[1]Deifying the mighty dead is one of the teachings of Shintōism.
[1]Deifying the mighty dead is one of the teachings of Shintōism.
Kato Sayemon lived in the palace of the Shōgun Ashikaga, where he had his separate apartments, and as there was no war at that time, he remained contentedly with his wife and concubines. Kato Sayemon was a man who loved luxury and ease, and he regarded domestic peace as the greatest of all earthly blessings. He honestly believed that among all his smiling, courteous women there was nothing but harmony, and this thought made life particularly sweet to him.
One evening Kato Sayemon went into the palace garden and was enchanted by the ever-moving cloud of fireflies, and he was scarcely less pleased with the gentle song of certain insects. "What a charming scene," murmured Sayemon, "and what a charming world we live in! Bows and smiles and abject humility from my women. Oh, it's all very wonderful and very delightful! I would have life always so."
Thus voicing his thoughts in this self-satisfied manner, he chanced to pass his wife's room, and peeped in with a loving and benevolent eye. He observed that his wife was playinggowith one of his concubines. "Such polite decorum," murmured Sayemon. "Surely their words are as sweet as honey and as soft and fair as finely spun silk. But stay! What strange thing is this? The hair of my wife and the hair of my concubine have turned into snakes that twist and rear their heads in anger. All the time these women smile and bow and move their pieces with well-ordered charm and grace. Gentle words come from their lips, but the snakes of their hair mock them, forthese twisting reptiles tell of bitter jealousy in their hearts."
Kato Sayemon in his Palace of the Shōgun Ashikaga.
Kato Sayemon in his Palace of the Shōgun Ashikaga.
Sayemon's beautiful dream of domestic happiness was for ever shattered. "I will go forth," said he, "and become a Buddhist priest. I will leave behind the hot malice and envy of my wife and concubines, and in the teaching of the Blessed One I shall indeed find true peace."
The next morning Sayemon left the palace secretly, and though search was made for him, he could not be found. About a week later Sayemon's wife reduced the establishment and lived quietly with her little son, Ishidomaro. Two years went by and still there came no news of her husband.
At length Sayemon's wife and child went in search of the missing man. For five years they wandered about the country, till at length they came to a little village in Kishu, where an old man informed the weary and travel-stained wanderers that Sayemon was now a priest, and that a year ago he lived in the temple of Kongobuji, on Mount Koya.
The next day the woman and her son found that at the temple of Kongobuji no women were permitted to enter, so Ishidomaro, after carefully listening to his mother's instructions, ascended the mountain alone. When the boy, after a long and arduous climb, reached the temple, he saw a monk, and said: "Does a priest called Kato Sayemon live here? I am his little son, and my good mother awaits me in yonder valley. Five years we have sought for him, and the love that is in our hearts will surely find him."
The priest, who was none other than Sayemon himself, thus addressed his son: "I am sorry to think that your journey has been in vain, for no one of the name of Kato Sayemon lives in this temple."
Sayemon spoke with outward coldness, but within his heart there was a struggle between his religion and love for his son. Knowing, however, that he had left his wife and child well provided for, he yielded to the teaching of the Lord Buddha and crushed out his parental feelings.
Ishidomaro, however, was not satisfied, for he felt instinctively that the man before him was in reality his father, and once again he addressed the priest: "Good sir, on my left eye there is a mole, and my mother told me that on the left eye of my father there is a similar mark, by which I might at once recognise him. You have the very mark, and in my heart I know that you are my father." And having said these words the boy wept bitterly, longing for arms that never came to caress and soothe the unhappy little fellow.
Sayemon's feelings were again stirred; but with a great effort to conceal his emotion, he said: "The mark of which you speak is very common. I am certainly not your father, and you had better dry your eyes and seek him elsewhere." With these words the priest left the boy in order to attend an evening service.
Sayemon continued to live in the temple. He had found peace in serving the Lord Buddha, and he cared not what became of his wife and child.
There was once an old man who had a wen on his right cheek. This disfigurement caused him a good deal of annoyance, and he had spent a considerable sum of money in trying to get rid of it. He took various medicines and applied many lotions, but instead of the wen disappearing or even diminishing, it increased in size.
