matsuri, for some festival! Then you would understand why they say that in all Shinshu our valley is the richest in woman’s beauty. Do not forget that O-Take-San, the honorable Miss Bamboo, the famous miko or temple dancer, whom you can trace in the art and literature of the sixteenth century, came from our little village.«
It was high time for me to own to this blank in my knowledge of things Japanese; for twice already my kind guide had touched upon this beauty, whose name had survived centuries, and moreover I had gathered that even now our walk was directed towards something intimately connected with the history of her who meant so little to me and so much to the people in that part of the country.
The engineer looked at me reproachfully. »What queer people you are, you white people!” he exclaimed. »Could you not have told me long ago that the name O-Take is but an empty sound to you? You wished me to show you the kembutsu, the sights of our village. I am leading you two hours over break-neck paths to Kaze-no miya, to the Temple of the Winds, and now when we are within five minutes of our destination, it transpires that you never heard of our renowned country-woman! Do you know at least what a miko is?
»You said yourself that it means a temple dancer,« I managed to help myself out of the difficulty. He started to walk again.« Yes, in a Shinto temple. Literally it means the darling of the gods; and the duty of these priestesses is still, as it always was, to dance for the delectation of the gods during festivals and to wait on the priests in ordinary temple services. At different places different requirements were made upon these priestesses, who were always chosen only from certain families. In some places girls could be priestesses only before coming to maturity, in others even to the age of sixteen or seventeen; and today unusually beautiful and graceful dancers are often not dismissed from the temple even after marriage. Everywhere and always she who was chosen to be the darling of the gods was comely enough to become the darling of a man; however, the priestesses were deterred from this eventuality by the requirement of absolute chastity,—and by the advantages accruing to them and their families from their position. Nevertheless their liberty was curtailed only in the evening and at night, when their innocence was most endangered; then they were always shut up in a special dwelling behind the temple. And if it happened that some miko made a mistep, she did not share the fate of the fallen Vestal Virgin; she merely ceased to be the darling of the gods, having become the darling of a human being and a woman who had learned to know man’s love.« He hesitated and turned to me. »You
