerities is
toes.
plicity

is

strictly paralleled

in their respective use.

further paralleled by the position occupied

by those who practiced them, in that long

chain of mixed belief which, dependent from
pure Shinto at the one end, is supported by

INCAKNA TIONS.
Buddhism from the
ordeal, for example,

of these

is

quite Buddhist, while

The

not.

two parallelisms

What

The mosquito

other.

abnormal ablutions are

23

significance

appear later on.

will

the Japanese sensations are during

the process

may be

gathered from the per-

sonally narrated experience of a certain believer,

The

who

expresses the type.

sufficiently

given individual was

become a

first

minded

to

practitioner in consequence of the

surprising cure, through god-possession, of

his master's sick son.

He was

at the time

apprenticed to a dyer, and was away on a

journey when the cure was wrought.

Much

impressed by what he heard on his return,

he determined

to seek out the holy

had effected the miraculous

man who

result, and,

by

following in his footsteps, to attain to pro-

The gydja

ficiency himself.
cordially,

received him

and kindly indulged him

in

his

desire by putting him to the washing {siiigyo)

and the fasting

{danjiki)

their rigor for three weeks.

austerities in all

At

the end of

was so used up that he could

hardly stand.
One bowl of rice and a dish
that time he

of greens a

day are

little

enough

to help

one

through such a course of ablutionary train-

OCCUL T

JAPAJSr.

Nevertheless, for

ing.

kept on with but

little

days more he

fifty

addition to his mea-

At the

gre diet, washing lavishly the while.

close of this second period he relaxed some-

what and
ation,

ate, as

that

is,

he expressed

it,

immoderately

in

little

moder-

which

ameliorated treatment of himself he kept up

He was

for the next three years.

when he went through his

sixty-three when he told me

twenty
and

novitiate,

of it; for the

intervening forty-three years he had dieted

and douched

daily.

No very definite

sensation, follows, he says,

the exercise of the austerities.

feels

an increase

may mean.
show

itself

in

it

simply

whatever that

virtue,

Fortunately

He

would seem

in a practical form.

to

For as he

continues in the regimen he gets to know,

he

says,

good and

evil

a bit of good luck

is

spontaneously.

coming

to

When

him or

his

family, or a misfortune about to befall them,

he

feels

it

beforehand by a certain mental

light-heartedness, or a corresponding oppression of spirit.

Finally he arrives at being

able to predict everything.

always avert what he

be open to doubt.

is

Whether he can

able to foretell

For consequent upon

may
this

INCARNATIONS.

12$

exposure of his capabilities the poor

man

contracted a very bad cold, and was confined

for a couple of

He

was,

weeks

to his house.

the mention of his family

as

showed, a married man.

exception to the
as

In this he

All lay brethren marry

rule.

Indeed, in Shinto

a matter of course.

proper,

the priests

Nor do such

made no

wed

like

anybody else.
commit

as follow the austerities

themselves in the least to celibacy.

matrimony and self-consecration

do not,

it

appears, conflict.

to the

For
gods

In spite of the

great advantage that accrues to piety from

never looking upon a woman's face, mentioned above,

innocuous.
doses loses

mere matrimony would seem

Either femininity in repeated

its

intoxicating effect, or acquired

sanctity renders the believer superior to

Perhaps, as one of

my

gested to me, marriage

it.

married friends sugis

sufficient austerity

itself.

However

that

may

be, certain

it

is

that

nowadays even gydja wed without detriment

I am by no means sure
their souls.

to

that they did not in the olden time, for so

commonplace a detail
matrimony might

as

of a far oriental's life

well

have

escaped

126

OCCULT JAPAN.

chronicling.

Still

there

no doubt that

is

times have changed for the worse with gydja,

as

my

much

Even

gydja averred.
is

pecuniarily so

In the good old days they

evident.

supported themselves in peace and plenty

from the offerings

alas,

of grateful patients

now

as he said pathetically, these gratuities

do not

and many a worthy soul

suffice,

is

forced to eke out a slender subsistence by

Making toothpicks
secular work in secret.
was the industry he affectingly instanced,
when pressed to be more explicit. To be
driven to such extremity must seem indeed
pitiable,

even to the undevout.

Thus, then, do the pious get themselves

into

a general

potentiahty of

Before possession becomes a

a short renewal of extreme

be undergone
crystallizes

like

case to be cured

the

however,

must

austerities

the slight

the solution.

possession.

fact,

On

shake that
notice

of

enters

practitioner

again the rigors of the washing and the

fast,

and keeps them up for a week if he be very

thorough, two or three days if that will
The amount of abstinence depends
suffice.

upon the gravity

of the case.

There

is

some-

thing highly satisfactory in this dieting of

INCARNA TIONS.

From

the physician in place of the patient.

the patient's point of view

divinopathy above
Besides,

all

it

instantly raises

other pathies on earth.

more thoroughly

it is

be expected to furnish

it,

elements

of his cure

For

logical.
if

well

all

the

why, indeed, should not the physician,

paid for

27

IV.

We have now
That

imposing

this is

that word, that

had on

reached the function

man

is,

in the

first

impressive, the hold

sufficiently testifies

imposing in the second sense, that

a supposition which the

is

of these trances would

We

will

first

first

keeping

it

that
is,

has
it

is

a sham,

view of one

suffice to dispel.

take up the

Ryobu form
The ceremony

which is the commonest one.

with which Ryobu has surrounded the
finely in

itself.

sense of

act

is

with the impressiveness of

So sense-compelling a service
hard to match in the masses
you
of any other church. But more constraining
still are the energy and the sincerity with
which the whole is done. It is small wonthe act

itself.

shall find

it

der that the already susceptible subject feels

its

charm when even bystanders are

stirred.

OCCULT JAPAN.

128

As

with the gyo, purification

of

is

its

essence.

For not only must a general pu-

rification

antecede the

must

purification

And

but a special

act,

immediately precede

Now

the spot must be holy.

first

one spot

is

holy by

mountain Ontake or

nature

its affiliated

only

sacred

the

All

peaks.

These may be

others must be purified.

two kinds

it.

temples, public or private,

of

for

most houses have what is called a gods'-shelf,

{kamidana), which does them for family
shrine,

and ordinary rooms.

kept perpetually purified

the

The

first

are

second are

specially purified for the occasion.

there be no permanent shrine, a tempo-

If

rary one
2i

is

constructed.

Its central motif is

gohei upon a wand, stood upright on a ped-

By

estal.

the side of the gohei are lighted

candles, and flanking these, sprigs of sakaki,

the sacred tree of Shinto.

gohei

is

set out

In front of the

a feast for the god.

The

feast varies in elaborateness according to the

occasion,

its

principal dishes being a bowl

of rice, a saucer of salt,

the

national

wine.

In

and a cup of sak^,

addition

to

indispensables, any form of uncooked

food

may be

these

human

offered to the god, according to

INCARNATIONS.

the sumptuousness of the repast

it is

29

desired

to give him.

The

shrine

is

up

set

the tokonovia, or

in

recess of honor, of the room.

At

the back

placed a hanging-scroll

the

gods of

is

Ontake.

Some

tokonoma,

in

five

feet

of

a porous earthenware bowl

a stand, and

front

in

the

of

the centre of the sacred space,

in the

bowl

is

is

placed upon

built a pyre of

incense sticks, usually beginning as a log-hut

and terminating

Then

as a

wigwam.
This

the place is purified.

is

done

by inclosing the room, or the part of it in

by strings from which
depend at intervals small gohei. These are

front of the shrine,

usually arranged after the so-called seven-

seven of

five-three {shichi - go - saji) pattern;

them being nearest the

side,

and three

shrine, five

at the farther end.

space so inclosed

all

on each

From

evil spirits are

the

driven

out by prayer, by finger-charms, by sprinkling of salt,

and

steel,

wand used

by striking of sparks from

and by brandishing of a

a flint
goJiei-

as an exorcising air-broom.

After the purification of the place, the

is

the purifica-

this

purpose they

next duty of the officiators

tion of their persons.

For

OCCUL T JAPAN.

30

all

go out to the well or to the bathroom to

Ontake

in the

bathe, and return clad

pil-

grim dress, a single white garment stamped

with the names of the Ontake gods, with the
name of the mountain itself, and with the
signs of their ko or pilgrim club.

we shall see more

Ryobu adepts, whether

For, as
later,

particularly

all

priests or laymen,

some Ontake pilgrim club.

garment is bound about the

are enrolled in

This

solitary

waist by a white girdle.

In

complement the company conThere is, first, the

eight persons.

its full

sists of

man whom
is

the

god

called the nakaza,

Equal to him

who

in

is

or

to

possess.

He

seat-in-the-midst.

consideration

presides over the function

man
and who is

is

the

to talk with deity, the exorcist, so to speak,

called the viaeza, or seat-in-front.
religious rank

He

is

is

Next

in

the ivakiza, or side - seat.

one of the shit en, or four heavens, spe-

ciaHzed as the toho, or eastern side, the hoppo,

or northern side, the nambo, or southern side,

and the saiho, or western side. Their duty

is to ward off evil influences from the four
quarters.

The two

front ones also have the

charge of the paraphernalia, and the

nambo

INCARNA TIONS.
the care of the patient.
six there

worth noting.

is

and a

The impersonality

the person, that

is

In addition to these

a deputy niaeza

is

clerk of court.

names

It

is

sort of

of these

the post, not

designated.

Severally clapping their hands, the per-

formers

now

enter upon the ceremony proper.

This consists of two parts

a general purifi-

cation service, separated by a pause and a

rearrangement from the communion service

itself.

The one

is

an essential preface to

the other.

When

the last

man

is

fairly

launched upon

the general incantation, the maeza starts one

of the purification prayers {harai), into

the others instantly

to begin with
It is a

is

fall.

which

The prayer chosen

usually the misogi no harai.

chant chiefly in monotone, only occa-

sionally lapsing for a note into the octave

or the

fifth.

Every now and then a chanter

sinks into a guttural grunt as

fatigued, very

suggestive

of

if

mentally

mechanical

dulling of the mind.

The harai
of the

over, or rather bridged

by some

company, the maeza starts another,

it in swing, and the eight are

the rest take

off

again together.

In this

manner prayer

OCCULT JAPAN.

132
after

prayer

chanted

intoned, and

is

in like

uta or songs

cadence between.

Shakings

crosier with metal

of the shakujo, a small

rings,

emphasize the rhythm, and the pilgrim

bells

rung

at

intervals point the swift pro-

cessional chorus of the whole.

The pyre

is

leap into the

to

then lighted, and as the flames

air,

prayers ascend with them

Meanwhile, pieces of paper

Fud5-sama.

with characters inscribed on them are rapidly passed to

and fro through the flame by

number of times yet

do they not burn, an immunity due to posThen he holds each
session by the gods.
in the flame, upon
stationary
momept
for a
which it catches fire and is caught upward

the maeza an unlimited

by the

air current, to float

eled shape

of its

former

away, the shriv-

self.

The paper

in effigy of the disease, and, according as

ascends or
itself

fails

to

do

so,

Some

depart or stay.

more wisdom, perhaps, say

of

its

ascension

mark how

will the

only

is

its

own

it

disease

exorcists, with

that the

manner

significant.

pitying are the gods.

the flame makes

is

draft,

But

For since
that

must

indeed be an unlucky wraith of tissue ash

that fails of being well caught up with

heaven.

it

to

INCARNA TIONS.
More chanting brings

133

the purification ser-

vice to a close.
that held the pyre

The bowl

moved, and sheets

of

is

then

re-

paper are laid in the

new places
Then the
the performers are to occupy.
gohei-\i2Sidi. is brought down from the shrine
centre of the sacred space in the

and stood up

The men

in the midst.

take their seats for the descent

of the god.

Up

time they squat on

to this

Japanese fashion;

their heels in the usual

from now on they

some

say

is

sit

legs,

which

the exalted seat of old Japan,

and others ascribe

The maeza

with folded

to

Buddhist influence.

seats himself

first,

opposite and

facing the shrine, folds his legs in front of

him, and, drawing his dress over them, ties

it together from the sides and then brings
the farther end up and ties

This

is

the usual Japanese

The

a bundle.

it

to his girdle.

mode

of tying

up

others do the same, the shiten

seating themselves at the four corners, and

the deputy viaeza and clerk by the side of

the maeza.
officially

The nakaza

is

as yet unseated,

speaking.

All face the gohei and go through a further short

incantation.

Then

the

wakiza

OCCULT JAPAN.

134

reverently removes the gohei-v^dca.^ and holds

it

while the nakaza seats himself where

it

was, facing from the shrine, tucks himself in

as the others did,

some private

and closes

his eyes.

After

finger-twistings and prayer on

the part of the nakaza and the maeza, the

nakasa brings his hands together

front

in

him and the maeza, taking the gohei-v^-axi^

from the wakiza, places it between them.
of

Then

the others join in chant, and watch

all

for the advent of the god.

For a few minutes, the time varying with

the particular nakaza, the
fectly motionless.

begins to quiver

once the
throe

man

is

man remains

Then suddenly
the quiver gains
seized with

the throe, as we say

per-

the

wand

till

all at

a convulsive

in truth, of

one

In some trances the eyes then

possessed.

open, the eyeballs being rolled up half out

of sight

Then

in

others the

eyes remain shut.

the throe subsides again to a perma-

nent quiver, the eyes,

trance look.

if

open, fixed in the

The man has now become

the

god.

The maeza, bowed down, then reverently

name of the god, and the god an-

asks the

swers

after

which the maeza prefers his

IaYCArisA tions.
petitions,

When

to

which the god makes

35

reply.

he has finished asking what he

will

and the god has finished replying, the nakaza

falls

forward on his face.

The

viacza concludes with a prayer

then

nakaza on the back, with or

striking the

without the ceremony of previously writing

a cabalistic character

(a

Sanskrit one) there,

the niaeza wakes him up.

gives the

One

man water from

a cup, and

he has been able to swallow

to

and rub

his

it,

For

at first

impossible to take the

when

the rest set

arms and body out

cataleptic contraction.
tically

of the others

of their

it is

prac-

wand from

his

unnatural grasp.

Although eight men are considered the

proper number by Ryobu canons for a

full

many

are

Two

are

presentation of the function, so

not really vital to

all

its

performance.

that are absolutely essential

possessed, and one

may

deign to say.

to hear
I

one to be

what the god

have seen trances with

number anywhere from two to

One man alone would be sufficient,
were it not a part of the rite that some one
should hear the god's words for one man
officiators in

eight.

can take the parts of both rnaeza and nakaza

occuL T japan:

2,6

'

in turn, doing the inacza s part for the pre-

liminary purification, and the naka::d s for

the possession

In this case the second

itself.

man acts as wakiza. Ordinarily, however,

when two men take part, one is the maeza
and the other the nakaza from the beginning to the end. With three men, the third
is

Of

tvakiza.

sion

kind was the posses-

this

upon Ontake,

in the case of the three

devotees.

From

the

moment he

claps his hands each

begins upon a chain of finger-charms, of the

effective

uncouthness of which

to convey any idea

character

is

distinctly the

thing in the function.

musubi or

it

is

difficult

Their uncanny

in words.

most impressive

They

called in-

are

which describes

seal-bindings,

their intent, and incidentally their appear-

ance.

In form

it is

playing holy cat's-cradle

with one's hands, but in feeling

it is

the most

The

fingers are

tied into impossible knots with a

vehemence

intense action imaginable.

which

is

almost maniacal

and the tying

timed to consecrated formulae

quence of the performer's

on much of the emotion

The

several

is

that, in conse-

exaltation, take

of a curse.

twists typify

all

manner

of

INCARNA TIONS.
The

acts.

position

the fingers

of

37

one

in

symbolizes a well, raising which above the

head and then upsetting it souses one with

Another represents a very realwhich constrains a good spirit to

holy water.
istic pull,

enter the performer.

spirits to

There

is

subject,

avaunt

and

third compels evil

so forth

and so on.

quite an esoteric library on the

and so thoroughly defined is the

system that the several finger-joints bear

special names.

The

seal-bindings

are

themselves sealed

by a yet simpler digital device wrought with

one hand, and called cutting the kuji or the
It consists in drawing in

nine characters.

the air an imaginary five-barred gate,

made

and four vertical

posts.

of five horizontal bars

This gate

The reason
ten,

which

to

is

keep out the

evil spirits.

there are nine strokes and not

is

the far-eastern dozen,

is

due to

the far-eastern practice of always providing

an enemy with a possible way of escape. If

the Japanese devils could not thus run away
it

is

said

they would

become dangerous.

For, as a far-eastern proverb hath

"

The cornered

rat

Will bite the cat."

it,

OCCULT JAPAN.

138

At

first

was inclined

finger-charms

Ryobuists say that they

seen a Buddhist

to believe these

But although the

Buddhist.

are,

practice

have never

On

them.

the

other hand, they are professedly not Shinto,

and are shunned by pure Shintoists accordTheir most devoted admirers are the

ingly.

Ryobuists themselves.

The finger-charms
or other

of the

are knotted

upon one
prayers

purification

great

Of these there are three chief ones

(Jiarai).

the misogi no harai, the tiakatomi no

believe to

Jiarai.

tiaJcatomi no Jiarai

undoubtedly

production, and

said to

is

Jiarai,

The misogi
be pure Shinto. The

and the rokkon shojo no

no Jiarai

is

a native

have been com-

posed by an ancestor of the present highpriest

sJiojo

of

the

no Jiarai

Shinshiu
is

of

sect.

Ryobu

The

origin.

roJiJzon
It is

the

great Ontake processional, chanted by the

pilgrims as they

toil

slowly up the moun-

tain's slopes.

Having thus sketched the possession cult,

I will now present some specimen trances
These
of the various Ryobu varieties of it.

INCARNATIONS.

139

be followed by the Buddhist possessions, and these in turn by the pure Shinto
When we shall thus have looked at
ones.
shall

the possession objectively in the manner,

will consider

it

Heading the
that

subjectively in the man.

list

succeeded

session in

we

comes the

in obtaining,

my own

coquetting with

possession

first

a parlor-pos-

After very proper

house.

mystery,

Shinshiu sect consented

the

of

priest

to visit

me

for the

purpose with a friend as side-seat {wakiza).

His performance was a case of playing consecutively two parts in the function:
that

of

exorcist,

then of

and

Although he was a pure Shinto

ceremony was according

to

entranced.
the

priest,

Ryobu

he was a reformed Ryobuist, and

mation did not extend to the rite.

first

rite

for

his refor-

His introductory scene-setting enabled me

upon the faces of
he
began by hanging
For
gods.
Ontake
the

to gaze for the first time

up

in

the room's recess of honor a scroll

depicting those deities

only as

voices voces

inasmuch as talking
istic, I

is

whom

knew

et prcBtcrea nil.

But

as yet

their chief character-

accepted unhesitatingly their portraits

for speaking likenesses.

There were nine

OCCULT JAPAN.

140
of their

Augustnesses

estaled

respectively on

in

standing ped-

all,

points

precipitous

of the conventional tri-peaked

ventionally inapt attitudes.

mount
They all wore
in con-

the comfortable cast of countenance and generally immaculate get-up quite incompatible

with ever getting up a mountain.

This, of

The

great god

course, proved their divinity.

Ontake towered commandingly on the

highest peak, flanked by two lesser Shinto
divinities perched on somewhat lower pinof

Below these stood Fud5-saraa

conglomerate god from nobody knows

nacles.

a
ex-

actly where, popularly worshiped as the god

of fire, which it is certain he was not, but

possessing,

however, for some

inscrutable

cause a certain lien on the land. He, too,

was flanked by two companions on suitable

These peopled the

Still lower down came

inferior vantage points.

mid-heaven of ascent.

three canonized saints of Ryobu, the

men

who had opened the mountain by first succeeding in getting to the top for which feat
;

they were

humbly

at

now rewarded by being placed

the bottom. The relative posi-

tions of the three classes of gods

notice, for such

is

is

worth

their invariable ranking

INCARNA TIONS.
Rydbu

in

pictures

a grading in greatness

which says something about the Shintd ancestry of the act.

After the priest had duly hung up this

happy family
and incense

and arranged the

portrait

altar

went and bathed,

pyre, he

re-

turning clothed in his Ontake pilgrim robe,

the very one in which he had himself several

made the

times

ascent of the mountain, and

which was therefore correspondingly pure.

I think it was
It showed this unmistakably.
perhaps the
seen

dently

at
so.

all

garment

dirtiest

events
It

it

convinced

in spite of the fact that

all

odor of sanctity.

clean as externally

it

have ever

was the most

at
it

self-evi-

once of holiness

fortunately lacked

For

it

was

dirty

was internally
;

it

as

being, as

seen, as imperative upon a palmer

wash himself as it is not to wash his robe.
Through the garment's present grimy gray
the
glimmered traces of red characters
stamped certificates, these, of his ascents.
Their glory, enhanced by being hidden in an
ideographic tongue, shone all the more re-

we have
to

splendent for being thus mellowed by travelstain.

It

was a pious thought that induced

the wearer later to

let

his

mantle

fall,

in

OCCULT JAPAN.

142
gift,

upon me

for

wanderings among

now

it

my

from

rests

its

most valued posses-

sions.

The

pale gray of his ascension robe took

on a further tinge of glory from the glow of

The seemingly
the burning incense pyre.
lapped

conscious flame

the

pyre eagerly

up

about, and then leaped searchingly

the void, to send

of

smoke

its

into

soul in aromatic surges

curling rise toward heaven, into

in

every highest nook and cranny of the woodpaneled ceiling of the room.

From

without,

the glow of dying day stole through the

ing screens, tinging the gloom within

pervading

it all

like a

perfume rose the chant

of the pilgrim-clad petitioner, rolling

surges

of its

up

in

own, smothering sense to some

Behind, silent and immov-

delicious dream.
able, sat

slid-

while

the assistant, a statue

bowed

in

prayer.

Through the flame the

priest passed,

after the other, written sheets

disease

one

emblematic of

passed each deliberately to and fro

an amazing number of times, yet without so

much

as scorching

it.

After which he held

there motionless for a moment and

took

fire.

As

it

it

it

swiftly

did so his chant swelled.

INCARNA TIONS.
The

shape wavered, poised,

shriveled

43

and

then rose with the chant toward the rafters

Its prayer had been heard and
of the room.
granted.

When

the last embers of the pyre had

burned themselves

out,

and the orange was

slowly fading to ash, the priest brought his

chant to a close, and, rising, removed the

paper

in a

bowl.

Then, spreading pieces

sort of

Greek cross upon the mats Vvhere the

of

bowl had been, he seated himself upon them

in the nakazas place, facing out from the
shrine

and prefacing his act by a short

prayer, took the ^^^^z'-wand in both, hands

and shut
of

hushed

twitched
the

wand

After some minutes

eyes.

his

suspense

wand

the

suddenly

the twitching grew to convulsions,

striking the

man

first

on the

fore-

head with quite irresponsible violence, and

then with like frenzy on the
it

came back

still

floor.

quivering to

position before his face.

its

Finally

former

say "it," for in

seemed rather the wand than the

man that caused the shaking. Trembling
there a few moments, it went off again into

truth

it

another throe

and so the action continued

intermittently rising and falling,

till

at last

OCCULT JAPAN.

144
the

man

himself

fell

face forward upon the

floor.

The

advanced, raised the pos-

assistant

sessed to a sitting posture, and

fell

thump-

to

ing him on the back and chest to

wake him.
This energetic treatment brought him sufficiently to himself to

for water.

he

his lips
efforts

be able to articulate

But when the glass was put to

bit

it

to drink.

to pieces

By good

his frenzied

in

luck he neither

cut himself nor swallowed any of the pieces.

After his senses had fully returned and

his arms had been well kneaded, we carried
him out upon the veranda, his legs still rigid
in catalepsy.
There they had to be violently

rubbed and jerked into a natural state again.

His pulse had been eighty-four

when he began upon

at the

his incantation

it

time

was

one hundred and twenty as he came to himself again.

When

sufficiently recovered

bathed, and on returning, his

was whether he had spoken

On

he went and
first

in

question

the trance.

being told that he had not uttered a

syllable,

he was much chagrined.

hoped, he

said,

to

He

had

have astounded us by

speaking English when possessed, a tongue

INCARNA TIONS.
of which, in his

normal

state,

he knew no-

That he might be permitted

thing.

45

to do so

Such suoften
were
pernatural powers, he assured us,
vouchsafed by the gods and he mentioned
an Englishman (the only trace I have come
had been

his petition as exorcist.

across of a previous foreigner in this other-

world)

who had been thus possessed twenty

years

before

in

Kobe,

knowing no Japanese
spoke

it

to this

and who, though

in his natural state,

fluently in the trance.

is

parallel

to be found in the illiterate ser-

ving-girl of the

German

professor, who, in the

hypnotic trance, astounded the bystanders

by repeating whole pages of Greek, which,

it turned out, she must unconsciously have
learned from simply hearing her master read

Greek plays aloud, while she casually came

in and out to tend his fire.
I will

next present a function with the

performed in

my own

full

It

also

was

house, by

the

Mi-

force of the dramatis persoiice.

Kagura-ko, or August Dancing Pilgrim Club.

There were eight performers, the parts

maeza,

nakaza, the four shiten, the

of

deputy

maeza, and the clerk of court, being taken

respectively by a plasterer, a lumber dealer.

OCCULT JAPAN.

146

a rice shopman, a carpenter, a pawnbroker, a

pattern designer, a fishmonger, and a maker

of mizithiki, those red and white paper strings

with which the Japanese

their gifts.

The

This

last

mendation

On

presi-

the pawnbroker

its

combination was a mere

coincidence, the man's

I

was the

plasterer

dent of the club, and

being, so

bow-knots about

Quite a representative board of

trade, in fact.

treasurer.

tie

earthly calling not

was informed, any special recomto his

heavenly

office.

the day appointed they turned up, more

Japauico, pre-punctually.

but at

polite,

aggravating national custom, this ap-

first

pearance of a guest considerably before the

They came

time for which he was invited.

detachments, the baggage leading, with

in

the president and clerk.

up

in

scene,

properties

provided

the request of the

latter articles

long,

It

was

together with

by

me

club.

to

other

beforehand at

The

list

was the better part

and footed up

once set

at

several

exactly

of

the

of a foot

thirty-one

cents and a third.

picture of

Kuni-to-ko-dachi-no-mikoto,

the great god of Ontake, suitably pedestaled

upon the mountain and flanked by

his fol-

INCARNATIONS.
lowers,

was suspended

of which stood a gohci,

147

in the recess, in front

bosomed

in sprigs of

sacred tree, the dark green gloss

of the leaves bringing out vividly the white
paper flounces of the symbol of the god. On
Shint5's

either side of
its

it

candlestick.

raw

rice

stood a candle speared upon

modest repast

lay below, and

floating in rape-seed oil

it

a sake

In front of

bottle not innocent of real sake.

the feast, in a pair of saucers,

and

of salt

flanking

two tiny wicks

made

holy twinkles

of light.

In the middle of the sacred space, duly

inclosed by a frieze of pendent gohei, was

house of

the symbolic primeval

built

cense

The

sticks.

in-

place was then purified

by prayer, by striking of sparks from a flint

and steel, and by air-dusting with the gohei
at each of the four corners, after which the
eight officiators severally left for the bathroom to bathe, and returned one after the

other clad in the pilgrim dress.

ing,

though

in

The

bath-

this case privately done,

often publicly performed.

On

of a fire-crossing {hi-watari),

is

the occasion

have seen the

holy performers strip and bathe quite naturally at a convenient well, in the face of the

OCCULT JAPAN.

148

waiting populace of men, women, and

chil-

dren.

When
the

altar,

the last

man was back

again before

the eight launched in a body swing-

upon one of the purification prayers,

the maeza as usual leading off.
Exceedingly
ingly

impressive these purification prayers are,

one

will

but devoutly refrain

standing them.
lated,

am

and

if

from under-

had sonie of them trans-

man

a wiser and sadder

in

consequence.

As

the chant swelled

it

sounded

like,

and

some fine processional of the

church of Rome. And as it rolled alons: it
touched a chord that waked again the vision
of the mountain, and once more before me

yet

unlike,

rose Ontake, and

saw the long

file

of pil-

grims tramping steadily up the slope.

Intoned in monotone,

pantomime, those strange

the finger-twists.

on for the
tion

first

it

was pointed with

digital contortions,

suppose to one looking

time nothing about the func-

would seem so

far out of all his world

same finger-charms. The semisuppressed vehemence with which the knots

are tied, the uncanny look of the knots themselves, and the strange self-abandonment of
as

these

INCARNATIONS.
the performer to the
that

is

weird

in

act,

produce an

Symbolic

the extreme.

bodily action, the force of the originals

in these their effigies.

A whole

49

effect

of

is felt

drama takes

place in them, done by a true magician, as

he bids the devils avaunt and calls the good

and so realistic are the
spirits to his aid
;

signs,

the

beings

dressed grow

to

whom

telephone, the half that

up

they are ad-

Like a talk at a

too.

real,

is

of itself the half that

is

heard conjures

And

inaudible.

their uncanniness clothes these conjurings

You

with the character of the supernatural.

almost think to see both the devils and the

gods.

About them there

is

a compelling fasci-

nation in spite of their repellent uncouthness.

If

one seek to unravel

from the mesh

will find the
I

which

in

charm

it

lies

of the

unlike a dance,
It is

it

caught, he

of the thing to consist,

think, in energetic rhythm.

something

his sensation

For

cadence of a dance
is

not pleasing in

has

it
;

yet,

itself.

indeed the height of inartistic art

its

very uncouthness has a certain grace, the

grace of the ungraceful masterfully done.
If

such be the force of the charm acting

OCCULT JAPAN.

150

simply upon the dispassionate,

quite

how

upon the believer, set as it

is by the mordant of faith
And then, as
chant and charm roll on in their swift progreat

hold

its

cessional, suddenly the brass-ringed crosiers

ring together in double time, join-

{shakiij'd)

ing with

their jingle as of passing bells.

it

Prayer after prayer followed thus

Each

cation.

in turn rose, swelled,

in purifi-

and sank

only to rise again, in long billows of sound,

buoying one's senses to sensations as of the

Crest after crest swept

sea, indefinitely vast.

thus over thought, drowning

in a

fathomless feeling of

its

all

own.

reflection

One

quite contentedly full of nothing at

that semi-ecstatic state

when

all

felt
;

in

discrimination

has lapsed into a supreme sense of satisfaction

when

the charms seemed as enchanting

as the chant, and the chant as charming as

the charms.

The

portal this to the seventh

heaven of vacuous content.

A lull

like a loud noise

half-dream

when

the pyre.

As

feet high

in

upon our

the flame leaped ceilingward

the chant rose with

other up with

broke

the maeza stopped to light

it.

it,

the one carrying the

Tongues

of flame three

darted ceilingward to transform

INCARNA TIONS.
suddenly into

themselves

smoke,

that,

clouds

surging, floated

off,

opal

of

and then

slowly settled down. Through the flame the

maeza passed the written sheets emblematic
passed them as usual to and fro
of disease
unharmed till, letting each stay still a moment there, it caught and was carried up
;

Many

into the crannies of the room.

life

thus vanished into thin

ills

of

air.

Other things were likewise passed through

the flame to gain like virtue
purified his rosary, with

each

man

thus

which he afterward

rubbed what part of his body he wished

be pure and strong
itself,

and

finally the

was

for quintessence of purification,

taken from the

put back

altar, purified

by the

to

goJiei

fire,

and

in place.

This finished the

first

The

service.

in-

cense altar was then removed, sheets of paper were spread on the mats in
the gohei-^dxi^ was

and
per

set upright
!

in

plain pine-wood

Truly the neutral

its

stead,

and

taken from the shrine

the
!

midst.

Plain pa-

plain pilgrim dresses

tints of self-eflacement as

near nothing as symbols can well show

the

very apotheosis of vacancy.

All the

performers except

the

nakaza

OCCULT JAPAN.

152

now

took post for the possession, seating

themselves in the prescribed places, facing

the goJiei ;

the

it,

the -maeza directly

" four

heavens

"

in

{shiteii) at

dinal points on the side,

front of

the car-

and the clerk and

the deputy maeza flanking the maeza to the

left

and

right.

After a short incantation the maeza

re-

moved the wand and gave it to the tdho,

the "eastern heaven," who held it ready
The nakaza came forward and
in his hand.
solemnly seated himself where Xh^ gohei had
been, facing from

the

legs under him, he

round them, and

tied

Folding his

altar.

drew

his robe carefully

the

ends of

to-

it

gether as one would a bundle-handkerchief.

The

result

gave him the look of certain

extreme

rubber toys of

one's

that began as a

man and ended

After he

had thus

childhood,

arranged

in a bulb.

himself the

others did the same.

For such

is

the conventional Ryobu-Shinto

Whether

attitude during possession.

no means easy pose

is

modeled

the contemplative Buddha, or

exalted seat of old Japan,

two

is

this

by

after that of

is

merely the

doubtful.

differ in certain technical details of

The
the

INCARNATIONS.
knot that one
is

153

ties in one's legs,

and the knot

sometimes of the one kind and sometimes

The tying is done to tether

the possessed that he may not prove too
For, as may be imviolent in the trance.

of the other.

agined, the pose

one from which

is

it is

Nevertheless,

to impossible to rise.

next

have

seen a god hop round on this his pedestal

with astounding

After a

little

agility.

private finger-twisting and

prayer, the nakaza folded his hands before

him and closed

his eyes, the others of course

The maeza took

incanting.

the toho and put

The man

hands.

ward on

it,

the

wand from

between the 7iakazas

it

at

once

fell

slowly

resting one end on the

for-

mat and

the other against his forehead, near the hol-

low

at the

The

base of the nose.

others took up in chorus the stirring

processional chant

As

no harai.

known

the measured cadence rolled

suddenly the wand

on,

ment by moment
fits

and

lulls,

the
as

out of a clear sky.

rose

till

it

began

to

quiver;

Mowand gathered motion

when a storm gathers

and the chant increased

by

as the 7'okkon sJiojo

in

energy.

Slowly, as

reached his forehead.

it

shook,

The

it

par-

OCCULT JAPAN.

154

oxysm came on and then the wand

settled

with a jerk to a rigid half-arm holding before his brow, a suppressed quiver alone
thrilling

it

The god had come.

through.

