“The sanctity of the Miya, or temples sacred to the gods of old worshipped in the country, requires also that they should be built in some lofty place, or, at least, at some distance from unclean, common grounds. I have elsewhere observed that they are attended only by secular persons[173]. A neat broad walk turns in from the highway towards these temples. At the beginning of the walk is a stately and magnificent gate, built either of stone or of wood, with a square table, about a foot and a half high, on which the name of the god to whom the temple is consecrated is written or engraved in golden characters. “Of this magnificent entry one may justly say, _Parturiunt Montes_; for if you come to the end of the walk, which is sometimes several hundred paces long, instead of a pompous, magnificent building, you find nothing but a low, mean structure of wood, often all hid amidst trees and bushes, with one single grated window to look into it, and within either all empty, or adorned only with a looking-glass of metal, placed in the middle, and hung about with some bundles of straw, or cut white paper, tied to a long string, in form of fringes, as a mark of the purity and sanctity of the place. The most magnificent gates stand before the temples of _Tenshō daijin_, of _Hachiman_, and of that _Kami_, or god, whom particular places choose to worship as their tutelar deity, who takes a more particular care to protect and defend them[174]. “Other religious objects travellers meet with along the roads are the Hotoke, or foreign idols, chiefly those of _Amida_ and _Jizō_, as also other monstrous images and idols, which we found upon the highways in several places, at the turning in of sideways, near bridges, convents, temples, and other buildings. They are set up partly as an ornament to the place, partly to remind travellers of the devotion and worship due to the gods. For this same purpose, drawings of these idols printed upon entire or half sheets of paper, are pasted upon the gates of cities and villages, upon wooden posts, near bridges, upon the proclamation-cases above described, and in several other places upon the highway, which stand the most exposed to the traveller’s view. Travellers, however, are not obliged to fall down before them, or to pay them any other mark of worship and respect than they are otherwise willing to do.