京都から米子（境・隠岐諸島）・松江・出雲今市経由で杵築へ（出雲大社）

30. From Kyoto via Yonago (Sakai and the Oki Islands), Matsue, and Izumo-Imaichi to Kizuki (Shrines of Izumo).

San-in Main Line of the Imperial Government Railways.

240 M. Izumo-Imaichi. Several excellently-equipped trains daily in about 11 hrs. For fares and other information consult the Rly. Time Table.

The famous Izumo Shrines, to the Japanese among the most sacred in the Empire, are the objectives of thousands of travelers over this extraordinarily interesting and picturesque line, a S.W. prolongation of the West Coast Route (described in Rte. 32) which connects Akita and Aomori, at the extreme N. end of the Main Island of Japan, with Shimonoseki, at the extreme S. end.

The region traversed by this line is off the beaten track, and is one of the most interesting and beautiful in Japan. It is wild and extraordinarily attractive, and is marked by high mountains, extensive plains, and incomparable views over the Japan Sea. Hundreds of costly tunnels, cut stone embankments, and awesome bridges break the line, which because of the many intricate engineering problems was one of the costliest railways in Japan to build.

The deep snows which prevail in Izumo have necessitated many snow-sheds, reminding one of the American and Canadian Rockies. The scenery along the line (best views from the right side of the train) after leaving Kinosaki is utterly charming, with ravishing views of mountain and plain and the silent Sea of Japan. Many of the inhabitants of the country live in a state of patriarchal simplicity, and in a region where Old Japan is still supreme. Even the withering hand of modernism has failed to blight or tarnish it.

Sakai is the point of departure for the historic and still primitive Oki Islands. By boarding an early morning train at Kyoto, Osaka, or Kobe, one can descend at the attractive old Izumo city of Matsue (where Lafcadio Hearn once lived and taught), pass the night in the excellent inn there, inspect the quaint old Castle, and the following morning proceed leisurely to Izumo-Imaichi and beyond.

The rly. line from Kyoto to (48 M.) Ayabe Jct. (starting-point for Shin-Maizuru) is described in Rte. 29, p. 535. Beyond, the train runs through a pretty, mountainous country to (56 M.) Fukuchiyama Jct. (for Osaka City), thence on through the hills and past a number of uninteresting villages to (75 M.) Wadayama Jct., where the San-yo Line comes in from Himeji, at the E. Here our line turns abruptly to the N. and goes through a thinly settled, unresponsive region, to the Japan Sea, 25 M. distant. The traversing pike would be excellent for automobiles were it not that the bridges are deceptively frail and are subject to the violent and sudden caprices of the shallow but oftentimes treacherous rivers which first irrigate, then drain, the country. Bulky mts. that are snow-streaked until late spring, wide and deep valleys indifferently cultivated by the poor but industrious peasantry, and occasional pretty vistas are the salient features of the region. The numerous trains which stand on the

sidings are usually crammed to bursting with happy, ensign-bearing pilgrims bound to or from the Izumo shrines. At 99 M. the sea and Kinosaki with its hot springs and locally celebrated shrines are reached. Here the line turns sharply to the left and runs its ultimate course N. along the coast through the maritime provinces of Tajima, Inaba, Hoki, and Izumo; the scenery soon becomes wild and strikingly picturesque. Many tunnels

pierce the hills that come down to the sea to be rent and torn by the restless surf; in the green valleys that gash them nestle tiny fishing-hamlets as primitive as though they were ten thousand, instead of one hundred, miles from civilization. Beyond 115 M. Yoroi the train emerges from a long tunnel and runs out on the spider-like Amarube Bridge (1015 ft. long; cost 330,000 yen) flung boldly across a deep gorge in the cleft of which, 125 ft. directly below, lies the village of the same name; the sea view over and beyond it is entrancing, and the bit of scenery is regarded as one of the finest on the line. For miles the train traverses an uneven country of mts., plains, and tree-dotted cliffs flecked with hamlets overlooking the sea. When the water is calm and reflects the lapis-lazuli sky, the white-sailed junks, the skirling sea-gulls, and the fantastic pines that seem to exchange tragic conferences with their distorted images on the mirror-like surface, the views are adorable, and they recall certain matchless stretches of the Inland Sea on the Pacific side of the island. Miles of the shingly beach are fringed with grotesque pines around the feet of which the restless sand plays ceaselessly, and toward which the ground-swell reaches vainly before breaking into foam and into long, bubbling, glass-like sheets. The stones which hold the roofs of many of the tiny dwellings in place advertise the prevalence in winter of strong north winds.