The maeza leaned

the outstretched

forward, bent low before

and reverently asked

goJiei,

The eyes

the god's name.

of the possessed

had already opened to the glassy stare

cal

of

still

typi-

trances, the eyeballs so rolled back

that the pupils were nearly out of sight.

an unnatural, yet not exactly

In

artificial voice,

the god replied, " Matsuwo," at which the

maeza bowed low

again,

and then asked what

questions he had previously inquired of

my

preference

have

to

put.

me

They were

about the health of those beyond the sea,

and

prognostications

for

my

Delphic oracularity

after

which the god

spoke on of his own accord.

the maeza, but at

me, he

said,

mountain

which

for

me

He

spoke to

he wished to thank

making the ascent

of the

(Ontake) two years before.

divine

At

encomium, considering that

the pious are convinced that

may

approaching

All of which were answered with

voyage.

scale the sacred peak

no foreigner

and return

was proportionately pleased.

alive,

INCARNA TIONS.

55

After delivering himself of this politeness

he settled forward heavily into a lethargic

From it he was roused by further
swoon.
incantation

to

fresh

Slowly raising

fury.

the wand, he suddenly beat the air above

head, and

his

proceeded to hop excitedly

round on his folded

of

legs,

the four compass

stopping

at

each

points to repeat his

Then he came back to his

commanding pose, and, in reply to

performance.
previous

the maeza, spoke again.

Once more he relapsed into his lethargy,

and once more he was roused, and answered.

When

he had fallen into his comatose con-

dition for the third time, the maeza, after a

sort of benedicite,
skrit character

on

made the

and slapped him

his back,

energetically on top of

sign of a San-

One

it.

of the four

"sides" stood by ready with a cup of water,

and, the moment he had come to enough,
put

it

Under
but

it

to his lips
this

and helped him

to drink.

treatment he gradually revived,

took some kneading before the wand

could be loosed from his cataleptic grip.

Three gods,

it

appeared, had come in turn,

which accounted for the

rise

character of the possession

and

fall in

the

Matsuwo Sama,

OCCULT

156

JAPAN-.

Fukan Gyoja, and

or 0-yama-zumi-no-mikoto,

Hakkai San.

The

last

example of the Ryobu form

shall

be one typical of the average unpretentious

the

trance,

being

participants

all

simple-

minded farmers of the suburbs of Tokyo.

There were five of them, all members of the
Five Cardinal Virtues Pilgrim Club.
shrine was

the simplest

possible,

and

The
so

was the banquet offered the god. No picture was hung in the recess, and the pyre

was not elaborate.

The maeza and nakaza had both been up
Ontake more than once the other three
;

were as yet ascensionless, but hopeful the

go might soon

lot to

fall

upon them, their

finances having up to date only permitted

them

to travel so far in fancy.

Purification prayers and purification songs

the
harai,

tnisogi no harai, the rokkon shojo no

and the fiakatomi no harai

were duly

intoned, the nakaza in this case being specially active,

spirit of

because otherwise the leading

the company.

All five were clad in

Ontake ascension robes, although the

greater number were simply, as has been

their

said, piously anticipating that event.

INCARNA TIONS.

The

possession

itself

5/

took place with open

eyes, and was interesting only for the rise

and

The wand shook

fall of its crises.

ziedly, settled before the

man's

spoke, and then with an agaru, "

the

man

fell

fren-

face, the

forward collapsed.

god

ascend,"

The

incan-

tation

began again, and a second god came

down.

Five several times this cycle was

gone

through

brought

before

to a close

the possession

was

and the man waked up.

Five separate gods had come in turn.

VI.

The Buddhist

trances introduce a

ture in the shape of femininity.

new

For

in

fea-

the

Buddhist variety of these divine possessions

the god shows a preference for feminine lips.

The
sion

first

one

was shown was a posses-

by the Nichiren

sect.

This

is

a sect of

purely Japanese origin, having been founded

by Nichiren, who had learned much of the

a
Shinto priests six hundred years ago,

no prototype or affiliations elseIt is the Buddhist sect that now

sect with

where.

chiefly affects possession.

In this instance

the mouthpiece of the god was the mouth of

a maiden, and the man who parleyed with

OCCUL T JAPAN.

her a mouse-like priest of a certain not un-

popular temple.
It

too

was a parlor possession in my own

I have since learned that in con-

house, and

sequence of the temple company having

been thus invited out to perform, the fame
of the

temple has gone abroad and

its

holy

trade has amazingly increased.

There were three persons in the company.

For with the priest and the maiden, who was
about eighteen,

came

female friend of

maturer years, not indeed to chaperone the

fair

one so soon to be more than metaphor-

ically divine,

but merely to assist at the

vine audience.

The

three

all

di-

belonged to a

certain pilgrim club of which the priest

was

president.

They appeared with an

extra jinrikisha

carrying a Saratoga trunk of indispensables.

To be

fair to

Japan,

it

this case the

it

the sex, as

it

shows

itself in

should instantly be said that in

baggage was not chargeable

to

but to the god's delight in pageantry, as

interpreted by the Nichiren sect.

The trunk

proved to contain several candles, some sakaki, a go/iei,

known

two large lumps of

rice-paste

as kagamimochi, or mirror-dough, va-

INCARNA TIONS.
other

rious

objects

of

59

bigotry and virtue,

eight volumes of scripture, vestments, rosary,

and

ecclesiastical

trappings for the priest.

He, and not the women, was the object

arrayed

to

they, poor things, remained

be

mod-

estly clad in dull indigo blue.

After

all

these articles had been unpacked

and the priest had made a shrine of some of

them and had put on the rest, he faced the
altar and began to pray.
He prayed a long
time, an

elaborate and

beautiful

keeping with his clothes.

sence of finger-charms was

chant in

regrettable ab-

made up

for

by

which he managed
read through the whole eight volumes

to

the ingenious

way

in

of

more consecrated
expression it may be known as the way of
the concertina, and is as useful as it is artistic.
It was made possible by the mode
scripture.

of

For want

of a

binding the books.

Like old Japanese

books generally, each consisted

of a single

piece about fifteen yards long, folded for the

sake of portability into pages, the ends only

being fastened to the covers.

Holding them

farther apart at the top than at the bottom,

he
left

let

the pages slowly cascade

hand

into his right,

from his

accompanying him-

OCCULT JAPAN.

l6o
self

on the holy harmonicon to the

thus

chanting of a portion of

The

heart.

fair

its

contents by

ones chorused him at a

re-

spectful distance in the rear.

After thus adroitly disposing of his chief

devoir, the priest repeated several

remem-

bered prayers, not on his rosary, but, as

were, to

For

it.

in the possession

it

ceremony

the Japanese Buddhist uses his rosary not as

tally to

paniment
strokes

prayer, but as musical accom-

his
to

it,

it.

and

As he
it

prays he soothingly

purrs with the gratified

responsiveness of a

cat.

All this lasted a long while, but the sights

and the sounds beguiled the senses to the

When

forgetting of time.

prayed, in

all

to

his

former position, and

the maiden to approach and

seat herself opposite to

ways,

had

conscience, enough, he turned

at right angles to

beckoned

the priest

therefore,

to

and facing him,

the

side-

She then

altar.

folded her hands and closed her eyes.

First

he sprinkled her

all

shower-bath of sparks from a

after

which he repeated

several
effect.

in

over with a

flint

and

steel

a soporific

way

monotonic chants, and watched the

When he judged her numb enough

1;

INCARNA TIONS.
he put the

into her hands

goJiei-y^zxiA

and

continued intoning, his own hands making

musical monotone meanwhile on his amber
rosary.

Possession came on gradually

behaving

in a

otherwise as usual.

slowly rose to her

It

forehead, and on reaching

The
The

priest

would

like to

the gohei

becomingly lady-like way, but

began to

it

shiver.

maiden's eyes stayed closed.

then asked what questions

Some

put to the god.

trinal points occurred to

me, the priest acting

The god and

as spokesman.

doc-

the priest were

was

pleased with the answers

conventionality veiled

vagueness failing

to
in

commend

quently

fulfilled.

after

my

not, their

Then the god indulged

itself.

some gratuitous

week

in

He

not

prophecy,

subse-

kindly foretold that a

return to America

should

amount of money I had loaned.

I thanked him for this information, thinking
it unnecessary to inform him that I had no
money out on loan at the moment, which is

lose a large

perhaps
that

why

never lost

the fault was mine.

it.

But

Had

I
I

realize

been a

Japanese the chances are overwhelming that

most

of

my

property would have been lent

OCCULT JAPAN.

62

and
lost

should undoubtedly have

in that case I
it.

This

about as near as

is

ever came

with the gods to successful prophecy.

And

yet to divine would seem to be of the very

essence of divinity.

Altogether the most interesting feature

of the case, psychologically,

was the great

ease of possession, due, as

am

embodiment

for

the occasional
divine subjects.

convinced,

In possessions by

to the sex of the subject.

the Nichiren sect

god prefers women

the

the only exception being

employment of children as
For in this sect men are

never possessed.

At another stance by the same sect, four

and a woman took part. There were

priests

no finger-twistings, and the service generally was short and simple.

A hanging scroll
of Kishibojin
of

honor

laid

was suspended

while below

it

in

the recess

a small altar, over-

with rich brocade, stood flanked by two

gohei-\^2iVi^%.

The

principal priest put on

white silk robes, and the

cotton surplice.

At

first

woman

a white

she sat disinterest-

edly to one side.

At the

close of

the preliminary service

the chief officiator beckoned to her to take

2
O
00
<n

U
en
En

O
Pn

INCARNATIONS.
her seat

row

through the

this she did, passing

of priests with the

symboHc scooping
closed her eyes

customary respectful

of the hand,

in the midst with her

and sat down

back to the

altar.

made the

the priest

63

She

sign of

a Sanskrit character on each of her palms,

and then, taking the two ^^/^^z-wands, put

This duality

one into each of her hands.

divine

was the

descent

of

most interesting

Twitching ensued

feature of the

affair.

most

and was kept up a long time

instantly,

al-

At

while the officiator {sluigcnjd) prayed on.

the close of

name, and

the priest asked the god's

it

then

permission

after

priest, the

interviewed

him.

Then,

been asked by the

had

god condescended to interviews

Replies would have been
us.

with the rest of

made

in

any

case,

the priest

would have been rude

first

but

it

god not to have

to the

obtained his consent.

said,

The

subject was

quite insensible to pins stuck into her neck,

but objected at
pulling her

first to

arm away

had been assured that

priest.
in

Her

having her pulse

as
it

if

was

pulse proved a

her normal state

decidedly weaker.

(no

annoyed,
all

right

till

felt,

she

by the

trifle faster

than

as against 100), but

OCCULT JAPAN.

l64

Although

this

my

is

them with

like

that

it

had already

tried

innocuous result upon the

sterner sex, and

fense that

mention of pins,

first

hasten to add that

desire to add in self-de-

was the god, not the woman,

was pricked.

After speaking, the subject lapsed into a

comatose condition, but could be roused by

being addressed.

When

the priest had

fin-

ished with her he took the wands from her

hands, not without

difficulty,

cataleptically clenched,

they were so

and somewhat

irrev-

erently rolled her over on her side, like a

doll, into a corner,

where he

left

her to wake,

while he and the others finished the service.

By

the time they were done she came to of

herself.

The
altar or

facing of the possessed

simply sideways to

it

dependent on the particular

the

from
is

priest

the

matter

and upon

character of the god expected to de-

scend.

he

sits

If

the god be of more importance

ex cathedra as

it

were

if

not, simply

This relative disrespect shown by

the Buddhists to the possessing gods will be
ex parte.

discussed

later.

Such are the phenomena

of god-possession

INCARNATIONS.
as

by the Nichiren

practiced

Shingon sect indulges

which

cult, of

but which

cult but little, the other

from

it

at

These

all.

must be carefully

possessions

Buddhist

defi-

distin-

meditation, which

also eventually lapses into trance.

may be

similar

its priests,

do not happen to have seen. The

sects do not practice

guished

somewhat

in a

65

The

sect.

have been told by

Tendai practices the

nite

The

first

defined as a change of one's person-

ality into another's

the second as the ethe-

realization of one's own.

In Japan the Zen

sect are the greatest adepts in thus losing

themselves.

Meditating one's

toplasmic purity

is

self into pro-

a specialty of the Bud-

upon the essential tenets

and has only a distant kin-

dhists consequent
of their religion,

ship in

common

Buddhist trances

with the purely Japanese

I

have described.
VII.

Oldest of

all

and yet youngest of any of

the Japanese possessions are the pure Shinto

ones.

For they took place

in the far past,

and then did not take place again

other day.

They form

till

the

the most interesting

branch of the family, because the most unconventional

members

of

it.

OCCULT JAPAN.

66

In virtue of being a part of pure Shint5

they are necessarily resurrections

now

reckless believers

always practiced

it

is

be really

If this

a sad instance of keeping a

For there

secret too well.

made

they were

secret during Shinto's

in

unfortunate unpopularity.
the case,

although

insist that

is

no mention

them during the middle ages. But

they never lapsed. For they survived in Ryobu
from whose destruction
of

in a sense

they have phoenix-like emerged, as faithful

reproductions of the prehistoric practices as
is

possible.

Being

biblical in character,

are invested with a certain archaism

imparts to them

all

they
that

the more seeming sanc-

tity.

The
simple

personal auxiliary rites are few and

;

such being explained away on the

score of purity.

The pure

Shintoists are so

pure, so they themselves say, that they do

not need them.

The

striking parallelism of

this to the Shinto explanation of its lack of

that
need moral laws

moral code

is

less

it

is

only

immoral people

instructive.

quite true that the

Neverthe-

more

faith the

less formulae.

The

finger -charms,

decidedly the most

INCARNATIONS.
weird of the Ryobu

reduced to

are

rites,

6/

such very low terras as hardly to appear.

Of

purification prayers only those of pure ShintS

Those

origin are recited.

as the

cation, such

of

Ryobu

fabri-

rokkon shbjd no harai,

being carefully ignored.

On

the other hand, the impersonal part of

the service

elaborate.

is

It

has

the for-

all

mality of the usual state function, for

it

is

nothing more nor less than a divine banquet, with the

The dinner

speaker.
as

affair,

it

is

for after-dinner

god himself
is

all-essential to the

Shinto

to all

Shinto practice of dining

For the

rites.

its

deities

is

not

to the ceremony of possession.

Wherever the gods are invoked, for any

confined

cause whatsoever, they are induced to de-

scend by the prospect of a dinner.

stands perpetually prepared on
altars

shrines being, to put

free-lunch

it

repast

Shinto

irreverently,

counters for deity, while every

Shinto service

is

but a special banquet given

some

particular god.

of a

Shint5 god's

One comes
life

as

of dining out.

To

dinner

mood

whom

is

in a

god

to conceive

one continuous

round

propitiate

A
all

induce an after-

one wishes to

doubtless judicious.

OCCULT JAPAN.

68

The

rite

is,

of course, the apotheosis of

With

primitive hospitality.

civilization,

ever, the divine dinner has, like

how-

mere mortal

ones, taken on a most tedious etiquette.

now

consists
of

which

The

is

ceremoniously long

priests,

who

properly impressive row.

by the chief

at the lower

in the serving.
all most
drawn up in a

are the waiters, are

beautifully dressed, and stand

grace, said

It

seven courses, each

six or

of

After a sort of
the priest

officiator,

end of the line hands

in,

the refectory behind the scenes, the

from

first

of

the holy platters, which, with a long, deep

bow, he passes up to the next

who

line,

it

till

passes

it

who

places

it

Each dish is thus

the god and deposited

altar.

solemnly offered up to

upon the shrine

in the

the third, and so on

to

reaches the chief priest,

reverently upon the

man

in turn.

The

dishes consist

of almost everything edible, and, considering

that

much

of the food

inedible as well.

on the

table, for

is

Wine

raw, of

everything

especially

is

always

the gods are anything but

teetotalers.

So

far as records

possible,

Even the

and traditions make

the aboriginal cult

is

it

reinstated.

archaic instruments of miscalled

INCARNATIONS.
some

music, actual heirlooms,

69

it

is

in the high-priest's family, are played

said,

upon by
were by

their
his

modern descendant as they

mythologic forbears, that the

unchangeable gods may

fact,

of them,

the whole action

ble as

it

be pleased.

still

is

In

as nearly as possi-

would appear could one be trans-

ported a couple of millenniums into the past.

The trance itself is likewise different from

its Ry5bu relative.
It is more natural and
more free. The possessed is not fettered to
the conventionality of the Ry5bu forms.
He
sits,

stands, speaks

more spontaneously, and

generally behaves himself with more of the

self-prompting a god might be expected to

possess.

This, however,

is

in the believer's

eyes of less consequence than the knowledge

of the scriptures
as he

is

he

able to elucidate the

in the Shinto bibles,

rior

displays.

divinity.

In proportion

meagre accounts

does he prove his supe-

That the subject has been

well trained in this old folk-lore, does not, to

the pious,
matter.

constitute

a propter hoc in

the

OCCULT JAPAN,

I/O

VIII.

Perhaps the most curious phenomenon of

the pure Shinto possession-cult

This

cho's kindergarten.

is

Kwan-

the

a Sunday-school

is

of a

unique kind, held by the high-priest of

the

Shinshiu sect

every other

week-day
The

throughout theyear, vacations excepted.

instruction
sists

is

of temporarily

esoteric of
its

eminently practical, for

all

exercises

becoming god.

con-

It is the

most

the possession practices.

To

was never permitted

another foreigner,
ficing to

The

it

teaching nothing less than the art

in

my own

to bring

purity just suf-

admit me.

school

is

composed

of

boys' class and a girls' class,

most pious young people

boys' class

is

held

two

classes, a

made up

of the

of the parish.

The

first.

The

pupils begin

by taking post in a row at the farther end

of the main temple room, while the highpriest faces the altar
in

which the pupils

self

and conducts a service

join.

Then he

seats him-

on one side and nods to a boy to come for-

ward.

The bOy advances,

attitude before the altar,

squats in a divine

and closes

his eyes.

After some subdued prayer the priest

rises,

INCARNATIONS.

17I

puts the gohei-yNdiXv^ into the boy's hands,

and, resuming his seat, plays sweetly on the

sacred

flute,

being done

exactly as you shall read of

in the Kojiki

which

is

not a sur-

prising coincidence, since the action

from

On

it.

is

copied

advanced pupils the effect

The boy goes

almost instantaneous.

its

is

into

convulsions, raises the gohei to arms' length

above his head, brandishes

maniacally in

it

and while still doing so rises to his

and proceeds to dance madly about the
room. In the course of his divine antics he

the

air,

feet

contrives to part with the gohei--^2cs\^, which

he hurls inadvertently into a corner. He

then enters upon several gymnastic exerFirst

cises.

cuously
is

all

he turns somersaults promis-

over the

brought out by

Then

floor.

some

a low table

of the other pupils

middle of the room, and over

and

set in the

this,

directed by taps on

it

from the Kwan-

cho, the possessed somersaults in every possible direction, following in a definite

the compass points.

on

its

side,

tumbles.

The

table

order

then turned

and he repeats his series

The same

is

in pretty

of

next done with the

table turned bottom side

and so on

is

up

and so forth

much every other position

OCCULT JAPAN.

1/2
of the

furniture.

pupil will

sometimes

turn thus some seventy somersaults in the

Against the wall

the course of one trance.

stands

up which the entranced

the cornice, clinging to which

ladder,

next climbs to

he makes the circuit of the room.

frequently he wanders by the same

round

all

the neighboring apartments.

Not inmeans
After

descending again by the ladder, he performs

upon a horizontal

Or he

bar.

stands on his head up against the

wall, first in

one corner

of the

room, and

he has made the circuit

then

in another, until

of

interpolating between times somersaults

it,

at his

own sweet

with the pupil.

character for

will.
The curriculum varies
Though of the same general

all, it

differs in detail for each.

But each pupil repeats

his

own performance

night after night, improving on

exactly,

it

through a gradual course of trance-develop-

ment.

With the girls the action is fittingly

violent.
They do not journey along the
nice, but
floor.

less
cor-

they do turn somersaults over the

Their specialty, however, consists in

dancing dervish-like round and round the

room.

The

waltzing they keep up indefi-

nitely until stopped

by the

priest.

INCARNA TIONS.

mean some-

All these actions of the pupil

The dance

thing.

is

/3

the facsimile of the one

that the goddess Uzume-no-mikoto performed

in the first recorded possession.

Somersault-

ing over the floor represents the natural revolution of

things

all

while somersaulting

over the table denotes visits paid

upper and the under world.

one's

head

straight

sion

in

to the

Standing on

the corner with one's legs

up against the wall implies posses-

by the

spirit of a

climbing plant.

Before one pupil has finished, a second

is

started on his career, and then sometimes a

third, which, considering the violence of their

actions,

ment.

very decidedly peoples the apart-

The

girls are as

decent as dervishes,

but as to the boys, dancing dervdshes are

orderly,

intelligent

comparison.

members

of society

by

It is irresponsibility let loose.

For they hurl themselves about the apartment with as utter a disregard of others as of
themselves.

Yet, though they often collide,

they seem to regard each other as

inanimate things.

Though
is

it is

doubtful

if

they see

certain that they can hear the

who

strictly

occasionally warns

them

to

at

all, it

Kwancho,
be

careful.

OCCULT japan:

174

With the exception

dressing them and

of thus occasionally ad-

of tapping the table or

the wall, he does not direct their movements

in the least.

Such half-way stage between

hypnotic and possessed action

ing thing in

The
ing

it

itself.

pulse

subject's

weakened,

so far as

accelerated

is

and

could discover by feel-

immediately afterward.

Though adepts

quickly

takes practice to

it

an interest-

is

fall

attain

into the state,

to

pious

profi-

ciency, several sittings being necessary before the pupil is possessed at

all.

IX.

We

now come

to the subjective side of the

trance, the first point being the getting into

it

the cause, that

its occasion.

is,

as distinguished

Entrance

in the simplest possible

is

effected,

manner.

It

from

in fact,

consists

in shutting the eyes

and thinking

of nothing.

moment

the nakaza

takes the

From

the

^<?//^/-wand into his hands, at

will

which time

it

be remembered he closes his eyes, he

mukes

The

his

mind

as

much

of a blank as he can.

ability to think of

nothing

not the

simple matter even to the innately empty-

INCARNA TIONS.
headed

it

might

be

imagined

has

75

been

increased by the previous etherealizing pro-

The

cess of the austerities.

indulged in just prior to the

routine ritual
act,

or rather

The

the non-act, furthers this pious result.

repeating of the purification prayers has be-

come

so purely mechanical a process that

saying them

tantamount to not thinking.

is

Nakasa, quite unmindful of the doubtful pro-

me

that

They do

not

priety of the remark, have informed

the two are the same thing.

think of anything, they say, after they have

once sat down

to the

are, patently, as
off

the prayers.

will at

ceremony, though they

busy as they can be reeling

So true

is

this that a

nakaza

times begin to go off inopportunely in

the midst of the preliminary rites and have to

be brought back from his divine digression

by a rousing

Some

cuff

from the maeza.

nakaza, in order the easier to enter

the trance, rest one end of the

goJiei-v^'AXi^

upon the ground, and, leaning forward, throw

their weight upon the other, pressed against
the forehead at the base of the nose be-

tween the

eyes.

The

act

is

thought to be

helpful to a speedy possession.

teresting

fact

that

this

zone

It is

an

in-

hypnotiqiie

OCCULT JAPAN.

176

should have been discovered experimentally

by the Japanese long before the thing was

scientifically known to Europe.
Not all subhowever, make use of

jects,

rest

it.

Some simply

one end of the wand on the

in the

These various devices are matter

of tra-

on the
air.

and

floor

some do not even

it before them

then lean upon

floor,

it

but hold

rest

it

ditional practice with particular pilgrim clubs.

Easy

as vacuity gets to be to those

can give their whole mind to

such capacity

sition of

instantaneous

is

it,

who

the acqui-

by no means an

as the history of

one

earnest applicant for inanity from his

first

failure

to

his

affair,

first

success

vi^ill

suffice

to

show.

After having duly reduced himself by protracted austerities to sufficient abstraction,

he was set one evening in the nakaza's seat.

Ranged round him sat the regular company
incanting.

He

closed his eyes and the gohei-

wand was put into his hands. From that

moment he tried to make his mind as blank
as possible. The result the first evening was
simple nausea.

dered

at,

It is not,

perhaps, to be won-

that his first dose of divinity should

disagree with a man.

INCARNA TIONS.

The man's second attempt

the following

evening led to a like sickening

the unpleasant

So

acute.

it

effect

77

result,

was a thought

but
less

was on the third evening and

the fourth, and in this half-seas-over state

between man and god he continued to remain for fifteen consecutive nights, the nausea less at each repetition of

was rewarded.
usual

its

cause.

At

the fifteenth sitting, his perseverance

last, at

He

entered the holy ring as

and remembers hearing the

others

repeating the prayers fainter and yet more

singers departing

faint,

like

tance,

and then he was aware

into

and irrelevantly shaken by the

were bringing him

like the

coming

the dis-

of being rudely
rest.

They

Possession had been

to.

unconscious dropping off to sleep

to himself again like

waking

in the

morning, only that he

He

felt dull and tired.

was told by the company that he had

nodded, brandished the wand, and become

perfectly rigid.

when

Subjects,

catechized more curiously

as to the feeling of lapsing into the trance,

indulged

One

in

likened

over a

man

variously
it

opposite

analogies.

to the sensation that creeps

after long

immersion in the hon-

;;

OCCULT JAPAN.

1/8

orable hot water, a luxurious soaking in a

bath of the parboiling temperature of one

hundred and ten degrees or more Fahrenheit

a simile by

some degrees too ardent

to con-

vey much idea of insensibility ro Europeans,

but which
Japanese.
like

commends

expressive to

itself as

Another individual

said

it

felt

This daringly

going up in a balloon.

turned out a pure flight of

inflated simile

fancy, as on further questioning

it

appeared

been up in one.

that the speaker had never

But, inasmuch as his audience had not either,

his definition

than

if

third

was considerably more

definite

many

ascents.

he had made ever so

man

averred that

it

was

like

being

drowned and then being brought to life

again a clever hit, this, though I have no
reason to suppose that he had had, any
;

more than the

other, personal experience of

his comparison.

Still

another described

all

sounds as seeming to go a long way off

while a last adept said that
into the

supreme

when he

lapsed

of meditation, a condition

akin to that of being possessed,

ordinary

noises ceased to be audible, and yet in winter he could hear the water freeze.

Of the trance

itself

most,

if

not

all,

of the

INCARNATIONS.

remember

possessed

One man indeed

afterwards

said that

only more vague,

ing,

dream, which certainly

Even here

it

nothing.

was Hke dream-

the

is

79

dream

of

very vague, indeed.

think he mistook the feelings

fringing the trance state for the trance state

For certainly the average good na-

itself.

kaza

is

quite emphatic on the point, and this

particular

man was

not a specially able spe-

cimen.
All agree in the sense of oppression which
is

their last bit of consciousness before going

off

and their

first

on coming

this the inaeza slaps the

on the back

The

ing.
this

at

and

throat

It is for

nakaza repeatedly

after the

is

to.

moment

of wak-

so throttled that unless

were done the water could not be swal-

As for the water itself, it is taken

much the same reason that some people
take it when about to swallow a pill, to overlowed.

for

come, that
the

is,

the involuntary contraction of

glottis.

Possession begins, they, say, at the gohei.

The hands that

man to be

the

cases they are

As

hold

it

are the

possessed.
all

first

parts of

In the incipient

that are visibly afifected.

the control deepens the cataleptic condi-

OCCULT JAPAN.

l80

on

tion creeps,

till

body not actually

of the

all

like paralysis,

it

involves

in use

by the

god.

Possession ends

the

it

man

well

is

waked and

last part of

After

and

to all intents

it is

wand away from him.

rubbed and kneaded

The

begins.

to lose their induced catalepsy.

purposes himself again,

the

as

arms and hands are the

subject's

him

much

difficult to

Only

after

take

being

will the fingers let

go

their hold.

In the trance
ally

marked.

itself

the anaesthesia

is

usu-

have repeatedly stuck pins

entranced at favorably sensitive

the

into

spots without the god's being aware of the

some

In

pricks.

cases,

however, where

had otherwise no reason

the pin was

felt.

to suspect

state

The

but

it

is

fraud,

So that apparently want

of feeling is not invariably

tant of

certainly a

produced

in the

usual concomi-

it.

pulse

is

quickened

to a varying extent.

This appears to be rather a symptom of the

entrance into the state than of the trance
self,

and

is

doubtless due to the exertion and

excitement of the preliminary

significant

it-

symptom

rites.

The

of the actual possession

INCARNATIONS.
is

l8l

the pulse's very decided weakening.

performers themselves state that

It

comes very near

it,

it

The
stops.

have explored the

wrist of an entranced during possession for a

long time only to find an occasional

But the most important feature

of the pulse consists in the

flutter.

of this failure

way

in

which

keeps step inversely with the rise in the

The

tivity of the possession.

feeble

in

pulse grows

the trance action

proportion as

grows strong, and tends

it

ac-

to

go out completely

When

when possession

attains

the subject

forward into his comatose

falls

height.

its

The

condition the pulse returns.

ers

perform-

themselves are perfectly aware of this

reciprocal relation between the man's vitality

When

and the god's.

the entranced's pulse

was being felt I have known a whole company to redouble the energy of their incantation in order thus to keep the possession
at its height and so cause the pulse to go
out.

During the height

subject's

body

is

of the possession the

in constant

subdued quiver

evidence of the same nervous

duces the

initial

tose condition

spasm.

Not

thrill that protill

comes on does

the comathis

cease.

OCCULT JAPAN.

l82

And

it is

capable of being revived to greater

or less fury by reincantation, at any

At the time the

moment.

subject consigns himself

to vacating his bodily premises he shuts his

eyes, thus closing the shutters of the house
his spirit

so soon to leave

is

stay drawn

and the blinds

the spirit has passed away

till

and the coming on of the spasm indicates the

advent of the god. At his entrance the eye-

some

lids are, in

cases, raised again {ganibi-

raki), revealing that glassy stare peculiar to

the trance

Which they

in others

shall

do

they
is

as also doubtless

balls are rolled

of sight

By

those

If

up so that the

who open

the eye-

iris is

half out

their eyes, the not doing

denounced as conducive

so
is

certainly
if

the eyes open

they do not

the lids quiver but never wink.

is

shut,

if

remain drawn.

matter of tradition in

the subject's pilgrim club.

still

easier to

to shams.

It

sham with the eyes

indeed the peculiar look of an en-

tranced' s eye can be

counterfeited

at

all.

Nevertheless, such as shut their eyes to the

act

deem

their

way

equally convincing.

Beside opening or not-opening his eyes in

the trance, dependent upon the habit of his
club, the

subsequent action of the possessed

INCARNATIONS.
is

Otherwise conventional.

83

The behavior

of

one god bears a striking family likeness to

Each begins by brandish-

that of another.

ing maniacally the ^^/^^/-vvand, and after sufit down to the commanding holding before the brow which

ficient flourish brings

betokens that he

He

is

ready to be interviewed.

is

then invariably

which would seem

since

asked his name,

first

be a polite formality,

to

god-experts say they can

tell

which

god has come by the manner alone in which

Gods are as
easily told apart as men, when you know
them. Their general resemblance is due to
he brandishes the

their divinity

gohei-^^zxid^.

their slight

individuality

is

their own.

The conventional
of

the entranced

shamming.

To

character of the actions

is

of

course no sign of

mistake such for fraud

be one's own dupe.

is

unconscious assimilation of precedent

come stereotyped
artless a thing as

to

His actions are but the

be-

into trance habit, just as

any everyrday

habit.

One

might make a more serious mistake and take

for

necessary

symptoms

of

the

Japanese

trance these mere adventitious adjuncts of

due to auto-suggestion

at first

and then

it,

per-

OCCULT JAPAN.

84

petuated unintentionally, as the Salpetriere

did with those
its

it

first

innocently induced in

hypnotic patients, and then as innocently

marveled

nevertheless,

alike,

On

degree.

The way in
common to pure

is

and

Ry6bu-Shint5,

Shint5,

formance

Buddhist

per-

the action only differing in

the other hand, the tying up of

the legs of the entranced

Ry5bu

those

^^//^/- wand.

treated

this is

universal

quite

are

connected wuth the

which

Some symptoms,

afterward.

at

is

essentially

practice, not being a detail

of

the

higher forms of pure Shinto possession nor

women

of that of the

subjects of the Bud-

dhists.

Shamming
it

is

not so important a matter as

might seem, because

Shams

tion.

scarcely

surprising

great vogue the

But such are

pected pin

of its ease of detec-

there are in plenty, which

in a

when we consider

act of

easily

is

exploded.

An

objects to

it.

in detecting

of,

unex-

tender part of the possessed's

sublimely superior to being

pin-cushion

the

possession enjoys.

body instantly does the business.

god

is

while a mere

The

difficulty,

man

For a

made a

invariably

indeed, lies not

the counterfeit but in failing to

INCARNA TIOXS.

1 85

To a sufficiently incredsham very rarely masquerades,

detect the reality.

ulous eye the

successfully, while the genuine article,

seems too good

often

perfect,

Especially

is

the

this

One doubts her

case

if

very

be true.

to

with

woman.

divinity at the time only to

realize afterward that

he has done the lady

an injustice.

Though

the god in these incarnations

is

thus born, not made, he has after birth to go

through a natural process of development to

reach his

full capabilities.

His gradual self-education would be

esting to witness did

The

it

inter-

not take so long.

history of a boy about ten and a half

years old

whom

was privileged

to observe

in the course of his divine education will give

some idea
cess.

He

of the

laboriousness of the pro-

began practicing to be possessed

on July 17; that

is

he was then

set in

first

the nakazd s seat, and the gohei-vizxi^ put into

his hands while he shut his eyes
to

make

his

performance

mind
he

and

tried

as blank as possible.

went

through

five

This
times

every day from that time on, twice in the

morning and three times at night.

at the end of August when the god

It

was

at last

OCCULT JAPAN.

86

At

descended and possessed him.

god did nothing

but

brandish

the gohei-

Gradually he learned to grunt.

wand.

saw the boy

first

on October

could then articulate so

you thought he spoke what

not to understand!

fault

November,

was

saw him

The sounds had taken

28.