One night, while the old man was returning home laden with firewood, he was overtaken by a terrible thunderstorm, and was forced to seek shelter in a hollowtree. When the storm had abated, and just as he was about to proceed on his journey, he was surprised to hear a sound of merriment close at hand. On peeping out from his place of retreat, he was amazed to see a number of demons dancing and singing and drinking. Their dancing was so strange that the old man, forgetting caution, began to laugh, and eventually left the tree in order that he might see the performance better. As he stood watching, he saw that a demon was dancing by himself, and, moreover, that the chief of the company was none too pleased with his very clumsy antics. At length the leader of the demons said: "Enough! Is there no one who can dance better than this fellow?"
When the old man heard these words, it seemed that his youth returned to him again, and having at one time been an expert dancer, he offered to show his skill. So the old man danced before that strange gathering of demons, who congratulated him on his performance, offered him a cup ofsaké, and begged that he would give them the pleasure of several other dances.
The old man was extremely gratified by the way he had been received, and when the chief of the demons asked him to dance before them on the following night, he readily complied. "That is well," said the chief, "but you must leave some pledge behind you. I see that you have a wen on your right cheek, and that will make an excellent pledge. Allow me to take it off for you." Without inflicting any pain, the chief removed the wen, and having accomplished this extraordinary feat, he and his companions suddenly vanished.
The old man, as he walked towards his home, kept on feeling his right cheek with his hand, and could scarcely realise that after many years of disfigurement he had at last the good fortune to lose his troublesome and unsightly wen. At length he entered his humble abode,and his old wife was none the less pleased with what had taken place.
A wicked and cantankerous old man lived next door to this good old couple. For many years he had been afflicted with a wen on his left cheek, which had failed to yield to all manner of medical treatment. When he heard of his neighbour's good fortune, he called upon him and listened to the strange adventures with the demons. The good old man told his neighbour where he might find the hollow tree, and advised him to hide in it just before sunset.
The wicked old man found the hollow tree and entered it. He had not remained concealed more than a few minutes when he rejoiced to see the demons. Presently one of the company said: "The old man is a long time coming. I made sure he would keep his promise."
At these words the old man crept out of his hiding-place, flourished his fan, and began to dance; but, unfortunately, he knew nothing about dancing, and his extraordinary antics caused the demons to express considerable dissatisfaction. "You dance extremely ill," said one of the company, "and the sooner you stop the better we shall be pleased; but before you depart we will return the pledge you left with us last night." Having uttered these words, the demon flung the wen at the right cheek of the old man, where it remained firmly fixed, and could not be removed. So the wicked old man, who had tried to deceive the demons, went away with a wen on either side of his face.
Shikaiya Wasōbiōye was a man of Nagasaki, and possessed considerable learning, but disliked visitors.On the eighth day of the eighth month, in order to escape the admirers of the full moon, he set off in his boat, and had proceeded some distance, when the sky looked threatening, and he attempted to return, but the wind tore his sail and broke his mast. The poor man was tossed for three months on the waves, until at last he came to the Sea of Mud, where he nearly died of hunger, for there were no fishes to be caught.
At length he reached a mountainous island, where the air was sweet with the fragrance of many flowers, and in this island he found a spring, the waters of which revived him. At length Wasōbiōye met Jofuku, who led him through the streets of the main city, where all the inhabitants were spending their time in pursuit of pleasure. There was no death or disease on this island; but the fact that here life was eternal was regarded by many as a burden, which they tried to shake off by studying the magic art of death and the power of poisonous food, such as globe-fish sprinkled with soot and the flesh of mermaids.
When twenty years had passed by Wasōbiōye grew weary of the island, and as he had failed in his attempts to take his life, he started upon a journey to the Three Thousand Worlds mentioned in Buddhist Scriptures. He then visited the Land of Endless Plenty, the Land of Shams, the Land of the Followers of the Antique, the Land of Paradoxes, and, finally, the Land of Giants.
After Wasōbiōye had spent five months riding on the back of a stork through total darkness, he at length reached a country where the sun shone again, where trees were hundreds of feet in girth, where weeds were as large as bamboos, and men sixty feet in height. In this strange land a giant picked up Wasōbiōye, took him to his house, and fed him from a single grain of monster rice, with chopsticks the size of a small tree.For a few weeks Wasōbiōye attempted to catechise his host in regard to the doctrines of the old world whence he came, but the giant laughed at him and told him that such a small man could not be expected to understand the ways of big people, for their intelligences were in like proportion to their size.
