Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 5.djvu/208

 the autumnal equinox), and take place on the spring and autumn equinoctial days, respectively. Ancestral worship thus constitutes a prominent feature of all the religious rites in the Palace.

No material differences distinguish the routine of these ceremonials: to know one is to know all. Within the Palace there is a large hall, — the Kashiko-dokoro, or a place of reverence, — constructed of milk-white, knotless timbers, carefully joined and smooth as mirrors but absolutely devoid of decoration. At one end stands a large shrine, also of snow-pure wood, with delicately chased mountains of silver gilt. It encloses a model of the sacred mirror, representing the great ancestress, the Sun Goddess. Flanking it are two smaller shrines, one dedicated to all the Imperial ancestors since Jimmu, the other to the remaining deities of the Shintō pantheon. Before each shrine stands a censer. The floor is covered with rice-straw mats having borders of white damask, and within the folding doors of the shrines hang curtains woven out of bamboo threads. At the appointed hour — generally the grey of morning — sakaki boughs are laid beside the shrines, and provision of incense (shinko) is made; after which the officials of the Bureau of Rites and those of the Imperial Household file in and seat themselves on either side of the hall. The doors of the shrines are then opened, and offerings of various kinds — vegetables, fish, cloth, and so