He

on some form.
that

of

enough

far

along to grunt quite imposingly.

asrain
o

When

the latter part

in

god had got

the

September,

the

first

By

was your

it

the middle of

he would speak

told,

dis-

tinctly.

The development of
an acquired art dumb
;

the

ability

to

the voice

is

always

possession preceding

converse in the trance.

takes

the god

no inconsiderable time

learn

to

When

tone

is

talk.

peculiar.

but a

ral voice,

use

in

would be
It

is

how

he does do so the

It is

not the man's natu-

stilted,

cothurnus

sort

of

one which a god might be supposed

voice,
to

It

to

addressing
theatrical

mere

were

mortals.

not

it

It

sincere.

the man's unconscious conception of

a god should talk, and

commends

itself

artistically to the imagination.

The

possessory gods present certain inter-

esting characteristics.

In the

first

place they

INCARNATIONS.
are of either sex.

8/

This follows from the fact

that in Japan sex suffers no social restric-

the gods, as in olden times

among

tions

suffered none among men.

Practically

both numerous and influential.

the highest god in the Shinto pantheon

The

principal

is

Sun-Goddess Ama-terasu-o-mi-

a lady, the

kami.

it

Goddesses are

deity worshiped

earth

god

at

the second

as

the

Ise shrine

Shinto

is

For in
advanced woman's right's
wife, who, on sending her husband shopping one day to match a piece of ribbon,
said to him, as a parting injunction, " If you

also a goddess.

the

idea of

is

realized

She

will help

the

are in doubt, pray to God, and

you.

Woman

continued a power after she had

ceased to be divine.
of

Japanese history boasts

empresses who, chivalry apart,

several

have played on the whole

nent parts.

its

most promi-

The Empress Jingo

is

perhaps

the most striking figure in the imperial line,

not excluding her son,

who was canonized

as

the god of war.

When
fore

not

it

comes

to possession

it is

there-

surprising that femininity should

be found to have a hand in

it.

In the olden

OCCULT JAPAN.

88

time both possessors and possessees were

we

notably of the sex, as

shall see

examine the Shinto bibles

come
Nowadays possession
to

males on both

is

chiefly confined to

Still

sides.

when we
later.

there are plenty

of exceptions in both parties to the business.

It is

not

uncommon

sandwiched

in

for a goddess to

between a

lot of

descend

gods.

In

such event the voice of the entranced changes

The sex of the subject does
to suit the sex.
;

goddesses not being

particularly partial to

men, nor particularly

not seem to signify

averse to their
ally

own

Male

sex.

deities usu-

descend upon both sexes indifferently,

they are more

simply because

numerous

than female ones.

Sex, however,

is

not surprising in divinity.

one point about these possessory

But there
gods in which they come much nearer being
is

unique, and in which they are certainly not

specially feminine

share their subject.

their willingness to

in

Shinto possessions are

remarkable for the multiplicity of gods that

deign to descend in one and the same trance.
Such divine copartnership is of course successive, since otherwise

sonal possession at

all,

it

would not be per-

but a mere composite

INCARNATIONS.

89

blur of divinity, quite unrecognizable for any-

body

The communistic

in particular.

acter of the possession

constituents to

it

is

char-

as singular as the

are many.

one god monopolize the trance.

Rarely does
Usually from

three to a dozen descend in turn.

As

each

descends, the activity of the possession rises

from lethargy to somnambulistic action the

possessed acts, speaks, is the god. Then,
;

when

the god departs, he sinks forward into

a comatose condition from which the next

god rouses him.

Each god

stays but five

and this five-minute rule in

speaking produces a wave-like rise and fall
in the character of the possession, by which

minutes or

it

so,

becomes possible

to count the

number

of

the divine visitors.

Contrary to what might be thought prob-

same god very rarely, if ever, reTo have come

turns in the same trance.
once, instead of being reason for coming

able, the

reason for the reverse, which certainty shows a praiseworthy regard on the

again

is

part of the god not to monopolize his subject.

Although neither the subject nor any one

else knows beforehand what particular gods

OCCULT JAPAN.

90
descend

will

What

man.

any one trance, a certain

in

gods usually frequents any one

clique of

the divine set shall be depends

upon what gods the man

normal

his

will thus

hermits

the mountains, and are

with the peaks

who

much

lived

in

particularly famil-

a third's of the higher

Each

Shinto divinities.

is

visited

by

his in-

his pious proclivities determining

whom

with

familiar spirits

another's of defunct and dei-

fied gydja, pious

timates

intimate with in

consist of the various Inari, gods

of agriculture

iar

is

One man's

state.

may

he

stand

upon

calling

terms.

Such an impersonal thread of godhead

upon which each particular god's personality
is strung, running in this manner through
the trance, reveals very strikingly the peculcharacteristic

iar

impersonality.

that impersonality
self

has entirely

quality of that

behind.

It

these

of

It

people

their

shows how deep ingrained

that after his sense of

is,

left

the man, the essential

self, its

lack of

reminds one

lingers

it, still

in a serious

way

of

the problem of the sand-bank with the hole

in

it.

The

sea comes up and washes away

the sand-bank

does the hole remain

Here

INCARNA TIONS.
apparently
alone

For

does.

it

to

left

is

be

filled

though

by

vacuity

form

deity, the

The

of that vacuity reappears in the god.

mould
after

there to shape the

is still

all

that

was moulded

in

new tenant

it

has crum-

bled away.

So closes

mena of

my

presentation of the pheno-

this strange possession-cult.

Before

noumena behind
be given some ac-

passing on to interpret the

them, there remains to

count of a custom intimately associated with

After that propthem, the pilgrim clubs.

comes the proof of

But

erly

Japanese character.

their

essentially

cannot take

my

leave of the phenomena themselves without

hoping there may linger with the reader

some

however

impression,

simple beauty of the Shint5

an emotional sense
of

what makes

Mere

outline of

it

is

the

faint,

of

faith.

For

in

the very essence

far -eastern

a faith as

life

so

Shint5 at

fine.
first

seems to be, on closer study it proves

something little less than grand
Truly it needs no
in its very simplicity.
formal priesthood, no elaborate service, no

sight
to

be

costly shrine, for

it

has as visibly about

something better than

all

these

its

it

very

192
gods.

OCCULT JAPAN.
To Shinto

they are always there

and

the great cryptomeria groves no longer seem

untenanted, the

plain,

longer lack a host

may be pervaded by

bare

for at

buildings no
any instant they

a presence, the presence

of the incarnate spirit of the god.

PILGRIMAGES AND THE PILGRIM

CLUBS.
I.

traveler in Japan will have

been struck by a singular yet well-

JIVERY
nigh

universal

appendage

to

the

a motley collection of cloths

country inn
dangling from short fishing-poles stuck into
:

the eaves in one long line before the entire

inn-front.

Unlike as they otherwise

are,

the

greater part agree in displaying at the top

the

conventional

symbol that

far -eastern

passes for a peak.

From

their general shape, size,

ing, the stranger will take

for
all

them,

the towels of the guests

and stamp-

at first blush,

hung out

in

innocence to dry, though their inordinate

number

slightly tax the credit of

ese tubability.

Sojourn

at

even Japan-

the inn, how-

ever, will shortly dispel this illusion

ing them to be

fixtures, a

by show-

permanent part

the real estate of the establishment.

of

OCCULT JAPAN.

194

Forced

to

acter, the

them

to

change his idea as to their char-

unenlightened will next conceive

be some novel inn allurement, a sort

of landlord ingenuity,

of preposterous bait

dangled thus to catch the public eye.

Sec-

ularly speaking, both inferences are correct.

For they were

towels,

and are

of landlord invention.

They

bait,

but not

are the ho-no-

temigiii or gift towels of the pilgrim clubs.

Once they were

quite simply towels, be-

stowed ingenuously upon the inn as tokens

of
at

favor by clubs that

it

chanced to put up

and be pleased; just as ladies

in tour-

ney times cast their hand-kerchiefs to their

Not having handkerchiefs,

knightly choice.

the Japanese presented as keepsakes their

towels instead,

rather

the more

romantic

souvenir of the two.

Time has
They
raised them above domestic service.
are now a sort of club advertisement and
But towels they are no longer.

guide-book combined.

For though they are

presented to the inn, they are presented for

Each
name and ad-

the benefit of those presenting them.

bears conspicuously the club
dress,

and

displayed

is

left

for sign

with the landlord to be

to subsequent

brethren

PILGRIMAGES.
that this

is

I95

where the club puts

up.

It is

the inn asterisk in the pilgrim Baedeker.

The

pilgrims are very free with these cer-

On any

tificates of club satisfaction.

good inn you

count from

shall

fairly

fifty to

hundred of them, and with hostelries

an

of ex-

ceptional entertainment the inn's eaves

fail

accommodate all its pious indorsements,

and stout poles planted in the street in front

to

the overplus.

fly

Landlords spare no pains

patronage

to display them, for the pilgrim

is
is

individually not unlavish, and collectively

enormously large.

The
will

sight of such banner-bedizened inns

probably be the foreigner's

duction

to

Japanese

pilgrims,

first

intro-

unless

the

equally striking spectacle of itinerants dis-

tinguished by

and

under huge
caused him to

well-nigh extinguished

toad-stool hats

have already

mark such

as

plants

men

Once recognized, he will find both

phenomena everywhere, for they form a

walking.

regular part of the scenery.

Now some
to play a

most important

sion, being,

Some

of these pilgrim clubs turn out

in fact,

general

therefore,

role in god-posses-

clubs for the purpose.

account of

germane

them

to our subject.

becomes,

OCCULT JAPAN.

196

To one of a poetic turn of thought the

name Shinto or the " Way of the Gods "

very

pictures one long pilgrimage from earth to

But such poesy

heaven.

"way"

the

by

followers as

its

is

after

all

profane,

here being as un vividly viewed

the thousand and

are

one other ways of the world by those who

pursue them. Nevertheless, pilgrimages are

more than

foot-notes to

creed.

its

Probably at no time and

among no people

have pilgrimages been so popular as

same nineteenth century

in Japan,

in this

temporary

Even
Mahometan world

excitements like the crusades excepted.

the yearly caravan of the
to Mecca,

though

it

draw from greater

dis-

tances and be invested with more pomp, does

not imply so complete a habit.

ese

is

mer

Every Japan-

a pilgrim at heart, though every sumto find

fail

him

actually on the march.

Poverty compels him to do his plodding

Want

home.
in the

way

of funds alone

seems

to

fares

at

wending

Now

stand

of the nation's taking the road in

a body from the middle of July to the

September.

at

As

it is,

first of

the country's thorough-

that season are beaded with folk

their

way

there are

to

some shrine

or other.

three points worth

not-

PILGRIMAGES.

197

The

ing about these pilgrimages.

that

the impulse

them

to

first

Like so many Japanese

of the people.

traits,

art for instance, the pilgrim spirit is not

endowment

of

upper

the

birthright of everybody.

who go on

the simple

not being

The

sufificiently

next feature

classes,

Indeed,

an

but the

it is

chiefly

pilgrimages, the gentle

given to walking.
is

their purely national

Their patronage

character.

is

emphatically

is

is

quite insular.

Their goals draw no devotees from outre

Buddhist though some of them

be,

7ner.

no con-

tingent ever crosses from China or Korea to

visit

On

them.

famous

of

Japan.

the other hand, to the more

them pilgrims

]\Ien

from

flock

from one end

of the

meet there men from the

other,

points in between

which

a fact

all

over

empire

and from
in the

all

eyes

of the pilgrims adds greatly to the pleasure

of the pilgrimage, since socially

it is

journey-

ing the whole length of the land by only

going part way.

shrines

is

horizon.

Regard for the smaller

bounded by a narrower

naturally

But considering that

till

within ten

years the means of conveyance were one's

own

feet,

load-stars

the attraction of even these lesser

is felt

surprisingly

far.

OCCULT JAPAN.

198

That the pilgrim

spirit is

sense wholly national,

only,

and then

thus in a twofold
the sense of

first in

in the sense of all,

one important fundamental

fact

implies

that Japan-

ese pilgrimages are not of Buddhist but of

Shint5 origin.

It is

the

first

hint of the ground-

lessness of the Buddhist claims to spiritual

ownership in the mountain-tops,

they assert they

mankind.

But

made

first

in spite of

all of

which

accessible

to

the very catholic

character of the pretension, the right to such

eminent domain grows

closer

we

scrutinize

it.

when confronted by
The

Baptize

it

and

airier the

The Buddhist

like the early Christian,

stition

airier

seems

to

idea,

have been,

a strong popular super-

at once.

third peculiarity about these pilgrim-

ages consists in

their being

most unreligious

in

probably the

the world.

Speaking

profanely, they are peripatetic picnic parties,

faintly flavored with piety; just a sufficient

suspicion of

it

to render

the easy-going gods.

them acceptable

to

For a more mundanely

merry company than one of these same pilgrim bands it would be hard to meet, and to
put up at an inn in their neighborhood

seem bidden

to a ball.

They

are far

is

to

more

PILGRIMAGES.
the " joly

199

of "fayerie "

compagnie"

Chaucer

us of than the joyless "lymytours

tells

displaced

"

that

it.

The Japanese go upon

pilgrimages because

they thoroughly enjoy themselves in the process, the piety incident to the act sim.ply relieving

them from compunction

good a time.

Sociability

is

is

to increase

always

having so

the keynote of

the affair from start to finish.

pleasure

at

To

pool one's

it,

and for a

Japanese to pool his purse is matter of as

much account. For a Japanese is not only
poor, but impecunious.

erty of impersonality

is

His personal proponly matched by the

For

impersonality of his personal property.

what a Japanese appears to possess

to one,
really

borrowed

of a friend,

owns pledged

and

to a neighbor.

ten

is,

v\diat

he

He

is,

in short, but a transition stage in one long

shift

of loan.

system

of

We

talk of our far-reaching

mercantile credits.

It is financial

self-sufficiency beside the every-day state of

far-eastern

affairs.

Everybody there
upon somebody

as a matter of course

To

these states of

mind and money

lives
else.

are due

the founding of the pilgrim clubs.

The

pilgrim clubs {kosha or ko) are great

OCCULT JAPAN.

200
institutions in

as well as in other

numbers

Indeed they are numerous beyond

to com-

things.

Collectively they are said

belief.

prise eighty per cent, of the entire population of the empire, a statement
at

popular

accept only

Their

discount.

individual

membership consists on the average of from

one hundred to five hundred persons apiece.
Some clubs are smaller than this, and of

some the membership mounts into the thouThe Tomeye kd, the largest I know
sands.
of,

has about twelve thousand

men

enrolled

from
That these are drawn
the small tradesman and artisan class speaks
for the hold the habit has on the people.
Ladies are quite eligible for election and

in

chiefly

it.

even for

The

office in these clubs.

a tobacconist with

whom

am

wife of

acquainted

is

actually the head of a sub-sect, which comprises

several

clubs

and the husband

an enthusiastic club-man

The

in

constitution of the clubs

fully simple.

The

from the head

of the sect

is

one of them.

club charter

is
is

delight-

obtained

by some energetic

individual of the society-founding propensity,

who

collects

about him a few friends and

incidentally appoints himself to the club pres-

1;

PIL GRIMA GES.

becoming what

idency,

When
is

called its sendaisji.

not thus self-appointed, the president

by the brethren

elected

which

is

20

his

for

piety,

another name for the same thing.

is

Besides their simplicity, one great charm

about these clubs

ever

is

individuals against

What-

their cheapness.

may be argued by

domestically inclined

clubs

generally on

the

score of expense, these at least would hardly

seem open to the charge. For the initiation

fee is from three to five cents (five to ten
sen), and the dues from two thirds of a cent
and a third (one

to a cent

month, according to the

two sen) a

to

And

club.

yet the

me

president of one of them once told

that

the principal item in his club's running ex-

penses was the cost of dunning the members

So lamentably

for their dues.

its

debts

indeed

was

it

lax in

humanity the world

is

serious

matter,

amounted,

it

receipts.

His club consisted of

appeared, to a

members each

of

whom was

paying

over.

fifth of

But
for

it

the gross

five

hundred

supposed to pay

eight cents a year into the club treasury

which sum

When

it

his

took eight dollars to

club

been discharged,

obligations

the

member

collect.

have

finally

receives

OCCULT JAPAN.

202

ticket {kansatsii) with the

and

scribed on

on

its

The other

registry books, of

The

stamp

half the

back.

it

of the club

belongs

and the name

face,

its

member and

name

which

of the sub-sect to

of

half remains in the

which the ticket

whom

all

it

the

of the club seal

is

ticket constitutes a certificate of

bership to

in-

may

slip.

mem-

concern, inn-

keepers principally.
Forgetfulness to discharge one's club dues
is

the less excusable in the face of their being

of the nature of

For

gambling debts.

after

the cost of collection and the other running

expenses have been deducted, the remainder

is raffled

by the

for

by the members, and pocketed

lucky winners

through

the

club

treasurer, for pilgrimage purposes.

Once

a year, about three

pilgrim band

and

in

is

weeks before the

to start, the lots are drawn,

the drawing everybody

who has

paid

up participates except the winners of previous pools.

They

unlucky a chance,
journey apiece.
fate corrected

are barred, to give the

till

each shall have had his

Thus

and

all

are the inequalities of

eventually

made happy

at the club expense.

The dues being

so modest, the percentage

PIL GRIMA GES.

of prizes

three

necessarily

is

of

small

only

about

in a

hundred being annually

the

club

members

recipients

20$

Paucity of

fund.

prizes doubtless conduces to remissness in

paying up
just

and even rotation in eligibility,

be, does not add to the desire

though

it

of past beneficiaries

to

make

present, per-

sonally unprofitable, disbursement.

The

fortunate winners are held to be espe-

gods to

cially invited of the

club fund
for

is

envy them

their

The envy
the god

is

them.

The

turned over to the club treasurer

benefit,

their

visit

is

and the

others heartily

lot.

chiefly pecuniary.

supposed through the

For though
show

lots to

a pleasing preference for the winner's com-

pany, he

is

not

invited visitors.

considered averse to

Any

company may do

himself to the pilgrim

at

his

self-

one who wishes to join

own expense; and very many

so

avail

themselves of the privilege.

On

the day appointed for the start, the

god-chosen and the self-invited rendezvous

at

what stands

and thence

to the club for club-house,

sally forth

under the guidance of

their revered president.

This individual, be-

ing presumably the holiest

man

in

the club,

OCCULT JAPAN.

204

not the actual author of

if

clothed from the

is

start with a certain fatherly

His importance

prestige.

being,

its

the fact of his having

several times before.

is

heightened by

made

the pilgrimage

Indeed, he goes usually

every year, and paternally expounds the won-

way

ders of the

agape and

to the brethren,

retail it all in their

less spellbound

who

listen

turn to a no

audience at home.

For, like

month of March, though in another way,

they come in like lions who went out like
the

lambs.

The worthy man

is

not only the head but

the only dead-head of the party.

pays no

scot.

He

alone

There are thus more sub-

stantial benefits accruing to the post of club

president than simply a cicerone's gratified

sense of importance.

That he does not have

pay reminds one of directors' cars at

to

However, so holy a person

home.

wise superior to

money

is

other-

considerations

the

purse being carried by the tori-sJiimari-nin

or treasurer.

The

treasurer

is

the club's man-of-affairs,

of very small affairs indeed.

are

not

descends

The Japanese

above a monetary system which

in

decimals to the thousandth part

PILGRIMAGES.
of a cent, and,

what

keep accounts

to

ures.

is

more

205

surprising, they

the like infinitesimal

fig-

Small wonder that neither arithmetic

To such

nor trade have charms for them.

microscopic quantities the club treasurer

Nothing

no stranger.

is

too minute to fig-

is

ure in his cash-book, from a fresh pair of

straw sandals at a cent and a half a pair to a

To

pickle or two at next to nothing.

bill for

which, lilliputian in

all

the

but length,

the innkeeper with due solemnity affixes his

seal.

In spite of the infinitesimal values of the

separate items of the expense, the

sum

invariably causes the club fund to

fall

the deficit having to be

made up out

individual pockets of the pilgrims.

the club dues, this does

not

total

short,
of the

Unlike

seem

to

be

begrudged, the fact being that a pilgrimage

is

altogether too delectable a thing not to

render those

who indulge

in

it

blind to

its

cost.

In addition to the president and treasurer,

there are other officials
or help-men, ofBcers

would seem

members

to

known

whose

as sewanhi

principal

duty

be helping the president dun

for their dues.

OCCULT JAPAN.

206

The

pilgrim clubs find no counterpart in

They

China.

are therefore not an imported

institution, but a

custom indigenous

to Japan.

II.

Japanese pilgrimages are of two kinds, the

For
though some pilgrimages are Buddhist, some
Shinto, a much more fundamental point
about them is the character of the country
distinction being matter of topography.

concerned

whether they are

made

to the

lowland shrines or to the sacred summits.

In

come
age.

importance,
first,

spring,

Shinto

pilgrimages

measuring importance by patron-

Half a million

make the journey

folk,

it

is

estimated,

to the shrines at Ise every

and ten thousand climb Fuji every

Of the ten modern Shinto

summer.
all

the

sects,

but two are addicted to going upon

grimages,
goal,

as

and each has

well

as

its

special

pil-

great

innumerable minor ones.

These goals are the spots dedicate to their

special gods. Of the two sects without goals,
one is a sort of government bureau, and is
consequently sedentary. The other would
seem to be in the act of evolving the pilgrimage

habit, for

it

has pilgrim clubs which.

PILGRIMAGES.
however, go no whither.

20/

Of the other

eight,

three are devoted to Ontake, two to Ise, two

to

and one

Fuji,

mix

goals, but

dividuals to

it

mix

to
is

Izumo.

Sects do not

quite permissible for in-

sects.

So

that persons of

advanced pilgrimage proclivities can indulge

them

any extent without too tiresome

to

repetition.

Pilgrimages to the lowland shrines and to

the sacred peaks differ in several important
respects

in sex, to

For femi-

begin with.

ninity has always flocked to the one,

until western ideas
prieties,

broke down

was debarred the

all

and,

the pro-

This was

other.

no matter of physique, but of piety. Woman

was altogether too godless a creature to tread
such holy ground as the peaks; an odd assumption, to our thinking, since
us,

when

woman

not superficially godlike,

sure to be godly.

is

But the other side

world thinks otherwise.

with

pretty
of the

was considered

It

favor enough to permit her to climb three

stop

way

where she was obliged to

which must have been considerably

quarters

up,

more aggravating than not

allowed to climb at

to

have been

all.

Proof, however, that this

was an invidious

OCCULT JAPAN.

208

and that woman

distinction,

is

by nature no

devout in Japan than elsewhere,

less

way

in

shrines,

which she tramps

and has a radiant time of

To

whole distance.
dily along,

beaming

is

the

to the lowland
it

the

see her trudging stur-

at the least provocation,

the very impersonation

vacant good-hu-

of

mor, does one good like a gleam of sunshine.

Sometimes she dutifully follows in the wake

and master sometimes she shuf-

of her lord

chattering continuously upon

sex,

at

along in the exclusive society of her

fles

all.

But she

is

own

nothing

always perfectly happy

and apparently never

She knows no

tired.

nerves.

To

the great Shrines of Ise

for pilgrim clubs to

it is

the fashion

go composed entirely of

pilgrimesses, maidens of

Kyoto and Osaka,

who make the journey

bands of from

to

in

a hundred, taking with

man, or two,

bouquets of pretty
Stranger
little

still,

girls of

them only one

do the heavy work

to

fifty

veritable

girls.

to our notions of propriety,

eleven or twelve will surrep-

titiously club together

and

slip off

some

by themselves on a tramp

morning

all

shrine.

There

is at first

some

slight

fine

to the

alarm

PIL GRIMA GES.

when

the disappearance

very inquiry

the
lulls

But

discovered.

is

raises

that

anxiety soon

by revealing similar bereavements

it

among

209

Then

the parents' particular friends.

the financial accomplices to the deed, kind-

hearted neighbors, wheedled by the children

them the necessary funds, come

into loaning

forward and own up, now that the borrowers

beyond

are

recall.

But, indeed, so soon as

the cause of the flight

seem
the
is

to

known, there would

is

be no thought

fugitives.

On

the

fetching back

of

contrary, their

act

deemed eminently praiseworthy, which

strikes

one as perhaps

illogical.

But religion

covers a multitude of sins.

The

parental heart

however,

till

is

not set quite at rest,

other pilgrims returning from

the shrine bring word of the waifs

met the
chi,

little girls

disembarking

at

one has
Yokkai-

another saw them at the Ise inn.

report the truants quite well

children

at

mischief were

All

and happy, as

if

ever otherwise.

Then, with palpitations of pride, the parents

make

great preparations against their return.

Elaborate these are, for honor enough, apparently,

cannot be done the young scapegraces.

Long

before they can possibly arrive, their

OCCULT JAPAN.

2IO
relatives

down

go out to meet them many miles

the

road,

and then wait sometimes

several days at a convenient village

band heaves

in

ceived with

The

sight.

instead

praise

girls

of

till

the

are

blame,

amid great rejoicings escorted into town

re-

and
;

reception which conduces to recurrence of

the escapade.

Each lowland shrine has

val season, although

advantageously

at

blow.

its

may

special festi-

also be visited

Pilgrimage

other times.

to the shrines at Ise

cherries

it

is

Then

made

time the

at the

the great

highways

that lead thither are as gay with pilgrim folk

beneath as their flower aisles are bright with

The

blossom overhead.

band

is

progress of each

As

one long triumphal march.

nears an inn where

it

it

purposes to spend the

night, runners are dispatched ahead to notify

the place of

comes

its

coming, which instantly be-

bustle to receive

all

Hastily don-

it.

ning their best clothes, the maids and other

servants scamper out to meet the band and
escort

it

in

with festival pomp.

feast fol-

lows in the evening quite as spirituous as

spiritual,

pointed with pious song right secu-

larly sung.

At the end

of

it

there

is

some-

,..-^^'

9 P

(
PIL GRIMA GES.

21

thing very like a break-down by the whole

company, maids and

make

The

all.

pilgrims rising,

a ring about the maids in the middle

and then walk round and round chanting

the Ise hymn, while the maids join lustily
In this unpuritanical fashion

in the chorus.
is

each evening brought

Upon

pilgrims

the

to a close.

next morning

their departure the

present everybody with

venirs of themselves

sou-

the inn with the club

banner and the maids with their club

Especially

ing-cards.

fore

with

this

visit-

the president to the

is

charming

Both

attention.

kinds of keepsakes are carried in large quan-

by the band, and distributed unstint-

tities

edly.

For not

to scatter

such mementos of

themselves along their route would be,

beams on the threshold, and the

landlord

maids,

in

The

pilgrim estimation, to travel in vain.

all

band some

smiles, attend the

dis-

tance out, and then throw good wishes after

it till it

disappears

down the

road.

But the supreme moment

company reenters
town.
its

is

triumph

in

Careful account

has

when the
its

native

been kept of

whereabouts, and just before

it

is

due

horses strangely and gorgeously caparisoned

A^

OCCULT JAPAN.

212

are sent out to

meet

On

it.

horses' necks are stuck long

either side the

bamboo

from which hang scarfs of

Each horse

crape.
saddle,

to

gayly colored

carries

rich

riding

which are fastened two paniers,

one on either hand

each steed thus seating

persons apiece,

three

fronds,

one

astride

in

the

middle, and two asquat in the baskets on the

With the

sides.

steeds are sent

adornments for the pilgrims

flowers

{hanagasa)

hats

personal

made

of

and gayly embroidered

coats, beside cakes

and coppers

ing to the crowd.

Thus accoutred,

for scatterrollick-

ing along and strewing the largess as they

pass, the pious

pilgrims

make

their entry

That evening a banquet is given them

by their relatives and friends,, regardless of
expense, like to some coming of age in the
home.

gay middle ages.

without

stint,

the pilgrims sink

life

Sake and merriment flow

and not

till

the next day do

back again into private

holier folk, however, ever after.

PILGRIMAGES.

213

III.

More

serious matters are the pilgrimages

to the peaks.

The

seriousness shows

itself

For

on the surface in the matter of dress.

according to the character of the pilgrimage

is

the costume worn

the character of

the pilgrim.

To

the thing to wear

attire

is

the height of holiday

for the peaks,

on the other hand, the

consecrated dress

is

as plain as possible.

Theoretically, the costume of

sionists

is

is

it

is

the ascen-

pure white or pearl-gray, accord-

ing to their sect or pilgrim club

it

by

the shrines in the plain,

practically

For

a grimy dirt-color in both cases.

never washed, the travel stains being

part of

its

acquired sanctity.

effacing to begin with,

dered by nature

comes,

therefore,

is

Its

hue,

self-

thus further ren-

self-obliterating.

doubly expressive

It

of

be-

proper blankness within.

It

begins with a huge

mushroom hat made

of wood-shavings cleverly plaited, held

a complication of straps.
is

deemed

in this

on by

Natural deal-color

connection as holy as pure

white, since both are attempts at colorlessness.

Under

this hat, umbrella, or parasol.

OCCULT JAPAN.

214
for

most serviceably

it is

all

of

them

as occa-

sion requires, the pilgrim wears a handkerchief in

fillet

tunic comes

round

his brow.

long white

next, which theoretically

the

is

pilgrim's only garment, except of course the

Practically he usually

ubiquitous loin-cloth.

has on something beneath

of a shirt

and then

drawers.

The

tunic

with ideographs

names

is

row

the shape

of the gods of

thoroughly stamped

them being the

the mountain, some
of

those of the pilgrim club.

a long belt-sash,

first in

of tight-fitting trouser-

some

it,

Girdling this

is

round which often runs a

of transmogrified Sanskrit letters, quite

illegible

to the

wearer or to any one

else,

so caricatured have they been by successive

ignorant transmission.

Their

illegibility, of

course enhances their religious effect

just

as the word " amen " sounds incomparably

holier than "so be it." White gaiters, white
cloven socks, and straw sandals complete the

more intimate part

of the costume.

The

gai-

sometimes lavender for the ladies.

But the most peculiar portion of the dress
the wing-like mat {goza) which the pilgrim

ters are

is

wears over his shoulders by a strap across

As it extends beyond his arms
the breast.

PIL GRIMA GES.

on either side and

walks,

it

flaps in the

him an
and what

gives

a distance,

215

wind

as

he

ostrich-like effect at
I

conceive

to

be a

At all events, it is
to.
mundane attempt at angelic repWhat is even more saintly, it is

seraphic one nearer

the nearest
resentation.

quite without vainglorious intent, being sim-

ply a combination waterproof-coat and linenduster.

It is also,

very conveniently, both a

carpet and a bed.

of the pilgrim

Quite as inseparable a part

is

his staff.

This

is

sometimes round, some-

times octagonal, and

name

of the peak,

is

branded with the

and stamped

in

red with

the sign of the shrine at the place where the

ascent

is

The imprint

supposed to begin.

further takes pains to state whether the

grim came

pil-

in by the front door or by the

back one, mountains usually having both

entrances, the original path being considered
the front approach.

stamped again

at

The

staves are counter-

the summit

effectually silencing

all

the holy seals

skepticism

on the

pilgrim's return, and permitting his imagination freer play in the domestic circle.

Somewhere about

his

person each

man

carries a kerosene-looking tin can in which

OCCULT JAPAN.

2l6
to take

home

the holy water, a specialty of

sacred peaks.
detail

it

cures

With sublime
all

ills,

superiority to

irrespective of their

character.

In his right hand the leader of the party

holds a bell which he rings as

The

others often do the same.

he walks

tinkle of this

bell,

together with the chanting in which

join,

imparts a fine processional effect to the

all

march, very impressive to less pious wayfarers.

Up

their sleeves or tucked into their gir-

dles the pilgrims carry ^^/^^/-wands, rosaries,

and other

tools of their trade

the indispensable pilgrim

together with

banners, badges,

and the club's visiting cards.

this has a moral.

It is

Of earthly

The

baggage they have none.

done

reason for

to ingratiate

the gods, because of the greater peril of

grimages to the peaks.

The gods

pil-

are sup-

posed to have a fancy for such ascetic

attire,

and to protect themselves against the dangers of the ascent the pilgrims take particular

pains to propitiate the gods

kin to that the

little girl

a reason

gave for omitting

her prayers in the morning, though she said

them scrupulously

at night

that she

needed

'<

z
III

a
Q
<
ca

I,

o
HI

<

X
H

PIL GRIMA GES.

God

to protect her while she

21/

was

asleep, but

that she could look after herself in the daytime.

If

the costume seem somewhat destitute-

of comfort, the

mountain

itself is

not.

The

traditional ascetics are described, indeed, as

having made the ascent on single-toothed

clogs,

which certainly sounds

difficult,

and

was thought a particularly meritorious thing

to do.

Its

merit lay in thus avoiding crush-

ing stray beetles,

tain

it is

said.

But the moun-

knows such rigorous single-mindedness

Nowadays the ascent is specially

no more.

convenienced for the comfort of the pious

Every sacred peak

climbers.

is

boned with paths which are

fully

beaded with rest-houses

well

rib-

all

thought-

at

intervals

suited to the weakness of the flesh.

care-

taker inhabits each of these hostelries and

dispenses tea, cakes, water, and other fare to

the exhausted, besides providing futon and
such-like necessaries for spending the night.

In the season the huts are crowded with

Nominally there are always ten

pilgrims.

them on every path from base to summit

one at the end of each section into which
of

the path

is

fictitiously divided.

The

parts go

"

OCCULT JAPAN.

2l8

by the rather surprising name

{go)

the

first

of " gills

"gill" being just within the

mountain's portal, and the tenth welcoming

Amid much

the pilgrim at the top.

that

is

passing strange in the Japanese method of

mountaineering, this startlingly liquid measure for a painfully waterless slope

the strangest

for

it

is

perhaps

not the rest-houses

is

that are so designated, but the path itself

with what, considering

condition,

humor.
the

In explanation

are

tains

distressingly dry

its

must be thought very

it is

and reckoned

rice,

rice

and

at a sJio, or three pints,

quite irrespective of size.

The

path,

by an easy extension,

and a

half,

of

moun-

likened to heaps of spilled

measure being one for both

liquids,

ill-placed

said that

is

length of the

called a quart

and then divided into tenths, each

which becomes a

gill.

