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Updated: June 9, 2025
But we do not now believe all that was believed in ancient time. . . .Master, he added, as we reached another queer exhibition, 'it is only one sen to go to hell, if the Master would like to go 'Very good, Kinjuro, I made reply. 'Pay two sen that we may both go to hell. And we passed behind a curtain into a big room full of curious clicking and squeaking noises.
And then the trembling of the priest stops, for the Soul passes from him; and he falls forward upon his face like one dead, and long so remains. 'Tell me, Kinjuro, I asked, after all these queer things had been related to me, 'have you yourself ever known of a Soul being removed by the power of the gods, and placed in the heart of a priest? 'Yes: I myself have known it.
'I think, Kinjuro, that it is a nasty, horrid thing. . . . But I shall not claim the present. The Three-Eyed Friar also watches for the unwary at night. His face is soft and smiling as the face of a Buddha, but he has a hideous eye in the summit of his shaven pate, which can only be seen when seeing it does no good.
Head suddenly enlarges, grows to the size of a house, tries to bite off head of samurai. Samurai slashes it with his sword. Head rolls backward, spitting fire, and vanishes. Finis. Exeunt omnes. The vision of the samurai and the goblin reminded Kinjuro of a queer tale, which he began to tell me as soon as the shadow-play was over.
And there is the Pundarika, or Great White-Lotus hell, where the spectacle of the bones laid bare by the cold is 'like a blossoming of white lotus- flowers. Kinjuro thinks there are cold hells according to Japanese Buddhism; but he is not sure. And I am not sure that the idea of cold could be made very terrible to the Japanese.
But this is the knowledge of old men: the young folk of these times who learn the things of the West do not believe. 'And tell me, O Kinjuro, do there now exist people having more Souls than you? 'Assuredly. Some have five, some six, some seven, some eight Souls. But no one is by the gods permitted to have more Souls than nine.
'Concerning this Country of the Gods, O Kinjuro, that which you say may be true. But there are other countries having only gods made of gold; and in those countries matters are not so well arranged; and the inhabitants thereof are plagued with a plague of Souls.
'I-the-Selfish-One have only four Souls, made answer Kinjuro, with conviction imperturbable. 'Four? re-echoed I, feeling doubtful of having understood 'Four, he repeated. 'But that boy I think can have only one Soul, so much is he wanting in patience. 'And in what manner, I asked, 'came you to learn that you have four Souls?
'What is her face like? 'It is all white, white. It is an enormous face. And it is a lonesome face. 'Did you ever see her, Kinjuro? 'Master, I never saw her.
But I had not before heard of triplex and quadruplex and other yet more highly complex Souls; and I questioned Kinjuro vainly in the hope of learning the authority for his beliefs. They were the beliefs of his fathers: that was all he knew. Like most Izumo folk, Kinjuro was a Buddhist as well as a Shintoist. As the former he belonged to the Zen-shu, as the latter to the Izumo- Taisha.
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