On the fifteenth of August a great festival takes place every year in my native town. It is in honor of a patron deity12. Everybody is up with the dawn, children especially are up ever so early in the morning. Paper lanterns hoisted13 high in the air on long bamboo sticks are moving toward the shrine. It is yet dark, but the people forget sleepiness in the bracing14 air of the daybreak and in the expected joy. Every store is cleared of its merchandise and has a temporary home-shrine erected15, the god being a scroll16 with the deity's name written on it. Two earthen bottles of saké are invariably offered.
When the day is fully17 come, the procession starts from the permanent abode18 of the gods. A huge drum comes foremost, then a number of men in red masks with peaked noses, representing fabulous19 servants of the gods. Then come two portable shrines20 built like a sedan chair, and the rear is brought up by yagura-daiko. This last is a large frame-work of varnished21 wood carried by men. On the top of it a large bass-drum is placed, and with four boys around it. The boys are dressed in fancy costumes and beat time for the songs of the men below. The men are all dressed in white and seem at first to keep the presence of their gods in mind; but soon they get drunk, being treated with wine in every house, and spatter their garments with mud.
As the shrines pass, the men get into the houses, seize the earthen bottles of saké and pour the contents over them. These men also get tipsy and treat the beautiful shrines rudely, turning them wildly and throwing them hard on the ground; so that, at the end of the day, there is nothing left of them but their trunks. This rude usage became an established custom, and the portable shrines are built very strong.
A few days previous to the festival, boys prepare for it by constructing jumonji. Two slender elastic22 timbers are tied together in the form of a cross; one boy mounts it, and his comrades lift him up by applying their shoulders to the four ends. They march up and down the streets, singing festal songs, and challenge boys of other streets to come forth23 and have a "rush."
Not far from my native town there stands a high peak called Stone-hammer. It is customary for older boys to scale the lofty mountain and pay tribute to the deity on the top of it. They get somebody who has been there before for their leader. The preparation for the holy hazardous24 journey is rigorous. They bathe in cold water for months previously25, live on plain diet, and pass the time in prayers and penances26. Were their hearts and bodies unclean, it is reported that, on their ascent27 to the shrine, the gods' messengers—creatures half man, half eagle—would grasp them by the hair and fly away among the clouds and often kill them by letting them fall upon the crags and down into the valleys.
When a set of the hardy28 youths start out for the venturesome pilgrimage, they are dressed in white cotton clothes, shod with straw sandals, and have their long hair thoroughly29 washed and hanging loose. Each carries a pole with a tablet nailed on one end, on which is written the name of the mountain god. They shout a short prayer in unison30, blowing a horn at intervals31. My elder brother who went with one of these bands told me that the journey is very toilsome and dangerous. There are three chains to help in climbing three perpendicular32 heights. At times he was above the clouds, heard the peals33 of thunder beneath his feet and felt extremely cold. The leader sometimes holds a wayward youth on the verge34 of a precipice35 by way of discipline and demands whether he will reform or whether his body shall be cast into the gorge36 below.
The pilgrims bring home for souvenirs the leaves and branches of sacred trees and distribute them among their friends and relatives. The friends and relatives, for their part, wait for them at the outskirts37 of the town. At an appointed hour the spreads are awaiting the weary worshipers. Little brothers and sisters strain their ears to catch the faintest echoes of the horns and shouts. When the youthful travelers are back and fully established again in their homes, marvelous are the stories that they deal out to their friends.
I have been consuming a good deal of time and space in describing amusements and holidays; it is high time to revert38 to studies. I had been going to school all this time. The spirit of rivalry39 at school was fostered to such an extent that we felt obliged to go to the teachers in the evenings for private instruction. The teacher sits with a small, low table before and an andon beside him. The andon is the native lamp, cylindrical40 in shape, perhaps five feet in height and a foot in diameter; the frame is made of light wood, and rice-paper is pasted round it. In the inside is suspended a brass41 saucer, sometimes swinging from a cross-piece at the top and sometimes resting on a cross-bar in the middle; the vessel42 holds the rush-wick and vegetable oil extracted from the seed of a Crucifer. The andon gives but feeble light and is now entirely43 displaced by the kerosene44 lamp. In lighting45 a lamp, prior to the importation of matches, we struck sparks with flint and steel on a material inflammable as gun cotton, called nikusa, and from it secured light with sulphur-tipped shavings called tsukegi (lighting-chips).