Shrines beside the path are almost as nu-

merous as rest-houses.
not wanting.

Temples

There are several

also

are

at the bot-

tom, one at the top, and often others between, for though there be few on the flanks
themselves, the foot of a mountain
definite length.
all

stand open to

is

of in-

Untenanted by priests, they

the public, and the cords of

PIL GRIMA GES.

21

hang in mute invitation to the pilupon the god.

But most peculiar and picturesque of the

their bells

grim to

call

features of the

way

are the torii or skeleton-

archways that straddle the path, Japanese

There are many of them
colossi of roads.
for every shrine, the outermost placed at a

seemingly quite disconnected distance away

from what

known

Japan, are

heralds.

it

Torii

as

all

toge,

The

several passes

scattered

so called from

all

over

such portals

erected on their summits to sacred peaks

from them in clear weather. One of

important is the Torii toge on the
most
the
Nakasendo, through whose arch the pilgrim,

visible

as he tops the pass, catches his

first

view of

Ontake, a long snow-streaked summit, seen

over intervening ranges of

hills,

miles away, as the crane

flies,

were he not

extinct

This

is

practically

the outer portal of

all

or

thirty-five

would
in

fly,

Japan.

after this the

pilgrim finds gateway after gateway across

his path,

till

the last ushers him on to the

own

holy summit

itself.

ity prevents

the pious from actually passing

Distrust of his

pur-

under them on the ascent, and he modestly

goes round them instead.
holiness conquers humility.

On

the descent,

OCCULT JAPAN.

220
Shrines,

and

rest-houses,

make

portals

breathing spots for the pilgrims, which the

church instantly turns to business account,

for the church

is

not above trade.

In

its

hands, faith very properly becomes a marketIn return for ready

able commodity.
it

barters

its

salvation

in

money

shape

the

of

These are usually small pieces of

paper stamped with the names of the gods,
and sometimes lithographed with rude portraits of the same, manufactured by the milcharms.

and sold for a cent. With such popular

prices, sales are enormous, and booths under

lion

the charge of holy salesmen do a continuous

business from morning to night, for no

grim passes on his

Some

charm.

pil-

way without buying his

guard one

of these {niamori)

against special catastrophe, disease, or mis-

fortune

some bring

such as a

worms

prolific

others

protectors.

particular

good

luck,

propagation of one's

are cure-alls and

Charms

silk-

universal

are religion's epigrams

packet essences of truth, potent for being

portably put.

When

the pilgrims get home,

they pin them upon the

doors,

and few doors

in

lintel of their

outer

any Tokyo

street

but are placarded with them.

PIL GKIMA GES.

221

much given to chanting

They do it as naturally as
some people whistle. The Ise bands go rollThe

pilgrims are

they march.

ais

ing along to the enlivening cadence of the

Ise ondd,

and to many more special odes

to

what with good

is

rhythm on the road

set

will passes for music.

It

to song, a caterpillar

stage in the art of melody, lacking as yet

transformation to the winged thing.

The

chants consecrated to the peaks are

more truly processionals. Common

of them is the stirring refrain Rokkoii
Oyania

kaisei,

to

all

shojo

chanted antiphonally in two

tones, the second about a fifth higher than

the

first.

frain

may

is

Literally, the

May

meaning

of the re-

our six parts be pure, and

the weather on the honorable peak be

fine.

But the words are mystic to most

those

who

repeat them.

The

of

first half is

portion of one of the purification prayers,

the rokkon shojo no harai, the second a part

of a prayer for fine weather.

informed,

simply

invaluable

It is,

in

so

am

dispelling

mist.

Unlike the gods of the lowland shrines,

which

have

each

their

special

days, the gods of the peaks are

all

reception
of

them

OCCULT JAPAN:

2 22
at

home

to

mankind

midsummer.

This

very considerate on

is

their part, since to visit

them

any other

at

In consequence,

time would be troublesome.

in

same season

at the

Japanese eyes, an ascent out of season

is

not only impious, but actually impossible.

year, about

Every

place what
ing.

At

known

that time,

tain-paths

and put

is

the 20th of July, takes

all

as the mountain-open-

over Japan, the

are repaired, the

in order,

and the peaks climbed with

pomp for the first ascent

The peaks then remain open
5th of September, when they

of the season.

great

serted

till

moun-

huts unbarred

till

about the

are again de-

the next July.

In this manner the "Goddess

the Flower Buds to blossom

who makes

" receives her

worshipers upon Fuji's crater-crest, to which

known as the Goddess'

Welcome, ushers them up. Other gods and

a temple just without,

goddesses are similarly visited upon their

special peaks.

But on

of faith alone perceives

all

but one the eye

them

are they incarnate in the flesh.

only on one

PILGRIMAGES.

223

IV.

For there
bourne

one mountain that makes

is

to a farther

journey than any possi-

Ontak6

ble to the feet.

goal to the soul's

is

For Ontake

pilgrimage into the other world.

is

To

the mountain of trance.

pilgrims ascend,

its

summit

not simply to adore but

to be there actually incarnate of the gods.

Through the
deign

six

weeks

receive

to

daily take place

in

which the gods

man, divine

upon

possessions

Furthermore,

it.

it is

the only peak in Japan where, of the spot's

own

instance, such

occur.

It is

communion

what the Japanese

original {hon vioto) of trance

such as

Omanago

power by

is

thought to

call

the great

other peaks,

near Nikko, getting their

direct spiritual descent from

it.

In keeping with the character of the peak,

is

the character of the pilgrim clubs that

climb

it.

The Ontak6

clubs differ from

all

their fellows in being divine-possession clubs.

To become

entranced

is

the club occupation.

Instead of simple prayer-meetings in their

dead season, these clubs hold regular seances

for the purpose of being possessed, seances

which they turn to very practical ends.

For

OCCULT JAPAN.

224
they direct

all

the important affairs of their

Once a month
communion of the sort, and every
midsummer as many of them as may travel
by such revelation.

lives

they hold

to

Ontake

The

thin,

for a yet

pure

to ethereality,

higher spiritual

air of the

peaks

and Ontake

is

flight.

conducive

furthermore in-

is

vested with faith's most potent

spell.

If to

have faith as a grain of mustard seed can

move mountains,
to

it

what a mountain

is

of

re-

not easy to set bounds

it

might not be able

to do.

Each club
in itself,

is

a divine dramatic

containing

all

sary to a possession.

clubs

is

company

the performers neces-

Only

in

very small

such organization lacking.

But as

in this case their president is often president

of

some

easily

larger club, the loan of a nakaza

managed.

of himself in the

is

For the president borrows

one capacity what he needs

in the other.

Very

large clubs contain several such com-

There may be as many as fifteen

nakaza in a club, and twice that number of
maeza. There is no rule in the matter. But
panies.

except for exceptional cases of esprit de corps,

many maeza,

or nakaza, in one club do not

a
<
z
o
u
z

PILGRIMAGES.

make

apparently

225

a happy family of

find-

it,

So, like

ing divided prestige disagreeable.

queen bees, they swarm with their followSuch fission is

ing and found a new club.
one mode of club generation. Another is by
the spontaneous generation from the

some energetic

brain of

fertile

individual spoken of

above.

Once
unto

started, each club

itself

a spiritual law

is

per-

Salpetriere

possession

own pecuhar practices. For it

nakaza under the tuition of
own
educates its
The
its maeza and the previous nakaza.

petuating

its

one long process

tuition is

A man

begins as a simple

ally rises to a

in

purification.

member, gradu-

lower part in the function, and,

may eventually rise to be

The outward ceremonies

are of

course consciously copied, the inward

initia-

if

proficient,

possessed.

tive quite unconsciously

When

conformed

a god-

to.

one subject has thus educated his

successor he retires from active practice, be-

coming what
inkyo,

lit.

is

gular Japanese

man who
duties,

conception.

has abdicated

and

An

called an inkyo-nakaza.

a dweller in retirement,

all

It

is

a sin-

denotes a

earthly

cares,

responsibilities in favor of

his

OCCULT JAPAN.

226
son

while

man

still

professedly gone from the world

patently in

existence immaterial
retired potential

etherealized
exists,

and

is

a state of

enough, but to be a

god would seem

a doubly

Nevertheless the thing

idea.
in

This

it.

case of sickness or other in-

capacity on the part of the nakaza, the

who
of

represents this

immateriality

man

abdicated embodiment

performs

the

in

other's

place.

The

chief difference

between the various

schools of divinity consists in the opening

or non-opening of the eyes of the possessed

during the height of the trance.

But

all

the

other actions of the possessed during the

trance are likewise stereotyped.

behavior in

it

is

no more nor

His whole
than a

less

The mechanical

bundle of hypnotic habits.

raising of the gohei-\^zxidi to his forehead,

the peculiar frenzied shake he gives

settling of

it

before his brow, are

unintentional

it,

the

again to a statesque imperative

all

but so

artificiality.

larly discernible

in

many

This

is

cases of
particu-

the difference between

the simpler attitudes of the

Ryobu trances

and the more elaborate poses of the pure

Shinto ones.

The Buddhist feminine

ions, again, are different

from

either.

fash-

PILGRIMAGES.

To

be a club nakaza

He must

22/

pretty hard work.

is

be possessed at least two or three

may be

times a month, and

called

upon

to

be somebody beside himself much oftener.

It

depends upon how much divination work

there

There

kinds.

This work

to be done.

is

way

business of the club in the

the

foretelling

of

drought,

quakes, and other general

the interest

fecting

clubs

two

the regular routine

first

is

of

is

earth-

catastrophes

the

of

prophecy

of

storms,

af-

Some

club.

have to interview the gods once a

month on such matters

others

manage

to

get along on two questionings a year, at the

two great

semi-annual

festivals.

This

is

probably due to club-temperament, just as

it

suffices

once for

some people
all,

to

ask a question

while others have to be per-

petually putting
different forms.

it

under indistinguishably

In addition to this routine

work there are the

inevitable

extras

the

unavoidable illnesses, to be cured by divine

prescription,

and incidentally any other mis-

fortunes to which flesh

the god

is

is

heir, all of

which

expected to relieve on application.

Between these various duties the god, and

incidentally the poor nakaza,

is

kept pretty

OCCULT JAPAN.

228

To be

busy.

so frequently divine has

its

Except for his succh d'estime,

drawbacks.

a nakaza must wish at times that he were

merely mortal.

Even

to be both doctor
it

amounts

to, is

in all the club diseases,

and patient, which

no

slight strain

what

is

on the poor

man's constitution.

The

god's conversation, though not super-

ficially brilliant, is tolerably to

the point, and

certainly suggests intuition at times, though

I know no cases of a very startling nature.
The best instance I witnessed was the divin-

ing by the god of the pain in the leg of a

friend of mine, to which, since the

unknown

him and betrayed the

outward sign, there was no visible
to

The prophecies
quite

find there

slips

of

They

are

paper and

So that one may

what the club's history was, or

should have been,

the

the club.

on

the club archives.

filed in

nite

by no

clue.

are not striking, though

satisfactory to

religiously recorded

past.

man was
fact

month by month

The prophecies
enough

are laconic and indefi-

to figure in the predictions of

"New

lack of

in the

England Farmer's Almanac;" a

precision which does not detract

from their chance of

verification.

PILGRIMAGES.
Other-world work
patible with hard

is

work

229

apparently quite comin this.

One

of

my

of the August
Dance Pilgrim Club is a case in point. His
club communes once a month and his duties

special friends, the nakaza

begin as soon as ever the monthly business

He

accounts are settled.

then comes

a series of possession engagements.

if

you apply

for a sitting

you

will

in for

Indeed,
find his

time taken up ahead in a way to suggest

more earthly

callings.

which he works
ular trade,

low

and

like
is

In addition to

anybody

all

a strong, hearty young

in spite of his

of

else at his regfel-

being a god so goodly a

fraction of his time.

Thus, humble though their active

mem-

bers be, the Ontake pilgrim clubs furnish

society not to be found in any other clubs

on earth

the

company

had for the asking.

of

heaven

is

For the Ontake pilgrim

clubs are the only clubs in the world

honorary members
not

distinguished

to be

are,

not naval

foreigners,

figureheads, but gods.

not

whose

officers,

princely

THE GOHEI.
N

the beginning of this account of

Japanese divine possession I stated
that

promised

it

was

of Shinto origin,

later to justify the assertion.

time has come to

fulfill

that promise.

ing seen that esoteric Shinto

becomes pertinent now

to

is

and

Hav-

esoteric,

show

that

The

it

it

is

Shinto.

To prove

this initially

the forthright matter

establishing of the
of possession

was

it

was anything but

may

seem.

For the

genuineness of the act

child's play beside estab-

lishing the genuineness of the possession of

the act.

At

first

glance the latter was as

mixed up an
one could buy into.

prettily

intellectual lawsuit as

Nobody

knew
who con-

really

anything about the case, and those

fidently ventured a verdict did so in suspi-

cious accordance with their special interest

THE GOHEI.

231

while as for general principles, so far as they

proved anything, they turned out to prove

what was not

Two

true.

claimants presented themselves for

Shinto and Buddhism.

possession of the

cult,

That the cult was

chiefly practiced

but by a third party well

known

by

to

neither,

be

illegit-

imate, called, with a certain pious duplicity

of meaning, Both,

rendering of the

being the

literal

did not sim-

For the hybrid Ryobu, having

its illegitimacy, dumbly

plify matters.
.

such

term Ry5bu,

candidly confessed

refused to confess further on the subject.

The importance

of the inquiry quite tran-

scends the question of creed.

so,

we might

safely leave

church polemics.

But

question of religion

For

it

it is

if

Buddhist,

foreign importation.

it

is

is

Did

not do

it

to the zeal of

not

simply a

a question of race.

the thing be Shinto,

if

anese

it

it is

purely Jap-

but another bit of

In the one case

it

pos-

sesses the importance that attaches to being

of the soil, in the other
ficial

ter of

merely such super-

interest as attaches to soiling,

much

mat-

less archseologic account.

The

point thus possesses ethnic consequence.

Direct inquiry elicited worse than igno-

OCCULT JAPAN.

232
ranee

evolved a

it

doubt.

terly baffling.

peculiarly

mystifying

priestly evidence

For the

No

sooner had one

was

bit-

man

con-

came

vincingly told his tale than another

along with an upsettingly opposite story.

The

sole point in

which the

agreed lay

in ascribing

tially

tellers substanit

pretty unan-

imously each to his

own

The

it was Shinto
was Buddhist while

particular faith.

Shintoists asserted that

the Buddhists that

it

the Ryobuists ascribed

it

at times to the one,

but more commonly to the other.

humble brethren modestly admitted

few

that they

did not know.

The

only fact that emerged tolerably

evident

from

this

bundle of contradiction

somebody had stolen the

was
somebody
that

else,

self-

cult

from

but as to which of these rep-

utable parties was the reprehensible robber,

and which

his unfortunate victim, the

poor

investigator was left sadly at a loss to discover.

Where doctors

of divinity disagreed in this

it seemed hopeless to try

between them. Under such weighty

alarming manner,
to decide

counter-assertions one's

own

opinion

swung

balance-wise to settle at last to the lowest

THE GOHEI.

And

level of equi-doLibt.

mere human help could

233
so far as

there,

go,

might have

it

stayed forever in indeterminate suspension.

At

this critical dead-point in the investiga-

when any advance toward

tion,

seemed an
tial

evidence suddenly presented

the scale.

conviction

impossibility, a bit of circumstan-

say presented

itself to

turn

for

was

itself,

it

not through the deposition of either contending party that

dered

in

it

came

into court.

It

wan-

one day unexpectedly, and proceeded

quietly to give most

the case.

Indeed

Oddly enough,

damaging testimony in
evidence was crucial.

its

this

circumstantial

witness

appeared in the shape of what stands to

Shinto for crucifix

the gohei.

The acquaintance
the

first

startling

that

of the gohei

is

one makes in Japan.

zigzags

of

that

among
The

strange strip of

white paper, pendent at intervals from a

straw rope lining the

lintel of

front, instantly catch the

istic

suggestion of lightning.

as looks go, the thing

flash of that

some temple-

eye with the

real-

Indeed, so far

might very well be a

hasty but undecided visitant of

the skies, caught unawares by some chance,

and miraculously

paper-fied.

For striking

OCCULT JAPAN.

234

enough

And

it still is.

of direction

can

all

that its discontinuities

be fashioned out of one

continuous sheet remains one of those hopemysteries

less

construction

of

kin

the

to

introduction of the apple into the dumpling,

one has actually seen the sheet cut and

till

folded into shape before his eyes.

Specimens enough, however, he

see, first

ple
so

building.

it

sure to

is

without and then within the tem-

hangs

As

it

drapes

in holy frieze

the

entrance,

around the holiest

rooms, appearing at

every possible

tunity,

till,

the very heart of the

shrine,

it

finally, at

stands upright upon a wand, the

central object of regard

But

it

oppor-

is

upon the

altar.

by no means confined

the

to

temples, the iniya and the jinja, plentifully

Almost

as these are dotted over the land.

every house has

its

kami-dana or Shinto-

god's shelf, a tiny household shrine, the glorification of

some cupboard or

recess.

And

there in the half-light stands the gohei again,

there in the heart of each Japanese home.
It

is

no more confined to an indoor

than man
all

himself.

You

shall

meet

it

life

abroad

over the land, in the most unexpected

nooks and corners.

The paths

that lead so

THE GOMEL
prettily over

Japanese

hill

235

and valley are

set

and before many of

gohei on its stick, sometimes

with wayside oratories

them stands 2i
quite humanly housed under a tiny shed,
sometimes canopied only by the sky and the
Thoroughfare, field, and forest know
stars.
it

Now

alike.

marks a quiet eddy in the

and now,

it

tide of traffic of a bustling town,

the long year through,

points the bleak

it

some lonely peak that only in

midsummer knows the foot of man.
Welcoming anchorite to the mountaineer,
summit

it is

no

of

In fact

less the farmer's friend.

peculiarly

addicted

to

it is

When

agriculture.

the growing rice begins to dream of the ear,

it

makes

its

appearance

in the paddy-lields,

stationed here and there

among

the crops,

keeping an overseer eye upon them from the

top of a

tall stick.

But strangest post of all, you

it some fine day riding in

upon

shall

chance

festival pro-

cession, perched in solitary grandeur

upon

the saddle of a richly caparisoned horse.

In short,

it

is

omnipresent, this Shinto

symbol.
Its religious significance

to overestimate.

It

is

it

would be hard

to Shinto

what the

OCCULT JAPAN.

236
crucifix is to

more

Christianity and a great deal

one of those symbols which modern

much

defenders of the faith take

assure you

is

pains to

only a symbol, and no pains

whatever to prevent the people from wor-

As

shiping as a god.

much

Shintoists are not so

distressed to harmonize their beliefs

with science, being as yet unfired by the

burning

desire

things, they

to

make

know

at

of

small distinction between

the gohei and the god.

make none

reasons

the

In

many

cases they

all.

For there are two kinds

of gohei

the one,

the harai-bei or purification present, and the

other, the shintai or god's body.

The

has for analogue in Christianity the

the universal Shinto symbol of conse-

It is

Wherever you meet

cration.

know

and specimens of

seen in profusion about

They

it

you may

the spot at once for holy ground dedi-

cate to the god

tee,

first

crucifix.

are the gohei that

it

may be

any Shinto temple.

first

greet the devo-

pendent from the sacred straw rope

upon the

lintel

of

the temple door

and

they are the gohei that festoon the building's

eaves and
within.

make

It is

frieze to the

holier

rooms

they also that in the possession

THE GOHEI.

237

act inclose the place of the god's descent

and sanctify
short,

know
To

to

it

his

wherever a gohei

In

hung up you may

one of the purification kind.

for

it

habiting.

brief
is

the second or the god's body variety

such as are stood upright upon a

belong

all

wand.

The gohei

the temple altar

that

is

makes cynosure upon

of this kind

and so

is

the

one so daintily domesticated in the family

So also are those met
cupboard at home.
with in the mart, on the mountain-top, and

amid the

paddy-fields.

portant of
deity

is

all

that

Last but most im-

these vicarious emblems of

which

is

clenched in the hands

of the possessed during the possession trance.

They

are

called

the god's body, not be-

cause they are permanently god, but because

may become his embodiment

moment. The little that we know
they

at

any

of the

evolution of the gohei will help explain what

is

supposed to take place.

cloth,

Its

name

signifies

gohei meaning august cloth or present;

the former meaning having in course of time

developed through a whole gamut of gifts in

the concrete into the latter meaning in the
abstract.

For the gohei

is

the direct de-

scendant of the hempen cloth hung on the

OCCULT JAPAN.

238

sacred sakaki (the CUycra Japoiiicd) in pres-

ent to the gods.

cestor

may

still

be seen

of colored

shreds

the devil trees

relative of this its an-

cloth

Korea

in

attached

the

in

there to

a shift of devotion which

need distress no one, since devils and gods

are always first cousins in any faith.

hemp

From

material

constitution

successively first to cotton, then to

changed
silk,

its

and

present modest paper,

finally to its

a transformation of substance quite in step

economically with the progress of the

As

to its color, the earliest

in the Kojiki,

anything

in

mention

arts.

of

it

recorded therefore as early as

Japan

tells of

two kinds, one

dark blue, the other white, used together.

Nowadays

it

is

almost

always the

plain

white of ordinary paper.

But occasionally

gohei of the far-oriental

elemental colors,

yellow, red, black, white, and blue,

may be

seen in a row, a cosmic quinquenity of the

five

elements, wood,

fire,

earth, water,

and

metal.

Cloth
in

form

god.

it

it

was, clothes

it

now symbolizes

has become.

For

the vesture of the

Falling in spotless folds that spread

out on either side about the wand,

it

suggests,

THE GONE I.

239

even to the undevout, the starched flounces

In the Ryobu
of some ceremonial dress.
variety the central connecting link

is

upright in the midst, clothes-pinned

the stick

owing to

its cut, it

raised

upon

flanges out a

toward the top, which does for the diIn the purer Shint5
vine neck and head.
form the top piece is bent down over the
little

rest,

symbolic of a more perfect pose.

On

occasion the god deigns to inhabit this

habit of

Such embodiment,

his.

graciously

indeed,

is

taking place every day at any

To

Shinto temple.

say that

at the god's pleasure,

god

flatteringly to the

it

however,
;

for

it

at the will of the worshiper.

takes place
to

is

really

put

Every prayer,

momentary mumble,

even the merest

it

happens

in-

volves incarnation of the gohei by the god,

and
gins

at a
his

hands.

descend

moment's

For before he be-

prayer the worshiper claps

This
;

call.

is

summons

a like signal

to the

bids him

god

depart.

his
to

At

any popular shrine there is thus a continual

coming and going on the part of the god
which seems understandable enough until
;

one attempts

to

understand

happens when two persons

it.

call

For what
at overlap-

OCCULT JAPAN.

240

ping times upon one and the same god, so

that one worshiper bids

the other would

strictly clear.

still

him be gone while

have him

stay, is not

But such complications con-

front the too curious in

theories of an-

all

thropomorphic gods, especially when their

worshipers are on intimate terms with them.
I

merely suggest

it

here as a problem in

higher esoterics.

Cases of incarnation where the god

be supposed more nearly to suit his

may
own

convenience are those of the goJici of the

paddy-fields.

or

These are divine scarecrows,

rather scare-locusts, those pests of the

paddy-field

farmer.

They

are scarecrows,

however, in an occult sense, for in spite of

resembling gods as monstrously as the more

secular monstrosities do

man,

it

looks which the locusts do not

disposition.

And,

to

is

like,

not their

but their

judge from their general

employment, they appear

to

do as effective

police duty in frightening off insects as those

about the temple do in frightening

off

imps.

Another instance of the goJiei incarnated

of the god is where it is borne in festival
procession sitting upon the sacred horse.
This animal, usually an albino,

is

the god's

THE GO HE I.

241

Steed of state, kept for the divine use in the

sacred stable, an adjunct to

For

shrines.

that rides

the god himself

It is

dle.

all

well-appointed

in these festivals

way

the god's chosen

of

The

god ever leave the temple.

possibly detect

tween

this

the sad-

appearing

prurient

some inconsistency beand the one made

statement

above to the effect that the god

coming and going

but

it

expected of

spirits.

is

always

should be remem-

bered that in no cosmogony

state

no stick

in

In no other way, indeed, does the

in public.

may

it is

sits

consistency

is

Besides, to go out in

and to go out incognito are two very

different things, even in the case of royalty.

All these are examples of quite invisible

possessions.

Though

the god be there, the

undevout would never know

it.

But there

are sensible possessions of the gohei; cases

where the incarnation

both seen and felt. It
that the

first

of the
will

sign of the

god may be

be remembered

coming on

possession in the possession trance

of the
is

the

So spontaneous
shaking seem, that it is no wonder

shaking of the ^^//^z'-wand.

does this
it

should be thought so in

fact.

The gohei

shakes, believers say, because the god de-

OCCULT

242
scends into

through

he

it

and

it,

slips

Without

man.

would not take

JAPAN-.
quivers yet as passing

it

on into the body

mediation

its

The gohei

place.

of spirit lightning-rod

sort

divine spirit into the

it

to

is

thus a

conduct the

one.

It

not,

is

without a certain poetic fitness

therefore,

that

human

of the

possession

should look so like lightning.

Another case of its visible possessions,

one where it plays a more autonomous part,
is

christening power.

its

very curious

know one quite

unknown to foreigners; so much so that
more than one of my acquaintance who has
custom

this,

and so

far as I

had children by a Japanese wife have stoutly

maintained that no such custom
is

in

of

naming

vogue among Shintdists.

most obvious and the

father to
in

It

nevertheless.

fact,

There are three methods

dren

exists.

name

chil-

One, the

least devout, is for the

The next

the child himself.

an ascending scale of piety

father to select several suitable

is

for the

names and

then submit the choice among them to the

The way the god shows

follows
The father brings

god.
as

the temple, and with

him

his choice is

the

slips of

child to

paper

in-

THE GOHEL

243

scribed with possible names.

Tliree or five

is

up

the usual number.

after

priest rolls

out

fishes

first

to bear

is

a father

is
;

for

the god-given

name the
when

a convenient custom

doubt between the far-eastern

in

is

them

them with
Whichever the gohei

due incarnation angles

a gohei upon a wand.

child

The

puts them into a bowl, and

separately,

Tom, Dick, or Harry. This

ceremony takes place when the infant is a
week old. It is not to be confounded with
the miya mairi, which takes place a month
equivalents of

and

after birth

is

not our christening at

all,

but akin to the Hebraic presentation of the

child at the temple.

For

at the niiya jnairi

the child,

named some weeks

sented to

its

grim

is

pre-

is

guardian god and formally put

under his protection.

tening

before,

also largely

This style of chris-

performed by the

pil-

clubs.

The third method of getting the babe a

name is by possession pure and simple.
The nakaza goes into his trance, the god
descending through the gohei, and the maeza
asks

the

called, to

method

god what he

will

have the baby

which the god makes

reply.

of christening one's child

is

This

reputed

or Ts

HNIVERSITT

OCCULT JAPAN.

244

the most holy of the three, and

ticed

by the

twenty per

of Japan, about

named thus by

mated, are
god,

about ten per

duly prac-

is

Of the population

ultra devout.

cent,

cent.,

it

is

esti-

the gohei or the

by each.

From such many and various capacities

inherent in the gohei may be gathered the
part

it

plays in the thoughts of the Japanese

Indeed,

people.

it is all

and reversely Shinto

It is,

is

that

most Shint5,

is

mostly

all

gohei.

therefore, not surprising that in the

wholesale Buddhist spoliation of Shintd the

gohei should have been one of the few possessions which Shintd was able

Not that some

of

not flatteringly adopt

Nichiren
find

it

sects have

useful,

themselves,

it.

The Shingon and

and have adapted

it,

for

from unpretentious paper into

tioned.

It is

admittedly

its

retain.

both been pleased to

transforming

Nevertheless,

to

the Buddhist sects did

ownership

is

it

to suit

example,

solid brass.

quite unques-

not only of Shint5 creation, but

so.

THE GOHEI.

245

II.

Now

it

was

this ^c'//(!?/-wand that in conjur-

ing up the god

one day the

conjured up unexpectedly

spirit of

the

Its

rite.

exorcism

was sorely needed, for in spite of boring the

priests and even bothering the god on the
subject, nothing but perplexity had come of
the investigation,

me

occurred to
present at

stance this

when one day

that the gohei

a possession

it

was always
in every in-

that

wand had been put

hands of the

man

to

suddenly

into the

be possessed prepara-

tory to the possession, and that he had then

held

it

through the trance.

Other

details

had varied, but the wand was always there.

I

could recollect no exception to this rule.

Having once been struck by the coincidence,

I observed more closely, and to complete
At every
confirmation of my conjecture.
function, whether at the hands of Ryobuists,
Shintaists, or Buddhists, there

constant as the trance

Upon which

was the wand,

itself.

asked and got innocent ad-

mission from the Buddhists that

necessar}^ detail of the rite, while
I

learned the explanation of

it

was a

from Shinto

its

presence.

OCCULT JAPAN.

246

The

fact

and

gether thus

its reason may be formulated toThe gohei-wand is used in every

yapan, without exception,

diviiie possession in

as a necessary vehicle for the god's descent.

Whether the possession take place by

Ryobu, or Buddhist
the gohei-^dXidi

man

tation

put into the hands of the

god

to the

"through
'\s

is

be possessed

to

it is

Shint5,

in every instance

rite,

at

the time the invi-

descend begins, and

to

the god believed to come.

post hoc because propter hoc.

thus the very soul of the

To add argument

to

The gohei

It
is

rite.

this fact

savors of

supererogation, for the crucial character of

its

circumstantial evidence

is

patent.

however, gratuitously to emphasize

As

if,

its

impor-

tance, both faiths festoon the place

where

the descent

pendent

is

to be made with other gohei,

overhead,

for

purification.

Both

haraibei and sJiintai are thus present at the

function.

Before the waving of this

little

wand,

all

the Buddhist pretensions to the cult pale to

impalpable

phantoms.

becomes suddenly

vain.

with a wraith; and

if

Further

discussion

One cannot
one think

argue,

to strike

insubstantiality, he is aware only of the void.

THE GOHEL
But as some good souls

24/

will still persist in

believing in spooks, in spite of the failure

of the not over-incredulous Society for Psy-

chical

Research to find a single really

worthy specimen,

it

may

rite or two.

ghost by a funeral logical

To begin

trust-

be well to lay this

with, then,

important to

is

it

as sciences,

means to a
For those
the mystery itself.
such things do not follow them
but as arts. They have inher-

ited the act

embodied

remember
mystery

that to behevers the

is

addicted to

the symbols

in

in certain actions,

which

are to them essentials

From being
fact.

in

as

a mystery

the habit of

man

it

make

by

it so.

is

in

to the first

when

it

a mystery of

is

to

itself.

hierarchy has

amount

is,

to buttonhole for pious

significance

well-organized

a certain

an end

to

naively imparting

may chance

utmost

so in

not a thing a faith

is

purposes, especially
the

become

that to believe

is faith,

virtue of that belief alone^, to

Now

performance.

to its

essential

and

stands enshrined

so in act, they

For so potent

means

it

of

celestial

to

keep up

exclusiveness

for purposes of self-preservation.

cause by prolonged devotion

Every

it

Just be-

has secured

OCCULT JAPAN.

248
3.

divine

distant

why

recognition

no reason

should minimize this intimacy to oth-

it

Anteroom admission

ers.

is

the gods

to

the favor of

surely as valuable a privilege as

is

a like reception at the hands of the great

and we all know what

own eyes such threshold inti-

ones of the earth

lustre in their

macy

casts

upon the favored few, even

extent of pretending to

Now

others.

ing enough in

make

this divine intimacy

all

conscience

to the

light of

when

it

to

impos-

is

it

rests

simply on the word of the admitted.

How

more so when confirmed by

visible

infinitely

action on the part of the gods themselves.

An

introduction to such peculiar privilege

is

not thoughtlessly to be given to everybody.

It will

not do to present profane outsiders to

one's gods

bosom

foe.

still

less thus to present one's

Such an

act

is

nothing short of

sacerdotal suicide.

Yet something

more improbable the

For they
admit getting the ^o/iei from Shinto, and at
the same time they assert that they taught
still

Buddhists would have us believe.

that faith the possession cult.

If so,

then

they took three steps to their own destruction,

each more trance-like, to say the

least,

THE GOHEL
than

First, they parted for

predecessor.

its

249

no consideration whatever with a most

valu-

simply inestimably so
conversion
the very folk

able possession

purposes of

whom

for

to

they were at the

utmost to convert.

moment doing

their

Next, they permitted

these people, once taught, to substitute their

own sacred symbol

preme

act, a

as

conjurer in the su-

concession which must speedily

have induced complete oblivion that the cult

itself

had ever been a

gift

and then,

cap

to

the climax to their kind self-effacement, they

sym-

actually adopted this, their proselytes'

bol, for exclusive

And

use themselves.

then

they ask the world to credit the account.

One

does not

astounded

know whether

at the colossal coolness

put forth such a

plicity

tale,

Were
I

which can

or at the amazing sim-

merely making an argument

should here rest
this

my

bit

an exposition on which

go on to some more

line.

in

the

case, the conof

evidence

alone rendering any other superfluous.

it is

of

it.

vincing character of

as

more

which can suppose others capable

believing

matter

to be the

am

But

engaged,

facts, all in the

same

OCCULT JAPAN.

250

To
the

a pro-Buddhist prejudice in the matter,

of these

first

second only
this

in

must prove a revelation

surprise to the

turn in

its

For

it is

only

is

hands

summons

state's evidence against

its

own gods

it.

Not

the Shinto gods that descend.

it

alone that Shint5

summons, but the Buddhists

deities,

It is

last.

the very gods the gohei-sN2SvdL

also call Shinto

and of their own pantheon only the

lower, never the higher, members.

To

ex-

plain this unusual fancy for their neighbors'

gods, combined with a relative disregard for

company

the

allege the, to

own, the Buddhists

them, comparative unimpor-

Such indifferentism is
of their preabandonment
near

tance of the
perilously

of their

cult.