One day, while Tōtarō was crossing the Long Bridge of Séta, he saw a strange-looking creature. It had the body of a man, with a skin blacker than that of a negro; its eyes glowed like emeralds, and its beard was like the beard of a dragon. Tōtarō was not a little startled at seeing such an extraordinary being; but there was so much pathos in its green eyes that Tōtarō ventured to ask questions, to which the strange fellow replied:
"I am Samébito ["A Shark-Person"], and quite recently I was in the service of the Eight Great Dragon Kings as a subordinate officer in the Dragon Palace. I was dismissed from this glorious dwelling for a very slight fault, and I was even banished from the sea. Ever since I have been extremely miserable, without a place of shelter, and unable to get food. Pity me, good sir! Find me shelter, and give me something to eat!"
Tōtarō's heart was touched by Samébito's humility, and he took him to a pond in his garden and there gave him a liberal supply of food. In this quiet and secluded spot this strange creature of the sea remained for nearly half a year.
Tōtarō and Samébito.
Tōtarō and Samébito.
Now in the summer of that year there was a great female pilgrimage to the temple called Miidera, situated in the neighbouring town of Ōtsu. Tōtarō attended the festival, and there saw an extremely charming girl. "Her face was fair and pure as snow; and the loveliness of her lips assured the beholder that their very utterancewould sound 'as sweet as the voice of a nightingale singing upon a plum-tree.'"
Tōtarō at once fell in love with this maiden. He discovered that her name was Tamana, that she was unmarried, and would remain so unless a young man could present her with a betrothal gift of a casket containing no fewer than ten thousand jewels.
When Tōtarō learnt that this fair girl was only to be won by what seemed to him an impossible gift, he returned home with a heavy heart. The more he thought about the beautiful Tamana, the more he fell in love with her. But alas! no one less wealthy than a prince could make such a betrothal gift—ten thousand jewels!
Tōtarō worried himself into an illness, and when a physician came to see him, he shook his head, and said: "I can do nothing for you, for no medicine will cure the sickness of love." And with these words he left him.
Now Samébito gained tidings of the sickness of his master, and when the sad news reached him, he left the garden pond and entered Tōtarō's chamber.
Tōtarō did not speak about his own troubles. He was full of concern for the welfare of this creature of the sea. "Who will feed you, Samébito, when I am gone?" said he mournfully.
When Samébito saw that his good master was dying, he uttered a strange cry, and began to weep. He wept great tears of blood, but when they touched the floor they suddenly turned into glowing rubies.
When Tōtarō saw these jewel-tears he shouted for joy, and new life came back to him from that hour. "I shall live! I shall live!" he cried with great delight. "My good friend, you have more than repaid me for the food and shelter I have given you. Your wonderful tears have brought me untold happiness."
Then Samébito stopped weeping, and asked his master to be so good as to explain the nature of his speedy recovery.
So Tōtarō told the Shark-Man of his love-affair and of the marriage-gift demanded by the family of Tamana. "I thought," added Tōtarō, "that I should never be able to get ten thousand jewels, and it was that thought that brought me so near to death. Now your tears have turned into jewels, and with these the maid will become my wife."
Tōtarō proceeded to count the jewels with great eagerness. "Not enough! Not enough!" he exclaimed with considerable disappointment. "Oh, Samébito, be so good as to weep a little more!"
These words made Samébito angry. "Do you think," said he, "I can weep at will like women? My tears come from the heart, the outward sign of true and deep sorrow. I can weep no longer, for you are well again. Surely the time has come for laughter and merrymaking, and not for tears."
"Unless I get ten thousand jewels, I cannot marry the fair Tamana," said Tōtarō. "What am I to do? Oh, good friend, weep, weep!"
Samébito was a kindly creature. After a pause, he said: "I can shed no more tears to-day. Let us go to-morrow to the Long Bridge of Séta, and take with us a good supply of wine and fish. It may be that as I sit on the bridge and gaze toward the Dragon Palace, I shall weep again, thinking of my lost home, and longing to return once more."
