HONOURING THE DEAD

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 138, 7 December 1929, Page 20

HONOURING THE DEAD

Artful means have been adopted by the Japanese to keep, alive in the hearts of the., people: ;tho sense .of obligation, to the honoured dead for their deeds of valour und-their acts.of- self-sacrifice, says an overseas "■.'journal-.. \- : Over the whole country,are to be found theatre's where performances .are ;^periodically given of the dance which is probably the most ancient rite of its kind in the laud. The word itself ; signifies f.'Thc Seat of the; Gods,": and-the dance is intended.'to. teach its- onlookers their close relationship with.the departed in the fellowship of noble deeds and ;unselfish : devotion .to the' country's ■ welfare: It sets forth ,in a highly, dramaticform■ tho lesson. of.howtho "Divine Ancestors" fought for Land conquered the land for their descendants, to whose keeping they have ■" committed, it, and that the '':Gods'/ -are always on the side of those' who are ready-to strive and to {suffer for thair' sacred heritage. Most.-moving and' inspiring of all such- celebrations, however, is the festival of -the -great' national shrine on 4h/e Kudan-Sill in Tokibj held both in' spring' and-in-fautumn.-i: r- The sacred %uilding-as regarded by the -Japanese aa-their -Westminster-Abbey, •'for here is paid grateful homage to those who have died, in ,their" "country,?s cause. In the moving sad '"iriemorable ' ora-tion—which-Pericles- is- represented as having-.himself once delivered,' we' have ■ •tbe' yery ; e.rab'pdinient of., the -creed of A^ietis:. -and., of Greece;' c: And' no one ■wHp-;:lto^isten^d;^tb-^hel*'Jlisc<iu rsC g..< ) f: men ; like Nogi)- ? 'when ' com--■memorating- thft'-mar'tial "vir'tiiijs and' ■loyal''self-sacrifice ;of • his warriors at Port ArthurI,' can help •feeling that herb, ' moref than anywhere'• else, these two peoples are at their best, and most like to each other when they are ablb both to; extol and to practise, as 'their .highest virt.ue,; the, ideals of self.sacrifice. There, js _still' a; world of moaning to' which' the .Japanese spirit can respond in the iiWilo-"decTara-iion, "The whole world is tho tomb of good men.'^