Shinto

"'Attend, therefore, all of you to this Great Purification, by which he is graciously pleased at sunset on this interlunar day of the sixth (or twelfth) month of this year to purify and cleanse you, having led hither a horse as an animal that pricks up its ears to the Plain of High-Heaven.' 271

"He says: 'Ye diviners (Urabe) of the four provinces, remove them to the great river-way and abolish them.'" 272

In addition to the Oho-harahi, or National Purifications, there were local and individual celebrations. In the latter case, of which Susa no wo's punishment is the mythical type, the harahi-tsu-mono were naturally furnished by the person for whose benefit they were performed, and so amounted practically to a fine on the offender. The Nihongi (a. d. 646) mentions a number of cases in which travellers and others were compelled by the country people to do harahi, that is, to pay a fine, under various pretences. For example, when a man returning from forced labour fell down by the roadside and died, the villagers of the place said, "Why should a man be allowed to die on our road?" and detained the companions of the deceased until they had done harahi. Cases of drowning were followed by similar claims, and even the cooking of rice by the roadside or the upsetting of a borrowed pot. An Imperial decree was issued prohibiting these extortions, which are described as habitual with the unenlightened vulgar.

The application of the harahi to the purpose of a fine was regulated by an ordinance which was issued in 801. Those who were guilty of neglect in connexion with the celebration of the Ohonihe, or who, during the month of special avoidance of impurity, contracted mourning, visited the sick, were concerned with capital sentences, ate flesh, or touched anything impure were mulcted in an oho-harahi, which in this case meant simply a heavy fine. It consisted of one horse, two swords, two bows, and a long list of other sundries. Other offences of the same classes were fined in a naka-harahi, or medium harahi.

Dr. Florenz describes a more modern form of harahi as follows: "As a third species of harahi we may mention the purification preceding every greater festival of a Shinto shrine, through which the priests and others taking part in the Matsuri are purified. This ceremony takes place in a hall or open place specially prepared for the purpose, called harahi-dokoro (purification-place). It consists in the Kami-oroshi (bringing down the spirits of the purifying deities) into the himorogi, which stands on an eight-legged table in the middle of the harahi-dokoro, the recitation of the purification prayer, various subsequent symbolic ceremonies, and the Kami-age, or sending back the Gods to their abodes. Thereupon the priests are considered to be pure, and the Matsuri proper can begin. The prayer addressed to the Gods is as follows: -

"In reverence and awe: The great gods of the purification place who came into existence when the Great God Izanagi deigned to wash and purify himself on the plain of Ahagi [east] of Tachibana [near] the River Wotō in Himuka in Tsukushi, shall deign to purify and deign to cleanse whatever there may be of sins and pollutions committed inadvertently or deliberately by the officials serving here to-day. Listen ye to these my words. Thus I say reverentially."

In later times there were many abuses and perversions of the harahi, due mainly to Buddhist influence. The formula was much modified, and is found in numerous versions. Some of these are wholly Buddhist, such as the well-known "Rokkon shōjō" (may the six senses be pure), so constantly in the mouths of pilgrims at this day. Others include a prayer for purity of heart, which is an idea quite foreign to the ancient Shinto. Harahi-bako (harahi-boxes) were sold at Ise with inscriptions half Buddhist and half Shinto. In imitation of a similar Buddhist practice, these boxes contained a certificate that the harahi had been recited one thousand or ten thousand times for the purchaser's benefit. Pieces of the gohei wand used by the priests at the Oho-harahi of the sixth and twelfth months were enclosed with these certificates. Sometimes a small fragment of the old shrine, which was broken up every twentieth year and a new one erected, was compressed between two thin boards and called an o-harahi. Pilgrims received these in return for their offerings. The devout could even purchase them from hawkers, who went about the country (like the sellers of indulgences in Luther's time) disposing of them for the benefit of the shrine. This practice is now prohibited.273

The ideas associated with the harahi ceremony also underwent a change. Some writers speak of it as intended "to propitiate evil deities." The harahi sold by the priests of Ise were set up in the Kami-dana, or domestic shrine, and worshipped as the shintai of the deity. They were supposed to be indestructible by fire or water, to keep away robbers, to heal diseases, to make the old young, and to protect against calamity of every kind.

