Carmen Blacker: Scholar of Japanese Religion, Myth and Folklore: Writings and Reflections 9781898823575

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CARMEN BLACKER SCHOLAR OF JAPANESE RELIGION, MYTH AND FOLKELORE

CARMEN BLACKER The Japan Society welcomes this special opportunity to record its thanks to Carmen Blacker for her lifetime commitment to the support of the Society, in particular for her critical role in helping to re-establish it following the end of the Second World War, and subsequently for her contributions as a member of Council and later as Honorary Vice President, as well as for her numerous lectures.

Carmen Blacker, c.1970s

Carmen Blacker SCHOLAR OF JAPANESE RELIGION, MYTH AND FOLKELORE WRITINGS AND REFLECTIONS

a Edited by

Hugh Cortazzi With James McMullen & Mary-Grace Browning

CARMEN BLACKER SCHOLAR OF JAPANESE RELIGION, MYTH AND FOLKELORE :ULWLQJVDQG5HÁHFWLRQV

First published 2017 by RENAISSANCE BOOKS P O Box 219 Folkestone Kent CT20 2WP Renaissance Books is an imprint of Global Books Ltd ISBN 978-1-898823-56-8 Hardback 978-1-898823-57-5 e-Book © Global Books Ltd 2017 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publishers. _________________________________________________________ SPECIAL THANKS The Executive Director and Members of the Board of the Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures, together with the Publishers, wish to express their thanks to the Great-Britain Sasakawa Foundation for their support in the making of this book. _________________________________________________________ British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Set in Garamond 11.5 on 12.5 pt by Dataworks Printed and bound in England by CPI Antony Rowe Ltd., Chippenham, Wilts

Contents a Plate section faces page 58 Foreword by MAMI MIZUTORI, SISJAC Preface by HUGH CORTAZZI Introduction: Carmen Blacker – Friend, Scholar and Wife by MICHAEL LOEWE List of Contributors List of Plates Map of Japan Japan’s Prefectures PART I: CARMEN BLACKER AS SEEN BY HER FRIENDS

1. Carmen Elizabeth Blacker, 1924 –2009: A Biographical Memoir by JAMES McMULLEN 2. Biographical Portrait by PETER KORNICKI 3. Memories of Carmen Blacker by YOKOYAMA TOSHIO 4. Words from HUGH CORTAZZI at Carmen Blacker’s Memorial Meeting PART II: SELECTED EXTRACTS FROM CARMEN BLACKER’S DIARIES AND OTHER AUTOBIOGRAPHICALWRITINGS

‡ &DUPHQ%ODFNHU·V¶,QWURGXFWLRQ·WRKHUCollected Writings ‡ ,QWURGXFLQJ&DUPHQ%ODFNHU·V'LDULHVE\HUGH CORTAZZI ‡ ([WUDFWVIURPWKH'LDULHV

ix xi xv xxxv xxxvi xxxvii xxxviii 1

3 28 43 46 49

51 55 

PART III: SELECTED BIOGRAPHICAL PORTRAITS BY CARMEN BLACKER

185

5. 6. 7. 8.

187 203 214 220

Three Great Japanologists: Chamberlain, Aston and Satow Marie Stopes Arthur Waley Minakata Kumagusu

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CARMEN BLACKER

9. Yoshio Markino 10. Christmas Humphreys 11. Cambridge Women

234 249 258

PART IV: SELECTED ACADEMIC WRITINGS

265

12. The ShinzaRU*RGVHDWLQWKH'DLMRÙVDL7KURQH%HG or Incubation Couch? 13. Divination and Oracles in Japan 14. The Goddess Emerges from her Cave: Fujita Himiko and her Dragon Palace Family  ¶7KH([LOHG:DUULRUDQGWKH+LGGHQ9LOODJH· A Possible Solution to the Enigma of the Heike-densetsu. 16. Extracts from Legends of Heike Villages: The Fugitive Warrior as Ancestor 17. The Language of Birds 18. The Angry Ghost in Japan

267 284 304 312 329 337 345

PART V: SELECTED CARMEN BLACKER LECTURES

355

19. Remembering Carmen Blacker DONALD KEENE 20. A Glimpse of the Modestly Literate Picnic Lovers of Old Japan TOSHIO YOKOYAMA 21. Tsushima: Japan Viewed from the Margins – Archives, Books, Ginseng PETER KORNICKI 22. Amaterasu’s Progress: The Ise Shrines and the Public Sphere of Post-war Japan JOHN BREEN  8  QRIÀFLDODQG&RPPRQHU:RUVKLSRI&RQIXFLXVLQ7RNXJDZD-DSDQ JAMES McMULLEN

357

PART VI: A CELEBRATORY ESSAY

441

24. The Search for the Numinous in Wordsworth and Coleridge: Some Hints from The Catalpa Bow HISAAKI YAMANOUCHI

443

APPENDIX: Carmen’s Literary Gift. Compiled by PAUL NORBURY

459

Bibliography Index

463 467

367 383 396 

Foreword By MAMI MIZUTORI EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, SISJAC

a

THE INVALUABLE CONTRIBUTION made by Dr Carmen Blacker for the advancement of Japanese studies in the UK and Europe is well documented. Equally, VKHUHPDLQVDQLFRQLFÀJXUHDPRQJWKRVHLQ-DSDQZKRQRWRQO\UHVHDUFKEXW also are themselves practitioners and live their lives connected to the country’s indigenous religions and folklore – her main areas of research. Less well known is the bond that was forged between Dr Blacker and her husband Dr Michael Loewe with the Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures (SISJAC). In 2001, two years after the Institute was established in the Norwich Cathedral Close, a symposium entitled Shinto: Art and Ritual was organised. Dr Blacker was one of the distinguished participants at this event, which marked the birth of the Institute. Sadly, her last public lecture was held just two years later in 2003, also in Norwich. $WWKLVÀQDOWDONVKHKDGEHHQLQYLWHGWRGHOLYHUD7KLUG7KXUVGD\/HFWXUH at the Assembly Hall in the centre of the city. Her lecture was on Japanese Ghosts, and just as Dr Blacker began her talk, the curtains behind the podium started to swirl, and this in a room where there was apparently no draught or air current. To this day, we believe that on this special occasion friendly ghosts from Japan visited Norwich to thank and perhaps bid a long farewell to her. In due course, these friendly encounters led to Dr Blacker’s decision to leave an endowment to the Institute, and that is how the Carmen Blacker Memorial Lecture series held on the Third Thursday of every July started. July

x

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is the month of Dr Blacker’s birth and death so the date is well chosen. The lectures are also delivered in London, hosted by The Japan Society, co-organiser of the events. Although I never had the pleasure of meeting Dr Blacker in person, from my experience of listening every year to the lectures related to the themes to which she devoted her life-long research efforts, I feel emboldened to say that I have come to understand a little of what mattered to Dr Blacker both professionally and personally in her life. The Carmen Blacker Memorial Lecture series is now considered one of the Institute’s main outreach activities. Our loyal audience, largely from the Norwich local community, look forward to it every year. Astonishingly, this is happening in a city where once strong anti-Japanese sentiment prevailed as a result of the terrible treatment prisoners of war from East Anglia were subjected to in Japanese internment camps during the Second World War. We are fortunate to witness the impact that the power of cultural exchange has in the process of reconciliation. Sixteen years after its establishment, the Sainsbury Institute is now recognised as one of the centres of excellence for the research of Japanese arts and cultures in the UK and Europe. What has remained constant is that we continue to operate as a compact organisation supported by our SDWURQVZKREHOLHYHLQWKHLPSRUWDQFHRIRXUPLVVLRQ'U%ODFNHULVDÀQH example of this dedicated group of people to whom we owe our continued existence. We are delighted that Sir Hugh Cortazzi (together with Lady Cortazzi), another patron of the Institute, took on the task of editing this book which contains a selection of the lectures delivered to date along with selected unpublished articles by Dr Blacker. A section of the book comprises excerpts from her diaries, which were bequeathed to the Institute. Mary-Grace Browning, one of Dr Blacker’s former students at Cambridge University, has spent countless hours going through the entries to these diaries, selecting key moments and passages that speak to her life and scholarship that is being honoured in this work. The record offers us a rare glimpse into just how Dr Blacker was a pioneer in experiencing, researching and introducing the then barely known world of Japanese folklore and religion to Western audiences. We are delighted to be collaborating in the publication of this volume with Renaissance Books and its publisher Paul Norbury who also published Dr Blacker’s Collected WritingsDQGKHUÀQDOZRUNThe Straw Sandal, and is a good friend to the Institute and Japanese Studies. Our thanks also go out to all those who made this publication possible, not least Dr Michael Loewe who has contributed a most valuable and interesting personal essay and retrospective celebrating Dr Blacker’s life.

Preface By HUGH CORTAZZI

a

CARMEN BLACKER WAS an outstanding scholar of Japanese language and culture. She had a penetrating eye, a rare descriptive ability and a sensitive understanding of Japan. Her particular interests were Japanese religion and folklore. Without her ÁDLUDQGFRPPLWPHQW-DSDQHVHVWXGLHVDW&DPEULGJHZRXOGQRWKDYHVXUYLYHG1 This book is designed as a tribute to Carmen’s life and accomplishments. It is neither a biography, nor a memoir although it combines elements of both. It presents some of the best of her writings about Japan. Her close friend and colleague (and latterly husband) Michael Loewe has contributed an introduction, which describes Carmen’s life and career from the development of her interest in Japan as a schoolgirl to her retirement from Cambridge University. As he recounts she continued to visit Japan and to pursue her researches until ill health forced her to cease travelling. Even under such circumstances, she managed to complete a work she had begun over sixty years HDUOLHUWKLVZDVWKHWUDQVODWLRQRI6DQWŇ.\ŇGHQ·VMukashi-Banashi Inazuma-byŇshi, published as The Straw Sandal: Or the Scroll of the Hundred Crabs. 7KHÀUVWVHFWLRQRIWKHERRNFRQVLVWVRIDELRJUDSKLFDOPHPRLURI&DUPHQ written by Dr James McMullen for the British Academy, of which Carmen was a Fellow, a biographical portrait of her by Professor Peter Kornicki published in volume VII of the Japan Society’s series Britain and Japan: Biographical PortraitsDQGDSHUVRQDOHVVD\RI¶PHPRULHV·E\DQG@UHPDLQHGHYHU\LQFKDQROG (WRQLDQDQGH[&ROGVWUHDP*XDUGVRIÀFHU·5 He was also a man of great physLFDOYLJRXU¶(YHQLQKLVODWHÀIWLHVKHWKRXJKWQRWKLQJRIUXQQLQJPLOHVDQG miles along a beach in sunshine in sheer exuberance.’6 Carmen inherited these traits: she possessed great energy and was tall and slim; she dressed strikingly, often in red, in a style that projected readiness for action but at the same time elegance and authority. Carmen’s mother, Helen Maude, was a daughter of Major A. J. Pilkington, from a family associated in an earlier generation with the shipping business and the White Star Line in Liverpool. A maternal uncle, Canon Ronald Pilkington (1892–1975), turned from Anglicanism to become a Roman Catholic priest with a special interest in Eastern Christianity; he was in due course to supply Carmen with information on signs of demoniacal SRVVHVVLRQLGHQWLÀHGLQWKH&DWKROLFFKXUFK7 &DUPHQ·VHDUO\OLIHZDVVSHQWKDSSLO\LQWKHIDPLO\KRPH¶3DVWXUHZRRG·D spacious house with extensive grounds in the rural village of Shamley Green, QHDU*XLOGIRUGWKH HDUOLHVWH[WDQWKLVWRU\RI-DSDQ@KHUHPDUNHGWKDWWKHQDPHVRIWKHJRGVZHUH very long’.9 A turning point bringing the desire to learn the language was the gift from her mother to the child of twelve, at Carmen’s own request, of An Elementary Grammar of the Japanese Language, with Easy Progressive Exercises, by Baba Tatsui (1850–88),10WKH-DSDQHVHGHPRFUDWLFSROLWLFLDQ7KLVERRNZDVWR¶XQORFNWKH door to a strange land which lay, radiant and shining, far over the horizon of the sea’. At boarding school at Benenden from 1938, she studied this grammar ¶>R@FFDVLRQDOO\ZKHQERUHGZLWKWKHVFKRROFXUULFXOXP·$WERDUGLQJVFKRRO she also became friends with Juliet Piggott, daughter of Major General PigJRWWDVHFRQGJHQHUDWLRQ-DSDQKDQGHGXFDWHGLQ-DSDQDQGDÁXHQWVSHDNHU of the language, not long returned from attachment to the British embassy in Tokyo. General Piggott gave Carmen weekly lessons in Japanese during school holidays until the Second World War. )RU&DUPHQ·VIDWKHUDEOHWRUHMRLQKLVROGEDWWDOLRQWKHZDUEURXJKW¶RQH of the happiest periods in my life’.11 For his elder daughter, it meant entry into the adult world through work in intelligence and a career commitment to the study of Japan. But the war also brought lasting resentment at what she perceived as undervaluation by unimaginative and obstinate men. In 1942, she joined the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), and was soon WUDQVIHUUHGWRDVSHFLDODFFHOHUDWHGFRXUVHLQ-DSDQHVHZLWKD¶KLJKO\VHFUHW· but undisclosed job in view.12 She was then seconded to Bletchley, the government intelligence institution. Her pay was a paltry £2 a week, explained to KHUDV¶SDUWO\GXHWRP\DJHDQGSDUWO\GXHWRP\EHLQJDZRPDQ·+HU WDVNZDVWRFRPSLOHDFDUGLQGH[RIYRFDEXODU\RI¶DQ\ZRUGVOLNHO\WRWXUQXS in a decoded message’ from Japanese captured documents and other sources. She remained convinced that she served no useful purpose in the war effort. 7KLV¶XQFRQJHQLDOHPSOR\PHQW·LWZDVREVHUYHGDW62$6LPSRVHGPXFK stress on her.13%\WKHEHJLQQLQJRIVKHKDGEHFRPH¶XWWHUO\ERUHGZLWK WKHZRUNDQGP\PRUDOHEHJDQWRZHDNHQ·,Q)HEUXDU\VKH¶FRQWUDFWHGDQ ROGIDVKLRQHGUHGÁDQHOOLVWFRPSODLQWNQRZQDVDTXLQV\·>scWRQVLOLWLV@DQG ZDVDOORZHGWRJRKRPHWRUHFRYHU0HDQZKLOHFRQÀGHQWLDOEXWVXFFHVVIXO efforts were made to transfer her back to SOAS as Special Lecturer to teach intensive Japanese courses to servicemen. She gave up her Bletchley pass with ¶UHOLHIDQGMXELODWLRQ·

6

CARMEN BLACKER

Yet this period of her life was not altogether barren. Towards the end of the war through the diplomat John Pilcher (later British ambassador in Tokyo), VKHPHW$UWKXU:DOH\DOUHDG\DIDPRXVEXWDOVRQRWRULRXVO\GLIÀFXOWPDQRI ZKRPLWKDVEHHQFRPPHQWHGWKDW¶>K@LVSXEOLFpersona was of extreme shyness that became abrupt rudeness’.14 Carmen, by her own account,15 was a girl herVHOI¶VWLOOSDUDO\]HGZLWKVK\QHVV·DQG¶WRQJXHWLHG·ZKHQVKHÀUVWPHWKLPDW KLVRIÀFHLQWKH0LQLVWU\RI,QIRUPDWLRQ1RQHWKHOHVVWKH\IRUPHGDIULHQGship. Waley encouraged her to learn Chinese. This she did, with texts supplied by Waley, surreptitiously while on duty at Bletchley. Carmen was to seek his advice and help on her future studies, counting for instance on his support for her application to study in America.16 They were to remain in contact for WKHUHVWRI:DOH\·VOLIH6KHFDPHWRÀQGLQKLP¶DVFKRODURIDOPRVWPDJLFDO insight and ... a master of language’ and she developed an intense veneration of ¶DQRELOLW\RIFKDUDFWHUDWHQGHUQHVVDFRXUDJHLQJULHIDQGDGYHUVLW\·WKDWVKH KDGQRWDWÀUVWDSSUHFLDWHG:DOH\·VFRPELQDWLRQRIDHVWKHWLFLVPDQGFXOWXUDO FXULRVLW\PXVWEHDFFRXQWHGDQLPSRUWDQWLQÁXHQFHRQ&DUPHQ·VVFKRODUVKLS Leaving Bletchley liberated Carmen; she was soon reported to have ¶JDLQHGJUHDWO\LQSRLVH·17 Concurrently with her Special Lecturer post at SOAS, she enrolled for the BA in Japanese. She graduated with First Class Honours in 1947. Waley was an examiner. With what Carmen called his ¶ORIW\ GLVUHJDUG IRU FRQYHQWLRQV· DQG LW KDV WR EH VDLG D W\SLFDO EOXQWQHVVKHFDOOHGKHUWRKLVURRPDQGLQIRUPHGKHURI¶UDWKHUVLOO\PLVWDNHV· in her history papers.18 But Carmen felt that her degree in Japanese left her still under-educated. Turning down an offer of a post in Japanese at Cambridge, she wrote to Dr Janet Vaughan, Principal of Somerville ColOHJH2[IRUGZKRKDGEHHQNQRZQWRKHUIDWKHUWKDW¶,IHHOWKDW,VKRXOG read some non-linguistic subject—preferably history or sociology—before I could do anything useful.’19 In November 1947, she successfully sat an entrance examination to Somerville, but was persuaded to change subject to Philosophy, Politics and Economics. Her wartime service entitled her to exemption from the First Public Examination, and in January 1948 she embarked on a Shortened Final Honours School, taking six, rather than the usual eight, papers in just two years. One of her tutors was R. B. McCallum (1898–1973), Professor of Modern History, later Master of Pembroke. At 6RPHUYLOOHHQWHUHGZKHQVKHZDVDIHOORZVWXGHQWUHFDOOHGWKDW¶VKH subscribed to Buddhist thought and she kept a harpsichord in the Penrose Room ... She was always turned out in a distinctive fashion.’ She was noted IRUKHU¶UHDGLQHVVWRSUDLVHDQGHQFRXUDJHRWKHUVFRPELQHGZLWKDFWLYH and acute criticism if occasion demanded)’.206KHVDWÀQDOVLQODWHDQG ZDVDZDUGHG6HFRQG&ODVV+RQRXUVDUHVXOWGHHPHG¶PRVWFUHGLWDEOH·E\

CARMEN ELIZABETH BLACKER 1924–2009

7

-DQHW9DXJKDQJLYHQWKDWVKHKDGGRQH¶QRSUHYLRXVZRUNLQWKLVÀHOG·¶KHU work on Political Theory had alpha quality’.21 By the time of her graduation, she had won respect from all quarters in Oxford. Janet Vaughan wrote of KHUWKDWVKHZDV¶DQH[WUHPHO\ZHOOEDODQFHGKDUGKHDGHG\RXQJZRPDQ· Some traces of her earlier nervousness, however, evidently remained. Janet 9DXJKDQFDXWLRQHGRQDQHUYRXVWLFKHU¶H\HODVKHVZKLFKZRUNIXOOWLPH are most misleading’.22 Later, after Carmen had taken a post at Cambridge, 9DXJKDQZDVWRGHVFULEHKHUDV¶D\RXQJZRPDQRIUHDOGLVWLQFWLRQRIPLQG and person. If I saw a chance of making her a Fellow of this College, I should take it at once.’23 After Oxford, Carmen studied at Harvard during 1950–1 under the Henry Fellowship scheme. At Oxford, she had enjoyed studying eighteenth- and nineteenth-century European political and moral thought. Curious as to how these ideas had been received in Japan, she began research on this topic at Harvard. Her mentors were the university’s best-known Japan scholars, professors S. Elisseeff and E. O. Reischauer, though neither specialised LQKHUÀHOGRIUHVHDUFK)LQDOO\LQVKHVXFFHHGHGLQSD\LQJKHUÀUVW visit to Japan. A condition of the scholarship that she received from the Treasury Committee for Studentships in Oriental Languages and Cultures ZDVWKDWVKHZULWHDWKHVLV6KHLGHQWLÀHG)XNX]DZDV@PDOOVLPSOHDFWLRQVDQGVFHQHVKDGDZRQGHUIXOLQWHQVLW\DQG UHDOLW\DNLQGRIPDJLFZKLFKLVQRZPRUHGLIÀFXOWWRÀQG· Japan was a challenge to the spirit as well as to the mind. In Kamakura, she was able to pursue her now established interest in Buddhism. She joined a zazen (meditation) class as an external student. Two years later she gave an account to a London audience of her experiences both of student campus activity in Tokyo and of Buddhism in Kamakura. For her, both KeiRÙ, the

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PRGHUQ:HVWHUQVW\OHDFDGHPLFLQVWLWXWLRQDQG(QJDNXML¶ZKHUHWKHPRQNV are seeking enlightenment by the same methods as they have followed for KXQGUHGVRI\HDUV·ZHUH¶-DSDQDVVKHH[LVWVQRZ7KH\ERWKH[LVWVLGHE\VLGH and even interfuse.’26 The relationship of the ancient and spiritual with the more modern was in due course to constitute a major theme in her life’s work. II

%XW &DUPHQ·V ÀUVW FRPPLWPHQW ZDV WR WKH ÀHOG RI LQWHOOHFWXDO KLVWRU\ Returning to England in 1953, she spent the next two years at SOAS, shaping her research on Fukuzawa Yukichi into a doctoral thesis. Meanwhile, in 1955 she had been appointed to an Assistant Lectureship at Cambridge, and it was Cambridge University Press that published her dissertation as The Japanese Enlightenment: a Study of the Writings of Fukuzawa Yukichi in 1964. This book was dedicated to her father. Its theme was ambitious: the revolution in thought that took place in Japan during the collapse of the late feudal regime and the inauguration of Japan’s modern political order. Its scope is concomitantly broad; it surveys the thought not only of Fukuzawa himself, but also of other leading intellectuals of the time, most of whom wrote voluminously. Required also were knowledge of the Japanese intellectual tradition; the internal political history of Japan during a period of precipitate change; the Western intellectual tradition, including nineteenth-century positivist thinkers such as Herbert Spencer and reformers such as Samuel Smiles. The book successfully conveys the profound nature of the change in Japan: the reversal of the understanding of history as from decline from a past golden age to progress towards a future utopia; the reconstruction of the understanding of the role of the individual and of human agency in history; the position of women; the role of government and the nature and limitation of political authority. Carmen drew on new work on neo-Confucianism by A. C. Graham of SOAS, and on contemporary Japanese scholarVKLSRQ0HLMLSHULRGLQWHOOHFWXDOKLVWRU\6KHZDVDPRQJWKHÀUVWWRUHÁHFW the work of Maruyama Masao, the leading Japanese intellectual historian and political scientist of the twentieth century. Carmen conveys this panorama lucidly, accessibly and elegantly, mostly through well-selected quotation and paraphrase. She is also realistic: Fukuzawa was driven partly by a spirit of rebellion against the humiliating restrictions of feudal society, and partly by a desire to use Western democracy instrumentally to arm Japan against WestHUQH[SDQVLRQLVP7KHÀQDOFKDSWHUFRQIURQWV)XNX]DZD·VOXUFKWRDGYRFDF\ of a form of Japanese imperialism in order to resist Western expansionism.

CARMEN ELIZABETH BLACKER 1924–2009

9

The Japanese Enlightenment was one of the earliest British scholarly books on Japan to be published after the war. It addressed the intellectual modernisation of Japan in a generally positive spirit. Since then, much progress has been made LQXQGHUVWDQGLQJ)XNX]DZD·VWKRXJKW$ÀQHUJUDLQHGUHDGLQJRI)XNX]DZD·V views than Carmen could reasonably have achieved is now possible. He is recognised as a creative thinker who developed Western ideas in original ways. But Fukuzawa remains a hero, much as Carmen claimed. Her book, like the classic work of her friend and contemporary at the University of London, Ronald Dore’s great Education in Tokugawa Japan (1965), is recognised as a pioneer work and a gesture of imaginative generosity to a defeated nation. It has been appreciated as such in Japan itself. For these reasons, The Japanese Enlightenment LVDKLVWRULFDOO\VLJQLÀFDQWERRN,WPLJKWKDYHLQDXJXUDWHGDUHVHDUFKFDUHHULQ LQWHOOHFWXDOKLVWRU\,QIDFW&DUPHQSURGXFHGOLWWOHPRUHLQWKDWÀHOGDQDUWLFOH Ùhashi Totsuan (1816–62), containing an account on the reactionary thinker O of Japanese neo-Confucianism that can still be recommended for its clear and accurate summary of traditional Japanese neo-Confucian thought; and a brief account of the historiography of the nationalist and pro-imperial historian Rai San’yRÙ (1781–1832), for an edited book on East Asian historiography.27 III

Even as she did the research at KeiRÙ for the book on Fukuzawa, Carmen had been drawn in a different direction. She now committed herself to the study of -DSDQHVHUHOLJLRQERWKKLVWRULFDODQGFRQWHPSRUDU\DQGWKHUHODWHGÀHOGVRI myth and folklore. Her interest in Japanese religion seems likely to have been coloured by her father’s Jungian psychology and his work as a psychiatrist. Carmen may have inherited a sensitivity to the numinous from him. In his war memoirs C. P. Blacker records a powerful hierophany during an interOXGHLQÀJKWLQJQHDU$PLHQVLQWKHVSULQJRIDWDSODFHFDOOHG&RUELH He was taking a walk by moonlight along a canal towpath. As he walked, the FDQDO¶DFTXLUHGDQXPHQ·+HH[SHULHQFHGDEULHIYLVLRQRI¶OXPLQRXVERGies—meteors or stars—emitting both light and music’. He remained uncertain RILWVVLJQLÀFDQFHEXWODWHUXVHGWKHPHWDSKRURI¶VHHGV·ZULWLQJWKDW¶7KH remarkable thing, as I now see, about such seeds—stored as bare memories of past experiences which, in the past, have fallen on unreceptive ground—is their capacity to remain dormant for long periods, perhaps waiting inertly for an auspicious change in the soil which contains them.’28 Carmen was to share and develop her father’s concern with hierophanies and their capacity to survive unconsciously in the mind. Perhaps the psychiaWULVW·VGDXJKWHULVDOVRUHÁHFWHGLQ&DUPHQ·VIRFXVRQUHOLJLRQSULPDULO\DVDQ

10

CARMEN BLACKER

individual, rather than social or political, experience. Throughout her life, she retained an intense sense of the power of psychic phenomena and of the mind as a volatile, but also creative, substratum of human psychology, a repository of DQFLHQWNQRZOHGJH6KHZDVWRZULWHRIWKH¶P\VWHULRXVDQGWHUULI\LQJSRZHU·29 DVVRFLDWHGZLWKFHUWDLQNLQGVRIP\WKRIWKH¶PDJQHWLFIRUFH·ZLWKZKLFKWKH PLQGWHQGVWRHODERUDWHWKHSHUFHSWLRQRIDSSDULWLRQVWKH¶WHUULI\LQJPDOLJQLW\·RU¶SHFXOLDUSRZHU·RI¶UHVHQWIXOVSLULWV·306KHDOVREHOLHYHGWKDW¶DOWHUHG VWDWHVRIFRQVFLRXVQHVV·DORQJZLWK¶VWDWHVRIWUDQFHRISRVVHVVLRQRIHFVWDWLF ÁLJKW·VKRXOGLQWKHVWXG\RI-DSDQHVHUHOLJLRQEHWKHREMHFWRI¶V\PSDWKHWLF comprehension’.31 +HUÀUVWGLUHFWHQFRXQWHUZLWK-DSDQHVHUHOLJLRQKRZHYHUVHHPVOLNHO\ to have been with Zen. Yet the ultimate Buddhist salvation, release from the world, was for her not the main interest of the tradition. Aside from her early experience of zazen, Carmen appears little concerned with Buddhist soteriology itself, or in exploring the rigorous ontology, epistemology or logic that form the metaphysical basis of Zen Buddhism. The human and cultural context of the quest aroused a deeper fascination. Despite a lifelong interest, she never became a Buddhist. In her Charles Strong Memorial Lecture of 1968,32VKHGHVFULEHGWZRZD\VLQZKLFK¶\RJD·ZDVXVHGWR DFKLHYH%XGGKLVWHQOLJKWHQPHQWDVWDWHWKDWVKHGHVFULEHGDV¶DGLVFLSOLQH RIPLQGRUERG\RUERWK>GLUHFWHG@WRZDUGVWKHHQGRI\RNLQJXQLI\LQJ oneself with God, the divine ground’. These two methods were found in the Zen and Shingon sects respectively. Both the koÙan and meditation of =HQDQGWKHOHVVHUNQRZQHVRWHULF6KLQJRQPHWKRGVZHUH¶YLDEOH·%XW in Shingon esoteric practice, Carmen found a model of the religious quest EDVHGRQUHFRYHU\RIDQLQQDWHFKDUDFWHULVWLFPRUHUHZDUGLQJWKDQWKHÀHUFH abstraction and renunciation of intellect of Zen. Zen’s use of koÙan KDG¶QR aura of numinousness’; wrongly understood, it was also more vulnerable to WULYLDOLVDWLRQZLWQHVV¶PRVWRIWKHUXEELVKWDONHGDERXWE\%HDWHQWKXVLDVWV of Zen’. By contrast, Shingon’s luxuriant techniques of mudra, mantra and PHGLWDWLYHYLVXDOLVDWLRQVHPSOR\HG¶V\PEROLFLPLWDWLRQ·DQGFRQVWLWXWHGD ¶ULWXDOGUDPD·7KH\¶URXV>HG@E\PHDQVRIDQH[WHULRUUHÁHFWLRQDQLPDJH which already exists inside our minds’. Here was a view of the mind that resonated with Jungian psychology of archetypes and the collective unconscious. In a later address, she expanded this view of the mind explicitly WR LQFOXGH IRONORUH DQG P\WK DV UHSRVLWRULHV RI ¶SDWWHUQV E\ ZKLFK >WKH KXPDQPLQG@FDQXQGHUVWDQGDQGUHPHPEHUKLVWRULFDOUHDOLW\·6KHEHFDPH LQWHUHVWHGLQFXOWXUDOWUDQVPLVVLRQRU¶KRZWKHFRPSRQHQWPRWLIVRIWKH legend interlock and interfuse, and how the images and symbols, with their ambivalent faces, melt into one another’.33

CARMEN ELIZABETH BLACKER 1924–2009

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Even before the publication of The Japanese Enlightenment she had already EHJXQWRSXEOLVKRQHVRWHULF%XGGKLVP+HUÀUVWHVVD\LQWKLVÀHOG¶7KHGLYLQH boy in Japanese Buddhism’, had drawn on early medieval Japanese texts of the setsuwa genre, mainly Buddhist homilies, to describe the historical phenomenon of the gohÙo doÙjiER\SURWHFWRUVRIWKH/DZ¶DVDYLRXUVHUYDQWDQGZD\VKRZHU of holy men’.34 Here, the Jungian theme was particularly strong. Expressing her argument in the conceptual language of psychiatry, she concluded of this ÀJXUHLQZRUGVWKDWSDUDSKUDVHWKRVHRI-XQJKLPVHOIWKDWWKH‘puer aeternus, in his fusion of weakness and strength, seems to represent the wholeness which comes from the union of opposites, the complete man who has transcended the limitations of ordinary consciousness’.35 This belief in an early stratum of Japanese experience was no doubt reinforced by her reading in the works of the founding fathers of Japanese folklore, Yanagida Kunio (1875–1962) and Orikuchi Shinobu (1887–1953). For both, folklore embodied a quest for the origins of national culture but also a teleology that related these origins to the present and the prospect of revival in some form. This approach was problematic for some more left-wing scholars, but Carmen was interested in the purely religious rather than any political aspect of their work. In the same general direction another, no less strong, LQÁXHQFHRQ&DUPHQ·VLQWHUHVWLQP\WKRORJ\DQGIRONORUHZDVWKHZULWLQJRI the eminent Romanian scholar of religion Mircea Eliade whose work Carmen SURIHVVHGWKDWVKH¶DOZD\VIRXQGLQVSLULQJ·36 Eliade’s belief in a primordial VWDWHDQGKLVFRQFHSWRIWKH¶SDUDGLVDOV\QGURPH·ZDVSDUWLFXODUO\DWWUDFWLYHWR her.37%XWKLVLQÁXHQFHDSSHDUHGWRH[WHQGIXUWKHUWRKHUEDVLFPHWKRGRORJical assumptions. Carmen seemed to accept his view that human nature was LQQDWHO\UHOLJLRXVUHÁHFWHGLQ(OLDGH·VFRQFHSWRI¶homo religiosus’. Experience of the sacred, she seems to assume, is itself irreducible, rather than to be explained through reductive analysis by other disciplines such as the social sciences or psychology. Though she might not have admitted to the description, Carmen is in this sense probably best viewed as a phenomenologist, largely concerned with a perceived world. She remained, at any rate, little attracted by theoretical issues or alternative theories of religious behaviour or myth. She did not explore myth from a Marxist, structuralist, let alone Freudian standpoint. She was concerned to document the religious experience of Japanese, both historical and contemporary, empathetically from the practitioner’s standpoint. Among contemporary Japanese scholars, Hori IchirRÙ and Gorai Shigeru, leading students of Shamanism and of the ascetic cult known as Shugendo, are particularly frequently quoted in her writing for their empirical information. Carmen professed a strong dislike of jargon. Her writing is clear and accessible, her style disciplined but compellingly readable, her prose often

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exhilarating. The approach is seldom theoretical. On the old rivalry between WKH¶GLIIXVLRQLVW·DQG¶VHSDUDWHRULJLQ·WKHRULHVRIWKHRULJLQVRIIRONORUHIRU instance, like one of her heroes, the Japanese antiquarian, polymath and folklorist, Minakata Kumugusu, she forbore to express an explicit opinion. In RQHRIKHUODVWDUWLFOHV¶7KHGLVJXLVHGZDQGHULQJVDLQWDQH[DPSOHRIWKH stranger in folklore’ (1990), she noted common features between the motif of hospitality offered to or withheld from strangers, but also crucial differences across cultures. In the case of withheld hospitality, for instance, in Europe and the West, the agent is transformed into a bird; in Japan, the food withheld becomes inedible and the whole community is affected. This led her to the FRQFOXVLRQWKDWDWOHDVWLQWKLVFDVHKHUHLVD¶VWURQJSUREDELOLW\RIDVRXUFH different from the analogous European tales’.38 Detachment from theory did not, however, mean that she avoided complexity. In another late article on GLYLQDWLRQ¶'LYLQDWLRQDQGRUDFOHVLQ-DSDQ·&DUPHQGHVFULEHGZLWKLOOXVWUDWLYHGLDJUDPVWKHLQWULFDWHEXW¶FXPEHUVRPH\HVQRPHWKRG·UHTXLUHGLQWKH XVHRIWXUWOHVKHOOVIRUGLYLQDWLRQ¶VWLOOHPSOR\HG·DVVKHZULWHV¶LQWKHFRXUVH of the important and mysterious rite ... by which the Japanese emperor is consecrated and enthroned’.39 Later lectures and articles on historical folklore continued to view Japanese religious practice in terms of recovering or acting out an innate, pristine inheritance from primordial time. In an interview with Japan Digest in 1991, Carmen expressed a belief not inconsistent with Jungian teleology. She spoke of the H[LVWHQFHRI¶ROGHUOHYHOV>LQWKH-DSDQHVHPLQG@ZKLFKZHPD\FDOOP\WKLFDO ... which send up symbols which appear in dreams and folklore. These symbols will often solve a problem in a manner that rational, quantitative thinking cannot.’40 Carmen’s interest in this primordial world extended to language. In ¶7KHlanguage of birds’ (1996), she spoke with sympathy, indeed excitement, of the belief of the French philosopher Réné Guénon that folk belief in a pure DQFLHQWODQJXDJHZDVD¶VDIHUHSRVLWRU\IRUVSLULWXDOWUXWK·D¶FRGH·WKURXJK which messages could be transmitted in times of crisis or degeneration. One DVSHFWRIWKLVZDVWKHZLGHVSUHDGIRONEHOLHILQWKH¶VHFUHWODQJXDJH·RIELUGV that existed before language became corrupted, accessible only to those gifted with special knowledge.41 Here again, Carmen did not engage with the contemporary debate among scholars of Japanese history over language, domination and empowerment. She remained detached from postmodernism, structuralism or neo-Marxism in its various forms. Like Eliade himself, she saw comPXQLFDWLRQDQGIULHQGVKLSZLWKDQLPDOVDVD¶PHDQVRISDUWLDOO\UHFRYHULQJWKH paradisal situation of primordial human beings’.42 This ancient substratum of Japanese experience had historically been overlaid or suppressed not just by modernisation, but earlier by Buddhism

CARMEN ELIZABETH BLACKER 1924–2009

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and by Chinese culture. It had been further damaged by the Meiji government’s ruthless suppression of syncretic sects such as the Shugendô. Yet LWZDVSUHVHUYHGWRVRPHH[WHQWLQIRONORUH7KXVRI¶IRONWUDGLWLRQV·FRQFHUQLQJWKHHPSHURU·VUHSXWHGO\EL]DUUHOLIHVW\OHVKHFRQFOXGHV¶IRONORUH uniquely preserves the memory of ancient practices forgotten elsewhere but once observed by the sacral forbears of the Japanese emperors’. And this, VKHPDNHVFOHDUUHIHUUHGWR¶VRPHSHULRGEHIRUHKLVWRU\·ZKHQWKH¶VDFUHG nature of the emperor was then more pronounced than in later times’.43 This view would not now pass unchallenged; more recent scholarship would see the ritual purity of the emperor as a construct built up in the early historical period of state building in the seventh and eighth centuries under WKHLQÁXHQFHRIFRQWLQHQWDO'DRLVPDQGRI%XGGKLVP8QFRPIRUWDEO\IRU many historians of early modern and modern Japan, belief in a primordial ethical paradise suggests the essentialist belief in a pristine Japan propagated by the nativist school, the Kokugakusha, and their later followers, a major LQÁXHQFHRQPRGHUQ-DSDQHVHQDWLRQDOLVP &DUPHQ ZDV RI FRXUVH DZDUH RI WKH GDQJHU ,Q ¶7ZR 6KLQWR P\WKV the golden age and the chosen people’, she distinguished two types of P\WKÀUVWH[SODQDWRU\QDUUDWLYHP\WKVZKLFK¶DFFRXQWIRUWKHZRUNLQJV RIWKHXQLYHUVHDURXQGXV·DQGLPSRVH¶RQWKHYLVLEOHZRUOGDQRUGHUHG scheme’. The second type consisted of implicitly irrational myths which ¶SRVVHVV D SHFXOLDU SRZHU RYHU KXPDQ UDWLRQDOLW\· 7KH ODWWHU W\SH SHUKDSVPRUHDNLQWRLGHRORJ\¶FDQELQGJURXSVDQGZKROHQDWLRQVWRJHWKHU into a common purpose’. She described the chauvinistic linguistic theories of the early modern nativist scholars Kamo no Mabuchi (1697–1769), Motoori Norinaga (1730–1801) and Hirata Atsutane (1776–1843). Their EHOLHIVVKHFRQWHQGHGEHORQJWRWKHFDWHJRU\RIP\WKWKDW¶SRVVHVV>D@ mysterious and terrifying power over the human mind’.44 The assumption of the superiority of the Japanese language culminated in the theory that the Japanese race, too, was created superior, a belief which Carmen charDFWHULVHGDV¶OHVVFRPPRQWKDQPLJKWEHVXSSRVHG·6XFKLUUDWLRQDOYLHZV KDGEHHQGLVFUHGLWHGZLWK-DSDQ·VGHIHDWLQWKH3DFLÀF:DUEXWVKHDGGHG GDUNO\WKDWWKHUHZHUHVLJQVWKDW¶WKHLUJULSRQWKH-DSDQHVHPLQGPD\QRW entirely have relaxed’.45 If this hints at some of the problematic aspects the school of Japanese folklore associated with Yanagida and Origuchi DOOXGHGWRDERYHVKHGLGQRWGHYHORSWKHWKHPH%XWKHUÀQDOOHFWXUHDW Oxford in 2001, delivered without notes when she was already experiencLQJV\PSWRPVRIWKH3DUNLQVRQ·VWKDWZDVWRGLVDEOHKHUÀHUFHO\H[SRVHG the fabrication of the Nationalist Shinto ideology derived from mythical traditions in the Meiji period.

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IV

Carmen’s early accounts of religious phenomena were based on printed published sources, many from the medieval period. Increasingly, however, KHUZRUNLQFOXGHGÀHOGVWXG\GLUHFWREVHUYDWLRQRIWKHSUHVHQWVWDWHRIWKH phenomena whose earlier history she had researched. Already by 1963 she was visiting the Nichiren temple of Barakisan MyRÙgyRÙji in Chiba prefecture, ZKHUHVKHREVHUYHGWKH$EERWW¶DGLJQLÀHGDQGDZHLQVSLULQJSHUVRQZKRKDG accomplished a strenuous programme of austerities’,46 implementing a detailed catechism to subjects believed possessed by vengeful spirits. This was to proYLGHPDWHULDOIRUKHUODWHU SDSHU¶7KHDQJU\JKRVWLQ-DSDQ·$QHDUO\ SDSHU¶,QLWLDWLRQLQWKH6KXJHQGRÙ’ (1965), again drew on on participant observation, here in the akimine >$XWXPQSHDN@ULWXDORQ'HZD6DQ]DQLQWKHQRUWK of Japan. Here, library research felicitously combined with direct observation to provide a sense of how the rite had changed over its long history, leaving LWVW\SLFDOODWWHUGD\LQLWLDWH¶DIDLQWO\GHEDVHGÀJXUH·47 Much later, her article, ¶7KH*RGGHVVHPHUJHVIURPKHU&DYH)XMLWD+LPLNRDQGKHU'UDJRQ3DODFH family’ (1994), is based entirely on Carmen’s personal knowledge of Fujita, the founder of one of Japan’s smaller, but most attractive, new religions, the RyuÙguÙ Kazoku (Dragon Palace Family). Here, as elsewhere when describing apparently exotic beliefs, Carmen wrote in a nuanced style which presented her subject’s sometimes bizarre views with sympathy but which delicately suspended or withheld authorial belief. Fujita claimed to be a reincarnation of the Sun Goddess, and to represent the gentle, female side of deity, to right a WUDGLWLRQDOGLVWRUWLRQWRZDUGV¶KDUGZDUOLNHPDVFXOLQHGLYLQLWLHV·48 Throughout her career and well into her retirement, Carmen was an annual visitor to Japan. The Cambridge summer Long Vacation could be used for WKHWULSVÀUVWRQWKHWHQGD\MRXUQH\SDUWO\DFURVV5XVVLDODWWHUO\HQWLUHO\ by plane. Once there, she pursued her investigations into religious history and contemporary practice. She constantly took photos, and these and her diaries, bequeathed to the Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures in Norwich, should be a valuable resource for future students RIWZHQWLHWKFHQWXU\-DSDQ6KHWRRNSOHDVXUHLQVKDULQJKHUÀHOGWULSVZLWK students and friends. In Kyoto, she bicycled everywhere, as had been her wont since childhood. To accompany her was exhilarating, for she had infectious enthusiasm and a sense of fun. In 1964, visiting the IttRÙen, a small religious community outside the city, she was delighted with what seemed an HSLSKDQ\VXGGHQO\WKHVWRRSHGÀJXUHRIWKHQRQDJHQDULDQIRXQGHU1LVKLGD TenkRÙ (1872–1968), appeared with his wife on a stone bridge over the pond LQWKHLUJDUGHQ¶OLNH&KLQHVHLPPRUWDOV·/DWHUWRXULQJWKHFRPPXQLW\IDUP

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she delighted in the pigs poking their snouts in greeting through the bars of their cages. She took a small party to the top of Mt Hiei, the sacred mountain to the north-east of Kyoto. Night came on and transport back to the city had ended for the day. The group trespassed in pitch darkness down the cable car track, fearful that at any moment a car might descend. But Carmen loudly repeated the esoteric Buddhist mantra of invulnerability, effectively, for level ground was reached without mishap. Her physical energy remained remarkable. In 1986, the historian of Victorian views of Japan, Professor Yokoyama Toshio, himself a mountaineer, accompanied her on a climb of Mt Tsurugi on Shikoku. Citing WKH¶QLPEOHVXUHIRRWHGQHVVRIDJD]HOOH·WKDW:LOOLDP*ODGVWRQHKDGPDUvelled at in Isabella Bird, Yokoyama described Carmen’s ascent. His wife left IDUEHKLQGKH¶KDGWRWU\P\YHU\EHVWWRIROORZWKHÁXWWHULQJORZHUHQGVRI Carmen’s trousers that were occasionally visible ever further off through gaps in the increasingly dense clouds’.49 V

7KHVHYHUDOTXDOLWLHVLGHQWLÀHGDERYHDUHEHVWH[HPSOLÀHGLQ&DUPHQ·VPDJnum opus, The Catalpa Bow: a Study of Shamanistic Practices in Japan (1975). The book is named after the catalpa tree (Japanese azusa [betula grossa var. ulmifolia@ 50, the hard wood of which was traditionally used to make bows. Shamans used such bows from early times to summon spirits. The Catalpa Bow rapidly became established as a classic, winning a readership beyond the world of Japanese Studies. The book is based on Carmen’s strengths: extensive reading in the -DSDQHVHKLVWRULFDODQGHWKQRJUDSKLFOLWHUDWXUHFRPELQHGZLWKÀHOGZRUNLQ sacred places, mountains, lakes, temples, and shrines, and interviews with monks, priests, shamans, pilgrims and members of the Japanese public. Carmen performed the kai-hoÙgyoÙ, a strenuous ritual circumambulation of Mt Hiei, failure at which was purported to require suicide; twice she participated in the week-long akinomine austerity on Mt Haguro in Yamagata Prefecture; three times she ascended Ontake, the sacred volcano that straddles the boundary between Nagano and Gifu Prefectures. 7KHERRNÀOOHGDODFXQDLQWKH:HVWHUQOLWHUDWXUHRQVKDPDQLVP&DUmen’s work forms a pendant to Mircea Eliade’s seminal study of Asian Shamanism, which had largely omitted Japan. She saw Japanese shamanism as an outgrowth of its Siberian counterpart, though with a Polynesian input and with the World Tree replaced by a Mountain. In this book, the ¶SDUDGLVDO·WKHPHRIWKHSULPRUGLDOVWUDWXPRI-DSDQHVHUHOLJLRVLW\LVOHVV obtrusive than in her articles and addresses. Lived, observed, experience

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interested her and she reported it with empathy and felicity. NonetheOHVVVKHFRQÀGHQWO\LGHQWLÀHGKHUPRGHUQVKDPDQLVPDVSHUSHWXDWLQJD SUH%XGGKLVW¶DUFKDLFP\VWLFLVP·7KLVWUDGLWLRQRYHUODLGLQHDUO\KLVWRULFDO WLPHVE\%XGGKLVWLQÁXHQFHVVXUYLYHG¶OLNHP\FHOLXPXQGHUWKHJURXQG·51 The book anatomises the two realms of the shamanic world view, sacred DQGSURIDQHDQGWKHÀJXUHRIWKHVKDPDQZKRPHGLDWHVEHWZHHQWKHP It describes the supernatural beings and the changing location of the other world that they inhabit as, through Japanese protohistory, it shifted from the sea to the mountains. Carmen describes the acquisition of shamanic SRZHUWKURXJKDVFHVLVLQYROYLQJPDVWHU\RYHUERWKZDWHUDQGÀUH$SDUticularly vivid chapter conjures up the prehistoric or protohistoric shaman, WKH¶PDMHVWLFVDFUDOZRPDQ·EDVHGRQUHFRYHUHGDQFLHQWhaniwa (grave clay cylinder) images and also provides a critical summary of modern reconstructions of the cult, role and initiation of ancient shamans, based partly also on modern ethnography. The book includes Carmen’s own typology of shamanic practice, broadly divided into the two types of ascetic healer and exorciser on the one hand and more passive medium on the other. She LGHQWLÀHGSHUVLVWHQWVKDPDQLFHOHPHQWVLQFHUWDLQRIWKH¶QHZUHOLJLRQV· and, from her own compelling and vivid observation, described surviving shamanic practices, including oracles and exorcisms in village and mountain contexts. All too often, these traditional practices were found to be faltering, weakened, or abandoned. In such cases, Carmen relied on the relatively recent, extensive Japanese ethnographic literature, of which she had a thorough knowledge. Part of this book’s enduring value lies in its eloquent record of practices that were fading from history. VI

Carmen’s approach to the study of Japanese religion won a degree of respect IURPWKHOHDGLQJ-DSDQHVHVFKRODUVRIKHUÀHOGUDUHO\DFFRUGHGWRIRUHLJQ researchers. Professor Miyake Hitoshi, the eminence griseLQWKHÀHOGRI-DSDQHVH shamanism, wrote of how foreign scholars tended to apply their own preconceived methodologies to the study of Japanese religion and to accommodate HPSLULFDOHYLGHQFHWRWKHVHDVVXPSWLRQVWKHLUÀQGLQJVLQWXUQIHGEDFNWR the Japanese academic world, distorting understanding of Japanese religious experience. Carmen’s approach was different: (YHQZKHQVKHFDPHWR-DSDQVKHPHWÀUVWQRWZLWK>-DSDQHVH@UHVHDUFKHUVEXW with shamanic mediums and ascetics, personally participated in their practice, and shared their experiences. Then, later, she would discuss their recollections

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with evident pleasure and seek their opinions. The fruits of this participatory LQYHVWLJDWLRQRYHUPDQ\\HDUVDUHSUHVHQWHG>LQThe Catalpa Bow@

Carmen, he claimed, had provided the basic material for an understanding of shamanism, an intercultural phenomenon.52 Indeed, in the eyes of Japanese, Carmen was the object of fascinated DGPLUDWLRQHYHQDZH6KHVSRNH-DSDQHVHÁXHQWO\SHUKDSVZLWKDWLQJHRI ERRNLVKQHVVLQDGLVWLQFWLYHIHPLQLQHIRUPZLWKKRQRULÀFYHUEWHUPLQDtions and a lexicon appropriate for a woman of status. Female researchers RIKHUJHQHUDWLRQVWLOOIDFHGREVWDFOHVSDUWLFXODUO\LQWKHÀHOGRIUHOLJLRXV history, where taboos still operated. The rumour among students that in the interest of pursuing research she impersonated a man apparently has substance, at least in one instance.53%XWVKHODUJHO\RYHUFDPHWKHGLIÀFXOW\ by a combination of patent seriousness of purpose, energy, thorough preparation, personal charm and a sense of humour. At least once, at the Hayama Ùkua, near SRÙma, Fukushima Prefecture, takusen>RUDFXODUXWWHUDQFH@ULWHDWO the taboo was waived for her personally.54 Yet hindrances remained. In 1961, researching the initiatory rites of the ShugendRÙ, she had been able as DZRPDQRQO\WRSURFHHGLQWRWKHV@WREHIRUJRWWHQ·71 VIII

Carmen’s academic home for most of her life was Cambridge. She was lecWXUHULQ-DSDQHVHIRUQHDUO\IRXUGHFDGHVXQWLOKHUUHWLUHPHQWLQ$WÀUVW attached to Newnham, she became a founding fellow of the new graduate college, Clare Hall, in 1965. Within her own Faculty of Oriental Studies at Cambridge, Carmen would have admitted to frustrations. Yet her dedication to Japanese Studies and to learning was unquestionable. Loftily, she regarded scholarship as a vocation rather than a profession or occupation and was scornful of the unionisation of university teachers. In part, she must have

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seen scholarship as a humanist challenge to preserve values threatened in the PRGHUQZRUOG$VDWHDFKHUVKHFRXOGEHÀHUFHEXWPDQ\IRUPHUVWXGHQWV remember her with gratitude. Her erudition and the intensity of her own comPLWPHQWWRKHUÀHOGLQVSLUHGKHUHORTXHQFHDQGDXUDRIÁDPER\DQFHGD]]OHG Carmen gave a course of lectures on Tokugawa intellectual history for Part II of the Japanese Studies tripos, but much of her teaching consisted of reading premodern texts with undergraduates. In these translation supervisions, she LQVLVWHGRQJRRG(QJOLVKVW\OHDUURZVIRULQVWDQFHZHUHDOZD\V¶ORRVHG·RU ¶VKRW·QHYHU¶ÀUHG·$PRQJKHUVWXGHQWVQRWDIHZSXUVXHGDFDGHPLFFDUHHUV VHYHUDOLQÀHOGVUHODWHGWR&DUPHQ·VRZQ'%:DWHUKRXVHPDWULFXODWHG 1959), distinguished scholar of woodblock prints; James McMullen (1959), researcher in Japanese Confucianism; Richard Bowring (1965), literary scholar and historian of Japanese religion; Peter Nosco (1971), intellectual historian; and John Breen (1975), specialist in Tokugawa Shinto. Others took a different path: Rupert Faulkner (1973) and Clare Pollard (1985) became art historians and museum curators primarily interested in Japanese ceramics. None of these quite followed in her particular path into folklore and mythology. In that respect, her closest heir is the French anthropologist Dr Anne-Marie Bouchy, whom Carmen never formally taught, but whom she greatly admired. Though conscientious over her academic duties, Carmen balked at the bureaucracy of academic administration. She was detached from the technological progress in language pedagogy that made such great strides during her time. Her own experience of learning Japanese in the 1940s had been of DGLIIHUHQWVRUWDVFHWLFDOPRVWUHOLJLRXVLQLQWHQVLW\,WZDV¶EHVWGHVFULEHGDV a shugyô, a discipline of mind, body and spirit. It required dedication, concenWUDWLRQZLOOLQJQHVVWRVDFULÀFHIULYROLWLHV·72 Her early colleagues in Japanese Studies at Cambridge, Eric Ceadal, later appointed University Librarian, J. R. McEwan, intellectual historian, Douglas Mills, the historian of medieval literature, and the very reserved American historian, Charles Sheldon, had been wartime contemporaries and friends. After their departure by the early 1980s, she felt isolated. If a brittleness, even fractiousness, could lead to personal antipathies, there was also playfulness or mischief from her side. Visitors to KHUWKLUGÁRRURIÀFHLQWKH)DFXOW\RI2ULHQWDO6WXGLHVZHUHRIIHUHG-DSDQHVH tea. She would open the window and, averting her face, empty the dregs onto WKHSDWKEHORZ¶,DOZD\VKRSHWKDWWKLVZLOOODQGRQWKHKHDGRI3URIHVVRU>[@· she once confessed. More seriously, she could be sharp tongued or impatient; old friendships could sour. Such contradictions seemed incongruous in one otherwise so conspicuously courteous, so given to imaginative generosity and gestures of sympathy. In a different direction, she could sound anti-American, yet she prided herself on being able to recite the names of all the states of

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the Union. She enjoyed visiting the United States and Canada, and had many North American friends. Whatever the case, obscurely to the outside world, she was never awarded an ad hominem chair or readership within her faculty. But if her experience WKHUHZDVVRPHWLPHVGLIÀFXOWWKHUHZDVDPRPHQWRXVVXFFHVV6WDIIUHWLUHments in the 1980s had left Carmen as the only senior full-time teacher of Japanese, and there was a real danger that the subject might be closed. There was talk of amalgamating the teaching of Japanese with Oxford, Appalled, Carmen appealed to the then British Ambassador in Tokyo, Sir Hugh Cortazzi, an old friend from her SOAS days, for help. His intervention led to a substantial benefaction from the Japanese Keidanren and Tokyo Electric Power Company. This founded a chair in Japanese Studies. Carmen herself made an eloquent speech of gratitude in the University Senate, but ruled herself out as DFDQGLGDWHIRUWKHFKDLUZKLFKZDVÀUVWKHOGE\KHUSXSLO5LFKDUG%RZULQJ Cambridge Japanese Studies had been saved. Carmen retired six years later. In due course, Carmen’s distinctive contribution to Japanese Studies was to be honoured. In addition to her Presidency of the Folklore Society 1982–4, she was elected Honorary Member in 1988; she was awarded the Order of the Precious Crown by the Government of Japan in 1988; was elected to Fellowship of the British Academy in 1989 and an Honorary Fellow of Somerville College, Oxford in 1991; received the Minakata Kumagusu Prize in 1997; a Japan Festival Award in 2001; and was appointed OBE in 2004. She received visiting academic appointments. As early as 1968, she toured Australia giving the Charles Strong Memorial Lectures. She was Visiting Professor at several North American universities: Columbia (1965–6); Princeton (1979); and Toronto (1992). In Japan, she was Visiting Fellow at the Institute of Humanistic Sciences, University of Kyoto in 1986. From 1986 annually until illness prevented her from making the journey, she was Visiting Professor also at Ueno Gakuen University, whose President, the poet and scholar of Irish literature Ishibashi Hiro, had been a friend since their student days at Keio. In 1975, she and her partner and later husband, the notable scholar of Han Dynasty China, Michael Loewe, had settled in Willow House in GrantchesWHU7KHUHWKH\MRLQWO\EURXJKWRXWWZRHGLWHGYROXPHVRQÀHOGVRIPXWXDO interest: Ancient Cosmologies (London, 1975) and Divination and Oracles (New -DSDQHVHFRURQDWLRQ FHUHPRQ\@DQGDWZKRVHLQYLWDWLRQVKHVSHQWDZHHNHQGDW6DQGULQJKDPWKH Dalai Lama; Sir Laurens van der Post; David Wilson (Lord Wilson), formerly

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Governor of Hong Kong; Sir Hugh Cortazzi, sometime ambassador to Japan and biographer of Japan hands; Owen Chadwick, eminent ecclesiastical historian and vice-chancellor; Edward Shils, the Anglophile American sociologist; Laurence Picken, the eminent historian of East Asian music; Donald Keene, leading American translator of Japanese literature; and Hugh Trevor-Roper (Lord Dacre), with whom Carmen had in common wartime work in intelligence, and with whose preoccupation with the literary aspect of scholarly writing she surely sympathised. As is also reported of Trevor-Roper, Carmen was a gracious correspondent. Perhaps it was true of her as has been written RI7UHYRU5RSHUVKH¶ZDVPRUHDWHDVHLQOHWWHUZULWLQJZKHUHKXPDQ FRQWDFW>FRXOG@EHHVVD\HGZLWKLQSURWHFWLYHOLPLWV·73 Carmen was also active in old-established London learned societies. In addition to the Folklore Society, she was at various times a member of the Japan Society; the Asiatic Society of Japan; the Buddhist Society; the Royal Asiatic Society; the Sherlock Holmes Society, for whom she composed a special test of knowledge; and the Victorian Association. She also acted as president of the British Association of Japanese Studies, the professional organisation for university teachers and scholars in WKH-DSDQÀHOGLQ² IX

All committed students of pre-modern Japan, possibly of any pre-modern society, are faced at some level with a sense of loss: the depletion of the distinctively traditional and particular in the face of material progress and the cultural convergence of globalisation. Carmen would surely have conceded that modern Japanese live healthier and freer lives than their predecessors, but VKHZURWHRI¶OLYLQJLQZKDWRené Guenon called the impoverished reality of the modern world’.74 She reacted against the erosion of tradition with intensity. There is much to be said ... for being old enough to have seen Japan before tower blocks, computers, television screens and mobile phones so drastically changed the scene ... B. H. Chamberlain wrote that old Japan was like an oyster; force it open and many things beautiful and precious die. He might have said the same of WKHFKDQJHVWKDWKDYHWDNHQSODFHVLQFHWKRVHRIP\JHQHUDWLRQÀUVWVDZ-DSDQ75

Carmen’s life and work are testimony to her passionate attempt to understand and record the world whose imminent loss she deplored. She could not stop history, but, half a century after receiving Baba Tatsui’s Elementary Grammar DVKHUPRWKHU·VJLIWVKHH[SUHVVHGJUDWLWXGHIRU¶WKHMR\VWKHWUHDVXUHVDQG WKHHQULFKPHQWRIP\OLIHZKLFK>KDYHFRPH@WRPHWKURXJKWKHVWXG\RI

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Japanese’.76 Posterity, in turn, owes her no small gratitude for the eloquence and sympathy with which she has shared her exploration and documentation of a vanishing world. In 1994, cycling into Cambridge from Grantchester, Carmen fell and broke a hip. She never fully recovered but developed disquieting symptoms, including vertigo. Eventually, she was diagnosed with the Parkinson’s Disease that came to restrict her mobility, preventing her from travelling to Japan. Nonetheless, she lived to complete her English translation of the nineteenth-century Japanese novel Mukashi-gatari inazuma byôshi under the title The Straw Sandal (Folkestone, 2008). This was a farrago of magic and YLROHQFHDSURMHFWEHJXQÀIW\\HDUVHDUOLHUDWWKHVXJJHVWLRQRI$UWKXU:DOH\ But this most energetic of scholars entered a slow decline, her suffering mitigated only by the devoted care of Michael Loewe. Enigmatically, until she became too ill, she had appeared on Sunday mornings in the back of KHUSDULVKFKXUFKLQ*UDQWFKHVWHUWR¶REVHUYHWKHOLWXUJ\·6KHGLHGRQKHU HLJKW\ÀIWKELUWKGD\-XO\DWWKH+RSH1XUVLQJ+RPH&DPEULGJH Her funeral, part Buddhist, part Christian, was held in the parish church. She would have appreciated the violent thunderstorm which broke out that morning but had cleared when the cortege left the church for her cremation. JAMES McMULLEN Fellow of the Academy

Note. In compiling this memoir, I have received suggestions and advice from many friends and colleagues. I should acknowledge special information from Professor Peter Kornicki, FBA, Dr Michael Loewe, Professor David McMullen, FBA, Professor Matsuzawa Hiroaki, Professor Noel Pinnington, and Professor Yokoyama Toshio. ENDNOTES

1. $GHWDLOHGDFFRXQWRIKHUOLIHLVJLYHQE\3HWHU.RUQLFNLLQKLV¶&DUPHQ%ODFNHU (1924–2009) and the study of Japanese religion’, in Hugh Cortazzi (ed.) Britain and Japan: Biographical Portraits, vol. 7 (Folkstone, 2010), pp. 216–29. 2. The Catalpa Bow: A Study of Shamanistic Practices in Japan (London, 1975 and subsequent editions; Japanese translation, 1979). In the references that follow, works are by Carmen Blacker unless indicated otherwise. 3. ¶,QWURGXFWLRQ·WRThe Collected Writings of Carmen Blacker, reprint of Japan Library and Edition Synapse edition of 2000 (Routledge, 2004), p. 2 (henceforward CWCB).