138 M. Tottori (Inn: Kozeniya, ¥2), capital of Inaba Province and of Tottori-ken, with 32,600 inhabs., and 6400 houses, possesses the ruins of a castle built by Yamana Masamichi about the middle of the 16th cent. Beyond the town the Chiyo River runs down to the sea across a plain marked by sand-dunes and low hills at the E. The small lake at the right is Koyama-ike. Eighteen tunnels pierce the hills which intervene before 159 M. Matsuzaki. The big lagoon at the right, called Togo-ike, is girdled with picturesquely situated bathing resorts. Curious features of the lake (which is drained by the Hashizu-gawa) are the numerous (iron) mineral springs that spout up from the bed and supply the hot water piped into the bathrooms of the numerous inns. The resulting hydroxid coloring matter is employed to dye clothing, etc. The fish which swarm in the lake and which are caught in big scoop-nets appear to enjoy both the heat and the mineral salts. Beyond 163 M. Kurayoshi (Inn: Toyo-ken; ¥2) the country flattens out and the volcanic peak of Daisen, or O-Yama

(‘Great Mt.’), the local Fuji (6000 ft.), is descried peering above the horizon at the far left.

Daisen (called the Fuji of Izumo despite the fact that it is in Hoki and not Izumo Province) is regarded by the credulous as the dwelling of the primeval Shinto god Okuninushi, and because of this it is the most revered of all the West Coast mts. Usually snow-covered and enshrouded in clinging mists, it is a sublime spectacle viewed at certain times and from certain angles, but good views of it are obtainable only when the air is unusually pure. Many marvelous legends concerning the hobgoblins who are believed to dwell thereon are related by the country yokels, and supernatural events are associated with it. Formerly it was a sort of western Koya-san, with many temples clustering about the original one founded in 718 by Jikaku-Daishi. Though it never reached the high religious position occupied by the former place, it was popular and nationally famous about the 14th cent., after which its power began to decline. To-day there remain but one or two dilapidated temples that are a negligible quantity in the Buddhistic world. A few zealous pilgrims climb the mt. each year, but foreigners will not feel repaid for so doing. A much better view is had of the peak from Daisen Station, where it is relatively as near as Fuji is to Gotemba, with similar views.

195 M. Yonago (Inn: Komego, ¥2-3), an important town in Hoki Province, with 16,000 inhabs., is finely situated on the Naka-umi Lagoon and is the starting-point for (11 M.) Sakai, the odoriferous old port at the N.W. extremity of the Yomigahama Peninsula, and the end of the line of the Yonago-Sakai branch of the rly. Forty-four miles N., in the Sea of Japan, lie the 1 large and 3 small Oki (‘open sea’) Islands.

The Oki Islands (pop. 35,000) are administered as a part of Shimane-ken, and lie in lat. 36° 10' N. and in long. 133° 20' E. of Greenwich. They were long known to the Chinese as Inshu. Physically they are divided into two groups. Oki, the big island (often referred to as Dogo), where stands Saigo, the capital, and (6 M. toward the S.W.) Dozen, which comprises the small islands of Chiburi-shima (1058 ft. above the sea); Nishinoshima (1463 ft.), and Nakanoshima (755 ft.). The highest point, Daimanji (2030 ft.), is on the E. side of Oki. The coast is wild and beautiful, but the islands are rocky and cultivation is not easy. The Izumo dialect is used by the people. The Emperor Go-Toba was exiled to Nakanoshima by Hojo Yoshitoki, the military usurper, in 1221, and Go-Daigo was sent to Chiburi-shima by Hojo Takatoki in 1332. The archipelago is rarely visited by foreigners. Poky little local steamers make the (44 M.) passage daily (in about 5 hrs.) from Sakai to Saigo, stopping at ports in the several islands. The trip in stormy weather is dangerous in a small boat. Tourists will find nothing of interest in Saigo, which stands on the W. side of Saigo Harbor, at the mouth of the Yabi River. The bay is landlocked, with an entrance 250 yds. wide and a depth of 12-25 fathoms. Fishing is the chief industry, and the local specialty (meibutsu) is dried cuttle-fish (ika) or sepia, which is netted here in great numbers. Thousands of tons are caught each year and exported to Korea and China; on the N.E. coast of Saigo fishermen sometimes capture upward of 2000 cuttle-fish (12 in. or more long) in a single night. Many hundreds of acres of island land are fertilized with the offal. Another specialty is a species of obsidian or jet called bateiseki (‘horse-hoof stone’), of which many small objects — jewelry, ink-stones, wine-cups, and what-not — are made. A black coral or antipathes (umimatsu) or sea-pine is found in the sea near the coast and made into expensive souvenirs. Many of the stores in Saigo carry extensive collections of articles made of nacre obtained from the shells of the sea-ear (awabi).