On the morrow they went to the Séta Bridge, and after Samébito had taken a good deal of wine, he gazed in the direction of the Dragon Kingdom. As he did so his eyes filled with tears, red tears that turned into rubies as soon as they touched the bridge. Tōtarō,without very much concern for his friend's sorrow, picked up the jewels, and found at last that he had ten thousand lustrous rubies.
Just at that moment they heard a sound of sweet music, and from the water there rose a cloud-like palace, with all the colours of the setting sun shining upon it. Samébito gave a shout of joy and sprang upon the parapet of the bridge, saying: "Farewell, my master! The Dragon Kings are calling!" With these words he leaped from the bridge and returned to his old home again.
Tōtarō lost no time in presenting the casket containing ten thousand jewels to Tamana's parents, and in due season he married their lovely daughter.
[1]Adapted from Professor B. H. Chamberlain's translation in theTransactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan, vol. vii.
[1]Adapted from Professor B. H. Chamberlain's translation in theTransactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan, vol. vii.
There is a subtle charm about Japanese poetry peculiarly its own. I recall with pleasure the unforgettable hours I spent in reading Mr. Yone Noguchi'sThe Pilgrimage. I was compelled, through sheer delight, to read the two volumes at a sitting. It is true that Mr. Noguchi is very much under the influence of Walt Whitman, and it has left its impress upon his work; but that only tends to heighten the effect of the purely Japanese element. A brief, haunting phrase of Mr. Noguchi has far more charm than an imitation of his American master's torrential manner. Japan has no need to imitate as far as her poetry is concerned. In the old days one of the characteristics of that country's poetry was its almost entire freedom from outside influences, not even excepting that of China, from whom, in other directions, she borrowed so much. I have mentioned Mr. Yone Noguchi because his work forms an excellent starting-point for the study of Japanese poetry. This charming poet, writing in English, has given us for the first time an intimate knowledge of the very spirit of Japanese poetry. When a book is written on comparative poetry, that of Japan will take a very high place.
It is far easier to describe what Japanese poetry is not than what it actually is. To begin with, there are no Japanese epics, such as theIliadandOdyssey, theKalevala, and theMahabharata, and their phrasenaga-uta("long poetry") is to us a misnomer, for they have no really long poems. Philosophy, religion, satire are not themes for the Japanese poet; he even goes so far as to consider war no fit subject for a song.
Where, then, are the charm and wonder of Japan's Pegasus? The real genius is to be found in thetanka, a poem of five lines or phrases and thirty-one syllables. In many ways thetankashows far more limitation than an English sonnet, and our verbose poets would do well to practise a form that engenders suppression and delicately gives suggestion the supreme place. It is surprising what music and sentiment are expressed within these limits. Thetankais certainly brief in form, but it frequently suggests, with haunting insistency, that the fragment really has no end, when imagination seizes it and turns it into a thousand thousand lines. Thetankabelongs as much to Japan as Mount Fuji itself. One cannot regard it without thinking that a Japanese poet must essentially have all the finer instincts of an artist. In him the two arts seem inseparable. He must convey in five lines, in the most felicitous language at his disposal, the idea he wishes to express. That he does so with extraordinary success is beyond dispute. These brief poems are wonderfully characteristic of the Japanese people, for they have such a love for little things. The same love that delights in carving anetsuke, the small button on a Japanese tobacco-pouch, or the fashioning of a miniature garden in a space no bigger than a soup-plate is part of the same subtle genius.
There is an even more Lilliputian form of verse. It is called thehokku, and contains only seventeen syllables, such as: "What I saw as a fallen blossom returning to the branch, lo! it was a butterfly," Butterflies were no mere flying insects in Old Japan. The sight of such a brightly coloured creature heralded the approach of some dear friend. On one occasiongreat clouds of butterflies were thought to be the souls of an army.