People are not given to de-

vious claims.

tecting flatness of flavor in their

If

own

fruit.

the practice be to them so unimportant

an

affair,

why

indulge in

it

at all

Besides,

even this lame admission halts at summoning

the Shint5 gods.

Doubtless

it is

most

flat-

tering to the Shinto deities thus to be called

on for their opinion by professing outsiders,

would seem quite an inexplicable credulity on the part of the Buddhists to do so,
but

it

even

among

the politest people in the world.

THE GOHEI.

251

III.

So much
evidence of

mute
But language has a word

shall suffice here for the

acts.

or two to say on the subject which, as a

matter of courtesy, it may be well to admit.

And first in the way of records.
The Kojiki and the Nihonshoki, known
also as the Nihongi, are the oldest written

records of the Japanese people.

the one in

a. d. 712,

the other

Compiled,
in a. d. 720,

they together constitute the Shinto

bible,

being different gospels, as

much

it

were, of

the same facts and fictions about the national

past.

Many

founded on

of

fact,

inexactly when,
itself

to

state.

the fictions are doubtless

though exactly how and even

it

would outwit mythology

There

the usual attempt to

is

at the

beginning

make something

out

of nothing in order to account for the cos-

much of which is probably Chinese.

Then having got primeval chaos into somemos,

thing approaching order, the account gradu-

assumes consistency, till at last it becomes substantially history, of a far-oriental

ally

kind.

As

it

begins with gods and ends with

men, the evolution

is

not of the strictly

sci-

OCCULT japan:

252

but rather a general devolution

entific kind,

in

keeping with the doctrine of original

During

sin.

abnormal development various

this

improbable events occur, some necessary to

it,

some

Of course the gods

irrelevant.

the dei ex inachina in the matter

are

and

it

takes a long time before the universe gets

into fairly passable running order, and their

presence can generally be dispensed with.

This dispensation, indeed, never wholly takes

place,

and even after the world

along well enough of

have formally

left

itself,

the field to their descend-

ants, they are continually

out, just to

One

going

is

and the gods

popping

of their favorite

on the scene

is

methods of appearing

to possess

Such

people.

manifestations of themselves were not,

are to trust the histories, very

There are

what

and,

and

in

be sure no mistakes are made.

at least three
is

if

we

uncommon.

recorded instances,

peculiarly to the point, these

are described with almost the exact detail

which distinguishes the possessions

of

to-

which makes the accounts peculiarly

interesting ethnologically.
We seem to be
day

looking

down

that long vista of the past to

trances similar to any taking place about us

at the present time.

THE GOMEL
The first
made took

253

incarnation of which mention

is

place in the purely heavenly half

when the gods

The occasion was

of the history, at the time

alone lived in the land.

the unfortunate withdrawal of the Sun-Goddess into a cave in consequence of the un-

seemly conduct

of her brother, Susunao, or

the Impetuous Male.

is

the

recorded instance of the enfant

first

terrible,

This rude individual

and

is

not unhappily named,

He

to express the fact.

think,

was subsequently

banished to the moon for his improprieties.

The

the

displeasure of

peculiarly

heaven,

distressing

because

to

Sun - Goddess was

the company of

her withdrawal of

plunged them into utter darkness.

itself

They

accordingly set about concocting a scheme

to lure her out, the execution of which, as

given in the Kojiki, reads as follows

"

They hung

the tree

liant bent

five

all

manner

hundred jewel-strings

beads

to

of things

upon

of bril-

the top branches,

an

eight-sided looking-glass to the middle ones,

and dark blue and white

Then

goJiei to the lowest.

Augustness Jewel August Thing

took an z.M'gM'&t gohei in his hand, and Heavenly Small Roof August Thing made repetihis

OCCULT JAPAN.

2 54

some august {i. e. Shinto) prayers, while

Heavenly Hand Power Male God was sent

tion of

Thereupon
Heavenly Ugly Face August Thing, using a

to hide beside the

august door.

heavenly vine from the Heavenly Incense

Mountain

as shoulder-cord to tuck

and making herself a wig

sleeves,

up her
of

the

heavenly masa-tree, and tying up a bunch of

bamboo-grass

Mountain

from the Heavenly Incense

to hold in her hand, turned a cask

bottom up before the door of the heavenly

rock-house, and treading and stamping upon
it

with her feet became possessed {kaimi-ga-

kari

shite).

And

clutching the clothes from

down

the

her dress

fall

about her breast, and pushing

her

girdle of

she

skirt,

let

down to her hips. And the Plain of High

Heaven resounded as the eight hundred
myriad

deities

with

one accord

laughed.

Thereupon the Heavenly Shining Great August Goddess, hearing the sound, cried out"

what

is

now

immaterial, since

her curi-

osity once caught, she herself soon followed.

The next mention

occurs

in

of

divine possession

the Nihonshoki.

in the reign of the

It

Emperor

unlucky monarch, with whom

is

recorded

most
everything went
Sujin, a

'

THE GO HE I.

He

wrong.

255

naturally attributed this to the

gods, and determined finally to question

on the subject.

So going out

plain he collected the eight

asked to have his fortune

this

princess

the

Upon which

.^

Yamato-totohi-momoso-hime-no-mi-

is

If

in spirit

vexed and there

is

he diligently worship

my commandments
peace.'

time a god descended upon the

Emperor troubled

country
land

told.

and said {kami-gakarite-iwakii)

koto,
is

hundred myriad

immaterially speaking, doubtless, and

deities,

"At

them

into a certain

the land

Then the Emperor

'

Why

because the

no law

in the

me and

follow

shall

rest

in

inquired and said,

What god is it that thus instructs me

And the god answered, I am the god that
}

'

'

dwelleth within the boundaries of this land,

the land of Yamato, and
nushi-no-kami.'

Then

my name

is

Omono-

receiving reverently

the instructions of the god, the

Emperor

worshiped diligently according to his com-

mandments."

little

after this, in the next reign, the

reign of the

Emperor

Suinin,

we

are told of

an image that was suddenly possessed by

the god whose image it was. This also is
out of the Nihonshoki

OCCULT japan:

256

" In the third month, in the second year

of the boar, on the first day, being the day
of

the

monkey, the

Emperor, taking an

image of the Heavenly Shining Great August

Goddess from the Princess Toyosuki-himeno-mikoto, gave

to the Princess

it

hime-no-mikoto, and charged

*

Search

up

me

Yamatosaying,

her,

out a place where

may

set

So the princess took the

this image.'

image and carried

it

first to

Totanosasahata,

And

from thence she journeyed to the land

Omi, and, turning eastward, went by way
of the land of Mino, till she came to the
country of Ise. Then the Heavenly Shining
of

Great August Goddess spake, and instructed

ing,

Yamato-hime-no-mikoto, say-

Princess

the
'

This land of

Ise, this

land of heavenly

breezes, this land of ever-curling waves, this

sea-girt shore,

land will

is

a delectable land.

dwell.'

So,

In this

according to the

words of the goddess, was a shrine

there to her in the land of Ise."

way were founded the famous

built

In this

shrines of Ise.

But perhaps the most interesting of all

the possessions mentioned in either of these
books are the possessions of the Empress
Jing5, recorded

more

or less in both.

THE GO HE I.
The Empress Jing5 was

257

good deal

of a

man. She was a great deal more of a man

than her husband, though she was only his

She was simply Empress-con-

second wife.
sort at

band,

appear

eventually succeeding her hus-

first,

who

died from want of faith, as will

later.

Masculine in character, she

was most feminine

in

looks.

The Nihon-

shoki speaks of her as exceedingly pretty

and her father's pet, which latter fact proves

to my mind that she was a woman of will,
have observed that fathers are usually
proud of daughters of decision. She it was

for I

who conquered Korea, in the histories at

and did many other manly acts, be-

least,

sides giving birth to the

Emperor Ojin,

after-

wards canonized as Hachiman, the God of

War.
Apparently she was prone to being possessed, and ended by being quite intimate
with deity.

Her chronicle

is

a curious patch-

work, pieced out, however, fairly complete

between the Kojiki and the Nihonshoki.

The Nihonshoki,

after

some Almanack de

Gotha work introducing

few rather dry

domesticities, simply kills her husband, with-

out

offering

us any excuse

for

the deed

258

'

OCCULT JAPAN.

except the apparent unimportance of his

The
how

life.

Kojiki, however, condescends to tell us

it

happened

" Before that

(referring

a digression

to

about a certain posthumous name of her son)

the Empress was divinely possessed {kaini-

At
lit. got-god-approached).
when the Emperor, dwelling in the
Oak Temple in Kyushiu, was about to make
war upon the land of Kumaso, the Emperor

yori tamaeriki,
the time

played upon the august harp, and Take-nouchi-no-sukune went into the place of inquiring of the gods {saniwa,
inquired of them.

lit.

Then

sand-court),

and

the Empress, be-

ing divinely possessed {kan-gakari

shite), in-

formed and instructed him, saying, 'To the

west

lieth a land full of all

manner

of precious

things from gold and silver upward,'

This glowing description, of which

etc., etc.
it

were

needless here to quote more, referred of

places in the world to Korea.

not

It is

all

perhaps

matter for wonder that the Emperor

proved skeptical on the subject, and made

light of the divine information

he was promptly
tempt of

court.

killed

upon which

by the gods for con-

After which the Nihonshoki

takes up the narrative, and

tells

us that the

THE GO HE I.
Empress, who seems

sudden taking
and

word,

have been a pious

grieved at the Emperor's

much

person, was

to

259

for

off

resolved,

doubting the divine

woman-like,

to

know

about those jewels, a resolve she carried

out

as

" Choosing

lucky day,

into the purification

shrine and

follows

she went

became possessed {kannnshi

And this was the manner of

naritamo).

to
it

Giving

or-

ders to Take-no-uchi-no-sukune, she caused

him

to

play upon

the

august

calling Nakatomi-on-ikatsu, the

harp,

and

August At-

made him the inquirer of the

god {saniwa to sii). Whereupon he placed
tendant, she

a thousand cloths and rich cloths upon the

top and bottom of the harp, and besought
the god, saying

'
:

The god

that spake on

a former day to the Emperor, instructing

him

what god was

his name.'

it ?

would

fain

know

Then when seven days and seven

nights had passed the god answered, saying"

first

was

his

what

his

abode was, and then what

name, and then,

in

reply to further

questionings of the saniwa, Nakatomi, gave

instructions

for

conquering

Korea, which

had been his object from the beginning.

The Empress being a very devout body, and

OCCULT JAPAN.

26o

being influenced

possibly

by the

slightly

of the prospective jewels, acted

glitter

his instructions,

on

and with complete success.

Here, then, we have accounts of possestheir very accounts

sions long pre-Buddhist

being

pre-Buddhist

practically

themselves.

For the Kojiki and the Nihonshoki were

than one hundred and forty
came to Japan, too
Buddhism
years after

written less

short

time for

lesrends with its

is

it

own

have

to

detail.

draped

not the slightest suspicion that

The

tried to do so.

it

ever

accounts read as real-

Shinto as one could have them do.

istically

What

old

Besides, there

they read, barring a few

more,

is

archaisms,

as

skeleton the

if

recorded

of

modern procedure

to-day.
is

all

In

there.

In these old Shintd biblical narratives you

see the

same features that you mark

Ryobu-Shinto trances now.

tism
is

is

The

in the

conserva-

quite far-orientally complete, which

another proof, not only that the thing

is

Shinto, but that the Buddhists brought wnth

them from China nothing akin to it. For

we may be sure the gods would not have
been behind their people
tional trick of imitation,

in the

great na-

and had there been

THE GO HE I.

261

any foreigners to copy they would assuredly

have copied them, and not have stayed
starchedly Shinto to the present day.

In addition to the interest of the records

themselves,
records

is

the

evidence of these

verbal

The words

interesting.

ing the possessions are

Many
in a

of

all

describ-

pure Japanese.

them are yet comprehensible, being

to the modern terms.

way grandfathers

Kami-gakari,

of

which

kanm-gakari and

kan-gakavi are euphonic forms, means god-

An

fixed-on.

intransitive verb,

spontaneity of the
deity

is

shows the

it

This spontaneity of

act.

further dwelt on by tradition.

In

those good old days the gods descended,

is

piously taught, of their

not as

of

man.

For

of the fact.

it

and

at

the act must have been fortuitive and

sporadic.

men

initiative,

now because importuned

Such seems a true mirror

first

own

It

could only have been later that

learned to lassoo deity at

will.

The

modern term kami-oroshi, causing the god

to descend, marks the subsequent business
stage of the practice.
tication of deity, this

trances,
of

is

Indeed, this domes-

taming

of

once wild

not the least peculiar attribute

the far-eastern

branch of

the

subject.

OCCULT JAPAN.

262

Among

every people divine trances have

taken place, but to make of the accidental

and fortuitous the certain and the regular,

to develop the casual

tematic

communion

shows a degree

cult,

of

into a sysfamiliarity

with the subject peculiarly Japanese.

The word kami, which appears both

suggestive.

Shinto gods

known
and

in the

modern expressions, is highly

For kami refers exclusively to

ancient and

Buddhist gods being always

Kami

as Jiotoke.

uses

in certain

still

originally meant,

means, " top," or

"above," and therefore was applied to the

supreme beings.
figures in

It is

kami the

the same kavii that

hair of the head or top-

knot, and that appears in the expression o

kami sail, your wife, lit. Mrs. Upper, used

when addressing the middle classes. Even
sinico-Japanese equivalent shin shows the
same significance. For it never referred in
China to the Buddhist gods. The two characteristics of which it is composed mean
its

" declare, say

"
;

whereas the character for

hotoke, a Buddhist god,

means simply

man." Whether trance-revelation

lies

" not

hidden

in this "declare, say," is another matter.

Another word

in

the

bibles

is

worth a

note, the

which

What

THE GOHEI.

263

The
mean

characters with

word sanhva.
written

is

it

"

mentators, as Mr. Chamberlain

satisfactorily,

the inaeza.
least

at

is

court " has the

It

explain

it

perhaps ex-post-factorily, as

if

the god-interviewer, what

priests

tells us.

They

has not foiled the priests.

called

sand - court."

means has nonplused the com-

that

The

is

now commonly

explanation of the
"

For

explicable.

sand-

same impersonality about

it,

the designation of the place in lieu of the

person, which

is

so curiously conspicuous in

That

inaeza, the seat-in-front.

it

appears to

make nonsense in personal English does not

imply that it makes nonsense in impersonal
Japanese.
I will

now

give,

from the Nihonshoki, two

or three accounts of KiigadacJii, or the Ordeal by Boiling Water, which will

show

that

the miracles are as old as the incarnations,

and as purely Shinto.

The

ordeals was undergone in

Emperor

Ojin, son to the

first

of

these

the reign of the

Empress Jingo.

" In the ninth year (of his reign), in the

spring, in

the fourth month, the

Emperor

sent Take-no-uchi-no-sukune to Kyushiu to

take account of the people.

Now

at

that

'

OCCULT japan:

264

Umashi-uchi-no-sukune,

time

younger

the

brother of Take-no-uchi-no-sukune, wishing

charge

himself of his brother, laid

rid

to

him before the Emperor, saying

has come to our ears, O Emperor, that

against
*

It

Take-no-uchi-no-sukune

is

desirous

pos-

of

sessing Japan, and goeth about secretly to

up the people

stir

Emperor.

of

Kyushiu against the

Then, when he

shall

have

es-

tranged the land of Kyushiu and called in

the Three States (Korea), he purposeth to

upon Japan.' Hearing these words,

Emperor sent a messenger to Take-noThen
uchi-no-sukune, to put him to death.
Take-no-uchi-no-sukune made answer to the
seize

the

messenger, saying
but true

What

is,

cused

death

"

Now

man

the

am

not double-minded,

Emperor whom

then, the crime of which

And

if

guiltless,

why

resembled

am
I

ac-

suffer

Iki a certain

This

Ataeno-maneko.

being troubled

serve.

should

there was living in

named

greatly

And

to

man

Take-no-uchi-no-sukune.
in spirit that

Take-no-

uchi-no-sukune should be put to death without just cause, he said unto him

knoweth thee

to be a true

'All Japan

man and

a faithful

THE GO HE I.

265

Now,

one to our Lord the Emperor.

hence

fore, fleeing

secretly, get thee to our

Lord the Emperor and

I

And

him.

fore

justify thyself be-

furthermore

greatly resemble thee.

place of thee, will

men

that thy heart

die,

men

say that

So, therefore, in

and thus show

all

pure before our Lord

is

Whereupon he slew

the Emperor.'

there-

himself

with his sword.

"Then

Take-no-uchi-no-sukune was sad at

heart, and, secretly

ship and

leaving

Kyushiu, took

came round by the southern ocean

to the port of Kii,

And

and landed there.

from thence he came, after much trouble, to

the court of the Emperor, and told the Emperor concerning his innocence.

Emperor, perceiving some

been

done,

called

both

evil

Then

the

thing had

Take-no-uchi-no-

sukune and Umashi-uchi-no-sukune before

him.

Thereupon each

and there was no way

the

false.

Then

told

his

own

to tell the true

the Emperor

story,

from

commanded

that prayer should be offered to the Heav-

Gods and to the Earthly Gods, and

an ordeal by boiling water made {k7igadaWhereupon Take-no-uchi-nocJii seshinm).
sukune and Umashi-uchi-no-sukune went
enly

OCCULT JAPAN.

266

together to the banks of the river Shiki and

performed the ordeal {ktigadachi

Take-no-uchi-no-sukune was

sn)

justified

and

by the

Then Take-no-uchi-no-sukune, taking

struck down Umashi-uchi-no-

o-ods.

sword,

his

sukune, and would have slain him, but the

Emperor commanded that he should be par-

doned and handed over

to the

Arae family

in Kii."

The next example occurred in the reign of

"In the fourth year,
the Emperor Inkya
in the

in the ninth

autumn,

year of the snake, on the

month, being the

first

month, being the day of the

day

bull,

of the

the

Em-

peror gave instructions and commanded, say-

ing

'Anciently were the people ruled in

peace, and

founded, but

our

reign,

names were never con-

family

now

in this, the fourth year of

do the

lower and

the

higher

among the people contend with one another

in the matter, and the people know no peace
;

either, peradventure,

making mistake, have

they lost their proper family names, or else,

taking of forethought names above their station,

they have turned them to their own

use

and there

perchance,

it

is

is

no law

we who

in the land.

Now,

are lacking in wis-

THE GOHEI.
How,

dom.

Do

take?

then,

may we

267
correct our mis-

you, attendants, taking counsel

Then

together, advise us in the matter.'

attendants, with one voice, answered: 'O

peror

if

the

Em-

pointing out the mistakes and cor-

recting the wrong, the

Emperor

settles this

matter of family names, we, even risking

death, will

tell

the

Emperor the

So,

truth.'

Emperor
The Lords, High
Dignitaries, and other officers, down to the
governors, have together made answer, and

in the year of

the monkey, the

gave instructions, saying

said

'

Em-

Verily the generations of the

peror and the generations of his people are

both likewise descended from heaven.

since the day

when

Yet,

the three bodies (heaven,

and humanity) were one, many years

have passed, and from one name now many
descendants have spread abroad and taken
earth,

many

family names, and

the true from the

it is

false.

not easy to

Therefore,

let

tell

all

the people bathe and purify themselves, and

let

each take oath before the gods to per-

form the ordeal by boiling water {kiigadacJd

So the priest gave orders, saying,
su).'

'At the end

hill, let

of the hill called the

an iron pot

{kiigae)

Amakashi

be placed, and

let

OCCULT JAPAN.

268

be collected and gathered

the people

all

Then

-together there.

shall

they that speak

the truth pass through the ordeal unharmed,

but they that speak
"

Thereupon

all

surely suffer.'

lies shall

the people tying up their

clothes by shoulder-cords and going to the

pot performed

iron

water {kugadachi

the

su).

by boiling

ordeal

And

those that spake

the truth were by virtue of their verity un-

harmed

but those that spake

lies suffered.

Therefore did the rest of the

greatly

and run away before ever they came

fear

the

liars

hill.

And

settled themselves of their

there was not one

result

to

from that time family names

own

liar left in

which doubtless

accord, and

the land."

satisfactorily accounts

for the present almost painful veracity of the

Japanese people.

At

the

dawn

of history, then,

we

find both

possession of things and possession of per-

sons already a part of the nation's mythologic heritage.

Almost

as soon as the gods

were they began thus to

Then

visit

one another.

so soon as their earthly descendants

appeared upon the scene they proceeded to

visit

them.

Deity and humanity have con-

tinued on calling terms ever since.

THE GOMEL
Thus we

how

how

see, first,

exhaustive,

possession cult

purely Shinto, and that

is

the most conclusive

dhist bubble,

But

soap.

doins: so

It

and then

crucial,

the proof that this divine

is

the Buddhists have done

appreciation.

269

pains

blown

me

upon

it

in

seal of their

to prick this

Bud-

of filching other people's

feel the less

for the

to set

is

way the

all

compunction about

fact that

Buddhism has
own fashioning,

enough beautiful ones of its

round and perfect philosophic films that
catch and reflect the eternal light in iridescent hues sufficient to charm many milmen.

lions of
at

Emotionally

its

tenets do not

bottom satisfy us occidentals,

them
sion,

as

we may.

preach

it

Passivity

we

as

to his neighbor.

is

flirt

with

not our pas-

are prone to do each

Scientifically

pessimism

is

foolishness and impersonality a stage in de-

velopment from which we are emerging, not

one into which we

dogma

it is

shall ever relapse.

unfortunate, doing

its

the deeper sense no good, but

positively faulty

when

it

As

devotee in
it

becomes

leads to practical

ignoring of the mine and thine, and does

other people harm.

THE SHRINES OF

Y
^

meeting with the gods, upon

the top of Ontak^, had been strangely
unexpected my last sign from them
first

was destined
in

ISE.

to

be no less

so.

It

took place

an utterly dissimilar yet even more im-

probable place

the Shrines

of Ise.

first stir with dreams of

If, when buds
blossom amid the forbidding April of our
New England year, a man could quietly be

away from doubt, delay, and disappointment to a certain province of what is

still old Japan, he would find himself in what
spirited

he would take for fairyland. Over the whole

countryside and far up its background of

glow cloud-like masses of pink-white

bloom, while upon all the country roads
hills

carnival crowds of men,

women, and children

journey gayly along, chanting as they go,

It is the
beneath the canopy of blossom.
great Shinto pilgrimage to the Shrines of

THE SHRINES OF

2/1

ISE.

Ise that he is gazing on, made every spring

by three hundred thousand folk at the time

when the

Up

cherries blow.

the winding street of the

town

Ya-

of

mada, the house-eaves on either hand one

long

line

pilgrim

fluttering

of

the

flags,

gay throng wends its rollicking way, and,

crossing a curved parapeted bridge, enters a
strangely neat park in the centre of a
valley shut in

by thickly wooded

little

At

slopes.

the farther end of the open an odd sort of

skeleton arch makes portal to a carefully kept

primeval forest.

Through

this ghost

of a

gateway the pilgrims pass by a broad gravelly

path into a natural nave of cryptomeria, the

huge trunks
that
to

where

head.
sides

straight as

distance

itself

columns and so

seems

taper

to

tall

them

their tops touch in arch far over-

Down

aisles

of

half

light

on the

show here and there the shapes

of

plain unpainted buildings, with roofs feet-

deep

in

thatch, and curiously curved pro-

jecting rafters

while under the great

still

trees the path winds solemnly on through

a second portal, and then a third, to the foot

of a flight of broad stone steps,

ascends to a gateway

in

up which

the centre of

it

one

OCCULT JAPAN.

2/2

wooden

side of a plain

The

palisade.

gate-

way's doors stand open, but a white curtain,

hanging from the

all

in their stead, hides

lintel

view beyond.
In front of the curtain

with pennies.

Before

it

lies

mat sprinkled

each pilgrim pauses,

lays aside his staff, takes off his travel robes,

and tossing his mite to

fellows, claps his hands,

Then,

prayer.

turns, takes

lie

there beside

its

and bows his head

his adoration done,

up again his robe and

goes the way he came.

For

this

in

he slowly
staff,

is

and

the goal

to his long pilgrimage.

That curtain marks

his bourne.

Beyond

the veil none but the Mikado and the special priests

may

Yet every now and

ever go.

then a gracious breeze gently wafts the curtain a little to

one

side,

and for an instant

gives the faithful glimpse of a pebbly court,

a

second gateway, and,

screened

by pale

within pale of palisades, more plain wooden

buildings

with strangely raftered roofs,

re-

puted counterparts of the primeval dwellings

of the race.

And

this

is all

that

man may

ever see of the great Shrines of Ise, chief

Mecca
If

of the Shinto faith.

with the mind's eye the pilgrim pene

THE SHRINES OF
trates

may

no farther than his

2/3

may

feet

he

pass,

say with the disappointed tourist

well

whom

ISE.

Chamberlain quotes

the

in

guide-

warning to such as would

book, in

these shrines

"

and they won't

There

you see

let

visit

nothing to see

is

it."

II.

Indeed, materially, there

save the

eight

petaled

tradition to be there,

Goddess

little

emblem

within

known by

of the

Great

of the Sun.

But there

is

something there not yet down

in the guide-book

by the

is

mirror,

not even fully appreciated

For revelation

priests themselves.

who stand ready to perceive it.

It chanced to me in this wise.
Never having made the pilgrimage to these
comes only

to those

famous shrines,

macy with

was minded,

deity, to

do so

under the kind auspices

of the Shinshiu sect,

after

my

inti-

and, accordingly,

of the

high-priest

was properly accred-

ited to the priests.

The
of

Shrines, technically so called, consist

two congeries of

temples inclosed by

elaborate series of palisades and

grand old parks.

One

is

bosomed

known

as

in

the

OCCULT japan:

274

Temple the other as the

Naiku or Inner Temple in ordinary parlance, the Gekusan and Naikusan.

Geku

or Outer

An

immemorial tradition requires that

the more sacred buildings shall be torn

rebuilt again once every

and exactly

For

years.

this

purpose each

with an alternate

by the side

site

of the

is

all

down

twenty

provided

which, similar to and

one occupied

mo-

at the

turn to be used.

ment, awaits, vacant,

its

There are three such

sites at

each shrine

one belonging to the main temple and two

to smaller

temples a short way

through

off

the woods.

The two main temples

at

are dedicate, that

the Naiku to Ama-terasu-o-mi-kami, the

Geku

to

Toyo-

ake-bime-no-kami, the goddess of food.

For-

Sun-Goddess, and that

at the

merly the Geku was dedicate, as Satow, who

made

a study of non-esoteric Shinto,

to Kuni-toko-tachi-no-mikoto

tells us,

both the

for-

mer and the present incumbent being deities

connected with the earth. With these chief
gods are associated several subordinate
vinities.

At the Naikusan these

jikara-o-no-kami,

the

are

di-

Ta-

strong-hand-great-god,

he who pulled the Sun-Goddess out of the

THE SHRINES OF

ISE.

2/5

cave whither she had retired displeased

and

a divine ancestress of the Imperial house.

At the Gekusan they are Ninigi-no-mikoto,

Sun-Goddess and ancestor

of the Mikado, and two deities who accompanied him when he descended from heaven
to the

erandson

to rule over the earth, that

Of the

is,

Japan.

lesser temples nothing

is

said in

the guide-book, because next to nothing was

known about them.

Even the custodians

themselves are not aware of

though they know

all

sufficient to

they guard,

have put any

one who had had knowledge of Shinto's esoBut this side,

teric side upon the discovery.
as

we have

seen,

Now,

happened

it

visit that,

was not suspected.

in

the course of

my

under the guidance of the priests,

the wood upon one of the

we came through

two smaller temples, and

it

was

called.

asked them what

Ara-mi-tama-no-miya,

they

answered, the Temple of the Rough-August-

Having some acquaintance with the

Soul.

ways
to

of the gods, I

have

my

began

to suspect, only

suspicions verified.

August-Soul

The Roughthe

turned out to be

Sun-goddess, not

spirit

of the

spirit,

they .explained, but her

rough

her usual

spirit

when

OCCULT JAPAN.

216

Once, they

she possesses people.

had possessed a daughter

said,

she

the Imperial

of

house,

many

spot.

Here, then, was a strange temple,

indeed

centuries ago, upon this very

a temple dedicated to a possessory

something without a coun-

spirit; possibly

on earth, save for another

terpart

the Gekusan, which

the

same

To

like

at

it

found in the course

of

day.

the

Ise

priests

all

esoteric no longer.

this

For

half-understood tradition.

was but a
their sect

They know nothing

sonally of the practice of possession.

is

per-

All

the greater their unwitting witness to the

fact

to the

this

in early

mon

more important fact

For it proves that
days the possession cult was com-

and

which

to

all

loom only

still

one proves.

Shinto, and not as

now

the heir-

of certain sects.

So completely was possession

integral

part

erected

these

of

the

Shinto

temples

to

faith,

the

Nothing could well

once an
that

it

possessory

more
deeply to belief in their existence, and nothing seem to bring them home more closely
spirits.

testify

to their devotees than this fashioning of an

THE SHRINES OF

ISE.

2^7

earthly pavilion for their temporarj^ sojourn.

Among

all

the strange details of this god-

possession cult, this, perhaps,

these temples

is

the strangest

to possessing spirits.

NOUMENA.
I.

AVING
thing

seen these

is,

For

them.

the next

spirits,

possible, to see

if

after

through

establishing

first

their existence, and, secondly, their identity,

it

becomes interesting

In order to discover

to

this,

by considering our own

The

idea of

soul or

self,

spirit,

three aspects

know their essence.

we may best begin

spirit or self.

religiously

presents

known

as one's

us under

itself to

as a feeling about ourselves

as a feeling about others as affecting ourselves

as a feeling about others independ-

ently of

ourselves.

sense of self

another

the

The

first

we

call

the

the second, the personality of

last,

simply a man's individ-

uality.

Now,

to

begin with, every one has a

vate conviction that his sense of self

strong as any one

else's, just as

he

is

is

pri-

as
pri-

NOUMENA.

279

vately persuaded that his feelings generally

are as praiseworthily poignant as his neigh-

Nevertheless,

bor's.

equally

his

may

estimate of others

hint

that

possibly a pleasing personal delusion,

this is

him he perceives very

since in those about

that

clearly

strength

in

of

varies markedly from man.

fect

infallible

him

to

man

selfhood

Some 'men

him instantly and indescribably

personality

strong

others

Scanning them

one.

as

of

af-

as of

feeble

critically for objective

proof of this subjective feeling of his toward

their behavior unmistak-

them, he finds

in

able signs that

it

is

founded on

fact.

He

notices that the feeble brother unconsciously

plays chameleon to

all

he meets, while the

seems largely sufficient unto

In short, it becomes perfectly ap-

positive person

himself.

parent that
as they do

men

differ as

much

in selfhood

in, say, artistic taste.

men of any one community differ

among themselves, so whole communi-

Just as

thus

ties contrast

way.
offer

What

with one another in the same

The French and

us
is

an

instance

at

the Anglo-Saxons

our very elbow.

more, both sides to the antithesis

recognize the difference perfectly, and apply

OCCULT JAPAN.

280

derogatory epithets to

in

it

the other.

Ce

grajid origuial d' Anglais heartily despises

those monkeys the French, and knows not

at

which he stands the more aghast, the

awful sansculottism of their institutions or

the shocking manner in which they unbosom

themselves to the

comer.

first

Another generic instance

We

ready to our hand.

abroad to find

For

it.

even more

is

do not have to go
found world-wide

it is

in femininity.
So universal is it, and so
bound up with the question of trances, that
it deserves mention here
especially as I do
;

not recall having seen

nized.

It is this,

cally, peculiarly

woman

there

scientifically recog-

it

that

what, psychi-

self is

distinguishes the sexes.

is

In

a comparative absence of

Ego.

With regard

to

a want of

in

it

woman,

doubtless there are persons

who will promptly

and indignantly deny the

fact

those

make

who
of

woman an

be trusted to do

it

is

certainly

inferior kind of

But woman

so.

too valuable as she

and

all

are trying their best to-day to

is

to

is

man may

altogether

be thus disposed

of,

precisely in her relative lack of self

that her value

lies.

This

it

is

that

makes

NOUMENA.

28

her the almost unmitigated blessing she

For

in her direct

is

it

relations with

comes out conspic-

that this quality of hers

uous,

as wife, and then as mother.

first

To how many men,

wonder, did

occur what an upsetting sensation

be to change one's name

it,

read

it

it,

remembered one's

through

self,

years

when

lized,

and then, presto

those

all

be known by,

to

certainly

man

Yet the

sex

take

after-calls

that
;

case of

compliments, not

It is

pay us the most poignant

just as

it

is

insults,

more
that word which of

that stick.

self.

electrocution

Nevertheless, words are

very telling things.

good-will,

a shock.

maiden

their

without a quiver.

one's

ever

Such metamorphosis would

give self-centered
fair

it,

first

habits are formed and crystal-

speak, hear, write, read, another one

after.

To

hear

from the time one

it,

ever

would

it

at marriage.

be known by one name, to speak

write

is.

man

All the

To change

so,
all

not injuries,
then, in the

words

is

most

that would, to hard-

ened man, seem dangerously

like

parting

with a part of himself.

Precursor of change

be with woman.

it

Change

actually proves to
of

name,

to

which

OCCULT JAPAN.

282

the maiden takes so kindly, turns out but

exponent of the change

that follows

merges her

To

it.

of

thought in her

a great extent the wife

her husband's.

self in

She adopts

his interests, acquires his dislikes, echoes his

In the usual case, his intellectual

opinions.

property, in short,
offset,

becomes

doubtless, to these

became
She shows the same

material property

mother.

spring in a

woman
way

hers.

As

a small

acquisitions, her

his.

self-obliteration as

lives for

and

in

her

off-

quite impossible for a man.

A father may care

much for his children,

but he cannot sink his own personality in
Her
theirs as a mother may and does.
thought centres

as

in

them

as naturally as his

centres in himself, with a Hke absence of

all

intention in the process.

Thus

in

both of the two most important

relations of her life a

woman shows

a disre-

gard and a sacrifice of herself which finds

no corresponding counterpart in man. Man

praises her for it, which is tantamount to
praising her for being a woman.

the action

is

simply

It is also

is.

For

in

her

neither noble nor ignoble;

simply normal that

it

man

should appear a very selfish animal by comparison.

