Yokohama

“On that velvety-green stair-way leading to Iyeyasu’s tomb I met, one day, a scholar of fine taste and great culture, a man of distinction in the native West. ‘I am overwhelmed with the beauty and magnificence of all this,’ he said. ‘I must concede that greatness of any religion that could provide and preserve this, and teach its followers to appreciate it.’

“Afterwards, almost on the same step, a dear missionary friend stopped me, with eyes full of tears. ‘Oh!’ she sighed, ‘this fills me with sadness and sorrow. These emblems and monuments of heathenism!’ I see nothing beautiful or admirable in those wicked temples. They show me how hard it will be to uproot such heathen creeds. I wish I had not come.’”

Eliza Ruhamah Scidmore, Jinrikisha Days in Japan, (New York, 1891) p. 157