Paradise For Hikers

Waikato Times, Volume 118, Issue 19699, 5 October 1935, Page 13 (Supplement)

Paradise For Hikers

Wandering in Japan IN JAPAN, as elsewhere, there has lately been a recrudescence of nationalism, a reaction to foreisnism, before the gusts of which the majority, if not the whole, of the population have bent like grass. One of the milder forms this reaction has taken is the strong objection made by diehards to the use of foreign words. Some for example, lost sight of common sense, to such an extent as to Insist on substituting the coined word Nipponese for the ■lime-honoured Japanese, while others set their faces against adopting the name of ■ Japan Alps National Park on the ground that the word “Alps” sounds un-Japanese. Even Education Minister Matsuda caused a •sensation by proclaiming from the housetops that he could not stand Japanese children calling their parents papa and mama, as is done in many a family. In spile of this reassertion of antipathy to foreign words among a certain section of our people, however, the general tendency appears to be for intellectuals to use a fair number of words that have crept into the Japanese language. Particularly noticeable is such tendency among those who are out for a Pedantic Display of Sham Erudition,

lot alone pressmen full of journalese and I hose who arc more comfortable in a foreign tongue than in their own. Radio news announcers not infrequently interlard their speech with such English words as gesture in its modern usage and barometer in its transferred meaning and, of course, with the accent on the wrong syllable. It is in speaking of imported sports that most frequently we meet with jargon from a tongue not understood by the people. And now the vocabulary of the Japanese language seems to have been definitely enriched by the addition of yet another English word—namely, the word “hiking.” Linguistically speaking, the addition may or may not be regarded as a sain, but there can be no doubt that as a form of recreation or exercise biking has a considerable value when translated into practice. It is generally believed that In Japan the word was first used some 10 years aso by llio.se connected with the Japanese Boy Scouts.

How is it then that, hiking has recently come into vogue among people of every degree'.’ One reason is undoubtedly the fact that people in general, suffering from the tremendous strain of modern city life, have awakened to the wisdom, if not the necessity, of Roturning To Nature. Japan is proverbially a chi.(lren's paradise. It is also a paradise for hikers. The whole country is full of scenic gems. .Moreover, like the great Powers of Europe, Japan is a country with a very long history. This means that places of historic interest are many and that the rural districts are rich in folklore and folksongs that merit investigation. To wander on Shanks' mare from village to village away from tlie dust

: Priests’ Pilgrimages. and din of modern cities Is in itself a Joy. To make a cross-country hike with a schedule elastic or otherwise, visiting spots reminiscent of some memorable events in the annals of the country, enjoying natural beauty, waking at dawn to an orchestra of birds and hearing legends and folksongs here and -there is a greater joy still. Such joy is no monopoly of hikers in Japan. Their brothers in a country like England have similar privileges. But there is one thing which is a veritable godsend to Inkers in Japan, and not bestowed upon those in other countries likewise possessed of a centuries-old culture. And -that is an abundance of hot springs. Lover or no lover of cleanliness, one cannot afford to ignore the virtue of a hot bath as a remedy for physical fatigue. There is no getting away from the fact -that the hiker feels thankful for a good hot-spring bath after a tong tiring walk. Immerse yourself in a hot-spring bath after a few hours' foolslogging, and you are sure to find that your Fatigue Will Peel Off Your Body as easily as the skin off a banana, in some parts of the country one even comes across hot-spring basins under the canopy of heaven. Before concluding mention -must, be made of tlie fact that the custom of hiking, though not graced—or rather disgraced in the minds of some people—with that name, lias obtained since very early times in Japan, as elsewhere. One can easily imagine that hiking must have been widely practised in those days when facilities of communication were in a poor state of development. Here in Japan it appears that the precursors of modern hikers were devotees of Buddhism, who wandered through the land going from one sacred place to another to improve their religious life and eventually to attain the ultimate object of Buddhism, to wit, Nirvana. The priests who thus pilgrimaged would always make a preaching tour. The custom of goins on pilgrimages gradually came to prevail among religious laymen. One result of this was the establishment of the so-called custom of Peregrinating The Emplro, visiting eighty-eight, places of worship. Meanwhile, people at large began In take kindly to the practice of making a pilgrimage. Among such pilgrims were painters, sculptors, carpenters, pollers, dyers and other professors of crafts, whoso object was to improve their skill in their several professions. Then again, the ancient samurai seems In have resorted to hiking as a means of mastering military arts and consummating the code of Busilido. This type of hiking was called muslia sliugyo, often interpreted as a fencing lour or a warriorpilgrimage. >o prevalent was this custom in days of yore dial there grew up round it many a legend of an ambitious samurai being instructed in fencing by a long-nosod hobgoblin, a fabulous denizen of mountain recesses.