Close to the andon the pupils, one at a time, in the order of their arrival, bring their books and sit vis-à-vis with the teacher. The latter first hears the pupil read the last lesson and then, after it has been thoroughly reviewed, reads for him the next lesson. He does it looking at the pupil's book from the top; the learner follows him aloud, pointing out every word he reads with a stick. This is repeated until the scholar has nearly learned the text. The scholar then returns home to go over the lesson by himself. In this manner I have torn my Japanese and Chinese authors, just as an American boy blots46 his C?sar and Virgil; and certain passages come up even now as spontaneously as the translation of "Gallia est omnis divisa in partes tres."
In school an examination was held at the end of each month; how hard we used to work for it! It decided47 one's standing48 in class, and all through the following month he had to remain in a given seat. Everybody wished to be at the head and that bred strong emulation49. The night before the examination I would study and read aloud all the evening; as it became late my eyelids50 tended to droop51 and my voice to falter52; my father would bid me not to be over-anxious and retire. The next morning he would wake me early in compliance53 with my request, and light me a lamp to study by. It was a bad habit, I grant; but if I work half as conscientiously54 now as I did then I shall be the wiser for it.
My class was composed of about six members; we met in each other's houses outside of school hours to go over our reviews together. One of the boys was a carpenter's son and possessed55 with a mechanical craze. Whenever we gathered in his house he would offer, unsolicited, to explain and exhibit a gimcrack he had made with his father's tools, and we did scarcely any studying. Another of our schoolmates was a farmer's son, a big shame-faced lad sent to our beloved master's to be educated in the city; he boarded with him. Country-fellow as we called him, he acquired his preceptor's hand in writing so well that nobody in school chose to pick a quarrel with him on the question of brush handling. But no mortal man is without a peccadillo—our boy was always observed to be moving his jaws56 and chewing more candies than were good for him. The third was a staid druggist's son, sedate57 as his father and as particular in trifling58 matters; he was "awfully59 smart," as the phrase is, in his studies, having pursued them conscientiously; and besides, he belonged as a matter of course to the category of "good boys." I used to sleep with him in his house sometimes and study arithmetic with him.
Here parenthetically I must describe the Japanese bed. It is a very simple affair: a thick quilt is taken out of a closet and spread directly on the floor; you lie down on it and pull another quilt over yourself, and you have the bed. There is no bedstead; therefore, fleas60 have a picnic at your expense if the room is not well swept. In the morning you fold the quilts and put them back in the closet, and space is given for the day. Our pillow is no comfort to a weary head, it being simply a hard block of wood; often it is a box with a drawer at the end. The use of this kind of pillow or support was formerly61 imperative62 for the men and is still to the women for the protection of the head-dress from ruin and the bedclothes from the bandoline. The sterner sex of our population now-a-days crop their hair after the fashion of their European brothers, and have in great part given up the wooden block for a soft pillow.
My schooling63 was continued for some time with satisfactory results, and I advanced grade after grade well-nigh to the end of the common school instruction, when my father saw fit to remove me and put me in a store so that I could be a credit to myself as a business-man's son. I was an apprentice64 in two trades at different times and yet unsettled in mind and anxious to go back to school. I might go on telling all about the period of my apprenticeship65, and things I learned and people I observed during that time: how I finally carried the day and returned to my studies; how I studied Chinese and how I struck out in English; how I went to Kioto and struggled through five years' academic training; and how a few years ago I borrowed money and sailed for America. But that would be writing a real autobiography66, which would be disagreeable to me as well as distasteful to the reader. In the story told so far I ought to have, perhaps, prudently67 suppressed everything personal and brought forward only those experiences that the generality of Japanese boys are destined68 to undergo. Neither have I exhausted69 by any means the incidents of my own childhood; at this moment I am conscious of things of more importance than those set down on the foregoing pages welling up in the fountain of memory. But I have written enough to try the patience of my indulgent reader, and I myself have grown weary of my own performance; it is therefore excusable, I hope, to draw this narrative70 abruptly71 to an end.