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Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the British Academy, XI. 27–52. © The British Academy 2012. 4. Richard Ellmann, Oscar Wilde (Harmondsworth, 1988). p. 527. 5. 5LFKDUG $ 6RORZD\ ¶%ODFNHU &DUORV 3DWRQ ² · Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford, 2004) . 6. G. C. L. Bertram, Obituary notice, in the Bulletin of the Eugenics Society, vol. 7 (3) (1975), p. 19. 7. The Catalpa Bow. p. 349. 8. 3URIHVVRU('(GZDUGV¶/HWWHURI5HIHUHQFH·1RY6RPHUYLOOHDUFKLYH,DP grateful to the Principal and Fellows of Somerville College and to Dr Michael Loewe for permission to quote this and other material from the Somerville College Archive. 9. 7KLVDQGWKHRWKHUTXRWDWLRQVLQWKLVSDUDJUDSKDUHIURP¶5HFROOHFWLRQVRI%DED Tatsui’s Elementary Grammar’, an essay published as a supplement to Baba’s collected works in 1988; CWCB, pp. 201–3. 10. The names of Japanese are given here in the Japanese order, with the surname ÀUVW 11. C. P. Blacker, Have You Forgotten Yet?, ed. John Blacker (Barnsley. 2000). p. 287. +LV EDWWDOLRQ ZDV QRZ FRPPDQGHG ¶E\ P\ ROG IULHQG &RORQHO /LRQHO %RRWle-Wilbraham. D.S.O., M.C. (later Lord Skelmersdale)’. 12. This and the following autobiographical quotations regarding Bletchley are from ¶5HFROOHFWLRQVRItemps perdu at Bletchley Park’. in F. H. Hinsley and Alan Stripp (eds.), Code Breakers: the Inside Story of Bletchley Park (Oxford, 1994), pp. 300–5. 13. ('(GZDUGV¶/HWWHURI5HIHUHQFH·6RPHUYLOOH&ROOHJH$UFKLYH 14. 'DYLG+ROORZD\¶:DOH\DQGKLVZRPHQ·>UHYLHZRI$OLVRQ:DOH\ A Half of Two Lives@The Daily Telegraph, 8 Sept. 1982, p. 14. 15. 4XRWDWLRQVIURP¶,QWHQWRIFRXUWHV\DUHFROOHFWLRQRI$UWKXU:DOH\·ÀUVWSXElished in Ivan Morris (ed.), Madly Singing in the Mountains: an Appreciation and Anthology (London, 1970): CWCB, pp. 204–9; 16. Carmen to Dr Janet Vaughan, 10 Sept. 1949. Somerville College Archive. 17. ('(GZDUGV¶/HWWHURI5HIHUHQFH·6RPHUYLOOH&ROOHJH$UFKLYH 18. Carmen Blacker’, in P. F. Kornicki and I. J. McMullen (eds.), Religion in Japan: Arrows to Heaven and Earth (Cambridge, 1996), p. xviii. This information is closely based on Carmen’s own recollections. l9. Carmen to Janet Vaughan, 10 Sept. 1947; Somerville College Archive. 20. $QQH:DUEXUWRQ¶&DUPHQ(OL]DEHWK%ODFNHU+RQ)HOORZ·Somerville &ROODJH5HSRUW² pp. 84–5. 21. Janet Vaughan to W. L. Atkinson, 31 Dec. 1949; Somerville College Archive. 22. Janet Vaughan to Miss Fone. 3 Nov. 1949; Somerville College Archive.

CARMEN ELIZABETH BLACKER 1924–2009

25

23. lbid. 24. ¶,PSUHVVLRQVRID-DSDQHVH8QLYHUVLW\·ÀUVWSXEOLVKHGLQWKHBulletin of the Japan Society of London (13). June. 1954; CWCB, p. 289. 25. 7KLVDQGWKHIROORZLQJTXRWDWLRQVLQWKLVSDUDJUDSKDUHIURP¶$URRPZLWKD JRXUGUHFROOHFWLRQVRI2VDUDJL-LU{·ÀUVWSXEOLVKHGLQWKHCambridge Review, 1985; CWCB, pp. 210–13. 26. ¶,PSUHVVLRQVRID-DSDQHVH8QLYHUVLW\·&:&%S 27. )RUDELEOLRJUDSK\RIWKHVHDQGRWKHUDUWLFOHVVHH¶7KHSULQFLSDOSXEOLFDWLRQVRI Carmen Blacker’, in Kornicki and McMullen (eds.), Religion in Japan, pp. xxii–xxiii. 28. Blacker, Have You Forgotten Yet?, pp. 159–62. 29. ¶7ZR6KLQWRP\WKVWKH*ROGHQ$JHDQGWKH&KRVHQ3HRSOH·ÀUVWSXEOLVKHGLQ Sue Henny and Jean-Pierre Lehmann (eds.), Themes and Theories in Modern Japanese History (London, 1988); CWCB, p. 28. 30. ¶7KHDQJU\JKRVWLQ-DSDQ·ÀUVWSXEOLVKHGLQ+5('DYLGVRQDQG:06 Russell (eds.), The Folklore of Ghosts (Cambridge, 1980); CWCB, pp. 51–9. 31. ¶5HWKLQNLQJ WKH VWXG\ RI UHOLJLRQ LQ -DSDQ· LQ $GULDQD %RVFDUR )UDQFR *DWWL and Massimo Raveri (eds.), Rethinking Japan: Volume II: Social Sciences, Ideology and Thought (Folkstone, 1990). p. 238. 32. &KDUOHV6WURQJ0HPRULDO/HFWXUHRI¶0HWKRGVRI3UHVLGHQWLDO$GGUHVVWRWKH)RONORUH6RFLHW\0DUFK@Folklore  6KHGLGQRWÀQGP\WKV IRONORUHRUUHOLJLRXVEHOLHILQFRPSDWLEOHZLWKVFLHQFH6HHKHUGLVFXVVLRQLQ¶7KH seer as a healer in Japan’, in H. R. E. Davidson (ed.), The Seer in Celtic and Other Traditions (Edinburgh, 1989); CWCB, pp. 65–6. 34. ¶7KH GLYLQH ER\ LQ -DSDQHVH %XGGKLVP· ÀUVW SXEOLVKHG LQ Asian Folklore, 22 (1963); CWCB, p. 107. 35. Ibid. For Jung’s very similar wording, see C. G. Jung and C. Kerenyi. Introduction to a Science of Mythology: the Myth of the Divine Child and the Mysteries of Eleusis, trans. R. F. C. Hull, Bollingen Series XXII (Princeton. NJ, 1993), p. 83. 36. ¶7KHODQJXDJHRIELUGV·/HFWXUHRQWKHRFFDVLRQRIWKHRSHQLQJRIWKH)DFXOW\ of International Studies. Ueno Gakuen University, 30 June 1996; CWCB, p. 7. 37. Ibid., p. 12. 38. The disguised wandering saint: an example of the stranger in folklore’. Folklore, 101 (2) (1990): CWCB, p. 183. 39. ¶'LYLQDWLRQDQGRUDFOHVLQ-DSDQ·LQ0LFKDHO/RHZHDQG&DUPHQ%ODFNHUHGV  Divination and Oracles (London. 1981); CWCB, p. 72. 40. Japan Digest, 1 (3) (1991). p. 24. 41. ¶7KHODQJXDJHRIELUGV·S

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42. Mircea Eliade, quoted in Douglas Allen, Myth and Religion in Mircea Eliade (New York. 2002). p. 15. Through recovery of this language, in Carmen’s own words, ¶ZHÀQGRXUVHOYHVORRNLQJRQFHPRUHDWRXU2ULJLQDO)DFH·¶7KHODQJXDJHRI birds’, p. 14). 43. ¶)RUJRWWHQ SUDFWLFHV RI WKH SDVW .DHPSIHU·V GHVFULSWLRQ RI WKH -DSDQHVH Emperor’, in B. Bodart-Bailey and D. Massarella (eds.). The Furthest Goal: Engelbert Kaempfer’s Encounter with Tokugawa Japan (Folkestone, 1995); CWCB, p. 161. 44 ‘Two Shinto Myths’, p. 28 45 Ibid., p 37. 46 ¶7KHDQJU\JKRVWLQ-DSDQ·LQ'DYLGVRQDQG5XVVHOOHGV 7KH)RONORUHRI*KRVWV&:&% p. 56. 47 ‘Initiation in the Shugendô: the passage through the Ten States of Existence’, in C. J. Bleeker HG  ,QLWLDWLRQ 6WXGLHV LQ WKH +LVWRU\ RI 5HOLJLRQV 6XSSOHPHQW WR 1XPHQ   /HLGHQ  &:&%S 48 ‘The goddess emerges from her cave: Fujita Himiko and her Dragon Palace Family’, in Peter &ODUNHDQG-HOIUH\6RPHUVHGV -DSDQHVH1HZ5HOLJLRQVLQWKH:HVW)RONHVWRQH  &:&%S 49 UHDGHU@WRZRUNWKURXJKDORQJIRUJRWWHQJUDPPDU and to practise calligraphy.4

If she was able to read the Japanese school readers, she must already by this stage have learnt to read the kana syllabaries and some kanji. The outbreak of war was a profound shock to Piggott, she recalled; she wrote nothing about her own reactions but it does not appear to have dampened her interest. In March 1942 she was still going every week to General Piggott’s and had bought Captain Francis Brinkley’s5 A History of the Japanese People.6 She was fully aware by then that she was one of a very small number of SHRSOHZLWKDQ\NQRZOHGJHRIWKHODQJXDJHDQGDVKHUFRQWULEXWLRQWRWKH¶ZDU effort’, she joined a course in Japanese at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London. The Benenden old girls’ magazine for 1942–43 QRWHGWKDWVKHZDVWDNLQJWKH¶,QWHUPHGLDWH([DP·LQ-DSDQHVHSUHVXPDEO\ at SOAS in 1942, and that she might be sent to Ceylon to translate Japanese documents.7 One of the teachers of Japanese at SOAS at that time was Frank Daniels (1899–1983), and he recalled that there were very few students then DQGWKDW¶HYHQDIWHU3HDUO+DUERXULWWRRNVRPHWLPHIRUWKHDXWKRULWLHVWR GHFLGHWKDWDNQRZOHGJHRI-DSDQHVHZDVRILPSRUWDQFH·'DQLHOVKDGÀUVW gone out to Japan in 1928 and after more than a decade of English teaching had returned to take up a lectureship in Japanese at SOAS in mid-1941, so he was one of Carmen’s teachers there when she joined SOAS; in 1961 he

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was appointed to a new chair of Japanese at the University of London, and later he was to provide Carmen with the results of some of his researches on Japanese folklore.8 Carmen was soon recruited to join the code-breakers at Bletchley Park by John Rideout, a sinologist with some knowledge of Japanese who was later to be appointed to a chair at Sydney University and who was in 1942 teaching Japanese at SOAS.9+HLQIRUPHGWKH)RUHLJQ2IÀFHWKDWVKHZDVDSURPLVLQJ student and, after a somewhat bizarre interview, she went through a period of training in which she was required to translate romanized passages of Japanese, presumably to familiarize her with the problems involved in translating decrypted messages. She was then posted to Bletchley, where she was partly reliant upon an allowance from her parents to top up her modest pay, and where she was required to build up an index of Japanese vocabulary from FDSWXUHGGRFXPHQWV,WZDVQRWLQVSLULQJZRUNDQG¶QRWRQFH·VKHUHFDOOHG ¶ZDVDQ\XVHIXOSXUSRVHVHUYHGE\P\LQGH[· Carmen recalled that towards the end of the war she had gone to the Ministry of Information to return a copy of Arthur Waley’s translation of The Tale of Genji which she had borrowed from John Pilcher,10 who was to be British ambassador to Japan in the years 1967–72. Pilcher introduced her to Waley, and in January 1945 Waley lent her some Chinese texts with Japanese transODWLRQDQGFRPPHQWDU\DQGVKHUHDGWKHVHDWKHUGHVNDW%OHWFKOH\FRQÀGHQW that nobody would know what it was she was reading. She also contacted Eve Edwards, who was professor of Chinese at SOAS and the head of the Far Eastern Department and who was responsible for the intensive courses in Japanese for servicemen. As a result Carmen was released from Bletchley, ZKHUHVKHKDGEHFRPH¶XWWHUO\ERUHGZLWKWKHZRUN·DQGEHFDPHDVSHFLDO lecturer on the intensive courses in Japanese; General Piggott was also there, responsible for the training of translators.11 She simultaneously enrolled for the BA in Japanese along with Ronald Dore, later to be famous for his work as a sociologist of Japan, and Douglas Mills, later to become a colleague of hers at Cambridge. She graduated in 1947, and Arthur Waley was one of her examiners. It was probably at about this time that she acquired a copy of William George Aston’s Grammar of the Japanese Written Language (2nd edition, 1877) bearing the signatures of Frederick Victor Dickins (1838–1915) and Frank Daniels (1899–1983). Aston was one of the three British scholars of Japan, along with Ernest Satow and Basil Hall Chamberlain, that, Piggott had impressed upon her, all students of Japan owed a huge debt to, and Carmen OHFWXUHGRQWKHVHWKUHHÀJXUHVLQ'LFNLQVLVOHVVZHOONQRZQEXWZDV WKHÀUVWWRWUDQVODWH-DSDQHVHOLWHUDWXUHLQWR(QJOLVKDQGWKHÀUVWWRZULWH

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on Hokusai in any language including Japanese. Thus this book neatly connected her to three pioneers of Japanese studies in Britain, Aston, Dickins and Daniels.12 After graduating from SOAS in 1947, Carmen spent two years at Somerville College, Oxford, on a shortened BA course in Philosophy Politics and Economics. Meanwhile, the Japan Society of London, which had been suspended in 1942 on account of the war, was, after a discreet interval following the end of the war, revived in 1949, with General Piggott as one of the two vice-chairmen. Doubtless thanks to this connection, Carmen was immediately made a member of the Council of the Society and of the Executive Committee, and was given the responsibility of producing the first issue of the Society’s Bulletin, which was published in 1950.13 Carmen remained an active member of the Council for many years, and it was in this way that she first became acquainted with Christmas Humphries14, who was the long-serving President of the Buddhist Society and a fellow member of the Executive Committee of the Society and who became a life-long friend. Carmen never became a Buddhist but she assiduously attended conferences and workshops run by the Buddhist Society for the rest of her life. It was doubtless through her connections with the Japan Society that her father lectured the members on population issues in Japan in 1955; he was at that time the Vice-President of the International Planned Parenthood Federation and had visited Japan for the Federation’s conference.15 In 1950 she won a Henry scholarship to the Harvard-Yenching Institute at Harvard and spent the academic year 1950–51 there. She had hoped to use it as a jumping off place for Japan and then possibly return to a position at Oxford, but these plans did not come to fruition. Instead, she visited MexLFRDQGZDVDQHQWKXVLDVWIRUWKHEXOOÀJKWVVKHKDGVHHQWKHUHPXFKWRKHU father’s disapproval.16 6KHÀQDOO\PDGHKHUÀUVWWULSWR-DSDQLQ$FRXSOHRI\HDUVHDUOLHU The Treasury had awarded her a scholarship for study in Japan, but owing to the refusal of General McArthur to grant British citizens visas for study in Japan it was not possible for her to take it up until President Truman recalled McArthur in 1951.17 Just before leaving she met the poet Edmund Blunden, who had spent three years as Professor of English at the University of Tokyo in the 1920s but in 1951 had only the previous year returned from a spell of several years with the British Liaison Mission in Japan and so knew more about the Japan that she was going to than General Piggott.18 She travelled by ship, arriving in Kobe in October 1951; from there she took a train up to Tokyo, where she was met by Hugh Cortazzi, one

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of the wartime students of Japanese at SOAS and at this time a junior British diplomat in Japan. One condition of this scholarship was that she write a thesis and she had already decided to take as her subject Fukuzawa Yukichi, the prominent educator and advocate of westernization in early 0HLML-DSDQ7KHREYLRXVSODFHWRSXUVXHVXFKVWXGLHVZDV.HLŇ8QLYHUVLW\ which he had founded, so she wrote to his grandson, Kiyooka Eiichi, who ZDVDWWKDWWLPHKHDGRIWKH,QWHUQDWLRQDO'HSDUWPHQWDW.HLŇDQGWKXV DUUDQJHPHQWVZHUHPDGHIRUKHUWRVWXG\DW.HLŇ.L\RRNDKDGLQ published an English translation of Fukuzawa’s autobiography and when in 1960 he reworked his translation for a new edition it was published with a preface by Carmen.19 She spent nearly two years in Japan and from the start found that she was DFFRUGHGSULYLOHJHVDW.HLŇWKDWZHUHQRWDYDLODEOHWRRWKHUVWXGHQWVVXFKDV entry into the stacks, and that the academic staff were willing to give extraordinarily freely of their time. In spring 1952 she went to visit the Zuisenji temple in Kamakura and there she met the famous novelist and writer, Osaragi -LUŇZKRWKHUHDQGWKHQRIIHUHGKHUDFFRPPRGDWLRQLQKLVWHDKRXVHIRUWKH summer. It was in Kamakura, too, that the following year she met the painter Yoshio Markino (Makino), who had lived in London from 1897 to 1942; she had already seen one of his paintings and one of his books in General Piggott’s house in Ewhurst.20 In was in these years, too, that some long-lasting friendships had their beginnings, such as with Dorothy Britton (now Lady Bouchier), who was then working in the Embassy: it was at her home in Hayama that Carmen was staying in when the present Emperor of Japan, the Empress and their daughter came in order to meet her and spent an afternoon talking of folklore with her.21 Another friendship that had its roots then, and that was to prove invaluable to Carmen as a researcher, was that with Ishibashi Hiroko (also known DV+LUR ZKRZDVDWWKHWLPHDVWXGHQWRI(QJOLVKOLWHUDWXUHDW.HLŇ7KH dean of the Faculty of Letters at the time was the famous poet Nishiwaki -XQ]DEXUŇ² ZKRKDGKLPVHOIVSHQWWKUHH\HDUVDW2[IRUGLQWKH 1920s, and he decided to bring the two young women together in the hope of making Carmen’s life somewhat easier. She became a frequent visitor to the Ishibashi family home and was treated like another daughter, but since she was not particularly keen on Japanese food they prepared Western-style meals for her. Ishibashi became a scholar of Anglo-Irish literature and while she was at Cambridge furthering her studies in 1960–62, she also worked alongside Carmen as a lector in Japanese and shared a house with her. Later the situation was reversed when Carmen became a regular visitor to Ueno Gakuen University, which was founded in 1904 by a member of

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the Ishibashi family and of which Carmen’s friend later became president. On her regular visits to Japan Carmen, who had the status of a professor and member of the Board of Trustees there, would teach courses at Ueno Gakuen on folklore and comparative cultural studies even well after her retirement from Cambridge.22 Carmen’s interests reached well beyond the subject of her thesis and had already expanded to include Zen Buddhism before she even reached Japan: she had read some of Suzuki Daisetsu’s books in England. While she was living in Kamakura, therefore, she met Suzuki Daisetsu and frequented several Zen temples, asking so many questions of the priests that she was eventually invited to take part in a week-long period of meditation; this she described in great detail in a lecture to the Japan Society in London in 1954. For example, VKHREVHUYHGWKDW¶6LPSOHWKRXJKWKHIDUHZDV=HQWDEOHPDQQHUVZHUHYHU\ complicated.’23 She returned to England in September 1953 with some 200 books bought in Japan and began working for a PhD at SOAS on Fukuzawa, which she completed in 1957. In June 1958 she left for a six-month stay in -DSDQWKHÀUVWRIPDQ\UHWXUQYLVLWV24 ACADEMIC LIFE

Until the Second World War most scholarly work on Japan had been undertaken not at the universities but by diplomats and others, but the Scarbrough Report changed all that. In 1944 a commission had been set up under Lord Scarbrough to look into the provision of training in the languages and cultures of East Asia, Africa and Eastern Europe and the report which was published in 1946 included recommendations for a number of posts in Japanese studies which Frank Daniels had drawn up. It was as a result of these recommendations that positions in Japanese were established in the Faculty of Oriental Studies at Cambridge; Carmen was offered one of these positions in the late 1940s but turned it down.25 ,QVKHZDVÀQDOO\DEOHWRWDNHDGYDQWDJHRIWKHVHFKDQJHVZKHQVKHZDV appointed assistant lecturer in Japanese at Cambridge, joining Eric Ceadel, who later became University Librarian, and John McEwan, who worked on the intellectual history of the Tokugawa period, and a Japanese lector, Honda Minoru, who was a scholar of Central Asian History.26 Thus there were now four teachHUVEXWDWWKHWLPHWKHUHZDVLQIDFWRQO\RQHVWXGHQW$VVKHKHUVHOIUHPLQGVXV when commenting on the low student numbers in the 1950s and 1960s: Their numbers were necessarily few, since their only motive in those days was a disinterested love of Japanese culture and language. There were no lucrative jobs, as there are now, awaiting the Cambridge graduate in

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Japanese in a merchant bank or an import-export firm. There were no bright prospects, as there are now, for becoming a millionaire by the age of thirty. Japan was still remote, enigmatic, holding little to attract the average English schoolboy or girl whose horizon stopped at the boundaries of Europe. 27

7KHLQÀQLWHVLPDOQXPEHURIVWXGHQWVZDVQRWWKHUHIRUHVXUSULVLQJEXWIURP the mid-1960s student numbers began to rise. ,QVKHÀQLVKHGKHUWKHVLVRQ)XNX]DZDDQGZDVDZDUGHGD3K'E\ the University of London, and the following year she was promoted from assistant lecturer to lecturer, a post she held until her retirement in 1991. From 1965 onwards she was also a fellow of Clare Hall, one of the colleges of Cambridge University; she was there able to offer hospitality to a long succession of Visiting Fellows from Japan. Although she held visiting professorships at Columbia University (1965–6), Princeton University (1979) and Toronto University (1992) and was elected a fellow of the British Academy in 1989, she was never recognized by Cambridge with a readership or professorship. By the early 1980s she was the only member of the Japanese teaching staff left at Cambridge after the retirements of Douglas Mills and Charles Sheldon and there was a real danger that the teaching of Japanese would be terminated as a cost-cutting measure. She informed her old friend, Hugh Cortazzi, now %ULWLVKDPEDVVDGRUWR-DSDQDQGKHZDVFRQYLQFHGWKDWWKLVZRXOGEHD¶PDMRU blow to British relations with Japan’. He therefore endeavoured to raise funds in Britain, with no success, and then wrote an article on the subject for the Asahi Shinbun, which came to the attention of Hiraishi Gaiwa, the president RI WKH 7RN\R (OHFWULF 3RZHU &RPSDQ\ DQG DQ LQÁXHQWLDO PHPEHU RI WKH Keidanren, the Japanese Federation of Economic Organizations. As a result, the Keidanren provided funding of £800,000 for a chair in Japanese and the crisis was averted.28%XWZKRZRXOGÀOOWKHFKDLU"$VKHURELWXDU\LQThe Times SXWLW¶:KHQWKHSRVWZDVDGYHUWLVHGLQ%ODFNHUGLGQRWDSSO\DVVKH feared that it would involve too much administration and committee work for ZKLFKVKHGLGQRWIHHOKHUVHOITXDOLÀHG·29 Richard Bowring, one of her pupils IURPWKHODWHVZDVDSSRLQWHGWRÀOOWKHSRVWDQGDVVKHSXWLWKHUVHOI this marked a turning point in terms of numbers of students and the breadth of disciplines covered. Carmen was subsequently given many honours: she was given the order of the Precious Crown by the Japanese Government in 1988 and the Minakata Kumagusu30 Prize in 1997; she was made an honorary fellow of Somerville College, she was given a Japan Festival award in 2001 and she was awarded an OBE in 2004. She was also president of the Folklore Society

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from 1982 to 1984 and in 1996 she was presented with a Festschrift edited by one of her pupils and one of her colleagues.31 WRITINGS

&DUPHQ·VÀUVWSXEOLVKHGZRUNLQZDVDVWXG\DQGWUDQVODWLRQRI)XNXzawa’s .\şKDQMҶ&RQGLWLRQVLQDQROGIHXGDOFODQ·,WZDVFOHDUO\DSURGXFW of her studies at Keio and must have been written in Japan. In the 1950s and 1960s she published a number of studies on Japanese history culminating in 1964 in a revised version of her thesis, The Japanese Enlightenment: a study of the writings of Fukuzawa Yukichi.32 As she mentioned in the preface, when working on Fukuzawa she had enjoyed the assistance not only of his grandson but also of Professor Maruyama Masao of Tokyo University and of professors Serge Elisseeff and Edwin Reischauer during her year at Harvard.33 As already mentioned, she had been interested in Japanese religion even before she ever went to Japan, but by the late 1950s her attention was increasingly drawn to Japanese religion and to some of its less familiar byways, for VKHFRQVLGHUHGWKDW¶IRONORUHDQGP\WK«DUHDOOSDUWRIWKDWVXEWOHZHE ZKLFKFRQVWLWXWHV´UHOLJLRQµLQ-DSDQ·34 The culmination of her researches in this area was The Catalpa Bow: A Study of Shamanistic Practices in Japan, which ZDVÀUVWSXEOLVKHGLQDQGZKLFKVKHRIIHUHG¶DVDFRQWULEXWLRQWRWKH study of Japanese religion, and as a memorial to an ancient cult fast vanishing as machines, organized tourism and aggressively secular thinking destroy the intuition of the other world and its spiritual inhabitants’.35 When doing the UHVHDUFKDQGÀHOGZRUNIRUWKLVERRNKHUIULHQGVKLSZLWK,VKLEDVKL+LURZDV again invaluable, and it is to her that the book was dedicated. The Ishibashi family had long had close connections with a number of temples and shrines and Hiro herself had her own network of religious connections. These she made available to Carmen and the two made many journeys to remote regions RI-DSDQLQSDUWLFXODUWR2VRUH]DQLQWKHIDUQRUWKHDVWRI+RQVKşWKHSDUWRI Japan from which the Ishibashi family had originally come. It was Ishibashi, WRRZKRPDGHWKHDUUDQJHPHQWVIRU&DUPHQWRSDUWLFLSDWHLQWKH.DLKŇJ\Ň ritual on Mt Hiei in 1961.36 The Catalpa Bow is a study of religious specialists or shamans who were ¶VXUYLYRUVRIDYHU\ROGVWUDWXPRI-DSDQHVHUHOLJLRQ·S 37 Although in the course of writing it she mined early Japanese literature, the writings of Western visitors to Japan like Engelbert Kaempfer and later Percival Lowell, and the studies of Japanese anthropologists and folklore specialists like Yanagita Kunio, Origuchi Shinobu and Miyake Hitoshi, much of her work was based on participant observation over many years. In 1959, for example, she stayed

36

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for three days at a temple at Osorezan observing the blind women mediums and the local people coming to ask them to summon up dead ancestors (pp. ² ,QVKHPDGHWKHÀUVWRIKHUWKUHHFOLPEVRI0W2QWDNHP  in central Japan and in 1963 she spent a week as a yamabushi initiate on Mt Haguro in Yamagata Prefecture (pp. 284, 220). Of remarkable experiences VKHUHFRUGVPDQ\VXFKDVREVHUYLQJWKH¶ERLOLQJZDWHUIHDW·SHUIRUPHGE\ an ascetic and herself participating in the smoke ritual and in 1963 walking RQÀUHZLWKRXWDQ\LOOHIIHFW6KHDOVRGHVFULEHVDQGLQFOXGHVDSKRWRJUDSK of an ascetic climbing a ladder of razor-sharp swords (pp. 248–9, 225, 250–1 DQGSODWH DQGUHIHUVWR¶DSHFXOLDUOHYLWDWLRQRIWKHERG\IURPDVHDWHG FURVVOHJJHGSRVWXUH·DGGLQJWKDW¶,KDYHVHHQERWKPHQDQGZRPHQSURSHO themselves some six inches into the air from this position, again and again for several minutes on end’ (p. 22). She recounts her meetings with many extraordinary people, such as the woman who heard a command to travel to DPRXQWDLQDQG¶>V@LQFHUHFHLYLQJWKLVSHUHPSWRU\EHKHVWVKHKDGQRKRPH of her own, but had spent her life wandering alone from place to place and mountain to mountain, with the mortuary tablets of her dead husband and six dead children tied in a bag around her neck’ (p. 101). Yet one of the themes of this remarkable book is the gradual disappearance of these traditions. On several occasions she observed the procession to Mt ņPLQHIRUH[DPSOHLQSDUWRIWKHMRXUQH\ZDVPDGHE\WUDLQDOWKRXJK the departure from Kyoto had been made on foot through the busy streets, but later it was very different. By 1972, however, even this preliminary austerity had disappeared. The entire party, resplendent in its yellow surcoats, brilliant six-tufted collars, strips of deerskin behind, coils of red rope and triton conches hanging from the waist, piled into a large air-conditioned bus. In this luxurious conveyance, complete with trim girl guide who kept up a continuous twittering commentary through a microphone on the scenery through which we passed, the company accomplished the entire journey to Yoshino, coming to rest in a large concrete car park at the top of the new motor road up the hill (pp. 213–14).

Similar changes had taken place on the journey to Mt Ontake when she made KHUODVWDVFHQWLQSS² ¶7LPHDQGDJDLQ·VKHQRWHGUHJUHWIXOO\LQ KHUFRQFOXVLRQ¶,KDYHVHHQDULWHPDGHPHDQLQJOHVVLWVGLUHFWLRQDOWHUHGLWV WLPLQJIDOVLÀHGWRVXLWWKHFRQYHQLHQFHRIWKHWHOHYLVLRQFDPHUDV·S  The book is, therefore, not only a quest for understanding ancient practices and beliefs, but also an elegy for a vanishing world. Eleven years after the publication of The Catalpa Bow a new edition was published. Carmen took the opportunity to draw attention to the explosive

BIOGRAPHICAL PORTRAIT

37

interest in shamanism and the subjects she had tackled in her book that had arisen in Japan and elsewhere. She made no major revisions to the text, but she mentioned two new personal debts, to Professor Gorai Shigeru for his methodologically sophisticated approach to Japanese folklore and to Dr Anne Marie Bouchy for having taken her to see the sword-ladder climbing rite. She added a new appendix on this rite, which she had now had the chance to witness three times, in 1977, 1981 and 1985: she checked the sharpness RIWKHEODGHVDQGWKHQZDWFKHGDVÀUVWVRPHDVFHWLFVFOLPEHGWKHODGGHURI upturned swords followed by a number of onlookers, some of whom were REYLRXVO\WHUULÀHG+RZHYHUDOOPDQDJHGWKHIHDWXQVFDWKHGDQGQRWDVFUDWFK or drop of blood was to be seen. Carmen does not attempt to explain how this was possible; having ascertained that it was not a trick, she wished merely to demonstrate the mysterious powers of the ascetics.38 She produced two further books on related themes, both co-edited with her partner and later husband, Michael Loewe, a historian of early China and DFROOHDJXHDW&DPEULGJHZKRPVKHKDGÀUVWPHWDW%OHWFKOH\3DUNAncient Cosmologies (1975) was based on a series of lectures given in Cambridge in 1972, while Divination and Oracles (1981) contained a chapter by Carmen on divination in Japan. Her last book was The Straw Sandal, published in the year before her death, and in the preface Carmen explained how it came to be written. On a day off from Bletchley in 1944 she had gone to London and found a copy of Aston’s History of Japanese Literature (1899). She had found his account of Mukashi-gatari LQD]XPDE\ŇVKL (A tale of times long past: lightning on the cover), the bestNQRZQQRYHORIWKHSRSXODUZULWHU6DQWŇ.\ŇGHQ² SDUWLFXODUO\ FDSWLYDWLQJVKHUHFDOOHG7KHUHKDGVHHPHGOLWWOHKRSHRIÀQGLQJDFRS\RIWKH text in wartime London but Arthur Waley, whom she met soon afterwards, KDGDFRS\RIDUHFHQWHGLWLRQDQGKHOHQWLWWRKHULQGHÀQLWHO\6KHEHJDQ translating the text during off-duty periods at Bletchley but never completed it and only returned to it in retirement.39$OWKRXJKKHUJURZLQJLQÀUPLW\PDGH its completion again doubtful, she did live to see it published. A translation of a Japanese literary text was very far from the interests of her later life, but her gift IRUDQHOHJDQWWXUQRISKUDVHZDVLGHDOO\VXLWHGWR.\ŇGHQ·VKLJKÁRZQVW\OH CONCLUSION

In 1996 a volume of biographies of distinguished Cambridge women, including the classicist Jane Harrison and the physicist Rosalind Franklin, was published. The idea for the book was that of the sociologist Edward Shils; KHZURWHLQWKHSUHIDFHWKDWKHKDGEHHQ¶DZDUHRIWKHKDQGLFDSVIURPZKLFK

38

CARMEN BLACKER

ZRPHQKDYHVXIIHUHGLQWKHHIIRUWVWRÀQGSODFHVLQXQLYHUVLWLHV·DQGPHQtioned that Carmen had done most of the editorial work, but he died the year before it was published. In her own preface to the book, Carmen noted ZLWKMXVWLÀDEOHDVSHULW\WKDW¶&DPEULGJHZDVLQIDFWWKHODVWXQLYHUVLW\LQWKH British Isles to admit women to full membership’ in 1947, and of the twelve ZRPHQZKRVHOLYHVDUHIHDWXUHGLQWKHERRNDQGZKRVHFDUHHUVÁRXULVKHG LQVXFKXQSURPLVLQJFLUFXPVWDQFHVVKHKDGWKLVWRVD\¶7KH\URVHDERYH the inveterate stereotype of the bluestocking, which clung to them with the limpet-like obstinacy of a folk-tale motif.’ She came to Cambridge only HLJKW\HDUVDIWHUDQGWKXVEHORQJVWRWKHÀUVWJHQHUDWLRQRIZRPHQDW Cambridge who did not have to struggle for recognition. Nevertheless, in a segregated university with only three women’s colleges, women academics were very much in the minority and for Carmen recognition came not from within her own university but from Japan, where her name was widely known, and from the British Academy.40 Like her contemporaries who had studied Japan during the war, Carmen had not only seen Japan transformed from enemy to friend but had also experienced Japan before it was transformed by the economic growth of later decades. In her seventies she could look back and reckon up some of the advantages her span of life had given her: There is a great deal to be said for being old enough to have heard Arthur Waley lecture on the Chinese Cinderella story and to have watched him fry cutlets; or to have listened to Yoshino Markino in his old age recollecting his adventures with the suffragettes in 1912; or to have been taught how to write kanji by General Piggott; or to have had tea with Marie Stopes.41

She had indeed enjoyed serendipity and good luck in her acquaintance, but The Catalpa Bow was the result not of good fortune but of unusually arduous ÀHOGZRUNDQGLWLVVXUHO\KHUPRQXPHQW ENDNOTES

My thanks are due to Professor Richard Bowring, Sir Hugh Cortazzi and Dr Michael Loewe for their comments on earlier drafts, and to Mrs C. M. Oulton, MA, Headmistress of Benenden School, for information from the school archives. Carmen Blacker’s diary and other papers are in the possession of Michael Loewe and are eventually to be donated to the Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Art and Cultures (SISJAC) in Norwich*; her father’s papers are at the Wellcome Library in London

BIOGRAPHICAL PORTRAIT

39

and will be cited below by their shelf-mark, PP/CPB, but they do not contain family correspondence, which was returned to the family in the 1990s; CPB are the initials of her father. *Now at SISJAC (ed.). 1. $Q HVVD\ RQ ¶%DED 7DWVXL –1888) and Victorian Britain’ by Helen Ballhatchet was published in %ULWDLQDQG-DSDQ–7KHPHVDQG3HUVRQDOLWLHVed. Hugh Cortazzi and Gordon Daniels, Routlege 1991, pp 107–17. 2. An Elementary Grammar of the Japanese LanguageE\%DED7DWXL>VLF@ZDVÀUVWSXEOLVKHG by Trübner and Co. in London in 1973, and appeared in revised editions in 1888 and 1904. Carmen’s copy of the 1904 edition is amongst her books now kept at SISJAC; although it is entirely in roman script, Carmen wrote her name in it in katakana, presumably some time later. On her use of this book see the essay in Collected Writings of Carmen Blacker (Folkestone: Japan Library, 2000; hereafter CWCB), pp. 201–203. 3. This essay was also published in Themes and Personalities referred to in endnote 1. 4. CWCBSS7KH¶ORQJIRUJRWWHQJUDPPDU·ZDV2UHVWH9DFFDUL·VComplete Course of Japanese Conversation-Grammar, revised edition (Tokyo, 1938), which survives in her collection in Norwich. 5. A biographical portrait of Captain Francis Brinkley by J.E, Hoare was included in Britain and Japan: Biographical Portraits, Volume III edited by J.E.Hoare and published by Japan Library in 1999. 6. PP/CPB A.4/6, Piggott to CPB, 21.3.1942. Her copy of Brinkley is in Norwich. 7. Seniors’ News (Benenden, 1942–43); I am indebted to the Headmistress for having drawn this to my attention. 8. )-'DQLHOV¶-DSDQHVH6WXGLHVLQ(QJODQGDQG-DSDQ·Bulletin of the Japan Society 3 (1951), pp. 15–16; Daniels, Japanese Studies in the University of London and Elsewhere (SOAS, 1963; inaugural lecture), p. 19. Carmen Blacker, The Catalpa Bow: A Study of Shamanistic Practices in Japan (London: George Allen and Unwin,  S6HHDOVR5RQDOG'RUH¶2WRPHDQG)UDQN'DQLHOV·LQ,DQ1LVK ed., Britain & Japan: Biographical Portraits (Folkestone: Japan Library, 1994), pp. 268–ņED6DGDR6HQFKşURQGRQQLKRQJRJDNNŇ&KşŇ.ŇURQVKD RUņED The Japanese War: London University’s WWII secret teaching programme and the experts sent to help beat Japan, trans. Anne Kaneko (Folkestone: Japan Library, 1995). 9. 7KLVDFFRXQWRI&DUPHQ·VWLPHDW%OHWFKOH\3DUNLVEDVHGRQKHUPHPRLU¶5HFollections of temps perdu at Bletchley Park’, in F. H. Hinsley and Alan Stripp, eds, Codebreakers: The Inside Story of Bletchley Park (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993), pp. 300–305. 10. A biographical portrait of Sir John Pilcher by Hugh Cortazzi was published in Britain and Japan: Biographical Portraits, Volume III, ed. J.E. Hoare, Japan Library

40

11. 12.

13. 14.

15. 16. 17.

18.

19. 20.

21. 22.

23.

CARMEN BLACKER

1999, also in %ULWLVK(QYR\VLQ-DSDQ– ed. Hugh Cortazzi, Global Oriental 2004. Ibid., pp. 304–305; CWCB, pp. 204–205. For Carmen’s lecture on Aston, Satow and Chamberlain, see CWCB, pp. 295–309. 2Q'LFNLQVVHH.RUQLFNL¶)UHGHULFN9LFWRU'LFNLQV–1915),’ in J. E. Hoare, ed., Britain and Japan: Biographical Portraits, vol. III (Folkestone: Japan Library, 1999), pp. 66–77. Daniels was, like Carmen, a member of The Folklore Society and she wrote a brief obituary on him in Folklore, 94.2 (1983), p. 251. The copy of Aston’s grammar is now in the author’s possession, a posthumous gift from Carmen. Cortazzi, 7KH-DSDQ6RFLHW\D+LVWRU\– (London: Japan Society, 2000), p. 47; Editorial, Bulletin of the Japan Society 20 (1956), p. 1. Carmen wrote a biographical portrait of Christmas Humphreys which was published in Britain and Japan: Biographical Portraits, Volume II, ed. Ian Nish and published by Japan Library in 1997 'U&3%ODFNHU¶6RPHDVSHFWVRI-DSDQ·VSRSXODWLRQSUREOHP·Bulletin of the Japan Society 19 (1956), pp. 4–9. 33&3%$&3%·VVXPPDU\RIWKH\HDUS$¶7KH,IQRWHDWHQLWZRXOGEHDQ LPSLRXVZDVWHRIQDWXUH·VEOHVVLQJV@ Towards the end of our journey we decided to climb Tsuga-san, one of the high peaks on the island. This venture had not been planned before our trip but somehow presented itself to us on the journey. On setting foot on the narrow path up the mountains, I was struck by Carmen’s rapid ascent. She certainly turned out to be a real mountain ascetic. Poor Yoko, swimming being more her forte quickly abandoned her initial idea of accompanying us. I, despite being a former mountaineer, had to try my very best to follow the ÁXWWHULQJKHPVRI&DUPHQ·VWURXVHUVZKLFKZHUHRFFDVLRQDOO\YLVLEOHHYHU further ahead through gaps in the increasing cloud. Carmen’s bounding gate left a strong impression on me. It later reminded PHRIDQDQHFGRWHFRQFHUQLQJWKH9LFWRULDQ¶ODG\WUDYHOOHU·,VDEHOOD%LUG My poor memory fails to provide me with the source of this anecdote but it either appears in a biography of William Gladstone or I heard it from John Murray VII, the publisher, during a personal conversation in his historic RIÀFHDW$OEHPDUOH6WUHHW/RQGRQ7KHDQHFGRWHLVWKLV*ODGVWRQHKDG the chance to dine with Isabella Bird. Afterwards, the statesman remarked that he had met a lady with the nimble surefootedness of a gazelle. Gladstone’s comparison further reminded me of Gertrude Bell, another famous traveller, who journeyed in the Middle East and North Africa where gazelles were abundant. It occurs to me that a comparison between Isabella Bird, Gertrude Bell and Carmen Blacker might shed light on Carmen’s place in history. One thing I would like to say about Carmen, particularly against the backJURXQGRILQFUHDVLQJZRUOGLQVWDELOLW\FDXVHGE\¶IUHH·JOREDOL]DWLRQLVWKDWVKH

MEMORIES OF DR. CARMEN BLACKER OBE, FBA (1924–2009)

45

ZDVDSURIRXQGSDFLÀVW6KHKDGDVHQVHRIGHHSVRUURZDERXW(XURSHDQKLVtory which was, in her eyes, full of wars and revolutions. According to Carmen, this continuous violence wiped out almost all folklore and local rituals related WRWKH¶RWKHU·ZRUOGWKHRQHLQKDELWHGE\WKRVHEHQHYROHQWEXWSRWHQWLDOO\LI ignored, malicious non-human numis. Japan, by contrast, has preserved such VWRFNRIWKLVKHULWDJHLQPDQ\FRUQHUVRILWVVRFLHW\¶,DPHQYLRXVRI-DSDQ· she once said to me when we talked about the polytheistic world with its various non-transcendental gods, where humans are continuously reminded to be modest. I guess that readers of her classic work, The Catalpa Bow, must KDYHEHHQVWUXFNE\WKHDXWKRUV·RFFDVLRQDOXVHRIZRUGVVXFKDV¶DQDJJUHVVLYH secularism’. 7RGD\KXPDQLW\ÀQGVLWVHOIDWDFULWLFDOVWDJHRILWVKLVWRU\ZKHQFRQYHQtional notions of nature and humanity are under serious review – a result of the interaction between human greed and the modern sciences over the past few decades. A paramount question to be asked now is, Where in the world should humans be placed to achieve a harmonious coexistence within this planet’s ecological community? To face this urgent issue, dialogues between cultures is more necessary than ever and, on such occasions, Carmen’s spirit will come back and join us – to use James’s words – as a powerful presence and gracious friend.

4

Words from Hugh Cortazzi at the Carmen Blacker memorial meeting on 14 November 2009 at Clare Hall a I SPEAK TODAY as an old friend, perhaps the oldest friend here except of course Michael who met Carmen before I did while they were both working at Bletchley. Others more knowledgeable than I will I know be speaking of her scholastic achievements as a researcher, writer and teacher. I am also representing today the Japan Society whose revival after the war &DUPHQGLGVRPXFKWRKHOSEHFRPLQJWKHÀUVWHGLWRURIZKDWZDVWKHQFDOOHG the Bulletin but which was later again called The Proceedings. I want to concentrate in the few minutes allowed me about Carmen’s genius IRUIULHQGVKLS%XWEHIRUHGRLQJVR,VKRXOGOLNHWRVD\EULHÁ\KRZPXFKZH admire the great devotion which Michael showed to Carmen especially and QRWOHDVWLQWKHZD\KHFDUHGIRUKHUDQGWHQGHGKHULQKHUORQJÀQDOLOOQHVV, would like to add that in my view Michael’s contribution to Chinese studies over so many decades deserves to be much more widely recognized. ,ÀUVWPHW&DUPHQRYHUVL[W\\HDUVDJR,FDQQRWQRZUHFDOORXUÀUVWPHHWLQJ It was probably at SOAS (perhaps before I was posted to India in early 1945) but more likely when I was studying at SOAS in 1947-9 when Carmen was at Oxford GRLQJ33(,WPD\ZHOOKDYHEHHQDWWKHÁDWRI)UDQNDQG2WRPH'DQLHOV)UDQN \RXZLOOUHPHPEHUZDVWKHÀUVW3URIHVVRURI-DSDQHVHDW62$6,QHHGKDUGO\ say that all the young men at SOAS in those days came under Carmen’s spell. She was good-looking and had great personal charm as well as sincere humility. I really got to know her well when she came out to Japan on a scholarship in late 1951 to do research at Keio University on Fukuzawa Yukichi, the famous Meiji scholar. I had only just arrived in Tokyo as a Second Secretary in the

WORDS FROM HUGH CORTAZZI AT THE CARMEN BLACKER MEMORIAL MEETING

47

United Kingdom Liaison Mission to SCAP which became again the British Embassy in April 1952 when the San Francisco Peace Treaty with Japan came into force. I was then sharing a house with two other bachelor Third Secretaries in the Embassy who were at that time language students. They were Dick Ellingworth and David Symon. They looked forward to meeting Carmen and readily agreed (I think it was in November 1951) to join me in going to Tokyo station to meet Carmen who was arriving in Tokyo from Kobe where she had disembarked. (In those days nearly everyone travelled out to Japan by ship as it was cheaper than by air. Those of course were the days before the Shinkansen and express trains from Kobe took some eight hours to travel the Tokaido). We were all WKUHHGHOLJKWHGWRHQWHUWDLQ&DUPHQIRUDIHZGD\VZKLOVWVKHÀ[HGXSKHU DFFRPPRGDWLRQDW,WKLQN6XJDPRDQGDOORIXVEHFDPHÀUPIULHQGVZLWK Carmen. After she had established herself we often went on expeditions in the car which I had imported. This was a Morris Oxford which had neither a heater nor a radio. (These were expensive extras and I was on a salary which did not permit extravagances). I remember among other trips with Carmen one to the foothills of Mount Fuji. En route we visited a silk weaving factory where &DUPHQERXJKWDERXWVL[\DUGVRIDÀQHUHGEURFDGHPDGHORFDOO\IRUDGUHVV which she wore to one of our parties. She was a good dancer in those days. On another occasion we visited Shimoda, including the sex museum attached to one of the temples there. As you would expect from Carmen we viewed the museum from an anthropological angle. (In those days there was no railway from Ito to Shimoda and the roads in the Izu peninsula and almost everywhere outside the main towns were dirt roads full of excruciating potholes. So it took some eight hours to drive to Shimoda from Tokyo.) Carmen was a wonderful companion on these trips. She could and did discuss every topic which came up in conversation with humour and understanding. She seemed knowledgeable on every subject from philosophy to literature and music. I recall that on one occasion we gave a party in 1952 for Carmen’s friends. I shall never forget the eccentric artist Yoshio Markino who came up to our Tokyo house from Kamakura. This was the only time sadly that I met him (Carmen wrote a delightful biographical portrait of him in Britain and Japan: %LRJUDSKLFDO3RUWUDLWV9ROXPH, Carmen had a wonderful gift for friendship and was not in the least disturbed by individual eccentricities. She also had incredible stamina as was shown by her study of the practice of Zen in Kamakura and later in her researches on the mountain sects and folk lore in Japan. $IWHUP\ÀUVWWRXULQ-DSDQDVDEDFKHORU ,NHSWLQWRXFKZLWK Carmen who immediately became a friend of Elizabeth whom she met while ZHZHUHHQJDJHG&DUPHQFDPHWRRXUZHGGLQJLQDQGUHPDLQHGDÀUP

48

CARMEN BLACKER

friend of the family until her death this year. We were delighted to have Carmen to stay with as our guest for a few days when she visited Tokyo whenever we happened to be posted there. She was a perfect guest, ever thoughtful and understanding. She became godmother to our elder daughter Rosemary who was born on the day in 1964 that our mutual friend David Symon died as the result of an embolism caused by a tragic skiing accident. Rosemary remembers Carmen with much affection. We particularly appreciated Carmen’s detailed knowledge of Kyoto. I think LWZDVWKURXJKKHUWKDWZHÀUVWPHW7RVKLR,QJUDWLWXGH,EXUVWLQWRWHDUV@. I have included a few reviews in this volume, of books which deserve to be remembered, and in one case forgotten. And as an envoy I append a few lines to invoke a magic creature in his hortus conclusus. I should make it clear, perhaps, that there are not, and never were, any footnotes or references to those items in the book which were originally lectures. Also that the notes and references to the other items remain as they were originally published; they have not been updated to include books and articles which have appeared since the time of writing. $XWXPQ

Introducing Carmen Blacker’s Diaries HUGH CORTAZZI

a CARMEN KEPT A diary during much of her life, but there were many gaps of days, months and years when she did not record anything or the relevant diary has disappeared. Some of the entries are jottings and lack punctuation. The entries presented here have accordingly been lightly edited with added punctuation and explanations in square brackets or footnotes as appropriate. Many of the entries that Carmen made were about events, travels and family and are not relevant to this volume, which aims to present Carmen’s achievements as a scholar of Japan, especially of Japanese religion and folklore. The following extracts have been selected from her diaries and autobiographical writings with this aim in mind. They show the development of her interest in Japan and reveal her scholarship, her sensitivity, her understanding of people and her powers of description. Carmen was interested in all aspects of Japanese religion and folklore. She was attracted towards Zen Buddhism but also became involved in the study of Japanese new religions. Her studies brought her into fairly frequent contact with two sects. These were: Ùgami-sama. Her 7HQVKRÙNRÙWDLMLQJXN\RÙwas founded by Sayo Kitamura, known as O FXOWZDVDOVRNQRZQDV¶7KH'DQFLQJ5HOLJLRQ·7KHFXOW·VGLVFLSOLQHVLQFOXGHG confession of sins and dancing practices. It was a Messianic religion, designed to seek salvation. 2. 5\XÙJXÙ ND]RNX was founded by Furuta Himiko (name later changed to Fujita), known as Otohime-sama. Kawami Yoshihara was her follower, assistant. Otohime-sama KDGUHFHLYHGDYLVLRQRI2WRPHWKH¶'UDJRQ3DODFH3ULQFHVV·DQGVRXJKWLQVSLUDWLRQ IURP$PDWHUDVX6KHIRXQGHGKHUFXOWDVD¶:RUOG5HQHZHG5HOLJLRQ·VHHLQJIHPDOHV as conveyors of spirituality, and concentrating on the energetic powers possessed by women that could enable a devotee to diagnose an illness and its causes and to expel, RUH[RUFLVHHYLOLQÁXHQFHV

1.

