Page:Occult Japan - Lovell.djvu/215

Rh about these pilgrimages. The first is that the impulse to them is emphatically of the people. Like so many Japanese traits, art for instance, the pilgrim spirit is not an endowment of the upper classes, but the birthright of everybody. Indeed, it is chiefly the simple who go on pilgrimages, the gentle not being sufficiently given to walking.

The next feature is their purely national character. Their patronage is quite insular. Their goals draw no devotees from outre mer, Buddhist though some of them be, no contingent ever crosses from China or Korea to visit them. On the other hand, to the more famous of them pilgrims flock from all over Japan. Men from one end of the empire meet there men from the other, and from all points in between; a fact which in the eyes of the pilgrims adds greatly to the pleasure of the pilgrimage, since socially it is journeying the whole length of the land by only going part way. Regard for the smaller shrines is naturally bounded by a narrower horizon. But considering that till within ten years the means of conveyance were one's own feet, the attraction of even these lesser load-stars is felt surprisingly far.