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You are in one of the easternmost districts of the great city of Tokyo, and the building you see at the left, beyond this curious old arched bridge, is one of Tokyo's most famous and popular Shinto temples.  It is dedicated to the God of Literature, Sugawara-no-Michizane, who was once (a thousand years ago) a Japanese patriot and statesman. There are shrines inside that temple where some of these Japanese folk are at this minute going to pray for help or to repent their sins or to give thanks for their blessings. The Shinto faith (chiefly nature workshop and ancestor worship) was old here in Japan even when Buddhism was introduced as a new idea in the sixth century, A.D.; the Mikado is the visible head of the Shinto religion to-day; but the distinctions between Shinto and Buddhist worship are observed less punctiliously than in old times, many people worshiping at one shrine or another just as it happens.

The water over which this curious bridge gives a way is a little pond full of carp and goldfish made tame by much petting from the good-natured frequenters of the temple-garden. 

There are tea-houses build at various points alongside the pond or standing over it on wooden piles, with trellis-roofs from which clusters of blooming wistaria hang thick over the heads of happy holiday-makers.  People take their religion cheerfully here in Japan and make a visit to the temple here include a great many happy and innocent side-issues--tea-drinking in the arbors, feeding the fish, admiring the flowers, buying toys for the children, all sorts of simple holiday pleasuring. 

The beautiful stone monument just before you is a decorative lantern; on festival occasions a lighted lamp is set in that open space near the top.  It is one of a great many such, scattered about the temple grounds--mostly votive offerings from rich Shinto devotees. 

From Notes of Travel, No. 8, copyright, 1904, by Underwood & Underwood. 


Worshippers Crossing the Semi-Circular Bridge to Kameido Temple, Tokyo, Japan. 

Adorateurs Traversant le Pont Semi-circulaire au Temple Kameido, Tokio, Japon.

Cläubige, die halbfreisförmige Brüde zum Kameido Tempel freuzend, Tofio, Japan.

Adoradores Cruzando el Puente Semicircular hacia el Templo Kameido, Tokio, Japón.

Tillbedjare gående öfver den halfei kelrunda bryggan till Kameido templet, Tokyo, Japan. 

[[?]]склонники на полукругломъ, мосту волизи Камейдо-храма, Токіо, Японія.

Transcription Notes:
Cannot read the first part of the Russian text-- the first word is cut-off.