After this, these gentry, if they attempted to follow, were driven back at once, and if they spied upon our movements at all, it was at such a distance, that their presence was not perceived by us. In a short time, the officers moved as freely in the area of country granted by the treaty—a radius of about sixteen English miles, as if they were in the United States. The chief objects of interest ashore to visit, are the Sintoo, Buddhist temples, and some smaller ones, dedicated to the tutelar deities of the soldiers, and the marines. The Japanese display great rural taste always in their locations, selecting the most picturesque, and at times, the most elevated spots for their erection. Attached to these temples are usually _kungwas_, or places, where the weary traveller may rest for the night, and get some tea and eatables from the attendant priests. A Sintoo temple just at the end of the principal street from the landing at Simoda, was the chief place for the holding of official interviews, and subsequently for bazars. It stood in the midst of a cemetery overhung by large trees, and steep boulders of granite. The spacious and level yard in front, was divided with stone crossings smoothly cut, and in it stood alone, a tower of cyclopean masonry, in which was hung one of their sweet-toned bells. Their manner of striking, which is by a piece of green wood swung horizontally on the outside of the bell, gives a delightful softness to the sound, while the proximity to the earth increases the distance at which it may be heard. The carving and frieze work about the columns at the entrance to this temple are as elaborate and fantastic as can be imagined, while the little hydras and animal images perched upon the eaves and roof, are as numerous as on a Chinese Joss house. The interior is very plain, and the Sintooist worships no idol. Living here was a priest named Dosangee—his head entirely shorn. He was quite polite to us, and in return used to expect us to give him the pronunciation of some words in English, which he was endeavoring to learn by the aid of an English and Dutch dictionary, which he had. He accompanied me through the temple.
In one part of the temple, the commodore, from the initials “M. C. P.” on some boxes there seen, seemed to have had a room set apart. The altar, in the place of worship was very plain, and had incense burning on it. Its only ornaments consisted of bronze castings representing their sacred crane on the back of a tortoise, and a small gilded elephant. There, of course, was the invariable accompaniment of Sintoo worship—a small mirror—an emblem of the soul’s perfect purity; or, according to some, as plainly as the votary sees his own features in that mirror, so plainly do the mediatory spirits to whom he prays, see his spiritual and temporal wants. Such a style of worship would scarcely answer for the belles of our land. As the devotee enters one of these temples he first drops a few “cash” (about the fifteenth of a cent) into a carefully-secured box at the door, then by shaking a lot of sleigh-looking bells hanging from a beam, attracts to his prayers the attention of his mediatory spirits, who only number some three thousand—these are the _kami_, confreres of the spiritual emperor or mikado, and analogous to the saints of the catholics.