You have been kind enough to offer to find out for me something about Shintō. Well, if you have time, I will ask you to find out for me as much as you can about the miya of the household,—the household shrine and kamidana in Izumo. I would like to know what way the kamidana should face—north, south, east, or west.
Also, what is the origin of the curious shape of the little stoppers of the omiki-dokkuri?
Also, whether the ancestors are ever worshipped before the kamidana in the same way as they are worshipped before the butsudan.
Are the names of the dead ever written upon something to be placed in the miya, in the same way, or nearly the same way, as the kaimyō is written upon the ihai or Buddhist mortuary tablet.
In the Shintō worship of family ancestors (if there is any such worship, which I doubt), what prayers are said?
Are any particular family-prayers said by Buddhists when praying before the kaimyō, or do the common people utter only the ordinary prayer of their sect—such as “Namu Amida Butsu,” or, “Namu Myōhō Rengekyō?”
But do not give yourself too much trouble about these things, and take your own time;—in a month, or two months, or even three months will be quite time enough. And if you have no time, do not trouble yourself about it at all; and write to me that you cannot, or would rather not,—then I will ask some one who is less busy.
I shall be hoping really to see you in Kumamoto next year. You would like the school very much. Perhaps you would not like the city as well as Matsue; but the school is not in the city exactly; it is a little outside of it, and you would live in the school, probably,—or very near it. The students make excursions to Nagasaki and other places, by railroad and steamer.
Now about your letter. It was very nice. You made a few mistakes in using “will,”—and in saying “if I would have promote my school.” It ought to have been “if I should go to a higher school.”