"There are numbers of these in Ôsaka who practise Kami-oroshi (bringing down the God). An altar to Sho-ichi-i Inari Miōjin (first of first rank illustrious God Inari) is consecrated within their dwelling-house, before which the medium takes his seat. Some of these bringers-down of the God are men, others women. They take a gohei in each hand and repeat the Rokkon shōjō no harahi [a bastard Buddhist form of harahi], muttering at the same time something or another so that one might think they were veritable official bringers-down of the God.
"At Tenōji there is a Miko-machi, or street of mediums who pretend that it was established by Shōtoku Taishi. When the cries of these mediums reach the street, people look in at the windows. They differ, however, from the Inari-oroshi. Some there are who use the formula, 'Is it a living mouth or a dead mouth?' so that they probably belong to the Shinano mediums, who talk of [the God] being drawn by the adzusa bow. There is also a kind of witchcraft called Inugami.[325] But the Miōjin-oroshi [or yoridai] we speak of repeats over and over again the phrase 'Be pleased to cleanse, be pleased to purify', so long as he retains his senses. Then his complexion changes and he becomes pale, while the gohei in his hands shake themselves erect. He will then answer, one after another, by manifest inspiration, any questions which the applicant may put to him."
The Sankairi is a Buddhist book, and goes on to tell a story of a Kami being brought down by nembutsu (Buddhist prayers) and the medium repeating a Buddhist hymn.[326]
It need hardly be said that, as in the case of our own spiritualistic séances, the net value of the information obtained by this process is nil. It is hardly fair to Shinto to call this sort of thing "esoteric Shinto," as Mr. Lowell does. Spiritualism is not esoteric Christianity, but a diseased excrescence on it. The higher Shinto functionaries do not condescend to such practices, and, indeed, they are commonly performed by laymen, or even by Buddhist priests. The official Shinto mode of ascertaining the will of the Gods was by the "Greater Divination," that is, by the deer's shoulder-blade or the tortoise-shell. Kangakari, or inspiration, was, however, known at all periods of Japanese history; and although no detailed accounts have reached us of the methods used to produce it, there are indications that they were of a similar character to those described by Mr. Lowell. The kannushi of the ceremony of the Empress Jingō's inspiration[327] seems to be the same as Mr. Lowell's naka-za, and the saniha corresponds to his mae-za. We may presume that his office sometimes resembled that of the functionary at Delphi, whose business it was to clarify the obscurities of the Pythian priestess's utterances. The miko of the shrine of Ise gave inspired utterances. The sprinkling of boiling water is said to have been part of the process by which they were induced.
True inspiration, such as that which touched Isaiah's hallowed lips with fire, belongs chiefly to the male sex. The kangakari, or hypnotic trance, on the other hand, has in Japan, as elsewhere, a decided preference for women or boys.[328]
'Occult Japan' deals only with the hypnotic trance as a condition in which communications are received from the Gods. But there are also mediums, called miko or ichiko, who when hypnotized deliver messages from deceased relatives and others.[329] Hirata speaks of the miko and hafuri providing yori-bito (mediums), by whom they brought near (yoru) by prayer the spirits of Gods or men and questioned them. Ichiko is defined in the dictionary, Kotoba no Idzumi, as a woman who, as the representative of a God or living soul, or dead man's soul, delivers their thoughts from her own mouth.
Possession by foxes, badgers, and other animals is a well-known phenomenon in Japan, but as it has no special connexion with Shinto I shall only refer the reader to Mr. B. H. Chamberlain's 'Things Japanese,' which contains a scientific account of this form of disease from the pen of Dr. Baelz.
There are in Japan families who are believed to own foxes, by whom they are assisted and protected, and who watch over their fields and prevent outsiders from doing damage. Such families are avoided, and none but members of similar fox-owning families will intermarry with them.[330],