The sea, which makes in round the Yomigahama Peninsula, forms the Nakaumi Lagoon, and the narrow Matsue River which connects it with the Shinji-ko (lake) on which Matsue is situated, adds a striking element of beauty to the region through

which the rly. goes beyond Yonago. The sheltered waters teem with fish, and usually are dotted with many picturesque boats, which after nightfall carry flaming torches to aid the men at their work. The country soon takes on a more fruitful aspect, many fluvial thoroughfares cross the rly., and crude dug-outs, such as one sees in and about the Chinampas in the Valley of Mexico, follow their tortuous courses inland. Not a few of the rly. stations are embowered in plum, peach, and cherry trees, and magnolias, camellias and other flowers, while in season the creamy blooms of many pear orchards add charm to the landscape. The well-watered country is as intensively cultivated as a small garden, and excellent macadam highways cross and recross it. The shore is much like that of the Inland Sea, with pine-clad promontories and hazy bays that are at once beautiful and suggestive of a pleasing tranquillity. The strikingly picturesque old Matsue Castle is visible above the tree-tops at the far right as we near the city, and the swift waters of the Matsue River flow by nearer to the rly.

213 M. Matsue, the clean, handsome capital of Shimane Prefecture, with 36,000 inhabs. and 8333 houses, occupies a commanding position on the N.E. shore of the extensive Shinji Lake (4 M. broad, 11 long, and 20 ft. deep), near the point where two rivers lead into it — the northernmost, the Matsue, or Chashigawa; the southernmost, the Tenjin-gawa.

Arrival. Of the several inns the traveler will perhaps select the plain but clean Minami-kwan, across the Tenjin-gawa, 15 min. walk from the station, near the center of the city. He will also perhaps select an apartment overlooking the river (to which the inn backs up), as the many bizarre craft which ply to and fro add appreciably to its charm and afford sustained entertainment. For ¥5 or thereabout, according to location of room, one is served excellent food cooked unusually well and appetizingly (in the native style), and set out in blue-and-white porcelain (from Kaga Province) of such dainty and charming designs that one is tempted to start out at once and ransack (in vain) the city shops to find duplicates.

Formerly Matsue was a feudal stronghold, the military center of the most ancient province in Japan, and such a large percentage of the men were samurai that certain blasts from a bugle were said to be sufficient to bring nearly 15,000 men in fighting trim out of the houses and into the streets. At present the busiest quarter is near the inn, between the Tenjin and Ohashi Rivers, in the vicinity of the wide street called Tenjinmachi. Here will be found the best shops, theaters, pleasure resorts, etc. A pleasing feature of the wide, clean streets is the vista of green, wooded hills at the ends of most of them. A multiplicity of canals intersect them and one may go by boat to almost any quarter. Many of the temples face Teramachi, or Temple St. As a rule these differ but little from those of other cities, and the casual traveler may not feel repaid for visiting them. The huge Toko-ji belongs to the Zen sect, and the booming notes of its great bell shake the entire city. The Inari shrine is in the castle grounds. The lofty mt. which looms up at the N.W. is Yakuno-san. Daisen is seen at the S.E. The fussy little boats which start from the pier at the N. end of the bridge ply to various near-by ports.

The Castle (O-Shiro), an iron-gray structure surmounting a cyclopean foundation of stone upheld by tottering, cementless, moss-grown walls that rise from a lotus-choked moat, occupies a commanding site on the summit of O-shiroyama

(‘castle hill’) in the W. quarter of the city, 5 min. (jinriki 10 sen) from the inn, and 15 min. from the station. While not so imposing or well preserved as the Nagoya Castle, its environment and the many pine, plum, and cherry trees which adorn the sloping terraces add materially to its appearance. It is a grim old structure, and it dates from 1601, when Horio Yoshiharu built it as a fortress and a home for the long dynasty of feudal barons that were to follow him. The summit is crested like a war helmet, and there are many gables and angles and antefixes and squat windows. From the upper terrace, which is embowered in cherry trees, or still better from the topmost of the six stories, one may command a superb view over the city, the lake, and the surrounding hills and plain. The winding road which leads up to the relic is lovely in spring, and the numerous crows that wrangle and roost in the near-by pines make one think of towns in British India. A number of gov’t buildings cluster near the foot of the hill, among them the prefectural office and the Middle School (Jinjo-chugakko), where Lafcadio Hearn came to teach English in Aug., 1890.