56

CARMEN BLACKER

Carmen discussed the Ryşgş kazokuLQ¶7KH*RGGHVV(PHUJHVIURPKHU&DYH Fujita Himiko and Her Dragon Family Palace’ which was included in her Collected Writings pp.146–153. Carmen accompanied Himiko on a number of visits to remote parts of Japan in her search for Heike villages. A selection of her accounts of meetings with these goddesses and their followers are reproduced under various dates below (after 1972). They have been chosen because of the light they shed on Carmen’s reactions to these phenomena and because of Carmen’s sensitive and interesting descriptions in these extracts of often remote parts of Japan and of interesting Japanese people she met. Unless otherwise stated the dated extracts are from her diaries. The other main sources are The Catalpa Bow, a Study of Shamanistic Practices in Japan,1 (hereafter Catalpa Bow), her Collected Writings2 and her contributions to Japan Experiences.3

EXTRACTS FROM THE DIARIES with Contextual comments by the Editor — 1937 —

In an article published in her Collected WritingsHQWLWOHG¶5HFROOHFWLRQVRI%DED7DWVXL·V Elementary Grammar, Carmen records the following memory, aged twelve:

¶«ZKHQ,ZDVWZHOYH\HDUVROG,FRQFHLYHGDVXGGHQGHWHUPLQDWLRQWROHDUQ Japanese. I cannot really remember what it was that roused this ambition in my mind. My family had nothing to do with Japan, I had never met a single Japanese in my life, and I had never heard a word of the language spoken. All that I can recall is that my father used to read aloud to us the myths and legends of various countries, and that when he came to the stories from the Kojiki he remarked that the names of the gods were very long. It was this casual comment that seemed to spark off my enthusiasm for Japan. I asked my mother to buy me a Japanese grammar for my birthday, and on her next visit to London she went to Great Russell Street, opposite the British Museum, where at that time all the famous oriental bookshops stood in a row. She enquired at all of them – Kegan Paul, Luzac, Probsthain – for a simple Japanese grammar or textbook, suitable for a child. But none was to be had. The only book they could offer was a small book ZLWKPDURRQFRYHUVZULWWHQIRUDGXOWVÀUVWSXEOLVKHGLQDQGHQWLWOHG An Elementary Grammar of the Japanese Language, with Easy Progressive Exercises, by

56

CARMEN BLACKER

Carmen discussed the Ryşgş kazokuLQ¶7KH*RGGHVV(PHUJHVIURPKHU&DYH Fujita Himiko and Her Dragon Family Palace’ which was included in her Collected Writings pp.146–153. Carmen accompanied Himiko on a number of visits to remote parts of Japan in her search for Heike villages. A selection of her accounts of meetings with these goddesses and their followers are reproduced under various dates below (after 1972). They have been chosen because of the light they shed on Carmen’s reactions to these phenomena and because of Carmen’s sensitive and interesting descriptions in these extracts of often remote parts of Japan and of interesting Japanese people she met. Unless otherwise stated the dated extracts are from her diaries. The other main sources are The Catalpa Bow, a Study of Shamanistic Practices in Japan,1 (hereafter Catalpa Bow), her Collected Writings2 and her contributions to Japan Experiences.3

EXTRACTS FROM THE DIARIES with Contextual comments by the Editor — 1937 —

In an article published in her Collected WritingsHQWLWOHG¶5HFROOHFWLRQVRI%DED7DWVXL·V Elementary Grammar, Carmen records the following memory, aged twelve:

¶«ZKHQ,ZDVWZHOYH\HDUVROG,FRQFHLYHGDVXGGHQGHWHUPLQDWLRQWROHDUQ Japanese. I cannot really remember what it was that roused this ambition in my mind. My family had nothing to do with Japan, I had never met a single Japanese in my life, and I had never heard a word of the language spoken. All that I can recall is that my father used to read aloud to us the myths and legends of various countries, and that when he came to the stories from the Kojiki he remarked that the names of the gods were very long. It was this casual comment that seemed to spark off my enthusiasm for Japan. I asked my mother to buy me a Japanese grammar for my birthday, and on her next visit to London she went to Great Russell Street, opposite the British Museum, where at that time all the famous oriental bookshops stood in a row. She enquired at all of them – Kegan Paul, Luzac, Probsthain – for a simple Japanese grammar or textbook, suitable for a child. But none was to be had. The only book they could offer was a small book ZLWKPDURRQFRYHUVZULWWHQIRUDGXOWVÀUVWSXEOLVKHGLQDQGHQWLWOHG An Elementary Grammar of the Japanese Language, with Easy Progressive Exercises, by

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Tatsui Baba. It was the third edition of this work, published in 1904, that she bought me, for what in those days was the large sum of six shillings. I was delighted with my birthday present, and began to study it from the YHU\ÀUVWSDJH7KHUHZDVD3UHIDFHWRWKH6HFRQG(GLWLRQZKLFK,GLGQRW understand at all, in which the author declared that his initial reason for compiling the book was to protest against the idea, held by some of his compatriots, that the Japanese Language was very imperfect and must be exterminated. (Nor was it for many more years that I was to understand that he was referring to the bizarre notion, propounded by Mori Arinori,4 that English should be substituted for Japanese as the national Language of Japan in the new age.) There followed an Introduction by Arthur Diosy,5 the Vice-President of the Japan Society of London, which greatly cheered and encouraged me. Mr Diosy described how he, too, as a young student, had wanted to learn Japanese, and had bought himself a copy of Baba’s Elementary Grammar. He worked at it diligently, until one night at the theatre he found himself by chance sitting next to a Japanese gentleman. The opportunity was too good to be missed, and with a beating heart he addressed a remark to his neighbour in Japanese. The Japanese gentleman, not catching the QHUYRXVDFFHQWVYHU\FOHDUO\VDLG¶,EHJ\RXUSDUGRQ·0U'LRV\UHSHDWHG KLVUHPDUNZKHUHXSRQWKH-DSDQHVHJHQWOHPDQFULHGLQDPD]HPHQW¶:K\ WKDW·V-DSDQHVH·'XULQJWKHHQVXLQJFRQYHUVDWLRQVWLOOFRQWLQXHGLQ-DSanese, the gentleman asked how long he had lived in Japan. Mr Diosy replied that he had never been there, but had learnt all he knew, selftaught, from Baba’s Elementary Grammar. The gentleman, with a bow and VLJK RI VDWLVIDFWLRQ VDLG ¶, DP %DED· 7KLV UHPDUNDEOH HQFRXQWHU 0U Diosy added, was the beginning of a warm friendship that was to last until Baba’s death. Much encouraged by this story, I read what was written in the maroon book DERXWWKH3DUWVRI6SHHFKDERXWWKH,QÁHFWLRQDQG&RQMXJDWLRQRI9HUEV about Postpositions and Interjections, and then about the Rules of Syntax. Ù, $IWHUWKHVHUDWKHUGLIÀFXOWWZHQW\HLJKWSDJHV²LQWHUMHFWLRQVZHUHOLVWHGDVO Ù A, Ha-hDÙ, Nasakenai, Oya-oya and Are! – the Easy Progressive Exercises began. Everything was written in Roman letters, so that I had no problem with kana and kanji. But even so, I had only a very rough idea of how the ZRUGV ZHUH SURQRXQFHG , UHDOL]H QRZ WKDW P\ WDVN ZDV PDGH PRUH GLIÀcult by Baba’s system of romanization, which was decidedly pre-Hepburn. He wrote wuta for uta, for example, and wuye for ue, yuwu for iu and yempitsu for empitsu. Nor was I to know that some of the words he used belonged to the generation of early Meiji speakers, and were even in 1937 obsolete. He wrote gozarimasu,

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for example, for gozaimasu, and ikimasenanda for ikimasen deshita. Also warRÙta and tatakRÙta for waratta and tatakatta, which seem to our ears to smack of Kansai-ben >.DQVDL2VDNDDUHDGLDOHFW@1RUGLGLWZRUU\PHWKDWWKHYRFDEXODU\ZKLFK%DED gave his students was sometimes unusual. In Exercise 113, for example, we were told that hebitukai meant a snake tamer, tedinasi a conjurer and karuwazasi an acrobat. Nor did it ever occur to me that some of the sentences in the Easy Progressive Exercises might not be of much practical use. In Exercise 119, for example, I was told to translate into English: 0LWXKLGH ZD 0LWVXKLGHFROOHFWHGKLVIRUFHVDW3ULQFH>.XVXQRNL@0DVDVKLJHZDVGHIHDWHGDWWKHEDWWOHRI0LQDWRJDZD>LQ DQGFRPPLWWHGVXLFLGH@E\ZKLFKKLVQDPHLVUHPHPEHUHG@ Indeed, it never occurred to me to question anything in the book. On the contrary, I remember thinking what a nice man Mr Baba must be because there were so many sentences in the Exercises about animals and birds. I was DVNHGWRWUDQVODWHIRUH[DPSOH¶WKHLUGDXJKWHU@FDPHWROXQFK'DGG\ and General got on very well together talking about Japan and the prospects of Japan coming into the war. It strikes me we should do everything to placate Japan and General Piggott, who is a great authority on the subject, says they are quite ready to be placated. He also had some idea as to what I could do in later life in regards to learning Japanese. 8 December

Today was one of those days, which ache dully, but refuse to hurt properly. The news that yesterday Japan declared war on America and Britain came as a shock to me although of course it has been brewing for months. I have not yet fully realised that we are at war with Japan, that they must be regarded as our enemies. Yesterday, before actually declaring war, the Japanese air force bombed Hawaii and Manila, where there are heavy casualties and this morning Malaya and Hong Kong were attacked. They have even followed the Nazi method of attacking an unprepared nation before declaring war. I was unhappier this morning than I have been since Sept 1st 1939 and tried to forget everything in drawing characters. But the fude>ZULWLQJEUXVK@UHIXVHGWRZRUN and Chopin’s Nocturne no. 5 kept sweeping through my brain. At 8.30 we listened to Roosevelt’s speech to the Senate declaring war on Japan 20 December

,KDYHÀQLVKHGUHDGLQJWKH5HVHDUFK0DJQLÀFHQW7 which I enjoyed though I can’t make out whether one is meant to feel sympathetic with Bentham’s idea of aristocracy or contempt for the emptiness of any sort of useful or material result of the 5HVHDUFK,ZDQWWRHYROYHVRPHVRUWRIPRUDOSKLORVRSK\RIOLIH$WP\FRQÀUmation the rule of life I was meant to follow was – to go to church, pray regularly and to read the Bible and observe the sacraments diligently. It is this sort of thing I cannot endure. Why should I spend my time taking part in harmless white magic? A way, a path towards a Noble Life such as Buddhism in its original purity professed – seems far more practicable for me. — 1942 —

9 January

,KDGP\ÀUVWSURSHUOHVVRQDWWKH6FKRRO>6FKRRORI2ULHQWDODQG$IULFDQ 6WXGLHV62$6 @WRGD\0\RQO\RWKHUIHOORZZRUNHULVDER\RIDERXWWZHQW\

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who, I am rather afraid, is very brilliant as he speaks Russian, Arabic, French and German. But I have a start on him as he has never done any Japanese before although I fear it won’t be long before I am outstripped. The English teacher, Mr Daniels,8WRRNXVÀUVWDQGDVZHRQO\ZHQWWKURXJKWKHhiragana >V\OODELFVFULSW@,IRXQGLWIDLUO\HOHPHQWDU\7KHQ0U0LQLVWU\ RI,QIRUPDWLRQ@WRVHH0U3LOFKHU10 as had been arranged. After the ceremony of signing a pass was over, I was wafted up to the 6th floor and into Pilcher’s room, which was large and furnished with articles that reminded me forcibly of Bletchley. I was evidently to see one Mr Redman11 but as he was busy I was taken to meet Arthur Waley12 in the meantime. Feeling much in awe of this august personage I preceded to tell him how much Japanese I’d done, but Mr Redman came back after a few minutes and I was at once wafted into his room. He told me they could certainly give me a job when I’d done my exam – there seemed no question of my not doing it – altogether it sounded so much more attractive than going back WR %OHWFKOH\ 3DUN +H NHSW WDONLQJ DERXW ¶1LSV· ZKLFK , RQO\ UHDOLVHG after a time meant the Japanese. I then went back to Arthur Waley as he had expressed a desire to continue our conversation and he proceeded to disagree with most of my remarks but was quite amiable nevertheless and invited me to see his Japanese books. After lunch I went to see Dr Edwards13 who to my great satisfaction said that my free place at the school was going to be renewed and that WKH\FRXOGSUREDEO\ÀWPHLQIRUOHFWXUHVQH[WWHUP$IWHUWKLV,ZHQWWR the London Library where for nearly three hours I perused a large tome RIFRQVWLWXWLRQDOKLVWRU\DQGÀQDOO\*HQHUDO3LJJRWW·VORQJH[SHFWHGDQG carefully planned dinner came off. It was a great mistake to make it so large as although Juliet, Mrs Piggott and the 20 other guests were very nice it would have been much better if there had just been Mrs Sawbridge as

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originally planned. I could see Daddy getting very bored as he was sitting next to Mrs P but I myself enjoyed as I sat next to Sawbridge14 whom I liked and General P who of course was in his element and insisted that in IXWXUH,VKRXOGFDOOKLP¶*HQHUDO· 27 June

Was left fairly well alone all day except for a game of tennis, to which I was QRWDYHUVHDOWKRXJK,SOD\HGYHU\EDGO\-RKQ>KHUEURWKHU@LVKHUHRQWHQ days leave having had measles. His voice is now quite broken and he looks tough. He seems to lead a most pleasant existence at Eton. I wish I was not born the sex I am – not only a biological tragedy but also an unfortunate who does not receive compensation for her physical disabilities – so that I might have gone there and led an existence less hemmed in than mine was at %HQHQGHQ>WKHERDUGLQJVFKRROLQ.HQWZKHUHVKHZDVDSXSLO@ 29 October

7RGD\P\ORQJH[SHFWHGLQWHUYLHZZLWK%HUQDUG6KDZ>*%6@FDPHRII – I really think quite successfully. I found my way to his very nice flat in Whitehall where his secretary Miss Patch showed me in. He does of course look very old indeed, but he is still very much in possession of his faculties. I stayed for about forty-five minutes and we talked about many WKLQJV+HGHVFULEHGWRPHKRZ*UDQGDG>&DUORV%ODFNHU@KDGEHKDYHGRQ Uncle Robin’s death; how consolation was the last thing one ought to give the bereaved and a detailed description of how his wife died which I found very interesting. The more unpleasant subjects included the necessity for changing the English alphabet, how the English language was gravitating towards pigeon English, how Hitler’s wars were exactly analogous to those of Joshua which are carefully taught to the rising generation as conducive to promoting piety. Although I enjoyed it very much and I think he LVDVZHHWROGPDQ,WROGKLPWKDW7KHWLV·V>7KHWLVZDV&DUPHQ·V\RXQJHU VLVWHU@VFKRROZDVVRODG\OLNHWKDWWKH\ZHUHIRUELGGHQWRUHDGKLVERRNV RQ6XQGD\V$QG,SUHVHQWHGKLPZLWKDSRWRIKRQH\VHQWE\0XPP\ as a compensation for the meagre dinner she gave him twenty years ago. — 1944 —

19 April

/HVVGXOOZRUNWKDQXVXDOWRGD\RZLQJWR)UDQN>)UDQN7D\ORU@EULQJLQJ me a list of phrases sent down by the School requiring translation into

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Japanese. Most of them were very colloquial such as are used in the army RU VWHUHRW\SHG H[SUHVVLRQV VXFK DV ¶DEDQGRQ VKLS· :H IRXQG RXUVHOYHV stumped by about half. Captain Kennedy came in in the afternoon about the same subject and I was very pleased to see him again. He invited me to come to his house again, which I should like to do very much. I actually washed my clothes on returning to my billet but with so little success that Miss Smith proceeded to teach me how to do it. — 1945 —

15 January

Went up by a later train and had just time to pay a visit to Aunt Kitty in the Admiralty and buy a very nice red blouse at Simpsons before meeting Daddy for lunch. Foregathered there also was Julian Huxley and his wife Juliette. Julian is just out of hospital where he has been suffering from a severe attack of depression, which necessitated electric shocks. He looked much older than when I saw him last. Juliette was very pleasant to me and wants me to meet her son Francis who is supposed to know some Chinese. I enjoyed seeing them again. I hadn’t met Julian since he became notorious DVDPHPEHURIWKH%UDLQV7UXVW>DSRSXODUUDGLRSURJUDPPHZKLFKIHDWXUHG WKHSKLORVRSKHU&0(-RDG@:HQWEDFN>WR%OHWFKOH\@E\WKHWRÀQG I had a series of complaints levelled against me by Frank Taylor. Altogether LWORRNHGDWÀUVWDVWKRXJK,KDGGRQHQRWKLQJULJKWIRUWKHSDVWIHZPRQWKV EXWYHU\KDSSLO\9DOHULH>7UDYLVGDXJKWHURIWKHGLUHFWRUDW%OHWFKOH\3DUN ZKRDOVRZRUNHGLQWKHQDYDOVHFWLRQ@ZDVIXOO\RQP\VLGHDQGDJUHHGWKDW few of the complains held much water. My main crimes were: I had not been indexing the Japan Nikkei Review, the reason being that I was doing another book which I had thought was more important. I had been asking John Lloyd15 the meaning of words and Peter Laslett16 the meaning of W/T items when I should have asked Frank. Also I had been going into Mrs Mac’s room and doing nothing but Chinese. This I object to very strongly as I do do some work although not as much as I perhaps might. 15 February

…whom should I meet in the bus but T. S. Eliot. He recognised me and at once came and sat next to me. We talked very amicably all the way back. He really was most awfully nice and we discussed Chinese poems, Arthur Waley, his recent broadcast to Sweden, Mrs Tandy, the Roman Temple on the heath and I told him about our attempt to raise a ghost there.

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16 April

$QRWKHUDVWRQLVKLQJO\KRWGD\LIWKLVSKHQRPHQDOVSHOORIÀQHZHDWKHUFRQWLQXHVZKLOHZHDUHDW/\PH>5HJLV@LWZLOOEHZRQGHUIXO6DWRXWVLGHLQD bathing suit most of the day doing Chinese and reading Arthur Waley’s Three Ways of Thought in Ancient China, which I think excellent like all his books. I am getting to know more about Chinese philosophy than the very hazy ideas I had before. A very nice letter from Professor Edwards asking when I should be able to start work and saying they were looking forward to having me. It is going to be fun there if only I can make a success of it. I am somewhat worried in the meanWLPHWRÀQGKRZPDQ\RIWKHonUHDGLQJV>¶&KLQHVH·UHDGLQJ@KDYHVOLSSHGIURP my memory in place of the Mandarin readings. In 1945 and 1946 Carmen taught Japanese at SOAS whilst studying for her degree in Japanese Studies. In 1947 she went up to Oxford to widen her education and read PPE.

— 1948 —

1 May

I arose at 5 o’clock this morning and went down to Magdalen Bridge where I found a large crowd of people and a small orchestra playing Handel’s Water Music. I joined up with a big party of people from the Liberal Club and we all climbed into punts, all except one boatload of people whose punt sank beneath them, and listened to the choristers on the top of Magdalen Tower greet the rising sun. It was a lovely pearly morning and the whole effect was simply exquisite. The river was covered with punts and the bridge was black with people but while the singing was going on nobody made a single sound. I shan’t ever forget it. Afterwards we punted up the river for about a mile and consumed some rather damp sandwiches on an island. It started to rain about 8 o’clock but by that time everything was over so the morning was accounted highly successful. There were Morris dancers in the streets too and a hobbyhorse which went round butting everyone. I doubt I shall get up quite so early next May morning but I know that this morning is the sort of occasion that I shall remember always. In the afternoon I went on the river in a canoe with Anne Thomson, who JDYHPHP\ÀUVWOHVVRQLQZLHOGLQJDSDGGOH7KHULYHUZDVORYHO\DQGZKHQ, DPPRUHSURÀFLHQWLQDFDQRH,VKDOOJRRXWDORW $WVL[R·FORFN,ZHQWWRRQHRIWKRVHUDWKHU¶UHSUHVHQWDWLYH·VKHUU\SDUWLHV given by Guy Simmons and Alan Dawes. There were a few people there

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whom I knew – Will Camp and the Trinity men. The impression I got was that everyone was a character in his own right or by right of some eccentricity, which he purposely cultivated. I had to come away early in order to dine with the rest of the committee of the Japanese Club and John Morris17 at the Randolph. I liked John Morris EXWIRXQGKLPUDWKHUGLIÀFXOWWRWDONWRDQGWKHUHVWRIWKHFRPPLWWHHVHHPHG so inhibited that it seemed to fall on me to start all the conversation topics. However J.M. gave a really excellent talk to the Japanese Club afterwards on the condition of Japan under the occupation and the position of the British there - although what he said about the prospects of going there was depressing enough. The discussion afterwards was lively. — 1950 —

5 October After taking her degree at Oxford Carmen went on to do post-graduate study at Harvard.

,DPQRZHVWDEOLVKLQJDURXWLQHIRUP\VHOI>DW+DUYDUG@0\DODUPZDNHVPHDW 7.30 and I arise at 7.40 I then make myself a large mug of coffee, one fried egg, and two pieces of toast, which I consume in the kitchen with those other members of the household who happen to be up. I try to arrive at the library at 9 o’clock. 7KHUH,ZRUNDW)XNX]DZD>SUREDEO\ +DQGERRNIRUWKH6WXG\RI+LVWRU\@IRUDQGFDPHDZD\ZHOOVDWLVÀHG Afterwards we drove round Ueno Park a gay, colourful, pullulating mass of people. No time today to look at the TRÙshRÙgu or the zoo. 6 November $IWHUDWXWRULDOZLWK1DNDPXUD.LNXRDQRWKHUYLVLWWR.DQGDZLWK0DULXV-DQVHQ>DQ $PHULFDQVFKRODU@DQGDWULSLQWKHJXDUGVFRPSDUWPHQWRIDshÙRsen train to escape the crowds.

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The passage of time in the East seems different in kind to any temporal VHTXHQFH,KDYHH[SHULHQFHGEHIRUH,WVHHPVSRVVLEOHWR¶ZDVWH·WLPHLQWKH VHQVHRIDOORZLQJLWWRÁRZSDVWRQHZLWKRXWPDNLQJDQ\DWWHPSWWRWXUQLWWR one’s advantage or enlightenment …It is strange how it warms my heart to be able to talk to these people whether it is the conductor of the VKRÙVHQ or a scholar like Nakamura Kikuo. — 1952 —

27 January >7RN\R@

7RGD\6KXQGRÙVHQVHLJDYHWKHDQQXDOH[KLELWLRQRIWKH1HZÀUVW FDOOLJUDSK\RIWKH\HDU@DQGKDGVSHQWPRVWRIODVW)ULGD\PRUQLQJPDNLQJYDUious unsatisfactory attempts and trips down to the paper shop near Gotanda station to buy more NDNL]RPH\RÙVKL>VSHFLDOSDSHU@ When Doug,24 Mrs Azuma25 and I arrived at the pavilion where the exhibiWLRQZDVWREHKHOGZHIRXQG6KXQGRÙVHQVHLLQDEHDXWLIXOEODFNFUHVWHGhaori >VKRUWMDFNHWZRUQRYHUkimono@VHDWHGRQDFXVKLRQE\Dhibachi >SRUWDEOH FKDUFRDOVWRYH@VXUURXQGHGE\DWZLWWHULQJPXUPXULQJFURZGRIZRPHQDQG girls. The three rooms of the pavilion were entirely lined with perpendicular inscriptions, mounted on paper or silk of various dove or buff colours. My own effort hung to the right of the door, looking, to my surprise, rather more prepossessing on its dull birch coloured mount than it did when I last saw it. Innumerable styles of writing were displayed – tiny angular characters like the footprints of birds in the sand, long wavy VRÙVKR>¶JUDVVZULWLQJ· DMRLQHGXS ÁRZLQJVFULSW@VRSKLVWLFDWHGOLNHWKHGURRSRIDIHDWKHUODUJHIDWFKDUDFWHUV some of a childish immaturity, some of an ecclesiastical facility. Two low tables were arranged with plates of tangerines and senbei>ULFHELVFXLWV@IURPZKLFKZH were invited to refresh ourselves. After ten minutes or so in which we praised other people’s inscriptions and deprecated one’s own, we were invited to sit GRZQRQFXVKLRQVDQGOLVWHQWRDIHZZRUGVE\6KXQGRÙVHQVHL Rather to my embarrassment Doug and I were placed in positions of such conspicuous honour that we ourselves might have been exhibits. While all the Japanese pupils from the elderly ladies down to the silent wide-eyed school girls in their ugly black stocking and blue sailor collars, were crowded uncomfortably to one side of the room and in the adjoining rooms, Doug, Mrs Azuma and myself were placed in a lordly fashion on the other side of the low WDEOHRQ6KXQGRÙVHQVHL·VULJKW6KXQGRÙVHQVHL·VWKHPHZDVWKDWDPDQ·VFKDUacter was revealed by his handwriting. Correct and beautiful characters implied

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DFRUUHFWDQGEHDXWLIXOFKDUDFWHU6KRGG\DQGLOOHJLEOHFKDUDFWHUVUHÁHFWHGD PHDQDQGGHFHLWIXOWHPSHUDPHQW+HQFH6KXQGRÙFRQWLQXHGE\DVWHSLQUHDsoning of which I am still not quite sure of the validity, learn to write correctly and beautifully and your character will of necessity follow suit. He then turned to my inscription and said that the wise epigram there written bore out his theme. The training which enabled one to write tadashiku>FRUUHFWO\@ZDVLQ fact a moral training, a discipline which would enable one to move mountains. Turning to the mouse like school girls he said that the person who had written these characters had only been learning a very few weeks but that her progress KDGEHHQVXFKWKDWKHFRQÀGHQWO\KRSHGWKDWVKHZRXOGEHDEOHWRZULWHZHOO at the end of a year. They, the mouse like school girls, would, he said, do well to take her as an example. All this time I had been sitting on my heels in a severely correct position, surely indicative of at least a potentially correct and beautiful character. By the WLPH6KXQGRÙKDGÀQLVKHGKLVIHZZRUGVZKLFKPXVWKDYHODVWHGDERXWWZHQW\ minutes, my legs were completely numb right up to the knees. Doug then said a few words in Japanese in reply – thanks, ending with a skilful and charming complement: if indeed the writing implied the man how could we wish for a EHWWHURUPRUHYLUWXRXVOHDGHUWKDQ6KXQGRÙ,DGPLUHG'RXJDORWIRUWKDW But when Mrs A whispered urgently to me that I should say a few words I felt rather strongly that there were many Japanese ladies present who had far JUHDWHUTXDOLÀFDWLRQWRVSHDNWKDQ,,WKHUHIRUHSHUKDSVZURQJO\GHFOLQHG After the speeches we consumed tangerines and senbei>ULFHFUDFNHUV@WKH DIWHUQRRQHQGLQJZLWKDSKRWRJUDSKEHLQJWDNHQRI6KXQGRÙVHQVHLVXUURXQGHG by his family and pupils. 1952, Spring Carmen gave the following account of her meeting with the famous Japanese novelist 2VDUDJL-LURÙLQJapan Experiences:

ON A SUNDAYLQVSULQJRIZKHQ,KDGEHHQDVWXGHQWDW.HLRÙ8QLYHUsity for about six months, I went to Kamakura to visit the Buddhist temple Zuisenji. Zuisenji is now a celebrated relais for Buddhist vegetarian cuisine, WR ZKLFK JRXUPHWV IURP DOO RYHU -DSDQ ÁRFN WR VDPSOH WKH PXVKURRPV baked and served on a hot round stone, the chestnuts cooked with red rice, the green ginkgo nuts served on a bed of hot pine needles, the seaweed tea. But in 1952 it was still remote and inaccessible, requiring a longish walk WKURXJKULFHÀHOGVDQGXSLQWRWKHKLOOVEHKLQGWKHWRZQ7KHIHZYLVLWRUVWR the place went for the lovely view, which on certain autumn days revealed the violet silhouette of Mt Fuji, and for the unusual garden, said to have

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EHHQGHVLJQHGE\WKHHPLQHQWIRXUWHHQWKFHQWXU\%XGGKLVWHFFOHVLDVWLF0XVRÙ Kokushi. On this particular Sunday however an elegant party of men and women had assembled there to celebrate the unveiling of a kuhi, an aesthetic rock engraved, in cursive characters, with a haiku by the poet Takahama Kyoshi. Amongst them was a tall thin man, with grey windswept hair, who moved with a straight-backed animation and spring. That is the famous ZULWHU2VDUDJL-LURÙ,ZDVWROG Already by that date he had written stories, essays, a Noh drama, a story for children called Kurama Tengu and numerous novels, including .LN\RÙ which had won a prize and was later to be translated under the title of Homecoming. He wrote regularly for the Asahi newspaper, and in consequence his name was familiar to every Japanese. He was one of the bunjin or literary men, for whom Kamakura used to be so famous before the war. Later in the afternoon, the SULHVWRIWKHWHPSOHLQWURGXFHGPHWRWKLVFHOHEUDWHGÀJXUH¶+RZROGLV\RXU IDWKHU"·KHDVNHGUDWKHUDEUXSWO\,UHSOLHGWKDWKHPXVWEHDERXWÀIW\VL[-XVW P\DJH2VDUDJLVDLG¶,I,KDGDGDXJKWHUVKHZRXOGEHWKHVDPHDJHDVyou? He went on to say that he had a little tea-house which stood empty for six days of the week. If I would care to come and stay in it during the hot weather of the summer vacation, he and his wife would be glad to put it at my disposal. My amazement at this wonderful kindness to a complete stranger was even greater a few weeks later when I got a message from the priest of Zuisenji to WKHHIIHFWWKDW2VDUDJL-LURÙKDGEHHQTXLWHVHULRXVZKHQKHLQYLWHGPHWRVWD\ in his tea-house. I was to telephone to discuss the arrangements, and move in, if that would suit, in the middle of July. Osaragi and his wife themselves lived in a large house, set behind a wall and some trees, up a lane giving off the broad avenue in Kamakura which led to the Hachiman shrine. It was unusual in so far as it had no proper front door. The only entrance lay through the kitchen, which was closely guarded by a GHYRWHGFRRNKRXVHNHHSHU,WRÙVDQDQGVHYHUDOHOHJDQWPDLGV7KURXJKWKH kitchen one entered a beautiful large room, full of books and piles of prints and paintings, which gave on to a garden with bamboos. Here guests were received, meals eaten, future books discussed. The house also contained mysterious upper regions, where guests were seldom invited, and where Osaragi kept his immense library. The tea-house where I was invited to stay was set apart from the main house, in its own precincts and garden. Its principal room, to the size of eight mats, opened out completely on one side to a prospect of a pool with carp, a small DUFKHGEULGJHDSLQHWUHHDJRRGPDQ\UDUHVKUXEVDQGÁRZHUVDQGXQXVXDOO\ for Japan, a delightful lawn. Here, every Thursday, Mrs Osaragi gave her lessons in the tea ceremony. But except for Thursdays, when I was to absent myself,

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this charming room was mine to work and live in. It was quite empty save for a VPDOOORZGHVNDÁDWFXVKLRQDQGSLOHGLQWKHtokonoma >WKHDOFRYH@2VDUDJL·V valuable collection of suzuri or inkstones. These stones he had collected over the years in all shapes and sizes. I recall immensely large ones, others scarcely ELJJHUWKDQDÀQJHUQDLORWKHUVFDUYHGWRWKHVKDSHRIELUGVRUÁRZHUVRU dragons. All were black, matt, and smooth as silk, many with the grey sheen, as though silver powder had been dusted over them, that is the mark of the special quarry in China called Tankei. The rest of the little house, apart from a kitchen, bathroom, and the anteroom needed for the tea ceremony, consisted of large cupboards full of other collections. Inside were dozens of long wooden boxes containing scrolls, scores of square boxes containing tea bowls or Sung celadon cups, piles of art books in English, French and German. It was a veritable treasure house, and the responsibility of living alone with so many YDOXDEOHWKLQJVRFFDVLRQDOO\ÀOOHGPHZLWKDQ[LHW\6HYHUDO\HDUVDIWHUZDUGV, found myself inhabiting the little house during the cold winter months, with a portable gas stove for heating. Every time I left the room, even if only for a minute, I was haunted by fears that a sudden earthquake might upset the stove, VHWÀUHWRWKHVWUDZPDWVWKHSDSHUZDOOVDQGWKHWKDWFKHGURRIDQGZLWKWKHP all the treasures that lay hidden in the deep cupboards.) %XWQRVXFKZRUU\PDUUHGP\GHOLJKWDWWKHÀUVWVLJKWRIWKHHLJKWPDW room. I could scarcely believe that it was to he mine to stay in for six days a week. As I sat looking out into the garden, I saw that the branch of a tree FXUYHGGRZQRYHUWKHHDYHVDQGWKDWE\WKHRSHQZLQGRZZDVDÁRZHUFDOOHG \XÙJDR¶HYHQLQJIDFHV·DNLQGRIJRXUGZKLFKHYHU\HYHQLQJZDVWREORRPZLWK QHZÁRZHUV7KHVXEVHTXHQWVL[ZHHNVZHUHDPRQJWKHKDSSLHVWLQP\OLIH, was left completely free to come and go as I liked. I had a bicycle. There were interesting Buddhist temples to explore, and people in all walks of life who seemed ready and willing to talk. The sea was only a mile away. 7KHWUDQVIRUPDWLRQWKDWWKH¶HFRQRPLFPLUDFOH·WKH2O\PSLF*DPHVDQG wealth were later to bring to the face of Japan was not yet dreamt of. Few people were rich and fewer possessed cars. Most of the roads were rough and untarred. There were no concrete blocks and no bullet trains. Instead, there ZDVDVHQVHRIOHLVXUHRIDQXQKXUULHG¶PDUJLQ·WRWKLQJV6PDOOVLPSOHDFWLRQV and scenes had a wonderful intensity and reality, a kind of magic which is now PRUHGLIÀFXOWWRÀQG,QWKHEDFNJURXQGGXULQJWKRVHZHHNVZDVDOZD\VWKH NLQGO\OHDUQHGSUHVHQFHRI2VDUDJL,ZRXOGVHHKLPEULHÁ\VRPHWLPHVLQWKH morning when he walked over to inspect the garden and feed the carp, wearing a short kimono of pale grey hemp. From the arched bridge where he stood, scattering the carp food over the pool, he would make a brief salutation in my direction.

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Now and then I was invited to dinner, where always a feast of incredible elegance was served. The company included the beautiful Mrs Osaragi, who moved with the special grace that only long experience of the tea ceremony confers, old friends such as the Buddhist melon grower called Matsuda, and Han Takehara, a dancer full of the untranslatable chic called iki, and men from the Asahi newspaper. I recall conversations ranging over the Buddhist statues in Nara, the Paris Commune of 1871, the household sprite called zashiki-warashi, WKHLQFHQVHVROGDWWKHIDPRXVROGVKRS.\XÙN\RGRÙWKHDWWHPSWHG assassination of the Czarevitch in 1891, and the provenance of the abalone, which the company was eating. He would also sometimes mention cats. He was well known as a lover of cats, and there were seldom fewer than twenty in the house. Sometimes the number rose to thirty or forty. In the kitchen they were to be seen stretched on shelves and dressers, and in all the other rooms, wherever the eye roved, it alighted on a cat. They were indulged and pampered in every way, allowed to tear the tatami mats and the paper shÙRji walls with their claws and scarcely a reprimand. I recall one cold winter evening several years later, seeing a pink electric blanket spread out on the tatami of the large front room, and nine cats, black, white and mike or three coloured, stretched upon it asleep. They were divided into two distinct classes. The large and glistening pedigree cats, acquired through Osaragi’s own volition ZHUH¶LQVLGH·FDWVDQGZHUHIHGLQVLGHWKHNLWFKHQLQDORQJURZHDFKZLWK LWVRZQSHUVRQDOGLVK7KHUHVWZHUH¶RXWVLGH·FDWVVPDOOHUDQGVFUXIÀHU and fed in an even longer row outside under the eaves of the house. These were all cats, which Osaragi had been kind enough to rescue when they ZHUH¶WKURZQDZD\·E\WKHLURZQHUV)RULQ-DSDQXQZDQWHGNLWWHQVDUH not drowned, but abandoned by night on the roadside to starve, to turn feral, or in rare cases to be rescued and given a happy home. During that summer I was time and again woken in the early morning by loud piteous mewing. Another kitten had been dropped over the wall into Osaragi’s garden, where its owner hoped it might join the large throng of outside cats. In subsequent years, until his death in 1973, I stayed during several more summers in the tea-house. He took a kindly interest in my studies and would often send over volumes from his library for me to read. This library I only VDZRQFHLQZKHQKHZDVLOODQGFRQÀQHGWREHG7RYLVLWKLP,KDGWR pass into the mysterious upper regions of the house, and through the library. I FRXOGRQO\EULHÁ\QRWHWKHDVWRQLVKLQJURRPZLWKWKRXVDQGVRIERRNVOLQLQJ WKHZDOOVDQGO\LQJLQSLOHVRQWKHÁRRU,QDODUJHDGMRLQLQJURRPKHOD\RQ a pile of futon RQWKHÁRRU$OOURXQGKLPWRDKHLJKWRIWZRRUWKUHHIHHW was a wall of books, which it was necessary to climb over in order to speak

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to him. They were volumes, which he had been reading during his illness, and wished to have still to hand. The last time I saw him was in a hospital in Tokyo, not long before his death. His conversation was as animated as ever. He spoke of the moss garGHQDW6DLKRÙML>LQ.\RWR@WKHPDQQHULQZKLFKWKH*UHDW%XGGKDRI1DUD had been constructed in the mid-eighth century, the ghosts in the No plays of Zeami,26 and the Buddhist promise of release from the Wheel. The little house had by then become so familiar as to be like a second home. To stay there brought always a renewal of the peculiar happiness, the sense of the joy of every moment of the day and of every small thing that happened. His death and the death soon afterwards of Mrs Osaragi, meant the end of an era for me, the withdrawal of a kind and generous presence in the background that had animated my life and my studies. The cats were given away by Ito-san, and his library and other treasures moved to Yokohama, where a house has been dedicated to his memory. I have not walked up the lane to see what has become of the little tea-house. Time and the bell have buried the day. 16 April &DUPHQPDGHKHUÀUVWYLVLWWR.\RWR

After the rain and the clouds, the sun. I went with Mr Tokuda to Daitokuji where Mr Satake had promised to show me the sights, and, if possible, to arrange for me to stay a couple of days there. I couldn’t quite make out whether Mr Tokuda was accompanying me because he really wished to or because he considered himself in some way responsible for me. Letters of introduction in this country seem to have DSRZHUDQGVLJQLÀFDQFHZKROO\ODFNLQJLQ(XURSH7KH\DUHDSDVVSRUWQRWWRD mere invitation to lunch but to embarrassingly limitless kindness and hospitality. Mr Tokuda and Mr Satake had, unknown to myself, come to meet me at the station ZKHQ,DUULYHG:KHQÀQDOO\KHGLVFRYHUHGP\DGGUHVVIURPWKHQHZVSDSHUKHVHQW KLVGDXJKWHUURXQGWLPHDIWHUWLPHXQWLOVKHÀQDOO\IRXQGPHLQ7RGD\KHVSHQW the entire day at Daitokuji most of which he must have known already down to every tiger on the fusuma >VOLGLQJVFUHHQ@DQGSLQHWUHHLQWKHJDUGHQ Today will, I think, be unforgettable. Mr Satake, clad today in black priest’s robes and geta>ZRRGHQFORJV@ÀUVWFRQGXFWHGXVRYHUWKHPDLQKDOO:HVDWRQWKH edge of the veranda and admired the karesansui>OLWGU\PRXQWDLQZDWHU@DJDUGHQ consisting of a strip of white sand marked out with a rake to give the effect of a river. At one end were two large rocks judiciously juxtaposed so as to induce one to imagine a waterfall gushing down between them. The branches of a large tree were carefully pruned and trained so as to enframe the distant prospect of Hieizan – a technique in gardening, which Mr Satake said was called shakkei or

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¶ERUURZLQJWKHQDWXUDOVFHQHU\·,FDQQRWTXLWHDSSUHFLDWHWKHVHJDUGHQVZKLFK require one to imagine that white sand is water and cannot really see why it should be thought more elegant and IXÙU\XÙto try to make sand look like water than to use ZDWHULWVHOI,FDQ·WKHOSWKLQNLQJRI-HDQ'HV(VVHLQWHVDQGKLVDUWLÀFLDOÁRZHUV There was a superb dragon and tiger in one of the rooms of the main hall: one of the best tigers I have ever seen. :HWKHQZHQGHGRXUZD\WRWKHJUDYHRI6HQQR5LN\XÙ >WHDPDVWHURIWKH VL[WHHQWKFHQWXU\@LQDVPDOOZDOOHGJDUGHQPDUNHGZLWKDODQWHUQOLNHREMHFW and surrounded with smaller stone objects marking the graves of prominent disciples. The shape of the grave-stone differed according to whether the GLVFLSOHEHORQJHGWRWKH2PRWH6HQNH8UD6HQNHRU.DQN\XÙDQVFKRRORIWHD 6HQQR5LN\XÙ·VJUDYHVWRQHKDGDQDUURZRSHQLQJLQWRZKLFKLIRQHLQVHUWHG one’s head one was supposed to be able to hear running water. We then visited the ]HQGRÙ DQGLWZDVWKHÀUVWWLPH,KDGEHHQLQWRVXFKD place – two raised platforms on either side of the room on which the priests VDWIRUWKHLUPHGLWDWLRQ$ODUJHÁDWZRRGHQVWLFNKXQJIURPDSLOODU²IRU waking up drowsy ones. We then visited one of the smaller temples in the YHU\H[WHQVLYHSUHFLQFWVDIDVFLQDWLQJOLWWOHWHPSOHFDOOHG.RKRÙDQVRFDOOHG, gathered, because one side of it was constructed to give one the impression of being on a ship. The VKRÙML>SDSHUVFUHHQZLQGRZV@FDPHGRZQWRRQH·VH\HOHYHO DVRQHVDWRQWKHÁRRUVRWKDWRQHORRNHGRXWRQWRDUDWKHUUHVWULFWHGYLHZRI the garden consisting largely of grey jagged pebbles arranged to remind one of a riverbank. Mr S and Mr T enthused for some time about the ingenuity of this idea and the way in which it had been carried out – but I confess that not for one single instant did I experience the sensation of being on a ship. By this time we were all a little tired and returned to Mr Satake’s sunny house where we passed the early afternoon in the elegant occupations of eating a meal of VKRÙMLQU\RÙUL>YHJHWDULDQFXLVLQH@DQGOLVWHQLQJWRDOHVVRQRIutai >VLQJLQJ@7KHVKRÙMLQU\RÙUL was served in vermillion lacquer bowls and consisted of various kinds of WRÙIX>EHDQFXUG@PXVKURRPVORQJJUHHQYHJHWDEOHVDQGD speciality of the temple known as Daitokuji-fu. :HWKHQZHQWWRFDOORQ0UV5XWK6DVDNLDQ$PHULFDQODG\RIÀIW\RUVR who has married a Zen priest in New York and now a widow, was living in the precincts of Daitokuji and practising Zen. Mr S thought it would be interesting for me to meet her and effected the introduction. I was impressed with Mrs Sasaki. She was a large white haired lady with an immaculate look that all American women seem to have. But her face was a memorable one – rosy calm DQGUDWKHUORYHO\²DQGKHUEHDULQJZDVVHUHQHDQGGLJQLÀHG6KHVSRNHYHU\ little Japanese but relied on a young Japanese as her interpreter. She lived and worked in a completely Japanese style – working on a low table for which I

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couldn’t help admiring her. She said she spent many hours a day in zazen and ZHQWWRD¶WHDFKHU·QHDU5\RÙDQMLDOPRVWHYHU\GD\,KRSHWRVHHPRUHRIKHU 2XUÀQDOYLVLWZDVWRWKHo-shike-san>=HQPDVWHU@FDOOHG2GDWRDVFHUWDLQ if and when it would be convenient for me to come and stay a couple of days in the temple. It was a most interesting interview. The o-shike-san swept into the room in a tea-coloured robe and sat facing us on a red cushion, his robe spreading round him like a picture of an ancient emperor. Satake-san explained with admirable succinctness who I was and why I wished to come and stay in Daitokuji. Tokuda-san also explained that it was really all his fault that the o-shike-san should be so disturbed as it was he who had received the letter of introduction from Hisamatsu-sensei. As nobody said anything directly to me I thought it better to sit in silence. In fact during the entire interview nobody addressed a single word to me. The o-shike-san never looked directly at me – though all his remarks were obviously intended for my ears. He remarked how people of his generation still felt more sympathetic towards England than to any other foreign country because they still remembered the Anglo-Japanese Alliance with affection: that he had met an Englishman with a beard recently who spoke good Japanese. Then he clapped his hands and a \RXQJSULHVWRSHQHGWKHVOLGLQJVFUHHQDQGERZHGKLVKHDGRQWKHÁRRU7KH o-shike-san asked when would be a convenient time for me to come and stay and the priest, with a dignity and seriousness and a politeness of speech that was almost alarming said that any time after the 21st would be interesting for me as particularly strict prayers would be practised then. Another equally stern and serious priest brought in tea and cakes serving the o-shike-san before us. The o-shike-san must have been quite old, I suppose, but his face looked young – smooth and translucent like alabaster. October 1952 Carmen gave the following account of her experience of zazen at Engakuji in Kamakura in Japan Experiences:

The sesshin >SHULRGRILQWHQVHPHGLWDWLRQ@ routine, the head monk explained to me, was as follows: Everyone got up at 2 am. Breakfast was at 3 am, lunch at 10 am and supper at 4.30 pm. I could sleep in one of the smaller temples in the precincts, within two minutes walk of the monastery, but I could eat with the monks. The head monk was a charming and sympathetic young man, and very considerate IRUWKHZHOIDUHRIEHJLQQHUV,WZDVEHWWHUQRWWRRYHUGRLWDWÀUVWKHVDLG, should not try to sit - that is to meditate - for more than eight hours a day, DOWKRXJKLWZDVWUXHWKDWWKHPRQNVGLGDWOHDVWHLJKWHHQ7KHÀUVWWKUHHGD\V

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I should spend getting used to the position and the breathing, and after that I should be formally introduced to the 5RÙVKL>HOGHUWHDFKHU@DQGJLYHQDNRÙDQ or Zen problem on which to meditate. The week I spent in the Zen temple, and the subsequent weeks and weekends, were among the most astonishing DQGFHUWDLQO\WKHPRVWIDVFLQDWLQJWKDW,KDYHHYHUVSHQW7KHÀUVWIHZGD\V were completely bewildering - but, fortunately, I was not the only one to be bewildered. There was one other girl - Miss Oki - who was just as bewildered as myself. There were several male students too - but they slept and ate in a separate place and we did not see much of them. The ]HQGRÙ, or meditation hall, ZDVDWLOHÁRRUHGEXLOGLQJZLWKWZRUDLVHGWDWDPLFRYHUHGSODWIRUPVDORQJHDFK side. On these platforms the monks sat and meditated, each monk having the space of one tatami mat reserved for him. The monastery was not full at the time, and there were a number of empty spaces - and it was here that outsiders like myself were assigned to sit. They were very strict about the sitting position. The strictly correct position is the lotus position- cross-legged with both feet on both knees. But I was told that RQHIRRWRQRQHNQHHZDVDOPRVWDVJRRGZRXOG¶GR·LQIDFW$QRUGLQDU\ cross-legged position was no good at all. One’s back and neck must be quite straight, and there should be a straight line between one’s nose and navel. 2QH·VKDQGVVKRXOGEHOLNH1LNNRÙ%RVDWVXWKXPEVWRJHWKHUÀQJHUVURXQGHG as though holding an egg, and one’s eyes should look at the spot in front of one known as tanzen-sanjaku, which is roughly at an angle of 45°. Also, very important, one must feel that all one’s strength is concentrated in one’s diaphragm. They did not insist on any particular technique of breathing - saying that if one’s sitting position -]DVRÙ - was correct and one was really putting all one’s strength into one’s diaphragm, one would breathe correctly. The]HQGRÙ discipline was to sit kichintoIRUWZHQW\ÀYHPLQXWHVWKHQZDONURXQGWKHFORLVter next to the ]HQGRÙ IRUÀYHPLQXWHVWKHQVLWDJDLQIRUWZHQW\ÀYHPLQXWHV and so on. I remember the evening particularly vividly. At sunset one of the monks would strike the big bell and recite some sutras - and we would carry our cushions into the ]HQGRÙ)RUWKHÀUVWKDOI KRXURUVRZHZRXOGVLWLQJDWKHULQJGDUNQHVVWKHPRWLRQOHVVÀJXUHVRI the monks on the other side of the hall would become black silhouettes, and then be almost lost in the darkness. Then, suddenly, there would be a piercing sound on wooden clappers and the lights would go on. We would DOOXQWZLQHRXUOHJVDQGÀOHRXWRIWKH]HQGRÙ IRUÀYHPLQXWHVkinhin or walk URXQGWKHFORLVWHU>WRSUHYHQWFUDPSRUGL]]LQHVV@7KHPRQNVZRXOGJR ÀUVWWKHLUUREHVEXQFKHGXSWRWKHLUNQHHVWKHQWKHVWXGHQWV7KHFORLVWHU was lit by two or three lanterns, and in the grass plot in the middle was one tree, and to one side was the very beautiful building known as the shariden

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>UHOLTXDU\KDOO@ZLWKWZRWLHUVRIGHHSHDYHVZKLFKMXWWHGRXWLQWRWKHVN\DV RQHZDONHGEHQHDWKWKHP$IWHUÀYHPLQXWHVRIZDONLQJURXQGDQGURXQG the leading monk would strike the clappers again and back we would go to the ]HQGRÙ. Before the lights were turned on the sitting was informal. Anyone could come and go as he liked, or move his legs as he liked. But after the light ZDVWXUQHGRQWKHWZHQW\ÀYHPLQXWHSHULRGVKDGWREHVWULFWO\REVHUYHG One was not allowed even to move one’s legs, however much they might EHKXUWLQJ$PRQNZRXOGSDWUROXSDQGGRZQWKHWLOHGÁRRUZLWKDORQJ ÁDWVWLFNFDOOHGDkeisaku>VWDUWOLQJVWLFN@RYHUKLVVKRXOGHU,IDQ\RQHZHUH sitting badly he would correct his position. If anyone began to get drowsy he would stop in front of him and bow, holding the long stick in front of him. The drowsy one would wake up and lean right forward with his forehead down. The sentinel monk would manoeuvre his back and shoulders into the ULJKWSRVLWLRQDQGWKHQJLYHKLPHLJKWWHUULÀFZKDFNVRQWKHEDFN7KHÀUVW time I heard it, it gave me a tremendous shock – in the silent ]HQGRÙthe noise sounded like the crack of a horsewhip. :KHQWKHRSHUDWLRQZDVÀQLVKHGERWKWKHVWULNHUDQGWKHVWUXFNZRXOG bow politely to each other. Subsequently, I myself got whacked several times – and though it hurt at the time, the pain never lasted and it had a strangely revivifying effect. If one felt oneself getting drowsy, one could always request to be whacked on the back by bowing to the sentinel monk as he passed by. Sounds in the ]HQGRÙ always had a strange quality about them. They were audible certainly. In summer and autumn there were the tirelessly reiterated calls of cicadas, and occasionally of a bird. There were noises of bells and wooden clappers, nasal voices intoning sutras, the murmur of straw sandals on stone. On rainy days there was the clatter of geta >ZRRGHQFORJV@%XWVRPHKRZWKH sounds were external, like waves lapping against the walls. Voices inside the ]HQGRÙ had an abrupt, almost frightening effect - sometimes the sentinel monk ZRXOGXWWHUVKDUSUHSULPDQGVDQGFRUUHFWLRQVDOZD\VLQDFRPSUHVVHGÀHUFH spitting tone reminiscent of snarling samurai in chambara>VDPXUDLJHQUH@ÀOPV Meals were all eaten in silence, except for sutras chanted before and after. The fare was simple. For breakfast we had a mixture of rice and barley and a sour pickled plum. For lunch we had the barley-rice, some bean soup and yellow takuan >SLFNOHGUDGLVK@$QGIRUVXSSHUZHKDGZKDWZDVOHIWRYHUIURP lunch. Supper was not considered, strictly speaking, to be a meal at all, but something in the way of medicine to enable one to keep going in a non-tropical climate. Simple though the fare was, zen table manners were very complicated. One’s three bowls had to be arranged in a row, left one for rice, middle one for soup, right-hand one for pickled vegetables. Between three and seven JUDLQVRIULFHKDGWREHSXWRQWKHWDEOHLQIURQWRIRQHIRUWKHEHQHÀWRIWKH

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hungry spirits. There were very strict and minute rules about the way the food was served, too - and the serving monks were often sharply reprimanded by the more veteran members. This diet was dull, of course, but the only thing I really missed was coffee. I would slip down to the village two or three times a day, and drink an extra strong brew provided in a little shop near the station. After three days of sitting, Miss Oki and I were told that we were to have our formal interview with the5RÙVKLand would be given a NRÙDQ The head monk told us what we must do - for it was very important that we should make no mistakes. We must make three bows - sampai - on the threshold of the 5RÙVKL·s room, three more in front of him and, when we left, three more on the threshROGPDNLQJQLQHLQDOO(DFK¶ERZ·KDGWREHDUHJXODUSURVWUDWLRQIRUHKHDG RQWKHÁRRUDQGSDOPVIDFLQJXSZDUGV7KH5RÙVKL was sitting in a beautiful sunny room in a yellow robe, a large staring Daruma in the tokonoma>DOFRYH@. Miss Oki and I duly executed our bows - then the 5RÙVKL presented us with the NRÙDQNQRZQDV-RVKXÙ·VMu>QRWKDYLQJQRWEHLQJQRQH[LVWHQW@VXLWDEOHKH said, as an initial exercise in zazen. This interview formally enrolled us pupils of the5RÙVKL. You may have heard of this famous NRÙDQ$PRQNFDPHWR-RVKXÙ DQGDVNHG¶,VLWSRVVLEOHIRUDGRJWRDWWDLQ%XGGKDKRRG"·$QG-RVKXÙDQVZHUHG ¶Mu’. MuLVZULWWHQZLWKWKHFKDUDFWHUPHDQLQJ¶QRW·EXWLQWKLVFDVHZHZHUH WROGLWGLGQRWPHDQ¶QRW·,WKDGQRPHDQLQJDWDOO2XUWDVNZDVWRÀQGRXW ZK\-RVKXÙKDGVDLGLW,KDGNQRZQIURPWKHVWDUWWKDWQRQHRIWKHNRÙDQcould be solved logically. They were particularly designed to train the mind to transcend logic - for the enlightenment - satori - to which they were a means was not a state into which logic or reason entered at all. One had got to realize, I had understood, that black was white, the part was the whole, and I was my boots or anything and everything else in the universe. But how one set about WU\LQJWR¶VROYH·DNRÙDQ, I had no idea. What was there to solve, after all, when one’s only material was a word, without any meaning? %XWWKDWQLJKW,ZHQWWRP\ÀUVW sanzen, and that helped a little. Sanzen is the name given to the formal private interview with the 5RÙVKL where he may ask one questions to see how one is progressing with one’s NRÙDQ or one may ask him questions on points that are puzzling one. One of the monks warned me beforehand that it would be a VKLQNHQVKRÙEX- a battle of real swords - and indeed it was. At 7 am in the ]HQGRÙWKHUHZDVDVKDUSFRPPDQG¶San·DQGZHDOOÀOHGRXWGRZQ WKHÁDJVWRQHSDWKWRWKHKRXVHZKHUHWKHLQWHUYLHZVZHUHWRWDNHSODFH:HDOO sat in absolute silence in the room at the entrance of the house. When the 5RÙVKL KDGÀQLVKHGZLWKRQHSHUVRQKHMDQJOHGDVPDOOEHOOZKLFKFRXOGEHKHDUGIDU away at the other end of the house, as though over vast distances of space. The next person waiting then struck a bell in the corner of the room and walked off to the 5RÙVKL. The atmosphere was charged with an extraordinary tension, and

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I could see Miss Oki in front of me trembling. When my turn came I followed the instructions, made one prostration on the threshold of the 5RÙVKL·s room and another in front of him. I had been told not to speak unless the5RÙVKL spoke. He said I must concentrate my whole mind on Mu - so that everything else than Mu ceased to exist. Like this – and suddenly his face became lost in concentration. Then he jangled the bell, and I bowed and retired. It was all very well, of course, to say that I must concentrate on Mu to WKHH[FOXVLRQRIHYHU\WKLQJHOVH$FWXDOO\LWZDVWKHPRVWGLIÀFXOWWKLQJ, had ever tried to do. It would have been easier of course if I had been given a word with at least a meaning attached to it - God, or love, or charity. But WRNHHSRQH·VPLQGÀ[HGRQVRPHWKLQJPHDQLQJOHVVLVSDUWLFXODUO\GLIÀFXOW since distractions are so hard to keep out. Mu will change into all sorts of SURWHDQVKDSHVDQGEHIRUHORQJRQHÀQGVRQHVHOIWKLQNLQJRIWKHVKDSHV themselves. First of all I was bothered by the thought, why Mu? Why not any other character, if it did not have any meaning anyway? I then came to the conclusion that any other character would have done equally well - but that WKHFKDUDFWHUIRU¶QRW·ZDVHDVLHUWRVWULSRILWVPHDQLQJWKDQWKHFKDUDFWHU IRUVD\¶GRJ·RU¶KRUVH·7KHQ,GHFLGHGWKDWWKHSRLQWRIXVLQJDPHDQLQJless character as the object of concentration was that it encompassed the whole of reality. A word with a meaning automatically carved out, isolated DOLWWOHSLHFHRIUHDOLW\DQGH[FOXGHGWKHUHVW7KHZRUG¶GRJ·IRUH[DPSOH LPSOLHGWKDWWKHUHVWRIUHDOLW\ZDV¶QRWGRJ·%XWDPHDQLQJOHVVZRUGGLG not exclude anything at all; it reduced everything to equality, or even to one. And that, I imagined, was what I had got to realize, with the whole force of intuition, not merely by vague speculation. All these conjectures, I realize, may be quite worthless - but I tell you them VLPSO\DVLOOXVWUDWLRQVRIWKHGLIÀFXOWLHVD:HVWHUQHUPD\SDVVWKURXJKLQWU\LQJ WRXQGHUVWDQG=HQ$IWHUP\ÀUVW sanzen, I would go to sanzen about twice a day. Sometimes the5RÙVKL never said anything at all to me. He would simply go LQWRWKHVWDWHRIFRQFHQWUDWLRQIRUDIHZPLQXWHVDZRUGOHVVH[HPSOLÀFDWLRQ of what I was supposed to do. Sometimes he would ask me how I was getting on - ¶'RÙMD·DQGVRPHWLPHVPRUHVSHFLÀFTXHVWLRQV$VIRU¶VROYLQJ·WKHNRÙDQ, I knew that would take me a very long time. The head monk told me it had taken him two years to get through the 0XNRÙDQ. I shall always remember how very beautiful the monastery looked at night, when I came out of the evening sanzen,ZRXOGRIWHQVLWXQGHUWKHHDYHVRIWKHKRQGRÙIRUDIHZPLQXWHVDQG look at the curving corner of the bell tower jutting out into the sky, the dark encircling mountains behind, the white kura >VWRUHKRXVH@JOLPPHULQJLQWKH darkness, and the pool of light at the door of the sanzen house. There were sounds of frogs and thin insects, the occasional jangle of the 5RÙVKL·V bell, fol-

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lowed by two strokes on the bell in the waiting room. All these memories are still astonishingly vivid to me. 22 March After her arrival in Tokyo Carmen made a number of sight-seeing visits from Tokyo with Hugh Cortazzi. On a visit to the Izu peninsular they went to Shimoda, where Townsend +DUULVWKHÀUVW$PHULFDQ&RQVXOKDGOLYHGLQWKHVDQGZKLFKKRXVHGWKH¶6H[ Museum’.

Hugh and I marched bravely in to be taken in charge immediately by the priest who was tirelessly and imaginatively solicitous when he learned we could speak -DSDQHVH7KH¶PXVHXP·SURYHGWREHRQHODUJHJODVVFDVHLQDVPDOODQWHURRP WRWKHPDLQKDOORIWKHWHPSOHZKHUH1LFKLUHQ²VDPD>IRXQGHURIWKH1LFKLUHQ VHFWRI%XGGKLVP@ZDVVHDWHGLQVWHUQDQGJROGHQJORU\DQGFRQWDLQHGSKDOOLF REMHFWVRIDSULPLWLYHFUXGLW\EXWRIDPRUHWKDQSULPLWLYHÀGHOLW\WRWKHRULJLQDO PRGHO7KHSULHVWVWRRGFDOPO\E\ZKLOHZHYHU\XQFRPIRUWDEO\DQGIDLUO\EULHÁ\ inspected these objects and then followed us into the main hall in the celibate presence of Nichiren … It may be appropriate to insert here, although out of sequence, the following entry on 17 October 1952:

Discussion with Fukuda-san today about the mysteries of the present censorship laws in Japan. The translation of Lady Chatterley’s Lover became a notorious court case. But the English original zenzen>QRWDWDOO@XQH[SXUgated is available for all who can read. Lady Chatterley pales into wholesome innocence compared with the ever-increasing number of pornographic magazines on sale in limitless profusion on every railway station. The most notorious of these are $QDWRUL )XÙIX VHLNDWVX >FRQMXJDO OLIH@ HWF HWF , DP constantly astonished by the number of different magazines making porQRJUDSK\WKHLUWKHPH:KHQHYHU,ÀQGP\VHOILGO\ÁLSSLQJWKHSDJHVRIWKH PDJD]LQHVRQ2LPDFKLVWDWLRQ,VHHPWRÀQGDQHZRQH0DJD]LQHVZLWKWKH most innocent sounding titles e.g. True Stories will be found to contain the same kind of pictures and stories. The covers usually sport alluring slogans VXFKDV¶6HFUHW7HFKQLTXHV· )XNXGDVD\VWKDWWKHSHRSOHZKR¶HQMR\·VXFKOLWHUDWXUHDUHPLGGOHDJHG men. Schoolboys buy them out of curiosity having received no sex education at all either at school or from their parents. Girls apart from prostitutes do not read them at all he thinks. ,WZRXOGEHLQWHUHVWLQJWRÀQGRXWZKDWHIIHFWWKHDEVROXWHO\IUHHVDOH of pornographic literature has had on young people in Japan. Before the

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war, of course, there was a very strict censorship, kissing scenes in Western ÀOPVEHLQJUXWKOHVVO\FXWRXW7KDWLWVKRXOGKDYHEHHQDOPRVWFRPSOHWHO\ OLIWHGLV)XNXGDWKLQNVPHUHO\D¶UHDFWLRQ·DQGXQOLNHO\WRODVWORQJWKRXJK admittedly the government seems to be taking no notice whatever of the problem despite occasional complaining letters to the press. If someone could try to assess the effects, psychological, sociological and moral of abolishing the censorship he would render a very useful service to society. The middle-aged men don’t count – the stories probably serve as vicarious compensation for a waning potency and satisfy a demand which ZRXOGJHWVDWLVÀHGE\VRPHPHDQVRURWKHUHYHQZHUHWKHUHWKHVWULFWHVW censorship. But do the stories seriously affect young people in thought or in action? Do they stimulate the schoolboys to try out the 48 Secret Techniques IRUWKHPVHOYHVRUÀOOWKHPZLWKVXFKUHSXOVLRQIRUWKHZKROHVXEMHFWWKDW they will never make satisfactory husbands? 26 June

>gimu v. giri @ >REOLJDWLRQYGXW\"@ $QLQWHUHVWLQJWDONZLWK.RQQRÙDQG.DZDNLWD²ERWKRIZKRPDOZD\V seem ready to prolong a simple answer to one of my questions into a couple of hours’ duel. We started on the difference between gimu and giri and I UHFRXQWHGWRWKHP5XWK%HQHGLFW·VDQDO\VLV7KLVWKH\DIÀUPHGZDVHQWLUHO\ off the rails, gimu did not denote unlimited obligation and giri limited. Gimu was a word created in early Meiji to denote the complement of kenri>ULJKWV@ whereas giri was a much older word connoting both gimu and kenri that embraced both the unlimited obligation to one’s parents (NRÙ) and to one’s lord (FKXÙ) and limited reciprocal obligation to one’s friends and neighbours. (YHQQRZ.RQQRÙVDLGgiri-shirazu>ODFNLQJDVHQVHRIGXW\@ZDVRQHRIWKH worst sins. He then proceeded into a discussion of the complications of giriVWUHVVLQJKRZGLIÀFXOWLWPXVWEHIRUIRUHLJQHUVWRFRPSUHKHQG$V, listened I wondered how many unforgiveable solecisms I had unwittingly committed during the past eight months and also whether everyone took WKHVXEMHFWDVVHULRXVO\DV.RQQRÙ — 1953 —

22 January It may be appropriate to insert here Carmen’s account of a seminar on The Chrysanthemum and The Sword by Ruth Benedict.

