slowly became luminous; and the Emperor recognized the form of his beloved. At first the apparition was faint; but it soon became distinct as a living person, and seemed with each moment to grow more beautiful. The Emperor whispered to the vision, but received no answer. He called aloud, and the presence made no sign. Then unable to control himself, he approached the censer. But the instant that he touched the smoke, the phantom trembled and vanished.
Japanese artists are still occasionally inspired by the legends of the Hangon-kō. Only last year, in Tōkyō, at an exhibition of new kakemono, I saw a picture of a young wife kneeling before an alcove wherein the smoke of the magical incense was shaping the shadow of the absent husband.[1]
Although the power of making visible the forms of the dead has been claimed for one sort
- ↑ Among the curious Tōkyō inventions of 1898 was a new variety of cigarettes called Hangon-sō, or “Herb of Hangon,”—a name suggesting that their smoke operated like the spirit-summmoning incense. As a matter of fact, the chemical action of the tobacco-smoke would define, upon a paper fitted into the mouth-piece of each cigarette, the photographic image of a dancing-girl.
