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Another torii and a couple of two-storied gates were passed through, the last being called the Gate of the Three Luminaries, or the Sun, Moon, and Stars. This was the entrance to one side of the square, the other three sides being formed of colonnades. It might be well to explain that a torii consists of two upright columns several feet apart.
Then you come to some great flight of steps ascending through green gloom to a terrace umbraged by older and vaster trees; and other steps from thence lead to other terraces, all in shadow. And you climb and climb and climb, till at last, beyond a gray torii, the goal appears: a small, void, colorless wooden shrine, a Shinto miya.
This latter I will describe when Japan, the land of the torii, is the topic. The Five-story Pagoda is quite imposing, as it is placed on the city wall and commands a wide view. It is the custom for parties to go there and take their picnic luncheon, and our guide had planned for us to do this, but unfortunately the pagoda was being repaired and visitors were not permitted.
From this torii the road descends to the pretty little seaport of U-Ryo, on the other side of the cape; for Hinomisaki is situated on one side of a great promontory, as its name implies a mountain-range projecting into the Japanese Sea.
And the torii are visible everywhere, and tower higher, before the approaches to villages, before the entrances of courts guarded by strangely grotesque lions and foxes of stone, and before stairways of old mossed rock, upsloping, between dense growths of ancient cedar and pine, to shrines that moulder in the twilight of holy groves.
The torii may be small or great according to the wealth of him who gives it; the very rich pilgrim may offer to the gods a torii of metal, such as that below, which is the Gate of Enoshima. 'Akira, do the Japanese always keep their vows to the gods? Akira smiles a sweet smile, and answers: 'There was a man who promised to build a torii of good metal if his prayers were granted.
'And this, the reader may say, 'this is all that you went forth to see: a torii, some shells, a small damask snake, some stones? It is true. And nevertheless I know that I am bewitched. There is a charm indefinable about the place that sort of charm which comes with a little ghostly 'thrill never to be forgotten.
All things within the temple grounds have sacred names, even the torii and the bridges. The priest Sasa called my attention to the fact that the great shrine of Oho-kuni-nushi-no-Kami faces west, though the great temple faces east, like all Shinto temples.
Suddenly the captain discerned upon the stem of a little brass pipe which one of the men was smoking, smoking in the face of death, like a true Japanese, the figure of a crowing cock! Needless to say, that pipe was thrown overboard. Then the angry sea began to grow calm; and the little vessel safely steamed into the holy port, and cast anchor before the great torii of the shrine of the god!
The walls are all covered with the finest paintings in gold and lacquer. A moss-grown stone staircase leads down to the tomb where the Shogun sleeps. Nara is situated immediately to the south of Kioto. Here are many famous temples, pagodas, and torii, and here also is the largest image of Buddha in Japan, twelve hundred years old.
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