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7KHVHPLQDURUJDQLVHGE\'U%RZOHVDQG0U0DWVXPRWR6KLJHKDUX>IRXQGHU RI,QWHQDWLRQDO+RXVHRI-DSDQLQ5RSSRQJL7RN\R@ZKLFKFDOOVLWVHOIWKH -DSDQ6WXGLHV6HPLQDUPHWIRUWKHÀUVWWLPHWKLVDIWHUQRRQ$SDUWIURP'U 2GDND.XQLRDQGKLVZLIH3URIHVVRU7DNDJL0DF>0F(ZDQ27@DQGP\VHOI all present were Americans. The subject for discussion was Ruth Benedict’s Chrysanthemum and the Sword. I had been looking forward to a lively discussion as to what exactly was the difference between gimu and giri and what exactly was meant by on>REOLJDWLRQ@,ZDVGLVDSSRLQWHGWRÀQGKRZHYHUWKDWKDOIWKH time was spent in discussing what other people had said about Ruth Benedict DQGWKHRWKHUKDOILQÀQGLQJIDXOWZLWKWKHERRN·V¶PHWKRGRORJ\·1RWDVLQJOH DWWHPSWZDVPDGHWRDUULYHDWPRUHDFFXUDWHGHÀQLWLRQVRIWKHFRQFHSWVRQ which she was thought to be inadequate. Once indeed someone dared to direct a question of that nature to Dr Odaka but the only reply he gave was that it ZDVYHU\GLIÀFXOW+HUEHUW3DVVLQ>DQ$PHULFDQDFDGHPLF@ZKRP,KDGPHW WKHRWKHUVLGHRIWKH¶PLNH·ODVW7XHVGD\>DWDEURDGFDVW@WDONHGDJUHDWGHDO interestingly about shortcomings in her methodology and seminars they had held on this subject in the University of California. But the afternoon someKRZOHIWPHZLWKDIHHOLQJRI¶VFUDWFKLQJP\IRRWWKURXJKP\VKRH· I asked Shimizu Osamu the nisei >VHFRQG JHQHUDWLRQ H[SDWULDWH@ IURP Columbia whether he thought the same. He looked rather shocked and said WKDWRIFRXUVHRQHFRXOGDWWHPSWWRGHÀQHgiri merely subjectively for one’s RZQGHÀQLWLRQZRXOGKDYHQRPRUHYDOLGLW\WKDQ5%·V2QHZRXOGKDYH to construct a proper sample – thousands of people from varying walks of OLIH²DQGDVNWKHP¶SHULSKHUDOTXHVWLRQV·2QO\WKHQFRXOGRQHDUULYHDWD GHÀQLWLRQRIgiri for any accuracy and of course that was why everyone at the seminar had hesitated to express their own private opinions on the subject. I VDLG,WKRXJKWLWZDVDSLW\WKDWQRERG\IHOWFRPSHWHQWWRGHÀQHDQHYHU\GD\ ZRUGZLWKRXWÀUVWFRQGXFWLQJDSXEOLFRSLQLRQSROODQGWKDWWRPHGLVFXVVLRQ about what other people had said on the subject was as pointless a waste of WLPHDV¶VXEMHFWLYHMXGJHPHQWV·ZHUHWRWKHUHVWRIWKHSDUW\+RZÁDWVWDOH and colourless scholarship would become if nobody ever dared to express an opinion of their own. Shimizu said he thought I was being altogether too ¶PRUDOLVWLF·DOWKRXJKKHDGPLWWHGWKDWDQRFFDVLRQDOIRROUXVKLQJLQGLGSURYLGHVWLPXODWLQJGLVFXVVLRQ+HZDVWDONLQJRXWVLGHKLV¶ÀHOG·DQ\ZD\VRIHOW altogether freer to talk than if he was in it . . .’ 7 April

Set out with Pat28>2·1HLOO@IRU.RÙ\DVDQDUULYHGZLWKDQLQÁXHQWLDOOHWWHURI introduction supplied to me on Sunday evening by Mr Nakata of the Shinagawa-dera. We got on a train at Nanbu station in Osaka which wound its

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way slowly up towards the mountains stopping at innumerable tiny stations each of which had a huge board describing the local meisho>IDPRXVSODFHV@ DWOHDVWIRXUWRHYHU\WLQ\YLOODJH$W.RÙ\DJXFKLZHFKDQJHGWUDLQVDQGIRXQG ourselves immediately surrounded, enveloped, overwhelmed by a pious party of middle-aged ladies. They all wore their best kimonos, had their hair scraped back into little topknots on the backs of their heads and had their few overnight needs stowed in subdued furoshikiV>ZUDSSLQJFORWKV@RUXJO\VTXDVK\ looking plastic handbags. They were herded into the train by a man with a purple banner, their faces beaming with excitement. The little train climbed XSWKURXJKDIHZPRUHVWDWLRQVSDVVHGVRPHPDJQLÀFHQWFKHUU\WUHHVDWYLUtually the mankai>IXOOEORRP@VWDJHWR*RNXUDNXML+HUHZHDOOVFUDPEOHGRXW RIWKHWUDLQDQGFDVWLQJGLJQLW\DQGUHVWUDLQWWRWKHZLQGVUDQWRWKH¶FDEOHFDU· ,WZDVVRPHWKLQJRIDGLVDSSRLQWPHQWWRÀQGWKHDVFHQWRI.RÙ\DVDQPDGH so effortlessly easy. After reading descriptions of the ascent by Chamberlain (1901) and Terry (1904) I was prepared for a long steep climb through a forest RIYDVWFU\SWRPHULDVDQG¶ZKLVSHULQJ·VWUHDPVGXULQJZKLFK,VKRXOGVZHDW so much that a change of underclothes should be an essential item for my luggage. Instead we were wafted up in ten minutes by the cable and arrived DWWKHWRSWRÀQGEXVHVUHDG\WRWUDQVSRUWXVWRWKH1\RQLQGRÙ7KHEXVULGH was certainly not free from danger. The bus was very small and loaded to an almost unbelievable capacity. Pat and I were the last to be squeezed in – the purple banner was being brandished dangerously near my eye and Pat had several ladies clinging to him who had no other means of support to maintain their balance against the jolts and hairpin bends of the bus. The bus would occasionally pass over a rickety looking bridge spanning a deep ravine lined with enormously tall cryptomerias, the tops of some of the tallest of which reached up not far from the bridge. The bridge had no kind of railing whatsoever on either side and was covered with a thick layer of slippery looking mud crazed with treacherous looking wheel ruts. Each time the bus passed over such a bridge the old ladies uttered cries of excitement and alarm and Pat’s arms and waist were grasped with even less restraint. $WWKH1\RQLQGRÙZKLFKHYLGHQWO\ZDVWKHHTXLYDOHQWRIWKHJDWHZD\WRWKH place, everyone washed their hands in the stone basin of purifying water provided, bought sticks of incense and o-mamori >WDOLVPDQV@3DWDQG,ERXJKWWRZHOV and picture postcards and then set off to look for Mr Maeda, to whom our letter of introduction was addressed. Pat’s luggage was in a rucksack on his back and mine in a rather tired looking blue furoshiki. We hadn’t got far when a man came running after us and asked if we knew where we were going. Mr Maeda he said was away but he could arrange for us to stay at another temple where the letter of introduction would prove equally effective. He approached a little girl and

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DVNHGKHUWRVKRZXVWRWKH$QMRÙLQDYHU\LQWHUHVWLQJZDONSDVWLQQXPHUDEOH temples with long white dobei >PXGZDOOV@ and brown thatched roofs and glimpses through the open gates of quiet gardens and rocks. A surprising number of shops selling many other objects besides jufu>DPXOHW@RU%XGGKLVWLFRQVUHVWDXUDQWV displaying ordinary worldly looking sushi and donburi >ULFHERZO@LQWKHLUZLQGRZV and even to my distress a pachinko establishment. The few people that were to be seen did indeed include a number of priests and one very strange looking person clad entirely in white: tight white trousers and hanten>VKRUWZLQWHUFRDW@ barefoot with long straight black hair down to his shoulders, a huge round straw pilgrims hat under his arm and a long staff like a spear in his hand. 7KH$QMRÙLQZDVDIDLUO\ODUJHWHPSOHZLWKVPRRWKJUH\JUDYHOLQDSRRORXWside. Two young priests opened the door to us and I presented my letter. They disappeared with it and returned saying they could offer us no proper service but we would be very welcome. They showed us to a beautiful room overlooking a garden, which wings of the temple enclosed on three sides. It was getting dark and very cold but they put some charcoal into the irori>ÀUHSODFH@DQGEURXJKWXV a quilt under which we tucked our legs. The meal was strictly vegetarian served on two zen>VPDOOVKRUWOHJJHGWDEOH@WKHVHFRQGDU\zen being a good deal smaller WKDQWKHÀUVW2QHRIWKH\RXQJSULHVWVODGOHGRXWWKHULFHWRXVH[SODLQLQJHDFK dish to us as we attacked it. There was a fairly ordinary kind of soup, a bowl of white sloppy substance which we were told was a kind of potato but which tasted strangely sour, the same white substance stiffened, cut into small segments and wrapped round with nori >VHDZHHG@VRPHVPDOOVOLFHVRIFXFXPEHU7KHVHFRQGary zen looked much more inviting displaying some slices of orange in a china bowl with a lid but much to my disappointment we were not allowed to touch that for it was removed with the empty dishes of the main zen. I concluded that it was considered impolite to eat all that was offered one and that the young priest had quickly removed it before we could commit the grave solecism of disposing of everything. Fortunately we had a packet of biscuits and one of California raisins with us which helped supplement the inadequacies of the white sloppy substance, Afterwards the two young priests came in and talked to us for a couple of hours. They came in rather hesitantly and began to look at the maps and books we had strewn around the irori. The more talkative of the two was attending the University next door to the temple and was studying Sanskrit, English and ecclesiastical subjects. He would graduate the following year and be given a WHPSOHVRPHZKHUHRQ.RÙ\DVDQ6RPHWLPHVKHZHQWGRZQWR2VDNDWRWKH FLQHPD,DVNHGKRZDSDFKLQNRHVWDEOLVKPHQWFDPHWREHRQ.RÙ\DVDQDQG he said that a Korean had started it – the usual way of avoiding responsibility ²DQGWKDWDIWHUDOORQHFRXOGQRWÀJKWDJDLQVWWKHWUHQGRIWKHWLPHV,DVNHG them a number of questions about Shingon mandalas and Shingon methods

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of attaining satori>HQOLJKWHQPHQW@EXWWKH\PHUHO\JLJJOHGLQDQHPEDUUDVVHG way and asked us how cricket was played. Carmen left Japan for England on 1 August 1953 and took up post as lecturer in Japanese at Cambridge. She travelled to Japan whenever she could to pursue her research into Japanese religion and folklore. — 1954 —

10 July ,Q(QJODQGDWKHUSDUHQW·VKRPH¶3DVWXUHZRRG·LQ6XUUH\

The 5RÙVKL>RI(QJDNXML@DUULYHGIRUDODWHWHDDFFRPSDQLHGRIFRXUVHE\0U Hotta. The latter informed us that the 5RÙVKL would not, unfortunately, be able to stay the night with us as he intended to go to Cambridge guided by Mr Hotta, early tomorrow morning. Our protestations that we could deliver the 5RÙVKL to Farnborough station by 10 tomorrow morning evoked only incoherent but quite adamant murmurs from Mr H of the 5RÙVKL being tired, having done too much. Going to bed late tonight and getting up early tomorrow morning, the VLJKWRIWKHÀHOGVDQGWKHWUHHVWKHVZDOORZV·QHVWVXQGHUWKHHDYHVDQGWKH blue outline of Hascombe evoked from the 5RÙVKL himself much ejaculations of appreciation – NRUHZDULVRÙWHNLGD>WKLVLVLGHDO@WKDWZHEHJDQWRKRSHKHPLJKW UHOHQW0U+KRZHYHUUHPDLQHGDGDPDQW²WKH5RÙVKLHYLGHQWO\GRHVQRWDUJXH At tea, however, the 5RÙVKL was very lively. When Daddy expressed a wish WREHWROGKRZWR¶VLW·SURSHUO\KHLPPHGLDWHO\REOLJHG²VHL]HGWZRFXVKLRQV doubled them up in the hearth rug, placed Daddy on top of them, straightHQHGKLVEDFNSXVKHGLQKLVWXPP\DQGÀQDOO\KLPVHOIJDYHDPDJQLÀFHQW demonstration of how it should be done. He went into a state of sanmai>VWDWH RILQWHQVHFRQFHQWUDWLRQDFKLHYHGWKURXJKPHGLWDWLRQ@RQWKHKHDUWKUXJ² and the room was suddenly silent, with only the wind in the leaves and the chirp of the swallows under the eaves outside. He then demonstrated how KHVOHSWDOVRRQWKHKHDUWKUXJ²ÁDWRQKLVEDFNZLWKQRSLOORZ7KHVHVRIW fuku fuku mattresses one got in the west were doubtless designed for comfort. But they made him feel terrible. He couldn’t keep his back straight and found WKHJUHDWHVWGLIÀFXOW\LQVOHHSLQJ Would I show him the room he would have slept in. The view was really ULVRÙWHNL – almost better that the Engakuji. And my room? And the dining room? Could he perhaps write a letter to Tetsu-san and any other acquaintances in the 6RÙGÙR >PRQN·VFHOO@LQWKHURRPKHZRXOGKDYHVOHSWLQ"$QGQRZFRXOGKH see round the garden?

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Strangely enough he looked completely natural and unsurprising wherever he walked or sat. Whether he was sitting in the armchair, very straight, lifting his cup of tea up to a head kept militarily erect, or lying on the hearth rug or SDWWLQJWKHSRQLHVLQWKHÀHOGRUFOLPELQJXSWKHVWHSVRIWKHJ\SV\FDUDYDQ29 he was still the same person to whom I had prostrated myself so many times, and who had regarded me with such an intimidatingly piercing scrutiny during zazen Would he like a glass of sherry before supper? Yes, it might be good for him as he had low blood pressure. Towards the end of the grapefruit however KHVXGGHQO\FRYHUHGKLVIDFHZLWKKLVKDQGVDQGGHFODUHG´a yotta, yottaµ>,DP GUXQN@:HDVVXUHGKLPLWGLGQRWPDWWHULQWKHOHDVWDQGDOOKHQHHGGRZDV eat as much kedgeree as he could – which advice he took with great alacrity and evident satisfaction. Daddy then asked him if he thought that some people made quicker progress in zazen than others. This produced a most unexpected torrent of words in reply, which continued quite unbidden for about a quarter of an hour. Mrs Yamaguchi had been unusually quick because she had suffered so much beforehand – and suffering often was the best preparation for zazen. The history of Mrs Y’s hysterical and unmanageable daughter was related in great detail – how the daughter had recovered and reformed after her mother KDGDWWHQGHGKHUÀUVWsesshin>PHGLWDWLRQ@$OVRWKHKLVWRU\RI0LVVSDUW@EULVWOHGURXQGZLWKVFDIIROGLQJRQP\OHIW7KLVPRUQLQJ WKHUHZDVWKHÀUVWIURVWDQGDV,ELF\FOHGGRZQWRWKH,QVWLWXWHDWWHQWRQLQH there was a blue mist hanging over the rimy grass of the Backs with the long grey morning shadows of trees and the houses as though painted in Indian ink. Now it is just after 2 o’clock and the light is golden, and the shadows are once more starting to stretch, like long arms, across the grass. Sometimes, especially during the last few weeks I have strange feelings about Cambridge – that it is really the background of a legend or even a fairy story. It is not only the beauty of it all but its stillness too – so that even the moving things, the ducks on the river and the ripples behind them, the people walking over King’s Bridge in front of me, seem somehow irrelevant swalORZHGXSLQWKHVWLOOQHVV(YHQWKDWELJZKLWHVZDQWKDWKDVMXVWFRPHÁDSSLQJ along the river under the bridge and then risen whirring into the air – yet appearing part of the motionless pausing quality of the yellow light. Since I have been in my new digs I have had to cross the river more than ever before and each time I bicycle across Garret Hostel Bridge I have to pause and look at the lovely stone bridges on either side. When the moon was full last month it was an enchanted scene – to one side was Trinity Bridge white and fairylike against the dark trees behind. And to the other side Clare Bridge a JUH\VPRRWKVLOKRXHWWHDJDLQVWWKHPRRQ,QWKHZDWHUWKHUHÁHFWLRQVRIWUHHV and clouds in the moonlit sky and the yellow lights from odd scattered rooms in King’s – the moon itself round and unmoving. People ask me if I like Cambridge better than Oxford – but at Oxford I never seemed to have time to pause and look about me, to sit on a wooden seat by the river – look at the light on the stone and listen to the chirps of bird song in the trees. I was always rushing off to do something. Here it is the exquisite – even though possibly reprehensible – sense of \R\XÙ >FDOP@, of having the leisure to see the shadows grow longer on the grass. — 1957 —

13 March Carmen is spending the day with a friend.

:HZDONHGWRWKH*DUGHQ+RXVH+RWHO>LQ&DPEULGJH@DQGVDWLQWKHJDUGHQ XQWLO(0)RUVWHU>IDPRXV(QJOLVKQRYHOLVW@WXUQHGXS+HZDVDVZHHWJHQWOH courteous old man – and when I asked him what sort of books he had read ZKHQKHZDVDFKLOGKLVROGIDFHOLWXSDQGKHRSHQHGRXWOLNHDÁRZHU:H WDONHGRI(1HVELW>(GLWK1HVELW²ZDVDIDPRXVZULWHURIFKLO-

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GUHQ·VVWRULHV@DQG=LPEDEZHDQG7RN\R@

6HLEX SULYDWHUDLOZD\OLQH@WR0XVDVKLQRVWDWLRQ,IHOWKDOIDVOHHSDQGWRWDOO\XQÀW to talk to a woman URÙVKLGLVFXVVLRQJURXS@ZKRKDG SOD\HGDGLVWLQJXLVKHGSDUWLQWKH3DFLÀF:DUDOVRDFFRPSDQLHGXVDQGODWHU on, in the course of the tortuous cross-country journey on different lines, we picked up the portly Mr Yamada. After almost an hour’s journey from Taiheiji we reached a place called Sengawa near Mitaka and then walked for about twenty minutes still in heavy UDLQDORQJDQDUURZSDWKWKURXJKÀHOGVRISRWDWRHVDQGHJJSODQWV6RVHFOXGHG was the temple that not even the narrowest path led up to the front gate, EXWSULYDWHLQWHUYLHZZLWKD=HQPDVWHU@:KHQVKHFDPHLWZDV GLIÀFXOWWRUHDOLVHWKDWVKHZDVUHDOO\DZRPDQ6KHZDVVPDOOZLWKSLHUFLQJ EULJKWH\HVZKLFKFRQVWDQWO\UHPLQGHGPHRI$QDKLUD5RÙVKLDQGDSUHVHQFH which told me at once that she would be a strict, even alarmingly strict, task master. Indeed the list of sesshin>PHGLWDWLRQ@UXOHVRQWKHZDOORIWKHSDVVDJH told me at once that this sesshin would make the ones at Engakuji seem like a seaside picnic. Absolutely no talking was allowed except in sanzen >FRQVXOWDWLRQ ZLWK WKHKHDGDEERW@$EVROXWHO\IRUELGGHQDOVRZDVDQ\VPLOLQJRUODXJKLQJ A smiling face interfered with ritual and was hence prohibited. Except for returning home, no one was to go out. (Was anything really wrong with VPLOLQJ,DVNHGVHFRQGKHOSLQJV@MRÙVXL>FOHDQZDWHU@sessui>ERZOZDVKLQJ@ 7KHWDEOHPDQQHUVRIWKH6RÙWRÙ30VHFWVHFW@%XWWKLVYHU\LQWULFDF\ZDVRI course part of the VKLQJ\RÙ ,DVNHG1DNDJDZD5RÙVKLZKHWKHUVKHWKRXJKWWKDWPDUULDJHZDVDKLQGUDQFH to the VKXJ\RÙ >DVFHWLF SUDFWLFHV@ RI D ZRPDQ DQG VKH UHSOLHG OLNH ROG 0UV Amano the other day, that she did not by any means think so. Only recently she had had a lay girl as a pupil who got married in January and achieved henVKRÙ >XQLYHUVDOLOOXPLQDWLRQ@LQ)HEUXDU\+HUPRWKHUQRWWREHRXWGRQHDOVR began her VKXJ\RÙ and when she achieved KHQVKRÙ, her mother began zazen with successful results. — 1959 —

9 September Carmen’s interest in Japanese religion led her to investigate some of the new sects of 6KLQWR2QHRIWKHVHZDV7HQVKRÙ.RÙWDL-LQJXN\RÙPRUHSRSXODUO\NQRZQDVWKH'DQFLQJ ÙJDPLVDPDWKH¶JUHDWJRGGHVV·DQGIRXQGUHVVRIWKHVHFWRQ Religion. Carmen describes O pages 134–138 in the Catalpa Bow. The goddess’s name was Kitamura Sayo. Carmen said WKDWLQ¶KHUIROORZHUVZKRQRZQXPEHUPRUHWKDQZRUVKLSKHUVWLOOHYHQ

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after her death, as a divine messiah, the successor of the Buddha and Jesus.’ The following Ùgami-sama. HQWU\LQKHUGLDU\GHVFULEHV&DUPHQ·VÀUVWHQFRXQWHUZLWKO

Having successfully persuaded the Furikawas that there was really no need WREHLQ7DEXVH>ÀUVW@EXVVRRQDIWHUZHURVHDWWKHPRUHOHLVXUHO\KRXU of 6 and caught the ni-ban>VHFRQG@$WWKHVWDWLRQZDVDODUJHDQGVWUDJJOLQJ party of believers also bound for Tabuse including Mrs Harada of yesterday and we had a jolly breakfast on the train of sandwiches and bottles of milk. At Tabuse station we were met, to my surprise, by a large gentleman with a car who transported Mrs Oka and me, Fumiko-san and Takatsu obaasan >JUDQQ\@WRWKHKHDGTXDUWHUVDPLOHRUVRDZD\$QXQSUHWHQWLRXVFOXVWHURI ZRRGHQEXLOGLQJVLQFOXGLQJDODUJHOHFWXUHKDOOLQWKHPLGGOHRIDÀHOGZLWKLQ walkable distance of the railway line. We were conducted into a small room and served with some particularly delicious grapes while the large man, Mr Nakamura, began speaking about akurei>EDGH[DPSOH@7KHQZLWKVWDUWOLQJVXGGHQQHVVOÙgami-sama was in the room. She was dressed as she always seems to be in public in a man’s blue suit, the trousers held up by a broad leather belt, with a white blouse and a large diamond brooch. She had a broad solid peasant’s face with narrow black eyes and teeth framed, almost every one of them, with ugly gold. With no preliminary bow or politeness she strode up to me grasped me by the hand DQGVDLG¶/HWXVZRUNWRJHWKHUIRUWKHSHDFHRIWKHZRUOG·7KHÀUVWLPSUHVsion I had of her was of overpowering energy and of extraordinary force of personality - so much so that I felt strangely stunned and quite at a loss for words. I managed to utter a few conventional polite greetings, which sounded ridiculously formal when addressed to such a person and then asked when LWZDVWKDWVKHÀUVWIHOWWKHJRGVLQVLGHKHU6KHDQVZHUHGTXLFNO\kaji>ÀUH@ DWWKHWLPHRIWKHÀUHDQGWKHQEXUVWLQWRDWRUUHQWRIVSHHFK+HURUGLQDU\ YRLFHZDVGLIÀFXOWHQRXJKWRIROORZZLWKKHUORFDOGLDOHFW@ but now and then I lost the thread altogether for she would suddenly in the midst of a stream of talk, burst into piercing extempore song. Her eyes would close an entranced smile would spread over her face, and her harsh ÁDPHQFRYRLFHZRXOGULQJWKURXJKWKHURRP,ZDVQRWVXUHZKLFKRIWKH two gods inside her was speaking, indeed could scarcely understand anything of what it was saying – except when it announced that NHQN\XÙ>VWXG\@ZDVQRW enough, one had to experience god oneself. She would wake up from these songs quite suddenly – her eyes would open and she would start speaking in her ordinary voice again. Then again her speaking voice would suddenly gather speed and the words, all on one note, would come tumbling out in

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a vague rhythm, as though she was reciting poetry or a sutra. This also was one of the gods speaking. Luckily, she seemed to need no more stimulus than an occasional appreciaWLYH¶he·RU¶ha’ and a timid question now and then – for she continued talking for about an hour until it was time for the morning sermon to start. About a hundred of the faithful had congregated in the lecture hall and Mrs Oka, old Takatsu obaasan >JUDQQ\@DQG,ZHUHHPEDUUDVVLQJO\DQGFRQspicuously shown to the very front row, just underneath OÙgami-sama’s chair, in fact, which was placed, with a footstool and a thermos of water and an oshibori>GDPSFORWK@LQWKHtokonoma >DOFRYH@UHFHVVOÙgami-sama swept in, and in the ensuing sermon directed most of her remarks at me – occasionally with VWDUWOLQJUXGHQHVVÀULQJTXHVWLRQVDWPH True religions must have KRÙULNL>SRZHURI%XGGKLVP@DQGWKHJRGVLQVLGH her had performed innumerable times. Someone had come to her with two cancers, stomach and womb, and had been cured. She couldn’t say that everyone who came to her was cured for it depended on their state of mind. If they ZHUHWHUULÀHGRIGHDWKDQGFOXQJGHVSHUDWHO\WRWKHLGHDRIEHLQJFXUHGWKH\ scarcely ever were. But those who trusted in the kami-sama>JRGV @DOPRVW always recovered. You mustn’t use the kami-sama, but let him use you. On one occasion she had calmed the waves of the sea lashed to fury by a typhoon, and had safely conducted a party to a nearby island. At the end of the sermon, everyone suddenly burst into the inori>SUD\HU@ – the prayer starting 7HQVKRÙ NRÙWDLMLQJXN\RÙ >DSUD\HUWRWKH6XQ*RGGHVV$PDWHUDVX@ZKLFKZDVZULWWHQXSLQODUJHFKDUDFWHUVEHKLQG OÙgami-sama’s chair. 7KH\FKDQWHGORXGO\DQGÀUPO\DQGDWWKHHQGRIWKHSUD\HUVXGGHQO\EURNH into a most deafening and startling clamour, one of the most astonishing sounds I have ever listened to. Each of the 100 faithful shouted over and over again, at the top of his voice, and from the bottom of his stomach, the mystic formula QDPP\RÙKÙRUHQJHN\RÙ >XQLYHUVDO1LFKLUHQ%XGGKLVWLQYRFDWLRQ@ 7KHLUIDFHVZHUHWUDQVÀJXUHGWKHLUH\HVVKXWWKHLUPRXWKVZLGHRSHQDQG working, their clasped hands violently shaking to and fro in front of them. The noise was more deafening than anything I have ever heard from human throats – in a different category altogether from cheers to royalty or footbalOHUV7KH¶VWRPDFK·YRLFHZKLFKDSSDUHQWO\ OÙgami-sama insists upon, has a piercing harshness, which, as the minutes went by and the clamour continued, made me wonder whether I was still sane. Each person shouted in his own rhythm, to his own tune, old ladies with their scraped grey hair, young women with small children, young men in white shirts, school girls in navy skirts and pigtails. A couple of loud, hard claps from OÙgami-sama, to me quite inaudible but which were communicated to the believers by what appeared to be some

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kind of extra-sensory perception, and the noise suddenly stopped, leaving a IDLQWDIWHUKXPLQP\HDUV¶PHXVHG E\HOGHUO\PDOHV@DQGja >LVDUHLQGLDOHFW@EXWWKUHZLQDQXPEHURIGUHDGIXOO\ coarse expressions, which heightened the impression of ill-bred vulgarity. Mrs Oka, herself, indeed, dressed in an elegant brocade suit and a hat and stockings looked rather incongruously sophisticated by the side of OÙgami-sama in her PDQ·VVXLWDQGDOOWKHEHOLHYHUVLQWKHLUZKLWHÁRZHUVZRUQRYHUVKDSHOHVV shorts and geta >ZRRGHQFORJV@OÙgami-sama is indeed in the habit of addressing her audience as ujimushi no kojiki>PDJJRWEHJJDUV@FKLNXVKRÙ >EHDVW@DQGRWKHU abusive terms. But as the day wore on and we listened to more sermons, even Mrs Oka decided that this style of speech was genuinely OÙgami-sama’s, not cultivated for effect. That was why, OÙgami-sama herself explained, she always wore trousers for her sermons. Feminine attire would make such language ridiculous. The words came from the masculine god inside her. We had some more of our sandwiches for lunch, after which Mr Nakamura called on us – he was the large gentleman who had met us at the station and who was evidently devoting his life to the service of OÙgami-sama. He had EHHQKHUFORVHUHWDLQHUIRUWZHOYH\HDUVQRZ²HYHUVLQFHKHÀUVWVDZWKH Muga-no-mai>GDQFHRIVHOIUHQXQFLDWLRQSHUIRUPHG@,WZDVWKHQWKDWKHIHOW IRUWKHÀUVWWLPHLQKLVOLIHWKDWKHUHDOO\XQGHUVWRRGWKHPHDQLQJRIUHOLJLRQ Before that, Buddhist statues had given him a glimpse of what it all might mean – but in the muga >,Q%XGGKLVPUHIHUVWRWKHQRWLRQRI¶QRWVHOI·RUWKH LOOXVLRQRI¶VHOI·,QWKHHDUO\WH[WVWKH%XGGKDFRPPRQO\XVHGWKHZRUGLQ the context of teaching that all things perceived by the senses (including the PHQWDOVHQVH DUHQRWUHDOO\¶,·RU¶PLQH·DQGIRUWKLVUHDVRQRQHVKRXOGQRW FOLQJWRWKHP@GDQFHVKHIHOWKHVDZOLYLQJDQGIRUFHIXOZKDWKDGJOLPPHUHG dimly from the statues. After the afternoon sermon, OÙgami-sama, apparently specially for my benHÀWRUGHUHGWKHIDLWKIXOWRSHUIRUPWKHGDQFH7KH\DOOJDWKHUHGLQWKHRSHQ space outside the lecture hall and, while one woman spoke through a microphone, they obediently shut their eyes and began to glide to and fro vaguely waving their arms. Their expressions were those of sleepwalkers, and their movements rather like those we made in school eurhythmics classes when WROGWRPLPHGU\DGVRU¶VSULQJ·

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— 1963 —

July &DUPHQZLWQHVVHGDQGODWHUKHUVHOIH[SHULHQFHG ÀUHZDONLQJhi-watari, in an armpit of hills north of Kyoto, performed by yamabushi of the Tanukidani sect. See Catalpa Bow, pp, 250–251.

Fire-walking, hi-watari, is the one feat in the yamabushi’s ancient magic repertory which may still be seen practised in many places in Japan, particularly in spring and autumn, at the conclusion of the VDLWRÙJRPDRUPDJLFERQÀUHULWH7KH embers of the great conical pyre, the burning of which is a ritual of the greatest beauty and symbolic power but which it would be irrelevant to describe at this point, are raked out by yamabushi with long bamboo rakes to form a red and smouldering path about twenty feet long. A squadron of yamabushi draw XSDWWKHKHDGRIWKHSDWKORXGO\UHFLWHFHUWDLQPDQWUDVWKHQVWULGHÀUPO\LQ procession down the smoking cursus. By this action, it is believed, they have so UHGXFHGWKHHVVHQFHRIWKHÀUHWKDWLWLVQRWRQO\VDIHEXWH[WUHPHO\EHQHÀFLDO for all and sundry from the profane world to traverse the path too. :KHQ,ÀUVWZLWQHVVHGWKHULWHLQ-XO\LWZDVSHUIRUPHGE\WKHyamabushi of the Tanukidani sect in a beautiful site in an armpit of hills north of Kyoto, with forest and a precipice of rock on two sides. A large crowd had JDWKHUHGZDLWLQJIRUWKHSULYLOHJHRIWUDYHUVLQJWKHÀHU\SDWKPHQDQGZRPHQ old and young, fat and thin, so many made a rush to walk in the yamabushi’s footsteps that I decided it would be foolish not to go with them. The path was still alarmingly red and smoking by the time my turn came, but so effective apparently were the yamabushi’s spells that the embers underfoot felt no more than pleasantly warm to the soles. I remain sceptical of explanations that the usual purifying libation of salt scattered over the embers will reduce their heat, that the Japanese sole is tougher than the western one or that a collected mind is required if one is to walk across unburnt. My feet are rather sensitive and my mind at the time was in turmoil, yet a mild warmth was all that I felt. August Carmen climbed Mt Haguro. See Catalpa Bow, pp. 220–233.

,Q$XJXVWRZLQJWRWKHNLQGRIÀFHVRI3URIHVVRU+RULDQG0U7RJDZD $QVKRÙZKRVHNQRZOHGJHRIWKHGRFWULQHDQGSUDFWLFHRIWKH+DJXURyamabushi is unrivalled, I was allowed to join the akimine week as one of the dozen shingyaku or neophytes.

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On the afternoon of August 24th the procession which marched through WKHYLOODJHRI7RÙJHPXUDWRWKHJDWHZD\DWWKHIRRWRIWKHPRXQWDLQSUHVHQWHG DEULOOLDQWVLJKW7KHÀYHsendatsu wore checked surcoats displaying the colour demanded by their position in the esoteric quincunx. The GRÙVKL wore the purple which stood for northern black, the kogi wore the green of the east, the aka the red of the west, the kariWKH\HOORZRIWKHVRXWKZKLOHWKHGLJQLÀHGÀJXUHRI the daisendatsu Mr Shimazu, who rather resembled in appearance General Nogi, the hero of the Russo-Japanese War, was clad in the pure white required by his central and paramount position. The rest of the company were dressed in surcoats of large blue and white checks, sporting on the back a notable crest of a Chinese lion, baggy white pantaloons, tight white leggings, collar with six white tufts, small black cap on forehead. The procession carried with it the ritual tools needed for the week’s exercises. The powerfully symbolic oi, representing the mother’s womb, was carried near the middle of the line covered with the white folded hat. To the fore went the long bonden with its mane of white paper streamers, a large black wooden axe and a halberd. To the van and to the rear went the shell trumpeters who sounded the various signals for departure, and the halts for worship on the way. Over the heads of each of the sendatsu was held a large red paper umbrella, while perpendicular purple banners bearing the legend of the Haguro order also marched to the fore. Before this brave procession passed beneath the red torii which represented WKHRIÀFLDOJDWHZD\WRWKHPRXQWDLQLWSDXVHGDWDVPDOOVKULQHFDOOHGWKH .RJDQHGRÙIRUDFXULRXVFHUHPRQ\ZKLFKV\PEROLFDOO\PDUNHGWKHUHDOEHJLQning of the exercise. The white daisendatsu, with the oi representing the womb on his back and his face hidden by the strange ayaigasa, representing placenta, on his head, crouched at the foot of the wooden steps with the long bonden ZDQGLQKLVKDQGV$IWHUVKDNLQJLWWRDQGIURVHYHUDOWLPHVKHÁXQJLWIRUZDUG so that it clattered and banged up the steps. No one explained this curious procedure until we made enquiries. It then transpired that what we had seen represented the act of conception. Having been corpses the previous night, we were all now embryos in the womb of the mountain. The procession thereupon, to the accompaniment of blasts on conch shells, passed through the red gateway of the Haguro mountain. From there, SDXVLQJRQO\WRRIIHU¶ZRUVKLSIURPDIDU·DWVWDWHGVSRWVWRWKHRWKHUKRO\ PRXQWDLQVLQWKHGLVWULFWLWZRXQGLWVZD\XSDQLPPHQVHÁLJKWRIVWRQH steps, built in the seventeenth century and leading through several miles of forest up the mountain as far as the Haguro shrine at the top. Huge cryptomeria trees, likewise planted in the seventeenth century, formed an avenue

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RQHLWKHUVLGH$WWKHIRRWRIWKHVKULQHLVDÁLJKWRIWHQVWHSVZKLFKUHSUHVHQW the ten stages on the path to enlightenment. Here, as was appropriate to their as yet ungrown, unformed, rudimentary state, the party made its act of reverence, chanting the Heart Sutra and appropriate mantras, at the bottom of this symbolic scale. Their corresponding act of worship at the end of the week was made from the topmost step. From here the procession marched two or three miles further into the heart of the mountain, down a slippery path with a row of stepping stones like balls down the middle, to a spot originally opened and hallowed by the founder 6KRÙNHQ'DLERVDWVX+HUHDWWKHHQGRIDQDYHQXHRIVWRQHLPDJHVVWDQGVWKH WHPSOHRI.RÙWDNXMLZKLFKLVWKHEDVHIURPZKLFKWKHZHHN·VH[HUFLVHVDUH conducted. $W WKH HQWUDQFH WR WKH WHPSOH WKH SURFHVVLRQ KDOWHG ZKLOH WKH 'RÙVKL delivered the necessary instructions for the party to settle into its new quarters. Having lain empty since the last retreat the previous August, it must be swept and garnished. The kitchen stores must be unpacked, the water must be pumped from the well, the altar must be dressed and made ready for the coming observances and the various ritual tools duly arranged. These included a long tassel of red and white cords suspended from the ceiling of the shrine room, which represented the veins and arteries by which the embryo was ttached to the mother’s womb. Lastly the thirty members of the party must be allotted places to sleep. The company that year consisted of a number of heterogeneous elements. Besides WKHÀYHsendatsu and a few other yamabushi living in the village at the foot of the mountain, there had joined the Haguro company several yamabushi from other FHQWUHV1LNNRÙDQG6HQGDL7KHUHZDVDkarate master from Osaka who was a SDUWWLPH\DPDEXVKL7KHUHZHUHÀYHZRPHQDOORIWKHPSURIHVVLRQDODVFHWLF healers come to consolidate their store of power at the retreat, who were relegated to the only upstairs room in the temple. Another room was allotted to a group of veteran yamabushi who were farmers for the periods of the year when QRDVFHWLFH[HUFLVHVZHUHWDNLQJSODFH7KHIRXU¶VWXGHQWV·WRJHWKHUZLWKRQH young boy, the karate master and the yamabushiIURP1LNNRÙZHUHDOORWWHGD narrow seven-mat room in which to sleep. 7KH'RÙVKLWKHQH[SODLQHGWKDWZHKDGQRZHQWHUHGWKHÀUVWRIWKHWKUHHshuku or lodgings, into which the week was to be divided and which marked stages in the growth of the embryo. During these lodgings, certain rites and penances would be observed which marked the stages on the other symbolic system, the passage through the Ten Realms of Transmigration. The penance of hell, known as the nambanibushi or southern smoking, would take place twice that night and twice more the following night. The penance of the Hungry Ghosts, observed

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FRQFXUUHQWO\ZRXOGFRQWLQXHIRUWKHÀUVWWKUHHGD\VRIWKHZHHNLWFRQVLVWHGRI abstention from all solid food. Tea would be allowed, but nothing else. Hence there would be nothing to eat for the rest of the day, and nothing the next day either. Likewise the penance of the Animal World would begin forthwith, but unlike the other two would continue for the entire week. By this penance we were forbidden to wash either body or face, to clean the teeth, to rinse the mouth or to shave. These were the three lowest and most unpleasant realms to be negotiated. 7KHUHPDLQLQJWKUHHRIWKHVL[¶SURIDQH·UHDOPVWLWDQVPHQDQGJRGVDQGWKH IRXU¶KRO\·UHDOPVVUDÙYDNDVSUDW\HNDEXGGKDV bodhisattvas and Buddhas, would be enacted later in the week. The afternoon having been thus spent in sweeping, pumping and unpacking, the business of the retreat started that night at eight o’clock with the VKR\DJRQJ\RÙWKHÀUVWRIWKHWZRQLJKWO\VHUYLFHVHDFKODVWLQJDFRXSOHRIKRXUV which took place every night of the week. The service, for which everyone had to appear properly dressed, was conducted in a large front room of the temple called the toko. It was lit by only DQDUFKRIFDQGOHVRYHUWKHDOWDUDWRQHHQGDQGE\ÀYHODUJHGLPODQWHUQV FDQGOHVZLWKLQWUDQVOXFHQWVKDGHVRQHVHWRQWKHÁRRULQIURQWRIHDFKRIWKH ÀYHsendatsu as they sat ranged in their proper positions before the altar. The service started with a roll-call called toko-shirabe, in which all the participants were called by the special names they had been given, ending with the syllable ERÙ, together with the village where they lived.15 The chanting then started with a fast Heart Sutra and the name of the deity 6DPERÙ'DL.RÙMLQDQGKLVPDQWUDUHSHDWHGWKUHHWLPHV 1DPX6DPERÙ 'DL.RÙMLQ 1DPX6DPERÙ 'DL.RÙMLQ 1DPX6DPERÙ 'DL.RÙMLQ On kembaya kembaya sowaka On kembaya kembaya sowaka On kembaya kembaya sowaka. Then started the +RNNH6HPERÙ. It was very beautiful, on three wailing notes, ZLWKWKH'RÙVKÖÙ OHDGLQJLQZLWK¶Shinkeirei ’ and the other sendatsu responding with invocations to all the Buddhas of the Ten Directions, the east, the southeast, the south, the south-west, the west, the north-west, the north, the northeast, above and below. 6KLQNHLUHLWRÙKÙR VHQWRNXIXVKLQWRÙKÙR KDNNDLVHLVKRÙIX 6KLQNHLUHLWRÙQDPSRÙ EX\XWRNXIXVKLQWRÙQDPSRÙ KDNNDLVHLVKRÙIX

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There was a haunting quality about the chant which pursued me for days afterwards. I would wake up in the morning with it ringing in my ears, and it followed me in everything I did for at least a week after the retreat ended. The chanting had continued for some minutes when without any warning the voices rose to a shout, and there was a deafening banging on the outer shutters of the room, like a sudden thunderclap crashing against the temple. 7KUHHWLPHVWKLVKDSSHQHGDWXQH[SHFWHGLQWHUYDOVDQGDWWKHÀUVWWLPHWKH row of shingyaku or neophytes ranged down the left side of the room were considerably startled. 4XLWH ULJKW WKDW WKH\ VKRXOG EH 0U 7RJDZD DIWHUZDUGV H[SODLQHG 7KH sounds were supposed to bring home to you, with as much of a shock as possible, the chaotic state of your thoughts and passions at the beginning of the ZHHN2QWKHWKLUGGD\ZKHQZHKDGOHIWWKHÀUVW¶ORGJLQJ·DQGHQWHUHGWKH second, the furious banging was replaced by a gentler sound, the faint crackle made by shikimiOHDYHVIDQQHGLQWRÁDPHRYHUDEUD]LHUVXLWDEOHWRWKHFDOPHU condition into which our minds should by then have subsided. The chanting of the +RNNH6HPERÙ then levelled out to one note, faster and faster until it sounded like the humming of bees. Then the voices swung into another tune, strange and beautiful like an old folksong, which was the Midasan or hymn to Amida. There followed the Fumombon, then the mantras of eighteen deities, each repeated three times, then the KRÙJÙRor holy names of fourteen deities specially concerned with Mt Haguro, each one again repeated three times: 1DPX7HQVKRÙ .RÙWDL-LQJXÙ Namu Hagurosan Daigongen Namu Gossan Daigongen Namu Yudonosan Daigongen. DQGRQZDUGVWKURXJKORFDOHPDQDWLRQVRI)XGRÙ-L]RÙDQGWKHIRXQGHURIWKH RUGHU6KRÙNHQ'DLERVDWVX There followed a VHQJDQVKLQJ\RÙ or Thousand Heart Sutras. This was calculated to be adequately accomplished if every person present recited the whole VXWUDVHYHQWLPHVDQGWKHGKDÙUDQÖÙDWWKHHQGIRUW\WLPHV:LWKDFRPSDQ\ of between thirty and forty reciting, this somehow worked out at a round thousand. 7KHUHZDVWKHQDVKRUWSDXVHDQGWKH'RÙVKLFDOOHG‘Kamidoko e hibachi, shimodoko e hibachi’, ¶EUD]LHUVWRWKHIURQWRIWKHURRPEUD]LHUVWRWKHEDFN· At once the outer shutters were thrown open and three yamabushi entered each carrying a long wooden brazier like a window-box, full of red-hot charcoal. These they set down to the front, middle and back of the room, and

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having closed the outer shutters tightly, took their places behind the braziers, each with a large red fan in his hand. 7KH'RÙVKLWKHQFDOOHG¶Kamidoko e yakumi’¶VSLFHVWRWKHIURQW·DQGDWRQFH the yamabushi manning the foremost brazier threw on to the red charcoal a WUD\RIUHGSHSSHUÁDNHVULFHEUDQDQGDVPHOO\SODQWFDOOHGdokudami. A furWKHUFDOO¶Shimodoko e yakumi’, and the same was done with the two remaining braziers. A thick cloud of smoke at once rose from all three, which the attendant yamabushi fanned vigorously with their red fans. Every few seconds, as the 'RÙVKLUHSHDWHGWKHFRPPDQGPRUHSHSSHUÁDNHVDQGEUDQZHUHFDVWRQWR WKHFKDUFRDOXQWLOWKHURRPZDVTXLFNO\ÀOOHGZLWKDWKLFNZKLWHVPRNH6R acrid and pungent was it that you had but to breathe in a whiff to start an uncontrollable paroxism of choking. Thicker and thicker rose the clouds of VPRNHXQWLOWKHÀJXUHVRQWKHRWKHUVLGHRIWKHURRPZHUHEORWWHGRXWDQG HYHQWKRVHQHDUPHZHUHVKURXGHGDVWKRXJKLQDGHQVHIRJDQGWKH'RÙVKL FRXOGRQO\ZLWKGLIÀFXOW\VSOXWWHURXWKLVFRPPDQGV At last, after what I subsequently discovered to be only four minutes, came the command, ‘Tokoyurugi’,DQGWKHVKXWWHUVZHUHÁXQJRSHQ6RPHFRQWLQXHG to sit bravely in their places, but most people rushed choking to the open windows and gasped for air. It was some time before I could stop coughing, and the peculiar smell and aftertaste of the smoke lingered over the entire temple for hours afterwards. The room where we slept was full of it when we got back, and only slowly drifted away through the open windows. Exactly the same order of service was repeated at the JR\DJRQJ\RÙor late night service which started at 2 a.m. The Shakasan or hymn to Shaka replaced the hymn to Amida, but the haunting tune was identical. By four o’clock the worst of the smoke had drifted away, and we lay down to rest until 6.30. I slept badly, with the wailing chant of the +RNNH6HPERÙringing in my ears, with its shinkeirei and its Buddhas of the Ten Directions, and with bright visions before my eyes RIDQRUFKDUGRIWUHHVQRZFRYHUHGZLWKZKLWHÁRZHUVQRZZLWKUHGOHDYHV The smoking penance is known as the namban-ibushi or southern smoking because peppers were held to come from southern parts. The sufferings it entails constitute the austerity of hell, the lowest and worst of the ten realms to be negotiated on the way to Buddhahood. The choice of pepper smoke to symbolise the tortures of hell seems to be associated with the old belief that smoke burnt in the face of a possessed person will drive out the jaki or HYLOLQÁXHQFH,QWKHROGGD\VZKHQWKHUHWUHDWODVWHGIRUVHYHQW\ÀYHGD\V WKH'RÙVKLLQIRUPHGXVWKHQH[WGD\WKH\XVHGWRGRWKHnamban-ibushi some forty times. Now it was reduced to only four, at the end of each of the two VHUYLFHVRQWKHÀUVWWZRQLJKWV%HIRUHWKHZDUKHKDGRIWHQVHHQSHRSOH

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carried out unconscious. The smoke got down their throats, they tried to be sick, nothing came up because of the starvation diet, and after four or ÀYHYLROHQWUHWFKHVWKH\IDLQWHG:LWKWKHUHFHQWPRGLÀFDWLRQVKRZHYHU nothing so drastic was seen today. During the days that followed, the remainder of the six profane worlds were negotiated at stated times. The starvation appropriate to the Hungry *KRVWVZDVFRQWLQXHGRIÀFLDOO\XQWLOWKHPRUQLQJRIWKHWKLUGGD\WKRXJK it was relieved on the 26th by a present of noodles, consumed midday, and on the 27th by another of beans and water melons. These gifts were made E\WKHNLQGYLOODJHUVRI7RÙJHPXUDLQUHWXUQIRURXUUHFLWLQJLQRXUDOUHDG\ VSLULWXDOO\VWUHQJWKHQHGVWDWHWKHHQRUPRXV'DLKDQQ\DN\RÙRU/DUJHU3UDMQDÙSDÙUDPLWDÙ 6XWUDIRUWKHEHQHÀWRIWKHLUGHDGDQFHVWRUV7KLVKXJHVXWUD it should be said, was not recited in full, but by the method known as tendoku. This feat, for which practice is needed to attain dexterity, consists of holding the volume of the sutra aloft in one hand and allowing its pages to cascade downwards in an elongated concertina into the other, reciting loudly meanwhile a short magic formula. Though the Daihannya Sutra occupies some scores of volumes, when divided among the thirty participants in the manner described, not more than a quarter of an hour was needed to extract from it the required effect. Such segaki or offerings to the Hungry Ghosts apart, however, the fast continued until the morning of the 27th, when, with a ritual called dan-biraki, we were supposed to pass out of the realm of Hungry Ghosts. Thereafter two maigre meals were served a day, in the early morning and at midday. The ordeal of the Animal World, however, not washing, not shaving, not cleaning the teeth, not even rinsing the mouth, continued until the end of the week and proved, in the hot weather of the comparatively low-lying Mt Haguro, to be a greater penance than the fasting. The remainder of the seven worlds were negotiated, or celebrated, without any element of privation or suffering. The world of the Ashuras or titans, who are believed to be continually at war with one another, was celebrated by a bout of sumo wrestling. The human world was celebrated by a fairly strenuous exercise called sange, repentance, which consisted of forty prostrations, up and down from a standing position to one with the forehead on WKHÁRRUDQGDUPVRXWVWUHWFKHG7KHVHZHUHSHUIRUPHGLQWKHPLGGOHRIWKH WKLUGDQGIRXUWKQLJKWVDIWHUWKHÀUVWVHUYLFHZDVFRQFOXGHG7KHZRUOGRI WKHGHYDVWKHWRSPRVWRIWKHVL[¶SURIDQH·VWDWHVVKRXOGE\ULJKWVKDYHEHHQ celebrated by the dance known as Ennen or long life, late on the night of the 28th after the VDLWRÙJRPDZDVÀQLVKHG:KHQWKHPRPHQWFDPHKRZHYHU it was discovered that no one among the company could remember how

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to execute it. Instead, therefore, the deva world was symbolised by some chanting in the Furukawa mode. The four higher and sublime states of consciousness, of the prison of the ever-circling Buddhist wheel, namely the VKRÙPRQ or VUDÙYDNDV the engaku or pratyeka-buddhasWKHERGKLVDWWYDVDQGWKHÀQDO%XGGKDVZHUHQRWFHOHEUDWHG by any rite at all. The daisendatsu explained their absence by the fact that such H[DOWHGVWDWHVRIFRQVFLRXVQHVVZHUHLQDQ\FDVH¶IRUPOHVV·DQGKHQFHQRW appropriately subject to symbolisation. Clearly, however, the traditional rites KDGVLPSO\EHHQIRUJRWWHQDQGIDOOHQLQWRGLVXVH7KHUHZDVWKHUHIRUHQRÀQDO and triumphant culmination to this succession of symbolic rites of passage. The concurrently enacted embryo symbolism was recalled throughout the week by a number of devices. The ceremony known as Ninoshuku-hairi, or entry into the second lodging, performed on the afternoon of the third day, FOHDUO\UHSUHVHQWHGZLWKLWVWZRÁDULQJWRUFKHVSXVKHGWRJHWKHUHQGWRHQG VRPHNLQGRIVH[XDOFRXSOLQJ7KHFXULRXV¶VWDJJHUHGIHQFH·NQRZQDVchigaigaki, which also featured prominently in this rite, indicated, so the daisendatsu informed me, that the foetus had reached the stage of growth where it turned round in the womb. Likewise the passing of the white ayaigasa hat, representing placenta, from the head of the daisendatsu to that of the GRÙVKL, indicated that the foetus had moved its place in the womb. The tassel of red and white cords, moreover, hanging from the ceiling near WKHDOWDUXQGHUZHQWDVLJQLÀFDQWFKDQJHLQWKHPLGGOHRIWKHZHHN7KHUHG FRUGVUHSUHVHQWLQJDUWHULHVWKHZKLWHYHLQVDQGWKHÁD[HQVWULQJVERQHVWKHVH KDGIRUWKHÀUVWSDUWRIWKHZHHNEHHQORRSHGXSWRDULQJRIWKUHHZKLWHIDQV in the ceiling which represented heaven. At the beginning of the third lodging, RQWKHPRUQLQJRIWKHWKWKH\ZHUHOHWGRZQWRGDQJOHRQWKHÁRRU7KLV emblem likewise symbolised the movement of the foetus in the womb, and at the same time, in a manner not clearly explained, the disciple’s ascent from a profane state to a holy one. The rest of the time during the day was taken up with listening to lectures by the daisendatsuRQ6KXJHQGRÙGRFWULQHSUDFWLVLQJVXFKRFFXOWDUWVDVWKH mudras, some of which represent lions, which accompany the nine magic syllables known as kuji, preparing and performing the important ritual of the VDLWRÙJRPD and with long pilgrimages known as WRVRÙ to remote parts of the Haguro mountain and district which had been originally hallowed by the Founder. The longest of these was to Sankozawa, reputed to be a cave set up in the cliff face where the Founder had for some time secluded himself in meditation. The tramp to this place, which some people declared to be twelve ri there and back, some thirty miles, and others not more than three or four, was

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scheduled to take place at 4.30 on the morning of the 29th. The ceremonies following the VDLWRÙJRPD, which included several small cups of celebratory saké, having only ended about three hours before, and this being the fourth night running in which we had had no more than three or four hours sleep, I was not at all sure, when roused, that I could manage the pilgrimage without collapsing. But after breaking one of the rules and washing my face, I felt much more clear-headed and decided to go. 7KHÀUVWODSRIWKHMRXUQH\ZDVGRQHLQDEXVERXQGIRUWKHWRSRI*DVVDQ ZLQGLQJGHHSO\LQWRWKHPRXQWDLQV$WDQLQGHÀQLWHVSRWRQWKHZD\ZHJRW out, a smallish party of only a dozen led by the yellow kari sendatsu. Here he plunged straight into the undergrowth at the side of the road, and we followed him down a precipitously steep hillside, clinging on to the branches of saplings and the vines which covered them like a cloak. Down and down we plunged, swinging from tree to tree, until suddenly we found ourselves once more on OHYHOJURXQGRQDÁDWVWUHWFKRIULFHÀHOGVZLQGLQJOLNHDJUHHQULYHULQWRWKH hills. The white line of yamabushi, resplendent in their collars with red and yellow tufts, then threaded its way for half an hour along the narrow paths between ÀHOGVRIULFH$IWHUKDOIDQKRXULWUHDFKHGDYLOODJHFDOOHG6HEDIXOORIODUJH L-shaped farmhouses. This was a shugen-buraku or yamabushi village, where every family, if it did not contain a yamabushi, was at least a faithful supporter of the Haguro sect. ,QWRRQHRIWKHVHKRXVHVZLWKDJDUGHQIXOORI\HOORZÁRZHUVDQGWKH shorter arm of the L, next to the entrance hall, occupied by the lavatory and a stall with a black cow, the party entered. Having recited the Heart Sutra and WKHPDQWUDRI6DPERÙ'DL.RÙMLQLQIURQWRIWKHIDPLO\VKULQHLWWKHQFRQVXPHG the cold rice balls and slices of pickled cucumber provided for its breakfast. Beyond the village a lorry carried us among crates of vegetables two or three miles along the course of a river as far as an electrical power station. There we scrambled down to the river bed, waded across a shallow ford, and climbed up the steep slope the other side through thick trees covered with red berries. There was a narrow path leading right into the heart of the mountains, looking down a couple of hundred feet below to an olive-green river with withered trees startlingly white on the bank. Sankozawa was somewhere over there, the sendatsu declared, beyond those folds of hills. In the old days before they made the dam for the power station the river had been much shallower, and instead of walking along this path above the course of the stream they had scrambled up the river bed itself, leaping from rock to rock. In the old days too, the cave where the Founder had performed his meditations could only be reached by the party gathering at the top of

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a precipice and lowering one man on a rope down the sheer face of rock as far as the cave. There he would recite the necessary observances before being hauled up again. Some years ago, however, a landslide had obliterated the cave, so that they now ended their pilgrimage at the top of the erstwhile precipice. 6XGGHQO\WKHVLQJOHÀOHSURFHVVLRQFDPHWRDKDOWDQGWKHsendatsu at the head called out that another landslide had crashed over the path and entirely destroyed it. With surprising equanimity the party decided that this was as far as they could reasonably get towards their destination. They produced a small LPDJHRI'DLKL+HQMRÙ1\RUDLWKHSUHVLGLQJGHLW\RI6DQNR]DZDDQGVHWLWXS in the middle of the path. A recitation of the 6DQMRÙ 6KDNXMRÙ and the name and PDQWUDRI6DPERÙ'DL.RÙMLQDQGWKHSLOJULPDJHZDVFRQVLGHUHGDFFRPSOLVKHG We walked back above the course of the river as far as the village, and thence the six or seven miles up the mountain back to the temple, which we reached, SUHVHQWLQJEXQFKHVRIZLOGÁRZHUVWRWKHZDLWLQJsendatsu about three in the afternoon. I remember feeling surprised that throughout the day I had felt no suspicion of tiredness at all. 7KHÀQDOGHVFHQWRIWKHPRXQWDLQZDVPDGHRQWKHDIWHUQRRQRIWKH 31st. The services the previous night had differed from those that had gone before in so far as the company had recited the VHQJDQVKLQJ\RÙ or Thousand Heart Sutras no less than three times. This meant that each person must UHSHDWWKHHQWLUHVXWUDWZHQW\IRXUWLPHVDQGWKHÀQDOGKDÙUDQÖÙ 120 times. The petitions in response to which these recitations were made were read RXWE\WKH'RÙVKLDWWKHEHJLQQLQJRIWKHVHUYLFHDQGLQFOXGHGWKHH[WUDRQH for safety during the storms traditionally held to arise on the QLK\DNXWRÙND or 210th day of the year, which according to the lunar calendar fell on that very night. The packing, sweeping and necessary memorial photograph disposed of, a FODPRXURIFRQFKVKHOOEODVWVDQGDVWHQWRULDQYRLFHFDOOLQJ¶Tatsu!’ announced RXUGHSDUWXUH7KHSURFHVVLRQRIÀYHFRORXUHGsendatsu, the red umbrellas, the great black axe, the oi covered with the white hat, the purple banners followed by the rest of the blue-and-white company, marched down the stone steps of the temple and into the cryptomeria forest. At the Haguro shrine the company now tramped up the ten wooden steps representing the ten stages on the path to Buddhahood, and at the top, having in symbolic experience passed through all ten, recited their mantras and Heart 6XWUD7KH'RÙVKLLQWKHPHGLHYDOVSHHFKLQZKLFKDOOKLVULWXDODQQRXQFHPHQWV were made, cried that the top of the steps represented our birth into the world from the mother’s womb. We must therefore all give the ubugoe,WKHÀUVWFU\ RIDQHZO\ERUQFKLOG¶DOOWRJHWKHUDQGDVORXGDVSRVVLEOH·

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(YHU\RQHWKHUHXSRQURDUHG¶Wa’ at the top of his voice, and clattered down the steps. 7KH'RÙVKLWKHQDQQRXQFHGLQKLVPHGLHYDOVSHHFK>DQWLTXDWHGDQJXDJH@ that one more pilgrimage would be made to a holy spot called Akoya, and that HYHU\RQHH[FHSWWKHROGDQGLQÀUPVKRXOGJR Only a dozen people followed the yellow sendatsu as he plunged down an almost precipitously steep slope behind the Haguro shrine, clutching hold of the branches of tough saplings. At the bottom was a waterfall rushing down a sheer face of rock, and away among boulders. Under this waterfall the Founder had stood in the days of yore. The usual sutras and mantras were recited, and then Mr Matsushita the karate master stripped off all his clothes down to his loincloth, tied a towel round his shaved head and stepped under the waterfall with his back to the VKHHUIDFHRIURFN$VWKHZDWHUVSODVKHGRIIKLPKLVKDQGVVWDUWHGWRÁDVK WRDQGIURDQGKLVÀQJHUVWRWZLVWWKHPVHOYHVLQWRWKHFRPSOH[PXGUDVRIWKH QLQHV\OODEOHV+LVSDOHQDNHGÀJXUHDJDLQVWWKHZDOORIURFNWKHPDJLFDOO\ compelling movements of his hands, made him look strangely demonic, as though some extra power or grace had descended upon him through the splashing water. The mudras of his hands became more and more concentrated and ferocious, until suddenly they looked like the claws of a great bird, and I realised that they were now the kata or paradigmatic movements of his karate art. He then gave three or four tremendous kiai, a piercing abdominal yell which echoed among the rocks and trees. Then he stepped out of the waterfall smiling, rubbing himself down, and remarking how pleasant the cold water had been after a week of no baths. The demonic quality had dropped off him like a garment, and in an instant he was a human being once more. By the time we had hauled ourselves up to the top again by the sapling branches, an extraordinary exhilaration had descended on the party. We almost ran, in fading light, down the hundreds of stone steps through the forest, and through the red gate at the bottom which marks the end of the mountain and the beginning of the village. In deepening twilight the procession marched through the village, with lights going on in the houses and people coming to the gates to watch us pass. $WWKHJDWHRIWKH.RJDQHGRÙWKHUHZDVDERQÀUHLQWKHPLGGOHRIWKHURDG with people lined up on either side. The procession broke into a run, everyone OHDSWRYHUWKHÀUHDQGUDQVWUDLJKWLQWRWKHWHPSOHZKHUHLQIURQWRIURZVRI dully golden Kannons we recited once more the Heart Sutra and the name DQGPDQWUDRI6DPERÙ'DL.RÙMLQ 7KHUHIROORZHGLQWKHELJWHPSOH6KRÙ]HQLQDFURVVWKHURDGDQDGGUHVV from the daisendatsu to celebrate the triumphant end of the exercise. He con-

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gratulated the company on its enthusiasm and fortitude, and presented each PHPEHUZLWKDEHDXWLIXOO\LQVFULEHGFHUWLÀFDWHWRSURYHWKDWKHKDGVXFFHVVfully passed through the ordeal. There followed the exquisite pleasure of a hot bath, and an elegant vegetarian feast, with plenty of sesame sauce and saké, served on red lacquer trays round the perimeter of the room. Thus was enacted, albeit in somewhat dilapidated form, two sets of initiatory symbolism. In a week, we had undergone death, conception, gestation and rebirth in the heart of a mountain which stood for a mother’s womb. At the same time we had passed through the realms of hell, hungry ghosts, animals, titans, men, devas, VUDÙYDNDVSUDW\HNDEXGGKDVERGKLVDWWYDVDQGÀQDOO\%XGGKDV on a mountain which represented a mandala or sacred cosmos. After such an experience the company was in theory endued with powers beyond the ordinary human allotment. The professional woman ascetics retired to their temples convinced that they had received a new dispensation of strength to carry out their tasks of exorcism and divination. The professional sendatsu were raised a rank in WKH6KXJHQGRÙKLHUDUFK\(YHQWKHIDUPHUVGHFODUHGDQLQFUHDVHLQVHLVKLQVKXÙ\ÙR spiritual strength, as a result of their ordeal. 7KHWHQGHQF\RIWKHH[HUFLVHWRGD\LVQHYHUWKHOHVVFOHDUDQGZDVFRQÀUPHG four years later when I joined the akinomine for a second time. It is to forget the other-worldly symbolism of the practices and to substitute for them moral virtues of a this-worldly kind. The various ordeals are no longer explained as symbolic means of entering another world or a new kind of life, but as virtues ZKLFKZLOOPDNH\RXEHWWHUÀWWRIDFHOLIHLQWKLVZRUOG)RUWLWXGHXQFRPSODLQLQJSHUVHYHUDQFHLQWKHIDFHRISULYDWLRQVDQGIDWLJXHXQVHOÀVKFRRSHUDWLRQ cheerful obedience, versatile coping with emergencies, all these are virtues admirable in themselves. But they transform the ordeal from a passage to a QHZOLIHWRDQ¶HQGXUDQFHWHVW·VXFKDVDUP\FDGHWVRUWKHSXSLOVRIWKH2XWZDUG Bound School might undergo in the Welsh hills. 17 September Carmen witnessed on Mt Haguro the yudate or boiling water feat. See Catalpa Bow, pp. 249/50.

