Page:Things Japanese (1905).djvu/98

86 that has given it its fictitious value; for though tortoise-shell cats exist in considerable numbers, they are—for some unexplained reason—almost all tabbies.

Among Europeans an irreverent person may sometimes be heard to describe an ugly, cross old woman as a cat. In Japan, the land of topsy-turvydom, that nickname is colloquially applied to the youngest and most attractive,—the singing-girls. The reason is that singing girls bewitch men with their artful, sham coy ways, like the magic cats alluded to above. For a similar reason, fair women one degree lower still in the scale are called foxes, while the male buffoons or jesters, whose talents help to make the fun fast and furious at a spree, are termed badgers.

 Cha-no-yu. See Things Japanese/Tea Ceremonies

 Characteristics. See Things Japanese/Japanese People

 Charms and Sacred Pictures are sold for a few farthings at hundreds of temples throughout the land. The custom seems to have originated with the Buddhists, who already on the continent of Asia and before the introduction of Shaka Muni's religion into Japan, had developed all the adjuncts of popular piety and superstition. But the Shintō priests have taken the custom up, not disdaining in these hard times to turn an honest penny wherever possible.

The commonest Japanese charms are scraps of paper with an inscription for the reversal of bad luck, the attainment of good luck, protection from the perils of the sea or of war, from fire, from sickness, and in child-bearing. Others are long strips inscribed with the name of some god, or a brief invocation, to which is occasionally added the picture of the supernatural being invoked,—the fox-god, for instance, or the holy crows of Kumano, or the sacred dog of Mitsumine who is esteemed a powerful protector against robbers. This kind is to be seen pasted vertically on the outside of the houses of the poor in almost every province of the empire, while well-to-do families keep them inside the house, as