Jakusi

Jakusi the Japanese divinity of physic. "His idol is placed in a small temple richly adorned, standing upright on a gilt tarate flower, or faba AEgyptiaca, under one half of a large cockle-shell extended over his head, which is encircled with a crown of rays. He has a scepter in his left hand, and in his right hand something unknown. The idol is gilt all over. The Japanese, as they pass by, never fail to pay their reverence to this golden idol, approaching the temple with a low bow, and bareheaded, when they ring a little bell hung up at the entrance, and-then, holding both their hands to their foreheads, repeat a prayer. The Japanese relate that this temple was erected to Jakusi by a pious but poor man, who, having' discovered an excellent medicinal power, gained so much money by it as to be able to give this testimony of his gratitude to the God of physic." Broughton, Biblioth. Hist. Sac. 1, 499.