To one of a poetic turn of thought the very name Shintō or the "Way of the Gods" pictures one long pilgrimage from earth to heaven. But such poesy is after all profane, the "way" here being as unvividly viewed by its followers as are the thousand and one other ways of the world by those who pursue them. Nevertheless, pilgrimages are more than foot-notes to its creed.
Probably at no time and among no people have pilgrimages been so popular as in this same nineteenth century in Japan, temporary excitements like the crusades excepted. Even the yearly caravan of the Mahometan world to Mecca, though it draw from greater distances and be invested with more pomp, does not imply so complete a habit. Every Japanese is a pilgrim at heart, though every summer fail to find him actually on the march. Poverty compels him to do his plodding at home. Want of funds alone seems to stand in the way of the nation's taking the road in a body from the middle of July to the first of September. As it is, the country's thorough-fares at that season are beaded with folk wending their way to some shrine or other.
Now there are three points worth not-
