There were sometimes sets of coloured gohei--blue, yellow, red, white, and black. The awo-nigi-te (blue-soft-articles) and shira-nigi-te (white-soft-articles) consisted of hemp and bark fibre respectively.
Tama-gushi are often mentioned. I take it that in this combination tama means gift or offering, not spirit or jewel, as is taught by some modern Japanese authorities. Kushi means skewer. The tama-gushi are twigs of the sacred evergreen tree (sakaki) or of bamboo, with tufts of yufu attached. They are, in short, a simple form of nusa or gohei. They have a striking resemblance to the ἰκτηρἰοις κλάδοισιν (suppliant branches) mentioned in the opening lines of 'Œdipus Tyrannus' and explained by Jebb as "olive branches wreathed with fillets of wool." In one Nihongi myth, Susa no wo is said to have planted kushi in the rice-fields of his sister, the Sun-Goddess, "by way of claiming ownership," says a commentator. Compare with this the following quotation from Hakluyt's 'Historie of the West Indies': "Every one [of the Caribs] encloseth his portion [of ground] onely with a little cotton line, and they account it a matter of sacriledge if any pass over the cord and treade on the possession of his neighbour, and hold it for certayne that whoso violateth this sacred thing shall shortly perish."
Along with the alteration in the form of the nusa to the present gohei there came a change in the mental attitude of the worshipper. Originally mere offerings, they were at length, by virtue of long association, looked upon as representatives of the deity. Scholars like Motoöri and Hirata denounce this view as a corruption of later times, but it is no doubt at present the prevailing conception. Hepburn's Japanese dictionary knows no other. It is illustrated by the fact that instead of the worshipper bringing gohei to the shrine, these objects are now given out by the priest to the worshipper, who takes them home and sets them up in his private Kami-dana (God-shelf) or domestic altar.
A further step is taken when it is believed that on festival occasions the God, on a certain formula, called the Kami-oroshi, or "bringing down the God," being pronounced, descends into the gohei and remains there during the ceremony, taking his departure at its close. In the vulgar Shinto of the present day this belief in a real presence of the God is associated with hypnotism.[182] Akin to the belief in an actual presence of a deity in the gohei is their modern use in the purification ceremony, when they are flourished over or rubbed against the person to be absolved of ritual uncleanness or to dispel any evil influences which may have attached themselves to his person. Like the Homeric στέμμα and the host, they were occasionally used for the protection of the bearer. At the present time a gohei-katsugi, or gohei bearer, is synonymous with a superstitious person.
Skins of oxen, boar, deer, and bear were sometimes offered to the Gods.
Jewels (tama) were much worn by the ancient Japanese nobility as ornaments for the head or as necklaces and bracelets. They consisted of round beads, tubes (kuda-tama), and comma-shaped objects (maga-tama) of chalcedony, jasper, nephrite, chrysoprase, serpentine, steatite or crystal. Jewels occur sometimes in the lists of Shinto offerings.
Mirrors.--The ancient Japanese mirrors did not greatly differ from those in use at the present day. They were made of a mixed metal, which is described in the myths as "white copper," and were sometimes round and sometimes eight-cornered. The mirror figures frequently in the old records. Mirrors are among the presents made by a female chieftain to a Mikado, and from a King of Korea to another Mikado.[183] The mirror was primarily an offering, and not to the Sun-Goddess only.[184] Mirrors were presented to, and even constituted the shintai of other Gods as well. In the Tosa Nikki (a.d. 935) the author relates that during a storm, an offering of nusa having proved unavailing, he bethought him of some more acceptable gift. "Of eyes I have a pair," said he, "then, let me give the God my mirror of which I have only one. The mirror was accordingly flung into the sea, to my very great regret. But no sooner had I done so than the sea itself became as smooth as a mirror."
Mirrors do not appear among the periodical offerings enumerated in the Yengishiki, which consisted chiefly of perishable articles. They belonged to a separate class called shimpō, or divine treasures, which were not set out on the altar but stored in the treasury of the shrine.
Weapons.--Swords were also among the permanent treasures of the shrine. Wonderful stories are related of them. One which was stolen by a thief is said to have left him and returned to the treasury of its own accord. Swords were made shintai, and even deified.[185] The God worshipped at Atsuta was the sword Kusanagi, found by Susa no wo in the great serpent's tail, and the God of Isonokami was the sword called Futsu no Mitama (spirit of fire?) given by the Sun-Goddess to Jimmu. I have no doubt that these were originally "divine treasures," which owed their deification to long association with the God. A sword is one of the regalia at the present day.
The principle of substitution is illustrated by the models of swords prescribed as offerings in the Yengishiki. I have seen on the top of Ohoyama, sacred to a Goddess named Sekison (Iha-naga-hime?), a pit containing many hundreds of tiny wooden swords which had been deposited there as offerings.