Hearn 3): The Mirror

In his early days in Matsue, Hearn was fascinated by most everything he saw.  Here, in Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan (1894), he describes his first encounter with the mirror that stands at the heart of the Shinto shrine.  It captures the curiosity that drove him, the fascination with Shinto things, and the sense of mystery to which he was so attracted.  Something in the mirror spoke to him of the search for home within himself.

“Then I reach the altar, gropingly, unable yet to distinguish forms clearly. But the priest, sliding back screen after screen, pours in light upon the gilded brasses and the inscriptions; and I look for the image of the Deity or presiding Spirit between the altar- groups of convoluted candelabra. And I see―only a mirror, a round, pale disk of polished metal, and my own face therein, and behind this mockery of me a phantom of the far sea.

Only a mirror! Symbolising what? Illusion? or that the Universe exists for us solely as the reflection of our own souls? or the old Chinese teaching that we must seek the Buddha only in our own hearts? Perhaps some day I shall be able to find out all these things.”

[Glimpses on Unfamiliar Japan can be read online here. For more on Lafcadio Hearn, see here.]