NOUMENA.

283

Noticeable as these differences in the

self

they are as nothing compared with the

are,

contrast that confronts an Anglo-Saxon in

the Japanese race.

Its

indirect manifesta-

tions are so striking that they have found

embodiment

The

aphorism.

in

well-worn

epigram that the Japanese are the French

of the far

East really rests on

the less trite one that Japan

also,

So

this.

does,

the fem-

is

inine half of the world.

For her

delicacy,

her daintiness,

dignity

instantly

and

her

suggest to our more coarse, more direct,

more

original

sex.

An

mind something

etiquette of soul,

one phrase

it.

the

of

fair

can hear some

Certainly in emotion both go

through the world gloved, but the resemblance rests on something below the surface.

Very

different

as

are femininity and far-

orientalism in most things, there

enough
Japan

in
is

engaged

at present

resemblance evident

in

jectionable manner.
lets

is

strangely

both a relative absence of

in

making the

an interesting

When

if

ob-

woman once

go her old rules of conduct, she

much any
fine woman

self.

will

pretty

lengths in the new.

as a

will

make even

fine

blush, so a low one will stagger even

go

Just

men
her

OCCULT JAPAN.

284

male
its

Impulse possesses her for

associates.

There

own.

abandonment

to

in her a capacity for self-

is

an idea impossible to man.

Lady Macbeth, once started, outdoes my

She knows no hindering
in crime.

lord

regard for

no ghostly shapes

self,

of other

thoughts to rise and cry to this one " Halt

enough

"
!

So

Decorous as was old

Japan.*

Japan, young Japan,

inoculated of foreign

fancy, will cause even the rough

personified
in a

one may almost say

petrified

Japanese gentleman of the old school,

so rudeness incarnate jostles

and ready

Just as politeness stood

foreigner to start.

you

in his son.

greater contrast could scarcely be offered

than that between the pageant of an old-

time Japanese setting out upon a journey

and a modern Japanese

train

bows

arrival

from one by

the polite eternity of self-deprecatory

of the one, the

of the other,

scramble for the wicket

where man, woman, and child

neighbors with an

bump and

hustle

indifferent

rudeness that, in any more per-

their

sonal land, would cause several free fights on

the spot.

That

it

does not do so here shows

that though politeness has gone, personality

has not yet come.

Indeed, the impersonal

NOUMENA.
character of the hustle

may be

felt

sensibility

for

as

it is

of

is

285

something which

as devoid of subjective

altruistic

Imper-

regard.

sonality stands patent in the very touch of

It

it.

seems subtly

embody the

to

distinc-

tion hinted at in the injunction of the topical refrain,

"Don't push;

just shove."

II.

Furthermore, this

We

is

force.

feel other people's personality in direct

upon ourselves, and we perceive and,

effect
in

selfhood

a way, even feel the effect of our person-

ality

upon

Like

all

between

its

persons.

third

unconsciously

results

counter forces.
striking

also notice similar

two

other forces, this force acts inevit-

ably, often quite

produces

We

others.

inter-effects

and

fatally

when not opposed by

Married couples give us

every-day

instances

of

it.

The

happy

pair

other,

even to the extent of acquiring a

grow monotonously

The

certain family resemblance.

comes a

replica

of

like

each

wife be-

her husband, and the

husband, to a certain extent, a duplicate of

his wife, although the effect

on the woman.

As

is

the world

more marked
is

constituted,

OCCULT JAPAN.

286
it

is

fortunate for domesticity that mutual

transformation
it

the rule, since otherwise

is

may be doubted

the divorce court would

if

be the exception.

But such

inter-affection

Each one

matrimony.

is

no monopoly

of

of us is continually

impressing, or being impressed by, others in

proportion to the strength of our respective

Originality

selves.

marks the height

of the

The

one, imitation the depth of the other.

action

is

commonly unconscious

at the time,

The

and only recognized afterwards.

is

that character

through

life

is

more or

Boswell's

others.

acute case of Dr.

was,

it

gravated instance of what

is

parallel about us every day.

effective

And we none

but an ag-

not without a

Plenty of

or less through

men
they
life.

of us wholly escape contagion,

both good and bad.

of carefully

is

admirations, which

them more

carry with

fact

men go

less inoculated thus of

very

Johnson, pathologic as

contract

All

contagious.

Whence

the importance

For

choosing one's friends.

have a sufficiently violent

attack

of

to

one

person insures, for the time being, practical

immunity from another.

are

we

all

chameleons

in

To such an
mind.

extent

NOUMENA.
That one

self

287

has this effect on

common

fel-

its

essence pervading

lows hints

at a

them

It

suggests one great imperson-

ality of spirit

underlying our several personal

all.

embodiments

of

it,

a certain

cosmic, com-

munistic character for the soul.

tunate there

is

Were

tween men.

It is for-

such mutual influence be-

globe would be a

not

it

more

still

this isolated

so,

isolated spot

love would instantly fly out of the window,

and friendship

Minds

be put out of doors.

itself

greatly

differ

in

their

pov\-er

of

But

is

thus impregnating other minds.

it

especially a quality of the male mind as

compared with the female one. The one

the other receptive
is original and forceful
;

The one

and self-adapting.

imitates, the

other adopts.
Personality, or a man's mental force
his fellows,

is

also in a

way measure

upon

of the

mental energy of the man.

For we meet personalities that repel us

well as ones that attract

as

personalities, even,

that do not affect us beyond a recognition

that they are, and that they do affect, our

neighbors.

We

are, therefore,

personality as such

gauge

its

amount.

in

some

conscious of

sort,

we even

OCCULT

288

Now

JAPAN-.

being influenced by

the faculty of

other people the Japanese possess to a mar-

Fundamentally unoriginal,

velous degree.

they have always shown a genius for

They

adaptation.
in

self-

are at present engaged

exemplifying their capacity upon a whole-

sale national scale.

It is

at this

hardly exaggeration to say that Japan

moment

is

affording the rest of the

world the spectacle of the most stupendous

hypnotic act ever seen, nothing less than the

hypnotization of

eyes open.

is

nation,

with

its

Forty million of folk there are

now innocent
It

a whole

freaks of foreign suggestion.

not simply the imitating

of

foreign

customs, but the instant unassimilated character of the invitation that stamps the
tional state of

mind

as kin to hypnosis,

na-

and

gives to both their cousinly touch of caricature.

The new

idea

adopted with

is

little

Such sublime

or no attempt at adaptation.

disregard of congruity shows the hypnotic

completeness with which

consequence, Tokyo

is

platform, in which nature

bition of ideal force.

tume

it

is

received.

now one
is

In

vast public

giving an exhi-

Combinations

as beautifully incompatible as

in cos-

any the

NOUMENA.

289

hypnotized subject can be induced to adopt

are at large on

cases from the

its

streets,

worn

same motive, unreasoned rewhence

sponse to stimulus from without

the

the two

in

Nor do the

irrationality of the result.

other subjects see anything ludicrous in

it

all.

The

may be

action

said to begin, but

no means

to stop, with costume.

from top

to

toe, are

by

Customs,

undergoing the same

foreign-motived transmogrification.

The

im-

and accompanying aura of

billycockism sit no less comically upon a
kimono and cloven socks than does a moditation

ern

pot-hat

Tokyo

upon an

court of justice

old-

fashioned Japanese case.

Hypnotoidal imitation
these people.
clivity in just

is

trait of

They showed the same prothe same way more than a

millennium ago.

China was the operator

then, as the western world

now.

no new

is

the operator

Susceptibility to suggestion lies at the

root of the race.

OCCULT JAPAN.

290

III.

Not only can one

self

thus sway another,

men have

but from prehistoric times

one

that

lieved

self

another and act in

sessing

stead.

disembodied

spirit

it

dispos-

embod-

But whatever

all

its

moral

has been held to be every whit

as existent as the poor devil

Among

The

being apparently less eager to

spirits

leave their quarters.

character,

its

be-

oust

actually

has been variously deemed a

self

deity, devil, or

ied

could

peoples

we have

it

dispossessed.

instances of per-

sons thus possessed by gods, goblins, and

others, instances cropping

up

world, from the earliest ages

present day.

The

all

over the

down

to the

character of the possess-

ing spirit has, however, varied with singular

complacency
sons

to suit the opinions of the per-

In a simple society that

possessed.

it

favored the idea, the visitant has boldly pro-

claimed

where

himself

this

god

in

communities

assumption was considered arro-

he has contented himself with the

more modest role of devil while, finally, in
these latter days, he has been fain to put up

gant,

with being the

spirit of

an Indian brave or

other worthy too insignificant to dispute.

NOUMENA.
It

is

291
that

perhaps,

surprising,

scarcely

these possessing spirits should have seemed

actual beings, seeing that to common sense

they are such, inasmuch as they rigorously

pass all the tests by which we cognize per-

know one man from

sonality and

his neigh-

bor, just as rigorously as the unfortunates

This seemingly astounding

they dispossess.
statement

Not only

is

shown

easily

be undeniable.

to

simple, superficial eye do

to the

the manifestations comport themselves like

distinct personalities

they do the like when

apply.

we
For how do we know

us

distinct

gauged by
for

are

the criteria

all

wont

to

people about

individualities

them psychically by the fact

seems conscious of himself and

We

know

that

each

own

of his

emotions, thoughts, and memories, as being

own, and as not being anybody

his

The same

is

of

the

Each

true of these spirits.

evidently conscious of
distinction

itself,

between

It

are not his

his
It

its

has
its

its

own

is

and conscious
itself

and

other selves, the man, in whose body

included.

else's.

it

all
is,

own emotions which

thoughts, which are not

own memories, which

not only denies that

it

is

are

he

not
it

his.

really

OCCULT JAPAN.

292

knows nothing

of all

those states of con-

sciousness which alone are he.

an outsider,
It

neither

it

it.

does not, of course, follow from the

undeniable fact of
istence that

jump

Except as

knows him, nor he

psychical ex-

its distinct

either a

it is

god or a

to this conclusion is a quite

able assumption of divinity.

teriality of the

actuality

To

unwarrant-

But the imma-

god does not invalidate the

the so-called

of

may

Smith

devil.

erroneously

Because

spirit.

be called

Jones,

does not jeopardize the existence of Smith,

though

it

may

considerably imperil the exist-

ence of Jones.

The

reconciliation of these

selves consists, as

we

shall

two separate

see later, in a

certain denial of self altogether.

Now,
to

all

besides revealing so much,

common

manifestations, these Shinto ones re-

veal

indirectly considerably more.

first

place,

In

the

they disclose the fact that the

Japanese

race

They do

this,

very

is
first,

easily

possessed.

by their amount, and

secondly, as significantly, by their character.

Their quantity we have seen

thing enormous.

It is safe to

to

be some-

say that no

other nation of forty millions of people has

NOUMENA.
ever produced

each form
are

such

There

is

its parallel.

293

For not only

is

common, but there

number of forms.

surprisingly

a surprising

intentional possession, and posses-

sion unintentional

possession by the media-

tion of the church, and possession immedi-

by the devil beneficent possession by

dead men, and malevolent possession by live
There is, in short, possession by
beasts.

ately

much

pretty

by

every kind of creature, except

other living

men.

This omission

is

For

highly significant.

shows that no Japanese personality of itself

has proved potent enough thus to affect its
it

fellows

from which

instantly follows that

it

the great extent possession has reached in

Japan

is

not due to an excess of personality,

but to a lack of
this, is

it.

As

collateral evidence of

the fact that mesmerism, hypnotism,

and the

like,

were unknown

in

Japan

introduced there by the western world

sent, not

till

ab-

from dearth of subjects, but from

dearth of hypnotizers.

Even more

subtly significant

of the possession.
first,

god-possession

is

the quality

Fortuitous, of course, at
in

Japan

has passed

from the spontaneous into the systematic

OCCULT JAPAN.

294

From being

Stage.

have become tame.

spirits

domesticated.

the

wild,

possessing

Deity has been

Originally a voluntary act of

god upon involuntary- man, possession has

become practically an involuntary divine
acquiescence to

human

lightning, in short, has

The

constrainment.

been turned into

ser-

viceable electricity.

This constrainment of deity

thing there.

It

is no new
had already come about in

and Nihon-

prehistoric times, as the Kojiki

shoki show.

Since then

and more systematized

into a regular business,

Comment on

course.

The

it

till it

done

has been more

has

now grown

as a matter of

this is needless.

same

trance itself tells the

story, in

the ease with which the possession

is

ef-

For the closer the normal state lies

the abnormal one, the less the wrench in

fected.

to

passing from the one to the other, and the

more seemingly

Now

tered.

natural the latter

compared with

when

en-

mediumistic

trances, the Shint5 possessions are decent,

gentlemanly
initial

affairs.

There

is,

indeed, the

throe and the subsequent quiver, but

the one

is

not an epileptic portal to a gen-

eral epileptic

appearance throughout, which

NOUMENA.
looker-on

SO disgusts a

mediums.

295
possessions by

in

The Shinto gods may be

dull,

but they are at least decorous, whereas the

mediumistic

company.

spirits

And

most undesirable

are

spite

this in

of

the fact

America the subjects are usually

women, from whom one would expect more

that

in

ladylike behavior.

For
as

to be easily controlled abnormally is

much

easily

woman

a characteristic of

influenced

normally.

as to

Spirits

be

appar-

ently have always been perfectly aware of

this.

From

shown

a pardonable preference for possess-

ing her.

the earliest times they have

The

divinely inspired prophetess

was a regular appurtenance

ligions.

And

that the

of ancient re-

spirits

are

still

as

shown by the present

preponderance of female mediums. For that
the female monopoly of the business is due
to natural capacity, and not simply to sur-

partial to

her as ever

is

hinted at by the host

the

apparently lucrative

plusage of the sex,

of

shams which

is

character of the business

Hypnotism

tells

is

the same

able to support.
story.

In spite

of authoritative statements to the contrary,

women

are

naturally

more

hypnotizable.

OCCULT JAPAN.

296
than

men.

That the

opposite has been

seem

stated to be the case would

to the not

uncommon

simplifying the

ciently

be due

to

fallacy of not suffi-

For

experiments.

there are two factors that enter into the result beside

the

skill

the operator

of

the

natural capacity of the subject and the deis made unconsciously to

own suppression. Indeed,
no one may be hypnotized against

gree to which he
cooperate to his
just as

so in

his will,

cases the subject really

all

hypnotizes himself.

The

art of the operator

simply consists in getting him, more or

unwittingly,

do

to

this.

The

less

greater the

natural aptitude of the subject, the less the

art necessary in the

operator.

best experiments, therefore,

much

inate as

The

as

may be

tyro of an hypnotist

whose experiments are

we

To

get the

should elim-

the latter's
is

thus the

skill.

man

really to the point

and every tyro

in this art of recreating per-

knows

that, unlike the original crea-

sonality
tor of
"

it,

"his prentice hand" he tries on

woman,"

not

" man,"

because

thus

he

stands the greater chance of succeeding.

Woman's

superior capacity for being pos-

sessed shows itself even

among

the Japanese.

NOUMENA.
The Nichiren
astuteness,

297

Buddhists, with praiseworthy

employ women

as vehicles for the

divine descent for this very reason, and the

resulting trance

is

so easily entered as

some-

times to pass counterfeit for a sham.

The French
altro-possession.

display a like proneness to

Had they not been relaMesmer would not

tively easily influenced,

have

failed of a livelihood in

Vienna

to be-

come the rage in Paris nor would Charcot and Nancy have been the pioneer names
of modern hypnotism.
For an art does not
become the vogue among those who have
;

no natural aptitude

for

Nature divorces

it.

such incompatibility of temper.

practice

is

Now

it

Priority of

thus the best proof of fitness.

is

these same three classes of

mind, the far-oriental, the feminine and the

French, different as they otherwise
vire

saw

sonality, then,

Per-

appears to be the opposite

pole to proneness to possession.

this

are, that

to be relatively so impersonal.

Spirits of

world and of the next would seem to

have a reciprocatory action

sion of the
less god.

human body

in their posses-

the

more man the

This suggests that the qualitative

difference between selves

is

in

some

sort a

OCCULT JAPAN.

298

Self would appear to be

quantitative one.

something capable

much

as a

most

finds

man who
it

more

on occasion

else

principle

that

of

more or

facile to

less

much

not

is

inas-

himself at

become some one

an instance of the general

it

is

easier

to

introduce a

substance into a comparative void than into

space already occupied

what

introduce matter,

here

and
;

this in fact is

not materially,

For though we do not

but kinematically.

hope

conceive happens

we

do,

as

shall

to show, introduce motion.

IV.

To do

we must again have recourse to

and diagnose, if we may, our own

this

ourselves,
spirit.

Now

on looking into ourselves to see what

ourselves

aware

may
For

what are we made

of

be,

my

part

am

conscious of a

kaleidoscopic series of thoughts.

cessive dissolving views of mine
to

These

seem

to

suc-

me

have about as much inter-connection as

kaleidoscopic combinations generally, and I

seem

to

have about as much influence over

their appearance as
of

should have over those

that delightful but unpredicable instru-

NOUMENA.
ment,

by attention

if

299

could induce

evolve along some slightly definite

other words,

what we

am

conscious at

latter has a certain

In

sight of

first

ideas and will, and

call

to

it

line.

that the

upon the

limited effect

former.

My
my

next discovery

Not only can

own, when

new

my

would.

For

recall

is

can do

hold on

is

me

is

to,

allow that idea to beget

kind

If

promptly goes
all I

in

can do.

manage

And

please.

any

to attend to

come

along,

others after
it

its

instantly
to

it,

it

this is absolutely

In this pitifully feeble fashion

to live, move,

if

nor can

pay no attention

out.

the firm belief that

anything

will,

or let go, what

an opportunity of which

avails itself.

my

already

kind enough to pre-

particular idea that chances to

I

prop-

can neither think

By choosing

with.

of
all.

cannot

memory when

stream of thought

sent

it

idea by direct exercise of

I directly

All

have

to

my hand on what

even lay

new mental

acquire no

by simply willing

erty

power

that this

is

not a directly creative force at

will is

and have
I

my

being

could do almost

I pleased.

Will then, consists in

the

exercise

of

OCCULT JAPAN.

300

selective attention.

choose to attend to

one thought rather than another, and then

do attend to
thus

selective attention,

all

tention

But though

it.

not

is

will in action is
all

selective at-

For on further scrutiny

will.

of ray stream of thought I

am made aware

rather

meddles with

startiingly that will

uncommonly

little.

that the like

is

Observation shows

true of

the greater part of

all

action,

of

of will-less

act

and then doing

of will at

my

Indeed,

fellows.

our lives

is

made up

simply thinking the

it

without any exercise

Yet we are not conscious

all.

being our own on-lookers merely.

contrary,
in this

we

feel

very poignantly that

pageant that unrolls

We

mind's eye.
attention
will or no,

is

busy

feel this

itself

of

On

the

we

live

before the

because selective

we

the while, whether

all

it

me

and we are quite aware that

it

is

thus at work involuntarily.

In the case of this involuntary attention,
the power behind the throne seems to

be

quite simply the interest the particular idea

possesses for

we

attend to

us.
it

If

in

the idea appeals to us,

spite of ourselves.

We

can, indeed, often catch ourselves led pleased

captive thus to

some fascinating thought,

NOUMENA.

301

remonstrating impotently as
It rivets, as

it.

we

it

drags us after

say, our attention.

In short, involuntary attention

results as fatalistically in turning

simply

is

The

the dynamic outcome of the idea.

idea

and fasten-

ing our attention as a bright object does in

rotating the fovea

upon

itself,

or as the per-

cussion of the cap does in the discharge of

the gun.

Now

voluntary attention appears to differ

from the involuntary kind not the

attent,

but only in intent.

latter case to

We

choose which

least in

seem

idea

in the

we

shall

press upon, the consequent pressure proving

quite similar in both.

In our search for the noumenal, then, in

what we

call will,

we

are driven back upon

the act of choice alone.

Now when we
choice

we always

search for the cause of our

bring up against some de-

Whenever we succeed
own
and triumphantly clutch it, we find in-

termining thought.
in

overtaking that will-o'-the-wisp, our

will,

variably that

Why am

we have caught

an

willing to write these words,

as a matter of fact

am tempted

to

idea.

when
lie

on

the grass and gaze into the drifting islands

OCCULT JAPAN.

302

Because

cloud?

of

that I

would

an

be pleasurable later
idea

or

have a

decided yesterday

or

idea

because

will

an

simply to prove to myself that

will

Every time that

bing up.

an idea again sarcastically bobthink to have

closed upon that elusive force, the will,

myself

it

have done so

to

find

grasping a palpable idea.

left

Yet we call ourselves conscious of the

autonomy of our will. Nor will I yet say that

we are

not.

What

say

I will

is

we should

that

be just as conscious of the fact were the fact

not

For that only

so.

is

not free which

Now whether

determined from without.

is

the

were a noumenistic priniinn mobile, or a

mere dynamic outcome of the idea, it would

will

in either

case be determined

from within

and would necessarily, therefore, seem

But we may go further.
be,

it is

dependent for

its

free.

Whatever

will

existence in con-

sciousness upon the existence of ideas. This

is

palpably instanced every day of our

For we are constantly conscious

without will

without ideas.

we

of

lives.

ideas

are never conscious of will

Further yet,

less yet conscious times,

we

in

these will-

are quite aware

of ourselves as being ourselves.

Will, there-

NOUMENA.

303

fore, except as included in the ideas, is not

essence of the Ego.

the

of

which only pays us

and

is

in

visits

For

a thing

this

manner

distinctly recognized as doing so can

be no indispensable part of that innermost

something each of us

calls "I."

Lastly, will appears to be quite uncomplex-

Nobody pretends

ioned.
fers

that

from his neighbor's, except

is,

amount.

in

but not in

tion,

on one thing
in both.

in

It

itself.

works

in another,

in

one man

on another

but

Either, therefore, will

only as included in the Idea, or

no personal sense the

Now the
state has

Will acts, in short, like any other

impersonal force.
I

in strength,

It differs in its applica-

works seems essentially the same

that which

the

that his will dif-

method

at

it

is
is

all.

of getting into the trance

something very apposite and im-

portant to say about

all

this.

trance to that peculiar condition

For the enlies

through

By

an abnormal use of selective attention.

keeping the attention fixed long enough on a

very insipid idea,
at

all,

will

or,

better yet, upon nothing

out go both ideas and will

can inadvertently bring about

extinction

when

intent

that
its

is,

own

upon the extinction

OCCULT JAPAN.

304
of

something

namely, an

else,

we need not go

part of the will

become astonished
fact,

whenever he

it,

to trances to

as a matter of

In lapsing

falls asleep.

into our nightly unconsciousness,

seem

ideas that

only seeming

self

up by

compelled

indirectly

his pig-tail

is

participation

included in the idea,

Of what

ideas.

him-

if

be

will

any

in

self.

Having thus eliminated

trinsic

go

to

lifting

child's play to this

self-extinction of the will,

sense the

our

is

it

to go out directly, our will

Baron Munchausen

with them.

of

For each one

witness.

has experience of

of us

But

idea.

performance on the

truly astounding

this

will

from any

in-

the self except as

in

we have reduced

ideas, then, is

it

self to

made up

Clearly not of the simple main idea of the

No one

moment.

ever mistook his idea of

But one's

a beefsteak for himself.

thought

is

not

wholly composed

train of

of

beef-

steaks or philosophy, or any other chain of

single thoughts.
fact

of

For

consciousness

consciousness

is

first it

that

complex.

is

the

a palpable

object

Take the

of

sim-

NOUMENA.
plest

of

act

305

discrimination,

example.

for

The Irishman who said he could tell two

brothers apart when he saw them together,
unwittingly hit the psychologic bull's-eye.

For the only conceivable way of telling two

things apart is by thinking them together.
But the momentary me is more complex
There are, in the first place, a
than this.
host of fainter ideas or suggestions of them,

which the main idea drags

it,

of previous ideas
of

up, attached to

and secondly, there are the fading forms

coming

and the brightening forms

ones, side by side with the cul-

For

minating thought of the moment.

no

it is

less a palpable fact that ideas take time

to develop into distinctness,

and even more

time to fade again into oblivion.

views upon

Dissolving

our cortical screen, the last

grows

ghostly as the next takes shape, and lingers

some seconds ere

this

thought,

moment

is

limning the central idea of the

a proof of

may have

and

self.

this,

an

idea of

which came to us unhaloed, however

it

It

that gives that idea its setting,

us our sense of

As

vanishes quite.

it

corona of past, present, and nascent

been,

is

our

own

brilliant

often subsequently rec-

OCCULT JAPAN.

306
ognized so

we

for our

little

own

that at times

feel conscientious scruples about claim-

Such self-abnegation fortunately,

perhaps, is rare. For an assumption of probing

it.

us instantly to appropriate

ability induces

whatever has not upon

stamp

the

it

of

there a more poignant cha-

Nor is
awake suddenly to the knowthrough some casually resurrected

another.

grin than to
ledge,

detail, that

our yesterday's self-imputed epi-

gram had been previously

by Jones.

told us

in those, often

almost

indescribable, concomitant details in

which

Another's seal consists

the foreign idea comes

to

fringed,

us

setting in short.

This

the

surrounds our

setting

that

At

suggested thoughts.
the epigram, which
mistook,

hearing

aura

acoustic

fore

when the

own.

we

so sadly

only of

afterwards

and there-

out,

idea reappeared

identifying tag, and

our

faded

it

it

bore no

insensibly took

For

its

from

own selfwe heard

not

conscious

but of Jicaring

this

one of

the time

we subsequently

we were
it,

differs entirely

though

our

thoughts come to us as a rule quite

it

for

own
differ-

ently fringed by a halo of their own, they

sometimes have

little

or none,

and the

in-

NOUMEXA.

307

stinct of possession causes us to

such to ourselves

impute

all

until increasing exacti-

tude teaches us distrust.

VI.

Now

what do ideas consist

of

They

An

consist, apparently, of molecular motion.

idea, in short, is a

mode

of

motion

another

form of that fundamental, seemingly protean

thing.

But

to see this

we must

what we mean by an

be sure just

Now we mean

by an idea a conscious

in ordinary parlance

pulse of thought.

idea.

first

mere

reflex action

we

do not associate with any idea. We even

speak often of having acted from impulse as
opposed to having acted from thought, and
hold ourselves largely irresponsible in conse-

quence.
action,

Now
whether

all
it

such unconscious brain

be so-called reflex action,

or so-called instinct or impulse, there

is,

the present state of our knowledge,

little

difficulty in

conceiving to be a mere

mode

in

of

motion from one end of the chain to the

Suppose, for example, I am walking
other.
along the street, and an inadvertent gnat

runs

full tilt into

my eye.

The eye

instantly

OCCULT japan:

3o8

and proceeds

closes,

weep

to

copiously, while

much

remaining tenaciously,

still

Indeed,

ciously, shut.

too tena-

have considerable

trouble in opening the eye enough to get the

Here the

insect out.

motion

starts

in the

collision of the insect

nerves that convey their

wave of it to specialized ganglia, from which

it wakes other ganglia that send word down
to the eyelid to close.

obeys

And

the stupid eyelid

immediate message to

its

Now

annoyance.

this

seems

clear case of machinery, one that

itably

and

certainly.

If

my

great

perfectly

works inev-

can manage to

induce another gnat to repeat the thoughtlessness of his predecessor, the performance
of
I

my

eye

will

be also perfectly reproduced.

recognize this action for a bit of machinery

so thoroughly that

with
the

On

it.

do not identify myself

the contrary,

stupidity of

the eye

in

am annoyed

at

persisting

so

obstinately to stay closed when,

but open,

In

like

if

it

would

could soon get the insect out.

manner,

instinct

and impulse,

in

their turn, start trains of automatic action.

Indeed,

all

unconscious cerebration can be

thus explained on general mechanical laws.

In similarly explaining other brain processes,
the difficulty comes in with consciousness.

NOUMENA.
Consciousness
to be a

is

noumenon

309

held by most people

noumenal phenomenon

still

or

mind being conceived by them

be some-

to

thing quite apart from brain, and this in face

of the self-evident concomitance of the two.

Now when we

scan this distinction for an

we

underlying difference,

put

it

find

it

be due

to

To

man's desire for distinction.

solely to

unflatteringly,

and parcel

of

it

our innate

nothing but part

is

human

snobbery.

Darwin's doctrine was held for many years

by most
still

religious folk to be impious,

by a few

so held

of

them.

really denied

to

remove him

handicraft

concerned,

all

it

it

far

did directly was

to a proper height above his

it

So

were special creatures.

God was

is

was

What

thought to deny a special creator.

as

and
It

was man

whom

it

treated

with scant respect by linking him with the

brutes.

Darwin committed the unpardon-

able sin of recognizing his

The

justice

of

own poor

such recognition

relations.

has

now

nearly universally been conceded, and to-day

practically

nobody disputes the

ship of

living things.

all

instinct that opposed

bound

to

survive

essential kin-

But the snobbish

it still

so long

survives, as
as

it is

we remain

OCCULT JAPAN.

3IO

For under a

largely creatures of instinct.

name

better

this

instinct is nothing but a

subtler part of the instinct of self-preservation, the instinctive

holding to

for our individuality

and the

to

that threatens

all

ceded to be misleading
is

antagonism

like

this

Materially,

it.

prejudice in favor of ourselves

immaterially, that

makes

that

all

yet

it

now

is
still

con-

survives

psychically, in our unnat-

between brain and mind. For

not to have them two makes us one with all

ural divorce

Whether we

the rest of the universe.

sup-

pose mind to be matter or matter mind,

we become in either case part and parcel
of the material world

and so tenaciously,

though unconsciously, do we hold to our supposed superiority to the rest of the universe,
that

we

We

are very loath to admit that

refuse to recognize the relationship.

to stocks

we

are kin

and stones and other reputed senseThis is the gist of the whole

less things.

matter.

Thought we deem

to be

something

grand, while chemical action strikes us as

ignoble; although the one

is

every whit as

inscrutably potent as the other.

cause

we

really

It

know nothing about

we dare decide

sence of either that

is

be-

the esso defi-

NOUMENA.

311

between the evolutionary merits

nitely

of

the two.
Incidentally
tice

religious

man

view

irreligious this

mode

of

to turn

up

his

omnipotent crea-

human nose

The

sumption thus carries with

it,

and sentimentally,

The

truth

is

tion of matter

one

some mode

as

we

is

be

dualistic as-

both

own

to

scientifi-

disproof.

that the only logical explana-

and mind

and that the

is

its

one

at

creative action as unworthy

iised in his construction.

cally

to no-

supposed

For what warrant has

is.

to prescribe laws to an

and

tor

somewhat amusing

it is

how thoroughly

is

that the two are

life-principle of the

whole

When we

have,

of motion.

say, an idea,

what happens inside us

probably something like this

the neural

current of molecular change passes up the

nerves, and through the ganglia reaches at
last the

there.

often

cortical cells

Now

the

and excites a change

nerve-cells have

thrown into

this particular

been so
form

of

wave-motion that they vibrate with great

ease.

The

nerves, in short, are good con-

ductors, and the current passes swiftly along

them, but when

it

it

reaches the cortical

finds a set of molecules

cells,

which are not so

OCCULT JAPAN.

312

accustomed to

The

change.

special

this

current encounters resistance, and in over-

coming

is

it

causes the cells to

This white-heating of the

glow.
call

this resistance

we

cells

Consciousness, in short,

consciousness.

probably nerve-glow.

Now we know by

experiment that the heat

hemispheres

rises while conscious pro-

of the

cesses are going on, and does not rise to the

same degree when processes of more reflex
action are taking place in them.

more,

we have

Further-

reason to think that the mol-

must be

ecular action of the cortical cells

of

the same nature as that which takes place in

the nerves, since by mere repetition of the
action the one develops into something in-

For

distinguishable from the other.

repetition of
of

it

grows

any brain
less, till

conscious of

it

at

each

action, consciousness

we

finally

all

at

that

is

cease to be
to

say,

the

molecular change occurs with ever-increasing

ease

till

at last

it

comes

to

be performed

quite automatically and quite unconsciously.

Phenomena

of

both normal and abnormal

states of consciousness hint that this theory

is

correct, as I shall

dent.

now

try to

make

evi-

NOUMENA.
That an idea

is

313

a force that shows itself

as a

mode

with,

by the

fact that its action

that

of

the other forces

being,

of

all

first,

motion

is

in bundles, as

we regard

my mind

analyze mind into

parts, ideas,

Some

begin

we know,

in

ideas only

or your mind,

its

is

not

so soon as

apparent, but becomes evident

we

to

conforms to

and secondly, imper-

inevitable,

This, so long as

sonal.

borne out,

successive simple

and consider them.

years ago. Carpenter

came across

what he regarded as an astonishing abnormal mental phenomenon. It was this that

at times the mere thought of a bodily move:

ment was

its own instance actually

movement about. Lotze im-

able of

to bring that

proved upon this by showing that the phe-

nomenon occurred with much more commonness than was supposed. Finally the
discovery was made, scarcely second to any
in this age of discoveries, that this startling

phenomenon was no abnormality

the normal function in
dity

idea

all

its

all,

but

primitive nu-

that every motor-idea, that

of

at

is,

every

a bodily movement, instantly pro-

duces that movement

other ideas.

when

not inhibited by

OCCUL T JAPAN.

3 14

William James
that

first

convinced him of this general law

was the way

of a

in

which he eventually got up

In due course after waking,

morning.

the thought

But

us that the instance

tells

came

to him,

"I must get up."

this idea instantly suggested the inad-

visability

doing

of

The bed was

so.

So he

cosy, the world too cold.

How,

he was.

then, did

where

he ever get up

Consciously, he never got up at

all

He

thing he knew, he was up.

into a

lay

too

the

had

revery upon the day's doings,

suddenly the idea that he must

lie

.'*

first

fallen

when

there no

longer popped up again, and at that lucky

instant, before

it

could start objection, had

started him.

Introspection

soon

will

any one

yield

countless instances of the same thing

it

introspection of

is

One cannot simply

difficulty.

his

the second

but

order of

stalk out into

thought preserves and pot his instance

the fugitive character of the action obliges

him

to take

stationary,

So soon
he

is,

it

is,

For

on the wing.

by

its

as one thinks about

ipso facto,

to catch

it

very nature, impossible.

his thinking,

engaged upon a

different

thought, namely, the thought of thinking,

NOUMENA.

