When the service is over the worshippers disperse to find a cool spot
in the temple grounds to eat their simple meal. In front of the temple
stands a wooden arch, called a torii. Sometimes the temple is approached
through a whole avenue of them of various sizes. The building is of wood,
sometimes small, sometimes very large, and is usually surrounded by booths
and tea-houses. At many of the booths may be purchased the figures of the
more popular gods. Everywhere may be seen the fat figures of the Seven
Gods of Wealth, the deities most beloved in every Japanese household. Then
there are the God and Goddess of Rice, who protect the crops, and who are
attended by the figures of foxes quaintly carved in wood or moulded in
white plaster. The Goddess of Mercy, with her many hands to help and save,
is also a favourite idol.
At another spot you find peep-shows, stalls at which hairpins, paints, and
powder-boxes, and a thousand other trifles, are sold; archery galleries,
where you may fire twenty arrows at a target for a halfpenny; booths, where
acrobats, conjurers, and jugglers are performing, and tea-houses without
number, where the faithful are sipping their tea or sake and puffing at
their tiny pipes.
The young girls are fond of purchasing sacred beans and peas and rice at a
stall set up under the eaves of the temple. With these they feed the temple
pigeons, who come swooping down from the great wooden roof, or the sacred
white pony with the blue eyes which belongs to the holy place.
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