Identifier: cu31924023222312 (find matches)
Title: In lotus-land Japan
Year: 1910 (1910s)
Authors: Ponting, Herbert George
Subjects:
Publisher: London, Macmillan and co., limited
Contributing Library: Cornell University Library
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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cal illustration of how the same moral principlesmay be interpreted in different ways, according to theconceptions of the teachers. 38o IN LOTUS-LAND chap, xix An exceedingly fine tsuba in rich black shakudo^by Tsu Jinpo, illustrates the beautiful legend of Mio-no-matsu-bara. A fisherman finds a robe of feathers hanging on atree and is about to carry it oflF, when a beautiful fairyappears and claims it. The fisherman declines to giveit up until she dances before him one of the dancesknown only to the gods. This she does to an accom-paniment of celestial music, and then flies away to themoon, her home. These simple touches, so character-istically Japanese—the net, the feather coat, and thefisherman looking upwards at the unseen fairy dancingin the air—are quite sufficient to convey the wholestory, for every one knows it by heart. The tsuba hasa gilt band round it, the birds are gold, the fishermansface is silver-bronze, and the feather-coat is of gold andcopper. PASSING THE LANTERN
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CHAPTER XX THE INLAND SEA AND MIYAJIMA MiYAjiMA ! Even the very name is soft and pleasant tothe ear, as is befitting for a queens ; and Miyajima iseasily queen of all the lovely isles which grace thatfairest stretch of vi^ater in the world—the Inland Sea. It was from the prettily-situated port of Kobe—which lies at the foot of the Settsu mountains, by thewaters of Izumi Bay—that I embarked on a smallJapanese steamer for a visit to the far-famed island. At ten oclock one summer night in 1904, weweighed anchor, and soon entered the Akashi Strait,which forms the principal eastern entrance to thefamous landlocked w^aters. The moon, which was atthe full, shed soft radiance over the motionless sea, andthe little vessels bow cut the glassy mirror like a knife,causing tiny jets of spray to fly upwards and fall backwith a hiss on either side. As we glided along pastthe island of Awaji—which was the very beginningof Japan, the home of the Creator Izanagi and theCreatress Izanami, where

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