In some later forms of the harahi the purifying Gods are besought to cleanse from evil, sin, and pollution. This marks a different attitude from that of the Nakatomi no Oho-harahi, where they are merely a part of the machinery of purification.

Invocation by the Hereditary Corporation of Scholars of Yamato and Kahachi. – This norito (No. 11 of the Yengishiki) was read previous to the performance of the Oho-harahi. The two corporations named were descendants, or, at least, successors of the Korean scholars who in the fifth century introduced Chinese learning into Japan. The language, thought, and sentiment of this norito are Chinese. The Sun, Moon (not Hirume and Tsukiyomi) and stars, the High Emperor of Supreme Heaven (Shangti), the five Emperors of the five cardinal points, the King-father of the East, the King-mother of the West, the four influences of the four seasons, and other Chinese divinities are invoked to grant prosperity to the Mikado. An offering was made of a silver man in order that calamity might be averted from him, and of a golden sword so that his reign might be lengthened. The sword, really of wood gilt, was called the harahi-tsu-tachi, or sword of purification, and was breathed upon by the Mikado before being taken away. The silver man was also for use as an aga-mono, or ransom-object.

Michi-ahe no Matsuri. – The object of this ceremony was to invoke the aid of the Sahe no Kami in preventing evil spirits, that is to say, pestilences, from entering Kioto.274 The norito (No. 13 of the Yengishiki) read on this occasion is as follows: -

"I humbly declare in the presence of the Sovran Gods whose functions first began in the Plain of High Heaven, when they fulfilled the praises 275 of the Sovran Grandchild by guarding the great eight-road-forks like a multitudinous assemblage of rocks.276

"Naming your honoured names, to wit, Yachimata-hiko, Yachimata-hime, and Kunado, I fulfil your praises. Whenever from the Root-country the Bottom-country there may come savage and unfriendly beings, consort not and parley not with them, but if they go below, keep watch below, if they go above, keep watch above, protecting us against pollution with a night guarding and with a day guarding.

"The offerings I furnish in your honour are bright cloth, shining cloth, soft cloth, and rough cloth. Of sake I raise up the tops of the jars and fill and range in order the bellies of the jars. [Grain] in juice and in ear I offer you. Of things that dwell in the mountains and on the moors I offer the soft of hair and the coarse of hair. Of things that dwell in the blue sea-plain, the broad of fin and the narrow of fin, even to the weeds of the offing and the weeds of the shore. Peacefully partaking of these plenteous offerings, which I lay before you in full measure like a cross range of hills, hold guard on the highways like a multitudinous assemblage of rocks, preserving from pollution the Sovran Grandchild firmly and enduringly, and bless his reign to be a prosperous reign.

"Also be pleased peacefully to preserve from pollution the Imperial Princes, the Princes, the Ministers of State, and all the functionaries, including, moreover, the people of the Under-Heaven.

"I, as official of the Department of Religion, humbly fulfil your praises by this celestial, this great pronouncement."

The offerings included hides of oxen, boar, deer, and bear, in addition to those above enumerated.

Sagi-chō. – This is a modern ceremony, which was also intended to repel evil influences. The Wakan-Sansai-dzuye (1713) gives the following description of it as practised in the Imperial Palace: -

"On the fifteenth day of the first month 277 green bamboos are burnt in the courtyard of the Seiryōden, and happy reports278 sent up to Heaven therewith. On the eighteenth also bamboos are dressed up with fans attached to them, which are burnt at the same place. There is a reader of spells called Daikoku Matsudaiyu, who has four followers, two old men and two old women. These wear devil-masks and 'red-bear' wigs. The two old women carry drums, and the two old men run after them trying to beat the drums. There are two boys without masks, but with 'red-bear' wigs, who beat double cymbals. Moreover, there are five men in dress of ceremony who stand in a row and join in with cries of 'dondoya,' while one costumed somewhat differently calls out 'Ha!'"

The Wakan Sansai does not know the origin of this ceremony, which is said to expel demons. There is a similar Chinese practice, though on a different date, namely, the first day of the year. Its object is said to be to drive away mountain elves.