Yudate or the boiling water feat is more often seen, and Honda Yasuji’s monumental study of the kagura performances throughout Japan mentions several which include a yudate. The only example I have ever witQHVVHGZDVSHUIRUPHGQRWE\WKH6KXJHQGRÙEXWE\WKH6KLQWRVHFWNQRZQDV 6KLQVKXÙN\RÙVWURQJO\LQÁXHQFHGE\6KXJHQGRÙSUDFWLFHVRQ6HSWHPEHU

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In outline it seems to be similar to if not identical with the rite performed by WKH6KXJHQGRÙDVDFUHGHQFORVXUHFRUGRQHGRIIZLWKWKHXVXDOVWUDZURSHDQG ÁXWWHULQJVWUHDPHUVRIgohei paper, and with bunches of bamboo-grass at the IRXUFRUQHUV,QWKHPLGGOHLVDODUJHFDXOGURQRYHUDZRRGÀUH %\WKHWLPHWKHULWHZDVGXHWREHJLQWKHÀUHKDGEHHQOLWIRUVRPHWLPH and the water in the cauldron was steaming and bubbling. The priest due to SHUIRUPWKHULWHZDVGRLQJVRIRUWKHÀUVWWLPH,ZDVLQIRUPHGKDYLQJWKDW very year taken over from an ancient man who had served for the last forty autumns. He stood, clad entirely in white, in front of the boiling cauldron, WKHQSURFHHGHGWRFLUFXPDPEXODWHLWVWULNLQJVSDUNVIURPDÁLQWLQHDFKRI the eight directions. He then repeated the pradakshina round the cauldron, this time laying salt on the rim in each of the eight directions. He then seized a gohei wand, a stick with two fronds of white paper symmetrically attached to it, and proceeded to stir the handle end in the boiling water so vigorously, again in each of the eight directions, that it slopped steaming and hissing over the side. At the end of each stir he gave a loud sharp kiai,¶(HH· Finally, seizing a long bunch of bamboo-grass leaves, he plunged it into the boiling water and swished it out so that a heavy spray of boiling water fell all over and round him, raising a cloud of steam. Moving once more round the eight points of the compass he repeated the performance eight times, swishing the leaves more and more vigorously in and out of the water so that his white clothes were quickly soaked and now and then he could hardly be seen for clouds of steam. Then, no sooner was he round the eight points than he stopped, shook himself and walked nonchalantly out of the sacred enclosure while everyone clapped and thanked him. The reason why the man was not scalded, I was informed, was entirely because the power of the kami, imparted to him through his ascetic training, had made KLPLPSHUYLRXVWRKHDW,WZDVWKHVDPHZLWKWKHLUÀUHZDONLQJULWHZKLFKWKH\ SHUIRUPHGHYHU\VSULQJ1HLWKHUWKHÀUHQRUWKHERLOLQJZDWHUIHOWKRWEHFDXVHWKH power of the man’s ascesis had abstracted the essence of the heat. Hence not only WKHSULHVWKLPVHOIEXWRWKHUVDOVRFRXOGZDONZLWKVDIHW\RYHUWKHÀHU\HPEHUV0\ informant Mrs Nakazawa, the daughter of the High Priest of the sect, told me WKDWRIWHQLQWKHPLGVWRIWKHÀUHZDONLQJULWHVKHKDGEHHQFDXWLRQHGGRQ·WZDON now because it is getting dangerous. The priest would walk once more over it and reduce the heat so that it was again safe for ordinary people like herself to do so. 29 September

A rather unexpected development this afternoon has made me put off my journey to Kyoto until after the conference at Toyama, I called on old Dr

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Suzuki,31 now aged ninety-four, and the charming Mihoko – climbing up WRWKH0DWVXJDRND%XQNRIRUWKHÀUVWWLPHIRUIRXU\HDUV'U6UHPDUNably unchanged, though his eyebrows seem larger and more like those of a dragon or as immortal than ever. Was there any chance, I asked him of KLV ZULWLQJ DQ DFFRXQW RI KLV ÀUVW H[SHULHQFH RI satori which Christmas Humphries was so anxious to have for the Middle Way? He liked the idea, 0LKRNRKDGWROGPHEXWIRXQGJUHDWGLIÀFXOW\LQPDNLQJKLPVHOIVWDUW+H SDXVHGDPRPHQWDQGWKHQVDLG¶,FRXOGGLFWDWHWKHVWRU\WR\RX,FRXOG start now’. Which he did beginning with his family in Kanagawa, his father G\LQJZKHQKHZDVVL[KLVGHYRWLRQWRKLVPRWKHUKLVÀUVWPHHWLQJZLWKD URÙVKLLQ(WFKXÙDWWKHDJHRIHLJKWHHQRUVR)RUIRUW\PLQXWHVRUVRKHWDONHG with great energy obviously enjoying looking back seventy-six years or PRUHWKH6DLJRÙ:DU>WKHUHEHOOLRQOHGE\6DLJR7DNDPRULLQNQRZQ DVWKH6HLQDQ:DU@EUHDNLQJRXWWKH\HDUDIWHUKLVIDWKHUGLHGMRXUQH\VRQ IRRWRYHUPRXQWDLQSDVVHVWRWHPSOHV¶+RZROGZDV,WKHQ0LKRNRVDQ" (LJKWHHQRUQLQHWHHQ"·¶SUD\HUOHDGHU@LQWKHÀUVWSODFHZDVQRORQJHUWKHLPSUHVVLYH

Ùtani, but a woman mikoIURP6RÙPD6KHZDVE\ZD\RIEHLQJDVHPLSURIHVO

VLRQDOPHGLXPZRUNLQJLQWKHULFHÀHOGVDWWLPHVZKHQFDOOVZHUHQRWEHLQJ made on her mediumistic powers. The KRÙLQ>H[RUFLVW@ZDVROGDQGWKHYRLFHLQ which he recited the Heart Sutra so quavering and gulping that it was surprising that any deity responded at all. 7KHÀUHZDONLQJLWLVWUXHZDVSHUIRUPHGZLWKYLJRXUDQGDV,FDQP\VHOI WHVWLI\WKHKHDWZDVVRHIIHFWLYHO\WDNHQRXWRIWKHÀUHWKDWWKHUHGHPEHUV we traversed were reduced to a mild warmth. The takusen itself, however, was nerveless and unconvincing. $IHHEOHÁDSRIKHUZDQGZDVWKHRQO\VLJQWKHmiko>DPHGLXP@HYLQFHGRID GLYLQHSRVVHVVLRQ,QDQVZHUWRWKHÀUVWTXHVWLRQ¶:KRKDVFRPH"·WKHYRLFHLQ ZKLFKVKHUHSOLHG¶+D\DPD*RQJHQ·ZDVVRIDLQWDVWREHEDUHO\DXGLEOH9HU\ different, everyone afterwards declared, from the satisfactory bass roar emitted by the male noriwara in former times. Nor was this all. Her replies to the questions about the harvest were couched in language vague, uncertain and polite. ¶,WKLQNWKDWWKHHDUO\ULFHZLOOEHDERXWQLQHbu >EXVKHORUJDOORQV@, the middle rice about nine and the late rice probably about eight bu.’ ¶,LPDJLQHWKDW\RXZLOOQHHGWRWDNHVSHFLDOFDUHRYHUWKHVSULQJVLONZRUPV because of the threat of frost.’ These faint and deprecatory replies were a far cry from the short, sharp answers the god traditionally delivered. Worst of all, when it came to questions from individual families and persons, the miko made one or two bad mistakes. For a Mr Nakajima Katsuo, for example, she predicted that the year would be a thoroughly satisfactory one, in which all would go exactly as he wished. There was a doubtful pause before the KRÙLQ EURXJKWKLPVHOIWRVD\¶%XW0U1DNDMLPDLVDWSUHVHQWYHU\VLFN·7KHmiko LQVRPHFRQIXVLRQWKHQVDLG¶2K\HVRIFRXUVH,WKLQNKH·OOSUREDEO\EH better in about forty days. Meanwhile he ought to take good care of himself.’ After this no more questions were put from the crowd, and the ceremony ÀQLVKHGDWWKHDOPRVWXQSUHFHGHQWHGO\HDUO\KRXURISP The general verdict the next day was that the miko’s performance had been VRODQJXLGWKDWLWZDVGLIÀFXOWWRUHDOLVHWKDWVKHZDVSRVVHVVHGDWDOO)LYH\HDUV ago the miko they had engaged for the occasion, woman though she was, had ÁDLOHGRQWKHÁRRUZLWKKHUZDQGLQDFRQYLQFLQJO\IUHQ]LHGPDQQHUOHYLWDWLQJ herself violently into the air and screaming answers to the questions put to her in an odd bass voice. So obviously genuine was her trance that the crowd outside had bombarded her with questions until dawn. But this strong woman had since left the district and become a nun, so that for the last four years they had had to make do with the present creature, despite her feebleness, because she was the only miko left in the entire area.

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Even the strong woman was nothing, an old grandmother informed me, compared with the days when a male noriwara served. The violence of his behaviour was far greater than anything seen in recent times. If anyone came near the temple who was in any way ritually unclean, the noriwara would rush out and attack him. Since the last man ceased to serve, however, no other had appeared. Later in the morning, although women were not usually allowed higher than WKHÀUVWtorii, the miko and I accompanied the procession of komorinin>GHYRWHHV@WRWKHWRSRIWKH+D\DPDPRXQWDLQWRHVFRUWWKHGHLW\EDFNWRKLVZLQWHU quarters. At the top, after an hour’s climb, was a small shrine where offerings ZHUHPDGHRIWKHÀUVWEDWFKRIULFHFDNHVSRXQGHGWKHQLJKWEHIRUH7KHER\V clustered round and recited their invocation thirteen times more. One of them then swarmed up the tree thought to be the tallest on the mountain and hence to reach nearest to the sky, and tied to its trunk, about twenty feet from the ground, the wand into which the deity had been summoned the night before. It would be left there until it rotted away. With this act, which I was given to understand must be of such antiquity as to antedate the establishment of VKULQHVDVÀ[HGDERGHVIRUWKHkami, the deity was considered to be properly settled in his winter home until the following spring. The party descended the mountain and partook of a large VKRÙMLQRWRVKLRU non-maigre meal. 5 November Carmen in Kyoto.

7KLVPRUQLQJ%DQGRÙ·VIULHQG0UV1DNDJDZDWRRN%DQGRÙDQGPHWRYLVLWDQ ÙRJDPLVDPDLQ6DJDQRGRZQWKHOLQHIURP6KLMRÙ OÙmiya to Arashiyama. She had a notice on her door giving kanji>&KLQHVHFKDUDFWHUV@IRUKHUJ\RÙMD·V>UHOLJLRXV SUDFWLWLRQHU@ name. She was a woman of about sixty, with a strong, hard face, DQGWROGXVWKDWVKHKDGÀUVWWDNHQXSJ\RÙ>UHOLJLRXVSUDFWLFHV@ through an illness which she contracted at the age of twenty-two The doctors having given her up, she was told that she must practise J\RÙ in order to overcome this disability. So she went to a mountain near Nara and there started her practice of J\RÙ– mizugui >OLWZDWHUVZDOORZLQJ@WZLFHDGD\PRUQLQJDWDPDQGHYHQLQJDQGIDVWV, asked her why fasts should help towards gaining reikan >VSLULWXDOVWUHQJWK@², should have thought that one would be weakened thereby. One’s body might be weakened, she replied, but it was replaced by spiritual strength of a far more important kind. Strength of a kami-sama >JRG@RURIDjacha, the demon which is thought to supply the inner strength, potential violence and cruelty behind the smooth, gently smiling Bodhisattva-like countenance of many women. Once she has fasted for a week – eaten no solid food at all – only water, and had had to return to a normal diet slowly, only one umeboshi>SLFNOHGSOXP@DWDWLPH

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She had continued her J\RÙ until she reached the stage of being able to tobiagaru >OHDSXSDQGGRZQ@%XWEHIRUHVKHUHFHLYHGKHUPHQMRÙ >OLFHQFH@VKHZDV asked to go to a Nara hospital to help someone who seemed not to respond to ordinary medicine – she fasted for a week in the effort to cure the patient, who recovered completely as a result of her efforts. After this she received her menjou and became an ichinin-mae>OLWSRUWLRQIRURQHSHUVRQ@QRJ\RÙMD. While she was talking, there was seated next to her a younger woman, with an oval, rather beautiful face, dressed in an apron and trousers. She was a pupil of Mrs Matsuyama and presently they both got up and moved to the DGMRLQLQJURRPZKHUH)XGRÙZDVHQVKULQHGZLWKDVPDOOVWDJH0UV0DWVX\DPD seated herself on a cushion on the stage, and her pupils sat below her to one VLGH²DQGERWKVWDUWHGWRUHFLWH)XGRÙ·VPDQWUDLQVWURQJQDVDOWRQHV7KHQ they swung into the +DQQ\D6KLQJ\RÙ, over and over again and very fast - and now both women began to make strange noises and movements as they chanted. Grunts and moans began to be interspersed with the words of the +DQQ\D6KLQJ\RÙ, and the pupil began to raise her clasped hands high above her head. Faster and faster came the chanting, and the grunts turned to roars and howls, while both women beat their chest with their clasped hands and to shake their hands violently up and down with a hoarse scream. The +DQQ\D6KLQJ\RÙ over and over again seemed to be a spell whereby they threw themselves into this violent trance - and how incongruous when one WKLQNVRIWKHJHQWOHUHFRQGLWHPHVVDJHRIWKHVXWUD0UV0ÀQDOO\ZLWKD frightful face, beat her clasped hands against her stomach several times, while roars and howls in a bare, unearthly voice burst from her lips. After two or WKUHHPLQXWHVRIWKLVYLROHQWVHL]XUHWKHFKDQWLQJEHFDPHFDOPHUDQGÁDWWHU DQGOLNHZDWHUERXQGLQJGRZQUDSLGVVXGGHQO\ÁRZLQJLQWRDZLGHOHYHOODNH A note on the gong, both women bowed and rose up normal and unperturbed. 7KDWZDV)XGRÙZKRKDGSRVVHVVHGKHU0UV0UHPDUNHGZKHQVKHZHQW into that kami-gakariVWDWHLWZDVDOZD\V)XGRÙ:KHQSDWLHQWVIRULQVWDQFH suffering from fox possession came to her, she would ogamu>DVVXPHDSRVWXUH RISUD\LQJ@LQWKDWZD\DQGHYHQWXDOO\WKHIR[ZRXOGFDSLWXODWH — 1967 —

5 August Carmen in Kyoto.

This morning I found my way to the house of the fascinating Miss Nakagawa, now Mrs Nakagawa32 as she has married an adopted son. The house was

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behind a kind of workshop full of shouting and bowing men through which one has to pass – they have given up the PDQMXÙ>EHDQEXQV@EXVLQHVV7KHUHLQ the inner room (terribly hot) was Mr Nakamura, Mrs Nakamura’s father and a little old lady who was introduced as Mrs Terada, a close friend who was training to set up as ogamiya-san33DQGKDGDOUHDG\ÀQLVKHGWKHFRXUVH For some three quarters of an hour she told me a number of useful things. First that there were already two kinds of ogamiya-san: those, to whom the experience of kami-gakari >GLYLQH SRVVHVVLRQ@ FDPH QDWXUDOO\ and spontaneously and usually unexpectedly and those who achieved it by means of rigorous J\RÙ >DVFHWLF SUDFWLFHV GHVLJQHG WR EXLOG XS VDFUHG SRZHU@.0UV7HUDGDKHUVHOIEHORQJHGWRWKHÀUVWFDWHJRU\WKHUHKDGEHHQ no calamitous GRÙNL >PRWLYH@ LQ KHU OLIH ZKLFK KDG SUHFLSLWDWHG KHU LQWR the path of J\RÙ Her methods of curing, it seems, are to force the malignant being possessing the patient into her own body and then to dissipate it by standing under a waterfall. She says the waterfall at Nanzenji is an especially good one but that one has to be extremely careful while standing under it. One wrong step, one small yudan>LQDWWHQWLRQ@RQHWLQ\UHOD[DWLRQRIYLJLODQFHXQGHUWKHVWUHVV of the cold water and it is easy for one of the mamono >GHPRQ@, which haunt such places, to take possession. Hence such practices are always better done under a sensei>WHDFKHU@ZKRLQVWUXFWVRQHKRZWRSURWHFWRQHVHOIDJDLQVWVXFK contingencies. Mamono, she said in answer to my enquiry, were four legged creatures notably tanuki>UDFRRQ@DQGIR[HV2IWKHWZRtanuki were the most kitsui>WRXJK@DQG ZHUHHDVLO\LGHQWLÀDEOHE\WKHSHFXOLDUEHKDYLRXURIWKHSDWLHQW(\HVVWDULQJ unblinkingly (fox eyes were stiff and upward pointed) and a huge appetite. Indeed one woman she knew had actually died from overeating in a tanuki-possessed state. The strain of eating enough for three people over a period of several days proved too much for her and she died. Such people also were a great nuisance in the house and made a terrible mess in the lavatory. She went on to describe the changes of certain mountains and apparently holy places if one’s J\RÙ LVLQVXIÀFLHQW$OVRLQWKHUDQNVRIkami-sama>JRGV@ apparently there is a whole hierarchy of which the lowest (NDN\XÙUHL) were the mamono. 0UV1DNDJDZDWKHQVXJJHVWHGWKDWZHIRUWKZLWKYLVLWDQRWKHUIXOOÁHGJHG ogamiya-san. Accordingly we hailed a taxi, which took us through some odd EDFNVWUHHWVQHDU6KLFKLMRÙWRWKHKRXVHRID0UV.XURGD1HDUO\KDOIRIWKH room was occupied by an immense altar with dozens of layers and shelves all stacked to groaning point with offerings – great water melons, tins of peaches, bottles of sakeDSSOHVWRPDWRHVÁRZHUVDQGSDUFHOVSUREDEO\FRQWDLQLQJFDNHV

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not to speak of the usual golden lotuses. Mrs Kuroda, very fat with her legs sticking straight out in front of her, was seated on a cushion in front of the altar dressed as customarily in white apparently in the throes of a consultation with a housewife. They spoke together in low tones while we waited our turn at the back of the room. Eventually the housewife noticed us and Mrs Nakagawa moved up next to the fat immobile old woman. She had two questions, she said. First should they buy a certain piece of land on which to move and expand their business the present premises for which were proving inadequate. And second, why was it that she could not have a baby; she kept on having miscarriages. Having grasped the purpose of these questions and enquired Mrs Nakagawa’s age Mrs Kuroda began to recite in flat, rapid tones the Hannya 6KLQJ\RÙ >KHDUWVXWUD34@5RNNRQ6KRÙMRÙ >D%XGGKLVWSUD\HU²SXULILFDWLRQRI WKH VL[ URRWV RI HYLO@ DQG RWKHU LQYRFDWLRQV LQFOXGLQJ WKH SKUDVH 6DQERÙ Daito >LPSUHFDWLRQRIWKH¶7KUHH7UHDVXUHV·RI%XGGKLVP@35 In a minute or two her voice grew more strident and much louder until she was literally yelling the words of the +DQQ\D6KLQJ\RÙ her hands clasped high above her head in an unfamiliar mudra. Coming to an abrupt and rigid stop she called for the questions. Mrs Nakagawa repeated them. The answers were what Mrs Nakagawa afterwards described as atari-sawari-no-nai in other words utterly non-committal. About the land: yoku shinakute kudasai >SOHDVHGRQ·WGRLWRIWHQ@DERXWWKHSRVVLELOLW\RIEHDULQJDFKLOGzenzen nai to wa iwan ga abunai >LW·VGDQJHURXVWRQRWVD\QHYHU@. But Mrs Nakagawa seemed quite satisfied and contributed an envelope containing a suitable o-rei>WKDQN\RXSUHVHQW@ I asked her who it was who usually possessed her in order to answer these questions. Always Daishin-samaVKHUHSOLHG6KHZDV6KLQJRQVKXÙ >PHPEHURI WKH6KLQJRQVHFWRI%XGGKLVP@HYLO VSLULW@RIZKLFKtanuki were the most numerous. Their symptoms were again an enormous appetite and they ate three times as much as an ordinary person, DQGGDQFLQJDQGKRSSLQJZLWKÁDVKKDQGVDQGIHHWRYHUWKHÁRRU7KH\KDG various disgusting habits and would eat donburi>ULFHGLVK@DQGVXFKOLNHGLVKHV ZLWKWKHLUKDQGVVWXIÀQJWKHULFHLQWRWKHLUPRXWKV7KH\ZHUHDOVRIRQGRI music and would keep the neighbours awake all night with loud singing and playing on the shamisen even though in their normal state they could neither sing nor play. Her methods of exorcism were RN\RÙ GHRWRVX to lay them with sutras - the +DQQ\D6KLQJ\RÙ and the )XGRÙN\RÙ36 In fact so numerous were the causes of possession in the district that quite half the patients in the Iwakura mental hospital were cases of possession the other half being noirouse>QHXURVHV@

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Her GRÙNL>PRWLYDWLRQ@LQEHFRPLQJDQogamiya-samaVKHEULHÁ\GHVFULEHGDV ketsumazuki >WRWULSRYHUVRPHWKLQJ@. She was apparently one of those to whom the experience of kami-gakari did not come spontaneously and she therefore UHOLHGRQD¶PRWLYH·WROHDGKHULQWRWKHUHJLPHRIJ\RÙwhich had involved several long periods of complete fasting, one of a week and one of three weeks and others of mugon>VLOHQFH@ She had an abrupt, discourteous manner which contrasted oddly with the non-committal vagueness of her prophesies 6 August Climbing Mt Ontake with Joan Martin.

Set out with Joan Martin on jaunt to Ontake-san, seen off kindly and comfortably at the station by Peter Martin.37 As far as Nagoya very crowded and LPSRVVLEOHWRVLWGRZQDQGWKHQRQVRFDOOHGH[SUHVVRQWKH&KXÙRÙOLQHIURP 1DJR\DWR.LVR)XNXVKLPD7KLVZDVDOVRYHU\FURZGHGDQGDWÀUVWZHZHUH UHGXFHGWRVKHOWHULQJLQHPSW\FDELQVODEHOOHG&UHZXQWLORUGHUHGRXWWRÀQG seats at the back of the train. At Fukushima the station was pandemonium, a solid mass of people in straw hats and kesa>PRQN·VVWROH@\HOORZUXFNVDFNVDQG NRQJRÙ]XH>VWDII@EXWRQZHQGLQJRXUZD\WRWKH+4RI0LWDNHN\RÙ>HSRQ\PRXV VHFW@GRZQWKHKLOODQGHQTXLULQJIRU0U.DNXGD,IRXQGWRP\UHOLHIWKDW DOWKRXJK0U.ZDVQRORQJHUWKHUHHYHU\RQHVHHPHGWRNQRZPH¶Rondon kara no kata desu ka’ >$UH\RXWKHSHUVRQIURP/RQGRQ"@DVNHGWKHXQNQRZQPDQ, addressed. Presently Mr Watanabe the NDQFKRÙVDQ>KHDGRIWKHRIÀFH@DSSHDUHG recognised me at once and remembered absolutely correctly that it was four years since I had last climbed the mountain. I asked his advice as to where we should stay the night and in the kindest way and in a trice he arranged that we should share a taxi with three pilgrims who intended to stay at the Kuroishi-kan at Hakkaigan the 5th JRÙPH>VWDJH@RQWKH2GDNLURXWH7KHURDGQRZKHDGGHG went right up as far as Tanohara at the 7th JRÙPH so we could go by taxi the following day if we wanted. He himself would be climbing up from Tanohara the following day to be in time to perform the Shinkasai>JRGÀUHULWH@WKDWQLJKW The three pilgrims with whom we shared the large taxi proved to be amiable and well-mannered people, a man and his wife and younger sister – the later by far the most intense and dominating of the party. On the way they insisted on stopping at a sake shop and buying at least half a dozen large bottles for offerings at different shrines on the way up the mountain they declared. (They later hired a woman porter to carry the heavy load for them.) Sudden consternation: they had no corkscrew. What were they to do? Could they buy one at one of the huts on the way? But surely a kami-sama >JRG@GRHVQ·WQHHGDFRUNVFUHZ,SURWHVWHG

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Ah, they replied, you have to open the bottle before you offer it otherwise the kami-sama cannot smell it. 7KH¶GULYHZD\·DVIDUDVWKHWKJRÙPH has utterly transformed the lower part of the climb. As our taxi hurtled over the hairpin bends amid clouds of white dust emitted by other taxis and buses I could see no one absolutely no one DFWXDOO\ZDONLQJ$W.L\RWDNLWKHÀUVWRIWKHWZRZDWHUIDOOVEHIRUHWKHWK JRÙPH the taxi stops and the younger sister declares she will stand under the waterfall. The place was crowded with people who had obviously momentarily descended from buses in unsuitable clothes and high-heeled shoes. But there was a changing hut of which several people made use and I thought the waterfall did not seem to be a very daunting one being rather spread out and dispersed. Several people stood under it making the usual mudras and harai-s >SXULÀFDWLRQV@EHIRUHWDNLQJWKHSOXQJH Shintaki a little further up was much more kitsui>WRXJK@GURSSLQJGRZQ from a considerable height in a concentrated jet in part of a dark cave full of inscribed stones and a rubbish heap of sake bottles. (Sacred and profane: why is neither cleanliness or tidiness in the least valued in this cult as appropriate to the sacred? Why should not the deity object to the messy, scruffy look almost every shrine has about it not to speak of the disgusting piles RIOLWWHUDQGUXEELVKZLWKZKLFKHYHU\SRSXODUVDFUHGSODFHLVGLVÀJXUHG"  Further up the mountainside almost as steep as a cliff were other numinous holes and caves, also recognised and celebrated with shrines. Three tough-looking men arrived at the waterfall while we were there and in time stood underneath it, a considerable feat since the force of the water must have been virtually stunning. One of them told me how he had come in January when the waterfall was frozen. Blue ice everywhere, he said, and icicles falling.38 From Kiyotaki we decided to walk to Hakkaizan but were stupid enough to miss the turning on to the old pilgrim route (N\XÙWÙRVDQGRÙ) so that for what VHHPHGOLNHVHYHUDOPLOHVZHKDGWRZDONXSWKHQHZ¶GULYHZD\·7KLVZDV horribly dusty. Each time a bus or a taxi passed, which they did with inexorable frequency, a cloud of white dust obscured the view. The trees and plants along the roadside were covered with a thick layer of dust – what a travesty this has made of the whole conception of the ascent of the holy mountain. Again in the course of these several miles we encountered not a single other climber on foot. All, absolutely all, were huddled up in the buses and taxis. Eventually, somewhere on the NRÙJHQ >SODWHDX@ WKH KLJK UROOLQJKLOOVFRYHUHGZLWKORQJJUDVVDQGORYHO\ÁRZHUVRXWRIWKHIRUHVWZH at last found the old pilgrim road. It was astonishing. Utterly deserted recognisable only by the clusters of meijin-ishiWKHÁDWLQVFULEHGVWRQHVHQJUDYHG

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with the name of the NRÙNDGDQNDNXPHLPHLLMLQ*DNNDL5HLMLQ39 appearing in strange conglomerates like frozen chessmen unobserved on either side of the path. The old path still leads straight up the mountainside but it is only the dead who mark its course. The living, ignorant of this ancient way to WKHKRO\JURXQGOLQHGZLWKÁRZHUVDQGROGVWRQHVDUHZKLVNHGXSZDUGVLQ clouds of dust. Our passage along this old deserted road was incomparably the most beauWLIXOSDUWRIRXUZDON(YHU\ZKHUHWKHUHZHUHÁRZHUV\HOORZOLOLHVJLDQW EOXHEHOOVVPDOOVXQÁRZHUVJURZLQJLQZDYLQJÀHOGVDPRQJWKHORQJJUDVV But for the last part I regret to say we resorted to an empty bus forgetting which JRÙPH the Kuroishi-kan was situated and feeling we might have climbed too high which was not the case. The Kuroishi-kan which is as comfortable as any ryokan>-DSDQHVHVW\OHLQQ@ is, gave us a dinner slightly reminiscent of the kaiseki>PHDORIORWVRIFRXUVHV@ in Osaka the other night. [next day]

A rather successful day with an odd ending. We all left in the Kuroishi-kan taxi soon after 6 a.m., which took us right up through the forest as far as Tanohara at the 7th JRÙPH. This place, which I remember from 1961 as being a large sprawling wooden place full of peasant houses has been transformed E\WKHPRWRUURDGLQWRDVWUHDPOLQHGFRQFUHWHVWUXFWXUHÁDQNHGE\DKDUGFDU park full of rows of elephantine buses. This point, at the end of the forest, is in fact the beginning of the climb proper for most of the pilgrims. We had not been walking long before we encountered a perfectly enormous NRÙ>JURXS@RIRYHUSHRSOHIURP.\RWRDQGOHGE\DUDPVKDFNOHFKDUDFWHU an enormous man who reminded me now of a Kabuki actor now of a sumo ZUHVWOHU:KHQZHÀUVWHQFRXQWHUHGKLPKHZDVVWDQGLQJRQDURFNDWWKHVLGH of the path bellowing 5RNNRQ6KRÙMÙR in what seemed a supernaturally resonant voice until I saw that he was in fact shouting through a microphone attached WRDSRZHUIXOORXGVSHDNHU+LVKXJHÁRFNFRQVLGHUDEO\LPSHGHGRXUSURJUHVV RQRXUZD\XSIRURQWKHQDUURZURFN\SDWKLWZDVGLIÀFXOWWRSDVVDQ\RQH ahead and the pace was reduced to that of the most ancient obaa-san>ROGODG\@ EHQWWRDULJKWDQJOHDQGWRRWKOHVV7KHUHZHUHVHYHUDOVXFKÀJXUHVLQWKH party.) Even slower in fact because we often had to stand aside for descending parties of pilgrims, twenty or thirty at a time, so that a quite remarkable congestion resulted at times. We paused for some minutes at the cluster of images which marks the 8th JRÙPH the snarling stamping PLNN\RÙÀJXUHV>HVRWHULF UHOLJLRXVWHDFKLQJ@PLQJOHGZLWKWKHZLOGSLJVVXUPRXQWHGE\D6KLQWRÙgohei >VWDIIZLWKSODLWHGSDSHUVWUHDPHUV@DQGZHUHRYHUWDNHQDWWKDWPRPHQWE\

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Mr Watanabe the NDQFKRÙVDQ on his way up to the top to perform the shinkasai in the small hours of tomorrow morning. He greeted us very amicably and told me that this was the spot where in the old days one had to throw aside one’s straw sandals and put on a new pair owing to the increasing holiness of the mountain on its upper slopes. Of course no leather was allowed on the mountain either – no leather shoes or purses – and one week’s VKXJ\RÙ >DVFHWLF SUDFWLFHV@DIWHUWKHDVFHQWZDVWKHXVXDOSUDFWLFH+HORRNHGOLWKHDQGHOHJDQW as he walked up despite his age. 7KHODVWVWUHWFKZDVTXLWHGLIÀFXOWHVSHFLDOO\ZLWKDKHDY\SDFNRQRQH·V back for landslides had reduced the path to a dusty rubble. Indeed the fact that none of the motley crowd of pilgrims old or young slipped or sprained their ankles could almost be ascribed to supernatural protection. We reached the hut at the 9th JRÙPH by 11 o’clock where we had a varied meal – some of the H[FHOOHQWEUDQG\EURXJKWE\-RDQDQGVRPHRIWKH¶LQVWDQW·SDFNHWVEURXJKWWR OLIHZLWKKRWZDWHUWKDW,ERXJKWLQ'DLPDUX>GHSDUWPHQWVWRUH@RQ6DWXUGD\ Thence to the Nino-ike hut to leave our packs for the night. Just as we were crossing the Saino Kawara I saw approaching a smartly dressed NRÙfrom Niigata. I was just thinking that it was from Niigata that Mr Omono and his twelve women came four years ago when suddenly I heard myself accosted by the handsome man bring up the rear of the NRÙ. It was Mr Omono himself JURZQVRFRQVLGHUDEO\LQVWDWXUHWKDWDWÀUVW,VFDUFHO\UHFRJQLVHGKLP+H was both taller and larger. I asked if he intended to hold an o-zen>ULWH@WKDW DIWHUQRRQDQGKHVDLG¶ZKHQ\RXUIDLWKLVUHSOHQLVKHG\RXULPSHGLPHQWVRUGLIÀFXOWLHVZLOO FOHDUDZD\@ZDVRIWHQUHSHDWHG Eventually Mr Omono was brought back to normal consciousness by massage and thumping and the goheiZDVZLWKVRPHGLIÀFXOW\H[WUDFWHGIURPKLV convulsively clutched hands. He came up calm and smiling and as he looked enquiringly in my direction I DSSURDFKHGGLIÀGHQWO\DQGEHJDQWRDVNTXHVWLRQV:K\KDGKHFKDQJHGIURP the role of maeza, which he had occupied four years ago to that of nakaza.41 7KHFKDQJHZDVQRWGLIÀFXOWKHVDLGWKRXJKRQWKHZKROHLWZDVKDUGHUWR be a consistently good nakaza. But in fact Mr O seemed in an unusual way to combine both roles at once. He was far more majestic and charismatic than the usual rather non-descript nakaza and was clearly the leader of the party. I asked what deity it was that had spoken through him and he replied ¶Gakkai Reijin’, a predecessor of his some twenty years ago. Very occasionally a NRÙNLMLQNDPLVDPD>KLJKOHYHOJRG@ZRXOGGHVFHQGEXWDVDZKROHRQO\UDUHO\ Usually it was Gakkai Reijin with whom he stood in a particular engi>FRQQHFWLRQ@VLQFHKLVÀUVWFDOOKDGEHHQDVSRQWDQHRXVZDNLQJYLVLRQRYHUZKHOPLQJO\ powerful of the inscribed stone set up to Gakkai Reijin at Hakkaizan. At that

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time, seventeen years ago, he had never heard of Gakkai Reijin and never climbed Ontake-san. But a month or two later he made the pilgrimage and lo, there was the inscribed stone standing there just as he had seen it in his vision. The NRÙ met for a séance four times a month, they told me, and usually it was Gakkai Reijin who appeared to give them all guidance. But Ontake they climbed only once a year. Several of the women told me how arigatai>JUDWLI\LQJ@LWZDVWRKDYHDdaisendatsu42 of such stature and power as Dr Omono. One of them had known him a few years ago when he looked just like a little boy. And now look at the transformation wrought by VKXJ\RÙ >DVFHWLFSUDFWLFHV@ in contact with the kami. A better or more dramatic example of kami-gakari on this mountain I am scarcely likely to see. -RDQDQG,UHWXUQHGWRWKH1LQRLNHKXWWRÀQGLWLQYDGHGE\DKXJHNRÙ of 160 peasants. Our rucksacks had been taken to the small room upstairs, which was already occupied by two men and a little boy. But we could make an excellent meal from the provisions we had brought, freely washed down with brandy or coffee laced with brandy. By about 8 o’clock all the futon had EHHQODLGGRZQVRWKDWWKHUHZDVQRWDEDUHSDWFKRIÁRRUOHIWDQGZHGHFLGHG to try to get a little sleep before getting up at 1 o’clock to walk to the shinkasai. For some odd reason this proved quite impossible. Considering there must have been 200 peasants in the hut (at least 40 in the next door upstairs room) there was remarkably little snoring. But it was hot and stuffy and I scarcely even dozed before it was time to get up at 1 a.m. We had another tot of coffee laced with brandy before venturing out into the pitch dark with torches. Only half a dozen other people from the hut cared to see the shinkasai and together we found the short walk along the mountainside leading to the neck RIODQGZKHUHWKHÀUHVZHUHWREHOLW7KHVWDUVZHUHFOHDUDQGEULOOLDQWEXW there was no moon at all and the path was extremely rocky and rough. At one point we found ourselves walking over a wide patch of frozen snow. But as we VKXIÁHGDORQJSLFNLQJRXUZD\RYHUWKHURFNVZHUDQLQWRDQRWKHUODUJHSDUW\ with a line of lights shining out along the path for a hundred yards. The shinkasai has altered from what it was four years ago in ways that DUHGHSUHVVLQJDQGVLJQLÀFDQW)RXU\HDUVDJRVRPHWKUHHRUIRXUKXQGUHG white-clad faithful watched chanting from the hillside while the NDQFKRÙVDQ made lunges and passes with a sword at the intricate structure of wooden VOLSVZKLOHWKHÀUHVZHUHOLWDQGEXUQWXSLQWRULQJVRIÁDPHDJDLQVWWKH FROGPRXQWDLQVN\$QGZKLOHZKHQWKHÁDPHVEXUQWGRZQ'U2PRQR and others ran in and out of the red smouldering circles in a wild scamper. This year everything was different. Gone was the ancient numinousness, the red and the white, the muted human voices in the stillness of the night and

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WKHULQJVRIÀUHEXUQLQJXSLQWRWKHFROGVN\,QWKHLUSODFHWKHUHKDGULVHQ to prominence the microphone. The voice of the actor-wrestler leader of the Kyoto NRÙ ceaselessly chattering and explaining, admonishing, warning, introGXFLQJ(YHU\VWHSRIWKHULWHZDVQRZ¶H[SODLQHG·WRWKHFURZGRIEHOLHYHUVRQ the hillside – much as a radio commentator might explain a baseball match or a foreign ceremony. Gone, therefore, was the direct impact of the numinous site, RIWKHVWUDQJHEHDXW\RIWKHÀUHDQGURFNVDQGVWDUVDQGVZRUG:HZHUHEDFN LQWKHUHDOPRI¶LQIRUPDWLRQDERXW"·,QDQRGGZD\LQWKHUHDOPRIWKH6KLQWR VKLQN\RÙ >6KLQWRQHZUHOLJLRQV@ZLWKLWVSDQRSO\RIPRGHUQJDGJHWVPDFKLQHV and paternally admonishing voices. Thus the NRÙof four hundred people. They have joined something new, not old. The motor road to the 7th gome was not an isolated convenience. It is simply part of an overall pattern by which this ancient cult is being modernized. The next step will be a teléferique ¶URSHZD\·XSWRWKHWRSRIWKHPRXQWDLQDQG WKHGLVDSSHDUDQFHRIWKHWUDQFHVWKHGRPLQDWLRQRIWKHVFHQHE\ÀJXUHVVXFK as our actor-wrestler (whose name I stupidly never discovered). 7KHRFFDVLRQHQGHGZLWKWKHODUJHDFWRU¶LQWURGXFLQJ·DOOWKHOHDGHUVRIWKH NRÙ present – much as is done at public dinners or wedding feasts. We were tramping back, saddened, across the mountainside when our torch gave out completely. We should have been indeed komatta>WURXEOHG@KDGLWQRW been for a kind party overtaking us and escorting us with the greatest courtesy all the way back to the hut. By the time we got in at about 3.30 a.m. we were frozen with cold, Joan shivering piteously. Had a good tot of whisky each and I piled futon over J. Just dropping off to sleep when woken by a moan from J still terribly cold. Gave her another stiff tot and piled another futon over her and started to massage the small of her back to get circulation going…Awoke a couple of hours later to the clatter of peasants getting up to see the JRQDLNRÙ >OXPHQ@-DSSDUHQWO\ asleep, so got up softly without waking her and walked out into an enchanted world. September Carmen witnessed the*RKRÙWRELDW5\RÙVDQML6HHCatalpa Bow, pp. 267–271.

7KH*RKRÙWRELZKLFK,ZDVDEOHWRREVHUYHLQDWWKHWHPSOHRI5\RÙVDQML DQGWKHVKULQHRI,FKLQRPL\D+DFKLPDQZDVÀUVWGHVFULEHGLQWKH6DNX\RÙVKL a seventeenth-century guidebook to the western districts of Mimasaka province. ,QWKH7HQGDLWHPSOHRI,ZDPDVDQ5\RÙVDQMLWKHDFFRXQWUXQVJRKRÙ spells took SODFHRQWKHVHYHQWKGD\RIWKHVHYHQWKPRQWK)RUWKHRIÀFHRIPHGLXPWKH\

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chose an ordinary simple person, and made him observe the rules of ceremonial purity for a stated period beforehand. When the day for the ceremony arrived, all the priests of the temple gathered round the medium and began to recite spells. Suddenly the man leapt to his feet and burst into a frenzied dance, howling and roaring like a wild beast. Superhuman strength was given to him, enabling him to lift huge rocks. If anyone happened to be present who was not ceremonially pure, the medium would seize him and hurl him away ten paces. They then gave KLPIRXUWXEVRIZDWHUWRGULQNHDFKRIZKLFKFRQWDLQHGDERXWÀYHJDOORQV :KHQWKHPDQKDGGUXQNDOOIRXUWXEVKHVXGGHQO\IHOOÁDWRQWKHÁRRUDQG when he regained consciousness he remembered nothing of what had passed. The 6DNX\RÙVKLIXUWKHUPHQWLRQVDVLPLODUULWHDWWKHWHPSOHRI5\RÙVDQMLZKLFK RQRQHRFFDVLRQHQGHGLQWUDJHG\$VDPXUDLLQDQXQSXULÀHGVWDWHFDPHWR watch the proceedings. Suddenly the possessed medium furiously leapt up and seized him. The samurai defended himself stoutly, but in the course of the struggle both fell over a cliff and were killed. A pine tree marks the spot. Today the *RKRÙWRELritual is still performed in seven temples in this mounWDLQRXVGLVWULFWDOOWRZDUGVWKHPLGGOHRIWKHOXQDUVHYHQWKPRQWK$W5\RÙVDQML 2QVKRÙML5\RÙVHQML6HLVXLMLDQG,FKLQRPL\D+DFKLPDQWKHULWHWDNHVSODFHHYHU\ \HDURQWKHWKWKRUWKRIWKHPRQWK$W%XNN\RÙMLLWWDNHVSODFHLQHYHQ \HDUVDQGLQ%XUDNXMLLQRGG\HDUV7KHSURFHGXUHDW5\RÙVDQMLLVWKRXJKWWR preserve the rite in its most complete and ancient form. Here the medium is known as JRKRÙ]DQH the JRKRÙ seed. As at Hayama, he is an ordinary village man whose only training for his task is a rigorous course of J\RÙ. For a week before the day of the rite he must seclude himself in the small *RKRÙVKULQHDWWKHEDFNRIWKHWHPSOHZKHUHWKHUHKDQJVDSLFWXUHRIWKHGHLW\ JRKRÙ]HQVKLQ+HPXVWHDWRQO\PDLJUHIRRGFRRNHGRQDVHSDUDWHSXUHÀUHDQG twice in the morning and twice at night he must perform the cold water austerity twenty-one times, in the pond situated conveniently in front of the shrine. He must also circumambulate once a day the entire precincts of the temple, during ZKLFKWLPHKHPXVWVSHDNWRQRRQH$IWHUSHUIRUPLQJKLVÀQDOFROGZDWHU ablution, on the night of the rite, he waits at the JRKRÙ shrine for the procession to arrive and escort him to the place where the entrancement is to take place. 7KHWHPSOHRI5\RÙVDQMLZKLFK,YLVLWHGLQZLWK'U7DQDNDRIWKH0DWsuri Society and several members of the Okayama Folklore Society, must be one of the most beautiful and numinous places in Japan. So high is it situated RQWKHPRXQWDLQVLGHWKDWRQDFOHDUGD\\RXFDQVHH+RÙNL'DLVHQWRWKHQRUWK and the islands of the Inland Sea to the south. On the night of the matsuri the moon was full, and looking from the gate of the temple it appeared to rise from far below, dark yellow and perfectly round through a fringe of pine trees. The URRIRIWKH+RQGRÙ RUPDLQEXLOGLQJGDWLQJIURPWKH0XURPDFKLSHULRGKDG

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remarkably deep eaves, like swooping wings, the veins and feathers of which ZHUHYLVLEOHIURPEHORZ%HVLGHWKH+RQGRÙVWDQGVDJLJDQWLFFU\SWRPHULDWUHH said to be a thousand years old. Its remoteness and its height gave the place a true sense of a monde à part, and in the light of the rising moon it seemed still further enwrapped in an atmosphere of mystery and dream. The procession which formed outside the temple to go to meet the medium was likewise a strange one. It consisted of seventeen conch-shell-blowers, eight torch-bearers, three drummers, several lantern-bearers, bearers of the medium’s huge bamboo wand, the bearer of his large cap, a mat-bearer, and QROHVVWKDQWZHQW\QLQH¶ZDLVWFODVSHUV·koshitori) whose duty it was to see that the medium’s frantic behaviour did not become dangerous. Some of the shell trumpeters, I noticed, were yamabushi from Ushiroyama; others bore no such insignia. There were also a dozen small boys known as keigo. The procession, to a clamorous accompaniment of drums and conches, wound its way by lantern light through a dark wood up the mountainside as far as the JRKRÙ shrine. There the medium, dressed in white, was waiting to be escorted to the place of the rite. Hardly had he joined the procession than he seemed to slip into a condition bordering on trance. Walking immediately behind the bearer of his great white cap, and immediately in front of the bearers of his huge wand of bamboo fronds, he would from time to time leap high into the air, restrained sometimes by the waist-claspers. The JRKRÙdivinity, I was told, was QRZDFFRPSDQ\LQJXVWKRXJKLWZDVQRW\HWSURSHUO\¶LPSODQWHG·LQWKHPHGLXP The procession now wound its way back through the forest, to the light of round SDSHUODQWHUQVDQGRIPRRQEHDPVÀOWHULQJWKURXJKWKHWUHHVXQWLOLWUHDFKHGWKH SODFHQHDUWKHJDWHRIWKHWHPSOHZKHUHWKH¶JRGLPSODQWLQJ·SURFHGXUHZDVWR take place. This appeared to be a small shrine with an enclosed court before it. The medium disappeared inside the shrine for a short time to change his clothes. When he emerged he was clad in a dark blue short coat with a white swastika front and back, tight trousers, and in his head the enormous white cap made of paper streamers. All was now ready for the ceremony of inoritsuke, or implanting the divinity. This took place in the open court in front of the shrine, in an enclosed space duly sacralised by rope and green bamboo posts. In the middle sat the medium with the soles of his feet together. Between them was placed the great wand, a gigantic spray of bamboo fronds as much as six feet long and festooned with white strips of paper. Six waist-claspers crouched round KLPOLNHDVL[SRLQWHGVWDUÀUPO\FOXWFKLQJKLVIHHW A rhythmic clamour then started on drum and conch, in time to which the medium swished the great wand to and fro and back and forth. Gradually the rhythm grew faster and the swishing of the wand more violent,

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until the medium was plunging frenziedly back and forth, the long bamboo spray dashing wildly among the spectators, shedding its white streamers like autumn leaves. The six attendants meanwhile clung desperately to the medium’s feet. At the same time I was aware that the small boys who had accompanied the procession were running round and round the medium in circles. Had not the clamour of the drum, the conches and the swishing wand been so deafening, I was told, I would have heard the children shout ¶%DURÙQVDURÙQ· as they ran. As the movement reached a climactic pitch of violence, the rhythm on drum and conch slackened, and the plunging of the medium slowed down to a pause. This whole cycle, I was told, was called hitoinori, one spell, and it usually took two or three of such treatments before the medium was truly entered by the JRKRÙ divinity. The procedure was then repeated. But as the plunging and swishing rose to a second climax, the medium suddenly leapt to his feet, burst through the ring of waist-claspers, and rushed at full speed down the steps from the shrine to a wide open space in front of the temple gate. Four waist-claspers followed hotly on his heels. Up and down and round and round he ran, always trailing his pursuers behind him. At length, apparently exhausted, he collapsed on a large stone which stood to one side of the shrine. The four attendants rushed up and, chanting loudly in his ear, appeared to be massaging his body. These were PHDVXUHV,ZDVLQIRUPHGWRSUHYHQWWKHGLYLQLW\IURP¶IDOOLQJRXW·DQGWKH man coming out of his trance. After a moment or two the medium again leapt to his feet and began rushing to and fro as before. This procedure was repeated twice more, the periods of wild rushing alternating with rests on the stone. It was known as o-asobi, the sport or play of the divinity during his visit to the human world. $IWHUWKHODVWEXUVWRI¶SOD\·WKHPHGLXPDQGKLVHVFRUWUHWXUQHGWRWKH shrine. There they restored him from his trance by removing his white cap and dashing water over his head. He then changed from his dark clothes back into white ones and, at about 4 a.m., the rite was concluded. The cap, I understood, was subsequently cut up and the pieces distributed to believers. The following night a similar rite was enacted at Ichinomiya. Although now a Shinto shrine, Ichinomiya was until the Meiji period a matsuji or subordinate WHPSOHRI5\RÙVDQML,WVFHUHPRQ\WKHUHIRUHUHVHPEOHVWKDWRI5\RÙVDQMLWKRXJK on a more modest scale. The medium wore the same dark clothes, the same ZKLWHFDSDQGKLVHQDFWPHQWRIWKHGLYLQLW\·V¶SOD\·LQDOWHUQDWLQJUXVKHVDQG UHVWVZDVOLNHZLVHVLPLODU7KHVDPHSURFHGXUHLVIROORZHGDW2QVKRÙML5\RÙVHQML and Seisuiji.