315

a very different thing from simply thinking

the thought

and the second idea inhibits

the action of the

become aware

The

first.

way

only

what one seeks

of

to

by a

is,

process akin to the optical trick of detecting

a very faint star, to look a

One

the mind's eye.

on one's
fool

self

one's

by

self,

sly

as

with

little off it

has to play detective

show

of inattention, to

one would

another

fool

He

into being unsuspiciously natural.

then detect instances by the gross.

will

All his

impulsive actions will give him more or less

complete examples of

it.

" to go off at half cock "

is

The

expression

nothing but an un-

appreciated recognition of these very things.

After thus recognizing

will

perceive

man

is

While he

it

in

perfect

is

play with

Any

he

nervous

specimens.

of

listening to you, or even talking

table,
it

in one's self,

others.

museum

himself, his eye will fall

upon the

it

or,

upon a paper-cutter

and out goes

his

hand

to

a book strikes him as being

misplaced, and he must needs set

it

right

or,

he sees his pipe, and forthwith proceeds

to

fill

new

it

and so forth and so

idea instantly produces in

istic effect.

on.

him

Each

its fatal-

OCCULT JAPAN.

3l6

The

reason

we

are not directly conscious

of this force of our ideas

rarely has free play.

that one idea

is

second idea starts

and more

to act before the first has finished

or less inhibits the

plicating the problem.

were not
needed

motions generally

If

no

complex,

would be

science

to unravel them.

much

So

thus com-

first's action,

for

motor-ideas.

But

motor-ideas, there are other ideas

cerned with action at

as such

ideo-ideas,

all,

beside

not con-

but with thoughts

we may

call

them.

In

James's matutinal experience, the idea of

ris-

ing, instead of rousing him, roused first the

idea of not doing so, by spontaneously call-

ing up the consciousness of his cosiness, and

this, doubtless,

prompted the happy thought

snug inclosing of his last psychic

some pithy phrase, and that brought

of a like

find in

up the

embalming generally,
which reminded him that life was fleeting,
whereupon it flashed upon him that he
would better be up and doing, and up he got.
If

of

thoughts did not thus run their own

trains,

of

subject

we should be simple automata,

memory, and incapable

void

of reasoning; na-

ture's puppets at sensation's string.

NOUMENA.

As one
other, so

thus gives rise to an-

ideo-idea

may

it

317

rouse a motor-idea which

generates bodily movement, and the circle

Some motion happens

be complete.

itably in every case,

were

itable dissipation of its

it

energy

inev-

only the inevin

the form of

fatigue or general bodily excitement.

VII.

So much
the

action.

for the inevitable

The

character of

impersonality of

scrutiny, no less apparent.

an idea seems to be

it

is,

on

For, personal as

in its manifestation,

such

association turns out to be purely fortuitous.

Not only

is

an idea competent quite alone to

institute another idea or a bodily

man

in the

same

in

himself,

it

will

another person.

movement

do precisely the

There are

all

de-

grees of such inter-individual action, from

the most partial persuasion to the most complete control.

Its

most

startling examples

are afforded by hypnotic subjects, who, at a

word from the

operator, act with even

than normal energy.

But the same

less extravagantly accomplished,

nessed

in

every-day

life.

more

effect,

may be

wit-

In certain heavy

or preoccupied states of mind, a person will

OCCULT JAPAN.

3l8

obey, automatically, a word from another, to

be astonished the next instant at having

done

so.

like effect, in a partial form, is

place between

of us all

all

so-called personality of a

taking

The

the time.

man

is

nothing but

the inter-individual action of his ideas upon

In

other people.

we

its least

are quite aware that

complicated forms

it is

that acts, while the action

is

merely the idea

as often uncon-

Insensibly a

scious as conscious.

man

finds

himself reproducing the ideas of those about

him.

Especially

is

this the case

where fun-

damental sympathy exists between him and

his causative,

and preeminently so when that

person

woman he

is

the

startles himself

loves.

At times he

by tones and gestures which

he recognizes as hers, and then glows

over at the reflection.

annoyance

will

all

With corresponding

he catch himself reproducing

the tricks of manner of some one he cordially

despises.

In the one case, the background

ideas help as a

mordant

to set the

dye

in

the other, the ideas themselves prove catch-

ing enough.

The

fact

is,

scarlet fever.

that ideas are as catching as

We

can no more escape hav-

NOUMENA.

319

ing them enter our minds than

we can escape

And

having material germs enter our bodies.

the only preventive against instant and indiscriminate imitation

lies

constitutional mental

is

For, in normal states, the

energy.

open

to

any action from without

mind
;

any

foreign idea finds instant access through the

usual sensational channels, and at once pro-

ceeds to work, the possibly baleful effects to

the host of such

indiscriminate hospitality

being tempered by the simple choking upon

the premises of disagreeable outsiders after
admission.

The measure

the intruder achieves

amount

of opposition

is

of success

arouses.

it

which

determined by the

The more

vacuous the host, the more the stranger has

own sweet way. In hypnotic subjects,

where the mind is otherwise blank, any idea,
his

if

once introduced, receives actually more

honor than

it is

accustomed to

at

home.

consideration, this, of the proverbial prophet

kind,

paralleled

by the greater respect a

policeman inspires

in

unacquainted with

him,

which a newspaper's

small
or

boys who are

by the way

editorials

in

impress a

simple public for their apparent impersonality.

For the idea

of another's personality

OCCULT JAPAN.

320

instinctively rouses opposition

riwise, that of one's

own

while, contra-

inspires one's self

with distrust, so essentially modest

But with the hypnotized, personality

phases
mind,

lies

dormant.

both

in

For, in the hypnotized

when abandoned

activity

man.

is

own

to its

devices,

Hypnotic subjects, when

is nil.

left

themselves, and asked of what they are

to

thinking, usually reply

"

Of nothing."

VIII.

Ideo-ideal

activity

is

stage in the progress of

higher and later

mind evolution than

motor -ideal action; response

stimuli preceding

the mind upon

from amoeba

to

objective

to

the subjective action of

itself,

man

development

the

as

Although the

testifies.

protozoon doubtless has consciousness of a

rudimentary
his

sort,

by which he differentiates

own absorbing person from

engrossing food, his brain

his

is

no

less

his belly,

and

his

one idea a kind of conscious digestion.

His mind

is

a process of nervous

pepsia,

which, thanks to evolution, has unfortunately

become nervous dyspepsia

in

their thoughts follow the

same

is it

that

what

is

such

men

line

as let

so true

one creature's meat proves


NOUMENA.

As we

another's poison.

animal

life

321

rise in

the scale of

we find more and more compli-

cated reaction upon stimuli from without

then,

finally,

animals gifted with this last capacity

even

usually prefer to keep their minds as

The

as possible.

cow

the

in

hearth-rug,
theirs so

stall,

much

or of

the

vacuity

when

fall

inanity of the brutes

When we come
little

to

as

he may
to

beatific

Nirvana.
find that

even

animal thinks

as

let

He

is

for

the most

circumstances pull the

make

Even when he takes

to

snap-shots at
thinking,

it

thinking for things' sake that he usually

Thinking for thinking's sake-^^

^"'
the employment of the highest few
As a side light upon this we notice how,

indulges
is

This

until pretty well up in the

sensational trigger and

life.

not pricked to

man we

development.

part content

is

close of kin to the

so-called reasoning

line of

which

and into which

spur.

is

Buddhist height of holiness,

that

the

the dog upon the

of the time,

by sensational

action

empty

idyllic stupefaction of

betrays

they contentedly

is

But

rudimentary reasoning.

when

in.

person becomes weak from some

drain upon the

system, he grows less and

OCCULT JAPAN.

322

and more and more autoboth sensations and foreign sugges-

less self-controlled

matic to
tions.

Now

clearly the

For chance

creased

if,

in

change

of

The more

more

of

man

retard this, but

last is

Otherwise,

the

change depends on the

already effected, individuals

and the

in

already,

he bound to become,

is

grow ever logarithmically

may

the

greatly in-

have a hand

individual a

individual

and as the rate

change

is

addition to outer impressive

diversity, inner diversity

matter.

the

inly initiated

of

measures the individuality of

activity

man.

amount

it

may

apart.

Marriage

also accelerate it;

undoubtedly

why has

must

normal

its

nature departed,

result.
in

the

propagation of the species, from the good old

protoplasmic practice of identical

Less

self

another,

possession,
gether.

and greater

impersonality

should

And

it

is

facility in

and

becoming

proneness

therefore
to

fission.

be

found

to
to-

be noticed that as

development proceeds, nature gives with the

gift of

selfhood the

means

For the same increase

that

of

of

guarding

it.

mental activity

constitutes the increased individuality

enables the individual to maintain that

in-

NOUMENA.
dividuality

323

from disastrous attack and de-

struction.
IX.

Before applying these principles to an explanation of the trance, let us see whether

they explain that seeming inexplicability, the

uncommon
mind.

If

impersonality of
a lesser mental

the

Japanese

activity be

the

cause of a less differentiated individuality,

signs of that lesser activity should otherwise

be patent.

Now when we

find such signs to be

As

a friend of

look for

them we

numerous.

mine once put

it

epigram-

matically in the heat of the moment, a Jap-

anese does not think.

Allowing

for pardon-

able exaggeration due the occasion, he really

hit their state of
cific

mind on the head.

Spe-

evidence of the fact confronts one at

every turn.

One may,

if

he

will,

begin at the top, with

lack of originality leading off the

instead of beginning at the top, he

well begin at the bottom and

list,

but

may

mark the

as
ab-

sence of reasoning there.

If in

jump

any western land you

in

hail a

cab and

without a word, the cab-driver be-

fore setting out will ask

you where you wish

OCCULT

324
to be

JAPA/V.

Indeed, this seems so

taken.

evident a preliminary to

where

at

all,

chronicle

it.

in Japan.

into a

that

driving you any-

sounds supererogatory to

it

But attempt the same thing

At any

jump

of the treaty ports

jinrikisha as

nothing.

self-

if

Five to two

and say

in a hurry,
off

man

goes your

at

a dog-trot for a couple of hundred yards

then he suddenly slackens, stops, turns, and

to

his surprise,

where you wish

though not yours, inquires

be taken. Not till then
him that he did not know

to

did the idea strike

He

his destination.

had

at

first

acted on

the impulse your jumping into the jinrikisha

had given him,

go

to

the afterthought of

whither had not occurred to him.

His

first

idea had instantly translated itself into ac-

wake a second thought.

Instances of this in more complicated
form are to be met with, of course, the world

tion before

it

could

over.

Witness the adventure of the shop-

girl to

whom

darts in through the door an

urchin with the

your

little
!

street

"

announcement

"

Marm

boy has just been run over

in the

The poor

every-

thing, rushes

shop-girl drops

from behind the counter,

bolts

out of the door, and gets a couple of steps

NOUMENA.
down

the sidewalk,

325

when she suddenly

stops,

throws back her head, and with a laugh

" What a fool I am
I have n't
blurts out
:

any little boy

rascally urchin

I'm not even married

had sprung

explosive idea by hinging

"

The

his mischievously
it

upon the great

instinct of maternity latent in every

woman,

and the idea had passed into the act before

the rest of the brain was roused to inhibit
the impulse.

The
of

next occasion afforded the stranger

remarking the Japanese want

ing will wait upon him the

moment he

gets

open to the numberless opportu-

his eyes
nities

of reason-

he offers the natives to cheat him

opportunities of which they naturally avail

themselves, a kind Providence having pro-

vided strangers for

that

some

But he

will

for all

he may be eased

inadequate

find

manner

in

special

slight
of

purpose.

compensation

by noting the

which

Providence,

doubtless with an eye to humor, has fitted

For

these folk to such god-given avocation.

the essence of successful deceit

apparent truthfulness of the

false.

lies in

the

The one

should be a good counterfeit presentment of

the other

otherwise

it is

useless.

To

carry

OCCULT JAPAN.

326

conviction, a story must be above conviction

P'or the art of lying consists in con-

itself.

sistency.

The Autocrat's

dictum, " Be not

consistent, but be simply true,"

true, but

if

reversed,

lying, "

would make a good motto for

Be not

Inasmuch,

be simply consistent."

therefore, as facts conspire against the

the

is

it

part

of

long-headed

liar,

man

to

think out his whole story in advance.

But

these brachycephalic people never do.

this

When

caught and arraigned, a non-committal

"Don't know" keeps their counsel, and lack

But

of self-consciousness keeps their face.

so soon as ever they adventure themselves

upon

a story,

which sooner or

to happen, they are gone.

later

Their

is

tale

bound
never

holds together, because never carefully con-

cocted beforehand to do

It is suc^srested

so.

piecemeal on the spur of the moment, and

consequently comes apart as easily as
put together.

One's

thus exposing the culprit

is

it

was

satisfaction

facile

at

marred only by

the culprit's entire lack of discomfiture upon

exposure.

But
will

the

daily intercourse with

furnish

same

many

pleasanter

these people
instances

artistic thoughtlessness.

of

Servants

NOUMENA.

set

reasoning

them, and then

when occasion

lessly lost

fidelity any
become hope-

with most exemplary

will follow

routine

327

consequent not upon

occasion

arises that calls for

semi-domesticated ideas, but upon

foreign

human

ones of broadly

For that

intent.

European customs should be taken topsyFor your untuis matter of course.

turvy

"boy"

tored

buttons

to put the

shirt regularly outside-in

in

your

every morning, or

to hand you your waistcoat invariably insideout,

is

quence

simply the inevitable,

of generally antipodal

pure forgetfulness
instant

uncommon

ern housekeeping,

and

But

at sight of its

episode in far-east-

knows no

yet seems

habits.

duty and subsequent

unassumed contrition

object, a not

try,

of a

sad, conse-

if

particular coun-

peculiarly at

home

in

Japan; the pathetic repentance turning the

tragedy of your wrath into its own farce.

Now when we
coveries to a

from these daily

dis-

bird's-eye view of

the

rise

more

Japanese character, we observe the same

mind otherwise

quality of
first

place,

Japanese

is

over one's

patent.

In the

the lack of originality of the

very striking after one has got

first

dazzle at strange antipodal

OCCULT japan:

328

The

sights.
first

student finds that what he at

took without question for the product of

home

They were

these

adapted,
things.

originally

adopted, and then

ways

delightful

of

doing

Modification of foreign motif, modi-

and

fication always artistic,

at times delight-

marks the extent

fully ingenious,

Now

ese originality.
is

came

construction, in truth

from abroad.

of Japan-

absence of originality

but another term for absence of innate

For the one

activity of mind.

But when energy

the other.

is

father to

to coruscate

is

lacking, action continues in the easier round

Only

of routine.

I ideas

bud

in

more evolved minds do

in profusion,

in proportion to the

and they do so

degree of development

So that a superior mind

of the mind.

only ahead in the race, but

a proportionally rapid rate
offers small

just

is
;

is

not

advancing at
a

fact

consolation to those

which

who

hap-

pen already to be behindhand.

general incapacity for abstract ideas

another marked

trait of

is

the Japanese mind.

This, joined to a limited reasoning power, has

made would-be

far-eastern science as funny

as far-eastern art

went

to

Dame

is

fine.

Before the nation

Europe's school,

its

criticism

NOUMENA.

329

Far-oriental treatises read ex-

was comic.

cellently well in spots,

point of view

from such antipodal

the very dry desert of thought

being occasionally relieved by unintentional

The commentators give us
oases of humor.
admirable instances of this

one

of

them

gravely explaining Shinto' s lack of a moral

code by the conclusive statement that only

while
immoral people need moral laws
;

another in

neko, a

seriousness derives

all

by a kind of protoplasmic fission and

subsequent amalgamation from the first syllables of neziimi konomo, words which trans-

cat,

lated, signify "

as

fond of rats," which

is

much

if

one should assert " poet " to have been

evolved by a sort of shorthand from "poten-

etymology."

tial

Indirect evidence of the

activity

is

same lack

of ideal

shown by the uncommon

tiveness of the race.

For

to

imita-

have a foreign

idea act with the imperative instancy observable

in

Japan argues a

incumbents

to dispute

it

dearth

of

native

possession.

You

shall soon be given plenty of instances of

this proclivity, of a personal nature.

this

grows

sincerest

Indeed,

kind of flattery eventually

just a trifle flat

from mere excess

of

OCCULT JAPAN.

330
expression.

home and

begins at

It

spreads

out into the farthest suburbs of your polite

acquaintance.

You begin

you are setting the fashion

as well

upon the

as

to

surface.

your own

hats, the facsimile of

be aware that

in things

below

Not only do
last purchase,

suddenly make their appearance upon the

heads of your friends, but even your momentary tastes

wake

underneath.

instant echo in the crania

" It

is

very odd," one of

me

tired of saying to

to the word,

This

will

sound

quintescence
liteness.

that
will

it

is

"how
of

as

like

my

was never

very nicest far-eastern familiars

he suited the action

whatever you

of course

exquisite

like

like."

the simple

far-oriental

po-

But observation will show you

You
in truth something deeper.

be convinced of the genuineness of the

appreciation after you have been sufficiently

its victim.

As

for

your household, your peculiarities

diffuse themselves

subtly through

reproduced some fine morning in

ingly incongruous settings.

Your

it

to

be

surpris-

" boy," so

soon as ever he contrives to get into the

coveted foreign

garb,

appears before you

strangely appareled, not simply in reproduc-

NOUMENA.

331

upon

tions of your habiliments, but clothed

with your mannerisms and fitted with your

very gait

innocence of intent

his evident

alone convincing you that this

some put-up

caricature.

conception of

were

how

not

all

Never had you

full

is

peculiar your peculiarities

you saw them donned by another.

till

Indeed, the reproduction of yourself

ried so far that

is

car-

from being putative father

of

your whole household by patriarchal custom,

you begin

whether

to question

tipodally ex post facto fashion

become

its

Lastly,

in

some

father in fact.

the

decorous demeanor

whole nation betrays the lack of

activity

make

an-

you have not

beneath.

For

it

is

of

the

mental

not rules that

the character, but character that makes

No energetic mind could be

bound by so exquisitely exacting an etiquette.
It must inevitably kick over the traces now
and then till little or nothing of them were

the rules.

left.

This a Japanese not only does not do,

save as motived to foreign ways, but

himself would have no desire to do.
stately quietism of

all

due, not to forms that

left to

The

classes of old Japan

make

is

for tranquillity,

but to that innate tranquillity of mind that

OCCULT JAPAN.

332

Among

fashioned the forms.

people there

is

constantly to be curbed,

It

this

shows

itself be-

fore long-continued habit can have

seal

upon the man

He

himself.

stately

mind needing

less activity of

set its

inherits

with the rest of his constitution.

it

In Japan

the very babies are unconscionably good.

We

now come to a consideration of the

To this sleep and dreams may make

trance.

a fitting

word

nomenon

For the phe-

of introduction.

of sleep

and dreams are kin enough

to those of the trance state

to entitle this

night side of our nature to be called the

normal trance.

There
life of
is

is

a curious

rhythm

in our conscious

which both the occasion and the cause

cosmic.

Our

spiritual

life,

in contradis-

tinction to our bodily existence,

of disconnected bits,

is

made up

whose conditioning

emphatically of the earth, earthy.

is

It is in-

deed worth noting, that our minds should

thus

be more mortal than our

For once during every rotation of

in a sense

bodies.

the earth consciousness

the candle

we

is

snuffed out like

extinguish to help us to the

NOUMENA.
act

333

and though some men be so strong that

they can

sit

up

all

night occasionally, they

many

cannot continue to do so for

nights

together.

This nightly good-by to

self

and surround-

ings would certainly prove startling were

a thought

we

more

As

rare.

it

disturbed at the idea of

ally assist at our

We

so little are

is,

it

own apparent

that

we

actu-

annihilation.

not only put ourselves to bed, but usu-

ally to sleep

We

every night.

close our eyes,

help nature

and compose what

our minds to absolute inaction.

tain

it

extent

nightly.

we thus

Indeed,

active with years,

as

hypnotize

is

left of

To

a cer-

ourselves

our minds grow less

some

of us find

no

diffi-

culty in performing this feat in the daytime.

All of which shows that the force which

runs the brain machinery

is

regularly ex-

hausted by action, and has to be as regularly recruited

by

has the power to

rest.

store itself up again

proved by the fact that

So soon

as

For that the force

we

is

ever wake.

mental activity has thus been

reduced to a minimum, and we are sound

Deasleep, the potential begins to rise.
barred from flowing, the stream of thought

OCCULT JAPAM.

334

proceeds to accumulate a head for the next

And

day.

point

manner the

in this

tinues to rise
that

till

some

from

tap

potential con-

has reached so high a

it

sensational

stimulus suffices to start action once more,

and we wake.

wake

ally

we should eventuown motion if we lay in a

Doubtless

of our

sensational vacuum.

Practically this event

rarely happens, because sensations of

or other are always

sort

mind's door.

But a

ous one suffices to

less

knocking

and

some

at

our

less obstreper-

us as time wears on.

call

knock that would have passed unnoticed

in

the middle of the night easily rouses us

ery

least this is

fectly balanced

full

what happens

machin-

swing.
in

the per-

mind, that character so com-

fortable to himself,
his

started, the

not long in getting into

is

At

Once

morning.

in the

and so disappointing to

more enthusiastic

fellows.

In ideal equi-

poise the whole mental energy, potential or

actual,

ceases approximately

have probably been

abnormal

times to have dreamed dreams.

are interesting things
for

what they show

together, and

All of us, however,

starts again together.

us,

enough

at

Now dreams

interesting not only

but far more inter-

NOUMENA.

335

esting for what they intrinsically are.

For

they are twilights of thought, the dawn glim-

merings

of inner light before that

above the horizon of

be risen

This

sensibility.

mind throws not a

half-way state of
light

full

little

on clearer states of consciousness by

comparison.

Dreams betray
mental

activity,

midway condition

of

where action has reached

the point of conscious internal, but not yet

Our dream-

of conscious external, discharge.

life

takes place in an ideal world within, upon

which any outer sensation

is

permitted to

enter only under some disguise.

the visitant came

we

only take cognizance of

Whence
we

are not aware, for

it

after

it

has donned

a transformation to suit the mental scene

finds there.

over in bed,
fully float

it

Our body may perchance turn

but in consequence we grace-

from the top

of a precipice to the

bottom, and find ourselves unharmed.

The next peculiarity idiosyncratic of dreams

consists
tionality.

in

their seemingly irrational

irra-

In our dreams the most unlikely

people do the most impossible things,

most easy, credible manner.

in

the

thread of

apparent causation connects one act with the

OCCULT JAPAN.

336
next

and the phantasmagoria

breaking

fully on,
its

all

in the

In our deeper dream states the whole

seems

real

is

it

only in our less dense ones

that wonder begins

as a looker-on,

to mingle with the show,

who doubts without

We

disbelieving.

exactly

have a dim sense that

all

not right without quite realizing that any-

thing

is

Now

wrong.
the explanation of this seems to be

dreams our thread

that in

paratively fringeless.
is

way

passage, in the most natural

world.

is

cheer-*

rolls

the dramatic unities in

of

thought

Motion

confined largely to one

line, a

simple one.

As

line,

but

in

com-

is

mind

the

very crooked
current

the

passes along, each idea starts the next, the

one most easily associated with

moment, without rousing much

ideas to play critic to

of side

in

its

and throw unpleasant doubts upon

at

the

the

way

it

creations
its

credi-

bility.

Such action
brain

is

as this

shows that the whole

not yet roused to that pitch of po-

tential

where motion takes place with normal

ease.

The

current encounters inertia in

passage, and

its

in place of spreading into side

tracts is confined to the easiest path of dis-

NOUMENA.
But that there should be any

charge.

rent at

337

all

proves that some part of the brain

possi-

has risen to the necessary pitch of

bility before the rest of

has done
If

we

cur-

so,

and why

it.

what part

the motifs of our dreams

we consider

shall find

Now

when not

them,

directly trace-

able to boiled lobster, to be due to the play

either of very habitual ideas or of ideas that

had

The

last

preoccupied us before

we

fell asleep.

lover dreams of his mistress, the mer-

chant of his transactions, the scientist of

his discoveries.

Each dreams

because the habitual idea

much

of the time that

become

is

after his kind,

in

so

action

has

its train of cells

specially permeable to the current

slight provocation.

and vibrates upon

For

the same

reason, the idea that preoccupied

us before

we

fell

asleep

from having just been

in

is

the one which,

action,

is

easiest

set in action again.

The motion once

started passes out along

those associated channels which, under the

then conditions, offer least resistance to

its

But as the brain, as a whole,

is

passage.
still

side

sluggishly inert, the current rouses no

motion

to

speak of

in

the

process.

OCCULT japan:

338

The

result

is

rather a lightning-like zigzag

through the mind than a general illumina-

This accounts for what we

tion.

call

in-

consequently enough the inconsequence of

For dream inconsequence

dreams.

means

too

absolute

really

consequence.

ideal

Each idea fires the next, and only the next.

That we believe everything that comes along,
and see nothing odd

in so doing,

shows that

For

side considerations are not roused.

is

our side-thoughts that cause us to

upon our leading ones.

for the

moment men

of

it

comment
we are

In dreams

one

usual monomaniacal result.

idea, with the

Purely sensa-

tional starting-points, a la lobster, rouse in

the same

way such simple dream

trains that,

destitute of their accustomed fringe,

to recognize

them

we

for the sensations

fail

they

are.

In our deeper dreams

we have not even

those adumbrations of other thoughts which

so

commonly give

our waking state.

us ghostly warnings in

This makes us

dupes to the deception.

idea exists

want
is

it

easy

must inevitably seem true

of possible

till it is

fall

For where only one

contradiction.

contradicted.

As we

It

for

simply

get nearer

NOUMENA.

339

the waking point, the inertia grows less

side

motion

till

and summons obscure

starts

shapes of thoughts to hint dimly at delusion.

This theory as to what consciousness is

affords explanation of another pecuharity
about dreams which seems at

comprehension, and

on the ordinary
thins:

their

certainly

dualistic

vividness.

first

theories
It

to defy

inexplicable

is

of

the

matter of

is

every-day notoriety that dreams are often

extremely

vivid,

and commonly exceed in

That
life.

vividness like events of waking

they quickly fade out does not detract from

the fact of their vividness at the time of
their occurrence.

that

Now the

consciousness

brain processes,

is

dualistic theories

a thing apart from

directing power, accord-

its

ing to the spiritualists, and

handmaid,

according

to

its

the

complaisant
materialists,

neither of them can account for

if

this.

For

consciousness be, as William James would

have

it,

a loader of vice in the

game

of

life,

she shows herself here to be an utterly unprincipled gambler

she actively abets

inasmuch as
delusions

in

in

dreams

the

most

seemingly ingenuous manner, and pro tanto

OCCULT JAPAN.

340

makes us go mad.

Nor, on the other hand,

can consciousness be mere concomitant of

we have here simply

why is not the
roused, and if we have not

brain processes, for

if

a case of increased current,

rest of the brain

a case of

more

why

it,

vivid

are the ideas that are roused

That the dream current might

occasionally be stronger than a

is

waking one

dreams should usu-

possible, but that our

seem more vivid than our every-day

waking experiences, which is certainly the
ally

case, is to credit nature with a strange lack

economy

of

the running of our psychic

in

affairs.

But there

is

a worse

dilemma yet

for the

They stand confronted by

dualists.

Why

this

should

consciousness

be

present as markedly both

when we have

rea-

question

son to suspect the current to be strong, in

times of passionate excitement, as

have reason to believe

For

torpor?

have

we
so

of

it

both these phenomena

instances.

in times

we

In times of excitement,

strangely recall forgotten

we do

when we

weak, in times of

things

and

the opposite of excited.

Extremes here emphatically meet.

But

if

consciousness be the effect of brain

KOUMENA.
friction, the heat, as
tial

it

341

were, evolved by par-

stoppage of the current, we see

that this should develop both

rent

is

at

once

the cur-

increased, the resistance remaining

when

the same, and

creased, the current

We

when

the resistance

is

in-

continuing as before.

ought, therefore, in dreams, to find great

vividness of impression side by side with no

impression

at all

which

is

just

Though the stream

find.

what we do

of

dream-states has probably less

the increased resistance enables

duce as much commotion.

the action

which,

by

when

thought

in

head to

it,

it

We may

to proparallel

that of an electric current,

great, will

make even

ductor of slight resistance glow, and

a con-

when

make one of great resistance do

At present, this is merely a suganalogy but it may turn out truer

feeble, will

the same.
gestive

we imagine.
The theory here advanced

than

fore,

the at

first

explains, there-

strange anomaly, that both

an unusually strong current and an usually

feeble one

may

alike

vivid consciousness.

produce an unusually

For vividness follows

either an increase in the current or an in-

crease in the resistance.

OCCULT JAPAN.

342
Conditions

of

dream - states

brain

display

torpor other

For a general

tiring of the brain

only way, as

we know,

Many

torpor about.

ably by directly

the cortical

along

than

of

temporarily take

all

heightened

particular

lines,

consciousness

prob-

say nothing of

But side by

general torpor these things

the

goes

it,

Chloroform, laughing-gas,

cells.

the every-day effect of wine.

induce,

do

will

out of the world-

side with

not the

numbing the molecules

to

man

is

of bringing brain

drugs

flowers at a funeral, will

than

phenomena.

similar

if

consciousness

it

be

one's

of

no more
emotions.

This chiaroscuro of consciousness has

all

the unreal reality of the lights and shadows

thrown by a carbon
ple, is delectable,

ideas

it

gives a

at least,

in

man than

And we

of them.

how

point.

Opium, for exam-

not more for the peculiar

all

for the poignancy

know, by observation,

loving or quarrelsome

proportion

as

men grow

they grow unreasonable,

under the influence of wine.

Some dreams we remember after waking.

we did not do so, to a minimal extent at
least, we should not know that we had ever
If

had them.

Possibly, therefore,

some vanish

NOUMENA.
with the fashioning, or

if

343

afterward partially

recalled, pass unrecognized

remember we
our waking

Were

common

it

their

train

in

part

not for such link,

be mere haphazard

For

we do

by the continuance

life

outer sensation
states.

that

are hinged on to

find

shall

for strange, in-

Those

impressions.

explicable

if

of

we

of

an

both

to

would

it

struck them again.

association

is

not one

under normal conditions.

likely to recur

XL
But besides the

down

daily running

of the

whole brain machinery to sleep, due to the

using up of the potential energy of the
or

its

down

slowing

effect of certain drugs,

brain

action

exercise of

it is

possible to bring

a dead point

to

By

will.

by a simple

shutting one's bodily

them

eyes, or by keeping

cells,

through the

artificially

fixed

upon some

uninteresting thing, while at the same time

shutting

one's

similarly fixed

brain activity

sudden

mind's eye, or keeping

upon some

may be brought

stand-still.

It is

it

insipid thought,
to a strangely

by this portal that

the subject passes into the trance state.

Of

trances,

we may

distinguish two kinds

OCCULT JAPAN.

344
hypnotic

the

their physical

toms

differ

and

while at

and

trance,

The two

trance.

the

same time bearing

To an unsympathetic
one seems an

symp-

their psychic

in

the

strong family resemblance

of the

possession

markedly, both in

each other.

to

bystander, the subject

idiotic

automaton, while

the subject of the other appears raving mad.

We

will

To
point

take up the hypnotic variety

an outsider nothing marks that

when

critical

the subject's statuesque immov-

ability passes

from the voluntary into the

involuntary state.

and

first.

It

simply was the one

the other; a passing over as indistin-

is

guishable as the traveler's crossing the

known only by the change

which

all

If left

it

line,

pole round

things seem to turn.

alone the subject remains in his

mummified
himself.

of

state

If,

till

at last

he comes to

of

however, while in the midst of

he be addressed by the operator, instantly

certain

striking

phenomena

of a lethargy seemingly too

stimulus to

stir,

follow.

deep

Out

for

he suddenly responds

any
to

the operator's word with the instantaneity

of

mechanism.

He

not only wakes to

again, but as soon appears to a

life

most peculiar

NOUMENA.
phase of

345

For though he responds

it.

hypnotist as

if

to the

he had been simply waiting

immediate response made, he

to do so, his

more

sinks back once

His

into passivity.

seem merely the effect of moimpressed

from without as if the
mentum
hypnotist had given his mental machinery a
action would

shove which had carried him a certain

tance,

dis-

and whose impetus had then been

gradually dissipated by the friction of the

This

parts.

before

momentum

He

inert.

initiative of his

gone, he becomes as

possesses apparently no

own.

While the foreign momentum

lasts

he

acts with a perfection of performance realized in

some machines, but not by conscious

man.

What he

does he does far better than

the best of which he

mal

And

state.

nothing.
bulists

His action

who

will

is

capable in his nor-

he hesitates
is

at

kin to the

little

or

somnam-

walk on ridge-poles and the

edges of precipices without fear and without falling;

only that whereas the sleep-

walker does so

of

his

hypnotic subject does so

of another.

him

is at

And

own motion, the

at

the suggestion

the hint needed to start

times inconceivably slight.

What

OCCULT JAPAN.

346

a bystander on the alert quite

the hypnotic subject, to

in stupor, perceives

all

fails to notice,

appearance sunk

and acts upon

at once.

Side by side in the hypnotized with such

trigger-like action

an utter deadness to

cases

the initial

in

toward his hypnotist goes

else.

For him

nothing exists but his hypnotizer.

Through

everything and everybody

this person's

fiat,

and only through

it,

word from

this

man

other things and other

people are perceived, either

pointed out or

may
At

anything enter the subject's world.

when

when

directly

indirectly involved in

the execution of the suggestion

itself.

They

can also be made to remain incognito by

Still further, imaginary
the same process.
things

can be made to seem real to the

subject

their non-existence in fact forming

no bar

to their existence in his

ness.

If

him they do
state this
for

the

conscious-

the operator says they exist, for

is

exist.

In the

full

hypnotic

no mere nominal acquiescence,

subject will go

characteristics

and

retail

on to detail their
their

subsequent

actions without further prompting, showing

that to

Now

him they are thorough-going

this

abnormal action

of the

realities.

mind

in

NOUMENA.

347

the trance state seems most explicable as

follows.