The End
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1
shrine
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| n.圣地，神龛，庙；v.将...置于神龛内，把...奉为神圣 | |
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2
jutting
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| v.（使）突出( jut的现在分词 )；伸出；（从…）突出；高出 | |
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situated
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| adj.坐落在...的，处于某种境地的 | |
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myriad
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| adj.无数的；n.无数，极大数量 | |
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5
refreshment
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| n.恢复，精神爽快，提神之事物；（复数）refreshments:点心，茶点 | |
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vociferous
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| adj.喧哗的，大叫大嚷的 | |
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proprietors
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| n.所有人，业主( proprietor的名词复数 ) | |
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crackers
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| adj.精神错乱的，癫狂的n.爆竹( cracker的名词复数 )；薄脆饼干；（认为）十分愉快的事；迷人的姑娘 | |
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scintillating
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| adj．才气横溢的,闪闪发光的; 闪烁的 | |
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10
dart
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| v.猛冲，投掷；n.飞镖，猛冲 | |
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11
incessantly
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| ad.不停地 | |
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12
deity
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| n.神，神性；被奉若神明的人(或物) | |
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13
hoisted
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| 把…吊起，升起( hoist的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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14
bracing
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| adj.令人振奋的 | |
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15
ERECTED
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| adj. 直立的，竖立的，笔直的 vt. 使 ... 直立，建立 | |
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16
scroll
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| n.卷轴，纸卷；(石刻上的)漩涡 | |
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17
fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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18
abode
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| n.住处，住所 | |
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19
fabulous
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| adj.极好的；极为巨大的；寓言中的，传说中的 | |
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20
shrines
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| 圣地，圣坛，神圣场所( shrine的名词复数 ) | |
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21
varnished
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| 浸渍过的，涂漆的 | |
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22
elastic
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| n.橡皮圈，松紧带；adj.有弹性的；灵活的 | |
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23
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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24
hazardous
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| adj.(有)危险的，冒险的；碰运气的 | |
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25
previously
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| adv.以前，先前（地） | |
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26
penances
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| n.（赎罪的）苦行，苦修( penance的名词复数 ) | |
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27
ascent
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| n.(声望或地位)提高；上升，升高；登高 | |
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28
hardy
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| adj.勇敢的，果断的，吃苦的；耐寒的 | |
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29
thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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30
unison
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| n.步调一致，行动一致 | |
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31
intervals
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| n.[军事]间隔( interval的名词复数 )；间隔时间；[数学]区间；（戏剧、电影或音乐会的）幕间休息 | |
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32
perpendicular
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| adj.垂直的，直立的；n.垂直线，垂直的位置 | |
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33
peals
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| n.（声音大而持续或重复的）洪亮的响声( peal的名词复数 )；隆隆声；洪亮的钟声；钟乐v.（使）（钟等）鸣响，（雷等）发出隆隆声( peal的第三人称单数 ) | |
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34
verge
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| n.边，边缘；v.接近，濒临 | |
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35
precipice
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| n.悬崖，危急的处境 | |
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36
gorge
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| n.咽喉，胃，暴食，山峡；v.塞饱，狼吞虎咽地吃 | |
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37
outskirts
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| n.郊外，郊区 | |
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38
revert
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| v.恢复，复归，回到 | |
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39
rivalry
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| n.竞争，竞赛，对抗 | |
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40
cylindrical
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| adj.圆筒形的 | |
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41
brass
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| n.黄铜；黄铜器，铜管乐器 | |
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42
vessel
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| n.船舶；容器，器皿；管，导管，血管 | |
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43
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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44
kerosene
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| n.(kerosine)煤油，火油 | |
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45
lighting
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| n.照明，光线的明暗，舞台灯光 | |
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46
blots
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| 污渍( blot的名词复数 )； 墨水渍； 错事； 污点 | |
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47
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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48
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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49
emulation
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| n.竞争；仿效 | |
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50
eyelids
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| n.眼睑( eyelid的名词复数 )；眼睛也不眨一下；不露声色；面不改色 | |
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51
droop
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| v.低垂，下垂；凋萎，萎靡 | |
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52
falter
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| vi.(嗓音)颤抖，结巴地说；犹豫；蹒跚 | |
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53
compliance
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| n.顺从；服从；附和；屈从 | |
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54
conscientiously
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| adv.凭良心地；认真地，负责尽职地；老老实实 | |
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55
possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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56
jaws
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| n.口部；嘴 | |
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57
sedate
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| adj.沉着的，镇静的，安静的 | |
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58
trifling
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| adj.微不足道的；没什么价值的 | |
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59
awfully
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| adv.可怕地，非常地，极端地 | |
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60
fleas
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| n.跳蚤( flea的名词复数 )；爱财如命；没好气地（拒绝某人的要求） | |
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61
formerly
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| adv.从前，以前 | |
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62
imperative
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| n.命令，需要；规则；祈使语气；adj.强制的；紧急的 | |
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63
schooling
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| n.教育；正规学校教育 | |
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64
apprentice
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| n.学徒，徒弟 | |
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65
apprenticeship
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| n.学徒身份；学徒期 | |
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66
autobiography
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| n.自传 | |
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67
prudently
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| adv. 谨慎地，慎重地 | |
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68
destined
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| adj.命中注定的；(for)以…为目的地的 | |
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69
exhausted
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| adj.极其疲惫的，精疲力尽的 | |
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70
narrative
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| n.叙述，故事；adj.叙事的，故事体的 | |
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71
abruptly
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| adv.突然地，出其不意地 | |
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