On the steps
sit rows of licensed beggars, who will pray for those who will present them
with the tenth part of a farthing. But prayers may also be bought from the
priests, prayers written upon a scrap of paper, which scrap is afterwards
fastened to the bars of the grating in front of the figure of a god. A
favourite god will have many thousand scraps of paper fluttering before it
at one time.
Many of the temple gardens are of very great beauty and interest. There
can be seen many of the marvels of Japanese gardening--tiny dwarf trees,
hundreds of years old, and yet only a few inches high, or tall shrubberies
cut and trained to represent a great junk in full sail, or the figure of a
god or hero.
At certain times of the year when the temple orchards are in blossom, great
throngs visit them simply to enjoy the delicate beauty of the scene. The
plum-blossom appears in February, and the cherry-blossom in April or May.
Later in the year the purple iris is followed by the golden chrysanthemum.
High and low, all crowd to see the beauty of a vast sweep of lovely
blossom. A poor Japanese thinks nothing of walking a hundred miles or more
to see some famous orchard or garden in its full flowering splendour.
From his earliest years this love of natural beauty has been a part of his
education. As a child he has taken many a trip with his father and mother
to admire the acres of plum or cherry blossom in a park or temple-garden;
as a man he lays his work aside and goes to see the same spectacle with
redoubled delight.
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