Research source

There is a pathetic charm about this festival

Date of account: Traditional material presented in a work published 1913
Source: Myths & Legends of Japan
Reference: Myths & Legends of Japan · selected passage 106
Rights: public_domain
Language: English retelling of Japanese traditions
Translation: F. Hadland Davis
Record updated: 2026-08-24

Record summary

Published source text

Read the available text below. Archive transcriptions may contain OCR errors; later context is labelled separately. A recorded claim is not a finding that it happened.

Source passage

Source text · mention only

There is a pathetic charm about this festival. It is by no means unique, for it corresponds to the Indian _Sraddha_; but in Japan it is touched with a more delicate and haunting beauty. No one has been able to solve conclusively the origin of the _Torii_, that wonderful gateway that leads nowhere. What a charming entrance or exit for a company of wandering souls! What a place for ghosts to play and dream awhile is a Japanese garden, with its lake and moon-shaped bridge, its stone lantern, its paths of silver sand! And what a street for ghosts to wander in is the Street Everlasting that is so near to the Street of Aged Men! Thus Yone Noguchi sums up the magic of a Japanese night, one of those three nights when souls come in touch with old earthly memories:

Historical context

Contextual commentary · mention only

This is a passage from a historical religious or interpretive text. Its genre, manuscript history, translation and place within its own tradition are part of the evidence and must remain visible.

Modern context

Contextual commentary · mention only

Lattice can compare the passage's descriptive features with later reports, but resemblance does not turn a vision, angel, mythic creature or sacred narrative into a modern incident report.

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