Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 274, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 November 1920 — Odd Japanese Legends. [ARTICLE]

Odd Japanese Legends.

There are many delightful legends about old statues of the gods In JapanIn the Hase temple at Kamakura, high on the crest of a hill overlooking the bay. Is a great gilded kwannon of camphor wood—an eleved-faced image of the Goddess of Mercy—which for centuries has hearkened 'to the prayers of the fishermen. A long time ago, in the dim past when dragons were abroad in the land and gods condescended to play with men, some fishermen saw a great light shining out at sea, writes Elsie F. Weil in Asla. They sailed in their junk toward the light and found the Image and ever since have worshiped at her shrine. At the same time a similar image -of Kwannon, aWo made of camphor wood, floated In at Yamato and was placed in the Hase-no-Kwannon, a temple that was the favorite resort of courtiers In the Nara period. It is still today a popular temple for pilgrims, who : come the spring, when the cherries are in full blossom and all the lanterns are lighted to transport themeelves back to the days when the gods were young.