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You are at the east end of the lake near a popular summer hotel.  Nikko, the celebrated place of sacred shrines to the gods, where two of the proud old Shōguns were buried, is only eight miles distant behind you.  Tokyo, with its enormous area of busy streets and more than a million people, is one hundred miles away at the south.

In broad daylight this is the bluest of blue lakes set in a frame of vivid green.  There are a great many maple trees on these mountains around the lake and in the autumn their foliage takes on gorgeously brilliant hues, like those seen in many parts of the United States.  Not many people live in this region all the year round — there are three little villages at this side of the lake and one over on the north (right) side at the foot of a scared mountain called Nantaisan, but the people are few and poor.  It is only during the three-months' summer season that many see this magnificence of water and picturesque sky-line and clouds lined with gold and silver.  The Japanese themselves care much more for beauty of line and form and color than the average European or American.  The poorest pilgrim who comes here would delight in the delicate silhouette of this tree-foliage against the sunset sky, the varying tones of dark in those distant mountains, one behind another, and the gleam of that broad pathway over the ripply level of the silent lake.

It is, for devout Japanese, not only a delight to the eyes but a virtue in the soul to make a pilgrimage through this neighborhood.  The shrines at Nikko eight miles away give sanctity to him who prays there, and it is supposed to be pleasing to the high gods that one should bathe in the waters of this lake and then climb to a sanctuary on the lofty summit of an extinct volcano  (Nantaisan) at the N. E. side of the lake  (off at your right).  There are multitudes of poetic old traditions about the builder of the summit-temple.  

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


Looking toward the Setting Sun over Lake Chuzenji; Japan.
Regardant le Soleil Couchant au-dessus du Lac Chuzenji; Japon.
Anblid der untergehenden Sonne über den Chuzenji-See; Japan.
Mirando hacia el Sol que se Pone por Encima del Lago Chuzenji; Japón.
Seende på den nedgående solen vid Chuzenjiinsjön; Japan.
Bидъ эaxoяiпaro coлнцa нaдъ oэepoм Шyэeнжи; Япoнiя

Transcription Notes:
French: àâæ éèêë ïî ôœ ùûüÿ ç German: äöüß Spanish: áéíñóúü Swedish: äåéö Russian uppercase: Я Ш Е Р Т Ы У И О П Ю Щ Э А С Д Ф Г Ч Й К Л Ь Ж З Х Ц В Б Н М Ъ Ё Russian lowercase: я ш е р т ы у и о п ю щ э а с д ф г ч й к л ь ж з х ц в б н м ъ ё Japan - Япoнiя