The wicked are supposed to be consigned to the abodes of the disembodied spirits, who are punished according to the nature of their crimes.  For instance, saki merchants who have sold bad spirit are believed to be confined in stagnant pools; and murderers are supposed to haunt the graves of their victims, until the prayers of their relatives release them.  Purity of life and body is the leading feature of the Sintoo faith.  As an emblem of the natural purity of the soul, mirrors are hung up in the temples; and the more ignorant people (who in Japan, like every other country, are most influenced by superstitions) believe, as they look into the mirror, that the Supreme Being sees their past lives as easily as they do their own faces.  The value attached to indulgences and charms is very great, and the sale of them contributes largely to the revenues of the Mikado.  Charms are eagerly purchased by the lower orders, who carry them about their persons, and never let anybody touch them except themselves.

At a tea-house at Kamakura, one of these charms was accidentally dropped by a lively little ‘moosmie,’ or ‘girl,’ who was waiting on a party of foreigners.  One of them picked it up, and was on the point of opening the small box in which it is placed for safety when she discovered the loss, and made a desperate rush for its recovery.  On finding the importance attached to it, the ‘friske,’ as she called it, was handed round the group as she eagerly darted after it; and on one of the party pretending to light a cigar with it she burst into tears, and was not to be pacified until it was restored.

A religious observance of great importance with the Japanese is ‘Osurasma,’ or ‘praying a soul out of purgatory,’ as they wisely consider that even the most holy must have some small peccadilloes to answer for.

This ceremony takes place in the seventh month after death:  a white lamp is its emblem.  This is hung up at the entrance of the mourners’ houses, while they offer oblations and burn joss-sticks.  Food is also prepared and laid out, in case the spirit of the departed, finding the journey to the regions of the ‘kamis’ a long and wearisome one, should need refreshment.

No Japanese dreams of entering a friend’s house while the white lamp is hung up, or of disturbing in any way the privacy of a family engaged in these solemn duties, as the spirits of the departed are firmly believed to revisit their former dwellings at such times, if they have not already entered into a state of bliss.

[Illustration:  Selling indulgences by public auction.]

[Illustration:  Praying A soul out of purgatory.]