Mikado matsuri. – This ceremony was in honour of two Gate Gods named Kushi-iha-mado (wondrous-rock-gate) and Toyo-iha-mado (rich-rock-gate).279 The Yengishiki contains a norito (No. 9) in which their praises are fulfilled, because they prevent the entrance to the Palace of noxious things and exercise a superintendence over the persons who come in and go out.

Tsuina or Oni-yarahi, that is to say, demon expelling, is a sort of drama in which disease, or more generally ill-luck, is personified, and driven away with threats and a show of violence. Like the Oho-harahi, it was performed on the last day of the year. This association is only natural. The demons of the tsuina are personified wintry influences, with the diseases which they bring with them, while the Oho-harahi is intended to cleanse the people from sin and uncleanness, things closely related to disease, as well as from disease itself. Though probably of Chinese origin, the tsuina is a tolerably ancient rite. It is alluded to in the Nihongi under the date a. d. 689. It was at one time performed at Court on an imposing scale. Four bands of twenty youths, each wearing a four-eyed mask, and each carrying a halberd in the left hand, marched simultaneously from the four gates of the Palace, driving the devils before them. Another account of this ceremony says that a man disguised himself as the demon of pestilence, in which garb he was shot at and driven off by the courtiers armed with peach-wood bows and arrows of reed. (See illustration, p. 310.) Peach-wood staves were used for the same purpose. There was formerly a practice at Asa-kusa in Tokio on the last day of the year for a man got up as a devil to be chased round the pagoda there by another wearing a mask. After this 3,000 tickets were scrambled for by the spectators. These were carried away and pasted up over the doors as a charm against pestilence. At the present day, the popular form of tsuina consists in scattering parched beans with the cry, "Oni ha soto: fuku ha uchi," that is, "Out with the devils and in with the luck." The former phrase is uttered in a loud voice, the latter in a low tone. This office should properly be discharged by the head of the family, but it is frequently delegated to a servant. The performer is called the toshi-otoko, or year-man. In the Shōgun's palace a specially appointed toshi-otoko sprinkled parched beans in all the principal rooms. These beans were picked up by the women of the palace, who wrapped them in paper in number equal to the years of their age, and then flung them backwards out of doors. Sometimes tsuina beans were gathered by people who had reached an unlucky year (yaku-toshi), one for each year of their age and one over, and wrapped in paper with a small copper coin, which had been rubbed over their body to transfer the ill-luck. These were placed in a bamboo tube and flung away at crossroads. This was called yaku-sute (flinging away ill-luck). Other people pass under seven tori-wi as an antidote.

The significance of the peach and bean in this ceremony has been already explained.280 The vulgar notion is that the beans hit the devils in the eye and blind them. A more philosophical theory is that the beans dispel the in-aku no ki, or female evil influences, and welcome in the sei-yō, green male influences. By the female influences are here meant wintry influences; by male influences those of spring.

Mr. J. G. Frazer, in 'The Golden Bough,' iii. 67, second edition, gives an interesting account of another Japanese form of this custom.

The tsuina is only a special form of a world-wide ceremony. We may compare with it the Roman Lemuria, a festival for the souls of the dead, in which the celebrators threw black beans nine times behind their backs, believing by this ceremony to secure themselves against the Lemures. Some of my readers may have witnessed the Scotch Hogmanay, when the house is thrice circumambulated on the last day of the year in order to frighten away devils. In Lady Burton's life of her husband she tells us that at Trieste on St. Sylvester's Eve, the servants went through a very usual ceremony of forming procession and chevying the evil spirits with sticks and brooms out of the house, inviting the good spirits and good luck to come and dwell there. This is curiously like the Japanese formula just quoted. At Chæronea, in Bœotia, the chief magistrate at the town hall and every householder in his own house, as we learn from Plutarch, had on a certain day to beat a slave with rods of agnus castus, and turn him out of doors, with the formula, "Out hunger! in health and wealth." The "expulsion of winter" of Teutonic and Slavonic folklore belongs to the same class of customs. It should be remembered that the Japanese New Year was later than our own, and was recognized as the beginning of spring.