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$W%XNN\RÙMLDQG%XUDNXMLKRZHYHUWKHRQO\RWKHUWHPSOHVZKHUHWKH JRKRÙWREL rite still survives, slight variations are said to occur. The wand is not a gigantic bunch of bamboo fronds but a fan woven of maple leaves and twigs. The process of implanting the deity also boasts slight differences – seven short spells are recited seven times – and the posture of the medium as he rushes to and fro is said to be peculiar to these two temples. His rushes, moreover, are accomplished in three bursts, invariably of seven, ÀYHDQGWKUHHDORQJDÀ[HGFXUVXVEHWZHHQWZRÀUHV — 1972 —

13 August

I slept moderately well in the train despite the violent shaking of the carriage – so much that I felt at times like a rat in a terrier’s mouth. Woke to see PRXQWDLQVULVLQJXSDQGJOLPSVHVRIWKHVHD5HDFKHGLQ.\RWR@WKLVDIWHUQRRQ,WZDVVRVWUDQJH\HVWHUGD\ and there seemed so much to explore. There was a fair in progress along the path between the torii. The man I saw years ago who draws with one stroke snakes and dragons, stalls selling magic herbs, sticks of ink, slabs of pickle, lengths of rope. Suddenly a leaden tiredness overcomes me and I wonder shall I go straight home. But a bowl of tamago-udon>HJJQRRGOHV@DQGDUHVW restores me and I start to climb once more through the red tunnel of torii. I UHDFKWKHODNHKDOIZD\XSDQGÀQGDVWUDQJHYLOODJHVWUHHWRIVKULQHVDORQJ WKHVLGHRIWKHODNH$ÁDJVWRQHSDWKDQGRQHLWKHUVLGHDQH[WUDRUGLQDU\ succession of shrines. Each one has a torii with a deity’s name, some with several names inscribed on a framed board. Inside a cluster of oval stones, standing on end with the deity’s name cut in the stone. Leaning against the stone and obscuring the name a mass of small red tori with the name of

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the donor written on either leg with a brush. The effect of the still lake, the thick trees all round and this strange area of oval stones, red torii large and VPDOOÁXQJWRJHWKHUDOPRVWSHOOPHOOVRWKDWLWZDVVRPHWLPHVGLIÀFXOWWR squeeze from one shrine to another was very peculiar. Then I saw that the names of the gods were nearly all quite unfamiliar, on and on, name after peculiar name. How had they got there and who had erected these shrines? $W0LWVXWVXML,WXUQHGGRZQDJDLQKRSLQJWRÀQGWKHP\VWHULRXVYLOODJH of last night. All the way down I would come across a house with people living in it but on its doorstep another of the strange areas thickly clustered with shrines – the same oval incised stones, the same confusion of small torii. Like an animal cemetery except that there are no graves. Outside one of the houses was a man who told me that they reckoned on 50,000 shrines on the whole mountain. They were called tsuka>WRPE@DOWKRXJKKHFRXOGQRWWHOOPH why. As for the names of the kami those had been revealed to J\RÙMD>DVFHWLFV@ LQGUHDPV¶,DPVRDQGVRDQG,QHHGDtsuka or kami-yama.’ Always the oval stone was a yorishiro43 a vehicle into which the kami could enter. I continued on my way downhill fascinated by the strange community around me, a hill village where a few families lived in the midst of towering FOXVWHUVRIKLHURSKDQRXV>VLF@VWRQHV$WOHQJWK,VDZDUHGEULGJHVSDQQLQJD pool and leading to an elaborate temple dedicated to Kishibojin. A woman in white sat in an embrasure by the window and at once invited me to come in. I admired the altar, which was clearly a good example of VKLQEXWVXNHQNRÙ >DPDOJDPDWLRQRI6KLQWRJRGVDQG%XGGKDV@ZLWKPLPLFU\VWULSVRIZKLWHgohei next to quotations from the Lotus Sutra. In January, the lady told me, this whole area is so full of pilgrims that you can hardly move. They come in NRÙ or alone to make the prescribed round of shrines. There were far too many of course, 50,000, to visit at one time, but the whole mountain was divided into areas, ZKLFKFRXOGEHDFFRPSOLVKHGLQGLIIHUHQWPRQWKVRIWKH\HDU6KHFRQÀUPHG that most of the shrines had been created at the behest of kami who appeared to J\RÙMD>DVFHWLFV@LQGUHDPVDQQRXQFLQJWKHLUQDPHVDQGGHPDQGLQJDVKULQH The stones were certainly yorishiro. Do you practise J\RÙ? I enquired. It then transpired that the lady to whom I was talking was not the mere temple attendant that I had taken her for. She was the foundress of a small new cult, dedicated to Kishibojin and who commanded scores of disciples some of whom she took on an annual pilgrimage to Shichinen-zan at the top of Minobu-san to practise J\RÙShe thereupon began the story of her life. As a child she was ill nearly all the time, ailing and sickly. But she grew up, married and had a son who at the age of six contracted an illness which did not actually kill him but from which he could not recover. To seek divine help

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for the boy she started to make pilgrimages to the shrines of various kami. None could help her however until one night she experienced a radical vision of Kishibojin,44 resplendent in silver crown and halo who spoke to her telling her that the boy would soon be well. Soon after this vision the boy himself was possessed by Kishibojin. She spoke through his mouth in a stream of oracular wisdom after which the boy recovered completely. Thereafter, the lady knew that she stood in a special relationship with Kishibojin. Kishibojin was her tutelary deity, took her completely in charge and prescribed a series of arduous austerities, which she dared not disobey. At the command of Kishibojin she went to mountain after mountain, temple after temple, shrine after shrine, throughout the length and breadth of Japan. At the command of Kishibojin she practised zazen for a time in a country temple. At the command of Kishibojin she actually undertook the fearful hundred days DUDJ\RÙ >DXVWHULWLHV@RIWKH1LFKLUHQVHFWDW+RNNHN\RÙML6KHHQGXUHGWKHFROG lack of sleep, lack of proper sleep, even the extremely painful and trying practice with the bokken45 which had to be done always with a straight arm and caused such suffering that two other women gave up the struggle and went home. The climax of her austerities came with an order from Kishibojin to go to +RNNDLGRIRUWKHZLQWHU¶:K\QRWWKHVXPPHU"·VKHSOHDGHGEXWWKHGHLW\ was adamant: it must be the winter. There she endured appalling cold so that her hands and face were often frozen stiff. But at the end of the winter the deity relented. She could go back now and settle down. Thus, fourteen years ago, she had built the present temple, acquired the status of VKXÙN\RÙKRÙMLQ>OHJDOUHOLJLRXVHQWLW\@LQGHSHQGHQWRIDQ\VHFWDQGKDG gathered around her a number of disciples and believers. She lived in the temple most of the time now except for a monthly visit to a certain mountain near Kurama46¶P\PRXQWDLQ·VKHFDOOHGLWZKHUHVKHSHUIRUPHGDGXHGHHGRI J\RÙShe lived alone except for a faithful disciple who acted as a maid and the little girl, aged one and a half, her granddaughter whom she had designated as her successor. It must go in the female line she declared since Kishibojin is a woman goddess. After this I was invited to have tea in a room behind the hall with the altar. On the wall hung a large colour photograph of the lady dressed in a white sari her hair dramatically piled on top of her head. This was herself as identified with Kishibojin, an Indian goddess. There was also an extraordinary root, dark and spikey like a cluster of stags’ horns. She brought out a number of colour photographs of herself in a number of original and striking costumes. In a brilliant red kimono playing a koto >-DSDQHVHOXWH@LQDORRVHSDOH\HOORZORQJGUHVVDZKLWHVDWLQVDVKURXQG her waist, standing by a screen painted with a chariot of peonies. With

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a group of disciples all wearing the costume of a J\RÙMD on the top of Shichinen-zan. At the centre of another group of disciples again all wearing brilliantly cheerful loose dresses of red, green or gold. These dresses were the seifuku>IRUPDOGUHVV@VKHWROGPHGHVLJQHGE\KHUVHOIRQWKHEDVLVRI the dress of the old Yamato court. Did I know that the present kimono was originally a mere undergarment? She could identify herself easily with Kishibojin she could become a manifest Kishibojin. Also a snake: hebi no henge>PHWDPRUSKRVHLQWRDVQDNH@ZDV VRPHWKLQJZKLFKFDXVHGKHUQRGLIÀFXOW\ At intervals she would look at me and say that although we had only met an hour or so ago she felt she had known me for years and years. And wasn’t it strange? She never sat in the front in the embrasure where I had found her. Only this evening she had taken it into her head to do so for no particular reason. It was just as though she had been waiting for me to come. I murmured that the meeting had been a fascinating one for me too and that I thought she was the ancient Pimiko,47 a theocratic queen ruling a small but devoted empire. This pleased her for she at once gave me one of the photographs of herself and asked for one of mine in return: earnestly asked me to write and to come back, to write. By the time I left it was quite dark and the strange village all round, FDOOHG)XNDNXVDNDLGRÙJXFKLZDVTXLWHTXLHW²ODQWHUQVGLPO\OLJKWLQJJDWHways which might lead into mysterious houses full of stones and images, the clusters of shrines as dark as cemeteries. No cars of course, the stone path going down in steps. I left feeling almost as though I had visited the GUDJRQZRPDQLQ5\XÙJXÙ

*** Carmen (see Catalpa BowS KDGLQZDWFKHGVRPHÀIW\yamabushi in full regalia JDWKHUDWWKH6KRÙJRLQLQ.\RWRWRSUHSDUHIRUD¶WUDYHUVH·RIWKHSDWKVXSSRVHGWRDPRXQW WRVHYHQW\ÀYHOHDJXHVIURP0WPHPRULDO EXLOGLQJ@WROÙJDPLVDPDRQO\ÀQLVKHGDIHZPRQWKVDJR+HUHLQDLUNHSWVSHcially dry and at an even temperature all the year round every single thing that Ùgami-sama ever used or possessed is stored in a beautiful box of paulownia O wood. A selection of these things – her man’s suit, her shoes, her peasant’s straw raincoat, the suitcase she took with her on her world tour – are displayed in glass cases with subtle museum lighting. The rest, in their boxes, lie in piles on shelves behind the scenes. Here too are the tape recordings of no less than 4000 hours of OÙgami-sama’s sermons likewise stored in specially dry air and rerecorded every year to prevent deterioration. After this the family took me out to lunch, driving a mile or two out of Tabuse to a newly built restaurant of glass and concrete by the roadside where we had prawn salad 7KHQEDFNDJDLQ,ZDVVKRZQWZRÀOPVRIOÙgami-sama’s world tours, her VWDOZDUWIHDWVRISORXJKLQJDZHWULFHÀHOGZLWKR[HQXSWRKHUNQHHVLQPXG ²ERWKÀOPVODLGRQVSHFLDOO\IRUP\EHQHÀW Supper was an embarrassingly formal meal in an upper room of Wakagami-sama’s house – he and I opposite each other waited on by both Kazuko and Himegami-sama. Before the meal started they presented me with a series of presents begging me to open them there and then. One I found to contain a paaru buroochi>SHDUOEURDFK@DQRWKHUDEURFDGHWDEOHFORWKZLWKDJROGHQ fringe, while an unassuming envelope which accompanied the parcels I found on getting back later to my room contained no less than Y30,000 and $100 in bank notes. I wondered whether I should return the latter but the small community of foreigners staying in the place with whom I discussed the matter all counselled polite acceptance. You are simply being paid in advance they all said. In the course of supper the exact services I was to render were further GLVFXVVHG,DPWRD ÀQGDVXLWDEOH(QJOLVKVFKRROZKHUH+LPHJDPLVDPD PD\LPSURYHKHU(QJOLVKFRQYHUVDWLRQE ÀQGDVXLWDEOH(QJOLVKIDPLO\ZLWK ZKRPVKHFDQOLYHF ÀQGDVLQJLQJWHDFKHUG ÀQGD)UHQFKWHDFKHU0U Jerome, the elderly American whom I thought perfectly dreadful when he accompanied OÙgami-sama to London in 1965 and whose tactlessness caused the whole party to be expelled from the Polish lady’s house in Hackney DVVXUHGPHODWHUWKDW,ZRXOGKDYHQRGLIÀFXOW\LQFDUU\LQJRXWWKHVHWDVNV All I had to do was to leave it all to God and everything would come right. For the rest of dinner, Wakagami-sama told me about his experiences in WKHZDU$QDUP\RIÀFHUKHZDVWZR\HDUVRQ3DODX,VODQG)RUWKHODVW\HDU all food supplies ran out and they were reduced to eating sea slugs and insects and rats. At least 20 men used to die of dysentery and starvation every day.

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7KH\ZRXOGFXWRIIWKHOLWWOHÀQJHURIHDFKGHDGPDQWLHKLVDUP\QXPEHUWR it and put it in a tin. When eventually taken off the island by an American ship DIWHUWKH-DSDQHVHVXUUHQGHUWKH\WRRNDOOWKHVHÀQJHUVE\WKHQUHGXFHGWRERQH back to Japan where they were returned to their respective families and buried. The last event of the evening was a recording of one of OÙgamisama’s sermons in the great hall. Her piercing harsh peasant voice rang out deafeningly loud in the enormous room, songs, poems tumbling out of her mouth.

— 1974 —

The night before she left Cambridge the goddess invited me to dine in the Peking UHVWDXUDQWZLWK¶VRPHPDQIURPWKHHenbu>UHFRUGVHFWLRQ@·ZKRKDGFRPHWR transport the bulk of her luggage to London and thereafter to accompany her on KHUMRXUQH\WKURXJK(QJODQGDQG$VLDEDFNWR-DSDQ,GXO\DSSHDUHGWRÀQGWKH JRGGHVVKHURDÀVKEURWKHU7HWVXPD]XDQG0U.RED\DVKLIURPWKH+DZDLLDQ branch and two very large men from the henbu. I was not introduced so I did so P\VHOIVDWGRZQWRÀQGGHDGVLOHQFHUHLJQHG,PDQIXOO\WU\WRPDNHFRQYHUVDWLRQ to the goddess: how quickly the time has passed since last July, etc. but the company seems paralysed. At last, at last menus are brought and the Chinese waiter hovers. The goddess asks me to choose which I do; none of the men apparently having any preference for one dish or another. What to drink? Lager? Very like Kirin Beer. An embarrassed pause before they say no. Cola. Well I’d like some lager, I reply. How about you? to the goddess. Her face brightens: I’ll have some too. Sokonashi>OLWZLWKRXWDERWWRP@,HQTXLUHUHFDOOLQJKHUFRQVXPSWLRQRIZLQH the other day. She takes no notice but all four men at once opt for lager. The dishes arrive and they eat in silence. I hope you have looked at some of the beautiful old buildings in Cambridge I said to the largest. He indicated that KHKDGQRWGRQHVR%XWZKDWDSLW\+RZmottainai>ZDVWH@,H[SRVWXODWHLUULtation rising in me. Are you not the least interested in western architecture? We have been too busy was the stony reply. Both men behave as though they were on sentry duty; their answers to any attempts to bring them out, to get them to communicate like human beings…As the meal advanced I found myself saying in a mixture of curiosity and irritation at Tetsumazu, who from the moment I appeared until the party dispersed uttered not a single monosyllable, his eyes scarcely raised from his plate. The thought that even after three years in America he could still be so socially inept and there might be something lacking in him struck me anew. I was extremely relieved when the party broke up at about 8.30. 7KHQH[WPRUQLQJ,GURYHWRFROOHFWWKHJRGGHVVIURPWKH6KHOGRQ·V>D FROOHDJXHRI&DUPHQ·VDW&DPEULGJH@KRXVHDQGWDNHKHUWRWKHVWDWLRQ,ZDV

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surprised to see that her only luggage was a few plastic carriers of oddments, a larger blue brass studded trunk full of clothes to follow by sea. — 1977 —

7 February [Kyoto]

:KDWDQH[TXLVLWHYLHZIURPWKHJUHDWKDOORI6KLQQ\RÙGRÙ ORRNLQJGXHZHVWWR the range of mountains ashy grey against the bright evening sky. Everything VWDUNDQGLQDVWRQLVKLQJFODULW\7KHURXQGWLOHVRIWKH6DQMXÙQRWRÙ >WKUHHWLHU SDJRGD@²,FDQDOPRVWVHHWKHSDWWHUQRQWKHP7RP\ULJKW,FDQVHH+LHL]DQ almost all white with the setting sun shining gold on patches of snow. Behind me is the dark wooded range of the eastern mountain seen across the graveyard bristling with wooden sotoba >JUDYHPDUNHUVLQVFULEHGZLWKWKH%XGGKLVW QDPHRIWKHGHFHDVHG@,WLVVRJORULRXVO\TXLHWDQGSHDFHIXO,DPHQYHORSHG in gratitude and joy for this moment. Wonderful road by Kurodani’s and long old walls, roofs with grey tiles and an orange tree appears from the garden behind. Beautiful sets of small temples. Road unpaved. Take away the posts and wires and it would be unchanged from a century ago. Also peonies and bare cherry. Another exquisite small temple. Walk up the avenue of torii>6KLQWRJDWHZD\V@LQWKHGHHSHQLQJWZLOLJKW²VN\ a blue with coverings of old gold. Come to the roofed dancing stage with numinous bridge and beyond a shishi >&KLQHVHOLRQ@7KHInari>IR[JRG@VKULQH·V grand red and white lanterns lit to a cheery glow were out most of the time. Behind the lanterns . . . 10 March [Kyoto]

3URIHVVRU*RUDL>6KLJHUX-DSDQHVHVFKRODURIUHOLJLRXVVWXGLHV@KHOGDQRWKHU class this afternoon continuing to read Noda486HLU\RÙ·VWUDYHOGLDU\LQ0U 8HGD·VORYHO\KRXVHRQWKHKLOODERYHWKH6KLVHQGRÙ0LVV%RXFK\WKHKDLU\ amiable but inarticulate Frenchman, Dr Ino, Mr Hayabu, of course Mr Ueda himself, and Prof Gorai. The house again seemed full of an extraordinary peace and happiness. The sense of being high up on the hillside, mountains behind, the city stretching far below, the peaks of Hieizan out of the window before me: the luxury of an old house, (Mr Ueda took it to pieces and moved it up to this dizzy site) and of traditionally beautiful things – all this combined with the interesting WUDYHOVRI1RGD6HLU\RÙ PDGHWKLVDQH[TXLVLWHDIWHUQRRQ Mr Ueda, owning as he does several WRÙIX>EHDQFXUG@UHVWDXUDQWVPXVWEH a comfortable millionaire. His taste for minzokugaku>HWKQRJUDSK\@VHHPV

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improbable but is genuine enough to cause him to put much aside in order to listen to Gorai even to follow him to Tokyo from time to time. We were all served by Mrs Ueda with marrons glacés, bowls of matcha>JUHHQSRZGHUHG WHD@DQGODWHUYHU\ODUJHERZOVRIudon >QRRGOHV@ ,KDGSUHYLRXVO\LQYLWHG3URI*RUDLDQG$QQH0DULH>%RXFK\@WRGLQQHU and they had opted for a nabe>FDVVHUROH@SODFHQHDU6KRÙMRLQFDOOHG.DZDQichiya. On the way we stopped at a stone carver’s near Ginkakuji where a large hi stone was being carved to Prof Gorai’s own design and calligraphy for the NX\RÙ >UHOLJLRXVPDVVHV@RIFRZV$ODUJHbonji >6DQVFULWFKDUDFWHUV@ LQFLVHGWRUHSUHVHQWWKH5RNXML]RÙ LQHDFKRIWKHVL[QLFKHVEXW,FRXOGQRW make out why cows. The stone carver was a charming little man who told us how he loved his work, how happy it makes him every day of his life and how for this reason he was unable to carve a good )XGRÙ >6DQVFULWAcala@ RUDQ\ÀJXUHZLWKDZUDWKIXOIDFH5DYHQVDQGDQLPDOVYHU\VXFFHVVIXODQG you could see how they communicated benevolence and compassion but KLV)XGRÙVODFNHGIXU\ The nabe place was rather noisy but the chrysanthemum leaves were good. Prof G thought that the shinbutsu bunri >VHSDUDWLRQRI6KLQWRJRGVDQG%XGGKLVWLPDJHVLQWKHHDUO\0HLMLSHULRG@ZDVQHFHVVDU\IRUWKHPRGHUQLVDWLRQ of Japan. Without it Japan would have lacked the drive to become rich and strong enough to preserve her from the foreigners. As he spoke I sensed I was treading on potentially dangerous ground. There was a warning note in WKHDLUWKDWVDLG¶EHZDUH·+HHYHQVHHPHGWRDSSURYHRIWKHjinju-gakken49 of ZKLFK0LQDNDWDDQGULFH FDNHV@6KHZRXOGOHDQIRUZDUGHDJHUO\WRWKHFKDQWLQJSLOJULPVKROGLQJRXW an explanation board to anyone who wanted to take them. I remember her old wrinkled face and the gesture with which she stretched out her hand with the round green buns. Of course, she had made them all herself and there must have been a hundred or so in her box. There was brown bean paste inside and the green mocha outside was fairly glutinous and indigestible but the kindness of her face and actions is a vivid memory. O-settai, o-settai (welcome) she kept saying. And a dear old woman giving away PDQMXÙ >EHDQFXUGFDNHV@DFRXSOHRI days ago. And after lunch today when I joined Mr Takenaka, Mrs Minami and Kumamoto thinking to stand them all a cup of coffee the girl said when she brought the four cups (usually 200 yen) that they were all o-settai on the house. I must say that I am glad this is the last evening with the party for I am beginning to be exhausted with communal life and longing to be by myself.

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1RWWRKDYHWRNHHSWRDVWULFWWLPHWDEOHDQGWRÀQGP\VHOIDOZD\VWKHODVW HYHQWKRXJK,DUULYHÀYHPLQXWHVEHIRUHWKHEXVLVGXHWROHDYH%UHDNIDVWWKLV PRUQLQJDWOHDYHDWVKDUSZHZHUHWROG,JHWWRWKHEXVDWWRÀQG everyone has been waiting at least 5 minutes. 4 April

,WLVH[DFWO\DZHHNVLQFH,DUULYHGDW.RÙFKLZDONHGWRWKHFDVWOHWKHUHDQGWKHQ joined the party for their dinner at 6 o’clock. It seems both an age and only a moment. I could not have stood it any longer. Zentsuji was the right place to leave them – but their warmth and kindness and the most remarkable talents of Takenaka-san, the rhythm of the bus, the chanting, the decanting of the company at the next temple, the business of the on-mairi>SLOJULPDJHSUD\HU@ with candles and incense and the fuda>WDOLVPDQ@IRU.RÙERÙ 'DLVKL7DNHQDND·V beautiful singing and particularly the hymn to Kannon which still haunts me. — 1980 —

24 January [Kyoto]

:RNHWRUDLQIRUWKHÀUVWWLPHVLQFH,DUULYHGDQGDSSDUHQWO\IRUWKHÀUVWWLPH WKLV\HDU$SSRLQWPHQWWRYLVLW'DLVKXLQVDQWKH5RÙVKLRI5\RÙDQMLDOVR5RVVDL my old friend of twenty-nine years ago in Daitokuji, at 11 o’clock. Set off on bike down Imadegawa and had all but reached Kitano jinja when back tyre EORZQÁDWE\SLHFHRIEURNHQJODVV([WUDRUGLQDULO\IRUWXQDWHO\Djitenshaya-san >F\FOHVKRS@H[LVWVRQO\DKXQGUHG\DUGVEDFNZKRIRUWKZLWKVHWVDERXWMRERI mending the panku. This he accomplishes in a very short time while I discuss ZLWKWKHROGER\WKHEHVWURXWHWR5\RÙDQML)LQG'DLVKXLQRQWKHIDUVLGHRIWKH lake with the Benten island and the white ducks steps going up to the stone JDUGHQRQWKHULJKWDQGWKHÀUVWIDFHWRDQVZHUP\FDOOLVWKHEHDPLQJIDFH of Rossai, the silent virgin retainer of the 5RÙVKL when he made his stately visit to Cambridge in 1979. Conducted round the veranda where I roll up my extremely wet coat and WRÀQGWKH5RÙVKL sitting in smallish room, with lovely view of misty pond and island, dressed in golden silk robes and bare feet. Extremely genial and welFRPLQJ5HFDOOVROGGD\VWZHQW\QLQH\HDUVDJRZKHQZHÀUVWPHWLQ'DLWRNXML ,KDGEHHQWKHÀUVWZRPDQHYHUWRVLWLQWKHVRÙGÙR>PHGLWDWLRQKDOO@5HFDOOVWKH learned words and odd expressions with which my conversations in those days was laced. Rossai makes green tea in exquisite russet bowl with violet overtones, which revives me after my wet cold ride of four miles. The 5RÙVKL invites PHWRWDNHOXQFKZLWKKLPRQ)HEUXDU\WKDW.LWFKRÙ,QHHGQ·WWKLQNKHLVD

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PLOOLRQDLUH+HKDVEHHQJLYLQJLQVWUXFWLRQWRDPHPEHURIWKH.LWFKRÙ IDPLO\ of cooks in return for which they allowed him free meals there whenever he likes and with as many guests as he cares to take. He wants to take me there because it is one of the few islands of true Japanese culture left. The old man who started the concern, now well over eighty, a good friend of his, and many have been the times when he has heard him upbraid the cook RIWKH.\RWR.LWFKRÙ ²WKHROGPDQOLYLQJLQWKH2VDNDRQHIRUIDLOLQJWR UHDOLVHWKHH[DFWO\FRUUHFWÁDYRXURIDGLVKRUVHUYLQJLWLQWKHZURQJTXDQWLW\ – i.e. the amount and shape served to the guest was wrong – or failing to cut WKHYHJHWDEOHVÀQHHQRXJK2QFHDJDLQVWWKHODWWHUFKDUJHLWZDVLPSRVVLEOHWR FXWWKHFXFXPEHUDQ\ÀQHUWKDQKHKDGGRQH%ULQJPHDNQLIHDQGFKRSSLQJ board, the old man had said. This done he proceeded to cut the wafer thin slices yet again in half. 7KHJHQLXVRIROG0U.LWFKRÙ·VVFKRRORIFRRNLQJOLHVLQLWVEOHQGLQJRI the austere simplicity of tea ceremony food, of the kaiseki>IRUPDOPXOWL FRXUVHPHDO@ZLWKDEULOOLDQWDOPRVWOX[XULRXVGHOLFLRXVQHVV+HLVH[SRXQGLQJWKHPHULWVRI0U.LWFKRÙZKHQZLWKDVWUDQJHV\QFKURQLFLW\ZKRVKRXOG EHDQQRXQFHGEXW\RXQJ0U.LWFKRÙ RIWKH.\RWRUHVWDXUDQW+HLVFRXUWHous in a rather military way and in the course of the conversation is summoned by a little box in his pocket making a bleeping sound to telephone the restaurant. His people can contact him at any time by this means by some wave which is beamed to his box wherever he may be. The 5RÙVKL WKHQGHFODUHVWKDWKLV$PHULFDQSXSLO'DLMRÙVDQZKRLVDWSUHVHQWWRÙEDQ>LQ FKDUJH@LQWKHNLWFKHQLVSUHSDULQJIRUOXQFK udon>QRRGOHV@ZLWKDFXUU\ sauce. He hopes I will stay and join him, which I am delighted to do. An unsui>PRQN@ZLWKDZHVWHUQIDFHFODGLQIDGHGEOXHFRWWRQEDUHIHHWWKHQ brings in two trays each with an extremely large bowl of said dish. The 5RÙVKL·VLQGHHGLVVRODUJHWKDWKHSURWHVWVLWLVRQO\ÀWIRUVDYDJHV6DYDJHV and barbarians and what is more it is impossible to eat it with any politeness. Never mind manners, he declares, just eat as much as you want as best you can. The American unsui who spoke very good Japanese and served both the udon and the subsequent tea with an assurance and grace, which indicated lessons in tea, was not introduced to me and behaved in every way like a devoted and well-trained servant. The 5RÙVKL meanwhile was offering an explanation of why Japanese had ruined so much of the beauty of nature in their country. Hacking down forHVWVOHYHOOLQJPRXQWDLQVWREXLOGKLGHRXVEORFNVRIÁDWVGHVWUR\LQJSODFHVRI particularly numinous and traditional beauty by building a concrete Bowling Hall or Pachinko Parlour in the crucial central spot. It was because they were… still behaving like children who amaeru>DUHVSRLOW@E\WKHLUSDUHQWV1DWXUHZDV

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OLNHDQLQÀQLWHO\LQGXOJHQWSDUHQWZKRZRXOGQHYHUUHSULPDQGWKHPKRZHYHU naughty they were. Unlike the Jewish God who punished his children when they disobeyed his commandments. The trouble is, I said, that you end up by killing your parents. He agreed. +HWKHQFRQGXFWHGPHRYHUKLVOLEUDU\+HKDGDOOPXOWLSOHUHDGLQJVRIVXWUDV@DQG imagine every time I breathe out that I am slowly getting into a delicious and relaxing hot bath. I then took my leave exhilarated by such a splendid meeting. Still pouring with rain and outside the gate of Daishuin meet the American. He is clad in the same faded cotton with an extra layer. At once offers to accompany me to the stone garden. Told me his name used to be Thomas Mickle, that he KDGJRQHDWWKHDJHRIHLJKWHHQWR.REDUL5RÙVKLZKRKDGVHQWKLPEDFNWR America to go to a university. Now he had been back for two years doing his VKXJ\RÙ at Daishuin. Torrent of eager speech and I get the impression that he KDVQRWVSRNHQ(QJOLVKIRUVRPHWLPH¶7KLVLVikenai·>QRWDOORZHG@LQGLFDWLQJ top layer of cotton. It’s not supposed to be more than sanmai >WKUHHOD\HUV@ 1HYHUJRWPRUHWKDQÀYHKRXUVVOHHS/LIHGHÀQLWHO\KDUG,IHOWVXUHKHZDV on the right path and an immediate friendship. All this while sitting on the steps above the said garden, which struck me as numinous in atmosphere in a way I had never sensed before. — 1982 —

24 February >,Q&DPEULGJH@

'RXJ>0LOOV50IHOORZOHFWXUHULQ-DSDQHVHDW&DPEULGJH@YLVLWVPHWDONVD JUHDWGHDODERXWGRJVDQGQRZDQGWKHQKLVH\HVÀOOZLWKWHDUV+HVD\VKH had made up his mind to take early retirement. I’ll go, he says, but it is not yet the moment to say – well what about the Tripos? Must we turn away any undergraduates who want to read Japanese from next October because no teaching can be guaranteed for the next three years? And what about the new .HLRÙ FRXUVHVREOLWKHO\DJUHHGWRODVWDXWXPQRYHUJODVVHVRIFKDPSDJQHLQ 'RZQLQJ>FROOHJH@" And what am I to do? Stay on alone unable to provide teaching singlehanded? Or do I, too, as the I Ching51 on Sunday advised, allow our good and balanced and successful Japanese course, which has during thirty-four years turned out James McMullen, David Waterhouse, Jeremy Silverman, John

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%UHHQ3HWHU1RVFRDQGQRZWKHGHOLJKWIXOFURZGRIÀYHZKROLVWHQWRP\ lectures on Shinto and Buddhism – allow all this to vanish like water poured on to sand? Do I stay on and hold the fort, and hope that during the next few \HDUVZHVKDOOEHDOORZHGWRÀOORQHRIWKHSRVWVRUGR,EHOLHYHZKDWHYHU\RQH says that universities have no political friends and that cuts once made will not EHUHVWRUHGLQWKH¶IRUHVHHDEOHIXWXUH·" ,ÀQGP\VHOIIURPGD\WRGD\VHHLQJWKHVLWXDWLRQGLIIHUHQWO\2QHGD\,PHHW with Hugh Plommer, who is accepting the offer without regret or demur, who ZLOOEHIUHHLQIXWXUHWRÀQLVKKLVERRNRQ9LWUXYLXVWRJRWR$PHULFDQRWWR have to examine or sit on Boards with people with whom he has no sympathy. $QRWKHUGD\,VHHWKLV¶IUHHGRP·DVZDQGHULQJLQDQDOLHQODQGZLWKQRIDPLOLDU ODQGPDUNVWLPHJRLQJRQDQGRQLQDQ¶RXWVLGHU·V·OLPER$QRWKHUGD\,VHH twenty-seven years as long enough; wouldn’t a mid-life crisis such as Ian Gordon Brown talked of open a new door and stir up some of the spiritual and moral energy which I suspect has begun to sink and settle on some well bottom way down in some dark depth inaccessible to me now. And another day I see this very mid-life crisis as leading only to greater mental sloppiness, the modicum of discipline supplied by teaching withdrawn, the horror of the unstructured limbo returns. 1 October

The hottest day of the year. I have just walked up the hill to St George’s Chapel to say a prayer that England will be delivered from Arthur Scargill52. To accomplish this I was charged 60p to enter the Chapel and once inside was told that if I wanted to say a prayer I must walk all the way round the chapel round the nave through the stalls of the Knights of the Garter until I should come to a small chapel on the south side which was reserved for prayer. When HYHQWXDOO\,IRXQGWKHSODFHLWZDVVRWLQ\WKDWKDUGO\PRUHWKDQIRXURUÀYH people could have squeezed into the single pew. Nowhere else in the chapel, apparently, was one allowed to say a prayer. And now I am in the Eton Buttery by the river full of an odd nostalgia as this amazing Indian summer slides into its last day. Open windows give a view of the bridge, boats advised to keep well to the right, and thence up the hill to the round tower and battlements of Windsor Castle. Outside is a hot summer day, the summer we did not have this year until DZHHNDJR$PDQLVSOD\LQJRQDSLDQRWKHROGWXQHDERXW¶6RPHZKHUH over the Rainbow’ which takes me back to that time in the past when we ORRNHGIRUZDUGZLWKHDJHUFRQÀGHQFHWRWKHIXWXUHWRQRZDQ\WKLQJZDV possible over that horizon which lay beyond the trees at Benenden on the RWKHUVLGHRI+DVFRPEHRU¶IDU·RYHUWKHEOXHOLQHRIWKH'RZQV7KDWLV

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where I am going, somewhere marvellous, glamorous, elegant, full of high achievement. And here am I, saying to myself that I have perhaps another twenty years to live and that all the books in my room in Pasturewood >KHUROGKRPHLQ6XUUH\@ZKLFK,DPQRWOLNHO\WRUHDGLQWKHQH[WWZHQW\ years must be given away, sold, thrown out. No longer room for the two fat volumes on the Life and Letters of Benjamin Jowett even though it was *UDQGDG>&DUORV%ODFNHUZKRGLHGLQ)UDQFHLQ@ZKRERXJKWWKHP« or the two-volume life of Samuel Butler. All my old philosophy books from Oxford days – John Locke, Hume’s Theory of the External World, Bentham, 0LOO,KDYHQRWRSHQHGWKHPLQWKLUW\ÀYH\HDUVDQGDPQRWOLNHO\WRGRVR during the next twenty. All are in boxes to be sold. Also dozens of small Japanese books about Fukuzawa and zazen acquired in 1952–54 and not looked at for thirty years. They, too, must go. Sense of the end of an era as we decide that the house must be sold next summer. Even in the brilliant hot sunshine of the last few days I have caught a silence, a sadness about it. The utter stillness and windlessness of September leaves turning golden here and there, dahlias glowing in the golden light, the beauty of it was shot through with the sense of the last time since 1931. 28 November

$PHPL\D>-DSDQHVHHPEDVV\@WHOOVPHWKDWKHKDVKDGQHZVWKDW.HLGDQUHQ will very probably give to Cambridge Japanese studies the sum of 210 million yen. The probability he said was in the region of more than 80%. Companies involved are Tokyo Denryoku and two others. ,IWKLVFRXSFRPHVRIIZHVKDOORZHLWWR+XJK>&RUWD]]L@DQG+LURNR >,VKLEDVKL@+XJKIRUKLVLQLWLDWLYHLQVWDUWLQJWKHFDPSDLJQLQWKH Asahi>QHZVSDSHU@DQGSXUVXLQJLWHYHUVLQFHZLWKVWDXQFKJHQHURVLW\DQGHQHUJ\+LURNR for have arranged that NRÙHQNDL>OHFWXUHPHHWLQJ@RQ6HSWHPEHUWK — 1985 —

5 July

7KLVPRUQLQJRQWKHODVWGD\RIWHUP,ÀQLVKHGWKHSUHVFULEHGFKDSWHUVRI the Heike Monogatari ZLWKWKH3DUW,,>RIWKH7ULSRV@SHRSOH3KLOLS:KLWWRPH Sharon Jones, Joanna Pitman and Tom Schullbuchen. They have been joined by Sakurai-san whose father is a high priest in the Ise shrine and who is in Cambridge for a year for a reason I cannot fathom, studying English folklore. (He hopes to write a monograph on Hobby Horses before he returns to Ise.)

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We have read the Hashi Gassen>%DWWOHRIWKH%ULGJH@FKDSWHUWKHGHDWKRI 3ULQFH0RFKLKLWRWKHWHUULEOHHQGRI.L\RPRULDQGWKH2KDUD*RNRÙ >SURJUHVVWR2KDUD@FKDSWHU$QGWRGD\ZHYLHZHGWKHUHWLUHG(PSUHVV·VFHOOZLWK its icon of Fugen Bosatsu, its portrait of the child Emperor Antoku drowned at Yashima, its scrolls of the Lotus Sutra and commentaries of San-tao or the Amitayurdhayana Sutra, its poems stuck on the wall, its hempen robe hanging RYHUDEDPERRSROHDQGZHKDGIROORZHGKHUPDNLQJKHUZD\ZLWKGLIÀFXOW\ down the rocky path from the mountain with a basket of wild azaleas on her arm and saw her stand stock still when she saw the Emperor at the foot overcome with nostalgia and humiliation. :KDWH[FHOOHQWWLPLQJ,WKRXJKWWRÀQLVKRQWKHGRWRIR·FORFNRQWKH ODVWGD\RIWHUPZKHUHWKHUHZDVDNQRFNDWP\GRRUDQGDOOÀYHRIWKHPSUHsented themselves. I was handed an extremely large and heavy parcel wrapped in red and gold paper and an envelope. The parcel contained a large ham and a large wedge of stilton cheese and a jar of mango chutney and the envelope a beautiful card of a procession of Japanese cranes and on the back all their signatures and a message thanking me for my dedicated lecturing over forty-three years and for reincarnating the Department from a state of inertia. I was so surprised and touched that I felt quite a lump in my throat. I can’t remember such a thing ever happening before in all the thirty years I have been in Cambridge. — 1987 —

20 August

:RNHXSDJDLQZLWKDQ[LHW\DERXWP\&KLFKLEXOHFWXUH>OHFWXUHLQPHPRU\ RI3ULQFHVV&KLFKLEX@7KHUHZDVQRFRKHUHQFHRIWKHPHWKH$UWKXU:DOH\ SDVVDJHVGLGQRWÀWZLWKWKH¶LPDJH·SDVVDJHVDQGWKHWKRXJKWVDERXWWKHHQG RIDJHQHUDWLRQGLGQRWÀWZLWKHLWKHU But as I was washing my face before breakfast – another hot bright morning ²WKHÀJXUHRI0LQDNDWDRFFXUUHGWRPHDQGVXGGHQO\,WKRXJKWZK\QRWJLYH WKHPWZRHFFHQWULF-DSDQHVHJHQLXVHVZKRXQOLNH1DWVXPH6RÙVHNLDERXWZKRP so much fuss was made, were not friendless, isolated and depressed in Victorian London but on the contrary made innumerable friends from cabinet ministers to blacksmiths who worked with ferocious creative energy and who were thoroughly happy in Victorian and Edwardian London. Minakata and Yoshio Ma(r) kino, painter and polymath. Neither cared two pins what anyone thought about them or whether the English they spoke volubly and extensively was absolutely correct. Each was utterly himself.

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Both Michael and Elizabeth Cortazzi were enthusiastic and after breakfast I at once began a search for the Markino papers deposited with me years ago by Helma Wayne whose former husband Donald Burke spent years gathering material for a life of Markino but died before he had ever started to write a single chapter. Never IHOWPRYHGHYHQWRORRNDWWKHPEHIRUHRUHYHQVHHZKDWWKHÀOHVZHUHODEHOOHG 1RZWRÀQGWKHPEHFDPHDQLPSHUDWLYHWDVN6HDUFKHGXQGHUWKHVWDLUVDQGIRXQG only plastic bags of the dirty rump left over from sorting the Opal Whitely papers. Searched the Blue room and the Holy room, both in Willow House, in vain. Then on an inspiration opened the red Chinese chest and there they all were. A dozen ÀOHVFRQWDLQLQJWDSHGLQWHUYLHZVZLWK%HWW\6KHSKHUGDERUWLYHOHWWHUVZULWWHQWR Japan asking for information about whereabouts of pictures and about his last years; newspaper cuttings from Japan. Xerox copies of reviews of his books, articles by him in Edwardian literary magazines. Took them at once to the table on the lawn and with a buoyant sense of having exactly what I needed sorted and marked them with such speed that E\OXQFKWLPH,KDGUHDGQHDUO\WKHZKROH¶DUFKLYH·$V,UHDG,ZDVÀOOHGZLWK a feeling of sympathy and love for this gentle otherworldly character whom I had the luck to meet thirty-four years ago and I felt a strong recollection of Betty Shepherd, her face, her voice, the aura of blue with which she surrounded herself. Strange feeling as though an opening had occurred in some mysterious concatenation of rhythms and Heiji had at last come through with all the vividness of a presence thitherto blocked off unable to reach and now at last here he is. — 1988 —

15 December

The day, arranged as far back as last October on which the Order of the Precious Crown (Wisteria) was to be conferred on me for my services to Anglo Japanese understanding over the years. Ceremony to be at 12.15 followed by toasts in champagne followed by buffet lunch. Asked about a month ago to submit a list of 10 relatives and friends with subsidiary list of another half dozen – but touched to discover when I telephoned the admirable Miss Wright a couple of days ago that they had invited a good many more people so that with the Embassy staff a company of about 40 was to be expected. My speech VKRXOGODVWDERXWÀYHPLQXWHV7KLV,ZURWHLQURXJKRQ7XHVGD\DIWHUQRRQLQ the train to London and copied it out legibly this morning in the Club library. $UULYHGDW.HQVLQJWRQ3DODFH*DUGHQVDOLWWOHHDUO\WRÀQGWKH3LOFKHUV >6LU-RKQDQG/DG\3LOFKHU53@DOUHDG\WKHUHDQGLQWKHLQQHUGUDZLQJURRP

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VHYHUDOFRQFHQWULFFLUFOHVRIFKDLUVIDFLQJDJROGHQVFUHHQDQGDPDJQLÀFHQW DUUDQJHPHQWRIÁRZHUV0LVV:ULJKWLQÀQLWHO\KHOSIXODQGNLQG6RRQJXHVWV begin to arrive. Contingent from Cambridge who had come by train and not LQ5LFKDUG·V>5LFKDUG%RZULQJ3URIHVVRU-DSDQHVHDW&DPEULGJH@FDUWRVDYH their train fares as R had suggested. Cortazzis, Julian Ridsdale,547KHWLV>&DUPHQ·VVLVWHU@EULQJLQJ.DWKOHHQ>5DLQH55@-RKQ>KHUEURWKHU@DQG0LFKDHOLQ a beautiful striped shirt) Louis Allen56 from Durham, Gordon Daniels from 6KHIÀHOG-DPHV0F0XOOHQIURP2[IRUG/RUG-HQNLQ>RI5RGLQJ3DWULFN@ Ron Dore. I was sorry that a message came through from Laurens van der 3RVWWKDWKHFRXOGQRWFRPHEHFDXVHKHKDGPLVVHGKLVWUDLQ«0U>.D]XH@ Chiba57 is one of the nicest ambassadors we have ever had in London, if not the nicest – and Miss Wright who has been personal secretary to no less WKDQQLQHFRQÀUPVWKLV0DGDP&KLEDDOVRFKDUPLQJLQDEHDXWLIXOGUHVV GDUWLQJDERXWOLNHDVZDOORZWRVHHWKDWHYHU\ERG\ZDVKDSS\DQG\HW¶FRV\· and relaxed. At 12.10 they beckon me into an inner sanctum where he, with reassuring humour, explaining the procedure. He will read an encomium, then pin the Order to my lapel, then I make my speech, then champagne will be brought, mutual toasts followed by a buffet lunch in the dining room. All this duly came to pass. The company sat in the semicircles of chairs, Thetis and -RKQLQWKHIURQWURZ0U&KLEDPDGHDFKDUPLQJVSHHFKWKHQSLQQHG>WKH PHGDO@RQWRP\VXLW¶0\KDQGLVWUHPEOLQJ·KHUHPDUNHG²DQRWDEOHPHGDO with a strange device in the middle featuring a crown and a sun rayonnante and IRXUEXQFKHVRISLQNÁRZHUVDQGJUHHQOHDYHVVXUURXQGLQJWKHRYDOWKHZKROH surrounded by a golden ribbon with a red stripe. I then delivered my remarks and except that I could not remember the name of King Polycrates in Herodotus who was so lucky that his friend told him he must throw his most precious ring into the sea and had to be prompted by Michael all went well. Trays of champagne glasses, Mr Chiba says in his toast that this is the happiest day for him since he took up his post in London. I respond by saying this is one of the proudest days of my whole life. A good many photographs are taken of me displaying the beautiful scroll with the Emperor’s seal handed to me at the time the medal was pinned on and then the ceremonial part is over. Madam Chiba ushers us into the dining room where a wonderful buffet has been prepared by their two cooks despite the fact that they had had only last night a gigantic dinner party of journalists to prepare. A wonderful variety of dishes including trays of sushi and tempura, slices of roast beef, vats of chicken and an outstandingly delicious chocolate cake which Mrs Chiba assures us is homemade. Sudden exhaustion prevents me from mingling with the guests, hobnobbing with Hugh and Mr Chiba but the general and apparently sincere acclaim for my speech is wonderfully reassuring. General

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exiting around 2.30 and I say to Mr Chiba that if I could speak with half his HOHJDQFHZLWKXPRXUDQGVHQVHRIWKHERQPRW,VKRXOGIHHOKDSS\¶6RPHWLPHVRRQ·KHUHSOLHG¶ZH·OOKDYHDPXWXDOVHVVLRQRIVFUDWFK\EDFN\· — 1989 —

30 January

5LFKDUG >%RZULQJ@ WHOOV PH WKDW -DSDQ WRR LV UHQW ZLWK GLVVHQVLRQ RYHU the Emperor’s responsibility for the war. And for the atom bomb. Even Maruyama Masao, whose essay on the behaviour and psychology of the war lord was an eye-opener to me when I re-read it last week – no one prepared to take responsibility for anything; they were a prisoner either of their superiors or of their inferiors or of kokutai>QDWLRQDOSROLW\@VRWKDW their actions were in no way their own as individual people and even MM is now said to be loading the blame on the poor old gentleman. The Mayor of Nagasaki says he had to send his own son to his death because the Emperor ordered him to do so…The left wing seizing every opportunity to blackguard the Imperial institution; the right wing threatening death to everyone who does so… 13 September >2VDND@

Slept in the Shrine Room on the Turkish carpet and within a foot or two of the altar to Amaterasu. Futon laid out by Kawami of course. But, despite proximity to the divine presence, so throttlingly hot and stuffy that I scarcely slept at all. Eventually moved next door to the dining kitchen and lay on a series of zabuton>FXVKLRQV@LQIURQWRIWKHRSHQZLQGRZZKHUHIRUDQKRXU or so I dozed. Up at 6.30. Himiko-sama making no greeting or enquiry but sits down on her low chair and reads a newspaper. Kawami appears and makes me some coffee. Neither of them eat any breakfast at all, FKRÙVKRNXQDVKL (without breakfast) That she should pose as a Universal Mother and be so regarded and beloved by 1500 people seems more and more ludicrous. Anyone less like DPRWKHUZRXOGEHGLIÀFXOWWRLPDJLQH6KHKDVQRFRQVLGHUDWLRQIRUWKH comfort or welfare of her travelling companions nor a scrap of sensitivity in adjusting her own conduct to the situation. She is a tyrant towards Kawami who waits on her hand and foot like a cook-cum-lady’s maid-cum-secretarycum-housemaid. The most that can be said in her defence is that he seems to enjoy his lot not to mind being left behind as rusuban>FDUHWDNHU@LQDKRW DQGVPDOODQGFOXWWHUHGÁDWZKLOHVKHJDOOLYDQWVDWZLOORYHU-DSDQDQGWKH

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world. Occasionally he answers back, even reprimands her for obstinacy and bossiness. But he is a willing slave. &DXJKWWKHR·FORFNWUDLQZHVWZDUGVKHDGLQJIRU+DNDWD>LQ.\XVKX@« %XVWRDLUSRUWDQGPLQXWHÁLJKWWR7VXVKLPD>IRUDQDFFRXQWRI7VXVKLPD VHHOHFWXUHE\3HWHU.RUQLFNL@DUULYLQJDW+>+LPLNR@DWRQFHHQJDJHVD taxi to take us to a round of shrines to ancient sea goddesses. A run down, uninhabited shrine to Amaterasu, followed by the Watatsumi Shrine and Kaijin Jinja. See immediately that Tsushima consists almost entirely of deeply wooded steep mountains and amazing inlets of the sea like Norwegian fjords winding and meandering like rivers past trailing capes, islands and swelling to FDOPODNHVLQZKLFKWKHIDUOLQHRIPRXQWDLQSHDNVLVYLYLGO\UHÁHFWHG+DUGO\ D¶ULFHÀHOG·WREHVHHQKDUGO\DYHJHWDEOHQH[WWRQRWUDIÀFQRWRZQVRQO\ villages isolated at the innermost end of inlets, bouts du monde. At the shrines H recites her Norito. Mamai tamae, sakikae tamae >7KH*UHDW 3XULÀFDWLRQ3UD\HU@:DWDWVXPL-LQMDGHGLFDWHGWR7R\RKDPDQR0LNRWRZKRP she believes to have been been herself in a former incarnation, T no M being WKHVDPHDV5\XÙJXÙ 2WRKLPH$EHDXWLIXOSODFHWZRtorii in the mud of the ORZWLGHDQGDQFLHQWEURZQEXLOGLQJVÁXWWHULQJZLWKZKLWHgohei surrounded by ancient trees with holy tsuya>JORVV\@OHDYHV7KHVHDFRPLQJXSE\GHYLRXV winding ways, to the ancient shrine. H made sure she was photographed in a good many spots in the precincts alone or with me standing next to her. Before the war, when there were no paved roads and no cars, only the local ponies for transport, this remote shrine must have seemed like a fairyland, a U\XÙJXÙ>GUDJRQVKULQH@, which you come upon suddenly after losing your way in mountains. Or from a boat . . . :HWKHQSURFHHGWRWKHVPDOOWRZQRI7R\RKDPDZKHUHLQWKHWRZQRIÀFHD Mr Komatsu has already been apprised of our arrival and requested to provide LQIRUPDWLRQRQWKH$QWRNX>\RXQJHPSHURUGURZQHGGXULQJWKH*HPSHLZDUV EHWZHHQWKH7DLUD+HL DQGWKH0LQDPRWR*HQ @WRPE7KLVKHKDGPRVW kindly done, Xeroxing relevant pages from a book. Also booking us into an extremely pleasant bijinesu hoteru>EXVLQHVVKRWHO@LQWKHWRZQFDOOHG7VXWD\D$ small timid man already frightened of Himiko ... +RQORRNLQJDWWKHPDSVHHVDQRWKHU¶VHD·VKULQHIXUWKHUQRUWKWKH.DLMLQ >VHDPDQ@-LQMDDQGGHFLGHVIRUWKZLWKWRHQJDJHDQRWKHUH[SHQVLYHWD[LWRPDNH a pilgrimage there. Also called Kisaka Jinja. Again very old and incredibly inaccessible down sinuous inlets and fjords. How was the spot discovered or revealed? Only a boat could get there. Then to the village of OÙmi on the west coast of the island from where on DFOHDUGD\\RXFDQVHH.RUHD²IRU.RUHDLVQHDUHUWKDQ-DSDQRQO\ÀIW\NPV

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away. A beach with large smooth stones and fragments of ancient glazed tiles which may have been washed up from Korea. Houses with walls made of these natural smooth stones. Bochi>JUDYHV@E\WKHVHD+HUHLVVWLOOWKHGRXEOH grave system.58 Finally visit another v. remote village called Tsuyanagi again at the end of a sinuous inlet reached by tortuous route through hills. Alas the roads are really too good. There are more tunnels being bored through the mountains which always cut off these kakurezato>KLGGHQYLOODJHV@7KHUHDUHQRKLGGHQ fairylands left and in one or two of the tiny ancient settlements I even saw a concrete factory. The giant claw, which tears up the earth and erases the magic of concealment, is hard at work. Find an old guide book to Tsushima. Tsutaya a delightfully comfortable small hotel. I have a room to myself, hurray, so able to excuse myself for an early night’s rest after H, a little subdued at dinner, records her Norito>DOO SXUSRVHSUD\HU@IRUPHmamitamae, sakikaetamae, aratoutou. 14 September

Early start on 8.30 bus from Toyotama to Izuhama, the castle town where WKH6RÙ GDLP\RÙ MXÙPDQJRNX>DQQXDOLQFRPHRIkokuRIULFH@ KHOGFRXUW and received embassies from Korea. Bus wends through amazingly windy roads nothing but thickly wooded hills yashi no hengen >WUDQVIRUPHGE\WKHSDOP WUHH@OLNHDFORDN7KHZKROHRI-DSDQPXVWKDYHORRNHGOLNHWKLVRQFHWKH LPSHQHWUDEOHJUHHQWKHYDOOH\VOLNHÀQJHUVSRLQWLQJLQIURPWKHVHDWKHOD\HU on layer as far as the eye can see of green mountains when you reach a high VSRW²EHIRUHWKH\ÁDWWHQHGWKHODQGIRUULFHÀHOGVDQGFXWWKHWUHHVGRZQDQG pushed the forest and its cloak of vines back so that it surrounded your little ÁDWSDWFKOLNHDVWUDQJH takai >RWKHUZRUOG@IXOORIZLOGFUHDWXUHVDQGKDLU\WDOO yamabito>PRXQWDLQSHRSOH@ — 1990 —

November Carmen learnt from her friend Laurens van der Post, who was also a friend of the Prince, of the proposed visit of the Prince of Wales to Japan for the Heisei Emperor’s Enthronement ceremonies. She was asked to accompany the Prince and Princess of Wales to advise on the background to the ceremonies. She visited the Prince’s country house, Highgrove, on 20 October before the departure on 9 November. Before the ceremonies she visited WKH,PSHULDO3DODFHWRVHHZKHUHWKHFHUHPRQLHVZRXOGWDNHSODFHFIKHUDUWLFOHRQ¶7KH Shinza or God-seat in the'DLMRÙVDL: Throne, Bed, or Incubation Couch?

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%\DQRGGFRLQFLGHQFH,PHQWLRQHGWR>KHUIULHQGV@'RURWK\59>%RXFKLHU %ULWWRQ@DQG7DNDNRWKDW,ZDVLQWHUHVWHGLQWKH'DLMRÙVDL>HQWKURQHPHQWFHUHPRQLHV@. Both instantly claimed an acquaintance with old Mr Higashizono ZKRKHOGWKHKLJKSRVWLQWKH.XQDLFKRÙ >,PSHULDO+RXVHKROG$JHQF\@RI VKRÙWHQFKRÙ >FKLHIULWXDOLVW@DQGKHQFHNQHZPRUHWKDQDQ\RQHHOVHDERXWWKH ritual. And both within half an hour of each other telephoned to ask if I could call to ask questions. Cordial invitations to call at 3.30 this afternoon. Takako, dressed in a wonderful Christian Dior suit, picks me up at 2.45 and we arrive to the minute at the Sakashita-mon where police on guard are extremely polite. Sweep through into the grey and secret fortress the other side of the moat ZKHUHZHÀQGRXUVHOYHVRSSRVLWHDVWDWHO\EXLOGLQJZKLFKLVWKH.XQDLFKRÙ$ platoon of women in white overalls and caps march by – these are the Palace cleaners Takako explains and it is a great honour for the whole family to be recruited to their ranks (YHQWXDOO\ZHZHUHFRQGXFWHGWRDQRIÀFHRQDQXSSHUÁRRUYHU\VLPSOH EXWGLJQLÀHGZKHUHZHDUHJUHHWHGE\0U+LJDVKL]RQRDFKDUPLQJDULVWRFUDWLF old gentleman and a younger professor from Kokugakuin University, Kamata, who at once remembered meeting me at the Orientalists’ conference in 1983. We sat facing each other across a table, Mr H and Prof K on one side, T and I on the other and to my amazement the conversation continued merrily and uninterruptedly for nearly an hour and a half. They soon gave me to understand that they considered Oniguchi to be dame >QRJRRG@ZLWKKLVWKHRU\RIWKH,PSHULDOmitama >OLIHHQHUJ\@DQGWKHFRYHUOHW Nearly everyone in universities followed him blindly and there were numerous setsu >WKHRULHV@ZKLFKXOWLPDWHO\GHULYHGIURPKLP%XWLQWKH3DODFH,JDWKHUHG he was not approved. I was invited instead to consider an article by Okada Seishi, which was far nearer what they, who knew more about the rite and its traditions than anyone else – Mr Higashizono as Chief Ritualist, was actually in charge of all the preparations and expected to have time for little else after August – accepted as the symbolic meaning of the ritual. Any secret traditions that survived they told me were known to them but certainly had not been revealed to Oniguchi Shinobu. They gave me a copy of Okada Seishi’s article to take away. I asked about the turtle divinations.60 They use the shell of the aoumigame >JUHHQWXUWOH@ZKLFKFRPHVIURPWKH2JDVDZDUD,VODQGVDQGJHWDSURIHVVLRQDO EHNNRÙ\D or tortoise shell craftsman to plane it so that it is no more than three mm thick like a child’s shitajiki >ERDUGSODFHGLQH[HUFLVHERRNWRPDNHDÀUP VXUIDFH@,DPULJKWLQVXSSRVLQJWKDWWKHSURFHVVZLWKWKHmachi61ÀJXUHDQG the hahaka62 twig is the same as described by Ban Nobutomo. I understood that they had both taken part in this rite when it was performed last month. ,DVNHGLILWZHUHSXEOLFNQRZOHGJH\HWZKHUHWKHKRO\ULFHÀHOGVZHUHWREH

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located. Certainly, they replied, the Yuki-no-kuni is to be Akita-ken and the Suki-no-kuni is Oita-ken in Kyushu.634XLWHULJKWZHKDYHQHYHUJRQHVRIDU north before as Akita ken. The turtle method only gave you the general area of the ken>SUHIHFWXUH@DQGLWZDVOHIWWRWKHSUHIHFWXUDODXWKRULWLHVWRGHFLGH the exact spot within the ken where the holy rice should be grown. It is important to plant the right kind of rice because it must be harvested at the latest by October 20th. So wase or hayabamai>HDUO\FURSSLQJULFH@ZDV FKRVHQZKLFKZDVSURRIDJDLQVWIURVW¶:KHQKDUYHVWHGLVLWEURXJKWGRZQE\ train?’, I asked. No, they could not entrust it to JR railways: it will be brought by private truck. (Takako told me afterwards that a public train might incur damage from left wing fascists.) ¶,VLWWUXHWKDWQRPHWDOLVXVHGLQWKHEXLOGLQJRIWKH'DLMRÙJX"·4XLWHWUXH it is built by miya-daiku >VKULQHFDUSHQWHUV@VHYHQGD\VEHIRUHWKHFHUHPRQ\ and the very day afterwards it is burnt otaki-age. And the GRÙJX>WRROVHTXLSPHQW@DQGIRRGRIIHULQJVZKLFKSUHVXPDEO\LQFOXGHWKHEHGLWVHOI²DUHEXUied PDLJRÙDWDVSRWLQWKHJURXQGVRIWKH.DPLJDPR-LQMD>VKULQHLQ.\RWR@ ¶+RZ PDQ\ PRXWKIXOV RI KRO\ IRRG GRHV WKH (PSHURU HDW"· , GDUHG to ask. Three, they replied. The rice and millet are made into small dango >GXPSOLQJV@ZKLFK0U+LJDVKL]RQRKLPVHOIKDGWRVXSHUYLVHSLOHGLQS\UDmidal form on a dish. The Emperor takes one with his special chopsticks, puts it in the palm of his left hand, and then with a sharp gesture conveys it whole into his mouth. They both demonstrated the correct gesture. The ¶EODFN·sake incidentally was made by adding soot. The nigitae >VRIWFORWK@FRWWRQDOZD\VFDPHIURP$LFKLNHQ7KHaratae >URXJK ZRYHQFORWK@RUage-orimono>VDFULÀFLDOFORWK@IURP7RNXVKLPDNHQWKHROG Heian province of Awa. They particularly wanted me to understand that the whole of Japan would be involved in the preparations. It was not simply a Court ceremony, performed at dead of night in the complete seclusion of the Palace fastnesses. The far north would be supplying half the sacred rice, the far south the other. Other parts of the country contributed other necessities. They hoped I might write something to counteract the unpleasant falsehoods lately emanating from the British press. They could not have been kinder, more helpful, more forthcoming, none of the pompous stiffness that lesser Japanese in high positions affect. They even raised no objections to Takako taking a few commemorative photographs of the occasion and most courteously saw us downstairs all the way to the car, wishing us goodbye as we drove off. Have you ever met a more courteous and charming old gentleman? T cried, with all the effortless grace and politeness of the old fashioned Japanese gentleman, who carried it with him as part of his natural heritage from generations of ancestors who have served at

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Court. Never, certainly not. I responded. And what a wonderful honour and privilege it has been for me, an utterly unexpected and well-nigh miraculous opportunity. Never did I dream when I left England that I should be able to ask questions of the Chief Ritualist. Takako who knew nothing at all about the'DLMRÙVDL before is now fascinated by the age and mystery of the ritual. Sunday, 11 November

Woke to a glorious autumn day, a true nihonbare >ÀQH FORXGOHVV -DSDQHVH ZHDWKHU@ GD\ VXFK DV , KDYH QRW VHHQ IRU \HDUV )ODZOHVV EOXH VN\ OLPSLG autumn light, warm windless air. Sense of inexpressible joy and vitality surging through me, such as I experience nowhere else. Of seeing beauty and mystery in every face, every leaf, every tree. Last March but not September. It is an unpredictable blessing. Programme for today, Remembrance Sunday, we’re to attend RememEUDQFH 6HUYLFH DW WKH +RGRJD\D &HPHWHU\ >%ULWLVK &RPPRQZHDOWK :DU *UDYHVFHPHWHU\@«,ÀQGP\VHOILQDPLQLEXVWR+RGRJD\D«$JDLQDQ impressive police escort, outriders with red batons, crowds gathering on pavements as we race towards Hodogaya, an ethereal phantom of Fuji rising high and pale in the sky. A short and moving ceremony with prayers read by a Christian, a Hindu, a Buddhist, a Muslim and a Jewish Rabbi. Princess Diana in black suit and ORQJMDFNHWVKRUWVNLUWZKLWHÁRZHUODUJHEODFNKDW²VKHPRYHVDQGVWDQGV with a natural grace and with her long slim legs reminds me of a WDQFKRÙ]XUX >UHGFUHVWHGFUDQH@/DVWSRVWSLSHU·VODPHQW¶ZLWKWKHJRLQJGRZQRIWKH sun’ wreaths laid . . . Then before I can speak to Dorothy whom I can see waving in the distance we are all told to go back AT ONCE to the minibus which starts at once…By now the cheering crowds are much larger and more voluble; there is something about the ecstatic beaming Japanese faces that WRXFKHVP\KHDUW4XLFNSDXVHDWWKH(PEDVV\IRUWKH3ULQFHWRFKDQJHRXW RIXQLIRUPLQWRORXQJHVXLW7KHQRIIDJDLQWRWKH+DQ\DHQ>UHVWDXUDQW@DW Shinagawa an old house with a lovely garden, welcomed by Mrs Hatakeyama wearing a black jacket, black and white skirt and blouse who conducts the party over the small museum of FKDGRÙJX>WHDFHUHPRQ\XWHQVLOV@ $QXQFRPSURPLVLQJO\-DSDQHVHOXQFKHYHU\RQHVLWWLQJRQWKHÁRRUH[FHSW for the Prince of Wales who is given a low chair and a high tray because of KLVDUP>ZKLFKKDGEHHQIUDFWXUHG@(OHJDQWhirame-sashimi, kamo >GXFN@WHPpura, boiled turnip, nabe>VWHZ@ZLWKSOHQW\RIsake served by elegant ladies in kimono. The scene is a charming one – the autumn sunlight in the room, the colours, the faces.