Those who are familiar with theHyaku-nin-isshiu[1]("Single Verses by a Hundred People"), written before the time of the Norman Conquest, will recognise that much of the old Japanese poetry depended on the dexterous punning and the use of "pivot" and "pillow" words. The art was practised, not with the idea of provoking laughter, which was the aim of Thomas Hood, but rather with the idea of winning quiet admiration for a clever and subtle verbal ornament. No translation can do full justice to this phase of Japanese poetry; but the followingtanka, by Yasuhide Bunya, may perhaps give some idea of their word-play:
"The mountain wind in autumn timeIs well called 'hurricane';Ithurries canesand twigs along,And whirls them o'er the plainTo scatter them again."
The cleverness of this verse lies in the fact thatyama kaze("mountain wind") is written with two characters. When these characters are combined they form the wordarashi("hurricane"). Clever as these "pillow" and "pivot" words were, they were used but sparingly by the poets of the classical period, to be revived again in a later age when their extravagant use is to be condemned as a verbal display that quite overshadowed the spirit of the poetry itself.
There are Japanese love poems, but they are very different from those with which we are familiar. Thetiresome habit of enumerating a woman's charms, either briefly or at length, is happily an impossibility in thetanka. There is nothing approaching the sensuousness of a Swinburne or a D. G. Rossetti in Japanese poetry, but the sentiments are gentle and pleasing nevertheless. No doubt there were love-lorn poets in Japan, as in every other country, poets who possibly felt quite passionately on the subject; but in their poetry the fire is ghostly rather than human, always polite and delicate. What could be more naïve and dainty than the following song from the "Flower Dance" of Bingo province?
"If you want to meet me, love,Only we twain,Come to the gate, love,Sunshine or rain;And if people prySay that you came, love,To watch who went by."If you want to meet me, love,Only you and I,Come to the pine-tree, love,Clouds or clear sky;Stand among the spikelets, love,And if folks ask why,Say that you came, love,To catch a butterfly."
Or again, the followingtankaby the eleventh-century official, Michimasa:
"If we could meet in privacy,Where no one else could see,Softly I'd whisper in thy earThis little word from me—I'm dying, Love, for thee."
There is a good deal more ingenuity in this poem than would appear on the surface. It was addressed to the Princess Masako, and thoughomoi-taenamumaybe correctly translated, "I'm dying, Love, for thee," it may also mean, "I shall forget about you." The poem was purposely written with a double meaning, in case it miscarried and fell into the hands of the palace guards.
Charming as are many of the Japaneses love poems, they are not so pleasing or so distinguished as those describing some mood, some scene from Nature, for the Japanese poets are essentially Nature poets. Our National Anthem is very far from being poetry. Here is Japan's, literally rendered into English: "May our Lord's Empire live through a thousand ages, till tiny pebbles grow into giant boulders covered with emerald mosses." It is based on an ancient song mentioned in theKokinshiu, and, like all ancient songs in praise of kingship, expresses a desire for an Emperor whose very descent from the Sun shall baffle Death, one who shall live and rule past mortal reckoning. There is a symbolic meaning attached to Japanese rocks and stones, closely associated with Buddhism. They represent something more than mere stolidity; they represent prayers. It is the Nature poems of Japan that are supremely beautiful, those describing plum- and cherry-blossom, moonlight on a river, the flight of a heron, the murmuring song of a blue pine, or the white foam of a wave. The best of these poems are touched with pathos. Here is one by Isé:
"Cold as the wind of early Spring,Chilling the buds that still lie sheathedIn their brown armour with its sting,And the bare branches withering—So seems the human heart to me!Cold as the March wind's bitterness;I am alone, none comes to seeOr cheer me in these days of stress."
I often think of that twelfth-century Japanese recluse Chōmei. He lived in a little mountain hut far away from City Royal, and there he read and played upon thebiwa, went for walks in the vicinity, picking flowers and fruit and branches of maple-leaves, which he set before the Lord Buddha as thank-offerings. Chōmei was a true lover of Nature, for he understood all her many moods. In the spring he gazed upon "the festoons of the wistaria, fine to see as purple clouds." In the west wind he heard the song of birds, and when autumn came he saw the gold colouring of the trees, while the piling and vanishing of snow caused him to think of "the ever waxing and waning volume of the world's sinfulness." He wrote in his charmingHō-jō-ki, the most tender and haunting autobiography in the Japanese language: "All the joy of my existence is concentrated around the pillow which giveth me nightly rest; all the hope of my days I find in the beauties of Nature that ever please my eyes." He loved Nature so well that he would fain have taken all the colour and perfume of her flowers through death into the life beyond. That is what he meant when he wrote:
"Alas! the moonlightBehind the hill is hiddenIn gloom and darkness!Oh, would her radiance everMy longing eyes rejoiced!"