I must not quote further from the extensive literature of this subject. The reader is referred to 'The Golden Bough,' second edition, vol. iii. pp. 39 et seqq., for a rich collection of evidence relating to it.

New Year in Modern Japan. – Although most of the New Year's observances in modern Japan belong to the province of popular magic rather than of Shinto, some general account of them may not be out of place here. The preparations begin on the thirteenth day of the last month, which is therefore called koto-hajime (beginning of things). On this day people eat okotojiru, a kind of stew, whose ingredients are generally red beans, potatoes, mushrooms, sliced fish, and a root called konnyaku. Presents of money are made to servants at this time. About the same date there is a partly real, partly ceremonial house-cleaning called susu-harahi (soot-sweeping). The other preparations for the New Year consist in decorating the front entrance by planting at each side of it small fir-trees, with which bamboos are frequently joined. Both of these symbolize an ever-green prosperity. A shimenaha is hung over the door or gate, attached to which are fern leaves, and yudzuri-ha (Daphniphyllum macropodum) with daidai (a kind of bitter orange). Daidai also means ages, generations, so that this is a sort of punning prayer for long life and the continuance of the family. The prawn, which forms part of the decorations, is supposed by its curved back to suggest old age. Sometimes holly leaves, of which the prickles are thought, as in Europe, obnoxious to demons, bean pods, and a head of a salt sardine (ihashi) are added. On the domestic shrine is placed an offering of unleavened cakes of glutinous pounded rice, the preparation of which is a matter for much fun and excitement. These cakes are called kagami-mochi, or mirror-cakes, on account of their shape, which is that of a flattened sphere. There are two of them. One is said to represent the sun, the yō, or male principle of Chinese philosophy, the parent and the husband, while the other is put for the moon, the female principle, the child and the wife. The kagami-mochi is also called the ha-gatame mochi (tooth-hardening cake) because it fortifies the constitution. The explanation given is that the Chinese character for ha, "tooth," also means "age."

The tsuina on the last day of the year is described above.

The first act of the New Year is for the toshi-otoko to proceed at dawn to the well or stream whence the household water is supplied. He throws into it a small offering of rice, and draws water in a new pail crowned with shime-naha. To drink this water, called waka-midzu or young water, brings luck and exemption from disease during the year.

On New Year's day zōni, a stew of various kinds of vegetables is eaten and a spiced sake called toso is drunk and offered to visitors. No work is done. Visits are exchanged between friends, and formal calls made on superiors. The phrase Shinnen o medetô gozarimasu (New Year's congratulations to you) is in everybody's mouth. The ujigami are visited and also the Shinto temples which lie in the direction (ehô) indicated by the cyclic name of the year. Thus the year of the Hare is associated with the East. The Gods who preside over this particular year are called the Toshi-toku-jin (year-virtue-Gods).

In some places a lamp, consisting of a coarse earthenware saucer with a wick, is lighted at the New Year in honour of the God of the Privy. Sick people at this time throw away their stockings or drawers on a frequented road, and if any one picks them up they expect to recover. Samurai boys receive presents of hamayumi (devil-quelling bows).

The seventh of the first month is called Nanakusa, or seven herbs, because in ancient times people went out into the country to gather wild pot-herbs which were made into a mess with rice and eaten on this day.

The New Year's celebrations end with the Sahe no Kami festival (now called dondo or sagichô) on the fourteenth or fifteenth of the first month, when the decorations above described are made the material for a bonfire.281

Tatari-gami wo utsushi-tatematsuru norito (service for the respectful removal of deities who send a curse). – This norito (No. 25) is long, but it contains nothing worthy of special notice. The mischievous deities are reminded of the divine right of the Mikado, and of the quelling by Futsunushi and Takemika-dzuchi of the evil beings who plagued Japan before the descent of Ninigi. Offerings of cloth, a mirror, jewels, bows and arrows, swords, a horse, sake, rice in ear and in grain, and various kinds of flesh and vegetables, are set before them, with the request that they should retire to enjoy these good things in some pure spot among the hills and streams and remain there, rather than work curses and violence in the Palace.

