Numerous other cases of inspired utterances are recorded in Japanese history. They have generally relation to the worship of the God concerned, directing the erection of a new shrine, indicating religious observances which will do him pleasure, or complaining that he is neglected or insulted. The Buddhist priests, who converted Shinto to their own purposes, made frequent use of this means of sanctioning their encroachments, and it was also made to serve political purposes.
Some of the above notices are purely legendary, and of the rest many are open to a suspicion of imposture. It is probable, however, that in most cases the writers who recorded or invented them had in view the hypnotic trance, a kind of condition which is well known in Japan at the present day. The following description of a hypnotic séance is abridged from Mr. Percival Lowell's interesting book, 'Occult Japan.'
A place having been chosen, either holy or else purified ad hoc, a gohei is set up with lighted candles beside it and flanking these, sprigs of sakaki, the sacred tree of Shinto. In front of the gohei is set out a feast for the God. Some five feet in front a porous earthenware bowl is placed on a stand, and in the bowl a pyre of incense sticks. The purification of the place consists in enclosing the spot with strings, from which depend at intervals small gohei, and from the space so shut off driving out all evil spirits by prayer, finger-charms,[322] sprinkling of salt, striking of sparks by flint and steel, and brandishing a gohei.
The persons of the officiators are purified by bathing and putting on fresh white garments.
In its full complement the company consists of eight persons, the naka-za (middle-seat) corresponding to the medium, the mae-za (front-seat), who is the director of the proceedings, and puts the necessary questions to the medium, and several others whose business it is to ward off evil influences, &c.
A purification service having been chanted under the leadership of the mae-za, and songs sung to the accompaniment of the shaku-jō,[323] a sort of staff with metal rings attached to it, the pyre is lighted, and as the flames ascend into the air prayers go up to Fudōsama.[324]
The gohei having been removed and set up in the middle, the men take their seats for the descent of the God. Facing the gohei, they go through a further short incantation. Then one of the subordinates holds the gohei while the naka-za seats himself where it had been and closes his eyes. The mae-za takes the gohei and places it between the hands of the naka-za. Then all the others join in chant, and watch for the advent of the God.
For a few minutes, the time varying with the particular naka-za, the man remains perfectly motionless. Then suddenly the gohei begins to quiver. The quiver gains till all at once the man is seized with a convulsive throe. In some trances the eyes then open, the eyeballs being rolled up half out of sight. In others the eyes remain half shut. Then the throe subsides again to a permanent quiver, the eyes, if open, fixed in the trance look. The man has now become the God.
The mae-za, bowed down, then reverently asks the name of the God, and the God answers, after which the mae-za prefers his petitions, to which the God makes reply. When he has finished, the naka-za falls forward on his face. The mae-za concludes with a prayer, then, striking the naka-za on the back, wakes him up. One of the others gives him water from a cup, and when he has been able to swallow it the rest set to and rub his arms and body out of their cataleptic contraction.
The Sankairi, a work published in 1853, mentions a kind of inspired medium known as yori-dai:--