3-053-560 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Sketches in Japan: feeding puppy-dogs at the Buddhist Temple of Oyama, 1873. 'Our Special Artist lately in Japan, after visiting the famous sacred mountain Fusiyama, went on to another called Oyama, which is less known to us. The name is explained: the syllabic prefix "O" means "great," and is used in an honorific sense; while "Yama" signifies "a mountain." Mr. Simpson thus describes a scene he beheld there: "Oyama is about 6000 ft. high, and is finely wooded, with temples on its sides, which are great places of pilgrimage. On the day of my visit I met a continuous stream of men, women, and children visiting the various shrines. At one of them I was struck with the number of puppy-dogs all over the place. Some were sleeping in the sun, others were romping about. I watched what was going on, when I saw that the visitors gave a man a small coin, and that he then threw the food on the ground, causing a playful rush of the young barkers. The food was boiled rice made into small balls, and no one seemed to go away without paying for some to be given to the puppies. I saw no full-grown dogs, and I could not make out where they got such a quantity of young ones - there may have been about thirty of them'. From "Illustrated London News", 1873.