am
service for the convenience of those who wished to worship at another
altar than that of the fox god. Although most of the visitors found
the chief attraction of the place in the teahouses,[221] they were
none the less devout. Every visitor to the teahouses worshipped at the
shrine.

What do those who bow their heads and throw their Coppers in the
treasury pray for? "Well-being to my family and prosperity to my
business" was, I was told, a common form of invocation. Even among not
a few reasonably well educated people there is a conviction that
prayers made at the altar of the fox god are peculiarly efficacious.
Kanzo Uchimura, who accompanied me on this trip, improved the occasion
by saying in his vigorous English: "You in the West have some
difficulty, no doubt, in understanding the fierceness of the
indignation with which Old Testament prophets denounce heathen gods.
When you behold such an exhibition as this you may be helped to
understand. Here is impurity under divine protection, and this place
may fairly be called a fashionable shrine. The visitor to Japan often
vaunts himself on being broadminded. He regards heathendom as only
another sect and he desires to be respectful to it. But I want to show
you that it is not a case of only another sect but often a case of
gross and demoralising superstition and priestly countenancing of
immorality. Heaven forbid that I should deny the beauty of the idea of
the foxes being the messengers of divinity or that I should suggest
that some religious feelings may not inspire and some religious
feeling may not reward the sincere devotion of the countryman to his
fox god, but how much does it amount to in sum?"

I thought of what Uchimura had said when one day, in the course of a
walk with his critic, Yanagi (Chapter XI), I was shown a shrine
pitifully bedizened by the _waraji_ (straw sandals) and _ema_[222] of
a thousand or more pilgrims who were suffering or had recovered from
syphilis.[223]

During our conversation Yanagi said: "Shintoism is not of course a
religion at all. It draws great strength from the national instinct
for cleanliness manifested by people living in a hot climate. The
religion of poor people is largely custom; I complain of educated
people not that they are sceptical but that they are not sceptical
enough. They simply don't care. According to Mr. Uchimura, there is
only one way to God and that is through Christianity. But there are
many ways. A perso