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Updated: June 9, 2025
The tomb of the emperor lies on the slope of a low hill, at a distance of about ten minutes' walk from the village. It is far less imposing than the least of the tombs of the Matsudaira at Matsue, in the grand old courts of Gesshoji; but it was perhaps the best which the poor little country of Oki could furnish.
I could not, however, find any record of this practice in Oki. 11 Moxa, a corruption of the native name of the mugwort plant: moe- kusa, or mogusa, 'the burning weed. Small cones of its fibre are used for cauterising, according to the old Chinese system of medicine the little cones being placed upon the patient's skin, lighted, and left to smoulder until wholly consumed.
The Manitou or Oki might even be a stone, a fish-bone, a bird's feather, or a serpent's skin, or some other thing in the animate or inanimate world, revealed to a young man in his dreams as his fetich or guardian through life. Dreams were respected as revelations from the spirit world.
It was my first chance to observe the physique of Oki islanders; and I was much impressed by the vigorous appearance of both men and boys.
Besides these aged survivors of the feudal period, I learned there were in Oki several children of once noble families youths and maidens of illustrious extraction bravely facing the new conditions of life in this remotest and poorest region of the empire. Daughters of men to whom the population of a town once bowed down were learning the bitter toil of the rice-fields.
And the people of Oki made a statue of him without a jaw; and all who suffer toothache pray to that Jizo of Oki. This story interested me for more than once I had felt a strong desire to do like Agonashi-Jizo, though lacking the necessary courage and indifference to earthly consequences.
At Rokuhara the demand for the insignia was repeated and the Emperor handed over duplicates, secretly retaining the genuine articles himself. Takatoki now issued orders for Go-Daigo to be removed to the island of Oki, sent all the members of his family into exile elsewhere, and banished or killed his principal supporters.
It seemed to me a curious thing, when I saw Oki ponies for the first time, that Sasaki Takatsuna's battle-steed not less famous in Japanese story than the horse Kyrat in the ballads of Kurroglou is declared by the islanders to have been a native of Oki. And they have a tradition that it once swam from Oki to Mionoseki. Almost every district and town in Japan has its meibutsu or its kembutsu.
They were all Shintoists, members of the Izumo Taisha faith, but Buddhism was also maintained among them, chiefly through the generous subscription of private individuals. And there were very comfortable hotels, so that I would feel quite at home. He also gave me a little book about Oki, printed for the use of the Oki schools, from which I obtained the following brief summary of facts: 2
The Moon makes memories of home come to those who travel, and creates homesickness. So when the Emperor Godaigo, having been banished to Oki by the traitor Hojo, beheld the moonlight upon the seashore, he cried out, "The Moon is heartless!" 'The sight of the Moon makes an immeasurable feeling in our hearts when we look up at it through the clear air of a beauteous night.
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