Westward from Matsue the rly. follows the lake shore and traverses a pretty country where a number of ancient dolmens or sepulchers have been unearthed from time to time. 234 M. Izumo-Imaichi is the point of departure for a branch line that runs N.W. to 4 M. Kizuki, with its greatly reverenced shrines. Buddhists and Shintoists alike regard it as one of the holiest cities in the Land of the Gods, but foreigners are apt to find but little of absorbing interest. There are a number of native inns, most of them catering to the hordes of pilgrims which come here to make their peace with the deities.

The Great Shrine, or Izumo no O-yashiro, the most virile existing center of the national religion, with a reputation for sanctity equalled only by the Shrines of Ise (Rte. 35), is dedicated to the mythological god Okuninushi no kami (Onamuji), the reputed son of Susano-o-Mikoto, and dates from an antiquity so great that it is regarded by the natives as the oldest living shrine of the ancestral cult. Many believe that it was built by the lesser gods at the instigation of the Sun Goddess; that the original structure was 320 ft. high, of beams and pillars larger than any existing trees could furnish; and that the framework was bound together with fibers of the paper-mulberry tree. The priests believe that it was rebuilt in b.c. 70, during the life of the Emperor Sui-nin, and that it was called the ‘Structure of the Iron Rings’ because the pieces of the pillars — composed of the wood of many great trees — had been bound fast together with huge rings of iron. The configuration of the present temple (which dates from 1881 and is about 80 ft. high) is supposed to be exactly like that of the 3d one constructed about a.d. 655, and to represent the 29th of the dynasty. Fashioned in the severely plain and pure Shinto style, it occupies a commanding position at the foot of the finely wooded Mt. Yakumo, in a park-like inclosure of 19 acres. The approach is through a beautiful and impressive avenue about 1/2 M. long, flanked by grand patriarchal trees a thousand or more yrs. old, and by sacred groves at the right and left. There is the usual accompaniment of majestic torii, lanterns, and the like, with a lofty gate piercing a massive wall. Beneath this gateway, at the end of the ave., there pulses a steady

stream of pilgrims from almost every section of Japan, and the noise of scraping geta, the clapping of hands, and the voicing of audible orisons, is almost deafening. In the inner court, near the main temple, are 19 shrines before which upward of 200,000 pilgrims come annually to pray. Until Lafcadio Hearn passed the portal and entered the sacred precincts of the main temple in 1891, no foreigner, it is said, had ever gone beyond the massive, iron-bound steps leading to the sanctuary. The chief priest (who is also the spiritual governor of Kizuki) traces his lineage through many generations of earthly deities to Amaterasu and her brother Susano-o-Mikoto, and is said to be the 82d of a dynasty of pontiffs. During the popular festivals of May 14-16 each year, the officiating clerics wear curious mediaeval costumes and go through many of the ancient rites.

Among the revered relics enshrined in the sacrarium, and not shown to the casual visitor, is a metal mirror said to have been in use in the primitive temple; a Chinese jade flute given by some long-dead Chinese emperor; a number of magnificent swords presented by Japanese notables; ancient manuscripts, some chalcedony magatama and what-not. A curiosity is the primitive fire-drill made of a sacred strip (about 2 1/2 ft. long) of Chamaecyparis obtusa with a line of holes drilled along its upper edge, so that the upper part of each hole breaks through the side of the solid plank. In these holes wooden sticks as thick as a lead-pencil, and about 2 ft. long, are twirled between the palms of the hands until fire is produced. — The august deities (Kami) to whom the shrines are consecrated are supposed to foregather here in Oct.; from which circumstance the month is called (in Izumo) Kamiari-kuki, or ‘Month with the Gods.’ — Kizuki is not only the holiest place in the San-in-do, but it is also one of the most fashionable bathing-resorts. The near-by Inasa Bay has a fine beach with many inns.

Beyond Izumo-Imaichi the rly. continues across a country differing but little from that we have already traversed. The trend of the line is along the sea until (82 M.) Iwami-Masuda is reached, when it turns S.E. and runs to (59 M. beyond) Ogori, an important station 44 M. from Shimonoseki, on the San-yo Main Line (trains east and west) of the Gov’t Rlys.