Indeed, Owing To The Beauty Of The Dresses And The Amount Of Blue
And White Silk, The Room Had A
Festal rather than a funereal look.
When all the guests had arrived, tea and sweetmeats were passed
round; incense was
Burned profusely; litanies were mumbled, and the
bustle of moving to the grave began, during which I secured a place
near the gate of the temple grounds.
The procession did not contain the father or mother of the
deceased, but I understood that the mourners who composed it were
all relatives. The oblong tablet with the "dead name" of the
deceased was carried first by a priest, then the lotus blossom by
another priest, then ten priests followed, two and two, chanting
litanies from books, then came the coffin on a platform borne by
four men and covered with white drapery, then the widow, and then
the other relatives. The coffin was carried into the temple and
laid upon trestles, while incense was burned and prayers were said,
and was then carried to a shallow grave lined with cement, and
prayers were said by the priests until the earth was raised to the
proper level, when all dispersed, and the widow, in her gay attire,
walked home unattended. There were no hired mourners or any signs
of grief, but nothing could be more solemn, reverent, and decorous
than the whole service. [I have since seen many funerals, chiefly
of the poor, and, though shorn of much of the ceremony, and with
only one officiating priest, the decorum was always most
remarkable.] The fees to the priests are from 2 up to 40 or 50
yen. The graveyard, which surrounds the temple, was extremely
beautiful, and the cryptomeria specially fine. It was very full of
stone gravestones, and, like all Japanese cemeteries, exquisitely
kept. As soon as the grave was filled in, a life-size pink lotus
plant was placed upon it, and a lacquer tray, on which were lacquer
bowls containing tea or sake, beans, and sweetmeats.
The temple at Rokugo was very beautiful, and, except that its
ornaments were superior in solidity and good taste, differed little
from a Romish church. The low altar, on which were lilies and
lighted candles, was draped in blue and silver, and on the high
altar, draped in crimson and cloth of gold, there was nothing but a
closed shrine, an incense-burner, and a vase of lotuses.
LETTER XX - (Concluded)
A Casual Invitation - A Ludicrous Incident - Politeness of a
Policeman - A Comfortless Sunday - An Outrageous Irruption - A
Privileged Stare.
At a wayside tea-house, soon after leaving Rokugo in kurumas, I met
the same courteous and agreeable young doctor who was stationed at
Innai during the prevalence of kak'ke, and he invited me to visit
the hospital at Kubota, of which he is junior physician, and told
Ito of a restaurant at which "foreign food" can be obtained - a
pleasant prospect, of which he is always reminding me.
Travelling along a very narrow road, I as usual first, we met a man
leading a prisoner by a rope, followed by a policeman.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 101 of 219
Words from 52826 to 53345
of 115002
