Kyoto  has  marvellous  temples :  those  of  Nishi
Hongwanji  and  Higashi  Hongwanji  are  amongst
the  largest  and  most  typical  in  Japan ;  they  play
a  great  part  in  technical  education  as  well  as
rehgion.     But  they  are  not  the  most   picturesque

381


QUEER  THINGS  ABOUT  JAPAN

or  the  most  lovable  of  the  noble  temples  of  Kyoto,
like  those  of  the  Gold  and  Silver  Pavilions — Kin-
kaku-ji  and  Gin-kaku-ji ;  San-jiu-san-gen-do,  with
its  33,000  images  of  Buddha  ;  Kiyomidzudera,  built
out  on  vast  antique  trestles  down  the  side  of  a
mountain  ;  or  the  Temple  of  Inari,  the  rice  god-
dess, with  its  wild  mountain  at  the  back  full  of
sacred  foxes,  and  its  interminable  avenues  of  scarlet-
lacquered  torii.
The  Japanese  themselves  go  for  toy  torii  as  well
as  toy  foxes  to  the  Temple  of  Inari  at  Kyoto.  It
is  not  that  it  is  of  extreme  antiquity — it  was  built
in  1822 — but  other  temples  have  stood  there  for
more  than  1200  years.  On  that  wild  hill,  behind
the  temple,  the  Sage,  Kobo  Daishi,  the  father  of
Japanese  literature,  met  the  rice  goddess  dis-
guised as  an  old  man  carrying  a  sheaf  of  rice  on
his  back.  Inari  is  the  Japanese  Ceres ;  for  what
corn  is  to  Europe,  rice  is  to  Japan.  Her  temples
are  in  thousands  all  over  the  country.  Her  little
scarlet  shrines,  guarded  by  two  white  stone  foxes,
are  in  the  paddy-fields  of  almost  every  rice  farm ;
and  farmers  in  Japan  are  nearly  all  rice  farmers.