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Monday, 12 November

7DNHDZDONGRZQSDVW+DQ]RÙPRQDVIDUDVWKHURXWHRIWKH¶3DUDGH·WKLV afternoon. Remarkably few ordinary people to be seen. Huge numbers of police, certainly, standing in military rows and manning check points every few hundred yards where they examine briefcases and handbags of passers by. It is said that no less than 37,000 extra police have been brought into Tokyo from all over Japan to mount guard for possible left-wing terrorists. But there are none of the kind of people who hours or days before a royal procession take up their position in the Mall with blankets, sandwiches, WKHUPRVDQGÁDJ,QGHHG,FRXOGQRWVHHDVLQJOHhinomaru>-DSDQHVHÁDJ@ anywhere in the course of my walk Got back in time to watch the ceremony64 on television. The Emperor, wearing a Heian costume of a wonderful gold persimmon colour, known as NRÙQR]X JRKRÙ, the Empress in a scarlet itsutsuginu >ÀYHOD\HUHGUREH@VXUPRXQWHGE\WZR OD\HUVRISDOHJUHHQDQGZKLWHZLWKSDOHSXUSOHSDWWHUQVDQGDVWUDQJHÀ[HG smile on her face like a Noh ghost. Imperial princes and princesses. The two WKURQHV7DNDPLNXUDDQG0LFKRÙGDL eight-sided and surrounded by phoenixes. 18 December The postman delivered a large registered envelope this morning with the words ¶%XFNLQJKDP3DODFH·9HU\QLFHYHU\KRQRXUHG,·PVXUH,WFRQWDLQHGDUHVSOHQdent invitation to the dinner party tonight, gold- edged ... — 1991 —

23 May

Up to London for the party at Buckingham Palace to celebrate Guy Salter’s UHWLUHPHQWIURPWKH2IÀFHRIWKH3ULQFHRI:DOHV)ROORZHGE\GLQQHUDWWKH Turf Club, so the invitation ran. Walked to Buckingham Palace from the Club through the Park, which ZDVIXOORIEULJKWÁRZHULQJFKHVWQXWWUHHV,QWKURXJKWKHIURQWJDWHQDPH ticked off by policeman on a long list, across a great court and up some red FDUSHWHGVWHSVDQGLQWRDORQJJDOOHU\OLQHGZLWKSRUWUDLWVRI4XHHQ9LFWRULD DQG 3ULQFH $OEHUW E\ :LQWHUKDOWHU RI RWKHU QDYDO ÀJXUHV E\ 'RPHQLFR Pollagrini and with marble statues of reclining nymphs. Into a large white and gold room, looking out over the gardens, in which a huge crowd of SHRSOHZHUHGULQNLQJJLQWRQLFVKDUGO\DQ\RQH,NQHZ%XWHYHQWXDOO\ÀQG «>YDULRXV PHPEHUV RI WKH KRXVHKROG ZKRP VKH NQRZV@ LQFOXGLQJ WKH equerry who looked after me at Sandringham . . . they all recognise me and

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DUHNLQGDQGFKDUPLQJ,HYHQÀQG*X\6DOWHUKLPVHOIZKRVD\VKHLVVHWWLQJ up a business of his own to do with Japanese babywear. He makes a short speech at the end announcing his engagement to Miss Tanya Foster-Brown, a girl with long hair, a black tight miniskirt just covering her bottom and a cigarette always in her hand. The few ladies present all wore miniskirts DQG RXWÀWV ZKLFK ORRNHG QR PRUH FHOHEUDWRU\ WKDQ RIÀFH ZHDU WKRXJK the Princess of Wales looked very chic in a long red jacket, red and white striped skirt and red and white striped shoes. Eventually, the noise and the exhaustion of standing proved too much for me. I slipped out and walked into St James’ Park where there were black swans, Chinese geese and tufted ducks until 8 p.m. when the Turf Club dinner was due to start. 26 September >7RN\R@ Carmen has given the last of eight lectures to students at Ueno Gakuen65 of which her friend Ishibashi Hiroko was the director.

7KURDWVWLOOSDLQIXODQGKDYHGLIÀFXOW\PDNLQJP\YRLFHKHDUGWRWKHJLUOV O-make ni>RQWRSRIWKDW@WKLVZDV8QGRÙNDL>VSRUWV@GD\ZLWKGHDIHQLQJPHJDphones outside my window and girls in shorts running to and fro in relay races. Room in consequence moved to the other side of the court. But even so an odd sense of dead weight as I try to communicate – this time legends, and legends of heroes. It seems they know next to no Japanese history and to try to explain how history and legend were interwoven in the lives of warriors, saints and kings seemed next to impossible. They have never heard of 7DZDUD7RÙGD+LGHVDWR66 or Minamoto Yorimasa.67 Nor had they heard of the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the assassination of the Imperial Family. 9HU\IHZNQHZWKDW$QWRNX7HQQRÙ ZDVGURZQHGDWWKHEDWWOHRI'DQQRXUD DQGHTXDOO\IHZKDGDQ\LGHDZKR.RÙERÙ 'DLVKL>IRXQGHURIWKH6KLQJRQVHFW RI%XGGKLVP@ZDV At lunch the pleasant crowd of English teachers – Tim Harris, Ian Lebeau, etc. – agreed that there was no foundation to build on. No knowledge of history or geography, none of them knew where Greece was. Not made to UHDGDQ\FODVVLFDOOLWHUDWXUH7KH\FRXOGUHODWHRQO\WRÀOPVWKH\KDGVHHQRQ television. Now I understand: yesterday when I was trying to explain the word ¶H[WHUPLQDWH·WKHUHZHUHFULHVRI¶taaminataa, taaminataa·1RZRUG¶WHUPLQDWRU· ,VDLGEXWLWVHHPVLWLVWKHQDPHRIDÀOP6DPHWRGD\ZLWKWKHZRUG¶DOOLJDWRU· 7KH\NQHZLWEHFDXVHLWZDVWKHQDPHRIDÀOP They are also far noisier than any crowd yet encountered. The instant I KDYHÀQLVKHGVSHDNLQJEHGODPEUHDNVRXW6KRXWVVFUHDPVVKULHNVPDNHLW

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impossible for me to hear anyone who wants to ask a question. And they talk while I am trying to talk, which is extremely irritating . . . — 1991 —

30 September >2VDND@

SP,QWKH'UDJRQ4XHHQ·VVHFRQGKRXVHÀYHPLQXWHVZDONIURPWKH XVXDOÁDW,KDYHEHHQSXWWRVOHHSKHUHZKLFKLVLQIDFWIDUPRUHFRPIRUWDEOH than the shrine room where I slept last time. Largely because there is really QRVSDFHDQ\ZKHUHIRUDJXHVWWRSXWGRZQDIXWRQ7KHVKULQHURRPLVÀOOHG with pile of the October magazine all of which have to have a mitama>ZRUVKLS V\PERO@SXWLQWRWKHPEHIRUHWKH\FDQEHVHQWRXW Himiko herself looks exactly the same as a year ago. Came in the rain to meet me at Higashi Yodogawa station, stood me an excellent dinner of udon DQGYHJHWDEOHVWKHQEDFNWRWKHÁDWZKHUHWKHVODYH.DZDPLDQGWKHROGVHUvant Onda-san are putting piles of magazines into envelopes. I give them the presents I have brought: one of our silver teaspoons and a print of Cambridge for Himiko and a navy blue shirt with the Cambridge crest for Kawami. Neither seem particularly pleased. Himiko says nothing about her present when I thought the spoon, which I told her was 100 years old, would give her pleasure. Kawami put on the shirt but said it was too large. I was then taken into Himiko’s bedroom and shown the latest album of her cases. On each page was a photograph of the patient and a brush drawing by Himiko of the rei>JKRVW@ZKLFKZDVWURXEOLQJWKHP$OVRWKHQDPHJLYHQE\ Himiko to the possessing spirit. There were a great many drawings of yoroi-musha>DUPRXUHGZDUULRUV@ZDUULRUVIURPWKH*HQSHLZDUVRUWKH6HQJRNXjidai >:DUULQJ6WDWHVHUD²@7KHUHZHUHHPDFLDWHGZRPHQVQDNHVFDWV court nobles. 2QH\RXQJZRPDQFRXOGQRWÀQGDKXVEDQGEHFDXVHKHUGRPLQHHULQJibari-kusai>XULQHVPHOOLQJVWXFNXS@PDQQHUZDVVRRIISXWWLQJ+LPLNRDSSOLHGKHUSV\chic eye to the photograph and found that a Heian court noble was possessing her who naturally had an arrogant manner. Himiko’s treatment released the spirit and allowed it to VKRÙWHQ>ULVHWRKHDYHQ@$QGWKHJLUO·VPDQQHUDWRQFHDFTXLUHGWKH necessary yasashisa>VRIWQHVV@WRÀQGDKXVEDQG There was man whose hair was falling out, a woman with terrible internal pains, a girl with unnaturally painful monthly periods . . . she does about twenty a week on average sometimes staying up till 2 a.m. But then she didn’t need much sleep for she derived her necessary energy from PHLVRÙ >PHGLWDWLRQ@

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6KHWKHQRIIHUHGWRJLYHPHWKHWUHDWPHQWLQWKHVKULQHURRP6DWIRUÀYH PLQXWHVORRNLQJDWPHÀ[HGO\WKURXJKFLUFOHPDGHZLWKÀQJHUDQGWKXPEV EUHDWKLQJ GHHSO\ 7KHQ ÀYH PLQXWHV IRU EDFN YLHZ 6KH WKHQ VDLG , ZDV under the protection of a spirit who resembled an elderly lady but at the same time was being attacked by a saru no rei >WKHVSLULWRIDPRQNH\@7KLV was quite enough to cause the feelings of exhaustion and lassitude from which I had been suffering and she would release it forthwith. This she did by murmuring spells and prayers then emitting four loud kiai making stabbing movements with a small dagger from Spain. Joined by a pleasant girl called Enda Mitsuyo whose entire family had been shinja>EHOLHYHUV@RI+LPLNR·VVLQFHKHUJUDQGIDWKHUKDGEHHQFXUHGRIYDULRXV illnesses caused by a Heike warrior. She was sure that my interest in Heike >GHVFHQGDQWV@ZDVQRWDFFLGHQWDOEXWZDVFDXVHGE\WKHEHQHYROHQWO\RYHUVKDGRZLQJÀJXUHRID+HLNHyorio-musha which Himiko had seen with her psychic eye. Nor was it a coincidence that Himiko and I should be making a journey to Koshikijima together. Himiko would of course discover and rescue a good many miserable, unhallowed spirits on the island. But I also could do my bit by writing about them for this in itself was a form of NX\RÙ >PHPRULDOVHUYLFH IRUWKHGHDG@ She also commented rather sensibly apropos of my strictures on the Ueno Gakuen girls’ ignorance, that it was better that a foreigner should tell them about their own folklore than a Japanese. They would think a Japanese who talked about such matters furukusai>ROGIDVKLRQHG@EXWWKH\ZRXOGOLVWHQWRD foreigner. $OOHYHQLQJWKHWHOHSKRQHUDQJ¶$GRÙPRGRÙPR’ some were patients, others shinja who were curtly ordered to do this or that. Miss Enda left and I was taken in pouring rain to second house about 10 p.m. 1 October

Up at 4.30 after not much sleep but comfortable futon and lovely quiet. Still pouring with rain and pitch dark. Amazed to see Himiko appear in a glittering ankle length dress of gold brocade, gold brocade hat to match, long fringed golden shawl and plimsolls. Small Indian handbag studded with tiny pearls and large bag with golden plaited handles and broderie anglaiseÁRZHUV $VWDUWOLQJO\JOLWWHULQJRXWÀWHYHQIRUDQHYHQLQJSDUW\OHWDORQHDWDPLQ the pouring rain. Kawami-san, wearing the navy shirt I gave him last night, came all the way to Shin Osaka station to see us off. He carries her one piece of luggage which contains only omiyage>VRXYHQLUJLIWV@DQGFRSLHVRIWKHQHZQXPEHURIWKH magazine.

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EODFN NLWH@LQWKHVN\PDNLQJPHZLQJVRXQGV%XW¶OR·WKHUHLVDminshuku>% %@DOVR called Taira from which such a touchingly kind woman comes out to the wharf on a motorbike to take our luggage. Fat, jolly, anxious to please in every way she can. A room each, thank goodness. What is more, when Himiko demands whether there is anyone on the island who knows the Heike legends, for here is the VHNDLQL\XÙPHLQDVHQVHL>ZRUOG IDPRXVWHDFKHU@IURPkenburiji daigaku>&DPEULGJH8QLYHUVLW\@ZKRKDVFRPH DOOWKHZD\WRÀQGWKHVHOHJHQGVVKHVD\V\HVWKHUHLV,NH\DPDVHQVHLDIHZ doors away who knows more than anyone else about such things. So again her psychic eye seems to have been right. She would have set out forthwith, had I not said I was so hungry that, unless I had tea and something to eat, I could not concentrate. It never, but never, RFFXUVWRKHUWRDVNLIRQHLVKXQJU\RUWLUHG\RXKDYHWRÀJKWIRUZKDW\RX need. And thus, despite the persona of the Great Mother the incarnation of

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ORYHDQGFRPSDVVLRQDQGVROLFLWXGHLQIDFWIHZJUHHG\>FKLOGUHQ@FRXOGEHPRUH wayward, spoilt and deaf to opposition. All of which she attributes of course to her direct communication with kami-sama>JRG@. She is right because they say so. Old Mr Ikeyama showed me a book of the island’s history in which some rather disappointingly skimpy legends were recorded. There were no stones, trees, walls or families boasting family trees tracing their descent back to the Emperor Kanmu. This was partly because the islands had been converted to 6KLQVKXÙ >%XGGKLVWVHFW@ZKLFKKDGSHUVXDGHGWKHLQKDELWDQWVWKDWRQO\WKH nembutsu>SUD\HUWR%XGGKD@ZDVRIDQ\HIÀFDF\6HFRQGEHFDXVH6KLQVKXÙLWVHOI had been persecuted after the LNNRÙLNNL>6KLQVKXÙ%XGGKLVWXSULVLQJ²@ so that its believers became kakure-nenbutsu>KLGGHQEHOLHYHUV@PHHWLQJLQGDUN caves high up in secret places on the mountainside on stormy nights. And third because the islands had suffered under the Meiji haibutsu kishaku>DQWL%XGGKLVW PRYHPHQW@DQGDJRRGPDQ\WHPSOHVKDGEHHQGHVWUR\HG Never mind; we were in a village utterly untouched by tourism with no road leading to anywhere although a bridge is under construction to join the naka >PLGGOH@LVODQGWRWKHXSSHURQHZKLFKZLOOEHÀQLVKHGLQWKUHH\HDUV1RÁDW DUDEOHODQGDWDOORQO\URFN\PRXQWDLQVLGH2QO\SURGXFWLVÀVK For supper we were given an immense spread of dishes by kind Mrs Kawabata, to which Himiko did ample justice but which I found not much that I could eat. Very soon Himiko was telling the entire family that she could detect spirit predators, which could cause every kind of illness or misfortune and could quickly dispose of them. A young man with a bandaged leg was told that the trouble was certainly caused by a rei >JKRVW@OLNHZLVHDER\RIWZHOYH with heart trouble. They all gazed at her with awe and astonishment. After she KDGÀQLVKHGGLQQHUWKH\DOOZHQWLQWRDQHPSW\URRPZKHUHVKHJDYHERWK patients the treatment she gave me last night. The young man’s bad knee was caused by his mother’s rei and the boy’s trouble by his grandfather. She had GHDOWZLWKERWKVSLULWVZLWKRXWGLIÀFXOW\ Wonderful quiet. Outside only the noise of insects and the slap-slapping of WKHZDWHUDJDLQVWWKHURZRIÀVKLQJERDWV 2 October

Glorious sunny cloudless morning. Walk round the harbour to a stretch of beach with a wonderful shoal of shells where I stayed for ten minutes collecting a pink kind of top shell and some smooth black stones. Breakfast was again a feast including half a lobster each. For all this Mrs .DZDEDWDRQO\FKDUJHG–DSLHFH>\HQ 86@%XW+LPLNRLV very irritating and demanding shouting from below at 8.45 hayaku, hayaku >KXUU\KXUU\@%XWWKHUHDUHIRUW\ÀYHPLQXWHVEHIRUHWKHERDWOHDYHV,VD\

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DQG,KDYHQ·WÀQLVKHGSDFNLQJP\FDVH6RÙ MDQDLKD\DNXKD\DNX>WKDW·VQRW ULJKWKXUU\KXUU\@VR,SDFNIDUWRRTXLFNO\OHDYLQJP\QLFHEOXHDQGZKLWH KDWRQDVKHOIWRÀQGWKDWRIFRXUVHWKHERDWGLGQ·WJRWLOOWKDWLWWRRN ten minutes to walk to the wharf, that there were no shrines or graves to see in the village and that hence there was half an hour to wait with nowhere to sit and nothing to do. But with an effort I recalled that this trip was possible only and entirely through her and that the persona-smile must be restored to my face. And, no doubt that I am much better, indeed quite well since her treatment on Monday night. %RDWWDNHVXVLQWZHQW\PLQXWHVWR.DPL.RVKLNLLVODQGZKHUHWKHÀUVWSRUW of call is confusingly the village of Naka Koshiki. Straight to the mura-yakuba >YLOODJHRIÀFH@ZKHUHWKH\NLQGO\JLYHPHDFRS\RIWKHKDQGVRPHERRNVHHQ yesterday and a car to take us to the graves of Kajiwara Genka Kagesue and .XVXQRNL0DVDWVXUD7KHÀUVWJUDYHOD\LQWKHPLGVWRIDSDWFKRIWDOOZHHGV not visible from the road; the second in a large new cemetery. Rather irritated too when she takes the box of nice chestnut cakes I had brought her and Kawami-san from Kyoto and offers most of them to these two ghosts, dead for six hundred years. At both places she reverently offered prayers and prostrations but took care beforehand to see that I took some photographs of herself as she was praying. Full face, mind and get the name in too. At each place too she enquired if there were any crows around who could eat the cakes after we had gone. Then transfer to a taxi, which takes us to a spot on the hillside where the 1DQNRLNHDVWUDQJHORQJODNHZLWKDVSLWRIODQGOLNH$PDQRKDVKLGDWH>RQHRI -DSDQ·VWKUHHPRVWIDPRXVEHDXW\VSRWV@:KLWHVDQGDQGZKLWHIRDPIURPWKH ZDYHVLQÀQLWHO\LQYLWLQJ%XWQRTXLWHLPSRVVLEOHWRJRGRZQWKHUHQRWLPH So to Sato >YLOODJH@LQ6DWRPXUDZKHUHWKHUHDUHKXJHVPRRWKVWRQHVRQ the beach and ishigaki>VWRQHZDOOV@ZDOOVPDGHRIWKHVHVWRQHVZKLFKDUH all that remain of a street of buke-yashiki>VDPXUDLKRXVHV@IRUDSSDUHQWO\ WKHUHZHUHWZRVPDOOFDVWOHVRQWKLVVPDOOLVODQGFDOOHG7VXUX>FUDQH@DQG .DPH>WXUWOH@7KH.DPHUHPDLQVVWRRGRQWRSRIDVWHHSKLOODERYHWKH town. Nothing except a VKRÙNRQWRÙ>PHPRULDOIRUZDUGHDG@PHJDOLWK7KHWD[L driver did not even know that a castle had once been there. Allowed to sit alone on the beach for half an hour in the hot sun. Hot as VXPPHUVN\ÁDZOHVVEOXHPRXQWDLQVJUHHQZLWKEOXHVKDGRZV Fast boat at 2.30 to Kushikino in fifty minutes where we are met by a charming and kind Mr Kanba Satoshi who is a shinja >EHOLHYHU@RI+LPLNR·V and who is manager of a hot spring hotel, Maruzen in the mountains near a place called Sendai, forty minutes drive into the hills past the Nitta Jinja

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>1LWWDVKULQH@ZKHUHWKHJUDYHRI1LQLJLQR0LNRWR>RQHRI-DSDQ·VP\WKLFDODQFHVWUDOJRGV@LVORFDWHG²LWORRNVH[DFWO\OLNHDQLPSHULDOJRU\RÙ>WRPE@ in Kyoto – and where a gigantic kusunoki>FDPSKRU@WUHHRQHWKRXVDQG years old, had survived the typhoons took us to a wonderfully luxurious and delightful hot spring hotel. Wonderful rotenburo >RXWGRRUKRWVSULQJEDWK@ZKHUH\RXFDQOLHLQKRW water under a palm tree and the sky, and where the mountainside is only a few yards away. Also a large bath in a conservatory full of tropical plants. Wonderful feeling of rest and relaxation and a room to myself. 7HUULÀFGLQQHUDERXWWZHOYHGLIIHUHQWGLVKHVDQGDERWWOHRIZLQHZLWKWKH compliments of the management. No doubt she is well read in history and literature, remembers dozens of folk songs by heart and sings them when the mood is upon her. Too late LWÁRDWVEDFNLQWRP\PHPRU\DIWHUIRUW\IRXU\HDUVWKDWLWZDV.XVXQRNL Masatsura whose grave we visited this morning with cakes and prayers who FRPSRVHGWKHSRHP¶kaeraji to karete omoeba…’68 I could get no further but effortlessly she recalled the rest and wrote it in the diary. This place is not far from the route taken by Saigo Takamori’s army69 when it marched north in 1877 and Saigo’s fondness for this particular hot spring LVFRPPHPRUDWHGE\DQH[WUDRUGLQDU\OLIHVL]HÀJXUHRIKLPVWHHSHGXSWR the neck in a wonderful bath with staring eyes brightly painted which stands in the street just outside. — 1992 —

4 October

,ÀQGP\VHOILQDEHDXWLIXOROGKRXVHVRPHZKHUHQHDUDSODFHFDOOHG0LVDVD RQVHQ>KRWVSULQJ@ZKLFKLVRQWKH-DSDQVHDFRDVWQRWIDUIURP.XUD\RVKL >7RWWRULNHQ@$OOQHHGOHVVWRVD\DUUDQJHGE\WKH'UDJRQ4XHHQ7RUUHQWLDO telephone calls to Tokyo failed to convey much beyond there being eight villages in the mountains behind Tottori which were Heike-buraku >YLOODJHV@WKDW we would visit at least one of them, stay at an onsen>KRWVSULQJUHVRUW@DQGUHWXUQ YLD,WVXNXVKLPD>0L\DMLPDRQHRIWKHWKHHPRVWIDPRXVEHDXW\VSRWVLQ-DSDQ@ Arranged to meet at the WRNN\XÙ >VSHFLDOH[SUHVVWUDLQ@FDOOHG$VDVKLRIURP Kyoto at 9 a.m. bound for Kurayoshi, And indeed having braved the appalling crowds in Kyoto station and dragged my two heavy cases up several staircases I saw her and Kawami-san at the far end of the platform. This time she was ZHDULQJDJOLWWHULQJSXUSOHGUHVVZLWKSDWWHUQRISLQNDQGJROGÁRZHUVDQNOH OHQJWKDQGSXUSOHKDWWRPDWFKZLWKDODUJHYHOYHWÁRZHURIGHHSHUSXUSOH

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Golden shawl with long fringe round shoulders and two enormous rings DPHWK\VWRQOHIWÀQJHUWRSD]RQULJKW)URPHLWKHUVOHHYHGDQJOHGDVPDOO cascade of pearls. Kawami as usual has only come to see us off. He waves fond good bye and goes back to man the telephone. Pleasant journey of four and a half hours to Kurayoshi through wonderful green mountains. Scarlet splashes of higanbana>UHGVSLGHUOLO\@DPRQJ WKHULFHÀHOGVSDOHEOXHIRUPVRIFRQLFDOKRO\PRXQWDLQV3DVVHGWKURXJK Ayabe, which, she says, was a buraku of weavers from China or Korea: a weaving be >JXLOG@7RUUHQWRIWDONDERXW$PDWHUDVXEHLQJVHDJRGGHVV because offerings of awabi >DEDORQH@ZHUHPDGHWRKHUDQGWKH(PSHURU having cousins amongst the burakumin >RXWFDVW YLOODJHUV@ who exerted a VLQLVWHULQÁXHQFHRYHUKLPDQGtengu >ORQJQRVHGJREOLQV@, mukade >FHQWLSHGH@, oni>RJUH@ etc. all being transformations of this underworld, varied by maps and reading the Sunday magazines about the collapsed marriage of Charles and Diana. ,DPQRWVXUHZKDWWKHSURJUDPPHLVEXWWKHUHLVÀUVWDEXVMRXUQH\RI 20 minutes to Misasa onsen>KRWVSULQJUHVRUW@E\ZKLFKWLPHLWKDVVWDUWHG to rain and the mountaintops are swathed in mist. We then transfer to a taxi which winds up and up deeper and deeper into thick forest of chestnut trees, maple and even beech, amazing precipitous green slopes plunging down to a river called the Oshika, crashing over rocks, boulders and shoals. On and on, so far that I am amazed that there can be a village so deep in the mountains. Gather that we are going to a Heike-buraku >YLOODJH@ called Nakatsu where there is an old man bearing the surname Masakado who will tell us all the local legends. Almost everyone in the village, the taxi driver said, was called either Masakado or Taira. Stop at large apparently ancient house by which time the rain is coming down in relentless torrents and the glorious mountains are almost invisible from mist. Conducted to a large room where one old man is sitting. He has a wife but she is too shy to appear. He talks for an hour very interestingly. Indeed it is a Heike buraku and WKHUHLVDJUDYHRI$QWRNX7HQQRÙ WKRXJKWKLVKDVQHYHUEHHQUHFRJQLVHGE\ WKH.XQDLFKRÙ >,PSHULDO+RXVHKROG$JHQF\@DVDXWKHQWLF%XWLWLVWKHRQO\ RQHRIWKHWKLUW\RUVRJUDYHVRI$QWRNX7HQQRÙ DOORYHU-DSDQZKLFKDOVR has, a few yards away, the grave of Nii no Ama who leapt over the side of the ship with him in her arms. There are also amongst the families called Masakado and Taira others called Ogura who are of course descendants of the old kijiya >ZRRGWXUQHUV@7KH\GRQRWPDNHFXSVDQGERZOVDQ\PRUH« but the surname survives. The village was also remarkable for its Masakado densetsu>OHJHQG@7DLUD0DVDNDGRKDYLQJSUHFHGHG$QWRNXDQGWKH*HQSHL

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wars by more than two centuries. He kindly lent us a manuscript he compiled thirty years ago of all the legends he could collect and Himiko solemnly promised to send it back after Xeroxing. In sluicing torrents of rain we then visited the graves of Antoku and Nii QR$PDDQG,ZDVWROGWRSKRWRJUDSKKHU>+LPLNR@LQIURQWRIHDFKWRPE with no umbrella, the purple hat and dress and golden shawl drenched as she prayed for the dead souls. Back in Misasa onsen by about 4.30 and having had no lunch and as we were to stay not in an onsen-ryokan>KRWVSULQJ-DSDQHVHVW\OHLQQ@DV,KDG imagined but in the house of one of her believers, where no supper would be available now was the only opportunity for a meal. Whole village grey and depressing in the rain but after a FKXÙELQ>PLGGOHVL]HERWWOH@RIEHHUDQGDSODWH of yakisoba>IULHGQRRGOHV@,IHHOGHFLGHGO\EHWWHU$QRWKHUWD[LWDNLQJXVWR this beautiful house again, surely a century old with an enormous butsudan >%XGGKLVWDOWDU@DQGSROLVKHGZRRGHQÀJXUHV$GHDUROGODG\ZKRFDQKDUGO\ ZDONRUVWDQGXSULJKWEHFDXVHRIGHÀFLHQWFDOFLXPLQKHUERQHVFUDZOVWR welcome us, provides coffee entirely on my account and bean paste cakes VKDSHGOLNHÀVK There is also a private onsenLQWKHKRXVHWKHÀUVWofuro>-DSDQHVHEDWK@, have had since I arrived in Japan. Mr Yabu-uchi, a gnome-like man returned to ÀQGWKDW+LPLNRZDVDERXWWRJRWREHG/LJKWVRXWDWDQGDORYHO\TXLHW with chirping crickets and only occasional snores from Himiko. 5 October

And now I am in the lovely comfort, peace and quiet of the best guest room in the Dancing Religion. Outside chirping crickets and cicadas, otherwise profound quiet. Last night Himiko announced that it would not be possible to visit HimeJDPLVDPD>WKH\RXQJJRGGHVV@DQGJRRQWR0L\DMLPDEHIRUHGDUN6RZRXOG I telephone Himegami-sama and ask if we could stay the night in the pilgrims’ hostel? Himegami-sama’s voice not heard for years but far more happy, assured and welcoming than ever before, said of course come, and stay, maa, hisashiburi >ZKDWDORQJWLPHVLQFHZHPHW@ %XWÀUVWDORQJWUDLQMRXUQH\VHYHQKRXUVIURP.XUD\RVKLZLWKFKDQJHV DWPDLQKDOO@ZLWKLWVURFNVDQGLWVZRQGHUIXOODUJHFDUSRUGHULQJ WKHSHRSOHIURPWKHRIÀFHWRSKRWRJUDSKKHUDJDLQVWWKLVEDFNJURXQG6KH

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GLGQRWRQFHORRNDWWKHH[TXLVLWHFRORXUVRIWKHORYHO\ÀVKUHGDQGJROG and white, or the carefully placed rocks. She was only concerned that she should be photographed. The Holy Family came out to see us off. Kiyokazu with her baby and her mother with a large box of uni >VHDXUFKLQ@IRUHDFKRIXV6XFKDKHDUWZDUPLQJVHQGRII²FRPHDJDLQVRRQGRQ·WOHWDQRWKHUÀIWHHQ\HDUVJRE\EHIRUH we see you again – waving hands and smiling faces. I am so touched by their true kindness and the sense of blessing I have from the place and the change wrought in Kiyokazu which can only be attributed to grace. Something has touched her which makes it a joy to recall her face and her presence. Slow train to Miyajima-guchi, with a dreamlike prospect of the islands and capes of the Inland Sea – silver sparkling sea, indigo mountains and islands, deep autumn blue sky. Not once does Himiko look up from the book of murder stories satsujinjiken in which she is immersed. For the whole journey she does not utter a word and I have to nudge her to rouse her on our arrival. Miyajima seems swamped with huge parties of school children and other tourists. But the deer too have enormously increased in numbers since I was last here ZLWK$QQH0DULH>%RXFK\@7KHQWKH\FRXOGEHIRXQGDZD\IURPWKHVKULQHDW the top of the mountain with the monkeys or under pine trees on the shore. Now they are everywhere, wandering about the streets like Indian cows, waylaying passers-by with paper bags and grabbing at their clothes. Himiko has her golden shawl seized by a large spotted stag who refused to let go so that some of the long IULQJHZDVWRUQRII7KLVLVKHUVHFRQGGLVDVWHU7KHÀUVWRQHZDVODVWQLJKWZKHQ during a lavish dinner either at the steak or the tempura one of front teeth (false) fell out and rather than reveal this mishap before the Holy Family she swallowed it. I exclaimed in horror but she was not perturbed. It will soon come out again . . .) And once I too with a paper bag of deer biscuits in my hand found myself surrounded one grabbing at the bag, another nipping my trousers, another tearing at my shirt. I had to push my way out by force but there were charming scenes, half a dozen of them lying down to rest in front of a temple gate or a shop selling keyaki>-DSDQHVH]HONRYD@ERZOVDQGODGOHV The Shrine was not damaged in last year’s typhoon, only the noh butai >1RKGUDPDVWDJH@7KHUHGJDOOHULHVDQGJUHHQEURQ]HOLRQVDQGWKHYHUmillion corridors and the kagura>WUDGLWLRQDOVKULQHGDQFLQJ@VWDJHZHUH untouched. I had to take a good many photographs of her as she stood before the mysterious recess where the goddess dwelt. At 11.30 she said she would go into this restaurant as the oyster donburi >ULFH GLVK@ZDVWRKHUWDVWHEXWWKDW,PLJKWGREHWWHUZLWKDyakisoba>IULHGQRRGOHV@ somewhere else. She did not look back as she marched in. But by 12.30 she IRXQGZKHUH,ZDVÀQLVKLQJDERWWOHRIEHHUDQGDQQRXQFHGWKDWVKHFRXOG

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not walk as far as the ropeway and hence we would not be going to the top of Misen it was time to go back. Not a word of do you mind or what would you like to do or is there anything more you would like to do. Himiko calm and curt, we are going back now. Sorry, I said, I’m not ready to go back. I’ve only just come. Go back without me if you want to. She agreed to meet me at the ferry and feeling fairly furious I walked up into the maple trees behind the shrine, until I found a place with an excellent view over the torii at low tide and the vermillion JDOOHULHVDQGFRUULGRUVDQGDQRWLFHWRVD\WKDWWKH.DQSDNX+LGH\RVKL>ODWH VL[WHHQWKFHQWXU\UXOHU@KDGFRPSRVHGWKHIROORZLQJSRHP Kibishi yori nagame no akanu Itsukushima Misebayu to omou kumo no uwabito ¶0DMHVWLFDOO\WKHXQZHDULHGSURVSHFW,WVXNXVKLPDWKLQNLQJRIWKDWSODFHWKH man above the clouds. The person in the clouds was the Emperor said the man who brought me a cup of coffee. After this interlude I recovered my calm and walked back to the ferry buying on the way a keyaki box with a lid for Mrs Oka’s 88th birthday on 6XQGD\WRÀQGKHUVLWWLQJRQDVWRQHOHGJHLQDUDWKHUEHWWHUPRRG6KH was suggesting going back to the ropeway but gave up the idea quickly. So back to the station and onto a train to Hiroshima. Thence change to the 6KLQNDQVHQ>EXOOHWWUDLQ@ Whenever we stop or change trains there is always a staircase up which I have to drag my rather heavy luggage on the folding wheels. Never never does she give a backwards look to see if I can manage all right (I told her I had an attack of lumbago a couple of weeks ago). She steps off the train, walks up the VWDLUVDQG,ÀQGKHUZDLWLQJRQWKHRWKHUVLGHRIWKHWLFNHWEDUULHU But again I remind myself that but for her I would never have done this trip. Certainly never got to Nakatsu which is a real kakurezato>KLGGHQYLOODJH@DQGSUREDEO\ZRXOGQRWKDYHJRWDVIDUZHVWDV7DEXVHWRKDYHVXFKD heart-warming welcome by the Holy Family. And that she has done a great deal of telephoning and enquiring and the trip was nominally done for my sake even though there will be a full description in next month’s magazine. When ZHUHDFKHG6KLQ2VDND,VDLG,ZRXOGFDOOWRVHHKHUQHZÁDWRQO\VHFRQGV from Higashi Yodogawa station. Had taken the precaution of telephoning from the train to reserve a room at the New Miyako Hotel. 7KHQHZÁDWZDVODUJHUWKDQWKHROGRQHEXWVRVWXIIHGZLWKIXUQLWXUHWKDW it felt smaller. No more tatami as her swollen legs cannot bend properly but a

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sofa lining three sides of the main room piled with shiny cushions in glaring Chinese pink and turquoise. Kawami has a bigger room for his editing stuffed with equipment. As usual she did not bother to greet him when she marched in. She opened the presents I had bought for her - a nice Wedgewood box and a Victorian jar of strawberry jam but made no comment at all (nor did she last year when I gave her one of our silver spoons and told her it had belonged to my grandparents). I very soon began to feel suffocated and took my leave. Kawami came with me all the way to the shinkansen and stayed until the train left . . . — 1993 —

26 January

1LFROD/LVFXWLQ>IRUPHUJUDGXDWHVWXGHQWRI&DUPHQ@FDPHWROXQFKDQGDIWHU an hour and a half of concentrated discussion, I felt once more the strange wave of excitement that occurs when the symbols of religious life in Japan appear to me once more. After too long an interval…Her work on 6HNN\RÙEXVKL >VXWUDEDVHGEDOODGV@ZKLFKFRPHVIURPWKHsennin >KHUPLW@,I.XQLR@ thought there was no creative power in the sennin people he was wrong. These sad, cruel stories, often disgusting but always with a happy ending, show clearly the product of hinin>RXWFDVWV@DQGZULWWHQIRUDQDXGLHQFHRIVXFKSHRSOH$ FKDSWHURQWKH7HQQRÙ >(PSHURU@LQWKHVHZRUNVDQGDQRWKHURQWKHhinin and you would soon see that they were two halves of a single ambivalence. A travelling circus had lost one of its large snakes, a python or a boa constrictor. The whole district has been alerted and was on the lookout for the creature to no avail. It had made good its escape. Then they thought of consulting a blind itako>VKDPDQ@QXQV@KDGUHFLWHGWKHVWRU\JLYLQJDQ\RLKRÙMX>ZLVK DVVLVWDQFH@WREDUUHQPRWKHUV Was there some lost magic about these sad, horrible tales which enabled their heavy-burdened audience to identify themselves with the hero, to suffer with him and to rejoice as though bursting into a new world when his VXIIHULQJVFHDVHDQGKHHPHUJHVLQWRWKH¶KDSS\HQGLQJ·ZKLFKODVWVIRUHYHU

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which leaves the time sequence, which is proof against reversal? Never, never can you go back into Hell once you are in the realm of the Happy Ending. All that Derek Brewer said yesterday about the uncanny persistence of fairy tales might be thus explained. You identify yourself with the hero and in his FORWKHVDQGVKRHV\RXRYHUFRPHIDLQWVDQGÀQG\RXUKHDUW·VGHVLUHLQWKH King’s castle. 8 September

Miyamoto72 and Celia73 to lunch and the conversation naturally centred on $UWKXU:DOH\0L\DPRWRKDGGDULQJO\WHOHSKRQHG$OLVRQ>:DOH\@DFRXSOHRI days ago to ask if he could call. Not now she had replied (…) An hour afterZDUGVKHUDQJWKHEHOOWRÀQGWKDWYLVLWRUVDUHQRZHQWHUWDLQHGLQWKHKDOOWKH other rooms being so cluttered with an indescribable chaos of furniture, books and papers that there is nowhere to sit down. The staircase has only a few inches of space left clear for anyone wanting to go upstairs. (….) What shall I do with all these books? she (Alison) asks Miyamoto. Donate them to someone. he UHSOLHG:KRPVKHFRXQWHUHG",UHPHPEHUHGDÀUVWHGLWLRQRIMen of Malecula and other rare and cherished volumes and wondered whether to have a last sight RIWKDWH[WUDRUGLQDU\KRXVHWRÀQGDFRGDWRWKHVWRU\RIWKHVHSHRSOHRIZKRP Alison is the last remnant; it would be worth risking breaking my silence of so many years and telephoning Highgate. Both Celia and M advised against (...) Lunch party memorably lively. Miyamoto is one of the most charming Japanese imaginable. He has dealt with Alison very tactfully in the last chapter of his book giving her scarcely more than a passing reference and dismissing her book One Half with74 a remark that an American scholar (Donald Keene) found it too disgusting to read. 'LQHGLQ3HWHUKRXVH2QO\(GZDUG>6KLOV@75 and John Adamson who took the head of the table, said a short grace, presided over the conversation chided Mark the butler over the vulgar typeface in which the menus were typed. Like a Rotary Club picnic he pronounced. But he was a charming host in the &RPELQDWLRQ5RRPZKHUHWKHUHZDVDORJÀUHJUHHQWZLOLJKWÀOWHULQJWKURXJK WKH:LOOLDP0RUULVÀJXUHVRQWKHZLQGRZVFDQGOHOLJKWIURPWZRVLOYHUFDQdlesticks gleaming polished furniture. Told us vividly about Prague and how he had addressed a priest in St Vitus’ church in colloquial Latin and had a very ÁXHQWDQGFRPSUHKHQVLEOHUHSO\ I mention the old cuttings I found last night about Bibliomania in Paris, the sale of the Beckford Library, the sale of forty-two beautifully bound volumes, which had once belonged to Marguerite of Valois, the celebrated French binders Gudier, Clovis Eve Le Gascon who bound for Louis XIII and who were surely the greatest binders who ever lived and executed a miraculous example

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RI¶IDQWRROLQJ·WKDWKDGEHHQWKHSULGHRIWKH0D]DULQ/LEUDU\%RWKVHHPHG perfectly acquainted with such arcane matters. John Adamson even supplying parallel wonders from the library of the Duke of Argyll, where he had recently been examining muniments and an uncatalogued archive of the Civil War period. Edward described the Pierpoint Morgan Library, George Onidi’s Memoirs of a Bookseller and the evening ends with a discussion of Napierism.76 — 1994 —

27 January

7KHUHXQLRQGLQQHUWRQLJKWLQWKH6FKRRO>62$6@RIWKRVHZKRKDGEHHQRQ the Japanese Courses for Service Students between 1942 and 1947 proved a memorable and moving occasion. Some 30 grey-haired balding rubicund men assembled who 48 years ago were the young men in battledress or the uniform of naval ratings or aircraftmen to whom I had taught Japanese grammar and taken through extraordinary texts such as the one on Whaling in the South Seas. Now they are bishops, knights, company directors, advisers to ministers, Paul Bates, Philip Robinson, Bernard Smith,77 James Nicholson. Several of them greeted me warmly declaring they would have instantly recognised me. But, try as I would, I couldn’t see the young face that different look that suffused a face during the war behind the lined FRQÀGHQWH[SHULHQFHGSHUVRQZKRZDVWDONLQJWRPH,ZDVWKHRQO\ZRPDQ SUHVHQW,QWKHRQO\RWKHUVZHUH2WRPH>'DQLHOV@DQG0LVV+HQW\ who are both dead. Pleasant neighbours at dinner; Philip Robinson who told me that de Waal had to resign the Deanery of Canterbury because his wife Esther at the end of her patience revealed to the world that for years he had been philandering with nuns. A story out of Chaucer. He was thoroughly familiar with the Peterhouse scene too having dined with Edward Nunar last week. And Bernard Smith, on my right spoke so affectionately of Boy Bouchier that I must transmit the compliments to Dorothy. Mr Yamauchi whom I remember as a tall thin Canadian Nisei>VHFRQGJHQHUDWLRQ@LQEDWWOHGUHVVDFWLQJDV,QVWUXFWRUKDGFRPHHVSHFLDOO\IRUWKHGLQQHU all the way from British Columbia. Now a grey-haired company director but ¶DVVRRQDV,JRWWKHLQYLWDWLRQ,NQHZ,PXVWFRPH·KHGHFODUHG 6RPHRQHHOVHUHPHPEHUHG*HQHUDO3LJJRWW·VÀUVWZRUGVWRDQHZFODVV¶,FDQ teach you Japanese but I can’t teach you to hate the Japanese.’ And indeed one and all of the loyal company declared that, ÙRNDUHVXNDQDNDUH>WRDJUHDWHURIOHVV H[WHQW@WKH-DSDQHVHFRXUVHKDGFKDQJHGWKHLUOLYHVDQGOHIWDSHUPDQHQWLPSULQW

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We were all of the same generation, someone else remembered. How antiquated seems the Japanese we taught and learned then, with old characters which only scholars can read nowadays and the old kanazukai>kanaRWKRJUDSK\@:H are like revenants from a supernatural lapse of time. And how hard we had worked knowing there were few others, that we were chosen and privileged for DWDVNRILPPHQVHGLIÀFXOW\EXWRQHZKLFKRQFHPDVWHUHGZRXOGOHDGWREH\RQG a horizon to unimaginable landscapes. I could have made a good speech myself . %XW+XJK>&RUWD]]L@PHQWLRQHG)UDQNDQG2WRPH>'DQLHOV@DQGLQ6XUUH\ZKHUHWKHIDPLO\KRXVH3DVWXUHZRRGZDVORFDWHG@PLOHVDORQHDQG unaccompanied in just four hours. Left at 10 o’clock, and arrived at 2 with a stop for a bottle of low alcohol lager, a Chelsea bun and a cup of coffee on the M4. Kept steadily in the slow lane scarcely rising above 45mph which ensured that my left leg was resting comfortably for most of the time with minimal gear changes. Given a pleasant, small room looking south to the line of hills which must be the Berkshire Downs And a warm welcome from Heather Creighton who this year is detailed to act as messenger, maid, guardian of privacy and EULQJHURIPHDOVRQWUD\VWR0\RÙN\RÙQL>WLWOHRI,UPJDUGW6FKO|JHOOHDGHU RI D JURXS ZKR SUDFWLVHG PHGLWDWLYH GLVFLSOLQHV@ At 4 o’clock she said 0\RÙN\RÙQLZRXOGDSSHDUIRUWHDDQGZRXOGPHHWPH0HDQZKLOHWKHUHZHUH about forty people here for the Mainstream Week and the programme was fairly elementary. But no rules: you could come to what you liked and talk any time you liked. $WR·FORFN0\RÙN\RÙQLDSSHDUHGPRUHPRXQWDLQRXVO\IDWWKDQHYHULQ a brown kimono and knitted woollen cap on her shaved head. She is now so lame and crippled that she can scarcely walk more than a few yards and has acquired an electric scooter or wheel-chair on which she can execute UHYHUVHGUDJRQÁ\WXUQVDQGGDVKWRWKHERWWRPRIWKHOLPHDYHQXHDQGEDFN It is her right knee, the joint of which is gradually collapsing and the bones of her legs, which are now so bandy and curved like a nascent moon that a breakage must be imminent. But she was cheerful, jolly and philosophical: WKHGKDUPDPHDQWKHUWRVLWDWKRPHDW6KRÙERÙDQZKHUHWKHUHZHUHQRZVHYHQ permanent residents . . .

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,WKDQNHGKHUIRUKHUNLQGKHOSGXULQJP\GLIÀFXOWWLPHLQ-XQH>ZKHQVKH KDGKDGDQDFFLGHQW@7KH5RÙVKL too had had a successful operation, she said. Gall bladder removed, revealing a good many small stones. He should now be much better able to return to the summer school next year. 16 October Carmen in Tokyo.

$W+LURNR>,VKLEDVKL@FDOOVIRUPHLQWKHJOHDPLQJOLPRXVLQHGUHVVHG entirely in black. Sekiguchi-san also in an extra smart black suit. We are bound IRU7RVKLPDJDRND*RERVKR>LPSHULDOIDPLO\JUDYH\DUG@WRSD\RXUUHVSHFWV at the grave of Princess Chichibu. Hiroko arranged this with a chamberlain a day or two ago. (I also dressed in my only suit, olive green.) The Gobosho is next door to Gokokuji and a wooden gate stood open to allow the car to pass into a most exquisite precinct, a hill covered with thick trees and bushes winding white paths leading to secluded places where, singly, the graves of princes and princesses rested. Hiroko scarcely raised her voice above a whisper as she announced our appointment to a uniformed attendant who came with us in the car to guide us to the spot where the tomb has been chosen. A white temporary roof and avenue of stone lanterns leading to the tomb which is a mound covered with VPRRWKSROLVKHGVWRQHV2QHLWKHUVLGHZHUHÁRZHUVDQGZKLWHgohei>VWDIIZLWK SODLWHGSDSHUVWUHDPHUV@IURPWKH(PSHURUWKH(PSUHVVWKH&URZQ3ULQFH the Nakashima family. Flowers and gohei were grouped on either side of the polished stone mound. Hiroko spent a few minutes in prayer: I followed her and the visit was over. (Not allowed to take photographs.) But the beauty of the place, which oddly reminded me of graves of Emperors in odd spots round and in Kyoto, remains a potent mystery. There is VRPHWKLQJWKH\GRWRSUHVHUYHWKHVSHFLDO¶RWKHUQHVV·RIWKRVHLQWUHSLGVRXOV who take on the responsibilities of the Imperial family. — 1996 —

8 October

Up to London for a party at the Japanese Embassy to welcome Princess Sayako, only daughter of the Emperor and to give my lecture on Buddhism to the Temenos Academy.78 %XWÀUVW«EX\DQLQGLJRZLQWHUFRDW… DQGDSDLURIZKLWHZRROOHQ WURXVHUV$V,ZDONLQWRWKHVKRSVKHVD\V¶5DGERXUQH@DVFRFKDLUPDQNLQGO\SUHVHQWVPHWRWKH Princess who wears blue and smiles very naturally but says nothing. Into a taxi at 6 and arrive at Gloucester Gate in good time. Thetis comes straight from St George’s House, Windsor, where she has delivered a lecture on Sacred Symbolism to the canons and been attacked by several for being out of date. She should have talked about deconstruction instead of outmoded symbols like the axis mundi and the phoenix. She bitterly regretted that she had not answered them back with greater wit and vigour. 8QWLOÀYHWRVHYHQRQO\DERXWKDOIDGR]HQSHRSOHKDGWXUQHGXSLQFOXGing Thetis and John. But just then there was a rush of students from the Prince of Wales’ Institute, so many that by 7 not an empty seat remained. I talked for an hour on Basic Buddhism only now and then having to look at my notes and feeling they were listening with sympathy. Enough questions, sensible ones, afterwards to last until 8.30 when the room had to be YDFDWHG.DWKOHHQ>5DLQH@DSSDUHQWO\SOHDVHGDQGVD\VWKH3ULQFHRI:DOHV will probably enjoy the tape. But worried to realise that had it not been for the inrush of students at the last minute the Temenos audience would have been a bare half dozen.. — 1997 —

New Year’s Day

Woke to a bright sunny morning, a quarter golden moon, and continuing cold and bitter wind.

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5HVROYHQRWWRORVHVLJKWRIWKH4XHVWWKHHQGHDYRXUWRÀQGWKH7UHDVXUH in symbols, which are true conductors to the Other Side, which is beyond description. Try to achieve the high gear in which synchronicities occur in the outside world which I can recognise as pointers. Ordinary remarks, and snow melting and books which the hand reaches unconsciously for – these can be seen from the Buddha Nature struggling to make itself felt and heard. Look, listen – the birds in the trees, the squirrel on the nut dish. Ask the right questions. Anyone may prove a guide or a pointer. 'RLWHYHU\GD\ZDV(GLWK·V>6FKQDSSHU@DGYLFH7KLVLVWKHUHDO:RUN Seek companions who will encourage not to lose sight. Talk and meditate, which means be still and try to open the vents and passages, unblock the tunnels which for some cause beyond our present knowledge are blocked DQGVHHLWZDVDOODQLOOXVLRQLQWKHÀUVWSODFH Not to allow other people’s shadow to distort one’s clarity or to rouse one’s own shadow which clouds the vision and becomes obsessional. — 1998 —

11 October

7KHWHDSDUW\>DW'RURWK\%RXFKLHU%ULWWRQ·VKRXVHLQ+D\DPD@ZHQWRII splendidly. The Emperor and Empress were supposed to stay one hour from WKUHHWRR·FORFN$QGLWZDVDIWHUEHIRUHWKH\OHIW $UULYHGDW'RURWK\·VKRXVHDWWRÀQGWKHSUHSDUDWLRQVKDGEHHQPDGH all morning. Room next to the dining room to be used. Emperor and Empress RQWKHVRID,VDEHO>5HQGHOO@KHUH3ULQFHVV1RULQRPL\D79 there, me there. 5RG>IULHQGRI'RURWK\@FOHDQLQJZLQGRZVDQG-XQNRGXVWLQJWKHVKHOOVDQG FKLQDGLVKHV&KDUPLQJYDVHVRIÁRZHUV%HDXWLIXOYLHZDORQJDQDOPRVWHPSW\ beach and green glassy sea. Lunch, as yesterday, on the veranda looking though pine branches at the VSDUNOLQJVHD&KDQJHLQWRP\ZKLWHRXWÀWDQG'RURWK\LQWRDVPDUWRUDQJHVXLW Punctually at 3 they are all three suddenly in the room. Dorothy skilfully presents everyone and Isabel does a deep curtsey. (Mine is perfunctory.) We all congratulate the Empress on her excellent lecture on the spiritual values of the right books for children – and indeed from the short extract I saw yesterday she spoke with wonderful dignity and elegance and grace. And a rare calm and tranquillity, which gave true depth to her words. I told her that both Philippa Pearce80 and Iona Opie81 send their love and that Iona O. had declared she was a devoted admirer for life. And the true

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delight with which the Empress received these compliments was itself a joy to behold. We talked thereafter about the mysteries of folktales, the use of Enchantment (and I promised to send her Bruno Bettelheim82) about Katherine Briggs83 and the seventeenth-century world she could enter with her two sisters; gave her a copy of Whispers, Katherine Briggs poems illustrated by WB found in the cupboard in Sandwich in March. She seemed genuinely delighted, particularly because it was made entirely by the three sisters. She had sent in advance a copy of her own volume of poems, Seoto. And a children’s story about a little girl climbing a mountain who wanted to see a deer. She has a rare talent for listening in such way as to make you feel that you are the one person in the world she wants to talk to. ,WKHQIRXQGP\VHOIWDONLQJWRWKH(PSHURUÀUVWDERXW*HQ3LJJRWWZKRP he remembered had looked after him during his visit for the Coronation and then somehow about Marie Stopes – her paleo-botany, her love affair with Fujii and her pioneer birth control activity. Even in rather veiled language DERXWKHUÀUVWPDUULDJHWR5XJJOHV*DWHVDQGWKHUHDVRQVIRULWVIDLOXUH, am not sure that he grasped my meaning over the last story, but he certainly showed interest in her life.) ,KDGDIHZZRUGVZLWK3ULQFHVV1RULQR0L\DFKLHÁ\DERXWFDWVDQGWKH VL[WHHQFDWVRI2VDUDJL-LURÙ The conversation continued so merrily that it was after 5 when a grey FKDPEHUODLQIURPWKH.XQDLFKRÙ>,PSHULDO+RXVHKROGDJHQF\@HQWHUHGWRWDNH them away. I had a distinct impression that they had enjoyed themselves no end and were sorry to go. We all came out to see them off - huge car parked next to Dorothy’s house and it was touching to see how immediately a respectful crowd gathered bowing to watch their departure. Motorcade of three huge cars, theirs in the middle, even though the distance was only a quarter of a mile. Everyone agreed the occasion had been a huge success and Dorothy a ZRQGHUIXOKRVWHVV+HUXVHRI¶\RXUPDMHVW\·LQVWHDGRISODLQ¶\RX·ZDVYHU\ skilled.) Gin tonics all round and then made my way back to Zushi, Ueno and across the park. — 1999 —

10 October >.\RWR@

Lunch at the delightful Heian Kaikan This is where in 1986 we used to meet HYHU\ZHHNZLWK+DUROG>6WHZDUW@%XWWKHJDUGHQVHHPHGPRUHORYHO\WKDQ ever and the carp more brilliant and their leaps far higher. I never remember

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seeing them leap a couple of feet in the air but this I saw several times during WKHGHOLJKWIXOOXQFKDJROGHQRUVLOYHURUYHUPLOLRQÀVKOHDSLQJVHHPLQJO\IURP pure joy as high as the stone bridge which spanned the pool. This is where I must stay next time I come to Kyoto… Talk of Dr Suzuki. They agree with me that the current attacks on him by young $PHULFDQ¶VFKRODUV·DUHGLVJXVWLQJ3DWULFLD>KHUIULHQG@DWWHQGHGDFRQIHUHQFH where three in a row gleefully tore him to shreds. He should have done this and shouldn’t have done that. But nothing positive, whatever did they contribute and not once did they try to imagine the climate of thought against which he tried to struggle with English words which conveyed nothing of what he intended to the majority of his readers. What he tried to convey was beyond their boundaries of thought ,SXWWRWKHPP\SUREOHPRIKRZWRÀQGDVXSHUQDWXUDOPXVHWRKHOS me with the Penguin book.84 Not Benten… despite all she did for Harold. What about Fugen on his white elephant, or Manju on his lion, they suggest. Patricia produces a catalogue of pictures: there is Fugen. But how can I confess that it is his white elephant that really draws me? Again a feeling that the real things of life are being recollected. The coating RIIDOVHUHDOLW\VWLÁLQJDQGVPRWKHULQJWKHPXOWLSOHOHYHOVRIEHLQJLVGUDZQ back. Again a sense that friendship is made and maintained by sharing of such interludes of truth. $QGWKHJDUGHQRXWVLGHZLWKLWVOHDSLQJYHUPLOLRQÀVK²WKDWLVDUHPLQGHU of the real too. :DQGHUWKURXJK6KRÙNRNXMLDQGVLWIRUWHQPLQXWHVE\WKHVWRQHJDUGHQ 7KHQWR2VDNDWRVHHWKH'UDJRQ4XHHQ.\RWRVWDWLRQIURPWKHQRUWK side, utterly unrecognisable. Swooping marble staircases and glittering rows of shops and restaurants. Gone is the familiar place where I ate fried eggs RQUHWXUQLQJIURP(LKHLML>IDPRXV=HQWHPSOHLQ)XNXLSUHIHFWXUH@RUZKHUH Fosco Maraini85 came to see the yamabushi >PRXQWDLQSLOJULPV@RIIWRR 31 October >7RN\R@

Sunday, and no lectures… – despite yesterday, Saturday, when I had to be there by 11 to talk to the 3rd year mob on Lafcadio Hearn – so here I am in a café near Kita Kamakura station with a glass of beer, decorated with stars, and a sense of ushinawasereru toki wo motomete>VHDUFKLQJIRUORVWWLPH@ and a sense of a photograph with another taken on top of it – memories of forty-seven years in black and white showing through the garish scene before me. The procession of cars both ways never ceases. To cross the road you press the button and wait and wait. The old place where I used to go for coffee has vanished and in its place is a row of cafes, sushi restaurants, Hato Sabure

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shops. And out of every train pours a wave of people who spew into Engakuji RUXSWKHURDGWR.HQFKRÙMLRUDFURVVWKHURDGWR7RÙNHLML :KHUH,KDYHMXVWYLVLWHG8SWKHVWRQHVWHSVZKHUH,ÀUVWHQFRXQWHUHG 0DNLQR>JRQHRXW@XQWLOODWHWRQLJKW0RUHOLNHO\ asleep after a good tot of sake?) Genkan >HQWUDQFHKDOO@VWXIIHGZLWK&RPSOHWH Works of Suzuki Daisetsu and Furuta Shokin; plus piles of papers and journals. I’ll come again soon I say and go down the stone steps again through the green bamboo and underfoot acorns. $WWKHJDWHRIWKH7RÙNHLML,DPWROGWKDW=RMRÙ 2VKRÙ ZRXOGOLNHWRVHHPH so go inside to the familiar large room where the other world disappears. He appears in formal black kimono, deaf and 88, but we have a spirited conversation about the old days and Ishiguro Hide and new edition of Dr Suzuki’s works. Emerge, back into the crowds $QGQRZ,DPLQ'RURWK\·V>%RXFKLHU%ULWWRQ@KRXVHKDYLQJVDWIRUDQ hour on the veranda watching the red sun set over the sea with a red gold band RIOLJKWVHDLQWKHEUDQFKHVRIWKHSLQHWUHHVDQGWKHURXQGUHGÁRDWKDQGLQJ from a branch. The rest of the sea is like mother of pearl rose and aquamarine. Stop in Kamakura before coming here and buy another aizome >EOXHG\H@ jacket at a new shop in an arcade called Sharpila. 3 November

To Kyoto and to stay in the Heian Kaikan where they give me a lovely room RQWKHWKÁRRUIDFLQJHDVW$QGVXUHO\WKDWLV'DLPRQML\DPDEHIRUHPHD GRYHEOXHVLOKRXHWWHRYHUWKHWUHHVRIWKH*RVKR>SDODFH@ But Kyoto is curiously empty for me now and I realise that I have no friends left, nor even acquaintances. 7KH'UDJRQ4XHHQH[SHFWVPHLQ2VDNDZLWKHU,PDNHP\ZD\VRRQDIWHU arriving. Flat unchanged save that the cushions are now made of obi>VDVK@ brocade rather than Chinese silk. Kawami a little more aged and bald but eloquent as ever... Assures me that Himiko’s foot is almost back to normal and that next year she will be able to go to another island with me. But in fact she seemed just as tottering and slow as last year and as dependent on a stick and Kawami-san’s arm when we walk the short distance to the restaurant. It is a bone in her foot, which was broken two years ago and kept her four months in hospital. If in two years she can barely totter what chance is there for her WRUHFRYHUKHUWHUULÀFSDVVLRQIRUWUDYHODQGLQLWLDWLYHLQGLVFRYHULQJSODFHV with a Heike densetsu>OHJHQG@

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%XWZK\VKRXOGLWEHWKDWVKHFDQFXUHRWKHUSHRSOHWRWKHWXQHRIWKLUW\ÀYHRU forty a day by the newly granted power of denwa-shinyu >WHOHSKRQHFRQVXOWLQJ@LIVKH cannot cure herself? People telephone, explain their trouble, she holds the receiver to her forehead, emits a loud hiai or two and they soon write to say they are cured. 1RVXFKFDOOVZKLOH,ZDVLQWKHÁDWEXWDPDQFDPHLQSHUVRQDQGZDV closeted sometime in the Holy Room. I gave her the Fortnum and Mason purple tin of Royal Blend Tea I had intended for the Empress should I see her and a velvet heart shaped box containing soap. She gave me an Indian tunic, brocade and purple, which was to be wearable under a gown. — 2000 —

2 June

Drove to Norwich with Michael for the opening of the Sainsbury Institute of -DSDQHVH$UWDQG&XOWXUHZLWK'RQDOG.HHQHJLYLQJDOHFWXUHRQ0HLML7HQQRÙ in the Nave of the Cathedral. Rain stopped at last and a lovely drive through Thetford Forest where surely deer could live. But once into Norwich a nightmare half hour: no signs for FDWKHGUDOVHHWKLQJVKRSSLQJFURZGVOLNHPDJJRWVLQDÀVKHUPDQ·VEDLWDSSDOOLQJWUDIÀFVRPHRIWKHEHDXWLIXOPHGLHYDOFLW\SROOXWHGDQGVSRLOW%XWDWODVW a stone gate and the Maid’s Head Hotel where Donald is staying and the spire of the cathedral. Indescribable relief and there is Donald waiting in the hotel… We all go to a nearby restaurant called Aquarium and Donald talks with all his ROGÁDLUDQGIDVFLQDWLRQDERXW(PSHURU0HLMLDQGDJUHHVWKDW0LWIRUG·VWDVNLQ interpreting between him and Prince Alfred in 1869 might have been a daunting one. Though not so daunting as explaining the content of the Noh plays Tsuremasa, Kokaji, Hagoromo, etc. put on in addition to the sumo wrestling for the entertainment of the Prince…Most delightful and successful lunch… Soon a huge crowd collects to listen to Donald’s lecture. Entire Nave seems to be full…Donald’s lecture is predictably excellent. Much that had not appeared before in Tokyo and am sorry his book will not appear for a year. He answers TXHVWLRQVVXFKDV¶:KDWGLGKHWKLQNRI&KULVWLDQLW\"·ZLWKOXFLGLW\DQGDSORPE 27 October

0UV$EH>ODG\LQZDLWLQJWRWKH(PSUHVVDQGZLGRZRI$PEDVVDGRU$EHZKRKDG EHHQFKLHIRISURWRFROLQWKH,PSHULDO+RXVHKROG@SKRQHGODVWQLJKWWRVD\WKDW+HU Majesty would be glad to see me this afternoon from 3 to 3.45 that I was to take a taxi to the Sakashitamon, give the police my name then get the taxi to go to the Nishiguchi where I was to press a button on a table and someone would come . . .