Here is a touchinghokku, written by Chiyo, after the death of her little son:
"How far, I wonder, did he stray,Chasing the burnished dragon-fly to-day?"
The souls of Japanese children are often pictured as playing in a celestial garden with the same flowers and butterflies they used to play with while on earth. It is just this subtle element of the childlike disposition in Japanese people that has helped them to discover the secrets of flowers, and birds, and trees, has enabled them to catch their timorous, fleeting shadows, and to hold them, as if by magic, in a picture, on a vase, or in a delicate and wistful poem.
"The Ah-ness of Things"
There is a Japanese phrase,mono no aware wo shiru("the Ah-ness of things"), which seems to describe most accurately the whole significance of Japanese poetry. There is a plaintive and intimate union between the poet and the scene from Nature he is writing about. Over and over again he suggests that Spring, with all her wealth of cherry- and plum-blossom, will continue to grace his country long after he has departed. Nearly all Japan's people, from the peasant to the Mikado himself, are poets. They write poetry because they live poetry every day of their lives—that is to say, before Japan dreamed of wearing a bowler hat and frock-coat, or became a wholesale buyer of everything Western. They live poetry, always that poetry steeped in an intimate communion with Nature. And when in July the Festival of the Dead takes place, there comes a great company of poet souls to see Nippon's blossom again, to wander down old familiar gardens, through redtorii, or to lean upon a stone lantern, and drink in the glory of a summer day, which is sweeter to them than life beyond the grave.
[1]Seetranslation by William N. Porter.
[1]Seetranslation by William N. Porter.
Aizen Myō-ō.The God of Love.Aji-shi-ki.A Shintō God who was mistaken for his deceased friendsAme-wake.Ama-no-ho.The first of the Divine Messengers sent to prepare the way for the comingNinigiAma-terasu.The Sun Goddess.Ame-waka."Heaven-young-Prince," and one of the Divine Messengers.Amida.A Buddhist Deity, originally an abstraction, the ideal of boundless light.TheDaibutsuat Kamakura represents this God.Anan.A cousin of Buddha, and, like Bishamon, gifted with great knowledge and awonderful memory.Benten.One of the Seven Deities of Luck.Bimbogami.The God of Poverty.Binzuru.A disciple of Buddha, and worshipped by the lower classes on account ofhis miraculous power to cure all human ailments.Bishamon.The God of Wealth and also of War.Bosatsu.A term applied to Buddhist saints.Buddha.SeeShaka.Daikoku.The God of Wealth.Dainichi Nyorai.A personification of purity and wisdom. One of the Buddhist Trinity.Daishi."Great Teacher," a term applied to many Buddhist saints.Daruma.A follower of Buddha.Dōsojin.The God of Roads.Ebisu.A God of Luck and of Daily Food. He is the patron of honest labour,and is represented as a fisherman carrying in his hand atai-fish.Ekibiogami.The God of Pestilence.Emma-Ō.The Lord of Hell and Judge of the Dead.Fu Daishi.A deified Chinese priest.Fudō.The God of Wisdom.Fugen.The divine patron of those who practise a special kind of ecstaticmeditation. He is usually depicted as sitting on the right hand ofShaka.Fukurokuju.A God of Luck, and typifies longevity and wisdom.Gaki.Evil Gods.Go-chi Nyorai.The Five Buddhas of Contemplation, viz.:Yakushi, Tahō, Dainichi, Ashuku, andShaka.Gongen.A generic name for the Shintō incarnations of Buddhas. It is also applied to deified heroes.Gwakkō Bosatsu.A Buddhist moon-deity.Hachiman.The God of War. He is the deifiedEmperor Ōjin, patron of the Minamoto clan.Hoderi."Fire Shine," and son ofNinigi.Hoori."Fire Fade," and son ofNinigi.Hoso-no-Kami.The God of Smallpox.Hotei.A God of Luck who typifies contentment.Hotoke.The name of all Buddhas, and frequently applied to the dead generally.Ida Ten.A protector of Buddhism.Iha-naga."Princess Long-as-the-Rocks," eldest daughter of the Spirit of Mountains.Inari.The