CHAPTER XVIII

The Shinshu on Faith-healing.

( section section 88. 89.)

In other sects of Buddhism, much use is made of spells, incantations, and prayers, as means of obtaining from the celestial powers the fulfilment of our desires; also of auguries and divination, by which the Will of Heaven may be revealed to us for our guidance. Thus in the great Temple of Kwannon at Asakusa, in Tokyo, much use is made of the supposed potent efficacy of Binzuru Sama, the weak-hearted but kindly disciple of Sakyamuni, who having once, after his admission to the order, looked upon a woman to love her, was forever excluded from access to the holy Place; though his lacquered image, standing outside upon the veranda, has been rubbed smooth by the devotion of the ignorant. There is a side shrine to which girls go to pray for husbands, and young matrons for children. These belong to the Tendai Sect: the Shingon believer in these parts has his wonder-working Shrine at Kawasaki, where Kobo Daishi, worshipped as an Incarnation of Vairocana, enjoys wide reputation as yamai-yoke-no taishi, the "Great Teacher that heals diseases." There is a shrine at Kamakura, under the auspices of the Zen sect, sacred to Kishimojin (in Sanskrit Hariti), which at certain seasons does a great trade in supplying streams of pilgrims with charms supposed to be extremely potent. The same deity is worshipped by the followers of Nichiren,

and a few miles out of Tokyo, in the village of Nakayama, there is a Nichiren Temple where a regular practice obtains of driving out devils by means of a treatment apparently composed in equal parts of incantations, drum-beating, and douches of cold December water from the well. There is also in the Life of Nichiren a well known story, which reads almost like a chapter from the Old Testament, of a contest, between Nichiren and his theological opponents, as to which should call down rain from heaven to assuage the drought and famine that were then destroying the land. There is no need to multiply instances: that Buddhists are addicted to incantations is a fact which scarcely needs demonstration.