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ASAKUSA: The district of Asakusa possesses a fine park, and here also is the spacious Temple of Higashi Hongwanji, the chief religious edifice of the Monto sect of Buddhists. It is very plain in its architecture, but is noted principally for its proportions.
The fifth story commands an extensive view of the town, the sea, and the vast plain, rice-fields and mountains stretching in the distance. The roofs of the keep are of copper, and its massive gates are cased in iron. Nagoya is noted for its manufacture of porcelain and cloisonné. There is one celebrated Buddhist temple, Higashi Hongwanji, and the Museum.
Because of its peculiar form, and especially because of the vast sweeping lines of its roof, the Hongwanji looks even far larger than it is, looks mountainous. But in any country it would be deemed a wonderful structure. There are beams forty-two feet long and four feet thick; and there are pillars nine feet in circumference.
The Shin sect of the Hongwanji, with headquarters at Osaka, was scarcely less powerful; and its monastery, occupying the site of the present Osaka castle, was one of the strongest fortresses in the country. Nobunaga waited several years, merely to prepare for the attack.
What faith can do in the way of such sacrifice, he best knows who has seen the great cables, woven of women's hair, that hang in the vast Hongwanji temple at Kyoto. And love is stronger than faith, though much less demonstrative. According to ancient custom a wife bereaved sacrifices a portion of her hair to be placed in the coffin of her husband, and buried with him.
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