Goddess of Rice, and also associated with the Fox God.Isora.The Spirit of the Seashore.Izanagi and Izanami.The Creator and Creatress of Japan, and from them the deities of the Shintō pantheon are descended.Jizō.The God of Children.Jurōjin.A God of Luck.Kami.A general name for all Shintō deities.Kashō.One of the greatest disciples of Buddha.Kaze-no-Kami.The God of Wind and Bad Colds.Kengyū.The Herdsman lover of the Weaving Maiden.Ken-ro-ji-jin.The Earth God.Kishi Bojin.An Indian Goddess, worshipped by the Japanese as the protectress of children.Kōbō Daishi.A deified Buddhist sage.Kodomo-no-Inari.The children's Fox God.Kōjin.The God of the Kitchen. Worn-out dolls are offered to this deity.Kokuzō Bosatsu.A female Buddhist saint.Kompira.A Buddhist deity of obscure origin, identified withSusa-no-oand other Shintō Gods.Kōshin.The God of Roads. A deification of the day of the Monkey, represented by the Three Mystic Apes.Kuni-toko-tachi."The Earthly Eternally Standing One." A self-created Shintō God.Kwannon.The Goddess of Mercy, represented in various forms:1.Shō-Kwannon(Kwannon the Wise).2.Jū-ichi-men Kwannon(Eleven-Faced).3.Sen-ju Kwannon(Thousand-Handed).4.Ba-tō-Kwannon(Horse-Headed).5.Nyo-i-rin Kwannon(Omnipotent).Marishiten.In Japanese and Chinese Buddhism she is represented as the Queen of Heaven.She has eight arms, two of which hold the symbols of the sun and moon.In Brahminical theology she is the personification of Light, and also a name of Krishna.Maya Bunin.The mother of Buddha.Miroku.Buddha's successor, and known as the Buddhist Messiah.Miwa-daimyō-jin.The deity associated with the Laughing Festival of Wasa.Monju Bosatu.The Lord of Wisdom.Musubi-no-Kami.The God of Marriage.Nikkō Bosatsu.A Buddhist solar deity.Ninigi.The grandson of Amer-terasu, the Sun Goddess.Ni-ō.Two gigantic and fierce kings who guard the outer gates of temples.Nominosukune.Patron deity of wrestlers.Nyorai.An honorific title applied to all Buddhas.O-ana-mochi."Possessor of the Great Hole" of Mount Fuji.Oho-yama.The Spirit of the Mountains.Ōnamuji or Ōkuni-nushi.Son ofSusa-no-o. He ruled in Izumo, but retired in favour ofNinigi.Oni.A general name for evil spirits.Otohime.The daughter of the Dragon King.Raiden.The God of Thunder.Raitaro.The son of the Thunder God.Rakan.A name used to designate the perfected saint and also the immediate disciples of Buddha.Roku-bu-ten.A collective name for the BuddhistGodsBonten, Taishaku, and theShi-Tennō.Rin-jin.The Dragon, or Sea King.Saruta-hiko.A terrestrial deity who greetedNinigi.Sengen.The Goddess of Mount Fuji. She is also known asAsamaorKo-no-Hana-Saku-ya-Hime"The Princess who makes the Flowers of the Trees to Blossom."Shaka Muni.The founder of Buddhism, also called Gautama, but most generally known as the Buddha.Sharihotsu.The wisest of Buddha's ten chief disciples.Shichi Fukujin.The Seven Gods of Luck, viz.:Ebisu,Daikoku, Benten, Fukurokuju, Bishamon,Jurōjin, andHotei.Shita-teru-hime."Lower-shine-Princess," and wife ofAme-waka.Shi-Tennō.The Four Heavenly Kings who protect the earth from demons each defendingone quarter of the horizon. Their names areJikoku, East;Kōmoku, South;Kōchō, West; andTamon, also calledBishamon, North.Their images are placed at the inner gate of the temple.Shōden.The Indian Ganesa, God of Wisdom.Sohodo-no-kami.The God of Scarecrows.Sukuna-Bikona.A deity sent from Heaven to assistŌnamujiin pacifying his realm.Susa-no-o."The Impetuous Male," brother of the Sun Goddess.Taishaku.The Brahminical God Indra.Tanabata or Shokujo.The Weaving Maiden.Ten.A title equivalent to the SanskritDiva.Tenjin.The God of Calligraphy.Tennin.Female Buddhist Angels.Tōshōgū.The deified name of the great Shōgun Ieyasu or Gongen Sama.Toyokuni.The deified name of Hideyoshi.Toyo-tama.The Dragon King's daughter.Toyo-uke-bime.The Shintō Goddess of Earth or Food.Tsuki-yumi.The Moon God.Uzume.The Goddess of Dancing.Yakushi Nyorai."The Healing Buddha."Yofuné-nushi.The Serpent God.Yuki-Onna.The Lady of the Snow.
