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It is dedicated to the God Kojin, a somewhat mysterious divinity, half-Buddhist, half-Shinto. The ancient Buddhist images of Kojin represented a deity with many arms; the Shinto Kojin of Izumo has, I believe, no artistic representation whatever.
Although said to be a bakemono-ki, the enoki sometimes receives highest religious honours; for the spirit of the god Kojin, to whom old dolls are dedicated, is supposed to dwell within certain very ancient enoki trees, and before these are placed shrines whereat people make prayers. The second garden, on the north side, is my favourite, It contains no large growths.
But in almost every Shinto, and also in many Buddhist, temple grounds, is planted the tree called enoki which is sacred to him, and in which he is supposed by the peasantry to dwell; for they pray before the enoki always to Kojin. And there is usually a small shrine placed before the tree, and a little torii also.
Now you may often see laid upon such a shrine of Kojin, or at the foot of his sacred tree, or in a hollow thereof if there be any hollow pathetic remains of dolls. But a doll is seldom given to Kojin during the lifetime of its possessor.
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