Murdoch and Yamagata say of this Jesuit (Hist.  Japan, p. 633):  “As to the story that Ferreyra repented and was fossed at Nagasaki in 1653 (at the age of seventy-four), there seems to be no foundation for it.”

[92] Apparently a corrupt Spanish pronunciation of the Japanese Jodo (also written Jiodo, and Jodo), the name of one of the Buddhist sects which flourish in Japan.  It was founded in 1174 A.D.—­by one Honen, according to Griffis; by Genku, according to Rein.  Iyeyasu and his successors were adherents and benefactors of this sect.  “Its priests strictly insisted upon celibacy, and abhorred the eating of flesh.  They taught that the health of the soul depends less upon virtue and moral perfection than upon the strict observance of pious practices” (Rein).  See Griffis’s account of Buddhism in Japan, in his Mikado’s Empire, pp. 158-175; and the chapter on religious systems in Rein’s Japan, pp. 442-464.

[93] This is the volcanic mountain called Onzenga-take, situated in the northern part of Shimabara peninsula—­noted for the terrible massacre of Christians, in 1637, at Arima, a town in the south of the peninsula—­and east of Nagasaki.  The last great eruption of this volcano took place in 1791-93, in which, it is said, fifty-three thousand people lost their lives.  Its height is estimated at one thousand meters, and at its base are numerous hot springs.  See Rein’s Japan, pp. 17, 43, 54, 86.

[94] Regarding this letter, see note in brackets at end of this document.

[95] Probably Sendai, in the province of Satsuma.

[96] This would seem to be Otsu, the chief town of the province of Omi; it lies northeast of Ozaka (the Ojaca of the text).

[97] This must have been some gossip or canard cited by the writer; for Iyemidzu (grandson of Iyeyasu), who was then shogun, reigned from 1623 to 1651.  The death of the “King” (i.e., tono or daimio) of Arima is also related, in more detail, by La Concepcion (Hist. de Philipinas, v, pp. 160, 161); he says that a multitude of foxes surrounded Bugandono on the road from Nangasaqui, accompanying him, leaping and barking about his litter “until he reached Ximabara, where they suddenly disappeared.  Immediately that wretched man was overpowered by a fury against himself, so great that, sword in hand, he compelled his servants to beat him soundly with bamboos.  They dealt him so many blows that they inflicted upon him a wretched death”—­a punishment for his cruelties against the Christians.

“The great Shinto temple of Inari [the goddess of rice] at Kyoto is the model of all other shrines dedicated to this popular divinity, for on this lonely hillside twelve hundred years ago Inari was supposed to manifest herself to mortals.  A colossal red gateway and a flight of moss-grown steps lead to the main entrance flanked by the great stone foxes which guard every temple of Inari, and symbolize the goddess