By

the enforced inaction or induced

tiring of the brain cells in action at the time

of lapsing into unconsciousness,

in

activity

and being shut

brain, being inactive already

off

all

those cells ceases, while the rest of the

from outward stimulus, remains

Furthermore, the stopping of action

cells acting at the

inert.
in

the

time seems to bring the

whole brain to the

dead-point

logical since apparently

it is

that are vibrating at the

the stoppage a time

is

which

is

only these cells

moment.

After

necessary to raise

the potential to the point of overcoming the

inertia.

same

if

the cells were at

all

potential, this state of lethargy

continue

woke
same

Now

up.

the whole

till

But the

initial

potential

some

activity point than others.

two kinds of
their fellows

cells at a
:

not

all

at the

are nearer the

Especially are

higher potential than

those connected with habitual

ideas and those

connected with ideas pe-

culiarly poignant at the time.

awaking

would

eventually

brain

cells are

the

to action of

one

It

to the

of this latter class

while yet the rest of the brain

torpid that the peculiar

is

still

phenomena

stays
of the

OCCULT JAPAN.

348
hypnotic

trance

The

probably due.

are

initiation idea thus resurrected is the idea in

the subject's mind that the operator will have

a certain indefinite but all-effective power

when he

over him
trance.

have lapsed into the

shall

not necessary that this impres-

It is

sion should reach the level of full belief

bare fear that

enough.

he may be

present to the person

Now

sary.

thus controlled

That the mere idea

of

it

that

a
is

should be
neces-

is

all

is

the last poignant

such idea

is

mind before he com-

idea in the subject's

poses himself for the trance.

Consequently,

after he has entered the trance state

it

is

this idea that is nearest the point of pass-

ing over into action and that, as the whole

potential rises, passes over

first.

Thus

it is

the idea which the subject carries with him

into the trance that

idea of the trance

Now
the

becomes the dominant

itself.

the fact that this idea alone

necessary potential

plains the insentience

The

other stimuli.

with

it

to

of

brain

is

be stirred

the brain to
cells

at

exall

connected

alone are in a condition to be affected

from without

all

others are affected only

as they are connected with them.

Nor

are

NOUMENA.

349

these secondary ones as easily stirred by the

first as

they would be in normal

brain cells are

The

life.

abnormally torpid.

all

In

consequence, as the motion passes along them

very

little

side action

is

roused, and, as

the ramifying side-thoughts that

parison possible
*

and

constitute

it is

make comjudgment,

the hypnotic subject sees no incongruity in

and performs each with a

his actions

abandonment
of

to

it

performance unattainable

normal state

The

force

itself felt

self-

that insures a perfection

in his

complex

of mind.
of

the

habitual

ideas

makes

by hindering and even preventing

the performance of a suggested idea that

conflicts with the subject's

things

other

deed,

character.

equal, the grooves

temperament are followed by the

Less force

thought.

them

in

action

motion.

Not only
it

is

set

the subject's

is

under a suggested idea

with his character, but

of

train of

necessary to

is

In-

in

keeping

impossible to

get him to do things which are abhorrent

to

it.

To

induce a subject

example,

is

practically

ator's power.

who

is

not

commit murder, for

beyond even the oper-

essentially depraved to

OCCULT JAPAN.

350

We

have parallels

such semi-spontaneity

to

of action of an habitual idea in every-day

In a preoccupied state of mind we
life.

engage upon some act only

the habitual

do, but

one.

who, having come home

stairs to dress for a

to

wake

to

late

to find

we started to
knew a man

ourselves doing not the thing

I

and gone up-

which he proceeded

ball,

do mechanically, suddenly found himself

The preparatory taking

in bed.

off of his

clothes had started the machinery, which,

default

and

of supervision,

fatally

Of

had run then

itself

done the habitual thing.

peculiarly poignant ideas

we

know
manner

all

countless examples of the persistent

in

in

which they turn up

in

season and out of

They are forever showing their faces

it.
amid the ever - changing crowd of other
thoughts.

That the hypnotic subject seems

to be

on

the lookout for everything connected with

his hypnotizer

scious one.

It

is

of course a purely
is

paralleled in

uncon-

waking

life

by the exceeding sensitiveness of any acute

The
idea to anything connected with itself.
lover, the politician, the burglar, are alive to

actions related to their quest which to other

NOUMENA.

351

We

mortals would pass unnoticed.

our
all

own name

all

catch

uttered in a conversation to

we have been apparently

The exceeding sensibility

the rest of which

quite oblivious.

of the entranced to the acts of the operator,

joined to absolute insentience, so far as appears, to irrelevant matter, need not surprise

we

us, since
thing-.

with which

are

all

hourly doing the same

only the degree of completeness

It is

it is

done that

differs sufficiently

to startle us.

The

relative sensibility of the

toward

his hypnotizer, side

hypnotized

by side with

complete insensibility toward

all

thus be accounted for; but there

else,

his

may

a further

is

exhibition of sensibility that he shows which

is

as startling as

it

is

inexplicable on the

generally received theories

This

of the

subject.

the surprising vividness of his con-

is

sciousness of things of which he comes to

have any consciousness

at

all.

We

have

seen an adumbration of this in dreams, but

in the case of the

into

the

dreams,

it

is

them

it

fairly rises

the marvelous.

Like

evidenced by the general vivid

character of the
unlike

hypnotized

region of

it is

subject's experiences,

but

further borne direct witness

OCCULT JAPAN.

352
to

by mental

acts so out of every-day experi-

ence as to lead hastily credulous persons to

them to some sort of supernatural

For the hypnotic subject will display an amount of knowledge of which in

attribute

power.

his

norm^

state

he

is

even the rudiments.

known not

to possess

Sometimes

his appar-

ently supernatural insight can be traced to

the resurrection of memories faint at the

time of their experiencing and long since

lapsed

but sometimes

it is

due

to the actual

ex post facto creation of consciousness out of

brain processes of which there was no con-

sciousness at the time of their occurrence.

Now

our

present

merits or demerits

theory, whatever

may

to give an explanation of this

If

its

be, is at least able

phenomenon.

consciousness be nerve-glow, a local mo-

lecular

change

of

the cells due to a forced

arrest of the neural current from temporary

or

permanent impermeability

of path,

it

is

precisely in the generally torpid brain of the

hypnotic subject that

it

should be

most

That his brain generally is torpid is

shown by the fact that action does not sponWhen, however,
taneously take place in it.
a current is induced from the only starting-

acute.

NOUMENA.

353

point possible, the suggestion of the operator,

and turned into the desired channel,

whose resistance

traverses a path

above the normal.

Instead,

gliding rapidly along,

it

overcoming the

in

which we
tends,

make

of course, to

of

itself

meets, causing

it

of the successive cells

The

consciousness.

call

much

therefore,

soon expends

friction

glow

in the process a

is

it

current

the molecules of

the cells vibrate as they did before rather

than
it

in

finds

some perfectly new combination, but

unwonted difficulty in making them

vibrate at

The

all.

combination

of

result

cell

is

action

that
is

the old

resurrected

with accompaniment of consciousness

is,

its

we have an

idea where before

we had

that

only

Whether this be the

a lapsed memory, or the evoking

latent possibility.

revival of
of

an actual

is

mere question

bit of

brand-new consciousness,
of degree.

The

greater

the resistance, short of stopping the current,

the greater the current's, so to speak, creative power.

That

this is

due to the increased

resist-

ance, and not to an hypothetically increased

current,

is

further evident on considering the

alternative.

For

if

the current were greater

OCCULT JAPAN.

354

than under normal conditions would be the

case,

should both

it

continue longer and

rouse greater side action along

But, as

we know,

it

these suppositions.
self,

and

It

starts next to

the process.

It

its

course.

does the contrary of both

speedily expends

it-

no side-thoughts in

thus completely negatives

an imputation of increased force.

Another general phenomenon of hypnoproves the same relation of increased

sis

resistance to increased consciousness.

is

As

well known, the events of the subject's

normal

life

are both possible of recall and

spontaneously remembered in the hypnotic

state
is

while, contrariwise, the hypnotic life

entirely hid

sciousness.

from the man's normal con-

Now

this fact, instead of imply-

ing greater powers in the hypnotic state, as

superficially

exactly

the

viewed

it

opposite.

seems
It

is

to do, implies

indeed but a

more general instance of what we have just

considered.
For the permeability of a path
depends, cceteris paribus, on the number
of

times

it

has been traversed.

Now

the

hypnotic or possession paths, having been

comparately

little

used, are

relatively

permeable than the normal ones.

less

Conse-

NOUMENA.
quently an hypnotic path

355
not likely to be

is

entered in the waking state, the current preferring

more habitual

its

Even

routes.

hypnotic idea should reappear,

it

if

the

would prob-

fail of

recognition in the broad glare of

the normal

state, since in the twilight of the

trance

associations

ably

its

feeble to give
cation.

For

it

like

fringe

tify

them

if

enough

for identifi-

reasons, even

will fail to resurrect

few and

were too

suggestion

hypnotic ideas, or iden-

The normal

resurrected.

ideas,

on the contrary, can be recalled in the hypnotic state, because, unless blocked by sug-

most permeable

gestion, their paths are the

paths there.
life

Consequently that the hypnotic

can be made to include the waking one,

while reversely the waking

made

life

being proof of greater powers

is

cannot be

to include the hypnotic one, instead of

in

the

latter,

simply proof of less permeability of path.

XII.

From

hypnotic trances

we now

pass to

possession ones.

So

far as the subject is aware, the portal

the same.

to both

is

sciously

similar

manner

In
to

quite uncon-

that

purposely

OCCULT JAPAN.

356

taken by the hypnotic subject, the person to

be possessed either shuts his eyes or keeps

them

fixed,

while at the same time he fixes

thought on nothing.

his

If

he thus prop-

erly focuses both kinds of attention,

goes

he soon

off.

In spite, however, of the apparent sameness of method employed in both cases, the
subject's
trance,

symptoms

he lapses into his

as

and his subsequent actions

in

it,

differ radically in the two.

throe marks the entrance into the pos-

session trance, and a suppressed quiver ac-

companies
is

it

throughout

the hypnotic trance

entered imperceptibly, and the subject

continues apathetic

till

instigated to action

by a word or sign from the operator. Perhaps the most peculiar physical feature of
the possession trance

is

the rolled-up condi-

tion of the eyeballs, so rolled

is

up that the

iris

This position they hold

half out of sight.

throughout the trance, and the eye never

winks,

though

twitching.

the

eyelids

For the

are

rest, their

ciently describe the

two

constantly

names

states,

the

suffi-

one

subject seeming in truth possessed by a devil,

while the other,

if

left

alone, appearing to

NOUMENA.
sleep as he stands.

It

357

requires, indeed,

no

one an
and speaking through the

faith in the onlooker to see in the

alien spirit acting

Such

man.
from

the instant natural inference

is

and behavior.

his looks

On

the other

hand, the hypnotic subject can hardly be

said

to

have either looks or behavior

commanded

till

have them to order by the

to

hypnotist.

The one

subject thus acts from spontane-

ous impulse

The

accord.

the

other only of derivative

next point of dissimilarity

is

that the sense of self differs entirely in the

two.

The possessed

believes himself to be

another person, the possessing

spirit.

The

hypnotized continues to think himself him-

by the hypnotist that he is

upon which he promptly con-

self unless told

some one

else,

ceives himself that other person.

In both trances such sensations

only as

are compatible with the hypothesis

enter-

tained by the entranced are allowed to enter

These are perceived with

so abnormal as to have

consciousness.

abnormal

alacrity,

suggested a possible explanation of clairvoyance.

All irrelevant sensations are simply

ignored.

It

is

as

if

telegrams were con-

OCCULT JAPAN.

358

man from

stantly arriving to a

the world, and he should leave

from Chili unopened on

parts of

all

all

but those

That the

his desk.

senses and the lower centres do their work

perfectly,

and that

hemispheres

in the

is

it

that the messages are laid aside unscanned,

proved clearly by hypnotic experiments.

is

For

in

certain

shown

to

things

first,

cases

the

subject

can

be

have carefully distinguished two

in order

subsequently to ignore

These

one of them.

last

sensations

may

afterward be recovered.

The same thing

possessed.

with

the

wounds

Violent sensations unconnected

spirit

all,

of

inflicted in

stuck into the

at

occurs in the case of the

man

the
it,

and even

trance,

pass unnoticed.

are not felt

though the pain of the prick continues

sharp enough to be very disagreeably

the

Pins

by the god

man on coming back

felt

Yet when he does thus become aware

he remains quite unable to assign

On

the other

to the

by

again to himself.

its

of

it

cause.

hand, sensations appropriate

god may almost be said

to be divined

rather than ordinarily perceived, so alert to

them

is

the entranced.

In neither trance, under natural, that

is,

NOUMENA.

359

man

unsuggested, conditions, does the

member anything of what happened

waked

trance after he has

re-

in the

In the case

up.

of the hypnotic trance, a suggestion by the

operator during the trance that he shall re-

member
As
so.

it

afterwards, will enable him to do

to the possession trance,

aware that

though

waking

state,

done.

Certainly

am

not

in

the

ever remembered

is

it

it

believe this could be

is

not done in Japan.

The man knows nothing

of the god.

Discontinuous, however, as the trance consciousness

from the normal one, in each

is

its own consciousness is

The hypnotic subject remem-

kind of trances
continuous.

bers in subsequent trances what happened

in

So does the god.

former ones.

I shall

curious details of this

Some

consider pres-

ently.

Asrreeins: thus as the

do

in

more

so

many

two kinds

respects,

it

all

the

singular that they should differ so in

others, entered, as they both

by the same

ceive, in the idea that

explain

it,

seemed

to be,

In what, then, does the

gate.

difference consist

To

of trances

becomes

It

consists, so

con-

dominates the trance.

we must look

little

back

OCCULT JAPAN.

360

the immediate phenomena, for it is the

power behind the throne of thought that

of

Now

does the business.

both trances

in

the general state of the brain

In both

it

is

as a

the same.

is

whole torpid, and

both

in

action eventually takes place along certain

isolated

The

lines.

idea that

reaches

first

sufficient potential to

respond to an outside

stimulus, or to stir of

itself, is

This idea

acts.

is

the idea that

the dominant idea of the

trance.

We

have followed this out

the hypnotic trance.

it

We

the case of

in

now

shall

see that

applies equally to the possession trance,

and

that

the intrinsic differences in

dominant idea

of each

account for the

the

differ-

ent phenomena.

Let us see what the dominant idea

case

is.

The hypnotic

in

deadening processes leading

to

the trance

with the idea

more or

less definite,

full belief to

a bare fear

that

from a

in the

ing trance the hypnotizer wall have an

sistible

power over him.

each

subject enters the

That he

will

comirre-

then

lose his identity, will cease to be himself,

is

no part of this thought, except as unconsciously included in the

power the operator

NOUMENA.
may be

361

The person

able to exert.

be

to

on the other hand, enters his

possessed,

trance under the firm conviction that he

about to become the god or the

whatever

Now
of

is

devil, or

else the possessing spirit is to be.

each of these ideas proves exponent

what happens

in their respective trances.

In the one trance, the subject acts like a

mind-mechanism worked
operator

in the other,

munity considers,

That
ing

this

is

he

acts, as

the com-

like a god.

due to the dominant idea

to potential possibility, is

first

demonstrable

less

the will of the

at

phenomenally.

possession trance

we can

increasing effect

of

this

ris-

more or
In

the

actually see the

rise.

The

statu-

esque immovability preceding the trance

eventually shaken
gains

till

session.

not

it

is

by a slight quiver, and

culminates in the throe of pos-

In the hypnotic subject, the rise

directly evident.

The

dominant idea accounts for

notic subject

is

is

character of the
this.

The hyp-

possessed by a purely pas-

sive idea, the idea of the eventual influence

over him of the operator, which, as yet,

is

latent,

and passes into action only on com-

mand.

His dominant idea never thus quite

OCCULT JAPAN.

362

peeps over the threshold of consciousness,

but merely stands by to usher other ideas
gives

It

in.

would

they

them
be

their pass, without

spirit-possessed,

the

which
In

admittance.

refused
action

is

spontaneous.

There, the dominant idea actually takes possession of the otherwise vacated apartments

mind and runs the establishment

of the
its

of

own motion, incidentally permitting no

come in that has not somehow busi-

idea to

ness with

over of

Its energy, therefore, passes

it.

itself

from the potential kinetic form.

Its energy, also, is

two.

For

more

activity

much

the greater of the

to initiate action of itself

inherent

in

the

shows

idea

than

merely to respond to a shove from without.

This

explains

the apathy of

the

general

hypnotic state on the one hand, and

the

throe and subsequent quiver of the possess-

ory trance on the other.

If

the energy of the idea be not kept up

by appropriate stimulation, it gradually falls,

as is shown by the lapsing of the subject,
when left alone, into a state of coma. But
the aptitude of the idea to act remains relatively the same.
tion,

For, on renewed incanta-

the dominant idea again rises to a point

of action before the rest of the brain.

NOUMENA.

363

Both entranced states thus

normal condition, not
curiously open, as at
think, but in

its

in

first

from the

dififer

the mind's being

one

is

tempted

in the normal state, unless

some

to

For,

being curiously shut.

fixed idea

chance for the time partially to have closed

the avenues of approach, the mind lies open
to

all

comers, incoming ideas as

sations,

all

of

whom

v^^ell

as sen-

eagerly welcomes,

chokes

quietly

admission

then after

and

it

such as on inspection it does not happen to

In the entranced state, on the other
fancy.
hand, no idea

is

admitted at

unless per-

all

sonally related to the possessing idea, and

when once introduced

is

permitted

full

play

in the premises.

Whatever thus gains admittance through

the dominant idea is, therefore, from meeting

little

In

or no opposition, all-powerful.

the perfectly hypnotized person, the slightest hint

from the operator produces instanFor, in that

taneous and complete action.

motionless mind,

there

are

practically

counter-forces present to oppose

any such roused by

after

it

to act.

has started.

Only when

its

action

There
it

is

it,

to

no

nor are

check

nothing but

it
it

clashes with another

OCCULT JAPAN.

364

any hesitation or

visitor does

But the man's

sult.

tity

does not change, because

dominant idea that

of the

difficulty re-

own

sense of his

not a part

it is

When

should.

it

iden-

by suggestion an idea of such change enters

his mind, identity changes at once.
In perfect subjects there
ness of constraint.

It is

no conscious-

is

when

only

the hyp-

is

imperfect that side-ideas are roused

enough

to suggest the possibility of acting

nosis

otherwise.

aware

The

subject then becomes dimly

of compulsion, without,

however, hav-

ing any definite conception of what that com-

He

pulsion consists.

must do so and so
In waking
itself in

must
trivial

life,

simply feels that he

and he does

it.

mask
that we

a fixed idea will often

the same manner.

We

feel

act in a certain way, often in a very

way, against our

will, as

we

say, yet

without questioning for an instant that

we who

act.

As

idea that for the

faint

scious

moment

is

the

it

is

it

is

the

and the

remonstrance of which we are conis

roused by

But

a matter of fact,

due to such

faint side-ideas as are

its action.

in the possession trance the

dominant

idea consists consciously in a change of iden-

NOUMENA.
The

tity.

365

consciousness in the entranced

state throbs with the sense of this

sonahty as waking
of

life

Consequently,

self.

new

per-

does with the sense

the

all

possessed's

thoughts, words, and actions conform to

none that do not finding foothold

The man

Mentally, he

god.

and

does not simulate the

his

is

mechanism,

responds in

its

of identity, the

ception of the
god, but

From
lelism

it

the spirit or the god,

it is

His

we

him

lies,

anything

man.

perceive a certain paral-

between trances and dreams, with

In both the mind

except along a particular

the illumination

is

lightning-like,

of things as

is

cer-

inac-

In both

line.

no general illumination resulting

place,

is

an absolute change

also is not the

all this,

judgment

the

new ego being the man's congod.

Such may not be the

tain divergences.
tive,

it

mind.

spirit or

in so far as in

performance.

but a case of acting

in his

and

in both

in a general

they really are takes

because of the current's failure to

rouse side-thoughts.

dominant idea

is

But

much

in the trance the

stronger than in the

dream, and persists through the whole of

as a

ground

is this

for all other ideas.

so in the possession trance.

it

Especially

And

the

OCCULT japan:

366

reason for this

more or less patent. The

dream is much less con-

is

idea that causes the

sciously absorbing than the idea that

sessed
ardly

The one

the possessed.
entertained,

other

the

probable

Secondly,

it

is

generally,

is

much deeper

when we begin

we
to

is

asleep

The

haphaz-

purposed.
the brain,

that

trance than in the dream.

our own motion

is

pos-

the

in

fact that of

are so close to

dream implies

waking
and

this,

the easy consequence of one idea upon an-

other in the dream state goes to back

it

up.

Lastly, the possessing idea in the trance

is

repeated and

in

again

realized

successive trances.

This strengthens

How much

mensely.

and again

so,

is

evident

it

im-

from

the great development observable in trances.

trance

that occurs

for the first

usually very embryonic

the idea acquires

is

waking

time

is

but by repetition

momentum

of single-purposed

Habit

that rivals that

action.

just as potent in the trance state

as in the normal one.

In both lives a self-

educatory process goes on, any action gaining proficiency by practice.

seen, divine development

is

As we have
as duly

marked

NOUMENA.
in

the Shinto trances as

in every-day

Much

367

human development

man.
supposed divinatory power

of the

of the possessed

is

attributable to the

same

cause that makes the hypnotic subject so

The

supernaturally omniscient.

any one

a degree unsuspected by

much

at

it

some

much

of

is

it,

It

is

we

we only

there, could

The possessed does

get at

it,

or

and surprises himself quite as

as others

his honesty in
it

owner.

its

to say that everything

have ever experienced

get at

of

a register of sense impressions to

is

none too

brain

by having done

denying that

and the natural

so.

it is

Whence

he that does

belief of others in its su-

pernatural origin.

In conclusion
ill

it

may be noted

how

here

the self fares under these illusions and

disillusions

of

That

the trance.

can

self

thus be snuffed out at a word from the

operator, or

by the mere idea

possession trance, betrays

dental thing.
to be

god

in

the

no transcen-

would seem

itself

of ideas in that

mass

Self, indeed,

and the bundle

it

of

of machinery, the brain, alone to constitute

the

I.

OCCULT JAPAN.

368

XIII.

Certain differences between the Japanese

possession trances and others of their kind are

To

significant.

begin with, one pecuharity

of the Shinto trance

tion with

mediary

it.

is

man

This

of the god,

the
is

maezas connecthe

official inter-

and he holds a curious

intermediary position between the person

spoken to

in the

operator in

mediumistic trance and the

the

hypnotic one.

He

the

is

nakodo, or go-between, of the whole transac-

He

tion.

is

the only part of humanity

whom

the god deigns spontaneously to recognize.

He

alone

may speak

to the god,

and him

alone the god condescends to answer.

one

else,

however

pious,

verse with the god, must

who

Any

desires to con-

first

be brought in

rapport with him by the maeza.

Until such

rapport be established, the god pays the outsider's

remarks no attention.

That he

not quite so deaf as he seems, however,

shown by

his occasionally scolding the

for irreverential conduct

outsider.

this to

engaged

in testing

in

is

maeza

on the part of such

blush to say that

happen except

is

my own

never knew
case,

when

the reality of the god by

NOUMENA.

369

making, too openly, a pin-cushion of him, or

otherwise treating him with what he took
for disrespect.

But the maesa does not

questions

his

affect the god's

and only incidentally suggests by

actions,

current of the

the

divine

thought precisely as one person does that

of another in every-day conversation.

maesa usually
is

starts the topic, but the

responsible for the replies.

thus,

The
god

The maeza

is

the operator in the hypnotic

unlike

trance, not the

power behind the throne, but

merely the master of ceremonies before

it.

who
trance-medium, and who

In this he differs again from a person

has a sitting with a
is

not supposed to open his mouth except

upon

his

own

business.

a greater gulf between

There

is,

however,

the god and

the

than

maesa, particularly pure as the latter

is,

between the

spirit.

We

now come

similarity

and

all

sitter

and the informing

to

a very suggestive dis-

between the Shint5 possessions

others.

Of trances

of

the possessory sort there

are manifold varieties to be found scattered

over the surface of our globe.

Believers

grade them after the ethics of the possessing

OCCULT JAPAN.

370
spirits, a

pious

if

not over-profitable criterion.

In Japan, for example, the rank of the god

is

gauged by the knowledge he displays of his

own

family mythology, while in America pos-

sessing spirits are valued for their proficiency

in a certain

milk-and-water philosophy, meta-

The more

physically tinctured of religion.

milk-and-water

well

their

of

proves, the purer proof-spirit

is

information
it

esteemed

to be.

To

science the spirits' morals would be of

more consequence did they not so singularly

mirror the morals of the race which the
spirits are

kind enough to possess.

As

it is,

so remarkable a resemblance in ethical stand-

ards between the immutable gods and ever-

evolving man, observable at

all

among

too

all

peoples,

proves

times and

much

for

Such concordance, further

striking manner in which
the
emphasized by
popular deity.

as a race advances in

its

conception of con-

duct the moral development of deity keeps

pace with the moral development of the devotee, hints that

between the orthodox and

the true divine comedy, the parts of creature

and creator have unfortunately got reversed.

The more

abstract the conceptions of a

NOUMENA.
race
its

grow

371

more abstract become

to be, the

gods, and in consequence the less they

deign temporarily to inhabit mankind.

growing incapacity

to conceive

how

and more abstracted god would act

concrete

Among

indirectly responsible

is

embodiment

to

among more evolved races the

parted men take their place.
But

in

for

more
the
this.

aboriginal peoples the gods them-

descend

selves

man

spirits of de-

not simply in their morals that

is

it

in

the gods show themselves in sympathy with

their people.

In their characters generally

you

reflected the race character-

shall see

In Japan

istics.

They

Japanese.

life

is

ornamental,

are eminently

most exceptional deportment.

souls, of the

Their

the gods

are dignified, artistic, simple

made up of one long chain of

somewhat conventional, mo-

if

ments.
Especially

men

is

this

agreement

of

gods and

conspicuous in that most interesting of

Japanese

As we

traits

the

saw, one of the strangest features of

Japanese possession
several

race's unindividuality.

is

the

way

in

gods deign to share one

Now when

which
trance.

this copartnership is closely scru-

OCCULT JAPAN.

372
tinized

it

will

be found to afford proof

of a

curiously conceived impersonal kind of deity.

It

is

not that to one unacquainted with

the gods there appears at

sight to be

first

a very strong family likeness between them,

so strong as to imply
dividuality

any, for such

in

semblance

is

no very marked

common

eyes of others.

It

in-

superficial re-

to every race in the

in the

is

character of

the divine consciousness that the peculiarity

consists.

god

is

For the consciousness

continuous

of

any one

the consciousness of successive gods

That

tinuous in any one trance.

person of the same

what he
trances,

did,

and

in successive trances,

said,

man

is,

is

con-

in the

the god remembers

and heard

in

different

and different gods remember what

the others did, said, and heard in the same

trance, while perfectly differentiating themselves

But

from those others.

different gods

do not remember about each other in

The

ent trances.
is

first of

of course the usual

self-identifying a

memory.

trance

memory,

that an indefi-

god underlies the several

manifestations of
extent of this

as

one as the man's normal

The second shows

nite idea of

differ-

these capabilities

it.

The

common

special

third indicates the

bond.

NOUMENA.

373

That each god thus knows

and sensations from those
god, in the

same

trance,

his

of

own

acts

every other

and remembers

his

previous acts and sensations in successive

the

trances, fulfills all

phenomena

It is therefore

only natural for

and irrevocably

to

On

it

we

that

recognize as constituting an individual

self.

instantly

have been taken for such.

the other hand, that one god should have

any idea

the actions of his predecessor

of

when embodied,
unindividual

hints at a ground-work of

self.

The change

of

god evidently comes about

by unconscious auto-suggestion.

Certainly

the subject himself has no inkling before-

hand what gods

party,

if

really

seemingly honest profession to

his

that effect

is

to

no reason

change due

will constitute his surprise

to

be believed, and there

doubt

to

it.

Nor

is

is

the

any suggestion on the part

of the niaesa, the official interviewer of the

god.
tions

For the maeza asks no leading queson the subject he confines himself to
;

asking after the fact

who has come, and then

to questionings about the cure of the disease,

or other desired

mundane

or divine matter,

quite apart from the personality of the god.

OCCUL T JAPAN.

374

The

auto-suggestion

general

is

of

and

of change,

idea

The

performance.

lirst

two

is

the

parts,

particular

its

like the uninten-

tionally induced hypnotic habits of the

The gods have

petriere.

are expected

to

come

in

kindly do so accordingly.
initially is

Sal-

learned that chey

Indian

and

file,

That they did so

due undoubtedly to the underly-

ing impersonality of the race.

That there
to rotation in

is

this general predisposition

office is

proved by the

earli-

ness with which the change shows

itself.

appears long before the possession

is

enough

development

perfect

The boy whose

for words.

It

divine

instanced before was already

several gods in turn, while as yet unable to

talk as any.

The

particular

change comes

about from associations between the idea

of

one god and the idea of the other, con-

tracted either in the normal or the entranced

state,

and then evoked

in the

entranced's heavenly thinking.

the link becomes visible.

that he

is

Sometimes
god

will

say

himself unable to answer a ques-

tion put to him,

to

course of the

will report the

matter

for solution, after

which

and

some higher god

an attendant of the higher god descends.

A'OUMENA.

375

This would seem to show that a sufficiently

connective thought in one trance will pass

over to become a part of the dominant idea

in

the next.

god may thus present his

successor.

Somewhat analogous to this, though not

way in which the control of a
trance medium has been known to change.
similar, is the

But

this,

happened

The

so far as
in

spirits

scopic

am

aware, has rarely

the midst of any one trance.

spoken to change with kaleido-

activity,

but the control

itself

is

tolerably stable spirit.

Indifferentism to individuality crops out

thus in the

curious

thread of impersonal

god head, mere god -head as such, upon

which the several particular personalities are
-

strung, because

it

is

ity of the race that

so fundamental a qualit

forms of necessity

part of their every idea.

The
sists

subject's

dominant idea evidently con-

not of the possession by any particular

god, but rather

of

the

prognostication of

possession by deity in general.

For were

the idea of the individuality of the possessory god strong,

it

would not of

itself yield

possession of the premises to another.

On

OCCULT JAPAN.

376

the other hand,

it

no mere abstract idea

is

of god, but rather a vaguely concrete general idea, accidentally clothed

individual enough, in

In

succession.
is

kin to

all

of a

of

of

their

hasty

the other Japanese ideas

man, for example, as

itself in their

man nor

spite

the Japanese idea of

fact,

like their idea of

shows

par-

For the gods are successively

ticularity.

god

upon by

it

speech, the idea neither

mankind, but just the idea

man.

The dominant

idea thus betrays a very

mind in the possessed.

Though the man's self has quite departed,

curious state of

the mere lessness of that

not only characterizes

ants, but unites
lease.

the race

The

all

them by

individual

self survives,

and

subsequent ten-

a sort of

common

has vanished

but

is left.

Such a result, indeed, is what we should

expect from our theory on the subject. For
the race characteristics are the ones most

deeply graven into the character of the

dividual.

thought,

They

are

in-

the great arteries of

the well-worn

channels

which the stream flows most

easily does the current pass

through

easily.

So

through them

NOUMENA.
that the thoughts

377

rouses there mingle un-

it

consciously with a man's thinking most of

They

the time.

constitute what

we know as
When,

habitual ones in the normal state.

therefore, the brain lies clogged in the general lethargy of the trance, these

the

channels

remain relatively more permeable than

still

less

pervious

veins

more recently

of

evolved sensations peculiar to the individual.

Thus the activity

wakes the race.

that cannot

wake the man

This brings us to confront the atavistic

character of the general trance state.

we have

ori,

just seen that the state should

hark back, and a posteriori that

it

is

hypnotic
in

it,

generally.

atavistic

one idea

transition from

state, the

it

does so in

But we have evidence

this particular case.

that

A pri-

want

The

easy

to another in the

of reasoning

shown

the intentness and energy with which

any given idea

will

be pursued one moment,

only to be thrown over the next with a completeness which

mind

is

caricatural, are states of

that recall childhood for comparison.

The man has become

a sort of grotesque

boy

ide'es

again.

cated, that

Could
is,

all

could

fixes be eradi-

we have

the perfectly

OCCULT japan:

3/8

normal man for subject, then

the operator

if

could suggest some action colorless enough

to

state

into play,

purity of experiment practically unat-

tainable,

him

come

only native activity

let

we should probably, as the trance

deepened and the man

lost himself, see

lose first his individual characteristics,

then his family

then the habits of his

traits,

clan,

and so down,

man

ones survived.

only the broadly hu-

till

The

trance state would

undo what evolution has done, and return

to

us a primeval savage in the body of an end-

But fortunately that

of-the-century man.

most

portrait

you

composite photograph,
obtain.

The

see in any

shall
is

it

impossible to

For the very essence

consists in the

normal.

normal man,

the

individual,

insipid

whose mild

of evolution

survival of the slightly ab-

spirit of

the cosmos

is

itself

one great idee fixe working itself out. The

normality of the whole depends upon the
abnormality of each

part.

To be

sided gives each of us our chance.

nothing

is

easier than

everything, as the
it,

to

Roman

show

trifle

one-

Indeed,
that were

expression

had

smooth and round, nothing could ever

have developed,

just as \^^thout irregularity

NOUMENA.

379

no motion could have existed in the solar

system except one vast self-crushing in the
sun.

Thus

idiosyncracies are a necessa''y part

of us, but they are

in

numerous and diverse

proportion to the height the individual

They

development has attained.

less

are

marked between man and man

than among Ar}-an

folk.

in

much
Japan

The average

Jap-

anese more nearly approaches his own national norm.

This lands us

in

our investigation at an

unexpected conclusion, to

\<\X.,

that

gods really are what they claim to

these

be.

In

Shinto god-possession we are viewing the

actual incarnation of the ancestral spirit of

The man
once more his own

has temporarily become

grandfather.

a veridic incarnation,

the race.

It

is

ever there was one.

were gods

indefinitely great greatif

If

these his ancestors

in the past,

gods they are that

descend to embodiment to-day.

MTORN TO oil^"^"^ USE

OAM ir^"
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476A-32

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