Objects of Divination.--In Japan we find divination practised to ascertain whether an expedition would be successful or unsuccessful, the reason of the disturbed state of the country and its remedy, the best site for a temple, tomb, or dwelling-house, whether the Mikado should make a progress to a certain place and perform sacrifices there, what crops it is best to sow, what days will be lucky or unlucky, when to expect a lover, the name of a future husband, &c. The priestess of Ise was selected by divination, and the provinces from which the rice for the Ohonihe ceremony should be taken. Ominous occurrences were interpreted by the help of this art. The purity of persons about to take part in a religious ceremony was tested in this manner. Or divination might be applied to the baser use of recovering lost property or discovering thieves. There was a special divination on the 10th day of the 12th month to ascertain what ill luck threatened the Mikado during the ensuing six months, so that the Gods whose curse was feared might be propitiated in advance.
Religious and Non-religious Divination.--Divination, like magic, does not necessarily involve the intervention of superhuman sentient beings, as we may see by our own palmistry, fortune-telling by cards, and Shakespeare cryptograms. That the art passed through a non-religious phase is highly probable. In Japan, however, the cases met with in the oldest records are commonly associated, explicitly or implicitly, with an appeal for divine guidance. Hirata defines divination as "respectfully inquiring the heart (ura) of the Gods." Motoöri takes the same view, though both writers admit that in modern times divination which has no religious sanction is sometimes resorted to, playfully, or in unimportant matters.
The Greater Divination.--The greater, or official, divination consists in drawing conclusions according to certain conventional rules from the cracks which appear in a deer's shoulder-blade when exposed to fire. This practice is known not only to the Chinese, Kalmucks, Cherkeses, and other races of North-Eastern Asia, but to the ancient Germans and Greeks. Nearer home we have the "reading the speal" (épaule), a sort of divination by examining the marks on a shoulder-blade of mutton, practised not very long ago in the Highlands of Scotland. The Nihongi tells us that the Gods themselves made use of the Greater Divination in order to learn the reason of Izanagi and Izanami's abortive children the Hiruko and the Island of Ahaji. The God Koyane, ancestor of the Nakatomi, was specially charged with this form of divination. In the numerous passages of the Nihongi where divination is mentioned without further description, it is no doubt the Greater Divination which is intended. Chinese methods of divination were introduced into Japan from Korea at an early date. In 553 it seems to have been an established practice that Koreans learned in medicine, in divination, and in calendar-making should take turns of service at the Court of Japan. It was no doubt owing to their influence that the tortoise-shell was substituted for the deer's shoulder-blade in this divination. A reference to the "divine Tortoise" in the Nihongi under the legendary date b.c.92 is merely an anachronism. But the tortoise was really in use for this purpose in the eighth century. The Yengishiki recognizes no other, though in the country districts the shoulder-blades of deer were long retained.
In an old book purporting to describe the practice of the Tsushima college of diviners at a much later period than the Yengishiki, we are told that the diviner, after practising religious abstinence for seven days, took his place in the divination plot (uraba or uraniha), from which all other persons were rigorously excluded. He was provided with the tortoise-shell, some hahaka wood, and other requisites. Having prayed to the God of the divination plot,[307] who is besought to grant a true divination, the diviner recites the Kami-oroshi (formula which brings down the God), and kindles in a blazing fire a stick of hahaka about four or five inches long, and of the thickness of a chopstick. When it has taken fire, he blows it out, and with it pricks the tortoise-shell from the back. Divination is then made from the lines thus produced. When the divination is over, the Kami-agari (ascent of the God) is recited, and the ceremony is at an end.
The Shintō Miōmoku Ruijiu gives the following description of a form of tortoise-shell divination practised at Kashima to select young girls for the service of the God (mono-imi). Two candidates who have not reached puberty perform rites to the God for 100 days. On the final day a caldron is set up before the shrine and two tortoise-shells are placed in it, each of which bears the name of one of the girls. These are roasted from early morning till dusk. The tortoise-shell with the name of the successful candidate is then found to be wholly uninjured by the fire whilst the other is reduced to ashes. It is said that the girl selected attains a great age and that she never menstruates.
Tsuji-ura (cross-roads divination).[308] --This form of divination was much practised in ancient Japan, especially by women and lovers. It consisted in going out to the road at dusk, planting a stick in the ground to represent Kunado, the phallic God of roads, and interpreting the fragmentary talk of passers-by as an answer to the question.[309] Another account says that to perform tsuji-ura you take a box-wood comb in your hand, go to cross-roads and sound it three times by drawing your finger along it (tsuge, "box-wood," also means "inform me"). Then, with devotion to the Sahe no Kami, repeat this verse three times: "Oh, thou God of the cross-roads-divination, grant me a true response." Good or bad luck is to be inferred from the words of the next (or the third) person who makes his appearance. Sometimes a boundary line was marked out and rice sprinkled to keep away evil influences. The words of the passer-by who first entered the charmed limit constituted the response.
Hashi-ura (bridge-divination). Little is known of this kind of divination. The procedure was the same as in tsuji-ura, and the Gods concerned were probably the Sahe no Kami. The end-post of a bridge was, and still is, a wo-bashira, that is, male pillar or phallus.
Ishi-ura, or stone-divination, is mentioned in the Manyōshiu along with tsuji-ura. The "stone" is probably the stone emblem of Kunado or Sahe no Kami. It consisted in judging of future fortune by the apparent weight of the stone when lifted. Such stones were called Ishi-gami (stone-deities) and were no doubt phallic.
Mikayu-ura (divination by gruel). This kind of divination is also associated with the Sahe no Kami. It was practised in various forms at Kirawoka in Kahachi, Suha in Shinano, and other places, on the 15th day of the 1st month[310] in order to ascertain what crops it would be best to sow that year. A pot was set up before the God in which adzuki beans[311] were boiled. Then tubes of reed, five or six inches long, marked with the names of all manner of crops were plunged into the gruel. The negi (priests) stood by, and taking out the tubes with chopsticks divined from the manner in which the grains of rice (mixed with the gruel) entered them whether the crop in question would be good or bad. At Haruna the priests published the results to the peasants in a printed form.
Hirata mentions another form of divination in which beans are set in a row round the hearth and fire brought close to them. Some are roasted black while others remain white, and from this the weather and luck of the ensuing year are divined.