Shinto (the Way of the Gods)

by W. G. Aston

A modern Japanese writer, describing a festival celebrated at Gion in Kiôto on the last day of the year, says: "A big bonfire burns within the precincts of the shrine. It has been kindled from a year-old flame tended in a lamp under the eaves of the sacred building, and people come there to light a taper, which, burning before the household altar, shall be the beacon of domestic prosperity. At 2 a.m. the Festival of Pine Shavings takes place. A Shinto priest reads a ritual. His colleagues obtain a spark by the friction of two pieces of wood, and set fire to a quantity of shavings packed into a large iron lamp. These charred fragments of pine wood the worshippers receive and carry away as amulets against plague and pestilence."

A Japanese book written two centuries ago informs us that sticks resembling the wands used for offerings at the purification ceremony were part shaven and set up in bundles at the four corners of the Gion shrine on the last day of the year. The priests, after prayers were recited, broke up the bundles and set fire to the sticks, which the people then carried home to light their household fires with for the New Year.[209] The object of this ceremony was to avert pestilence. There is here a striking resemblance to the Christian practice mentioned by M. D'Alviella: "The fire which the clergy, on the dawn of Easter, had struck from the flint and steel, served to rekindle the fires of individuals which had all been previously extinguished." The use of such fire to prevent pestilence may also be illustrated from European customs. The need-fire, made by striking flints or by the fire-drill, and used to rekindle all household fires, is one of numerous examples.[210]

Removal of Impurity. Lustration.--With every precaution, it is not always possible to avoid the pollution of dirt, disease, and sin. In order, therefore, to do away with the offence to the Gods arising from such impure conditions, various expedients are resorted to. The most natural and universal of these is washing or lustration.[211] The Chinese notices of ancient Japan already quoted from inform us that the Japanese, after the ten days' mourning was concluded, all went into the river and washed. Hirata says that even at the present day, when mourning is over, people go to the bank of a stream or to the sea-beach and cleanse themselves. The mythical account of Izanagi's washing in the sea in order to remove the pollutions of Yomi has been given above. In a fourteenth-century work entitled Kemmu nenchiu giōgi, the ablutions of the Mikado previous to the ceremony of Shingonjiki are described with great minuteness; and if this preliminary is usually passed over in descriptions of Shinto ceremonies, the reason no doubt is that it was too well known to require special mention.

Clean garments were put on at the same time. Both the Japanese words for the purification ceremony show by their derivation that washing was originally its cardinal feature. Misogi means "body-sprinkling," and harahi is probably the same word as arahi, "wash."[212] Penitence is not one of the old Shinto means of purification.

Salt.--In Japan, as in other countries, the antiseptic quality of salt has led to its religious use as a symbol for, and means of, purification. In a modern harahi ceremony the priest purifies the himorogi with salt water. At the entrances to theatres at the present day a saucer of salt is placed on a table in order to keep out evil influences. The kaname-ishi, or pivot stones of the earth,[213] are covered with salt, which is then rubbed on a diseased part in order to obtain relief. "A housewife will not buy salt at night. When obtained in the daytime, a portion of it must first be thrown into the fire to ward off all danger, and especially to prevent quarrelling in the family. It is also used to scatter round the threshold and in the house after a funeral for purificatory purposes."[214]

Spitting.--Spitting, or the ejection from the mouth of any disagreeable substance, is naturally used by analogy as a symbol of dislike and disgust when other senses or feelings than that of taste are offended. The modern writer Fukuzawa tells us that when he left his home for the first time he spat in order to show his disgust with the narrowness and poverty of his life there.[215] Spitting as a means of symbolical purification is a further corollary from the natural function of this act. In the Izanagi myth a God of the Spittle (Haya-tama no wo) is the result of that deity's spitting during the ceremony of divorce. The "spittle" deity is here associated with another God, who is styled a God of Purification. A commentator on this passage says that "at the present day spitting is essential in the purification ceremony." The ritual, however, does not mention it. Another writer adds that "this is the reason why at the present day people spit when they see anything impure." In the myth of Susa no wo spittle is mentioned along with the nails of the fingers and toes and nose-mucus among the materials for expiatory offerings. When Hohodemi is recommended to "spit thrice" before giving back the lost fish-hook to his brother, a magical effect is probably intended, such as to convey to him any impurity which may have become attached to his own person. Rinsing the mouth as a purifying ceremony before pronouncing an oath is mentioned in the Nihongi.[216]

Breathing on.--Ritual impurity may also be conveyed away by the breath. The origin of this practice is the sudden expulsion of air from the mouth when some offensive odour or vapour has found an entrance. This instinctive action[217] is represented onomatopoetically in English by Pooh! Faugh! Pshaw! and in other languages by similar words, which have come to express not only physical repulsion, but dislike and contempt generally.

As a religious practice, breathing away impurity is exemplified by the custom of the Mikado breathing on certain aga mono (ransom-objects) of the harahi ceremony, thus communicating to them the pollutions of his own person. It is in order to avoid polluting the offerings by their breath that in some ceremonies the assistant priests cover their mouths with a white fillet and hold their arms outstretched. Even at the present day the stewards who prepare the Mikado's food cover their mouths with a white paper mask. The Nihongi states that when Izanagi washed in the sea in order to remove the pollutions of Yomi, he "blew out" and produced a number of deities, among which were the Great God of Remedy and the Great God of Offences. But the action of the Sun-Goddess and Susa no wo in producing children by crunching various objects and then "blowing away" the fragments, and of Izanagi's creation of the Wind-God by puffing away the mists, requires further explanation. These myths were probably the work of a person who had only a vague idea of the precise nature of the efficacy of this act, and regarded it simply as attended with some magical power. Spitting, primarily a mark of disgust, then practised with the object of purification, is finally done simply "for luck."

Ransom.--The notion of expiating ritual guilt by giving ransom (aga-mono) is familiar to the Japanese. The more intimately the objects offered are connected with the person of the offender, the more effectual is the sacrifice. Susa no wo is said to have expiated his offences by the loss of his hair and of his finger and toe nails. Among objects of ransom presented by the Mikado at purification ceremonies clothing is the most important. The Mikado was measured with great ceremony for suits of garments. Bamboo sticks were used for this purpose, which were broken to the required lengths. Hence the ceremony was called yo-ori (joint-break). The clothing when made was placed in a vase, and set before the Mikado by a Nakatomi woman. He breathed on it thrice, and then returned it to be taken away by the Urahe (diviners) and thrown into a stream. Other ransom offerings were human figures of iron, wood, or leather, and swords, which were similarly treated.

A special mi-aganahi no matsuri (august-ransom-celebration) was inaugurated in 814 for the sake of the Mikado, who was then ill. It was continued annually every sixth and twelfth month, the miko officiating.