Returning to the custom of launching a sacred boat it is not without significance that many Japanese deities have some connection with the sea.  Even in the case of the deities of shrines a long way from the sea the ceremony of “going down to the sea” is sometimes observed.  Sand and sea water are sent for in order to be mixed with the water used to cleanse the car in which the figure of the deity is drawn through the streets.

The social and financial position of tenants was illustrated by an incident at an inn.  As the maid came from the country I asked her if her father were a tenant or an owner.  My companion interrupted to tell me that the question was not judiciously framed because the girl would “think it a disgrace to own that her father was a tenant.”  The name of a tenant used long ago to be “water drinker.”  This waiting-maid was a good-looking and rather clever girl.  I was dismayed when my friend told me that she had said to him quite simply that she had thoughts of becoming a joro.  She thought it would be a “more interesting life.”

When we reached Tottori prefecture we found ourselves in a country which grows more cotton than any other.  Japanese cotton (grown on about 400 cho) is unsuitable for manufacture into thread, but because of its elasticity is considered to be valuable for the padding of winter clothing and for futon and zabuton.  Their softness is maintained by daily sunning.

At a county office I noted that the persons who were receiving relief were classified as follows:  Illness, 26; cripples, 17; old age, 16; schoolboys, 12; infancy, 1.

In the course of our journey a Shinto priest was pointed out to me as observing the priestly taboo by refusing tea and cake.  I noticed, however, that he smoked.  I was told that when he was in Tokyo he purified himself in the sea even in midwinter.  I did not like his appearance.  Nor for the matter of that was I impressed by the countenances of some Buddhist priests I encountered in the train from time to time.  “Thinking always of money,” someone said.  But every now and again I saw fine priestly faces.

I have noted down very little in regard to the crops and the countryside in Tottori.  Things seemed very much the same as I had seen in Shimane.  At an agricultural show in the city of Tottori the varieties of yam and taro were so numerous as to deceive the average Westerner into believing that he was seeing the roots of different kinds of plants.  A feature of the show was a large realistic model of a rice field with two life-size figures.

In the evening I talked with two distinguished men until a late hour.  “We are not a metaphysical people,” one of them said.  “Nor were our forefathers as religious as some students may suppose.  Those who went before us gave to the Buddhist shrine and even worshipped there, but their daily life and their religion had no close connection.  We did not define religion closely.  Religion