The Sintoo mythology also comprehends a god of war. On entering the grounds where one of these temples were located, we passed through a military barrack, where were a number of small stallions tethered from either cheek, wrong end foremost in their stalls, who grew quite indignant in their cavortings at our presence. On our approach they turned out their guard—three or four stupid-looking soldiers, with tin-basin looking hats, and the calves of their legs swathed in blue cotton cloth, upholding the insignia of rank of their chief, which were cruciform lances in coverings of shark-skin. In the building, we saw on the walls, offerings of swords and bows, from those who had deemed themselves miraculously preserved in battle.
In the Mariners’ temple we saw suspended from boards on the walls small _queues_ of the Japanese seamen, who had undergone the imminent peril of shipwreck, together with details of the particular storm, pictures of foundering junks, and the names of those who escaped. The parting with this little pig-tail of hair, the Japanese sailor thinks is one of the greatest sacrifices that he can make to his patron divinity. The approach to this place was over a fine balustraded bridge, and under a noble well-planted avenue of the yew-pine tree. Another _yasiro_, on a mountain-side, is reached by a direct and continuous flight of over a hundred steps. Over at _Kakisaki_, in one of the temples, is an allegorical painting of some size, the subject of which is very nearly an embodiment of “Pilgrim’s Progress,” and the hero is as defiant as Saint George with the Dragon. The plan of the picture is a birds’-eye view. A horrid ogre or devil dwells deep in a cavernous recess or hell, and his daily food is women, many of whom are confined in the gloomy precincts of his prison. A young prince prays for power to rescue them, which is granted, and he is provided with a potent potion. Disguised as a pedlar he crosses dangerous chasms and descends steep cliffs; at last, arriving at the door of the devil’s abode, he gains admittance, and gives the devil the potion, which he drinks and becomes drunk, when the young champion despatches him, and sets at liberty all the unfortunate victims that he has there confined.