It is to be distinguished from the Michiahe ritual, which was addressed to the Protective Road-deities in order to keep off pestilence. The present formula is a direct appeal to the evil deities themselves. It is not quite clear who they were. Perhaps all possibly harmful Gods were meant to be included.

Ceremony when Envoys were despatched to Foreign Countries. – On such occasions the Gods of Heaven and Earth, with the phallic Chiburi no Kami, or Road-Gods, were worshipped outside the city, the envoys taking part in the ceremony and reading a norito. The wood-Gods and mountain-Gods were worshipped before cutting the timber for building their ship.

The Yengishiki preserves a norito (No. 26) used on one of these occasions. It is addressed to the Sea-Gods of Sumiyoshi, and presents thank-offerings to them for providing a harbour there more convenient for the envoys to sail from than a more distant port in Harima.

Ho-shidzume no Matsuri (fire-calming-service). – This ceremony was performed on the last days of the sixth and twelfth months by the Urabe, or diviners, at the four outer corners of the Imperial Palace, in order to prevent its destruction by fire. The Urabe kindled a fire by means of the fire-drill and worshipped it. The following norito (No. 12) was read on the occasion: -

"I humbly declare according to the celestial the great pronouncement (norito) delivered to the Sovran Grandchild by his Sovran, dear, divine ancestor and ancestress when they granted to him the Under-Heaven, commanding him to rule tranquilly as a peaceful realm the fair Rice-ear-land of the Rich-reed-plain, as follows: 'The two Gods Izanagi and Izanami, having become united as husband and wife, procreated the eighty countries and the eighty islands and gave birth to the eight hundred myriads of deities. When Izanami's last son, the God Homusubi (fire-growth), was born her pudenda were burnt and she became rock-concealed.282 She said, "For nights seven and for days seven look not on me, oh my husband." But before the seven days were fulfilled, Izanagi, wondering at her concealment, viewed her, and behold, her pudenda had been burnt in giving birth to the Fire.283 "Oh, my honoured husband," said Izanami, "thou hast insulted me by looking on me despite my having besought thee to refrain from doing so at such a time. Therefore thou must govern the upper world and I the lower world." So saying, she was rock-concealed. When she had reached the Even Pass of Yomi, she bethought herself: "I gave birth to, and left behind me in the upper world ruled by my honoured husband, an evil-hearted child." So she went back and gave birth to other children, namely, the God of Water, the Gourd, the River-weed, and the Clay-mountain-lady, four kinds in all. Moreover, she taught him, saying, "When the temper of this evil-hearted child becomes violent, do thou assuage it with the Water-God, the Gourd, the River-weed, and the Clay-mountain-lady."

"'Therefore do I fulfil thy praises as follows: To the end that thou mayest deign to control thy transports against the Palace of the Sovran Grandchild, I offer thee bright cloth, shining cloth, smooth cloth, and rough cloth, of various colours. Of things which dwell in the blue sea-plain, I offer the broad of fin and the narrow of fin, even unto the weeds of the offing and the weeds of the shore. Of sake, I raise up the tops of the jars, and fill and range in order the bellies of the jars. Nor do I omit rice, cleaned and in the husk. Heaping up these things like a cross-range of hills, I fulfil thy praises according to the Celestial, the Great pronouncement.'"

It will be observed that the tone of this norito is not particularly reverent. It reads more like an offer to pay blackmail than a prayer. The phraseology implies that the Mikado is the God's superior. And surely there is a malicious humour in the reminder that the God was a bad boy, to provide the means for whose control and chastisement his mother came back expressly from Hades.

Kasuga no Matsuri. – This service is comparatively modern, having been first used in 859. It is in honour of the Gods worshipped at Kasuga, near Nara, namely, Take-mika-dzuchi, Futsunushi, Koyane, and a Goddess who is supposed to be the wife of the last-named deity. It was celebrated twice annually by a priestess despatched from Kiōto to Nara for the purpose. I take from Sir Ernest Satow's 'Ancient Japanese Rituals' in the T.A.S.J. the following account of the ceremonies used on this occasion. They may serve as an example of the elaborate ritual of Shinto at this period, and to illustrate the intimate association of government with religion.