Shint[=o]’s Emphasis on Cleanliness.

One of the most remarkable features of Shint[=o] was the emphasis laid on cleanliness.  Pollution was calamity, defilement was sin, and physical purity at least, was holiness.  Everything that could in any way soil the body or the clothing was looked upon with abhorrence and detestation.  Disease, wounds and death were defiling, and the feeling of disgust prevailed over that of either sympathy or pity.  Birth and death were especially polluting.  Anciently there were huts built both for the mother about to give birth to a child, or for the man who was dying or sure to die of disease or wounds.  After the birth of the infant or the death of the patient these houses were burned.  Cruel as this system was to the woman at a time when she needed most care and comfort, and brutal as it seems in regard to the sick and dying, yet this ancient custom was continued in a few remote places in Japan as late as the year 1878.[27] In modern days with equal knowledge of danger and defilement, tenderness and compassion temper the feeling of disgust, and prevail over it.  Horror of uncleanliness was so great that the priests bathed and put on clean garments before making the sacred offerings or chanting the liturgies, and were accustomed to bind a slip of paper over their mouths lest their breath should pollute the offering.  Numerous were the special festivals, observed simply for purification.  Salt also was commonly used to sprinkle over the ground, and those who attended a funeral must free themselves from contamination by the use of salt.[28] Purification by water was habitual and in varied forms.  The ancient emperors and priests actually performed the ablution of the people or made public lustration in their behalf.

Afterwards, and probably because population increased and towns sprang up, we find it was customary at the festivals of purification to perform public ablution, vicariously, as it were, by means of paper mannikins instead of making applications of water to the human cuticle.  Twice a year paper figures representing the people were thrown into the river, the typical meaning of which was that the nation was thereby cleansed from the sins, that is, the defilements, of the previous half-year.  Still later, the Mikado made the chief minister of religion at Ki[=o]to his deputy to perform the symbolical act for the people of the whole country.

Prayers to Myriads of Gods.

In prayer, the worshipper, approaching the temple but not entering it, pulls a rope usually made of white material and attached to a peculiar-shaped bell hung over the shrine, calling the attention of the deity to his devotions.  Having washed his hands and rinsed out his mouth, he places his hands reverently together and offers his petition.

Concerning the method and words of prayer, Hirata, a famous exponent of Shint[=o], thus writes: