Directory_and_Chronicle_1841 — Page 325

1841.

Notices of Japan, No. X.

311

shiped, the kami being analogous to Catholic saints, and that of these no images existed prior to the introduction of Budhistic idolatry.

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There is, as there was likely to be, some confusion in the statements of different writers upon the whole of this topic; amongst others, respecting the Sintoo views of a future state, of which Dr. Siebold, upon whom the most reliance must ever be placed, gives the following account: "The Sintooist has a vague notion of the soul's immortality; of an eternal future state of happiness or misery, as the reward respectively of virtue or vice; of separate places whither souls go after death. Heavenly judges call them to account. To the good is allotted Paradise, and they enter the realm of the kami. The wicked are condemned, and thrust into hell."

The duties enjoined by Sinsyu,* the practice of which is to insure happiness here and hereafter, are five (happiness here, meaning a happy frame of mind): 1st. Preservation of pure fire, as the emblem of purity, and instrument of puri- fication. 2d. Purity of soul, heart, and body to be preserved; in the former, by obedience to the dictates of reason and the law; in the latter, by abstinence from whatever defiles. 2d. Observance of festival days. 4th. Pilgrimages. 5th. The worship of the kami, both in the temples and at home.

The impurity to be so sedulously avoided is contracted in various ways; by associating with the impure; by hearing obscene, wicked, or brutal language; by eating of certain meats; and also by contact with blood and with death. Hence, if a workman wound himself in building a temple, he is dismissed as impure, and in soine instances the sacred edifice has been pulled down and begun anew. The impurity is greater or less-that is to say, of longer or shorter duration-accord- ing to its source; and the longest of all is occasioned dy the death of a near rela- tion. During impurity, access to a temple, and most acts of religion, are for- bidden, and the head must be covered, that the sun's beams may not be defiled by falling upon it.

But purity is not recovered by the mere lapse of the specified time. A course of purification must be gone through, consisting chiefly in fasting, prayer, and the study of edifying books in solitude. Thus is the period of mourning for the dead to be passed. Dwellings are purified by fire. The purified person throws aside the white mourning dress, worn during impurity, and returns to society in a festal garb.

The numerous Sintoo festivals have been already alluded to; and it may suffice to add, that all begin with a visit to a temple, sometimes to one especially ap- pointed for the day. Upon approaching, the worshiper, in his dress of ceremony, performs his ablutions at a reservoir provided for the purpose; he then kneels in the verandah, opposite a grated window, through which he gazes at the mirror; then offers up his prayers, together with a sacrifice of rice, fruit, tea, sake, or the like; and when he has concluded his orisons, depositing money in a box, he with- draws.

The remainder of the day he spends as he pleases, except when appro- priate sports belong to it. This is the common form of kami worship at the temples, which are not to be approached with a sorrowful spirit, lest sympathy should disturb the happiness of the gods. At home, prayer is similarly offered before the domestic housc oratory and garden miya; and prayer precedes every mical.

* Sicbold.