Page:Occult Japan - Lovell.djvu/224

206 The pilgrim clubs find no counterpart in China. They are therefore not an imported institution, but a custom indigenous to Japan.

II.

Japanese pilgrimages are of two kinds, the distinction being matter of topography. For though some pilgrimages are Buddhist, some Shintō, a much more fundamental point about them is the character of the country concerned—whether they are made to the lowland shrines or to the sacred summits.

In importance, the Shintō pilgrimages come first, measuring importance by patronage. Half a million folk, it is estimated, make the journey to the shrines at Ise every spring, and ten thousand climb Fuji every summer. Of the ten modern Shintō sects, all but two are addicted to going upon pilgrimages, and each has its special great goal, as well as innumerable minor ones. These goals are the spots dedicate to their special gods. Of the two sects without goals, one is a sort of government bureau, and is consequently sedentary. The other would seem to be in the act of evolving the pilgrimage habit, for it has pilgrim clubs which,