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$VWRQLVKHGDQGGHOLJKWHGWKDW+HU0DMHVW\FRXOGÀQGPLQXWHVDWVXFK short notice. And even more delighted when, at about 11 o’clock, I bought some mizutori-esa>ZDWHUIRZOIHHG@DWWKDWFUXFLDOSRLQWE\WKHODNHDQGDWRQFH found myself entirely covered and surrounded by birds. Pigeons pecking on my arms and shoulders, feeding from the esa in my hand, a solid crowd of pigeons and ducks around my feet, quaking and loudly cooing.. This was like a blessing because thereafter everything went wonderfully well. I had lunch in the Teikoku Hotel Coffee Shop now renamed Eureka fortifying myself with a small bottle of beer and told the taxi driver to go to the Sakashitamon. He drove unerringly up grey precincts with pine trees until at the gate itself we met a wonderful procession of two shining coaches, black and gold, each with two drivers or postilions in top hats and gold-frogged uniforms supported by half a dozen beautiful horses, grey or black, with immaculate RIÀFHUVRQWKHLUEDFNV7KHGULYHUDJUHHGLQDQDZHGYRLFHWKDWZHZHUHOXFN\ to see such a procession and I learned afterwards that it might have been on its way to Tokyo station to meet two new ambassadors. At the Nishiguchi an immaculate grey haired jokan>FRXUWODG\@ZKRVHQDPH turned out to be Mrs Hamamoto warmly greeted me by name and ushered me LQWRDODUJHFDUZLWKWKHFRPPDQG¶gosho!·>SDODFH@:HGURYHDWOHDVWDPLOH into successive mysterious green oku>LQWHULRU@LQQHUIDVWQHVVHVDPRQJWUHHV DVWKRXJKWKURXJKDZHOOWHQGHGIRUHVW¶7KDWLVWKHJURYHRI´kuwa no ki” >PXOEHUU\WUHH@·0UV+LQIRUPHGPH¶+HU0DMHVW\LVIRQGRImayu >FRFRRQ@· Arrived at a curiously characterless building devoid of any ornament save large ÁRZHUDUUDQJHPHQWV0RUHDQRQ\PRXVWKDQDKRWHO$IWHUDZDLWRIPLQXWHV in a similarly anonymous waiting room, we were summoned and walk, shoes on, up 100 yards of pale carpet to room on the right. There HM is waiting dressed in a dark grey suit of incredible elegance, smiling and responding to my greetings of KRÙHLQRLWDUL>PDQ\WKDQNVIRU\RXUYLVLWWR%ULWDLQ@DQGninenburi>WZR\HDUVDJR@6KH looked a little older and greyer but her peculiar charm and smile as apparent as ever. We then talked not for the statutory 45 minutes but for an hour and 20 minutes. Mostly in Japanese but now and then in English and her English is very good. I remember covering a breathless range of subjects: it seemed that one tumbled over another or ricocheted off another. Fairies and Fiona McCloud again – she remembered William Sharpe’s name when I could not summon it – Joan of Arc’s fairies about three feet high, her terrible fate, the terror of the medieval church: bards in Ireland and kataribe >VWRU\WHOOHUV@LQ1DUDDQG*UHHNVLQJHUVRI+RPHUDQG'UXLGVDQG their incredible powers of memory. The Ainu folk tales collected by BHC (Chamberlain) from Ainu who were too drunk to remember anything except folk tales… ¶:KDWLV\RXUIDYRXULWHERRN"·,DVN¶WKDW\RXFDQUHDGDJDLQDQGDJDLQDQG QHYHUJHWWLUHGRILW·6KHUHSOLHG¶DERRNFDOOHGHoshi to ShirakabaWKH´6WDUVDQG

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Silver Birches” by the Finnish writer Topelius’. Then for ten minutes she told the story as though she were seeing the scenes with her inner eye, two children in a forest and an old woman and a supernatural lapse of time. I let my concentration lapse now and then as I watched her face… An elegant tray brought in with a slender bowl of soup and a shell with some rare delicacy in it. But I failed to do it much justice for trying to concentrate on the conversation. Then I reveal that in October of next year it will be the 50th anniversary of P\ÀUVWVHWWLQJIRRWLQ-DSDQ2OGIULHQGVDUHkuchi no takara>PRXWKWUHDVXUHV@ $ODVWKH\DUHIHZHUDQGIHZHU6KHVD\V¶EXWZHDUHIULHQGV²LWHQFRXUDJHVPH WRIHHOWKLV·$QGLWLVDMR\IRUPH,VD\:HDUH¶&RPSDQLRQVRQWKH:D\· Someone knocks and I realise that it is 4.20 I have taken an hour and twenty minutes of her time. She walks down the hundred yards of pale carpet with me, bowing servitors here and there murmuring uketamawarimasu >DW\RXUVHUYLFH@$WWKHHQWUDQFHVKHVD\VDJDLQLQ(QJOLVKKRZJODGVKHLV to have friends. I shake her by the hand and on impulse kiss her on both cheeks. Then realise my eyes are full of tears and wave goodbye. Large car takes me through the winding grey paths and pine trees to the Nijubashimae station. Hardly time to recover and recall when Hiroko appears at 5.30 to take me to dinQHURQWKHWRSÁRRUUHVWDXUDQWDWWKH3DODFH+RWHO,WULHGWRLQYLWHKHUEXWXVHOHVV

__________________ ENDNOTES TO CARMEN BLACKER’S INTRODUCTION

1 London, George Allen and Unwin, 1975. 2 Published by Japan Library and Edition Synapse, 2000. 3 Japan Experiences: Fifty Years, One Hundred Views. Post-War Japan Through British Eyes 1945–2000, Compiled and Edited by Hugh Cortazzi, Folkestone: Japan Library, 2001. 4 A biographical portrait of Mori Arinori (1847–89) by Andrew Cobbing is in Britain & Japan: Biographical Portraits, Volume IV, ed. Hugh Cortazzi, Japan Library, 2002. 5 Arthur Diosy (1856–1923) was an enthusiastic promoter of the Japan Society of London. 6 Maj. Gen. F.S.G. Piggott, described in a portrait of him and his father by Carmen reproduced in this volume and by Antony Best in Britain and Japan: Biographical Portraits, Volume VIII, ed. Hugh Cortazzi, Global Oriental, 2013. 7 Novel by H.G. Wells, published in 1915. 8 )UDQN'DQLHOVODWHUÀUVWSURIHVVRURI-DSDQHVHDW62$66HHELRJUDSKLFDOSRUWUDLW of Frank and Otome Daniels in Britain and Japan: Biographical Portraits, Volume I, ed. Ian Nish, Japan Library, 1994.

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9 Yoshitake Saburo, senior lecturer in Japanese at SOAS, who died in 1942. 10 John Pilcher, later Sir John, British ambassador to Japan, 1967–72. See The Growing 3RZHURI-DSDQ² ed. Hugh Cortazzi, Renaissance Books, 2015. 11 Vere Redman, later Sir Vere. See biographical portrait by Hugh Cortazzi in Britain and Japan: Biographical Portraits, Volume II, ed. Ian Nish, Japan Library, 1997. 12 6HHKHU¶,QWHQWRI&RXUWHV\5HFROOHFWLRQRI$UWKXU:DOH\· 13 Professor Eve Edwards, a Chinese scholar, was then director of SOAS. 14 Henry Sawbridge was a member of the Japan Consular Service and had studied Japanese. After the war he became British consul-general at Yokohama and taught EULHÁ\DW6KHIÀHOG8QLYHUVLW\ZKHQ-DSDQHVHFRXUVHVEHJDQWKHUH 15 A member of the pre-war Japan Consular Service who later became consul-general in Osaka/Kobe. 16 Peter Laslett, who died in 2001, became an outstanding historian at Cambridge. 17 John Morris, broadcaster and writer about Japan. See portrait by Neil Pedlar in Britain and Japan: Biographical Portraits, Volume III, ed. J.E. Hoare, Japan Library 1999 and Japan Experiences: Fifty Years, One Hundred Views. Post-War Japan Through British Eyes, ed. Hugh Cortazzi, Japan Library, 2001, pp 40–50. 18 Later Sir Peter Parker. See biographical portrait by Hugh Cortazzi in Britain and Japan: Biographical Portraits, Volume VI, ed. Hugh Cortazzi, Japan Library, 2007. 19 Isamu Noguchi, son of Yone Noguchi by an American mother. See biographical portrait of Yone Noguchi by Norimasa Morita in Britain and Japan: Biographical Portraits, Volume VIII, ed. Hugh Cortazzi, Global Oriental, 2013. 20 Russian expressionist painter, 1886–1944. 21 It is not clear to whom she is referring. John Dyer Baizley, a guitarist and cover artist of Philadelphia used the term Baroness, but this was written before his time. 22 Kierkegaard, Danish philosopher 1813–55. 23 The exchange rate was then a bout 1000 yen to the sterling pound. 24 Doug Mills, who had also taken his degree in Japanese at SOAS and later became Carmen’s colleague at Cambridge University. 25 Mrs Azuma was a pro-British Japanese lady who took a friendly interest in British students of Japan and was most hospitable to them. 26 Seami Motokiyo, 1363–1443, famous actor and writer of Noh plays. 27 http://www.victorianweb.org/decadence/huysmans/8.htm J.R. McEwan is the subject of a biographical Portrait by Peter Kornicki in Britain and Japan: Biographical Portraits, Volume X, ed. Hugh Cortazzi, Renaissance Books, 2016. 28 Pat O’Neill (published as P.G. O’Neill) became Professor of Japanese at SOAS. See biographical portrait by Phillida Purvis in Britain and Japan: Biographical Portraits, Volume VIII, ed. Hugh Cortazzi, Global Oriental, 2013.

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29 Carmen and her sister Thetis each had bought antique gypsy caravans which were colourful vehicles. In bygone days they had been drawn by horses. 30 The SRÙtRÙ and Rinzai were sects within Zen Buddhism. 31 Suzuki Daisetsu (1870–1966), philosopher and exponent of Zen Buddhism. 'HVFULEHGDVWKH¶JUDQGROGPDQ·RI=HQIRUKLVZULWLQJVLQ(QJOLVKDERXW=HQ 32 See Catalpa Bow. p. 238. 33 Ogamiya-sanLQWKH&DWDOSD%RZ&DUPHQGHVFULEHVWKLVDV¶DORFDODSSHOODWLRQIRU a shamanic ascetic in the Kyoto district’. 34 &  DUPHQGHVFULEHVWKLVDVIROORZV¶7KLVVKRUWHDVLO\PHPRUL]HGVFULSWXUHH[SUHVVHV the essence, it is said, of the extensive Prajnaparamita literature which forms so important a branch of the Mahayana Buddhist canon. Its content is recondite, profound, not for the ignorant.’ See Catalpa Bow, pp. 95/96. 35 Mantra of the 6DPERÙ 'DL.RÙMLQSee Catalpa Bow, p. 230. 36 ¶)XGRÙ MyRÙRÙLVWKHFHQWUDODQGSDUDPRXQWÀJXUHLQWKHJURXSRIGLYLQLWLHVNQRZQ as the Godai MyRÙRÙ or Five great Bright Kings, who in esoteric Buddhism stand as emanation or modes of activity of the Buddha.’ See Catalpa Bow, p. 175. 37 6 HHELRJUDSKLFDOSRUWUDLWRI3HWHU0DUWLQ>RIWKH%ULWLVK&RXQFLOLQ-DSDQ@E\ Michael Barrett in Britain and Japan: Biographical Portraits, Volume X, ed. Hugh Cortazzi, Renaissance Books, 2016 38 For further information about austerities of this kind see Catalpa Bow, e.g. p. 91. 39 See Catalpa Bow, p. 292. 40 ¶,QWKHULWXDOWRREWDLQDQRUDFOHWKHRIÀFHUZKRVXPPRQVDQGLQWHUURJDWHVWKH kami, and sends him away at the conclusion of the rite’. Catalpa Bow, p. 362. 41 ¶7KHPHGLXPLQWKHULWXDOWRREWDLQDQRUDFOH·Catalpa Bow, p. 363. 42 ¶$VXSHULRUUDQNLQWKH6KXJHQGRÙ order, often indicating that the nine periods of DXWXPQUHWUHDWKDYHEHHQXQGHUJRQHWKHOHDGHURIWKHÀYH sendatsu in the Haguro autumn retreat.’ Catalpa Bow, p. 360. 43 ¶$YHVVHOLQWRZKLFKD kami is summoned in order to manifest himself.’ Catalpa Bow, p. 365. 44 .  LVKLERMLQRU.LVKLPRMLQLVWKH-DSDQHVHPDQLIHVWDWLRQRI+DÙUÙÖ WÖÙ6DQVNULW D %XGGKLVWJRGGHVVDFFRUGLQJWR:LNLSHGLD¶IRUWKHSURWHFWLRQRIFKLOGUHQHDV\ delivery, happy child rearing and parenting, harmony between husband and wife, love, and the well-being and safety of the family’. 45 ¶$ZRRGHQLQVWUXPHQWFRQVLVWLQJRIDVPDOOEDOODQGERDUGZKLFKZKHQFRUUHFWO\ manipulated makes a sharp sound like castanets which is held by the Nichiren sect to be powerful in the process of exorcism.’ Catalpa Bow, p. 360. 46 Mount Kurama (㠡㤿ᒣ Kurama-yama) is a mountain to the north-west of the city of Kyoto. It is the birthplace of the Reiki practice, and is said to be the home of SRÙjRÙbRÙ, King of the Tengu.

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It was the Tengu who taught swordsmanship to Minamoto no Yoshitsune.>@ Kurama is also the location of the annual Kurama Fire Festival (㠡㤿ࡢⅆ⚍ࡾ Kurama no Hi-matsuri), which takes place every October. Kurama-dera (㠡㤿ᑎ) is now designated as a national treasure of Japan. 47 Pimiko or Himiko, see Catalpa Bow, p. 28. 48 Noda SeiryRÙ (also called Noda SenkRÙ in) 1756–1835. His diary Nihon .\XÙKRÙVKXÙJ\RÙ-nikki ᪥ᮏ஑ᓠಟ⾜᪥グ࠘ was published in 1935. 49 jinju or tenju means the term of one natural life. Gakken VWXG\ 50 Douglas Mills. See biographical portrait by Richard Bowring in Britain and Japan: Biographical Portraits, Volume X, ed. Hugh Cortazzi, Renaissance Books, 2016. 51 &KLQHVH&ODVVLF¶%RRNRI&KDQJHV· 52 General Secretary of the National Union of Mineworkers, Leader of the Socialist Labour Party, political activist. 53 Sir John Pilcher was British ambassador to Japan from 1967–1972. See The Growing 3RZHURI-DSDQ ed. Hugh Cortazzi, Renaissance Books, 2015. 54 Sir Julian Ridsdale MP, friend of Japan. See biographical Portrait by Dugald Barr in Britain and Japan: Biographical Portraits, volume VII, ed. Hugh Cortazzi, Global Oriental, 2010. 55 Kathleen Raine, (1908–2003) English poet and scholar. 56 See biographical portrait by Phillida Purvis in Britain and Japan: Biographical Portraits, Volume V, ed. Hugh Cortazzi, Global Oriental, 2004. 57 See biographical portrait by Hugh Cortazzi in Britain and Japan: Biographical Portraits, Volume X, ed. Hugh Cortazzi, Renaissance Books, 2016. 58 Each person has two graves: one where the corpse is interred, usually in a remote area, often unmarked and visited only by the family usually only for the funeral and mourning ceremonies; the other marked only by a stone is in a cemetery or plot near the family and is the place for future visiting and ceremonial cleaning. 59 'RURWK\%ULWWRQ>/DG\%RXFKLHU@DQROGIULHQGZKROLYHGLQDVHDVLGHFRWWDJHDW Hayama. See her memoir Rhythms, Rites and Rituals: My Life in Japan in Two-step and Waltz-time, Folkestone, Renaissance Books, 2015. 60 7  XUWOHGLYLQDWLRQVHH¶'LYLQDWLRQDQG2UDFOHV·LQCollected Writings, Folkestone, Japan Library, 2000, pp. 68–70. 61 See pp. 70/71 in Collected Writings. 62 6HHSS¶7ZLJVWKHWKLFNQHVVRIDÀQJHURIWKHNLQGRIFKHUU\WUHHNQRZQDVhahaka’. 63 2ULJLQDOO\UHIHUULQJWR+DULPD3URYLQFH+\RÙJR DQG7DPED3URYLQFH.\RWR Province) in The Tale of GenjiWZRDUHDVLQYROYHGLQ'DLMRÙVXLLQWKHQRYHO 64 Sir John Whitehead, British ambassador to Japan, summarized his dispatch of 7 December 1990 reporting the enthronement and the visit to Japan of Their Royal Highnesses The Prince and Princess of Wales as follows:

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1. Their Royal Highnesses The Prince and Princess of Wales visited Japan from  WR  1RYHPEHU WR DWWHQG WKH RIÀFLDO (QWKURQHPHQW &HUHPRQLHV RI Emperor Akihito. Their visit, which included a series of other engagements, FDSWXUHGSXEOLFDWWHQWLRQLQ-DSDQDQGDPSO\IXOÀOOHGLWVREMHFWLYHV 2. Attendance at the Enthronement, while substantial, was less high-powered than at the funeral of Emperor Showa in early 1989. The Japanese were in less self-congratulatory mood about their emergence on the international stage. A political role consistent with their economic strength still eludes them, as their activities over the Gulf crisis have shown 3. 158 countries were represented together with the EC Commission and United Nations. The occasion provided scope for many bilateral meetings between visitors 4. The ceremonies of Enthronement were divided into two sets of events: the Sokui-no-Rei or solemn proclamation of the Emperor’s new reign; and the Daijosai, or great food offering, in which rice (planted and harvested after the \HDUORQJPRXUQLQJIRUWKHSUHYLRXV(PSHURULVÀQLVKHG LVRIIHUHGWRWKH gods and eaten by the Emperor. The two occasions were separated in time by 10 days; the former is a state occasion, the latter religious (Shinto) 5. The Sokui-no-Rei was a brief, solemn, slow-moving occasion, conjuring up visions of ancient Japanese scroll paintings of court life, but lacking the drama and pageantry of our own Royal occasions. It was nevertheless modern in spoken content, both Emperor and Prime Minister speaking strictly in accordance with the post-war constitution 6. The open Rolls Royce parade on the same day was a festive and happy occasion, even though it generated modest rather than overwhelming enthusiasm by the people 7. The Daijosai was an entirely Japanese and Shinto affair, although here too an effort was made to demythologize, but not to demystify the occasion 8. Security was very tight. There were a number of minor incidents, the responsibility of extreme left-wing groups, but only one serious bomb attack in which a policeman was killed 9. The whole occasion was greeted with only modest, enthusiasm by the Japanese people. More effort will be needed if the Emperor is to be made less remote. A start is likely to be made on State Visits abroad next year 10. By contrast there was much affection for and fascination with the Prince and Princess of Wales, whose visits to the ceremony and related ocassions and to other functions stole the media show. And UK interests - the UK90 cultural festival, exports and industrial collaboration - were usefully promotted. The visit has helped to further our bilateral relationships with Japan.

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65 Ueno Gakuen University (ୖ㔝Ꮫᅬ኱Ꮫ Ueno gakuen daigaku?) is a private university in Taito, Tokyo, Japan, specialising in music 66 Legendary Japanese hero. 67 Japanese warrior poet of the twelfth century. 68 7UDQVODWLRQRIWKHSRHP¶,FRXOGQRWUHWXUQ,SUHVXPH6R,ZLOONHHSP\QDPH Among those who are dead with bows.’ 69 Saigo Takamori from Satsuma (Kagoshima) led the Satsuma rebellion of 1877, also known as the Seinan SensRÙ>ZDU@ 70 Go-Daigo, ninety-sixth emperor, 1287–1339, was exiled to the Oki islands in the Japan Sea. Ùgamisama was the foundress of TenshRÙ KRÙtai, JingukyRÙ, the Dancing Religion, 71 O see Collected Writings, p. 152. 72 Shozaburo Miyamoto, Waley’s biographer, Professor of English Area Studies at &KXEX8QLYHUVLW\DQGSUROLÀFZULWHU 73 Celia Goodman who had had personal contacts with the Bloomsbury set and was a sister-in-law of Arthur Koestler. 74 Stone Men of Malecula by John Layard. 75 Carmen co-edited with Edward Shils Cambridge Women: Twelve Portraits, Cambridge University Press, 1996. 76 John Napier’s ardent support for the Protestant cause in Scotland, or connected with folk tales about him being in league with the devil for his Mathematical discoveries? http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Napier.html 77 Served with British Commonwealth Occupation Force in Japan. Author of MemoULHVRI-DSDQ$3HRSOH%RZEXWQRW%URNHQ (Trafford on Demand, 2012). 78 The Temenos Academy was formed by Kathleen Raine to promote attention to the humanities of the various cultures of the world with a view to perpetuating the heritage of their literature, philosophy and art. 79 Daughter of the Emperor and Empress. 80 Ann Philippa Pearce (1920–2006), author of children’s books. 81 Iona Archibald Opie (born 1923), wife of Peter Mason Opie (1918–1982), They were folklorists who produced inter alia The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes. 82 Bruno Bettelheim (1903–1990) was an Austrian born child psychologist and writer whose books included The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales, 1976. 83 Katharine Mary Briggs (1898–1980) writer and folklorist who wrote The Anatomy of Puck, the four-volume A Dictionary of British Folk-Tales in the English Language, and various other books on fairies and folklore. 84 Carmen agreed to write a book for Penguin, but it never mate Rialized. 85 Fosco Maraini, an Italian photographer, anthropologist, ethnologist, writer, mountaineer and academic, author of Meeting with Japan, 1969, and Patterns of Continuity, 1971.

ʀ

Originally given as a lecture at Ueno Gakuen, 1998. First co-published in Collected Writings of Carmen Blacker, Folkestone/Tokyo, Japan Library/Edition Synapse, 2000

5

Three Great Japanologists: Chamberlain, Aston and Satow a MY FIRST TEACHER of Japanese, General F.S.G. Piggott, often used to impress RQPHWKDWDQ\RQHDVSLULQJWROHDUQWKLVPRVWGLIÀFXOWRIODQJXDJHVRZHGDQ immense debt to three remarkable Englishmen. These three men had, a century ago, laid the foundations of our knowledge of Japanese. They had come to Japan knowing nothing. They had had no dictionaries or grammars to help WKHP%XWZLWKDQH[WUDRUGLQDU\FRXUDJHOLQJXLVWLFÁDLUDQGVFKRODUO\JHQLXV had set to work to make their own grammars and dictionaries, and then to write the basic classic studies of Japanese literature, history, Shinto, and Japanese culture in general. These three giants of men were, of course, Chamberlain, Aston and Satow. I never forgot this debt, and as I plodded along in my study of Japanese, both written and spoken, I realized more and more clearly what giants these three must have been. It is easy, a century later, to criticize them for being ¶9LFWRULDQ·,WWDNHVPRUHLPDJLQDWLRQWKDQVXFKFULWLFVSRVVHVVWRUHDOL]HKRZ extraordinary their achievements were. It has been a joy for me to recall all three of them for this lecture, and to honour them as part of the Eikokusai this year. Even though, as I have realized all along, each one of these three deserves a whole course of lectures to himself, not simply the third of part of one that I am able to give them today. Let me first recall them in a general way, and try to put them together in a context, before I tell you something of what each of them accomplished. 6DWRZZDVWKHÀUVWWRDUULYHLQ-DSDQDVHDUO\DVZKHQKHZDVRQO\ QLQHWHHQ\HDUVROG+HZDVWRVWD\DOWRJHWKHUQHDUO\WZHQW\ÀYH\HDUVLQ-DSDQ Aston comes next, two years later in 1864 aged twenty-three. He, too, was to stay twenty-four years. Chamberlain was the junior of the triumvirate in age;

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he did not reach Japan until 1873, Meiji 6, but he was to stay altogether nearly forty years in Japan. He did not return to Europe until 1911. So both Satow and Aston were in Japan during the Bakumatsu period. Satow in particular, as we shall see, was to play a crucial diplomatic role during the six turbulent years of that revolutionary period. He acted as interpreter and translator in a number of important exchanges between Britain and the VKRJXQDQGEHWZHHQWKDWGLIÀFXOWPDQ6LU+DUU\3DUNHVDQGUHSUHVHQWDWLYHV RI6DWVXPDDQG&KŇVKş Aston’s role was a quieter one of the consular service, and alas, we have QROHWWHUVRUGLDULHVVXUYLYLQJIURPKLPWRÀOORXWWKHSLFWXUHRIWKHPDQKLPself, his tastes, his style, his character. As Peter Kornicki says in a memoir, he UHPDLQVDVKDGRZ\ÀJXUHZKRPZHPXVWYLHZWKURXJKKLVEULOOLDQWZULWLQJV on scholarly subjects. Nor must we forget his wonderful collection of Japanese books, which we in Cambridge are proud to have held in the University Library since 1911. By comparison with Aston, Satow and Chamberlain spring into vivid life. For Satow, we have his personal account of the seven years he lived in Japan, from 1862 to 1869, A Diplomat in Japan. This book has been described as the best eye-witness account by a foreigner of the crucial last years of the Bakumatsu period. It was written in 1921 after his retirement to Devon, but it is based on the diaries and notebooks he kept during those years, and which are QRZLQWKH3XEOLF5HFRUG2IÀFHLQ.HZ As for Chamberlain, to give us a picture of his character and style we have his fascinating correspondence with Lafcadio Hearn, which continued over DSHULRGRIÀYH\HDUVXQWLOLWZDVDUELWUDULO\EURNHQRIIE\+HDUQKLPVHOI:H have also a good many of his scholarly writings from which his personality vividly emerges. When we read Things Japanese, in any of its six editions, we see not only the Japanese things, but also Chamberlain himself – through his asides, his notes and the cadences of his elegant English. All three of these giants wrote pioneer works on the Japanese language, both written and spoken. Aston’s Grammar of the Japanese Spoken Language ZDVWKHÀUVWWRDSSHDUDVHDUO\DVRQO\ÀYH\HDUVDIWHUKHDUULYHGLQ Japan. It was followed three years later with a Grammar of the Written Language. Both these were truly pioneer works. Their only forerunners were treatises by the Jesuits at the beginning of the seventeenth century, such as Father Rodriguez’s Arte da Lingoa of 1604, which treated Japanese on the model of Latin and Greek, with declensions and conjugations entirely IRUHLJQWRLWVQDWXUH$VWRQ·VJUDPPDUVZHUHLQIDFWWKHÀUVWDWWHPSWVWR treat Japanese as a language not related to Latin and Greek, with an internal pattern of its own.

THREE GREAT JAPANOLOGISTS

189

Satow, in the intervals of his exciting interpreting and translating for Sir Rutherford Alcock and Sir Harry Parkes in their relations with the shogun, found time to compile a wonderful Dictionary, which appeared in 1875. Also, an interesting .ZDLZDKHQ7ZHQW\ÀYH([HUFLVHVLQWKH(GR&ROORTXLDOIRUWKH8VHRI6WXGHQWV which contains authentic conversations of the Bakumatsu period 130 years ago. And Chamberlain’s Handbook of Colloquial Japanese, 1888, likewise ran to several editions, and a shortened version was even used as a text book during the war. So all three accomplished remarkable things in making the Japanese language more accessible for those coming after them. And this at a time too, when there was an LGpHÀ[H in England that both Chinese and Japanese were VRGLIÀFXOWWKDWLWPLJKWGULYH\RXPDGLI\RXWULHGWROHDUQWKHPDQGZKLFK prevented most Western people resident in Japan from making any efforts to SURJUHVVIXUWKHUWKDQWKH¶*LIIRUG/HFWXUHV@/RQJPDQ 10. Wordsworth: The Prelude (1805), Book II, lines 468–469 (hereafter abbreviated as II. 468–469). 11. William James, Op. cit., Lecture IX. Conversion, pp. 189–216 in especial. 12. Samuel Purchas’s Purchas his Pilgrimage, or Relations of the World and the Religions observed in all Ages (1613). Coleridge was reading the 1617 edition. 13. $OSKHXV$ƫƶƥƩƼƲPHDQLQJ¶ZKLWLVK· LVWKHULYHUWKDWULVHVLQVRXWK$UFDGLDDQG ÁRZVSDVW2O\PSLDWRWKH,RQLDQ6HD,QWKH*UHHNP\WKKHZDVDULYHUJRGDQG IHOOLQORYHZLWKWKHQ\PSK$UWKXVD$ƱƝƨƯƵƳơPHDQLQJ¶WKHZDWHUHU· ZKRÁHG from him to the island of Ortygia near Syracuse, where she was changed into a IRXQWDLQ$OSKHXVÁRZHGXQGHUWKHVHDIURP3HORSRQQHVXVWRULVHLQ2UW\JLDWR unite with Arthusa. 14. According to the annotation in the three-volume Poetical Works (ed. J. C. C. Mays) in the Collected Works of Coleridge (16 titles in multi-part 34 volumes: General ed. Kathleen Coburn, Routledge; Princeton University Press, 1969–  WKHPDQXVFULSWUHDGLQJZDV¶$PRUD·DQGWKHQ¶$PDUD·7KHODWWHUOLQNVXS ZLWK¶0RXQW$PDUD·LQDIDOVHSDUDGLVHLQ$E\VVLQLD0LOWRQ·VParadise Lost, IV. 281), also based on Purchas, as a foil for the Garden of Eden as the true paradise on earth. 15. He lived and practised in Highgate. Coleridge was his patient and lodger from 1816 till his death.

458

CARMEN BLACKER

16. James Gillman, The Life of Samuel Taylor Coleridge (William Pickering, 1838). 17. William Wordsworth, The Poetical Works, ed. Ernest de Selincourt, IV (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1947), p. 463. 18. 4XRWDWLRQV DUH PDGH IURP WKH  7KLUWHHQ%RRN Prelude unless otherwise VSHFLÀHG 19. Letters to his mother dated 13 October and 7 November, and to Richard West GDWHG1RYHPEHU7KHRQHWR:HVWFRQWDLQV*UD\·VIDPRXVUHPDUN¶1RWD precipice, not a torrent, not a cliff, but is pregnant with religion and poetry.’ 20. Edmund Burke, A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful (Published anonymously in 1757). 21. The 1793 version, lines 498–505; the 1849 version, lines 413–416. 22. G. Wilson Knight, The Starlit Dome: Studies in the Poetry of Vision (Methuen, 1941), p.83.

APPENDIX

Carmen’s Literary Gift COLLATED BY PAUL NORBURY

a CARMEN WAS AN acute observer of detail – whatever the subject, but especially Nature and people – which is evident throughout her writings. She relished language, had a natural instinct for the bon motDQGGLVSOD\HGKHUÀQHGHVFULStive powers in whatever she wrote, as can be seen in what is published in this volume, not least in her diary entries. Underpinning this was a great sensiWLYLW\DZRQGHUIXODQGVRPHWLPHV¶ZLFNHG·VHQVHRIKXPRXU²SHUKDSVRQ occasion with a certain Chaucerian gloss – combined with an incisive mind, and an instinctive warmth and empathy. These qualities were also invariably echoed in her great gift of delivering the spoken word in what always seemed DQHIIRUWOHVVPXVLFDOLW\LQKHUGHOLJKWIXOPHOOLÁXRXVYRLFHWKDWZRXOGHQJDJH entertain and sometimes entrance her audience. Below are a random selection of quotations from her diary that speak to her life and literary legacy: 1937. WRITING ON BABA TATSUI

Perhaps I am one of the last people to have made serious use of Baba’s Grammar.2QUHUHDGLQJLWDIWHUVRPDQ\\HDUV,IHHOIRULWDÁRZRIJUDWLWXGHDQG affection. I realize now that I understood almost nothing of what it had to teach, but it came to me as an amulet, a talisman which promised marvels in WKH\HDUVWRFRPH$QGDVDQDPXOHWLWKDVSURYHGZRQGHUIXOO\HIÀFDFLRXV /LWWOHGLG,GUHDPZKHQ,ÀUVWKHOGWKHPDURRQERRNLQP\KDQGRIWKHMR\V the treasures, the enrichment of my life which were to come to me through the study of Japanese.

460

CARMEN BLACKER

1945. ON A BUS WITH T.S. ELIOT

…whom should I meet in the bus but T. S. Eliot. He recognised me and at once came and sat next to me. We talked very amicably all the way back. He really was most awfully nice and we discussed Chinese poems, Arthur Waley, his recent broadcast to Sweden, Mrs Tandy, the Roman Temple on the heath and I told him about our attempt to raise a ghost there. 1951. AT KEIņ UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

,WZDVSHFXOLDUO\PRYLQJWRVHHWKHEUHDWKOHVVUHYHUHQFHZLWKZKLFKWKHVH.HLŇ senseiORRNHGDW)XNX]DZD·VOHWWHUVDQGSRVVHVVLRQV7KURXJKRXW.HLŇRQHLVYHU\ conscious of a living spirit and a kind of unity achieved through tradition and more especially through absolute faith in the value of that tradition. The reverHQFHZLWKZKLFK.L\RGDDQG.RQQŇDQG0DVDNLORRNHGDW)XNX]DZD·VKDQGwriting was the reverence they had for the founder of their tradition and values. Ù, KAMAKURA 1952. AS A GUEST AT THE HOUSE OF NOVELIST OSARAGI JIRO

Every time I left the room, even if only for a minute, I was haunted by fears that DVXGGHQHDUWKTXDNHPLJKWXSVHWWKHVWRYHVHWÀUHWRWKHVWUDZPDWVWKHSDSHU walls and the thatched roof, and with them all the treasures that lay hidden in WKHGHHSFXSERDUGV%XWQRVXFKZRUU\PDUUHGP\GHOLJKWDWWKHÀUVWVLJKWRI the eight-mat room. I could scarcely believe that it was to be mine to stay in for six days a week. As I sat looking out into the garden, I saw that the branch of DWUHHFXUYHGGRZQRYHUWKHHDYHVDQGWKDWE\WKHRSHQZLQGRZZDVDÁRZHU called \şJDR¶HYHQLQJIDFHV·DNLQGRIJRXUGZKLFKHYHU\HYHQLQJZDVWREORRP ZLWKQHZÁRZHUV7KHVXEVHTXHQWVL[ZHHNVZHUHDPRQJWKHKDSSLHVWLQP\ life. I was left completely free to come and go as I liked. I had a bicycle. There were interesting Buddhist temples to explore, and people in all walks of life who seemed ready and willing to talk. The sea was only a mile away. 1956. CAMBRIDGE IN NOVEMBER

Sometimes, especially during the last few weeks I have strange feelings about Cambridge – that it is really the background of a legend or even a fairy story. It is not only the beauty of it all but its stillness too – so that even the moving things, the ducks on the river and the ripples behind them, the people walking over King’s Bridge in front of me, seem somehow irrelevant swallowed up in

APPENDIX

461

WKHVWLOOQHVV(YHQWKDWELJZKLWHVZDQWKDWKDVMXVWFRPHÁDSSLQJDORQJWKH river under the bridge and then risen whirring into the air – yet appearing part of the motionless pausing quality of the yellow light. 1957. A DAY WITH A FRIEND IN CAMBRIDGE

:HZDONHGWRWKH*DUGHQ+RXVH+RWHO>LQ&DPEULGJH@DQGVDWLQWKHJDUGHQ XQWLO(0)RUVWHU>IDPRXV(QJOLVKQRYHOLVW@WXUQHGXS+HZDVDVZHHWJHQWOH courteous old man – and when I asked him what sort of books he had read when KHZDVDFKLOGKLVROGIDFHOLWXSDQGKHRSHQHGRXWOLNHDÁRZHU:HWDONHGRI E. Nesbitt and Zimbabwe and Yucatan and India and after lunch we sat outside again, and the sky seemed to grow bluer and the sunlight more golden. Ù*$0,6$0$7+(¶*5($7*2''(66·.PHXVHGE\ HOGHUO\PDOHV@DQGja >LVDUHLQGLDOHFW@EXWWKUHZLQDQXPEHURIGUHDGIXOO\FRDUVH expressions, which heightened the impression of ill-bred vulgarity. Mrs Oka, herself, indeed, dressed in an elegant brocade suit and a hat and stockings looked UDWKHULQFRQJUXRXVO\VRSKLVWLFDWHGE\WKHVLGHRIņJDPLVDPDLQKHUPDQ·VVXLW DQGDOOWKHEHOLHYHUVLQWKHLUZKLWHÁRZHUVZRUQRYHUVKDSHOHVVVKRUWVDQGgeta >ZRRGHQFORJV@ņJDPLVDPDLVLQGHHGLQWKHKDELWRIDGGUHVVLQJKHUDXGLHQFH as ujimushi no kojiki>DUDEEOHRIEHJJDUV@FKLNXVKŇ>EHDVW@DQGRWKHUDEXVLYHWHUPV But as the day wore on and we listened to more sermons, even Mrs Oka decided WKDWWKLVVW\OHRIVSHHFKZDVJHQXLQHO\ņJDPLVDPD·VQRWFXOWLYDWHGIRUHIIHFW 1977. IN KYOTO

:KDWDQH[TXLVLWHYLHZIURPWKHJUHDWKDOORI6KLQQ\ŇGŇORRNLQJGXHZHVWWR the range of mountains ashy grey against the bright evening sky. Everything VWDUNDQGLQDVWRQLVKLQJFODULW\7KHURXQGWLOHVRIWKH6DQMşQRWŇ>WKUHHWLHU SDJRGD@²,FDQDOPRVWVHHWKHSDWWHUQRQWKHP7RP\ULJKW,FDQVHH+LHL]DQ almost all white with the setting sun shining gold on patches of snow. Behind me is the dark, wooded range of the eastern mountain seen across the graveyard bristling with wooden sotoba >JUDYHPDUNHUVLQVFULEHGZLWKWKH%XGGKLVW QDPHRIWKHGHFHDVHG@,WLVVRJORULRXVO\TXLHWDQGSHDFHIXO,DPHQYHORSHG in gratitude and joy for this moment.

462

CARMEN BLACKER

1982. ST GEORGE’S CHAPEL ON THE HOTTEST DAY OF THE YEAR

The hottest day of the year. I have just walked up the hill to St George’s Chapel to say a prayer that England will be delivered from Arthur Scargill. To accomplish this I was charged 60p to enter the Chapel and once inside was told that if I wanted to say a prayer I must walk all the way round the chapel round the nave through the stalls of the Knights of the Garter until I should come to a small chapel on the south side which was reserved for prayer. When HYHQWXDOO\,IRXQGWKHSODFHLWZDVVRWLQ\WKDWKDUGO\PRUHWKDQIRXURUÀYH people could have squeezed into the single pew. Nowhere else in the chapel, apparently, was one allowed to say a prayer. 1985. SALE OF THE FAMILY HOME

Sense of the end of an era as we decide that the house must be sold next summer. Even in the brilliant hot sunshine of the last few days I have caught a silence, a sadness about it. The utter stillness and windlessness of September leaves turning golden here and there, dahlias glowing in the golden light, the beauty of it was shot through with the sense of the last time since 1931. 1999. AT DOROTHY’S HOUSE

$QGQRZ,DPLQ'RURWK\·V>%RXFKLHU%ULWWRQ@KRXVHKDYLQJVDWIRUDQKRXU on the veranda watching the red sun set over the sea with a red gold band RIOLJKWVHDLQWKHEUDQFKHVRIWKHSLQHWUHHVDQGWKHURXQGUHGÁRDWKDQJLQJ from a branch. The rest of the sea is like mother of pearl rose and aquamarine. 2000. MEETING WITH THE EMPRESS

Then I reveal in October of next year it will be the 50th anniversary of my ÀUVWVHWWLQJIRRWLQ-DSDQ2OGIULHQGVDUHkuchi no takara >PRXWKWUHDVXUHV@ $ODVWKH\DUHIHZHUDQGIHZHU6KHVD\V¶EXWZHDUHIULHQGV²LWHQFRXUDJHVPH WRIHHOWKLV·$QGLWLVDMR\IRUPH,VD\:HDUH¶&RPSDQLRQVRQWKH:D\· Someone knocks and I realise that it is 4.20 and I have taken an hour and twenty minutes of her time. She walks down the hundred yards of pale carpet with me, bowing servitors here and there murmuring uketamawarimasu >DW\RXU VHUYLFH@$WWKHHQWUDQFHVKHVD\VDJDLQLQ(QJOLVKKRZJODGVKHLVWRKDYH friends. I shake her by the hand and on impulse kiss her on both cheeks. Then realise my eyes are full of tears and wave goodbye.

Bibliography a BOOKS

The Japanese Enlightenment: A Study of the Writings of Fukuzawa Yukichi, Cambridge, 1964. The Catalpa Bow: A Study of Shamanistic Practices in Japan, Allen and Unwin, 1975. Translated into Japanese by Akiyama Satoko under the title Azusayumi, Iwanami, 1979. Included in Gaiko-kujin ni yoru Nihon no Meicho, edited by Haga Toru, Tokyo, 1987. The Straw Sandal or The Scroll of the Hundred Crabs6DQWRÙ.\RÙGHQ)RONVWRQH Global Oriental, 2008 Ancient Cosmologies, London, 1975, edited with Michael Loewe. Divination and Oracles, London, 1981, edited with Michael Loewe. Cambridge Women, Cambridge, 1996, edited with Edward Shils. ARTICLES

¶7KH'LYLQH%R\LQ-DSDQHVH%XGGKLVP·Asian Folklore Studies9RO¶6XSHUnatural Abductions in Japanese Folklore’, Asian Folklore Studies, Vol. 26, 1967. ¶2KDVKL7RWVXDQDVWXG\LQDQWLZHVWHUQWKRXJKW·Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan, Third Series, Vol. 7, 1959. ¶0LOOHQDULDQ$VSHFWVRIWKH1HZ5HOLJLRQVLQ-DSDQ·LQTradition and Modernisation in Japanese Culture, ed. Donald Shively, Princeton, 1971. ¶-DSDQHVH+LVWRULFDO:ULWLQJLQWKH7RNXJDZD3HULRG5DL6DQ\Ň·LQHistorians of China and Japan, ed. W. G. Beasley and E. Pulleyblank, Oxford, 1961. ¶,QLWLDWLRQLQWKH6KXJHQGŇWKH3DVVDJHWKURXJKWKH7HQ6WDWHVRI([LVtence’, in Initiation, ed. C. J. Bleeker, Leiden, 1963. ¶)XNX]DZDRI7RN\R@ Japanese Club, 64 Japanese Embassy, London, 235, -HQNLQ/RUG>RI5RGLQJ3DWULFN@ Jerome, Jerome K., 239 Jesuit Mission Press, 189, 191 Jikaku Daishi, 321 Jizon-in, 166 Joad, C.M.E., 62 -ŇGR6KLQVHFW Jones, Sharon, 142 Jowett, Benjamin, 142 Jung, C.G., xxxi Kabuki, 116, 345 Kaempfer, Engelbert, 26, 35 Kaga domain, 422 Kagoshima, 156, 183, 190 Kaibara Ekken, 194, 222, 371 Kaijin Jinja, 147 .DLNŇML .DLU\şGHQ Kaiyama, 124 .DNXUHGŇ Kamagata Matsuri, 334 Kamakura, 7, 18, 32, 33, 40, 47, 51, 71, 72, 77, 108, 174, 175, 190, 245, 246, 251, 253, 255, 257, 460, 461, plate 1 Kame, 158 Kami Koshiki island, 158 Kamigamo Shrine, 272 Kamo no Mabuchi, 13, 338 Kamo shrine, 292 Kanayamabine-no-mikoto, 309 Kanba Satoshi, Mr, 158 Kandinsky, Wassily, 65 Kanmu, Emperor, 157 Kannon, 138, 279, 292, 293, 294, 296, 302, .DQWŇ .DUXND\DGŇ Kashikojima, 406 .DWŇ+RNXPHL Kawami Yoshiharu, 306, 310 Keene, Donald, xii, 22, 167, 176, 357 Keidanren (The Japanese Federation of Economic Organizations), xxiv, 34 Keio University, 32, 46, 357 .HLŇ[[L² .HQFKŇML Kengamine, 117, 300

Kennedy, Captain, 62 Kenrei-monin, Lady, 314 Keynes, John Maynard, 261 Kibune shrine, 292 Kii peninsula, 220, 229, 230, 287 Kimpu, Mt, 128 King Arthur, 319, 330 Kinkazan, island of, 309 Kinki, 312 Kinta, 368 Kintetsu Railway, 406 .LQXNLGŇ Kipling, Rudyard, xvi Kisaka Jinja, 147 Kishi Nobusuke, 401 Kishibojin, 125–127, 180 Kiso Fukushima, 114 Kiso Ontake, 299 Kitakamakura, 234, 235, 246 Kitami Tosio, 318, 327 Kitamura Sayo, 91 Kitano Jinja, 138, 348 Kitano Tenjin, 348 .LWFKŇ·VVFKRRORIFRRNLQJ Kiyomizudera, Kyoto, 292 Kiyooka Eiichi, 7, 32 Kiyotaki, 115 .L]ŇLQWHPSOH Klug, Sir Aaron, 262 Koakazawa, 333 Kobe, 31, 47, 53, 65, 192, .ŇEŇ'DLVKL² Kochi, 135 .RJDQHGŇ .RKŇQ Koizumi Kazuo, 201 Kojima Takanori, 162 .ŇNDNXHPSHURU Kokugakuin University, 149 Kokugakusha, 13, 191–193, 199, 343 .ŇPHL(PSHURU Kongo Fushimi, 136 .RQQŇ:DVKLNL Koran, 337, 341 Korea, 147, 383–385, 388–394, 415, 436, 444 Koretaka, Prince, 321, 324, 325, 328 Kornicki, Professor Peter, xi, xiii, 23 Koshiki Islands, 156 .ŇVKşGŇ .ŇWDNXML .Ň\DJXFKL .Ň\DVDQ[[YLLL Kubla Khan, 225, 448, 450, 455, 456, .XPDPRWR.\şVKş .XPDQR%LNXQL>QXQV@

471

472

INDEX

Kumano, 128 .XQDLVKŇ Kuniyoshi, 345 Kuper, Adam, 262 Kurayoshi, 159–161 Kurishi-kan, 114 Kuroda, Lord, 372 Kuroishi-kan, 114, 116 Kushikino, 156, 158 Kusunoki Masahige, 324 Kusunoki Masatsura, 158, 159 Kuwano mountains, 361 Kyoto University, xiii, 48, 381, 435 Kyoto, xv, xxvii, xxviii, xxxii, 7, 14, 15, 36, 48, 75, 95, 107, 116, 127, 133, 135, 138, 139, 158, 159, 169, 170, 173–175, 180, 191, 251, 253, 270, 302, 335, 348, 353, 372, 373, 381, 395, 406, 417, 419, 420–424, 428, 434, 436, 437 Lake Biwa, 292, 311, 326 Laslett, Peter, 62, 179 Lebeau, Ian, 153 Liberal Club, 63 Liscutin, Nicola, 166 Lloyd Jones, Sir Hugh, 261 Locke, John, 142 Loewe, Dr Michael, ix, x, xi, xxxiii, 3, 20, 22–25, 37, 38, 43, 281, 360, 382, 398, 457, 463, 464, London, xii, xxxi, xviii, xix, xxix, xxxi, xxxii, 3, 4, 7, 19, 21–25, 27–34, 37–39, 234 Lonsdale, Kathleen, 261 Lotus Sutra, 125, 130, 143, 325, 342, 351, Lowell, Percival, 35, 303 Lowes, John Livingston, 446 Lully, Ramon, 338 MacArthur, General Douglas, (SCAP), xx, 53, 65, 246 Mackinon, Donald, xxvi Magdalen Bridge, Oxford, 63 Magdalene College, xx Magnus, Olaus, 224 Mahayana, 180, 224, 251, 253 0DKLNDUL.\ŇNDL Maida Vale, xxxi Makino Keiichi, 408 Makino (Markino) Yoshio, 18, 234–46 Malinowski, Kasper, 262 Maraini, Fosco, 174, 183, 200 Marshall, Mary Paley, 261 Martin, Joan, 114 Martin, Peter, 114, 180, Maruyama Masao, xxiv, 8, 35, 146 Masaki Masato, 65 Mason, Joan, 261, 262 0DVXGD.LQWDUŇ

Matano Gyokusen, 417, 429 Matano Gyokusen, 430 0DWVXL5\şJR'U Matsumoto Shigeharu, 84 Matsunaga Sekigo, 417, 423, 431, 435 Matsuri Society, 121 0DWVXVKLWD.ŇQRVXNH 0DWVXXUD7DNHVKLUŇ Matsuzawa Hiroaki, Professor, 23 Maud, Helen, 4, 28 Mayuni Tsunetada, 277, 283 Mazarin Library, 168 McCallum, R.B., 6 McCloud, Fiona, 177 McDonald, Sir Claude, 207 McEwan, J.R., xxiv, 20, 179 McMullen, Dr James, xi, xiii, 43, 381 Mecca, 231 Meese, Reggie, 169 Meiji, xxi, xxiv, 8, 13, 57, 83, 115, 123, 134, 157, 176, 188, 194, 205, 210, 286, 387, 393, 434, 436 Melampus, 341 Mencius, 433, 436 Mickle, Thomas, 140 Middle East, 44, 307, 369 Midgley, Mary, xx Mie prefecture, 331, 333, 334, 396, 402, 406 Mihoko Okamura, 255 0LNLPRWR.ŇNLFKL Mills, Douglas, xxiv, 3, 20, 30, 34, 53, 181 Minakata Kumagusu Prize, 21, 34 Minakata Kumagusu, 12, 18, 21, 27, 34, 41, 52, 220, 231–233, 327, 363, 366, 464 Minamoto (Gen), 147 Minamoto Yorimasa, 153, 322 Minamoto, 330 Ming, 216, 232, 418, 419, 425, 437 Minobu-san, 125 Misasa Onsen, 159–161 Misen, 165 Mita Campus, 65 Mitsutsuji, 125 Miwa Shissai, 417 Miwasan, 342 Miyajimaguchi, 135, 159, 161, 164, plate 21, plate 27 Miyake Hitoshi, Professor, 16, 26, 35 Mochihito, Prince, 143, 325 Mongol invasions, 324 Montoku, Emperor, 321 Morgan, Charles, 243 Morimura Ichizaemon, 68 Morris, John, 64, 179 Morris, William, 167 Motoori Norinaga, 13, 193, 198, 338 0X*UHDW4XHHQRI

INDEX

0XNDL*HQVKŇ Muramatsu, 417 Muromachi period, 121 Murray VII, John, 44 Murray, Gilbert, 261 0XVŇ.RNXVKL Nabeshima Tsunashige, 427 Nagano prefecture, 299, 318 Nagasaki, 146, 192, 308, 377, 383, 384–387, 416 Nagoya, 114, 406, 416, 422, 427, 438 Naka Koshiki, 156, 158, 1DNDH7ŇMX 1DNDJDZD5ŇVKL Nakagawa Sogen, 90 Nakajima Katsuo, 109 Nakamura Kikuo, 65, 69, 70 Nakamura Tekisai, 417, 423, 431, 437 Nakatsu, 160, 165 Namikawa Rosan, 416, 422 Nanking, 244, 245 Nanko-ike, 158 Nanzenji, 112 Nara period, 278 Nara, 75, 110, 111, 177, 278, 292, 342 Nasu no Yoichi, 325 1DWVXPH6ŇVHNL Naylor, Phyllis, 252 Needham, Joseph, xxvi Needham, Rodney, xxix Nesbit, Edith, 89 New England, 65 New York, 40, 76, 247, 360, 361, 363, 395, 438, 465 Newnham College, xxii, 260, 263 Nichiren sect, 126, 180, 350, 351 Nicholson, James, 168 Nii no Ama, 160, 161, 330 Niigata prefecture, 313 Niigata, 117, 331, 332 1LMŇ(PSHURU 1LNNŇ%RVDWVX 1LNNŇ Ninigi no Mikoto, 159, 274, 275 Nino-ike, 117, 119 Nish, Ian, xxxiii, 18, 39–41, 178, 179, 465 1LVKLGD7HQNŇ Nishiguchi, 176, 177 Nishi-no-nozoki, 129 1LVKLZDNL-XQ]DEXUŇ 1ŇGUDPD 1RGD6HLU\Ň Nogi, General, 96 Nonomiya, 290, 302 Norbury, Paul, x, xiii Norfolk, xxx

473

Nori-no-miya, Princess, 172 Norman, E.H., 431 North Africa, 44 Norwich, ix, x, xii, 14, 38, 39, 42, 176 Norwood cemetery, 238 Nosco, Peter, 20, 141, 433, 439 Noto, 318, 331 1\RQLQGŇ O’Neill, Patrick, 3 Odaka Kunio, Dr, 84 Odaki, 114 2GDN\şGHSDUWPHQWVWRUH ņJDPLVDPD Ogasawara Islands, 149 2JDWD.ŇDQ Ogata Taketora, 401 Ogden, C.K., xx ņJŇUL6KLQVDL Ogura, 160, 321, 325 2J\ş6RUDL 2KDUD*RNŇ 2KDUD-ŇEXNHQ ņKDVKL7RWVXDQ 2NDGD6KŇML Okakura Tenshin, 197 2NDNXUD