LAND OF ENCHANTMENT

here we are in the Far East speaking to you from the land of enchantment no expression more fitting could be used to describe the Isles of Japan which are people lovingly call the country favorite of the goddess a will they believe this is shown by the 196,000 temples like these throughout the land in honor of the many hundred legendary God this great eastern temple of hongan-ji at kyoto one of the largest wooden buildings on earth was made possible by contributions by the faithful devoted women cut their hair and braided rope 200 feet long and 16 inches in circumference with which they hoisted the massive Timbers into place here can be seen three of the original 29 immense ropes of human hair indicating one of the greatest sacrifices norms a man here is a zigzag bridge built to confuse the evil spirits who according to traditions always travel along straight lines the charming beauty of the arched foot bridges which span the moats surrounding the temple gardens is enhanced when we learned from the old traditions that the lotus blossom which we do all the sparkling waters constitutes the legendary keys to the throne room of the gods in the great beyond while the bridges themselves symbolize the wondrous crossing that leads from earth to paradise and here we are over modern Tokyo the rise of this Eastern metropolis from the ashes and the earthquake wreckage of whole ghetto may well be considered the great romance in the building annals of the world it is hard to realize that a little more than thirty years have passed since this great Business Center was a field of grass and rice garden a far cry indeed from the lonely fishing hamlet of gnarled pines and sand where Commodore Perry established the first American trading port in 1853 in narrow crowded streets contrasting with the prized modern city we find the masses of the many millions of Japan's children still live in the same manner as did their ancestors in the centuries that have passed here is one busy merchant who has solved the rent problem his business is on his own shoulders in no other land is it possible to find mothers more interesting or charming and much of the enchantment is due to them and the loving care of the cutest and cleanest babies in the world women also accomplish much of the labor of the country here is a party driving styles by the same method used in the beginning of Japanese mystery their average wage being 12 cents a day leaving them we enter Nara the name for this gate is torii e meaning birds wrists sorry e itself resembles the written character indicating heaven birds and heaven a wonderful thought to include in the Welcome of the open gateway we are told that the hundreds of deer that so readily obey the call of the park shepherd are sacred they are all lineal descendants of the original pair loved by the gods and brought to Nara to be deified when the first temple was erected here by an ancestral hero the Land of Enchantment is a land of festivals and parades the calendar shows one for almost every day the most impressive and graceful of all parade is a famous festival of the hollyhock robes priests their baskets filled with offerings to the gods huge umbrellas covered with the sacred wisteria Azalea and hollyhock are borne by officials at the temple a great chariot draped with blossoms drawn by a richly caparison dachshund dedicated to the spirit of Japan's first emperor is sacred to the memory of his daughter beloved by the people through the centuries the rivers and inland seas abound in many species of fish which the Japanese have another way of catching for a thousand years they have used trained birds each of the fishing boats is equipped with a working crew of sixteen diving cormorants about whose necks the men tie loops to keep them from swallowing the catch cheered by the winsome geisha girls the sport goes on a good crew of birds kept hungry where there are plenty of fish will often bring up 150 in an hour in the mountainous districts where there are no roads we pass a party of silk producers who have brought a cargo of the product for which their country is famed to the market by way of the Swift mountain streams after delivering the bales of raw silk they are compelled to journey homeward on foot climbing laborious ly along the rocky shore and showing their craft upstream against the rapids aided now and then by the breeze that builds their queer sails rice being the staple food of the people they have many rice planting festivals at the beginning of the planting season in locations selected by the Emperor unmarried girls chosen for their beauty and purity transplant the seedlings and dancing supplication to the gods of earth and sky to ensure a bountiful harvest on the southern coast of the mainland is a little inland sea dotted with charming Isles and known as boh cashew Bay here we find man nature and the lowly oyster working in unity in the most romantic and probably least known industry the drawing of pearls originating in Japan and made possible by the life's work of 50 Cho Mikimoto vast colonies of young oysters are watched by the bewitching eyes and lovely mages who have become proficient in diving and handling the boats on which they spend most of the daylight hours their day begins early and sunrise finds the boats arriving at the beds where millions of young oysters have been growing for four years in readiness for the task imposed upon them of making jewels to enhance the beauty of the world in preparation for diving each of the mermaids of go Cashel places a bandeau about her hair to keep it from her eyes they all wear white cotton gowns instead of bathing suits and each has a watertight blast for eye protection at a given signal they plunge into the bay and at once begin the day's collection of bivalve the girls are as much at home in the water is on land and unerringly select handfuls of oysters of proper age bringing them to the surface in less than a minute to place in the floating tub three millions of new oysters a year old are placed annually in the bay to roam at will while maturing thus ensuring a continual supply girls have been found superior to men for this work they have great lung capacity and can better withstand the cold and fatigue working in 15 minutes relays a lively girl brings up an average of $1,000 a day here we see one bring up a starfish dreaded enemy of the growing oyster as soon as possible the build subs are taken ashore and the oysters are cleaned and sorted this part of the work also being performed by girls in the laboratory the oysters are passed to men operators carefully open the bivalve and insert it tiny but perfect sphere of mussel shell between the stomach and kidney of each the oysters are then taken back to the bank of toil as winning slaves for six long years they must for their own protection however lie as prisoners in wire cages suspended from a raft where they are safe from the starfish or the dreaded poisoned currents that occasionally sweeps in from the sea during all these years layers of opalescent Beauty are being formed around the little sphere of mussel shell as shown by the sectional view of the growing pearl on their tenth birthday they go again to the laboratory their labor ended to give up their lives and yield their precious burden to the skilled hands that reclaimed the finished shimmering pearl think of handling a million on more of such marvelously beautiful jewels each year the gems worth a king's ransom are sorted and graded behold a finished product this exquisite fans presented to his August Majesty the Emperor contains 2012 perfectly matched jeweled sailing away from the harbor at Yokohama on a modern steamship product of the second largest naval organization in the world we are claim these idealistic and practical nature worshippers who have so harnessed the forces of nature of the charm and romances developed around the world and the glorious Setting Sun wraps a mantle around a land of enchantment we bid them a fond farewell