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When I came home from Japan I sent picture post-cards to all the Japanese school-boys who had given me theirnames. I had chosen cards that I thought would give them some idea of the size and importance of our country. One card had a picture of the Capitol at Washington, another Niagara Falls, another sky-scrapers in New York. In reply each boy wrote me a letter on thin rice paper and drew or painted or inclosed a picture of somescene or common sight in Japan.
Three of the pictures were of the same thing—a beautiful mountain with a snow-white top. It is the sacred mountain of Japan, called Fujiyama or just Fuji. It is really not a mountain at all but a burnt-out volcano, the top of which is covered with snow. You can see it from afar, and the Japanese love it so they put pictures of it on every conceivable thing they want to ornament—on fans, boxes, trays, umbrellas, lanterns, screens. No movie queen or famous beauty has ever had as many pictures made of her as have been made of Fuji.
There were two pictures of a huge bronze statue of Buddha seated out-of-doors in a grove of trees. It is so large that half a dozen people can sit on its thumbs. The eyes are of solid gold and more than a yard long, and in its forehead is a large ball of solid silver. They call it the Diabutsu. We might call it an idol, but the Japanese make statues of Buddha as we put up monuments to famous men and saints, and their statues of Buddha are to remind them that he was wise and good. His life was an example which even Christians might imitate.
