is ancestor worship.  The model of the miya, in modern as in ancient times, is the primitive hut as it was before Buddhism introduced Indian and Chinese architecture.  The posts, stuck in the ground, and not laid upon stones as in after times, supported the walls and roof, the latter being of thatch.  The rafters, crossed at the top, were tied along the ridge-pole with the fibres of creepers or wistaria vines.  No paint, lacquer, gilding, or ornaments of any sort existed in the ancient shrine, and even to-day the modern Shint[=o] temple must be of pure hinoki or sun-wood, and thatched, while the use of metal is as far as possible avoided.  To the gods, as the norito show, offerings of various kinds were made, consisting of the fruits of the soil, the products of the sea, and the fabrics of the loom.

Inside modern temples one often sees a mirror, in which foreigners with lively imaginations read a great deal that is only the shadow of their own mind, but which probably was never known in Shint[=o] temples until after Buddhist times.  They also see in front of the unpainted wooden closets or casements, wands or sticks of wood from which depend masses or strips of white paper, cut and notched in a particular way.  Foreigners, whose fancy is nimble, have read in these the symbols of lightning, the abode of the spirits and various forthshadowings unknown either to the Japanese or the ancient writings.  In reality these gohei, or honorable offerings, are nothing more than the paper representatives of the ancient offerings of cloth which were woven, as the arts progressed, of bark, of hemp and of silk.

The chief Shint[=o] ministers of religion and shrine-keepers belonged to particular families, which were often honored with titles and offices by the emperor.  In ordinary life they dressed like others of their own rank or station, but when engaged in their sacred office were robed in white or in a special official costume, wearing upon their heads the eboshi or peculiar cap which we associate with Japanese archaeology.  They knew nothing of celibacy; but married, reared families and kept their scalps free from the razor, though some of the lower order of shrine-keepers dressed their hair in ordinary style, that is, with shaven poll and topknot.  At some of the more important shrines, like those at Ise, there were virgin priestesses who acted as custodians both of the shrines and of the relics.[26]

In front of the miyas stood what we should suppose on first seeing was a gateway.  This was the torii or bird-perch, and anciently was made only of unpainted wood.  Two upright tree-trunks held crosswise on a smooth tree-trunk the ends of which projected somewhat over the supports, while under this was a smaller beam inserted between the two uprights.  On the torii, the birds, generally barn-yard fowls which were sacred to the gods, roosted.  These creatures were not offered up as sacrifices, but were chanticleers to give notice of day-break and the rising of the sun.  The cock holds a prominent place in Japanese myth, legend, art and symbolism.  How this feature of pure Japanese architecture, the torii, afterward lost its meaning, we shall show in our lecture on Riy[=o]bu or mixed Buddhism.