The Heavenly parent, Ame yudzuru hi ame no sa-giri kuni yudzuru tsuki kuni no sa-giri Mikoto.
FIRST GENERATION.Companion-born heavenly Gods.Ame no mi-naka-nushi no Mikoto.Heaven middle master.Umashi-ashi-kabi hikoji no Mikoto.Sweet reed-shoot prince elder.SECOND GENERATION.Companion-born heavenly Gods.Kuni no toko tachi no Mikoto.Land eternal stand.Toyo-kuni-nushi no Mikoto.Rich land master.A Branch.Ame-ya-kudari no Mikoto.Heaven eight descend.THIRD GENERATION.Heavenly Gods born as mates.Tsuno-gui no Mikoto.Horn stake.Iku-gui no Mikoto, his younger sister or wife.Live stake.A Branch.Ame mi kudari no Mikoto.Heaven three descend.FOURTH GENERATION.Heavenly Gods born as mates.Uhiji-ni no Mikoto.Mud earth(honorific affix).Suhiji-ni no Mikoto, his younger sister or wife.Sand earth.A Branch.Ama-ahi no Mikoto.Heaven meet.FIFTH GENERATION.Heavenly Gods born as mates.Oho-toma-hiko no Mikoto.Great mat prince.Oho-toma-he no Mikoto, his younger sister or wife.Great mat place.A Branch.Ame ya-wo-hi no Mikoto.Heaven eight hundred days.SIXTH GENERATION.Heavenly Gods born as mates.Awo-kashiki ne no Mikoto.Green awful(honorific).Aya-kashiki ne no Mikoto, his younger sister or wife.Ah! awful.A Branch.Ame no ya-so-yorodzu-dama no Mikoto.Eighty myriad spirits.SEVENTH GENERATION.Heavenly Gods born as mates.Izanagi no Mikoto.Izanami no Mikoto, his younger sister or wife.A Branch.Taka mi-musubi no Mikoto.High august growth.Children.Ama no omohi-game no Mikoto.Heaven thought-compriser.Ama no futo-dama no Mikoto.Big jewel.Ama no woshi-hi no Mikoto.Endure sun.Ama no kamu-dachi no Mikoto.God stand.Next there was—Kamu mi musubi no Mikoto.Above growth.Children.Ame no mi ke mochi no Mikoto.August food hold.Ame no michi ne no Mikoto.Road(honorific).Ame no kami-dama no Mikoto.God jewel.Iku-dama no Mikoto.Live jewel.Next there was—Tsu-haya-dama no Mikoto.Port quick jewel.Children.Ichi-chi-dama no Mikoto.Market thousandjewel.Kogoto-dama no Mikoto.Ama no ko-yane no Mikoto.Child-roof.Takechi-nokori no Mikoto.Brave milk remnant.Next there was—Furu-dama no Mikoto.Shake jewel.Children.Saki-dama no Mikoto.First jewel.Ama no woshi-dachi no Mikoto.Endure stand.Next there was—Yorodzu-dana no Mikoto.Myriad jewel.Child.Ama no koha-kaha no MikotoHard river.
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"Remember, in pronouncing Japanese, that the consonants are to be sounded approximately as in English, the vowels as in Spanish or Italian; that is to say,